[POV: Sarah Wilson]

 

“Damn you, David!” Sarah uttered for the thousandth time.

 

Inside a small house on the side of the highway, a woman was sitting on a chair looking at a map using the light of a candle. She had left and at first, had no destination in mind to go to but that had changed in the last few hours. Now she was thinking about the road that led to Denver as she thought about what she had heard from her father about its Ruler.

 

“I wonder if you can defeat a vampire?” She muttered.

 

A smile spread across her face as she checked the distance and began to draw a line across the map as she plotted a path. Suddenly just as she was feeling confident in her decision, she heard a sound in the room. It sounded like the sad sigh of a woman.

 

“Who is there?” Sarah called as she held up her candle.

 

She was inside of a large bathroom that was furnished in marble as she sat on the ground with her maps. The bathroom was lit up with a variety of candles she had found inside of a cupboard for emergencies. She had lit them carelessly to light up the room she was hiding in for the night.

 

She began walking around with the candle as she tried to find the source of the sound, the bathroom had a large tub that was large enough for several people, and a large walk-in shower that was tiled. She then walked over towards the double doors that led into the bedroom, but she couldn’t see anything except for the locked and barricaded door. 

 

Sigh…

 

She heard it again as if it was a sound of disappointment in her, then the candle in her hand suddenly went out. This was accompanied by what sounded like breathing next to her ear, and this caused her to drop the candle and spin around in the room. What she saw was the empty doors that led into the bathroom behind her, then when she looked around she saw that it was empty.

 

“My imagination?” She muttered.

 

She then reached down for the candle and saw that all the hairs on her body were standing up, and when she grabbed the candle she released a sigh of relief. This sight caused her a moment of shock when she saw a white puff of steam float out into the air. Then she looked up in the room while holding her candle but she suddenly heard the breath in the room again.

 

Looking around she noticed one of the candles in the bathroom behind her had gone out, this caused her to reach in her pocket and pull out a lighter. Just as she reached towards the candle in her hand with it, she heard another breath behind her, she turned in time to see another candle go out in the bathroom. This caused her heart to begin pounding as she looked around the bedroom she was in.

 

The closet was open and empty, she had checked it and the only window had a heavy bookshelf in front of it. The bed was already destroyed so she had removed it, and the dresser was pushed against the door. There was no other furniture in the room, she was sure she was hearing someone blowing out candles though.

 

Using the lighter, she lit the candle in her hand, it was inside of a small glass cup just like the ones that littered the room and bathroom. She had lit close to twenty of them since that was how many were in the package. Just as she walked through the double doors into the bathroom, she heard the breath again and a candle next to the sink in the middle of the wall in front of her blew out.

 

“What is going on?” She muttered

 

She looked down at the candle in her hand and saw the glass cup that it was in to make it harder for the wind to blow them out. Her thoughts were interrupted when she suddenly heard a loud slamming noise behind her, she was startled and turned quickly to see the wooden double doors had closed. Reaching forward for the brass knobs, she tried to twist them but to no avail.

 

“Who is there?!” She called out.

 

Then she heard what sounded like a gust of wind from the other side of the double doors, then she saw the light from the candles on the other side of the doors go out. She took a few steps back from the doors, the locks were on her side so she assumed that whoever was holding it was on the other side. Then something miraculous happened, she heard loud static and buzzing as a radio that was next to the bathtub on a rack turned on.

 

“What?! There isn't any power though!” She uttered as she saw the lights.

 

The radio wasn’t even plugged into the wall, she had ignored it as something useless and hadn’t even thought about it. She could also see the stations rotating as if it was carefully dialing into something. Then she suddenly heard the breathing again and turned to see one of the two remaining candles go out.

 

“WHAT IS GOING ON?!” She screamed out in panic.

 

[You should have left.] this came through the radio in a monotonous voice. 

 

Suddenly she felt something dig into her neck like two hands were firmly choking her, and she felt a sudden feeling of weightlessness. The candle fell from her hands and shattered onto the ground as she reached up and began feeling her throat. She discovered that she couldn’t feel anything on her throat, but she could feel two handprints that were buried deep into her skin.

 

Suddenly she felt a feeling of vertigo that was incredibly jarring and her vision went dark for a moment. When her vision returned, she could see blackness and felt herself moving. Then the blackness receded and she could see the back of a woman’s head, then she moved further away and realized something horrifying. 

 

She had somehow been pulled out of the back of her body, and she could see her body floating in the air as it was being strangled. The movements had become dull and lifeless, but she could see the legs lightly kicking. Then she heard a loud cracking noise as she saw her body's head suddenly turn backward in one forceful turn and look at her.

 

She had heard the loud crack issued from her neck, and she could see the light in her own eyes fading as her head was forcefully turned towards her. She realized that she didn’t need to breathe in the state she was in, and she could suddenly feel two cold hands forcing her to watch what was in front of her. That was because she watched the head turn again and face forwards, her neck had a wrinkle in it from the skin stretching.

 

“Why?” She asked in both horror and sorrow.

 

Her body jerked one more time before it fell to the ground as if the force holding it had finally let it go. This caused her a feeling of loss as she couldn’t even see what state she was in, that was because the mirror in front of her was empty. She could only see the wooden double doors that were behind her and nothing else.

 

Suddenly the image on the mirror began to change as it showed two kids, a little girl, and a little boy. The girl was leaned over with a happy smile and her lips placed on the cheek of the boy who looked confused. It was David and Sarah when they were young, this was a picture of them that had been hanging in a corner in the living room of David’s parent’s house.

 

“Is that why?” She asked.

 

Then she saw the image and the mirror behind it shatter into pieces, and she could feel the hands digging into her throat start squeezing even harder. Suddenly she felt her neck give in a way she didn’t think was possible, and it forced her head to bend forward and she was forced to look down. What she saw was a see-through body and she looked like she was made of a mist, a mist that was rapidly disappearing.

 

Her arms and legs that she couldn’t feel since leaving her body, had disappeared, and her torso was fading away. Around her neck were two hands in a similar state, and she could see her body being sucked up by those hands around her throat like they were a vacuum cleaner and she was a dust spot. She was unable to scream from the pressure, or maybe she had already lost that ability.

 

Suddenly she didn’t want revenge on her cousin anymore, she realized how stupid it was to blame him in the first place. She wondered if Bella had felt like this when the demon started eating her after it took over, did she also regret it? Then she suddenly wondered if her father was actually killed by the demon inside of Bella, could it be possible that this is what killed her father?

 

These thoughts filled her mind right before she was absorbed by the figure behind her, and faded away entirely. The last lit candle suddenly rose off the countertop and floated over Sarah’s corpse, it then fell and caused the body to erupt into flames. These flames were very violent and angry and seemed to want to leave nothing of the body.

 

“I had to leave to keep track of you, and he was hurt because of it.” The figure said.

 

The figure was a woman with long hair and a flowing dress that looked like a wedding dress, and she wore a veil over her face. Her entire body appeared like it was made of smoke though, her dress was also heavily damaged in various areas. What could be felt were erratic emotions and feelings of the ghostly woman.

 

***

[POV: David Wilson]

 

A refreshed smile was on the man’s face as he looked out the window of the van and saw the morning sun rising in the sky. The morning breeze blew in through the open window and tickled his hair in the driver's seat, and next to him was his blonde girlfriend smiling at him gently. The box was sitting on the floor in the back, Pandora had gone inside of it to enjoy her meal, and Jasmin sat on the floor of the van as she finished sewing together a stuffed doll.

 

For the first time since he had awoken during the apocalypse, he had awoken without one of the dreams of the Machine Lord. A feeling of contentment spread through his whole body, and his mind felt incredibly clear. Curious, he looked behind him to take a closer look at the doll.

 

Its legs and arms were incredibly short, giving it the impression of a welsh corgi with snow-white fur, on its body was a light blue onesie with little white wings attached. It looked like it was the happiest puppet in the world, the smile she had sewn on its face was adorable. It was the size of a throw pillow, just large enough to fit in someone's lap.

 

“I have finished my contractor weapon, Rollo also approves of it.” She told him when she noticed his gaze on the doll.

 

This caused David to pause and turn around in the driver’s seat, he then pointed at the stuffed doll in her hands with shock. He then thought about the weapons he had made up until now, most of them had been replicas of things the churches on Edea had come up with over the years. As if in response to this they could feel an aura come bounding to the van in its sheer excitement.

 

Jasmin had stopped and closed her eyes with her hands on top of the doll, she was feeding her mana into it while muttering something under her breath. David realized this was a ceremony to make a contractor’s weapon with the being, and if Rollo accepted it, it would make it easier to use his powers. It was one of the things that made invokers powerful, their mana costs were only slightly higher than what a mage would pay, but the effect they could get for the same cost was nearly miraculous.

 

Lena and David could feel Rollo’s presence in the van as he was inspecting the weapon, it was running in circles around the woman and small doll happily.  The more he saw this display, he could not help but feel sorrow for the Edean priests but this feeling only got worse when Jasmin placed the pillow on her lap. Suddenly they could feel Rollor’s joy explode inside of the vehicle, this caused a thought to form in his mind.

 

Maybe Rollo likes finding bones in his grass patches…

 

This is what crossed his mind as he saw the woman wearing the habit of a nun, this was something she recovered from the basement of the church. She had several of them in a bag that she said she was going to wear from now on, but that wasn’t all they found. A statue as tall as a woman carved out of white stone, she held a shield and sword covered in runes and full plate mail armor.

 

It was something David recognized the moment he saw it, and it explained why the monsters in the area had been so thin. One of the dungeons that the Machine Lord had constructed had appeared somewhere in the region. Turning back he could see that statue in place of one of the freezers, the sword was sheathed at her side and the shield was on her back.

 

Her helmet was held in her left arm and she had a sad smile on her face as she seemed to stare off into the distance. The statue was small and gave off a feeling of desolation as if everything around her was empty. David could see that she bore a resemblance to the Angel of Death statue and he wondered if it was the same model.

 

“Hey, David! Can you help me, that statue is heavy!” Harry called from outside of the vehicle, out of breath.

 

David looked into the rearview mirror and he could see the warrior building up his core and leg muscles by pushing their vehicle. Seeing how much he was struggling to keep the vehicle rolling at walking speed, and how Harry had already pushed it halfway to his parent's house, he decided to help him. Rolling down the window let the cool air from the enchantment he made cool the cabin out of the window and into the heat, he called back to Harry.

 

“I am going to teach you a breathing technique that is incredible for when you need to endure something hard or painful. It is called ‘Enduring the Waves’ and it is great for things like this.” David was just about to get into the meat of the ability when Harry stopped him.

 

“I think I might just want a break instead, I have been at this for over an hour,” Harry said with some reluctance.

 

“But, Harry, I can see the hill ahead now. It is just a slow crawl up that monster then once we are to the top you could have a small break since the top of it isn’t very large, then I need you to help slow the vehicle as we go down the other side. It is quite steep after all and I don't want to risk damaging the vehicle we just got.” David was stopped here by Harry.

 

“David, I need to take a breather, man,” Harry said out of breath, he could also feel the van slowing down.

 

“You are a warrior Harry! I realized in our last battle that your muscles have not been properly built.” David said.

 

The image of Harry outrunning him and causing them to get caught in the trap appeared in his head. From that moment on he had already decided that he despised the idea of Harry being faster than he was. Part of this grueling exercise was to help put some heavy muscles on his legs that would get in the way of his ability to run, this way David would never have to worry about being slower than him.

 

“I don’t want to be a warrior! Can we at least toss out this heavy statue, it’s even making the van sag.” Harry complained.

 

“No way, that thing is the reason that the town was free of monsters. It imitates the presence of a monster in the Supreme tier, and scares everything else away for miles, it is a treasure and I can’t believe it was left in the basement of a church.” David yelled back. “It is also nearly indestructible by our current standards, it is made out of a magical composite of various enchanted metals.”

 

“Can you help me push it at least?” Harry called back.

 

David pretended to ignore him as he went over his speculations as if Harry asked a different question.

 

“I wondered why they were okay with herding monsters into the town. I bet someone discovered the presence of a dungeon and planned to use the monsters to find the entrance. This thing can repel monsters, that is why it has to be moved away from the dungeon entrance to find it.” David said. “If you don’t move the statues away, then monsters won’t go near it, then you can only search for it by luck.”

 

David tried to think of the best way to describe the structure’s entrance.

 

“The entrance is a portal and it doesn’t produce any kind of light or sound, it is almost impossible to detect without equipment. The dungeons aren’t so many structures as they are different planes, so the entrance can be anywhere. It also produces a lot of temporary openings that are only open for a short period, these are what take in the monsters. If you move something like an army through it is possible to accidentally stumble into these portals, I hope they know that much.”

 

“What were they built for?” Jasmin asked. “Was it just to trap monsters?” 

 

“They were made to make powerful combatants and arm them with weapons and abilities,” David said. “They are filled with treasures, especially the dungeons that have these statues at the entrances. They are filled with all kinds of different items and artifacts, that isn’t taking into account the dungeons effect of reducing monster population drastically.”

 

What he didn’t say was that these people's only purpose was to provide more information to the Machine Lord. It was the most ironic thing when people came to the Iron Citadel to slay him wearing gear he had made for them and using the abilities he provided. It made him feel good to be pulling so many strings at the same time.

 

“Alright!” Harry wheezed out as the vehicle stopped. “We are at the top of the hill, I am taking a break now!”

 

David looked in the rearview mirror with some annoyance as he could see his house off in the distance.