Margaret sat at a table near the window, ordering something from the menu without really looking at it.

He knew she would be a great ally, so he rose from the bar and went to her table, introducing himself.

—“Excuse me, my name is Kaius Lindverg. Would you allow me to sit with you for a moment?”

Margaret looked at him with surprise and a hint of caution. She glanced around as if searching for a reason to say no.

She seemed hesitant, but finally agreed.

—“I suppose so.” Her voice was soft, resigned. “Though I don’t know why a young man like you would want to talk to someone like me.”

—“Why not?” Kaius sat gracefully. “We all need company from time to time.”

They began chatting about trivial things. The weather. The bar. How the food was. Margaret was polite but distant, as if she were used to not trusting anyone.

Kaius knew she was the one who held the real power in the town. He only wanted to confirm one thing: she was abused by her husband, just like her son. If he could convince her to turn against her husband, he could prevent the chain of effects that would follow. Without her support, that man would never accomplish anything good. He knew it would be difficult, because this poor woman no longer had any self-esteem. He would have to do something drastic. He had no time.

—“Do you have children, Mrs. Margaret?” Kaius asked casually.

Something changed in her expression. A flicker of pride mixed with sadness.

—“Yes, a son. Ethan. He’s a good boy.”

—“I’m sure he is. Does he come here often?”

—“Sometimes. He works here from time to time.”

So with a discreet gust of wind he lifted her sleeve. They were talking, so she didn’t notice until Kaius spoke.

—“Oh my God, Mrs. Margaret. Are you alright? That looks bad.”

Margaret looked down, her eyes widening at the dark bruise now visible on her forearm. Panic crossed her face.

She realized what had happened and invented an obvious excuse, the kind a victim of abuse would use.

—“I… I fell. On the stairs. You know how it is, sometimes one is clumsy…”

Her voice grew smaller with each word.

Kaius, seeing nothing more would come of it, chose another path—the path of I understand.

He leaned forward, lowering his voice.

—“Madam, I need to share something not even my brother knows. Can I trust you?”

Margaret blinked, surprised by the change.

—“I… suppose.”

He cast a spell that simulated cigarette burns. Slowly, he rolled up his sleeves, revealing the marks that now covered his forearms.

He didn’t realize Nicolas was listening closely. Nicolas had focused on the conversation between the two adults, using his vampiric hearing to catch every word. He saw the marks. He didn’t move. He just kept listening, frozen in his seat. Kaius didn’t know his brother was watching so intently.

Margaret looked at the burns in horror. But she also saw something else: white scars, old, not created by the spell. Those were real. Those had remained from when Kaius was human. Nicolas noticed them too. His face turned pale as snow.

And then Kaius spoke.

—“This is what happens when a father doesn’t love his son, madam. Let me tell you a story.”

Margaret leaned forward, unable to look away. Her hands trembled slightly on the table.

—“Once upon a time, there was a family with a father who was one of those traditional men. That’s not bad in itself, but he used that excuse to torture his family. And the worst part was that he only did it to one child—the eldest. He always suffered his father’s hatred and rejection simply because he wasn’t what the man expected.”

Kaius’s voice grew distant, as if narrating something that had happened to someone else.

—“The boy didn’t understand why his father hated him. He tried everything to keep him from getting angry. He did everything to please him. Even when the father shouted and threw whatever was in his hand, causing the boy to have panic attacks, he didn’t care.”

Kaius didn’t realize more people were listening now. Ethan had approached from the bar, standing near the table. His fists clenched. Tears welled in his eyes.

—“He tried so hard to make him happy that he offered to work from a young age in his factory of wood and stone, thinking it would ease his father’s stress and maybe improve their relationship.”

Kaius paused, touching one of the scars on his arm.

—“But it didn’t. He was only more cruel and vile to the poor boy, blaming him for everything that went wrong in the house. If dinner was burned, he beat him—or sometimes burned him. And if he breathed wrong, he was locked in a dusty, dark cellar.” His voice cracked slightly.

Margaret now had tears streaming down her cheeks. Nicolas was pale as a ghost at his table, his hands trembling over his glass. Ethan was crying openly, his body shaking with silent sobs.

—“In the end, that young man, with some help, understood something… that the man didn’t love him. And that if someone excuses their violence with blows, shouts, or emotional blackmail, they are not someone he wanted in his life. Even if everyone told him he was selfish for wanting something different, he would be the best at that—but he would be free.”

The silence that followed was absolute. The entire bar seemed to have fallen quiet, though perhaps it was only Kaius’s perception.

Kaius began weaving a spell to make his vampiric hypnosis stronger. No one noticed—not even Nicolas, too shocked to react. It had been a long time since he had heard that tone from Kaius’s mouth. He knew it was real. Kaius had always told him stories like that from his days of work and tutoring when Nicolas was sick.

Ethan listened too. He was too close to ignore it. He cried, knowing this man had lived through something similar. His voice sounded so broken as he told it that it couldn’t possibly be a lie.

Margaret finally found her voice, broken and full of tears.

—“Why are you telling me this?”

Kaius looked her directly in the eyes. And then he unleashed the full spell. His vampiric hypnosis, enhanced and intertwined with magic, wrapped around Margaret’s mind like invisible silk.

—“Because I want you to understand that you are an incredible woman, and you have a wonderful son, and no fool has the right to tell you otherwise—least of all someone who claims to love you.”

He leaned closer, his voice taking on that low, resonant tone of hypnosis.

—“You have enormous self-esteem. Use it. It’s inside you. You just have to bring it out. Don’t be a coward like that boy. Please. Thank you for listening to his story.”

Margaret blinked. And in that moment, something changed in her eyes. A spark that had been dead for years began to ignite. Her back straightened slightly. Her shoulders pulled back.

—“I… Thank you. Thank you for sharing that with me.”

Kaius nodded and rose from the table.

He returned to the bar and paid for his drink and Margaret’s, leaving enough money to cover both generously. Then he left without looking back.

He got into his car and drove straight to the Lindverg house.

The road passed in a blur. Trees, houses, empty streets. Everything blended together as his mind spun and spun.

He didn’t realize he was crying until he felt the silent tears sliding down his cheeks. There were so many they even stained his pants. They fell and fell, unstoppable.

He stopped at the entrance of the house. He slammed his head against the steering wheel, still crying.

Once. Twice. Three times.

As if physical pain could erase the emotional pain tearing him apart from within.

—“Shit,” he whispered to himself.

He knew it was his own story. It was him. It was Kaius. The body’s memories that had been hidden, buried. And he supposed Margaret knew it too. But he would never admit it. Not in front of Nicolas. Nicolas wasn’t to blame. He wasn’t to blame for their parents always favoring him, both his mother and that man he called father.

It wasn’t his fault. But it hurt anyway.

Then Kaius realized he needed blood. But he wanted to try something—to vent. He left the car and used his super speed. He went searching for a man or woman. He found a man walking alone. With hypnosis, he led him to the house.

And there he bit him. It wasn’t elegant. It wasn’t controlled. It was desperate. It was cathartic.

He fed while the man just stood there, while Kaius, in feeding, managed to think of something other than that horrible past that was destroying him inside. Memories of blows. Of shouts. Of a father who saw his eldest son as a mistake.

When he finished, the man was still alive. Kaius hypnotized him to forget. Gave him money for a taxi. Sent him away.

He was left alone in the empty mansion, blood on his lips and dried tears on his cheeks.