Neither of them said a word as they made their way to the city overpass. Dusk had set in, providing a beautiful twilight vista over the small bridge. Jon’s mind was clouded with doubt. What the hell was he thinking? He barely knew this girl! There was no way she was going to understand his fucked up past.

“So what did you want to tell me?” she asked, her voice cautious. Miya had been incredibly patient with him the entire walk, which only made him feel worse for how nervous he knew she must have been.

He finally stopped at the midway point of the overpass. With a deep breath, he lit a cigarette and took a puff of its calming carcinogens. “Miya...I like you a lot. Just between our text conversations and hanging out with you after class, I can tell we have a lot in common. But we can’t be together, and not for the reasons you think. The truth is…”

“The truth is what?” she asked, doing her best not to break down.

That stung him. She was working to compose herself, and he knew it had to be for his sake. So he finally relented.

“The truth is, I’m being hunted.”

The visible look of shock on her face was far more subdued than he might have anticipated. Though she appeared more confused than anything. “Hunted? What do you mean by that?”

“My family...no...I am cursed,” Jon explained, doing his best not to sound nearly as crazy as he felt for admitting this. “Do you see this?” he asked while holding up his palm.

“Yeah, your dragon tattoo. I remember.”

He shook his head. “It’s not a tattoo. It’s a birthmark.”

“A birthmark? But...how? It’s clearly a dragon,” she asked in disbelief.

“I don’t know how. It appeared when I was eight. That was the night…” His skin paled.

“The night what?” she asked hesitantly.

“That was the night my family was butchered.”

She cupped a hand over her mouth to hide the shock.

“My mother, my sister, my father: all of them are dead because of me. Because of this,” he said, referring to the mark on his hand.

“But why? And who killed them?” she asked, her mind still reeling from this revelation.

“Not who. What,” he answered honestly. “I know so little about this thing, or why the ones who hunt me are so desperate to claim it. Even the Monastery I grew up in knew very little about it. All I really know is that it draws evil to it…to me.”

Her surprise turned to suspicion as she suddenly narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you mean evil?”

He hung his head, taking another deep breath. This was it. The part where he let all the crazy out and scared her off for good. She’d think he was nuts and back off, just like he needed her to.

“There are things in this world, Miya…” he began, gazing up at the setting sun. “...that defy logical explanation. Beings of dark power that feed on the light of men. I spent the better part of my life training to fight and kill these creatures to keep myself alive, and to fight back against the darkness.”

“But what darkness?” she asked again, sounding slightly weirded out. “Jon, you’re not making any sense.”

“The thing that killed my family was not human. It was a creature that sustains itself on the life force of our species,” he then added hesitantly. “We call them vampires.”

She was stunned. He could tell by her expression she was trying to process what he just said. “You’re...you’re telling me you think vampires exist?” Miya asked incredulously.

He chuckled in a melancholy tone. “Not just vampires. I’ve seen all kinds of dark creatures talked about in myth: vampires, werewolves, angry spirits. They all exist, right under our noses. And they all have one thing in common. They all crave power.”

She didn’t say anything. He knew he lost her, now it was just a matter of hammering the final nail in the coffin.

“I’m a Hunter, Miya. A warrior trained to fight and kill these beings using the powers of the divine. I’ve killed so many, and yet still they continue to thrive. There’s a whole underground world of dark and twisted beings out there, and the ones I’ve encountered aren’t even the worst. I’ve heard of demons living amongst humans, spirits of both heaven and hell with power beyond mortal comprehension. If any of them were ever to find me…” He shuddered at the thought. “I don’t expect you to believe a word I’m saying. If you were to turn around and forget you ever met me I wouldn’t blame you.” Jon gave her a melancholy smile. “But for what it’s worth, I’m glad I got to tell someone. Thank you for listening.”

For a moment, she didn’t say anything. The sound of cars rushing along the road below them, and the far off noises of people heading home from work were the only things that could be heard. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she spoke.

“Well, that’s just my luck,” her voice turned sour. “I finally think I meet a decent guy and he doesn’t even have the balls to reject me to my face.”

That hurt way more than he thought it would. Not just because of her words, but because of how betrayed she sounded while saying them.

“I just poured my heart out to you and you want to come up with some bullshit story instead of just telling me no?” She shook her head at him and backed away, tears rolling down her face. “Screw you, Jon. Talking to you at that bar was a mistake.”

She turned and ran away, hiding her eyes from him. Not that it spared him anything. The sound of her crying was caught by his heightened ears. Jon, for his part, was numb to the whole thing. He’d been expecting that reaction, yet it still stung a lot worse than he thought it would.

Just once...he wished someone would believe him.

Maybe it was too much to hope that one day he wouldn’t have to saddle this burden alone, that he’d find a way to remove his mark and live a normal life. Until then, he was better off being on his own, as much as that killed him. As the sun set over the horizon, Jon pulled out his pack of cigarettes and popped one in his mouth.

“You did it to yourself, Jon,” he spoke in a low depressed tone. “Got no one to blame but you.”

As he went to light his cigarette, his sixth sense kicked in and a chill ran down his spine. Jon pulled the smoke from his mouth and sniffed the air. Sure enough, he caught the scent of blood and death on the wind. Looking around, he noticed a lone hooded figure making his way past him, in the same direction that Miya left in.

As their eyes made contact, the hooded figure’s began to glow yellow and constrict into reptilian slits for the briefest moment. Jon cursed silently under his breath and put his smokes away.

“Well, that can’t be good.”

Not knowing what else to do, he began tailing the hooded figure. Whether she wanted to believe him or not, Miya was now in grave danger.