Preface

The fog lay thick outside the old Victorian church, the iron smell of fresh blood prominent. Inside a teenager sat, feasting on a young woman. She was blonde, but the red splattered in her hair was a nice touch.

"Shit," Cassius said as he burped. It tasted like blood and he gagged. "Ugh, that's the worst part."

Cassius picked around at the neck of the woman, trying to find another vein that tasted just as good as the others, but he couldn't find anything.

"I'm so bloated," Cassius gripped his stomach, feeling it bulge under his hand. "I shouldn't have eaten all those veins…" he felt his stomach rumble, making him want to lie down and cry.

He lived in this church with his father. The church was from the 1700s and was stolen from monster hunters by vampires. Casper was born about 16 years ago in this church, and he hasn't left all that much since. He's left even less since the zombie apocalypse began.

It started about 2 years ago. The first zombie was discovered in Alabama (makes sense). The government decided to keep everything quiet for about a year while they ran experiments on it, but eventually, the zombie broke out of the confined space he was trapped in.

That's when the outbreak began.

Schools were shut down, people were dying left and right because of the disease, and there was absolutely nothing anyone could do about it except wait to find a cure.

So now, Cassius was here feasting on a dead woman because he was hungry. He wasn't quite a zombie, though.

"DAD!" Cassius yelled. He needed his dad to clean up the body. "POPS!" he yelled again. "PADR-"

"Jesus Christ, Cassius. What could you possibly want?" Cassius's dad called back.

"A million blood bags would be nice," Cassius yelled in response.

"Stop being sarcastic, brat. What do you want?"

"Can you help me clean this girl up? I was really hungry and didn't make it to the feeding room," Cassius wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Fine!" Cassius's dad said as he came running down the stairs. His name was Ben. Ben was a big, burly man with curly black hair. He had a shirt on that said "I ❤️ my transgender son" and a mug with #1 dad on it.

"Nice shirt," Cassius shot finger guns at his dad.

"Jesus, kid. You made a mess," Ben grabbed hold of the body by the armpits and dragged it away.

"You know, if you keep putting off feeding them you're just going to get more violent and hungry like you just were. With the apocalypse, FedEx hasn't been the best at delivering our blood pills. Luckily, though, the Red Cross has some volunteers from some not-so-tasty old people. Those are your options, kid. You either gotta wait for blood pills or drink old, musty blood," Ben threw the body in the shoot that led down to the incinerator.

Ben washed his hands, and as he was about to walk upstairs he said, "Or, you could do it the old-fashioned way."

And as he left Cassius with the thought, he walked upstairs.

Cassius rolled his eyes and grabbed the Swiffer.

'of course, I have to clean up the blood' he thought, following the trail that led about 4 feet to the shoot. He grunted and threw the disgusting bloody Swiffer pad into the outside dumpster. He needed to get out of the house.

After Cassius was done taking out the trash, he walked back inside. Just as he was about to open the door, it swung open, hitting him square in the nose.

"Ow! Fuck!" Cassius exclaimed, gripping the middle of his face in agony.

"Oh shit! Sorry, kid," Ben quickly took off his shirt and pressed it to Cassius's bloody nose.

"It's fine…" Cassius gave his dad the death stare, holding the shirt to his nose.

"Come in and sit down. We just got news, you need to hear it," Ben's voice was urgent.

"Alright," Cassius followed his dad inside. They walked to the kitchen, and Cassius sat down on the tall, antique stools.

"Well, I'm just going to give it to you straight," Ben put a hand on his son's shoulder. "Vampire hunting is legal again."

Cassius felt his heart drop into his stomach.

"What?" His head was reeling. How was this possible? Vampire hunting had been illegal for 30 years! What changed?

"I know, hun," Ben took a deep breath. He didn't want to tell Cassius the other bad news.

Cassius felt his hands becoming sweaty and his breathing quickened, "This is so messed up! This is so fucked up!" Cassius usually would cringe at catching himself swearing in front of his dad, but he didn't care anymore.

"Cassius!" Ben raised his voice only slightly, just enough to catch his son's attention. "You're not allowed to leave the church. Not until vampire hunting is banned once again. Do you understand me?"

"What?!" Cassius slammed his hands on the table, "WHAT?!" He repeated once more, in utter shock that his dad was placing these rules on him.

"Listen, I'm sorry, but I cannot have you being killed! Not like your mother! Do you understand me?" Ben had tears in his eyes as he choked out the words that seemed to clog his throat, "At least the man who killed your mother was sent to jail. If you get murdered by these monsters, they'll get to go back home with our black blood in their hands. They will never get to feel the punishment of murder. So, I need you to stay here," Ben wiped his eyes and reached a tan hand out to hold his son's paper-white one.

"Yes, Dad. I understand," Cassius responded with gritted teeth. Deceit was laced into his voice.

There was no way he'd stay here. He'd leave and avenge his mother, just as he'd been dreaming of doing his entire life.

Ben knew, deep in his once staked heart and once young brain, that Cassius wasn't going to stay. He really knew, and there was nothing he could do but accept it. Cassius was nearly 17 now. He needed to let him make his own decisions.

"Goodnight, dad," Casper said angrily, stomping upstairs to his bedroom (a gigantic old Sunday school classroom).

As Cassius stared at the wooden ceiling, he imagined what his mother must've felt when she was decapitated and burned.

Tears welled in his eyes. Cassius remembered how she used to brush his then long, black hair in the mirror. Hers was the same, and she always slicked it back into a ponytail. Cassius had begged his mother to do the same for him, but she had always declined, saying something along the lines of, "Figure out what you as an individual would like. I'll style your hair like that, okay?"

Cassius missed those days. He missed his mom. He needed to avenge her. What kind of person would he be if he didn't?