13th Floor

"What are you two playing at?" Luan's voice sliced through the air, a seething blade of anger. It took him two minutes of staring at Aurora's anxious face before he could wrestle his fury into some semblance of control.

The question startled Aurora a bit. Regretfully, she replied, "I did not want to send you alone to this trial, but I had no choice."

Athan, on the other hand, was displeased with Aurora's response to Luan's imprudent tone. He scornfully barked, "And this is how he will respect you! By explaining yourself to him as if he is the elder here, and you are the one who is newly turned?"

Although Athan's words directed at her were harsh, his demeanour was somewhat gentle. Slowly, he approached Aurora and helped her up to her feet. Then he directed his gaze to Luan, still on his knees and openly glaring at Athan.

"You too, stand up, newbie," he commanded Luan. "You have fared well in this trial. Congratulations."

However, Athan was not done. His next words were loaded with apparent, unquestioning authority.

"If you want to ask anything, we, as your elders, are obligated to help you. But you won't get any answers or guidance from us if you keep disrespecting the hierarchy and rules of the brethren."

Before Luan could respond to his pompous claim, Athan continued.

"And this is not the case with only with me or Aurora. You are the 666th member of our brethren, meaning you have 665 elders before you who would abandon you swiftly and turn on you in the blink of an eye. This is a cut-throat world. Quite literally."

He paused to let this information sink into his newbie's bones. "So, if you want to survive, show respect!" Each word was enunciated clearly.

All the while, Aurora kept looking at Luan with unmasked concern.

'We will see about that bulky,' resolved Luan in the back of his mind. However, he bit back his words. The echoes and being thrust into that falling darkness again had put everything into a fresh perspective for him. While he did not know the origin or meaning of those whispers, they felt personal.

Also, the realization has hit him pretty hard. He did have a lot loose, and common sense told him to tread carefully for now and respond appropriately later, when the scales were in his favour.

So Luan framed his next question with care, but without abandoning his reckless behaviour altogether.

"What is this place, and why had you two abandoned me here without any apparent warning?" he asked nonchalantly, but his ears were eager to know more about the 13th floor, to apprehend why he felt what he felt.

Seeing that Luan seemed more like his previous transitioned self, Aurora sighed in relief. Some of her wicked animated self reappeared when she replied, looking around the boring office premise.

"This. Well, this is the place where nightmares come to life."

_________________________

Athan turned around and headed towards the lift, with Luan and Aurora following him closely. Once inside, Athan answered while looking straight ahead.

"This place was designed 4000 years back by the sorcerers on request from Samael," he replied stoically.

"Just imagine this place shifting from caves to manor rooms, and now it is here," mused Aurora, fingering the lift buttons as if lost in the history of this ominous place. "It was some 160 years back when this room was placed in our building, and now it is being used to test the resilience of new brethren members."

"Hmmm. Interesting," Luan thought aloud. "And why did my esteemed mentor authorized such an ominous place?"

The lift moved with the buttery smoothness, making them easily forget that they were moving speedily through many floors. Amongst all the floor buttons, '73' shined in a distinct moony white illumination.

"It was a tough decision," Athan exhaled. "5000 years ago, Samael started transitioning humans to a life of immortality."

His voice had taken a new ethereal quality, as if he was not just explaining the history of brethren but living it too.

He went on, "Before transitioning, these humans showed great promises of restraint and loyalty. Later, however, they would succumb to bloodlust. Thus killing hundreds and thousands of humans at a time."

"This tipped the balance in the world in the wrong direction. Humans started becoming aware of vampire existence. So Samael, with his brethren and sorcerers, had to slay all the newly transitioned vampires."

It was as if the whole incident was happening now in front of Luan's eyes too. He did not know why, but he felt a bit sad for his arrogant mentor.

"I have heard that for many decades Samael did not transition any person into the brethren too," whispered Aurora secretly in Luan's ears. Which was useless seeing that their super sharp ears could pick even an ant's movement.

Luan rolled his eyes in mild annoyance and turned his attention back to Athan, who in contrast did not seem annoyed at Aurora interrupting him.

"So Samael worked with sorcerers on forming this space, now the 13th floor," he concluded but yet continued. "To this day, we bring the newly transitioned vampires to this place after their first drink. Many vampires fail, and that's why even after turning millions of humans in the last thousands of years, we only have 666 members in the brethren." Giving a sideways glance to Luan, he added, "Now including you."

"But how does this floor work?" Luan posed another question to Athan.

To which Athan replied, "It has been designed by the Archmage, the most supreme of sorcerers himself, to bring out the biggest fear or nightmare of the visitor. That is, as soon as he or she becomes alone."

Athan's eyes glazed over, and Aurora seemed a bit uncomfortable. 

"You might have forgotten everything about your life, but this godforsaken floor has the capability to sieve through your mind. Just so you can live through your hell again and again," Aurora said in a small voice while wrapping her arms around herself.

That made a lot of sense to Luan. He had forgotten all about his predicament. His sole objective through the last 4-5 hours had been survival. But 13th floor had reminded him - he was not Luan and this new life was a borrowed one.

One misstep and he could go back to where he came from, without remembering who he really was and what had happened to him.

As if reading his thoughts, Athan said, "But all that is past now. Now you have the brethren for your family."

Luan looked at him sharply, confused by the tenderness of his voice. Swiftly, he realized this tenderness was not directed at him, but at Aurora. She, too, looked a bit comforted.

'Seriously, what is the history between them,' he thought, not for the first time. But brought a different question to his mouth, "So what does this torture accomplish?"

Slightly relieved to be distracted, Athan responded.

"It tests two things in our newly transitioned members." He pulled out two fingers from his fist, "First, their physical reaction in the face of danger. Second, their mental strength." Fingers went back in his fist with the pointers.

"Both needed highly in the world where we are constantly surrounded by bodies pumped with bags of blood, yet we are forced to control our urges all the time," said Aurora. "We can't have our existence revealed to humans. Otherwise, our symbiotic relationship with them ends."

Athan added, "And that's why the sorcerers placed a bonus curse on our brethren. The one I explained earlier; about us burning to our death if we drain any human being."

Luan nodded his head in understanding, "Makes sense. What happens to the ones who fail the trail of 13th floor?"

Aurora flipped her hand carelessly and said, "Either they are killed or delivered to sorcerers to experiment".

This last part didn't make any sense. Working in alliance with sorcerers is one thing. Why give them this much power over the vampires?

As Luan pondered over this explanation, the lift stopped with a jerk. They had reached the 73rd floor.

Just as the doors were about to slide open slowly, another question came into Luan's mind.

"In the beginning, three massive wolves attacked me. But I wasn't afraid of them. So why did the floor conjure them up?"

__________________________

"Oh. So you were not afraid of me !" growled a majestic voice of a black-haired guy who looked no less than a beast. Two blond guys stood on his each side.

His head was bleeding profusely from a wound, and his eyes glinted in unrestrained anger.