“…And then, all the bodies from the cemetery came back to life and while I was busy fighting them the ur-vampyr stole the orb and left!” Lizzy explained her failure to Paul. “And it wasn’t until the orb had left that the corpses died again!”

“I see, that was quite a problem…”

“And now we only have one chance to get the orb back!” Lizzy was frustrated again, mad at her second failure. But that was not all. “And the worst part was…” She sighed. “The worst part was that I had to fight my mom…”

“Your mom?! Are you sure?” asked Paul with preoccupation.

“Yes. Everyone in the cemetery was revived, and that included mom too.” She had no doubt that she had cut down her own mother that night. Needless to say, she was perturbed, she just saw the dead rise from their grave, killing Anna Dabeltorn once more, and everything after performing the sin of disturbing a dead man’s eternal rest.

And the worst part was that it was all for naught…

“I didn’t know the orb had that kind of power…” Paul said, amazed.

“Well, me neither, until an hour ago!” she yelled without bothering to hide her snark.

“I guess that explains why Mr. Winklefeather wanted to be buried with the orb. But why only now it worked?” Paul thought out loud with a hand rubbing his chin.

“I don’t know.” Lizzy repeated the encounter in her head once more, and really thought about a possible explanation. She thought of how the orb was shining under the moonlight, how everything ended into chaos once the orb was discovered. “I think I have an idea…”

“What is it, lassie?”

“The orb, it was shining under the moonlight, I think its power activated with it.”

“Of course! The orbs have a bunch of natural energy, they must work with the elements they represent!”

“Not that it matters, considering that they have the orb now… I’m sorry for failing again, Paul…”

“It’s not your fault that these things keep happening, Lizzy. You can’t be prepared for everything!” he consoled her.

“But I have to! It’s the only way we can win this!” Lizzy yelled in anger, before turning into something more depressing. “If only dad was here to do the job, I’m not half the hunter he was…”

Lizzy stayed sat down on her spot at Paul’s table in silence, laying her head on her hands and doing her damn best to not cry. She really wished that she could be like her dad, who was able to put terror into the Great Vampire Lord’s heart, who was praised for his role as The Hunter. She, on the other hand, was a poor imitation of his genius. She had the tools, but her skills were still lacking, and her body was weaker too. What was she supposed to do now?

She stayed in silence, trying to held her breath as to not sniffle, waiting for Paul to say something.

“Oh, Lizzy…” Paul finally said. “You father wasn’t a perfect man, you know? He made many mistakes before he could become The Hunter people knew him as. He couldn’t save everybody, he couldn’t kill every target, he was just a man, a man who tried his best to do what was right. He got better with time, and you might too. You don’t have to be successful at everything the first time, you just need to try.”

Lizzy wiped a loose tear from her eye. “But a single mistake can mean death, how am I supposed to ‘just try’?”

Paul didn’t have an answer right away, he kept thinking about what to say next. “You have done more than enough for this village. You might not know it, but people are talking about you. You are giving back hope to Riverbel. You are more valuable than you think.” He concluded, not really answering her question.

Lizzy understood what Paul was trying to do: he was trying to encourage her so that she wouldn’t quit. Maybe it wasn’t the first time he had tried a similar approach, knowing that her love for her home was as big as her dad’s, but it worked nonetheless. “Alright. I’ll keep being The Hunter, for now…”

“That’s what I wanted to hear!”

“Yes, yes, you do…” she mumbled. “So what now? Any idea of where the last orb could be?”

“Not right now, but maybe if we use Mr. Winklefeather as a guiding stone we can find it quickly. For now, it’s back into saving and slaying business!”

“Fine, but I think I’ll head home for the night. I’m exhausted, and if the ur-vampyrs took someone it must have already happen.” Which was a morbid thought, but she was too tired to care.

“Of course. See you tomorrow, Lizzy! You need to sleep very well!”

“Yeah, I know it by now…”

With that said, Lizzy went through the passage and straight back home.

She tried to go to sleep until morning came, but was unable to. Images of corpses in various states of decomposition appeared in her mind, especially of a mother asking “why are you doing this? Don’t you love your mother?”, followed by the criticisms of the closes people to her — Paul, Jimmy, Irene, and even her own father were judging her harshly in her mind, telling her why she shouldn’t be doing any of this (“It is too dangerous”, “it is not proper”, “you are not good enough”).

She cursed herself then said out loud “God, why did it have to be me?”, not caring about who might or might not have heard her.