We walk through the forest for what feels like hours. I crave something. Food. Water. And I definitely crave to be out of this whole mess. This vampire is my insurance, and I can’t lose him yet. I have to maintain the lie about L’Arc. 

I lead in my attempt to keep control over our dynamic. Behind me, I hear his uneven footsteps, still limping from those werewolf wounds. He doesn’t complain, rest, or anything. He marches on with single-minded focus. Or motivation. The motivation that I have yet to understand fully.

I don’t need to know everything about Star, just that I can use him for my current objective. As if trying to break the silence, the vampire softly speaks, “I remember stories of Neverland from when I was human. I was told it’s a place where children never grow up.” Without turning, I dismiss his comments, “That’s an asinine thing to believe.”

Star continues, “Those cannibals were talking about it-.” “And I don’t wanna hear any more of this nonsense. I live in reality. Now, I don’t know how you got that information, but you need to cut it out,” I scrutinize his attempts to resume this ‘Neverland’ crap. "Silence follows for the next couple of minutes. It's just the sound of footsteps and distant chirping.

I hear the question I’ve been dreading from Star, “Do you actually know where he’s at?” I can back off now, and confess or even say that I ‘lost him’. But that would remove me from this comfortably higher position. If he gets angry, well, I’d rather not deal with the consequences. I have to improvise quickly.

“What’s with you? You’ve been acting really strange,” I retort. “Well, I-.” “Well, what then?” I don’t let him answer. I continue, shaming him into backing off from asking again, “You’ve been following me around. Saying weird shit. Asking weird questions.” I resume my verbal assault, “You act like you don’t drink human blood, but maybe you’re after something else entirely. That’s kinda creepy, Mr. Vampire.”

Star’s eyes widen for perhaps the first time I’ve seen him, stunned by my accusation. “I’m not- I’m taken! I have a girlfriend,” the vampire asserts himself with more life than usual. I stop slightly, but I return to strolling as usual. I'm not sure how I can use that information to my benefit, but I’ll think about it when I’m not starving.

The bush on my left rustles before either of us breaks the silence. A skinny, disheveled man with long, messy hair pops out of the greenery. "Oh shit - new people! Look, I gotta warn you two about this place,” this strange man tries to get close, one hand noticeably missing. “Get the fuck away from me. At least tell me your name before getting all up in my face,” I yell over at the man approaching us.

“My apologies, erm, I forgot my name-,” the stranger confesses. I scramble in my pockets before jabbing a curved metallic object that I stole from En, into his bandaged-up limb, “Well, you now have a name! It’s Hook.” He falls to his knees as he yelps, “Yeek- Well, actually… Shit, that hurts - I do remember being a captain.” “Why are you torturing this poor man, lady?” Star comments.

“Look! Shut up! Both of you! Half my crew died to gators, the other half to Peter's gang, the Neverborn-.” I start blasting my gun at the air, “Oh my God, enough of this ‘Neverland’ bullshit! Everyone is babbling about this stupid fake place where children don’t grow the hell up.”

“Wait, this guy might know something,” my vampiric bodyguard interrupts me. “No, he doesn’t. Don’t waste our time with this shit,” I order. “Okay,” Star says plainly. Mr. Hook holds onto his wound, trying to get up, “You’ve got to at least listen to my warnings. The giant alligators are - Wait, stop running!” I rush off as the vampire follows me, ignoring this one-handed fool. 

We run for a much shorter time than expected, stumbling across a wider open space. I stare at an open box of pizza lying on a table bench. I call dibs on it, snatching this food before the curly-haired vampire. I rip open the cardboard before devouring the crusts of these slices. I stop to glance at Star, who looks at me blankly. “What? I always save the best parts for last,” I say to him.

I gag on what I’m eating, realizing how awful this feels in my stomach. I can’t tell if the pizza is that bad or if it’s just my lack of decent gastric acid. I hate my body so much. 

A rope yanks my foot into the air, leaving me hanging upside-down from a tree. My gun falls from my holster before I snatch it in time. Children wearing animal fur swarm me. There are about a dozen or two of them, each equipped with knives, slingshots, or whatever their tiny hands can get a hold of. All boys, none older than ten. Their chattering and smug looks piss me off.

“Wendy’s trap actually worked this time,” one anklebiter squawks. This follows up with insults thrown at my appearance. “Old hag!” “Rotten thing!” “Check out this freak!” Fun stuff.

They mock me as they approach me, ignoring my vampiric bodyguard, who is standing there doing nothing to help me. I fire my shots at the ground. I don't care if I hit one. As long as they back off. They stand terrified of my presence. Good. I didn’t like where it was going with these freaks. 

As I continue firing, Star yells out, “Stop shooting!” He finally steps in, and he’s trying to get me to stop rather than help me directly. “Lady, these are just kids,” he says with effort in his voice. “Hey, dipshit! Do your job and cut the rope-”, I yell over, letting go of my trigger before I immediately fall from a snap. 

I landed in a bad spot, dislocating my shoulder. Shit. Those little runts run over to me, but I aim my gun at them with my good arm. “Back the fuck up! All of you!” They keep their distance, but I don’t have the time to fix myself. Star gets between me and those small fries. 

“Relax,” the vampire tries to tell me. “Relax?! I only got one good arm like that Captain Hook!” I screech in frustration. I hear scuffled chimings from those damned kids. “That old hag is crazy,” they say. “Tell that granny off, mister!” Another runt blurts out. “That ugly dead lady doesn’t scare me-.”

I shoot up at the air to get everyone focused, tired of this whole situation, “If I hear another thing from you boys, I’m making you bury a body.” “Stop… Before you do something you regret,” Star speaks out loud. His voice carries a heavy but soft energy. He extends his finger near the barrel of the gun. I step back. Too close. I lower my weapon shortly after.

“At least act like a proper bodyguard for me,” I mumble under my breath. Star stands there, his eyes more focused than before. “What?!” I yell out in frustration, ignoring that there are like over a dozen dipshits around us. “Nothing… I was thinking about how we’re going to find that captainly-hatted man.” “You’re doubting me,” I grit my teeth. 

We’re back to this again. It’s annoying. Losing control. Star continues, “I’m not - I don’t want to doubt you.” “Then don’t doubt me,” I say, frustratingly.

My vampiric ‘bodyguard’ clenches his head, looking dizzy from where I’m standing. “I- I need something - I’m sorry. I can’t help you,” Star mutters as his cold breath flows out. I see that we’re surrounded. Not by the children exactly, but the half-dozen massive reptilian monsters flanking us. Their long jaws open, snapping at those little runts as they stand on their hind legs. I don’t care for these little shits, but I have to act before I become alligator food. 

Everyone stands frozen. I debate with myself about which I should do first. Fire at these freaks or fix my shoulder. Star has other ideas. He springs forward, snatching one of those gigantic monsters by the jaws before they can harm any of the anklebiters. The vampire rips the beast in half, peeling their body like a fruit with his hands.

The violence continues as he slashes one of their heads in half. He snatches another by the tail, hammering the next with bloodlusted fury. Star slams the weaponized gator into another before popping them both into wet chunks. A bloody orchestra of destruction. Red smears across everyone in the splash zone.

All of this within 10 seconds. There stands one lone reptilian beast, watching its kind get shredded by my guard. My guard, who is devouring these monsters’ blood. The lone survivor steps away, possibly fearing for its life. It rushes off.

The vampire stops what he was doing and pulls the damned creature by the tail. The monster’s scales rip apart with each pull from Star, digging into its flesh with his bare hands as bits and pieces of this poor thing fly off. That alligator becomes nothing but a blood soup for my bodyguard. 

We all watch this. It’s equally exciting and terrifying. Star accomplishes a level of violence that I did not expect from this man. I don’t think those runts expect it from him either. Those monsters didn’t lay a finger on anyone, so I guess Star did a good job.

Star sits in a pool of blood, hyperventilating to himself. The massacre stains his clothes once more. His eyes worry more than anyone of us at the moment. He holds himself as if he had sinned. He finally calms down, but not without displaying his genuinely terrified face. 

Before he speaks, those shrimps start cheering for him. They all chant one thing, “BEHOLD THE BLOOD GOD!” They see him as a hero all of a sudden. They gather around him like some savior.

I stand here, useless. Unable to do anything. I pop my shoulder back in. I glance over at the vampire, who looks at me with wide eyes that don’t blink. I don’t understand why he’s like this. You can’t just slaughter those monsters and immediately act like this. Own up to it at least. I would’ve embraced it, at least.

Tch. What a weirdo. Those boys separate the two of us, focusing on that ‘blood god’ and pretending that I don’t even exist. He reluctantly accepts their praise. I was so useless in that whole ordeal. I did nothing but watch. 

I hate this. I have this shitty stitched-up body made for a shit purpose, and this man has immense vampiric strength and everything. What the hell am I supposed to do other than whatever the hell I’m doing now? I watch Star surrounded by the kids cheering for his name.

I see this strange glowing thing hovering, flying in at full speed. It leaves a golden sparkly trail behind. Those runts cheer for whatever this thing is, raising their hands as if a mythical being is present. “You’re here for the Blood God!” One of the kids cheers. I hear a weird bell ringing from this thing. The kids act like they know what this thing is saying. 

I see it hovering over a child’s face, as if studying him. It flies over to my bodyguard to do the same. “Huh?” the vampire mutters under his breath. “Oh? I don’t think I understand you, miss…  uhhh, won’t remember that name. Are you talking about a bell?” He continues speaking. “How the hell did you get that from jingling?” I comment, trying to make myself present. 

The thing immediately flies to my face, peering into my eyes. I see her clearly. She’s just a winged, small blonde woman who’s the size of my pinkie. She grows a bored expression just from a few seconds of looking at me. Despite the jingling, I can read her lips, and she calls my head ‘empty’. Great, this thing thinks I’m stupid. 

She immediately flies over to Star, obviously more invested in this vampire. The two converse, with some help from those anklebiters. “I’m looking for an older-looking man, silver-haired with a captainly hat,” the curly-haired vampire says. “Tinkerbell says that she knows where that guy is. She wants to take you to the Neverborn,” one of the boys translates. Neverborn? Wasn’t that something that Hook warned us about?

Star waves me over, “Tall lady, the fairy is telling us she knows where that captain guy is.” “You’re bad with names,” I snark at him. “But I don’t exactly trust this information,” I continue. “Why not?” Star asks. “She’s a weird fairy thing, vampire,” I argue.

“Why is it bad that she is a weird fairy thing? I mean, neither of us is normal,” my bodyguard tries to sidestep away from the little runts as this goes on. “Cause we just met this thing and she’s already conveniently telling us where L’Arc is at. Isn’t that suspicious enough for you?” I retort.

“She’s our only lead.” “OUR ONLY LEAD?! I already told you where-” “Do you actually know?”, Star snaps at me with his cold and blunt voice. He stops me before I answer, “I don’t like doubting people, lady. But you’re making this hard, so at least tell me if you’re lying or not.” I pause to myself before responding, “We’re following the fairy, then.”

We speak with the little runts and also that fairy before heading off. What I do know is that I can’t trust that strange pinkie-sized woman. This ‘Neverland’ or whatever they refer to it is just one big cesspool of freaks, and I can’t exactly drop my guard around them. I have to go with Star. He can kill whatever I can’t handle.

Those kids may be nice with Star, but I still see them eyeing me with disgust. I can’t let their praises get to the vampire’s head. This fairy is going to be a pain in my ass. I know she wants something from my guard.

I need to figure out a way to retain whatever control I have over this vampire. Somehow. I’ll do it. Just to get rid of that bastardized reflection of mine.