A small child panted as he ran through a long hallway. The walls were dark brown wood with paintings stretched across the hall, each one with some kind of person on it.

The hall gave off an orange light, which came from the chandelier candles hanging on the ceiling. Aside from the paintings, there were several pedestals with various antique items placed on top.

The boy ignored all of them as he continued running down the hall. Sweat beaded down his face along with his tears.

After a little bit more running, he soon came across a door and stopped. Frantically trying to open it, he went inside and closed the door with a loud slam.

He was now inside a bedroom. And it was one that didn’t belong inside a normal home. More like a room fit for a castle.

It was close to being three hundred square feet with various items inside from a King sized bed to an antique chest placed at the foot of the bed frame and even several bookshelves all over the room.

The young boy placed his back against the door and sat down. As he did so, he hugged his knees and began to cry more.

He looked over at his arms and the rest of his body, noticing various cuts and bruises on him. Courtesy of one of the other residents in this place.

As he kept looking, the boy watched as the cuts and bruises began to heal, like time was reversing on him. Soon all of his wounds were gone as if it was never there, to begin with.

However, instead of feeling relieved that his wounds were gone, the young boy grew angry.

“No…! Why?! Why are you healing?!”

Angry, the young boy slammed his fist on the floor several times, each time harder than the last. All the while saying the same thing.

“Why? Why? Why?! WHY?!” After smashing the floor with his fist, he brought it close and noticed that he was bleeding once again.

The skin was scraped, revealing fresh blood trailing off his hand. However…

“N-no, not again!” The boy watched as his fist was magically healing just like his previous wounds.

Watching this unfold, he placed his head back on the door with force, growing more irritated by the minute.

“Why do you keep healing? Why?! If it weren’t for you…if it weren’t for this stupid healing, I wouldn’t be in this mess! I would be de-?!”

Before the boy could finish his rant, he heard a knock on his door. He said nothing, doing his absolute best to keep as quiet as possible.

Then…

“Janus…” a voice from a young girl called out to the boy. “I-it’s me…Kora.”

“…Go away…” Janus muttered, but it was loud enough for the girl to hear him.

“Please, Janus, let me in. I just want to-“

“I said go away!” He shouted this time. “Just leave me alone. All of you please just leave me alone!”

Janus placed his hands on his ears and covered them, ensuring he didn’t hear anything afterward. He could feel the knocking motions coming from Kora, and even her muffled speech, but Janus did his best to ignore it.

After a little while, the knocking stopped and Janus could no longer hear the muffled noise from Kora. It was finally quiet.

“Why…why is this happening…” Janus cried to himself as he pondered over the recent events in his life.

After losing his family to monsters, Janus was adopted by the Helsing Family and is now known as Janus Van Helsing. He’s currently living in a manor or mansion of sorts that is owned by the family.

And it's been a couple of days since…that incident. Since then, Janus’s other siblings have been punishing him for it. His recent wounds were from one of his siblings. It was well deserved anyway since Janus was responsible for the death of his adoptive mother…and his siblings' real mother.

But, no matter how many beatings he took or cuts and whip marks he would receive…they would just heal back as if they were never there, to begin with. Normally, it would be such a gift to be able to heal your wounds like that, but Janus only saw it as a curse.

After all, he always ends up as the lone survivor when monsters are around. It happened with his real family…and then with his adoptive mother.

“Stupid healing…why did I even get this ability?” Janus cursed his healing ability, only seeing it as a burden to him.

A reminder of his failures and how everyone gets killed while he survives. If he could figure out a way to get rid of this curse…or better yet find a way to work around it…then maybe he could finally end his suffering.

“I want to leave this place…I just…want to be alone forever…” Janus buried his face in his knees as he muttered this.

Being around people will only cause them harm, that’s what Janus realized about his presence. It happened to his parents and it just now recently happened to Helena, his adoptive mother. And because of him, his siblings no longer have a mother.

His presence was a curse…a curse he’d wish he could somehow break. But Janus was not sure how he could do that.

“Why can’t I just…?!” Just before Janus could finish his sentence, he heard something from outside his window.

It sounded like…something was climbing up. Janus wasn’t sure why, but he knew that someone was climbing up to his window. The sound of grunting and trees bending could be heard with the violent wind happening outside.

Was it a monster…? Some creature that felt Janus’s despair and was now after him? He wasn’t sure.

What Janus did know was that he was in danger. His instincts were telling him that this was a bad situation…and yet he couldn’t run. It was either stay in this room and deal with the monster…or leave the room and deal with his siblings, and he was much more afraid of his siblings' constant wrath.

Just then, a small hand went up against his window. It was dark, so he couldn’t tell what hand was it, whether human or monster. But it was obvious that his instincts were right. They were coming into his room.

Janus watched as the hand went up as it lifted up the rest of his body, revealing a black silhouette of a person. Janus’s heart started beating rapidly as he watched as the black silhouette person opened up his window and came inside his room.

Once they were inside, Janus could deduce that this silhouette was definitely human…and someone he knew well.

“N-no…” Janus gasped in horror, backing into the door more. “S-stay away…!”

The person looked around Janus’s age, and had long black hair tied up in a ponytail. Her clothes were littered with dirt and tree branches that got stuck on her.

It was Kora…Janus’s adoptive sibling.

That’s when Janus knew why Kora was here…she came to punish him, just like the others did. It was her turn.

“Janus…” Kora said, her voice quiet yet firm.

“P-please don’t hurt me…” Janus pleaded. “I-I couldn’t do anything when the werewolves attacked! I-I didn’t know what to do! I-I didn’t want her to die…”

Janus did his best to keep Kora at bay, begging her to spare him the punishment, but she didn’t listen as she got closer to him. His face grew paler with each step his adoptive sister took.

“P-please…j-just leave me be…”

Knowing there was nothing else he could do but face the music, Janus covered his eyes and braced himself for another session of his punishment. He waited and waited for it to happen…but nothing did.

It was then that Janus felt arms wrapping around him…Kora’s arms. At first, he thought she was going to strangle him, but it didn’t feel that way.

No, this felt warm and kind. It was then that Janus realized that Kora…was hugging him.

But why? Why did she hug him instead of punishing him like the rest of his siblings? Why was she doing this?

“I don’t blame you…” Kora’s words echoed in Janus’s mind. “I…know it wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t do anything…”

Hearing these words, Janrealizedion that Kora…was comforting him. This epiphany shocked Janus.

Why didn’t she blame him? Why isn’t she punishing him for getting her mother killed? Why isn’t she berating him like the rest of her siblings, telling him that their mother died due to his weakness and that he’s a curse?

Why…why is it that she’s the only one that didn’t blame him?

But Janus couldn’t think of that at the moment. The moment Kora hugged and tried to comfort him, all he could do was hug back in response.

“I-I’m sorry…!” Janus said while crying.

“It’s okay…I know it’s not your fault…you couldn’t do anything about it.” Kora kept comforting Janus as she hugged him tighter.

As the wind continued to howl outside, the siblings continued hugging one another, allowing their grief and pain to dissipate in the process.

Janus then wakes up from another dream. He opened his eyes groggily as he looked at his surroundings.

He fell asleep on the couch with a couple of papers laid on top of him. He picked up the papers and placed them on his coffee table…where there were papers scattered all over it.

All of the papers on his table were related to the recent Vampire Nest raid that Janus did with Anastasia. Janus has spent a couple of nights looking through the paperwork, trying to get some kind of clue on the Mid or High-ranking noble vampire that turned that Vampire boss from before.

While cleaning up his coffee table, his mind wanders back to the dream he just had. Or in this case, memory.

The girl in his memory, Kora Van Helsing. She was one of Janus’s siblings, or in this case his, adoptive sibling. And out of the five adoptive siblings that he had, his relationship with Kora was the most stable and friendly.

This was mainly because Kora never blamed Janus for their mother’s death. She knew that what happened wasn’t his fault, and never lashed out in anger, unlike the rest of her siblings.

However…things changed eventually. Especially after the Terror of Hyde.

During that time, Kora and Janus’s relationship shattered. And now all of Janus’s relationships with his siblings were strained.

After cleaning up the coffee table, Janus looked outside and noticed that it was nighttime, which told him one thing.

“Right…the night shift…” Janus sighed.

The nightshift. This was part of the HMDD job, where some members take the night shift and go on duty. And during the night shift, the monster activity is a lot worst at night.

And Janus was tasked with taking up the Nightshift. Knowing this, he knew that tonight was going to be one hectic night…and boy was he right.

Getting dressed and dropping off Max, Janus soon left his apartment complex and started heading over to the HMDD base.

It’s been a few days since Janus started working again at HMDD. As time went back, the stares coming from his fellow HMDD members lessened quite a bit. Of course, their hatred for him are still present.

Not that Janus could blame their hatred, since he did defend a murderer who killed a few HMDD members. However, Janus didn’t care much about this. If anything, he would cut all ties with the HMDD if it meant saving Harriet.

And he sort of almost did, what with being suspended and all. Aside from that, things were more or less normal for Janus.

Well…almost normal.

While walking over to the HMDD base, Janus looked up at the sky, and a clear white ball appeared in the dark sky. It was a full moon. And when there’s a full moon, there’s also…

“Looks like it’ll be werewolves this time, huh?”

The werewolves were nocturnal monsters that only appear during a full moon. Since tonight was a full moon, Janus knew he was going to be dealing with them.

Mentally groaning, Janus kept walking over to the HMDD base. It didn’t take long before he arrived and entered.

Heading over to the top floor, Janus heads over to where his desk is. Just as he got close, he noticed that Anastasia was already there.

“You got here early,” Janus said.

“I’ve only been here for about thirty minutes or so.”

“Well, still pretty early to me.”

Janus then sat down and started working on some paperwork. This was a regular routine when working at the desk. At least until they get some field work for the night shift.

Though, the nightshift fieldwork is very dangerous. Obviously, because the monsters are most active at night.

Werewolves, vampires, spirits, and various undeads from ghouls to even banshees. The night shift is extremely dangerous and only experienced HMDD members take up this shift.

And unfortunately, Janus and Ana were two of the said experienced HMDD members. Especially Janus since he’s part of the Helsing Family.

As a Helsing, Janus was given special training to fight against monsters. Of course, in the beginning, he wasn’t really cut out for the training since he was adopted into the family, and not born into it.

That changed after a few events transpired, forcing Janus to do the Helsing training regimen, and thanks to that, he more or less became the strongest Helsing in the family, aside from the Patriarch.

Though that’s thanks to his healing abilities that allowed him to speed up his training.

It’s been a good half hour since Janus arrived at the base, and after going through several paper-works, he was starting to grow bored.

“How about we go to the training grounds?” Janus asked. “Since we’re doing the night shift, we should do a little warm-up before we do some field work.”

“…Sure,” Ana looked hesitant, but she nevertheless accepted the request.

Putting away the papers, Janus and Ana left their desks and headed over to the Training Grounds. The training Grounds was a section of the HMDD base where HMDD members came and trained.

It was like a Gym, but a little more intense, since this room was designed to help HMDD to prepare to fight against monsters. The Training Grounds were located under the base, so Janus and Ana went from the top floor all the way down to the underground floor.

Going underground, the pair went up to a pair of double doors. These doors led them to the training grounds.

Opening the doors, they entered the room the size of a gymnasium. The walls were lined with weapons on racks, there were target dummies scattered all over the place, each set used for by a different weapon, and there was a stage at the center that served as a dueling stage for HMDD members to fight one another.

There were a few people in the training grounds already. Each one using a part of the Training ground.

As Janus and Anastasia walked further into the training grounds, the other HMDD members that were training soon took notice of them. Or in this case, Janus.

Their glares were so obvious that Ana noticed them. But, she said nothing since Janus was silently telling her to leave them be.

While ignoring the group of stares, Janus looked over at the center stage used for dueling.

“Alright, how about a little duel, Ana?” Janus asked.

“Okay.” Ana nods her head, looking a little determined to do a sparing session with Janus.

And so the training session had begun.