“What have you done to him!?” Caius says, breathing hard. He’s starting to shake off the effect of the vampire’s terrifying ability - he glares directly into those glowing red eyes, the bright color standing out even more among the swathes of indigo darkness brought on by the falling dusk.

“Don’t fret so.” The vampire says, breaking his gaze from Caius for a split second to lean down and hoist Cletus, face-up, over his shoulder. Cletus’s head rolls back - he attempts to struggle for a brief moment, his eyes wide and looking around with clear terror. Caius feels the paralyzing effect wear off slightly and all but rushes forward, but the vampire raises his gaze to him again, pinning him in place with that sickening red glow like a butterfly against a cobalt backsplash. “It’s only a muscle relaxant. He’ll be fine.”

Cletus’s eyes are round with fear. He looks at Caius with a pleading expression. Caius feels a rush of helplessness so agonizing it feels like despair - he feels his adrenaline spike, and a burst of desperate strength lets him propel his body forward, his shaking legs barely enough to support him.

The vampire looks at him, an expression of surprise stretching his handsome face. He dodges Caius’s haphazard attack easily and slips to the other side of the porch with as little effort as a shadow dancing on a lantern-lit floor.

“It’s a shame you’d run into me, instead of any other vampire.” The vampire says, a smile that could only be described as fond coming to his face, the point of his incisor glinting in the dark. His outline starts to blur into the navy backdrop. “If you had survived this encounter, you might have become a talented vampire hunter.”

He raises his right hand. It takes Caius all his remaining energy to stay standing, drained by his struggle against the paralysis. The veins on the back of his pale palm bulge with blood and the muscles thicken, human-like nails elongating grotesquely into jagged cutting points.

Caius feels fear flood him. Cletus’s wide eyes bore themselves into his heart. He throws himself at the vampire again, half-numb, and the vampire thrusts his hand at him and through him - the grim nails tear through the side of his abdomen like tissue, shredding the mortal skin and flesh, pulverizing the organs. 

Caius feels his own blood slicking his leg. He feels the vampire’s nails scrape against his back - he feels the vampire pull his hand out, dripping with blood, and he feels the floor against his back as he collapses with a squelching noise onto the molding deck of the old haunted house.

Cletus’s eyes are round with terror. Tears drip down his unmoving cheeks. His mouth falls open, as though he wants to scream, but no sound emerges. A murder of bickering crows flies overhead, their screeching noises loud in the strange silence. 

A film starts to settle over Caius’s eyes as he feels cold numbness start to take his limbs. He looks up - the sky past the porch’s awning is indigo, almost purple, and the stars glimmer brightly against the darkness. 

There are more stars than one can see from the university, in the heart of the city. 

His breathing slows. He feels his mind going blank.