The most trusted guide Eastminster had to offer was a forty-year-old man who already had grey hair. He seemed reliable enough, especially after he didn’t ask any questions as to why the new daughter of the duchess was heading towards a slave market without any guards. He also didn’t question the widespread news that I was sent away to my dad for safety reasons.

In addition to that, he was rather nice. He told me much about him in the early night and told me stories of his four boys, causing a ruckus at home. He was an interesting man, didn’t question why I never stepped out of the carriage during the day, nor why I just sat beside him during the night, watching our campfire burn peacefully. In short, he had seen things.

“How much is Mary paying you?” I asked during a certain night.

“Three gold coins. A generous offer for two weeks of work.” I nodded silently as a farmer would never see so much money in his whole life.

“I will ask Mary to double that … for your kids.” Three was just one issue with this man. He was near death. He was coughing quite often and sometimes, he also filled the air with a sweet, yet very strange smell. His blood, running out of his nose, neither looked tasty nor smelled greatly. I had no doubt he would survive the next three weeks without issues but after that? I wasn’t so sure. But that also made him the perfect candidate to guide me. Dead men tell no tales.

A bit disgruntled, I watched him go to sleep and waited a few more minutes until I started my usual nightly routine. I wrapped a black cloak around my shoulders,  put my contact lenses into their small container and smelled the air. It was a forest wherever I looked, with the distinct smell of different animals around.

Thrilled by the new opportunity to hunt, I stepped into the forest and went towards a very interesting smell. Soon afterwards, I already saw a rabbit scooting away into its hole. Completely silent, I waited over the hole for several minutes, until the rabbit showed itself again. My hand raced downwards, caught the animal by its neck and lifted it up. The rabbit was still struggling and only gave up as I twirled it through the air until it lost consciousness. I was out for blood, but this flimsy amount was nowhere near enough.

As such, I impaled it through the neck with a sturdy stick I found and rammed the other end into the ground. Directly after that, I went back to the carriage and retrieved a backpack, full of empty bottles. After strolling back to the rabbit and laying down my backpack on the ground, I climbed a nearby tree and sat down on a large branch.

I waited around thirty minutes while gazing at the crystal clear sky through the canopy until I heard two wolves approaching my trap. For their body size, they were incredibly silent, but I was still able to hear them as they sneaked through the bushes.

I closed my eyes and stopped my habitual breathing. An owl sang in the distance, flies buzzed around the dead rabbit and a bear howled several kilometres away. It was a peaceful moment where I didn’t get light headaches because a human spoke too loudly near me, or where I didn’t have to live with the disgusting smell of the stables near our home. It was just me and the smell of the forest, produced by all kinds of animals, plants and trees, and this overbearing smell of rabbit blood.

Quietly, I opened my eyes, stood up silently and retrieved my dagger out of the right scabbard, still secured to my thigh. It didn’t take long for me to lean forwards and fall off the branch. In mid-air, I threw my dagger towards one of the wolves while I simply fell onto the other.

Even with my little weight, the wolf howled in pain and nearly collapsed instantly. I was sure that I heard a few bones breaking, but he still struggled nonetheless. It was a pitiful resistance though and I only had to sink my teeth through his fur into him and squeeze him to death with my arms, which was fairly easy considering one of its legs broke.

I slurped the wolf completely empty, wondering how much blood even fitted into this small body of mine. Even as I drank all the blood of the second wolf, I didn’t feel bloated or anything. Just normal. Slightly thirsty, a bit crazy, but that was all.

I knew this much since I slaughtered all the beavers, so I didn’t worry too much and rather continued with the part I despised. I retrieved the dagger I threw earlier and the backpack full of bottles, only to climb the same tree I sat on earlier again. A bit hesitant, I slit my wrist and let the blood flow into one of the bottles.

I hated doing that stuff. I hated it so much I was nearly thinking of giving up each night so far. Since we left Eastminster, I filled too many bottles with my own blood, slit my wrist too often while trying to suppress this weird urge of laughing, more or less successfully. Sometimes even I worried about my mental health.

I didn’t like pain that much, that was for sure, but I still found it incredibly fun to watch my own reaction to torture, instead of seeing others falling into despair. It felt so laughable how I degraded myself, just for the sake of Mary, how Aska thought he could break me just by torturing me for a year. And it was also laughable that he thought he gained anything from turning Luna against me. Make no mistake, it was horrible to see her tortured, but even that didn’t break me. It just added to the desire to pay him back for what he did and to flip our relationship around so that I could do with him whatever I desired.

“Whoppa!” I was apparently too deep in thought and didn’t register how my wound already closed again. I grinned as I stabbed into my lower arm again and left the dagger there for my own enjoyment. That night, I filled a few more bottles with my blood and a few more animals had to die. All for my self-destructive way of dealing with an issue words probably couldn’t solve.

A few days later, the clouds above me loomed over my fate. I doubted it would rain right away though and kept on walking towards the lights in the distance nonetheless.

“The beautiful city of Verona, famous for its flowers and poets, is such a wonderful place to be in! To your left, you see proper buildings, taverns of all kinds welcome tourists from all over the country. To your right, you see the main attraction here, a slavery market! Here, you can buy whatever you want. A whore for all your kinks? Done! A male elf you can torture all you want? We have it all! … or so it would go if someone would introduce me to this city.” I strolled down a hill we used to hide the carriage behind. My guide was ordered to keep his distance to the city by me and Mary, so no matter what I did, he wouldn’t interfere. Clad in black clothing, I made my way towards the market, an area enclosed with a wooden wall. What this wall was protecting was another question altogether though. I hummed brightly as I stepped in front of the gate and lifted my lamp up.

“My name is Lumina Magnus, I am here to buy a slave.” I claimed waited for the guard who stood outside to open the doors.

“We are currently closed, come back tomorrow.” A black-haired man claimed.

“And if I want to have a look at the ware first?” I asked swiftly and grabbed into a side pocket of my backpack.

“That’s im-“ The guard started, but stopped as he noticed the gold coin I showed him. He ruffed his hair and snatched the coin out of my hands greedily. He eyed it suspiciously and put it in his pocket after realizing it was genuine. “That´s absolutely fine! Come with me, I´ll show you around.”

He swiftly opened the gates with the help of a few colleagues and even gave them the gold coin. They had a clear system for bribing in place, meaning that I was definitely not the first one to buy my way into this market.

What was presented behind the gate was absolutely stunning. It felt more like a city than anything else as there were several taverns, inns and even a casino. Naturally, these places were packed with the attendants of nobles who were sent here to buy a slave, low nobles that couldn’t afford such luxury and other people with a rather shady background. Because it was early in the night, there was still much going on here, with a few drunkards stumbling across the street, bawling after a woman in rather revealing rags who was dragged towards a tavern by a butler.

“Are you sure you want to be here, young lady?” asked the guard beside me.

“Not entirely…” A young boy, barely older than twelve years old, slept beside a pole he was chained to like a dog. He was resting on the cold, wet ground, with nothing to wear except a simple cloth around his hips. His breathing was already very low and it was only a matter of time until he would inevitably die. I hated this place, the very moment I stepped into it and yet, I could do nothing for now. I couldn’t justify saving this boy in front of Aska and so, I could only look away from him. “… I heard the owners of this city are also invested into the slave-trading business?”

“Oh, yeah, they are. They always have the biggest stock available with the most prestigious slaves, no doubt about that. In fact, this whole market is owned by them and they get a provision for every slave other merchants sell here.” The guard said enthusiastically.

“So, it won´t be any problem if you show me their ware? I guess you are also getting paid by them?” I asked.

“That is a rather … strange request. I can introduce you to a –“ I handed him another gold coin as if it was nothing. “Absolutely! Come with me, I guide you to their biggest warehouse.”

“They have more than one? Guide me to their smallest one.” I said and looked at the boy one last time as his owner, a fat noblewoman just unchained him and forced him to follow behind her on all fours. I nearly exploded in rage, but held back and put up a friendly façade like always.

“Oh? Are you aiming for a rather high priced slave? In that case, come with me.” I sighed and tried to look away from all the misery happening around me. Some excited me, like how a few mercenaries whipped their newest meat shields into shape, but generally, this wasn’t my favourite place. I hoped to see more executions or torture, but the contrary was usually the case. The slave owners naturally didn’t want to damage their goods right away and thus, the depravity I found here was really not my thing. From open windows in inns, I heard weeping women while the man shouted obscene words. Especially the woman seemed to be brought into a line of work I completely despised.

I still felt no pity for these women, except when I heard really young girls. Then, I had to control myself just like I did with the boy, mostly by biting on my tongue.

I was wrong. My feelings for children weren’t dead yet, but neither did they drive me to act on them, nor did I let myself be influenced by them anymore.

It was still a gruesome experience, especially because nobody, not even the nobles who vowed to protect the people, stepped in. These slaves were simply not seen as humans by them. It was quite ironic that I, a vampire who valued most humans the same as dirt under my shoes, had actually a higher opinion of the slaves than others. They were stripped of their freedom, of their very rights as intelligent beings. Just like me, they were given no choice how they should act, just like me, they had no choice but to obey. But they, they still had their minds. They were allowed to think freely, to hate their tormentors, while I couldn’t bring myself to do even that.

This twisted love I had for Aska was as immortal as me. I was drawn to him, thought about him every day, and couldn’t even blame him for torturing me. After all, I would have done the same to my slaves.

“One slave saves the other, huh?” I asked quietly to nobody in particular.

“Excuse me?” I freed my head of all these thoughts. I wasn’t a slave. These slaves at the wayside were powerless and stripped of their dignity, while I walked beside the guard who stood no chance against me in a fight. I wasn’t free, but nobody was.

“Nothing …” I said and stopped in my tracks. A slightly drunken man walked in front of me, blocking me from advancing further. He stared down at me and ignored the guard completely. “Can I help you?”

He grinned wildly and bowed inelegantly. The sword on his hips clearly indicated he wasn’t one of the peaceful ones and judging by how much this brown-haired thirty-year-old looked down on me, he wanted to provoke me.

“Young lady, would you be so kind to step out of my way?” He asked threateningly.

I stepped to the side towards the guard who had no intention whatsoever of helping out. The rowdy was stupefied as I made way for him. He probably never expected my reaction at all, considering that I went along the street like the world was mine. I scratched my cheek as he just stood there, seemingly at a loss of words.

“Uhm, are you okay, Mister?” I asked sweetly and smiled brightly. He scratched his head, turned towards a few friends who were apparently laughing about his failed attempt to bully a little girl, and went down the street without saying any words. “And what was that all about?” I didn’t even bother to ask why the guard didn’t step in. You had to be a very special kind of man to work in this place.

“That kind of stuff happens all the time here. Don’t worry about it.” I nodded, although I still didn’t know what to think about this. Was he trying to rob me? Provoke me? Intimidate me? Was I overthinking it? Was he maybe just a fool, preying on the weak?

I shook my head as the guard and I walked past his friends who almost seemed to congratulate me and even their eyes sparkled with joy. It was hard to understand humans sometimes and this was most definitely one of these times.

In any case, we went further down the road until a drunkard fell down right in front of me. I looked around, saw nothing else which was even remotely suspicious and simply stepped over him. The number of stones this place threw in my way was simply staggering. Maybe it was common here, maybe it was me who was just too uncommon for this place, but these things happened way too often in my opinion.

Until the guard and I reached a large wooden house that rivalled the size of the White´s mansion, I had to deal with three more of these encounters and surprisingly, nobody died. Well, I did step onto the second drunkard that threw himself in my way, but that was it. And considering my usual temper, I was even strangely calm.

The guard nonchalantly opened a door and stepped inside while completely ignoring the other two guards who were stationed there. I followed suit immediately afterwards, but not without a good look at their weapon. Both of them wore a fairly standard sword and some kind of leather armour. Their equipment was thus fairly normal and equalled what I saw with every other guard so far.

Before I even stepped inside, I was greeted with a repugnant smell of urine and all the other excrements all the different races of this world had. I immediately held my nose, but even that didn’t help at all. I needed to breathe if I wanted to speak and as such, I opened my mouth. I had the feeling that I could taste all the shit in this warehouse and nearly blacked out as my senses were driving me crazy.

Snoring, groaning and animalistic screams filled the air as I stood inside the. I stumbled backwards due to the sensory overload I haven´t experienced in a long time. Since I burnt down the damn dam, I didn’t exactly have too many troubles with my senses, but sometimes it was just a little too much. It stank horrifyingly as Tom skipped bathing for several days, but it was nowhere near comparable to this smell. Even the drunkards from before smelled like flowers in comparison.

As soon as I stumbled out of the reach of this repulsive smell that seemed to follow me, I unfastened my backpack and searched for a scented cloth I could use, even when that wouldn’t help much. Luckily, I had a tissue with me in the depth of my backpack that clanked whenever I searched in the main compartment. I held it over my nose and mouth as I slowly walked back into the building while bearing the amused gaze of the two guards who stood beside the door.

It worked, not as good as I hoped it would, but it did help enough. My guide waited for me inside, presenting me rows of cages and cages, stacked on top of each other to maximize profit. Disgusted, I stepped closer to one of these cages and looked at an elf in pity. He looked ill, which wasn’t exactly surprising considering the hygiene of this place. Flies were landing on him as if he was already dead.

“Oh, I wouldn’t buy this guy. He is already here for around a year and I doubt he is going to be sold anytime soon. The times where elves were the hit are long over.” I only listened to the guard with half an ear as this warehouse sickened me quite a lot.

I liked to torture others, I loved to rip others of their dignity and I was thrilled whenever I could toy with someone, but this? Seeing how an intelligent being rested inside his own urine with hollow eyes didn’t satisfy any urges I had. Nobody was playing with him, he was simply rotting away inside his cell, unable to please any sadist like me. And even if I bought him on a whim, I doubted he could be used for torture. He would probably die gladly which made the whole thing incredibly pointless.

Disgusted by the sight, I turned to look at the person above him who could barely lift a finger. He had cat ears and a tail, which I found incredibly weird until I remembered that demi-humans existed outside the Worchester Kingdom which was known for its ideology of human supremacy.

The catkin didn’t fare much better than the elf below in the time he spent here. He wasn’t ill, at least not visibly, but his will was already broken with no resistance left in his eyes.

“Do you have slaves who are slightly more energetic?” I asked the guard who thought about my question for several seconds.

“Sure they have … I think it was this way.” He led me past rows and rows of cages where representatives of all the different species were wailing in their misery.

As he was walking in front of me, I smelled blood. I somehow knew it was blood as if it was ingrained into my genes, but the smell was horrifyingly disgusting. I didn’t know right away which race this blood belonged to, but my interest was awakened nonetheless. I swiftly entered the corridor to my right and eyed every cage I could find, until I reached a cage with a twenty-year-old, black-haired man. As far as I could see it, he had no larger canine than a normal human, but something in me screamed that this was my kin. He wasn’t pale, but neither did he sweat like the others.

At first, I ignored him and went further down the corridor, but then turned around to the guard who was following me with interest.

“Anything caught your attention?” He asked quickly, probably thinking I wanted to leave again.

“Do you get a percentage of the trade with me? Ah, whatever, it doesn’t matter. I will say that you showed me around anyway, so you don’t have to guide me further, at least for now. On the contrary, I wish to look at the slaves alone now, so if you would be so kind.”

“I´m sorry, I canno-“ He caught the gold coin I threw towards him with one hand. “It is a pleasure to be of service.” He instantly turned around and walked away from me. A few minutes later, he slammed the door shut behind them, leaving me alone with hundreds of slaves.

“Hey, you.” I snipped against the metal bars of a random humans cage. He woke up and even moved a bit, but otherwise, there was little reaction, let alone a desire to punch me in the face. I wanted to incite a rebellion, an uprising of slaves the world never saw before, but that was really hard to do if they didn’t want to be free. Disgusted, I turned away and tried the same with the person below him.

None of them was dead, but they didn’t feel alive either. I knew exactly what kind of training they went through. It was pure torture, degradation of the highest level that chiselled away the very foundations of all life. They were basically just a husk, a shadow of their former self. I did this exact thing to several others in the past, but I would always build something on the empty plot of land I created, surrounded by the ruins of their past. The slaves on the other hand were simply left at that state, powerless and unwilling to disobey.

It was highly unlikely I would find many slaves who weren’t outright broken. I didn’t give up though and stared every slave deep in their dead eyes until I reached the men I saw earlier. A bit dispirited by my findings, I put up a friendly mask and clapped loudly in front of him. Once. Twice. Until he opened his eyes and looked at me with red eyes, full of cleverly hidden hatred. A bit disappointed, I gave him a huge smile.

“Do you know how long it took me to find you?” His hated turned into fear in an instant. He couldn’t hide it as good as his hatred, that was for sure. He opened his eyes wider and nearly forgot to act obedient and weakly like the other slaves.

“I have done nothing wrong …” He said and gritted his teeth bitterly.

“That´s what they all say.” I claimed and happily retrieved my dagger.

“At least I haven´t killed babies like you lot. You claim to follow the teachings of the gods, but in reality, you are a bunch of fanatics.” I laughed crazily as I finally understood he saw me as a priestess or similar. I wasn’t willing to correct his mistake though and rather played along.

“It is the divine will to eradicate your kind from this world. You behave like humans, but in reality, you are just savages. What are you even? A half-vampire?”

“A quarter … please, I have never tasted blood in my life. You know how fast vampirism dilutes. I am more human than anything else.” I placed my index finger on my cheek and looked up, deep in thought of what to do with this knowledge. I never knew vampires could reproduce like this, especially because I never had the period. Well, I could be a late bloomer in that regard, but I doubted I could ever become pregnant.

“Was the grandfather of your father`s side a vampire?” I asked interested, betting on the fact that female vampires couldn’t reproduce like humans did.

“My mums side…” So it was a male vampire that started all this. I shrugged, not really knowing how this information affected me, and so I switched topics.

“What´s your name?” I asked disinterestedly.

“Paul … why are you asking?” He asked with a shimmer of hope in his eyes.

“What a boring name. You are now Woof.” I claimed and pointed towards him.

“Woof?” He asked dumbly.

“Yeah, you are my newest dog. So, Woof, I have a simple question for you. Are you willing to die to get out of this cage?”

“If I stay inside here, I die anyway. If I get out of this cage … I have a chance of killing you.” I laughed happily and simply walked away from him. Woof, my newest toy was indeed worthy of playing the centrepiece in my plan B. It didn’t take long to step out of the warehouse again and blow my nose to get rid of this stench. I rubbed my nose furiously as the guard approached me again, this time with a rather fat man by his side who already rubbed his hands.

“Alright, ten gold coins for the black-haired man, fourteenth row, right side, twenty-four cages in on the left side, the second cage from the bottom.” I said, completely unwilling to bargain or anything similar. This man honestly disgusted me quite a bit and if I would have to choose between spending time with him or in the warehouse … I would spend time with him. He still smelled horrible, although that could also come from my clothing … in any case, he had this greedy aura around him I abhorred.

“We cannot sell such a fine specimen for ten gold coins. This person is at least fifteen coins worth.” The slave trader said without even knowing who I was referring to.

“Deal.” I said and stupefied the man completely. I wasn’t the person to haggle, especially because I wasn’t spending my own money. It was collected from the taxpayer and my task as the daughter of the duchess was obviously to keep the money well circulated to fuel the economy.

It didn’t take long for the guard to bring Woof to me, hands cuffed and feet connected through a metal chain.

“You can take that off. Oh, do you have a leash? … and some clothing” I asked the merchant and gave him sixteen gold coins. The guard hurried away and came back with clothing Woof put on directly, and a collar connected to a leather leash. It was definitely not worth the gold coin, but at least I had a leash now. Happy about my newest purchase, I put the collar on him and dragged him by the leash back to the city, the guard by my side.

“You have rather peculiar tastes for a girl your age.” I pouted frustrated about his comment of my age and angrily pulled at the leash. Woof was already trying to resist, albeit weakly.

“Do I? Hey, Woof, do you prefer whipping or the leash?” He just stared at me in hostility as I turned my head around. “See, he prefers the leash.” I claimed and happily dragged Woof down the road until we reached the door. The guard was strangely silent as if he didn’t know what to think of me anymore. I mean, I was here to buy a slave, so it was only natural that a girl my age would have some quirks.

“So, this is a farewell?” Asked the guard after opening the gate for me.

“Aye! Until tomorrow!” I said happily and dragged my dog away from the market, holding the lamp I retrieved again high. The guard reacted pleasantly surprised, probably because of all the money I gave him. He didn’t say anything as I distanced myself from him though.

As soon as we were on the hill, the leash I always held strained loosed considerably. Without even looking behind me, I stepped to the side and kicked Woof´s legs. As he was charging towards me previously, he fell down face-first into the mud.

“Oh, a pitiful quarter-vampire thinks he can defeat me?” I stepped onto his back as he tried to stand up again and pushed him deeper into the mud. “Oh, my beloved doggo, I will castrate you if you ever try stupid stuff again, understood?” I lifted my foot off him, only to step on his head as he tried to stand up a second time. He tried to grab my leg with a surprising amount of strength, but I squashed his attempt by lifting my foot off his head and kicking his hand away. Only then did I distance me from him and leaned against a nearby tree, the leash still in hand.

“Do you know why I saved you?” He sat up as he heard my voice a bit away from him and glared at me furiously. I smiled gently in return and threw the leash to him.

“To be delighted about my misery?” I rolled my eyes at his stupid reasoning. True, there was a bit of fun in parading him around the market like a dog, but not much. I knew why this woman earlier did the same to the boy, although I still hated her for doing it to someone so young. It was the feeling of power I could get high of. But in the end, it was a lie. Slaves didn’t happily oblige their masters, they were forced to. I found no satisfaction in forcing others to help me in the long run, everyone, even a king would bow in front of death. Tempting others on the other hand was a true masterpiece. Twisting someone like Tom so completely that he would give up on his own freedom was slavery in disguise, but it was the good kind of slavery.

In addition to that, I wasn’t responsible for his weakened state. I was sure I would have liked to break him, but it wasn’t me who whipped him. As such, I found absolutely no joy of his misery, except for the mud that stuck to his pants and shirt.

“No, I´m not. I am not even here to kill you, but rather to turn you into the bogeyman for my church. Do you know how long it was since the creatures of darkness rose against us the last time? Too goddamn long. Woof, I have an offer you won´t be able to decline. This place”, I pointed towards the still brightly lit market. “will host a great tragedy for humankind. And you will be made responsible for it. In return, I will grant you your freedom and allow you to escape towards the elven forest with the rest of the slaves. What do you think?”

“What if I refuse?” He asked in disbelieve.

“Want to find out?” I smiled happily and retrieved one of my daggers.

“I will truly survive this?” He asked and for the first time, I saw something else except hate in his eyes.

“Aye!” I exclaimed and twirled the dagger around, awaiting his response.

“You are a horrible person.” He claimed.

“Aye!” I said once more and seethed the dagger. It didn’t take long to reach the carriage that stood inside the forest. My guide was sleeping near a campfire and didn’t wake up until I shook him. He was a bit surprised by Woof but knew better than to question me outright. I was rummaging through our luggage as Woof ate and drank his fill. As soon as he was finished, I walked towards him with a rope and handcuffs in my hand.

“I don’t think this is necessary.” I smirked in return and gave him the handcuffs. I wasn’t dumb enough to spend the day with someone who would try to end my life as soon as possible. Reluctantly, he handcuffed himself and didn’t resist as I dragged him towards a nearby tree to bind him completely. Satisfied about the strength of my knots, I returned towards my guide and sat down on the opposite side of the campfire.

“Don’t say a single word to him during the day and make sure he isn’t doing anything dumb.” I smiled happily and bit into a roasted rabbit I caught earlier. There was little meat on it and it was grilled way too long, but I wanted to seem as human as possible in front of Woof. With a nod towards my guide, I stood up after I finished my meal and threw the remains into the fire. Afterwards, I saluted to my grim-looking prisoner and went towards the carriage.

“Why are you sleeping during the day?” Woof asked. I should have gagged him as well.

“The forces of darkness are active during the night. To fight them, I am willing to do anything.” I said and entered the carriage shortly afterwards. My collection of blankets I used to sleep in was completely untouched since the last time I saw them. Satisfied, I slid one of my daggers beneath my pillow and slipped into my cold bedding. This was always the best way to end the night.

It was a dreamless day as I spent my time awake, wrapped into my blankets and thinking about how I should proceed. My initial plan of inciting a slave rebellion was of the tables now. There were far too few slaves who would take part in fighting against the guards and as such, I deemed it impossible. My blood was thus the only chance I had to succeed. I grinned as enough time went by and stood up, eager to start the new night. I quickly secured my daggers again, opened the door and hopped out of the carriage into the night. Like last time, a campfire was already burning as I went to the back of our carriage, found some dried crackers and retrieved them. Woof was already glaring at me while my guide slept peacefully.

“Do you have anything to say?” He opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but my crackers were faster. His mouth was soon stuffed fully and he had no choice but to remain silent. He chewed on them as I undid the ropes and unlocked his handcuffs.

“I am thirsty.” I looked around, found a drinking hose near the guide and pointed towards it. Woof quickly hurried over after my approval and drank it completely empty. In the meantime, I searched for new clothing he could wear and soon found some in my guide´s luggage. It didn’t fit perfectly, but it was good enough. After I handed him his clothing, he just stared at me.

“Can I have a bit of privacy please?” Rolling my eyes, I turned around and walked a few metres away for good measure.

“Is yours this tiny?” I teased.

“What? No!” He protested which made me laugh involuntarily. I was still chuckling as he stood by my side and looked into the forest in the direction of the market. Even though he was bound to the tree, he seemed a lot healthier than yesterday. Amused by the development, I slapped his shoulder and walked towards the market.

“You will hand these five bottles to slaves. Make sure they drink everything and retrieve the bottles afterwards.” I said as I spotted the market in the distance.

“What is in there?” He asked reluctantly, but nonetheless took the backpack I prepared.

“The newest invention by the church: Modified vampire blood. We managed to change the contract vampires usually forge with their younglings. Meaning, I will have full control of them with my magic instead of whatever vampire gifted us his blood. The freedom of the slaves rests in your hand now, either you refuse and they will be slaves forever, or you bet on my help to save them.” I stopped walking and smiled gently as he turned around.

“You aren’t following me?” He asked in surprise.

“No, I do have other things to do. Oh, and while you are at it, show around your red eyes to everyone, alright? I would advise you to keep eating though …” That he was seen as a vampire was necessary for me. If some of the guards could escape, and I would make sure this was the case, then they should all point to a male vampire, even when he wasn’t one. I would just be the first victim of him, the girl who bought a person who was suspected to be a quarter-vampire but was in fact a full-fledged vampire, or so it would go. On the other hand, if he wasn’t eating or drinking, all of them would think he was a real vampire right away which was also quite bad for me … or rather for him.

Happily, I threw a small bag with a few gold coins at him and waited for him to walk away. He was looking at me constantly until he was about fifty metres away. Surprisingly, he didn’t bother to look behind him anymore at this point as if his night vision wasn’t as good as mine. Considering his diluted blood, this could indeed be the case, although I didn’t bet on this possibility.

There was no way I was letting him go inside unsupervised. As such, I naturally followed him stealthily. I didn’t step on any branches or similar in the forest to make sure to cover my presence completely. Even as he was talking with the guards, nobody saw me as I threw a grappling hook over the wall and climbed it. I was inside the camp before Woof was and used the cover of the night to walk over the roofs, jump over gaps, all while keeping an eye on him. At first, he bought himself some skewers he ate while walking down the alley. So far, he was doing his task pretty well, although he wasn’t guided by a guard like me, and thus, not many even noticed him. Those that did though would soon spread the word nicely.

While I was climbing onto the warehouse, he was bribing the guards to get inside successfully. It didn’t take long for me to spot him again through the skylights. He was looking around quite often, probably searching for me. Without further ado though, he went to the back of the warehouse where the strongest humans apparently wailed in their very own misery. I didn’t hear what he told them, but five of them soon drank my blood with glee in their eyes. I smiled happily and kept track of Woof as he exited the warehouse again. He took the exact same way back, but took his sweet time to spent every gold coin I gave him for food, beverages of all kinds and most importantly, a goddamn prostitute. I had to force myself to sit on top of the roof and listen to their conversation. I held my hands above my ears as they were really going at it tough.

He left the brothel, inn, or whatever it was two hours after that. He was headed back towards the gate and I gave up on following him for a few minutes. Instead, I climbed down the façade as nobody else was around and looked into the room. The prostitute had red hair, a dragon tattoo on her back and seemed to be around twenty-five years old. I made sure to remember her figure and jumped down. I landed on the ground silently and walked back toward the wall, hooded and unnoticed by the rare pedestrian. Going back over the wall was considerably easier as I just had to climb a nearby house, jump over the wall and land on the other side. The landing on the ground wasn’t the best and I nearly slipped in the mud, but thankfully, I regained my balance skilfully.

I ran back towards the carriage, hoping to get there first and luckily, I saw him exiting the gate just as I was on the hill. Thus, I arrived at the carriage a lot quicker than Woof and had the time to prepare everything. I shook my guide awake swiftly, threw more firewood into the campfire and sat down nearby.

“You seem a bit distressed.” It was the first time my guide spoke about what I did at the slavery market. I was a bit surprised, although for a different reason than I should have been. That this guy was able to look behind my façade was nearly impossible. As such, I held my hand in front of my mouth and noticed that it was curving downwards. I quickly fixed my mistake and returned to my usual slight smile.

“Have you ever listened to two dogs in heat?” I asked interested. My guide couldn’t quite catch my intention behind my words and thus, I just shook my head reassuringly. “Don’t worry, I´m alright.”

I looked towards the sky and noticed that I was in fact not alright. The stars were completely hidden by dark, low hanging clouds. I ruffed my hair and swiftly took the rope and the handcuffs. Woof was already close by as I threw the handcuff at him, pointed towards his tree and watched how my guide constructed a small tent for himself. Without further ado, I bound Woof to the tree again and hurried back into the carriage.

As soon as I was tucked into my blankets and rested comfortably in the carriage, the first droplet of water began to fall down. I held my breath as the rain grew more and more intense until I heard nothing but raindrops hitting the carriage. Luckily, I was inside a waterproof carriage, otherwise, I wasn’t so sure if I could suppress my trembling too successfully. The heavy downfall didn’t stop after several hours. Along the way, I crept closer to the forward wall of the carriage and leaned against it while hugging my knees. I couldn’t stop my trembling anymore at this point and looked left to right, and then above me constantly.

After a few endless hours in which I kept holding a dagger tightly, my guide knocked on the door.

“Milady, it is already night again.” There was no way he didn’t notice my sleeping rhythm, but there was also no way I didn’t notice when the sun went down. My senses, now sharp as ever, made the sounds of water even more unbearable. I still held my dagger in a tight grip as he opened the door a bit and revealed just how much it was raining. Although he wore a waterproof cape, he was still fairly wet because of the amount of water that rained down everywhere. He trembled and coughed worse than before as he looked inside his carriage, only to be hit by a little bag, filled with a few gold coins and a key in the face.

“Free him … he … knows what … to…” I didn’t come further as my heart was gripped in a panic I haven´t felt since the damn dam incident. I robbed away from the open door in panic as it started to rain inside. He was extremely suspicious about my behaviour but thankfully closed the door rather swiftly afterwards. I heard him stomping away in his wet boots and free Woof, who protested loudly and stomped towards my carriage. I heard how he opened the door violently as I covered myself in my blankets and hid my sorry state from him.

“At least give me a tent!” He shouted into the carriage and my ears rang just by the volume alone.

“Sleep in the city then …” I said nonchalantly.

“Can I take all the blood with me?” He asked surprised.

“… do that.” I said without thinking of the consequences.

“Gold?” He followed up.

“Ask the guide …” I would allow him to do anything by this point as long as he closed this damn door.

“Perfect.” He thankfully slammed the door shut and left me alone in my misery. I think I did a pretty good job in hiding my fear of water, at least towards Woof. A few minutes after Woof left, my guide rudely entered the carriage and closed the door behind him.

“Milady … my son fears the thunder as well. It always helped him to talk through thunderstorms.” I didn’t know what he was talking about until I heard the rumbling in the distance once more. Slowly, I pulled the blanket off my face and looked at the dripping wet man. At least he stood at the door and thus didn’t wet my things too much.

“I … do not … do not fear … wat- … thunder.” I couldn’t think straight anymore. My thoughts were all messed up and my chest felt incredibly heavy. It was damn hard to breathe, let alone speak in my state.

“It is okay to admit it. Only through accepting our fears can we overcome them. There is no need to look strong all the time, sometimes it is okay to show weakness.” I shook my head furiously. Showing weakness was never a good idea. Someone would come to exploit them, be it a human, an elf or a god. And that was where the guide and I had different opinions. I'd rather shove my weaknesses under a pile of garbage than parade it around openly while he didn’t even try to hide his worsening coughing.

“Get … out.” I wasn’t furious as he just wanted to help. Okay, I was angry at him for trying to berate me and for letting water inside. He already created a puddle of water beneath him and I couldn’t help but stare at it. He sighed, but still opened the door and stepped out into the heavy rainfall again.

Left alone with my emotions, I closed my eyes and didn’t try to resist anymore. I felt exactly as if I was drowning again for the hundredth time. My past encroached on me once again and was devouring me with a force I never felt before. Suddenly, the light inside the carriage vanished completely and only the raindrops, hammering onto the roof accompanied my whimpers as I lost consciousness.

Books. An endless amount of books stacked the nearly endless rows of bookshelves in a finite space that was my consciousness. Confused? So was I as I woke up in my mind space. I walked past all these shelves in utter boredom, barely registering that these books were all drenched in water. The ceiling itself leaked at several places and only the drainages in the floor stopped this place from flooding with water. More than once waves, bigger than most bookshelves appeared and smashed through the shelves, only to disappear again.

“So much to the state of my mind.” I was strangely calm though. In here, my mind space, the water didn’t concern me at all as it never touched me directly. Even the wet books dried instantly as I touched them as if I was in control of the water. More than once though, the books flew towards me after they were hit by a wave and that hurt quite a bit. Angrily, I threw these books away after catching them most of the time, no matter what memories they contained. I didn’t rip them to shreds, especially not because I feared losing these memories they held.

“The book of now, please.” The last time I was here, Aska showed me what I did currently and maybe, I could summon it. Naturally, it didn’t work at all. I mean, everything here was a mess, shelves were still falling against other shelves in the distance, books were laying down on the floor and one even flew through the air … hitting my head directly. My neck bent backwards by the force and for a short moment, I only saw a torrent of water raining down on me, only to stop right above me, and flow behind me.

“For fucks sake.” I rubbed my forehead angrily and kicked the damn book before picking it up as it was exactly what I was searching for. The water behind me splashed on the ground and vanished through a drainage quickly. Annoyed by everything, I opened the book and saw utter darkness on the last page. I turned the pages, searching for my last memory and soon found what I perceived as my last memory as well. At least I wasn’t going crazy again.

“This way …” A whisper resounded in the distance. It belonged to a woman, although I couldn’t say who, nor if I ever met her before because the voice was completely distorted. Bored, and without anything else to do, I followed this voice as it repeated “This way …” over and over again. The waves were getting more and more violent and threw more bookshelves at me as if they didn’t want me to go in that direction.

“Even if you run into obstacles, keep calm. The big breakthrough will come … was this by Edward John Smith or so … whatever.” I said and pushed a fallen bookshelf away from me. I could already see where the voice led me towards. It was an altar, very far in the distance, glowing in a gentle, red light. And yet, I couldn’t reach it. Books, shelves, broken wood was thrown into my way. It was as if my own mind didn’t want to reach this place, whatever it was. I still fought, don’t get me wrong, but it felt like I would never reach this place. Whenever I threw a book behind me, a new one was pushed onto the ever-growing wall that stood between me and this altar. Whenever I tried to climb the wall, a wave pushed it back and threw me off it.

Even worse, all these shelves and books I threw behind me kept piling up and suddenly, my own consciousness had a better idea. Unbeknownst to me, it must have collected an enormous amount of trash before and behind me which it suddenly pushed together. As good as I could, I tried to climb the wall once more, but it felt like a waterfall this time. The books just kept on sliding downwards and thus, I had nothing to hold onto. Frustrated, I could only watch as I was getting buried by my own memories and whatever else was in this mind space.

After a few minutes, the books stopped moving and with it, came a strange silence. Only my own breath resounded in the little space I made myself as I curled into a ball to protect myself from the books.

“They say that the evil you did weighs heavily on your shoulders … they say that regret will push you down … but nobody said how heavy memories in general are. Damn philosophers.” I said as I had to bear the weight of everything above me. It nearly felt like I was squeezed into a puddle the whole time I laid there. I didn’t even know how long that was as I lost all sense of time in this place. I just knew that I hated it. Being buried underneath my memories in my mind space was seriously the most fucked up thing. Whatever this place was, it belonged to me, and me alone. And yet, I was still terrorized by it as if I subconsciously hated myself.

Was I a failure for not winning against myself? Or should I rather congratulate me that I lost against me? I couldn´t even answer that question as I opened my eyes again and stared at the door. The rain had stopped completely at this point and I felt strangely clear, although my thirst was driving me crazy. Without even bothering to grab my daggers, I dashed out of the carriage, ignored the guide who woke up by the sudden noise and ran into the forest.

Ten minutes afterwards, I caught a deer without problems. It was eating on a clearing and didn’t even react as I ran up to it from behind. Aska´s horrible nail training helped me in that regard. Just like the nails, he laid out for me on parkour, I just had to evade all the bushes, sticks and everything else that made any noise inside the forest and could move nearly silently.

As such, the deer had no chance in the first place and I quickly dug my teeth into its neck. As usual, I rather wished this to be a human as animal blood tasted horrible. Still, I slurped it empty and returned, still a bit thirsty towards my guide.

“How long was I knocked out?” I asked, knowing full well that it was at least a full night.

“Six days.” I closed my eyes and slapped my cheeks lightly. Spending six days in my mind space was definitely not healthy, no matter how I looked at it. Even worse, Woof could have betrayed me during that time and I would have zero ways to wreak havoc without everyone seeing me. In frustration, I grabbed my two daggers, a black mask, and my usual backpack.

“Ready the carriage, don’t come near the market, whatever happens.” I said and hooded myself. My guide just nodded and I scurried away to reach the market. The ground was still incredibly muddy and I slipped more than once but didn’t fall down thanks to my quick reactions. Smiling happily, I approached the wall in the cover of the darkness and swiftly threw my grappling hook over it. Sadly, I had to retry two times this time before it struck the top of the wall. I swiftly threw it into a bush afterwards as I wouldn’t need it anymore, but couldn’t let it hang around there either.

I was whistling innocently as I walked onto the main street and searched for the brothel Woof spent his time in six days ago. After finding it, I hid in a dark alley and climbed the roof of the building again. Luckily, it was only two storeys high and the windows were a very nice place to grab onto. Even though the wood was still wet, I managed to climb the house without being seen. On top of it, I oriented myself and thought about different routes I could take to the warehouse.

After a few minutes, I climbed towards an open window and entered the brothel this way. I was in a room where the only furniture was a bed and a lamp. It smelled horribly of sweat and other substances I´d rather not touch, so I went towards the door, listened to every sound and concluded nobody was in the hallway. I opened it swiftly afterwards and listened intensely once again.

I was honestly disgusted by the sound, but soon picked out the person I wanted to find. She was with another man, moaning her life out of her lungs. I silently opened the door and stepped into the room. At first, I couldn’t even watch the spectacle as I had very bad experiences with human sexuality. Still, facing ones owns fears may have been the way forward, just like the guide claimed, and so I looked at the couple who still haven´t noticed me.

My poor innocence … I read some of Aska´s naughty books with naked, voluptuous women… well, I thought I had seen everything. What I didn’t know so far was that humans apparently lost their minds while doing it. The red-haired woman, or the good slut she was, moaned in delight whenever the man pounded into her from behind, even as he grabbed her long hair and pulled it towards him. The man on the other hand seemed to have lost his humanity as well as he kept swinging his hips like there was no tomorrow. He even slapped her ass cheeks from time to time as if this woman liked to be hurt.

I just stood there in silence, my head tilted to the right as I wondered what else I missed about human sexuality. I knew the biological aspect of their reproduction probably more than they did, but I could have never guessed how animalistic it was. None of them cared about any STDs as I didn’t see any condoms laying around. I highly doubted this woman cared about the risk of pregnancy as well as I only saw a few herbs I couldn’t identify on the nightstand.

As they were pretty loud, I made my way towards the opposite side of the room slowly and crept towards the window. One look into the dark street down below proved that it was safe to jump out of the window and thus, I leaned onto the nearby wall while drawing my daggers. I was already bidding my farewell to them as I made sure there wasn’t anything that led to me on them. Satisfied, I let my arms dangle down and kept watching the two humans.

They were still doing it like dogs, but I could see, or rather hear that they were pretty close to their finale. The man gripped around her legs and towards her chest, holding her close while he rammed into her one last time. The woman moaned in delight as she apparently rode her own wave of pleasure to the end and soon collapsed on the bed along with the man.

Yep, looking at it didn’t help me at all. In fact, I was even more disgusted than previously and barely controlled my twitching nose.

“Hiiiii-“ The whore shrieked in surprise as she looked to the right and noticed me. The man followed suit and jumped up immediately. As I really didn’t want to look at him anymore, one of my daggers flew right into his eyes. He collapsed without any further loud interruptions and gargled for a few seconds before he died completely. The sweet smell of blood soon started to overshadow the smell of love and thus, I snipped and pointed towards the whore which surprisingly made her shut up.

“Uhm … how should I put it. I´m interested? Not in doing what you do, or even seeing it, but in how man reacts. You know, I tortured quite a few species by now and I´m really interested in all their reactions to different things. I had a snake for example … she always sought out heat, but as I held her over the flame she died … whatever, is it always like this, or does he react differently from time to time? After doing the deed, does he jump up and claps his hand from time to time?” The red-headed whore shook his head, already quite scared of me although I haven´t done anything to her.

A bit happy that whoring around always led to this reaction and I wouldn’t have to watch another one doing it to catalogue all the other reactions, I asked my last question while eyeing her adult figure in envy.

“Woof … ehh, Paul, do you know him?”

“I swear I don’t know anyone with that name!” She whimpered quietly. I could see in her eyes that she didn´t have the strength to lie, and thus, simply shrugged.

“Kay.” Without further ado, I threw my dagger into her throat and turned around nonchalantly.

“One less problem.” I said and opened the window. If Woof visited her during his first night, they may have been planning something and even knew themselves from the very beginning. As such, I had to eliminate her, even when my thinking wasn’t correct. Shortly afterwards, I was already strolling towards the warehouse again, searching my backpack for the paperweight.

Happily, I was playing around with it, throwing it into the air where the moonlight illuminated it beautifully. It looked kind of an iron with one handle to hold it and a relatively smooth and hard surface on the other side. The perfect paperweight so to speak.

I got some stares as I was giggling quite often, but most humans here didn’t want to deal with a sketchy creature like me in the middle of the night. As such, I could walk towards the warehouse undisturbed by taking the main road. I just had to turn right at a corner to follow the signs and thus, I swiftly arrived at my destination and hid inside a dark alley. It was far too early for my endeavour and thus, I wanted to wait until midnight, hidden by the darkness.

Around eleven o´clock, I spotted Woof as he was talking with the guards again. He wore a backpack, meaning he was probably still following my plan. After he paid the guards, he was naturally allowed to pass.

I waited a few minutes until I climbed on top of a nearby house, circled around the warehouse and sat down on a nearby roof. I struggled a bit with my mask until it fitted good enough on my face. I knew for sure the mask would get on my nerves, but surprisingly, it didn’t worsen my field of vision too much. After I surveyed the area once more, I climbed down again and sneaked up towards the warehouse. After I reached the corner and peeked around it, I climbed the drainage system and reached the roof just like last time.

I didn’t walk towards the skylights in the back, but rather towards the front. I crept closer to the edge and peeked down. The two guards still stood there in silence and no other person was in sight. Out of experience, I knew that no guard would like to keep watch of the slaves and thus, these two were the only ones here. It was a sensible decision as the slaves couldn’t flee in their state and not many would try to steal a slave inside this market.

Thus, I could stand up easily on the edge of the building, hold my paperweight in my hands and aim directly at the right guard. Without waiting any further, I threw the paperweight at his head. He died right away as a corner struck his skull and cracked it open. The paperweight embedded itself deeply into the brain until it fell out as the guard slumped towards the ground.

The other guard didn’t fare much better as I landed behind him just as he was turning towards his companion in confusion. I swiped at his feet with mine, grabbed his clothing and pulled him backwards. He fell down to my side and could only look at me in horror as my boot stomped onto his yaw. He groaned in pain as I retrieved the paperweight, and went back towards him.

“Don’t take this personally.” I said as I bashed the paperweight onto his face over and over again. Only as his heart stopped to pump blood did I grab his arm, slid my mask upwards and sank my teeth into his flesh.

Finally.

Finally, I could taste this delicate food again, finally I could still my bottomless thirst with something that actually tasted great. I was ecstatic as human blood finally flooded into me again and bit deeper into his arm. More of this sweet nectar sated my thirst, although I knew full well that this much wouldn’t be enough. Nothing would be enough. My hands were trembling in excitement as I let go of the arm and giggled happily.

I swiftly dragged my mask downwards again and began to search for a handkerchief to cover my nose and mouth. Still giggling, I soon found it and entered this horrible warehouse with one hand under my mask and the other holding my paperweight. Not willing to waste any more time, I placed my paperweight onto the ground and dragged the corpses into the warehouse with one hand, one after the other. If one walked past this building, they would surely notice something was off, especially considering the blood in front of the entrance. But it was still better than two corpses in front of it.

Happily, I retrieved their keys and my paperweight once more. Shortly afterwards, began to run to the very back of the warehouse. I hummed as my mood was incredibly good, although the stench already seeped through the fabric. As such, I hurried a bit more until I noticed Woof and chose to walk leisurely again.

He was just then giving a human my blood, although he shied away from actually going too close to the cage for good reason. The human in question, or whatever was left of him, pressed his face against the steel bars, trying to get a hold of Woof. There was no more intelligence in his eyes, just pure and utter madness. At least he was quite muscular like the other nearby five humans he gave my blood, although that didn’t mean much in my opinion.

“Woof! How are you doing?” He turned around surprised, but quickly returned towards his usual cute, hostile look.

“Where have you been for the past six days?” I rolled my eyes and pointed towards the first cage.

“You know, depression hits hard sometimes. Open that.” I ordered and stopped right in front of it. Woof wasn’t exactly keen on following my command as the thing inside looked at me quite hungrily. I smiled reassuringly and kept eye contact with the human who squatted in the middle of the cage. Instinctively, he must have understood his connection to me which was in all honestly, more than the other four were capable of. Even as Woof crept closer to the cage, he didn’t make any indication of attacking Woof. Happily, I kept staring at the slave while Woof fumbled with the keys I gave him.

As soon as the cage was unlocked and the door swung open, the slave straight up jumped at me. I naturally knew what was going to happen. Arthur pounced at me more than once and thus, I knew how these animals behaved. As a solution, I simply stepped to my side and let the man crash into the cage behind me. With one swift motion, I twirled around once and smashed the paperweight into his neck, just as he was recovering. His spine broke completely and his yaw was dislocated as he smashed into the cage once more. Pretty dead, he slid down the iron bars and laid still on the ground.

I shrugged and left the dead corpse there and turned towards the other four troublemakers.

“So, who is second?” I asked nicely and got only four animalistic noises in return. This time, I grabbed the keys out of Woofs hand, stepped towards the cage and simply pulled on the arm that he tried to grab me with. “Disappointing.” I said as I dislocated his arm and he howled in pain. After he retreated back to the other side of the carriage, I opened the door and stepped back. Unlike his friend who died earlier, he tried to rush towards me and ram his shoulder into me. He was swiftly introduced to the flat side of my paperweight that slammed onto his forehead. His head snapped backwards and stayed in a rather unnatural angle while he simply slid past me on the ground. As I stepped over him, I tapped his head lightly with my foot so that it snapped back into the original position. Satisfied by the result, I turned towards the next cage.

“Three more to go … I guess…” Bashing everyone with the paperweight sounded like a great idea in the beginning, but it was getting boring quite fast. But … there were already five kills on this ‘weapon’ and so I kept going. The next three murders didn’t excite me very much. One jumped out of the cage like a madman, made friends with my boots and then died as I cracked his skull with the edge of the paperweight.

After that, they didn’t even try to resist anymore, which made it even more boring. After I opened the lock, they rather stayed inside until I dragged them out of their unsanitary cage, grabbed my paperweight once more and broke their spine with it. One of them didn’t die through that, so I had to bash his head a few times until he stopped being alive.

“Soo … how are you doing?” I asked Woof as I watched their wounds heal and felt how this strange bond between us started to form.

“It amazes me how you can behave so nonchalantly after doing this.” He commented and earned a deathly glare from me. Even the slave behind him who just opened his eyes closed them again and shrank back.

“And it baffles me how you can stand around like this while you really should free some slaves ... now.” I said and smiled sweetly. A few of the other slaves were already waking up by all the noise we made and I basically wanted to start with the massacre as soon as my five ghouls were ready to go. One of them was already twitching on the ground as Woof finally took the keys out of my hands and started opening one cage after another. The slaves inside apparently needed some motivation to step out of their prison which I gladly provided. Not.

They were on their own, I had zero reasons to help them and thus, I rather kept the boys in check. One of them already sat upright and looked at me with hungry, red eyes as if I was some kind of dessert. Angrily, I glared back which didn’t seem to help much. His muscles were tensing up as the thirst within him reached a critical level. I could see the burning desire to taste my blood in his eyes. He placed his hands on the ground, preparing to push himself up and run up to me. He pushed against the ground ready to –

“Sit.” And he sat down again. I loved how docile they were. “Follow me.” I walked back towards the entrance, grabbed the keys of the other guard and opened every cage where I bought Woof. I woke all of them up six days ago and they could remember my face, something I had to avoid as much as possible.

At first, they were all quite happy about the development, at least until my ghouls and I started to feast on them mercilessly. What a beautiful night so far.