“For about 10 hours in bed, and 4 hours for extra check-ups,” Vinessa said while running her hands through the snakes she has for hair.

“Alright, is this really necessary? I feel fine.” I sighed through my nose.

Vinessa looked down from her paper. “You fell from the surface to the bottom of the mines, were stabbed 12 times by a skinrunner, and bled out buckets yesterday.” She then placed her hands on the blood bag. “So take it from your deity—just because you feel fine now doesn’t mean you’ll feel fine later.”

I groaned as I began thinking about how I’m fired from the job I was supposed to be only taking a lunch break from.

Yep, I’m so fired.

I looked down at the hospital clothes I was given and began looking around the room for anything interesting, but all I did was go right back to looking at the doctor. Figures, she’s the only interesting thing to look at in this place.

The doctor in charge of me is a Latina Gorgan named Vinessa. She has tan skin, pinkish lips, green eyes, and a small scar on her bottom lip that somehow makes her even more attractive. She looked over at me, and I quickly reverted my eyes back to the ceiling. After 5 more minutes of active silence, I finally cracked and sat up.

“Alright, can I please go for a walk?” I asked while throwing the blanket off of me.

Vinessa paused for a moment as she considered my question, then she shook her head. “Sure, but don’t leave the building, and come back as soon as you feel ill in any sort of way.”

And with that, I got up from the bed and made my way out the door while carrying the mobile blood bag with me that Vinessa forced me to take.

The medical building was fairly small, as expected, down in a mining cave, and once I pretty much explored the entire building, I made my way to the lobby because for some reason it’s the only room in the building with a TV.

I stopped by the counter, where only one employee was posted, and asked the lady, “Could I have the TV remote?” She gave it to me, and I slowly made my way to one of the lobby chairs and sat down. As soon as I sat down, I felt light-headed. I ignored it because I didn’t want to sit in that room bored all day, and I just turned on the news channel.

The news listed a number of chaotic events, like a magnetic storm heading toward Georgia, so avoid wearing too much metal. A pack of Wolvers being spotted in Mississippi, a ghoul town, so avoid going out at night. An army of Undead making their way toward a lumber mill, so mercenaries are going to be occupied. Four flying islands are soaring over a town in Alabama and dropping Meshheaps, so that’s bad.

As I continued to watch the news, a sudden chill ran down my spine.

“Hm, it seems this world has a lot of interesting things going on.” A horrifying voice said right beside me.

“Heh, you don’t sa-” I said while looking to my left. As soon as I did, my blood went cold, my heart stopped, and my soul left my body almost immediately.

There was a terrifying-looking person sitting right beside me in blood-soaked clothing. The creature wore a blood-soaked red hoodie, black pants, and black bloody gloves. He also wielded a giant scythe that looked like it could kill me just by looking at it, and a black coffin with no name attached.

Oh, I’m dead.

I quickly attempted to get up, but my body suddenly began to feel weak and forced me to sit back down.

I held my head as I tried to gather myself, but as the weakening feeling carried on, I began to slowly realize the helplessness of the situation and strangely began to relax.

I let out a sigh through my nose as I adjusted myself in my seat and continued to watch the TV. I then asked him calmly a single question. “Are you here for me?”

The Creature looked at me, then slowly returned his gaze to the TV. “No, I’m not here for you.”

I let out a heavy sigh as if I had just held my breath. “So what are you here for?”

“I’m here because of her,” he said while pointing behind him. I looked back and saw a short girl in a white, sun-reflective owl suit, talking with the main woman behind the counter. “She came here to see if she could buy some countertop medication, and I just followed.”

“Oh,” I shook my head. “So what brought you this far underground?”

“Fell down here a while back.”

“Heh, same,” I slightly laughed . “Was it also by a Skirunner as well?”

“No, I think it was an explosion,” he answered as he looked at his hands. “I hope.”

I was about to ask him what he meant by that, but before I could, the girl in the owl costume had suddenly plopped down right beside him, angrily.

“Tell me why I’m about to stab this lady at the desk.” She gritted her teeth.

“What?” I blurted as I looked across the creature.

She then leaned forward and looked at me. “I'm about to STAB that woman in the throat.”

“Why,” I asked with my eyebrows raised.

“Because I go up there to buy some over-the-counter top meds. I went up to the desk to go buy some, and she tells me that they’re busy. But as you can see, “She waved her hands in a circle. “Nobody else is here. So I asked how on earth are you busy when this place is emptier than a league softball game, and she said that it would take a minute to sort all of the medications.” She then balled her white-gloved hand. “Why in that same second, I heard the words TASTY announced right in front of her. She was playing Candy Crush.” She huffed. “So I quickly walked away before I could hit her with a blood spear.”

“Hm, well, good thing you didn’t do that,” I nervously laughed as I leaned back against my seat.

“Yet,” she mumbled. She then switched her attention to the Creature. “Are you sure you don’t want anything, Pazzo? They have some medications for Lycanthope’s to lessen its effects.”

“No,” the Creature stated. “ I’m fine, and I was born this way, and I learned how to control it. The medication would be useless.” He lifted his hand and placed it on his skeletal mouth. “And besides, taking that medicine only increases your chances of going feral. It would be better for you to just live with it at that point.”

“Wait a minute, you’re a Lycanthrope… which species?” I asked, fully interested now.

“Werewolf,” he answered as if that isn’t the rarest species to date.

“WEREWOLF!!” I yelled in shock.

“Please don’t yell.”

“My bad,” I said while awkwardly clearing my throat. “But a werewolf, though? And you’ve been one for 13 years, that is incredible. How old are you?”

“13.”

“YOU ARE A NATURAL-BORN WEREWOLF!!” I

“Please stop yelling.”

“My fault again,” I leaned back against my chair, trying to compose myself. “So a werewolf, not many of you guys are left. Well, besides Wolvers but I don’t think they count.” I tapped my fingers against the armrest. “If you don’t mind me asking, what does it feel like?”

“What does what feel like?” He looked over at me.

“I don’t know—transforming, or are you already transformed?” I asked while looking him up and down. “That would surely explain the skull.”

“No, I'm not transformed right now. This is my normal appearance. I don’t like transforming due to the bloodlust that I feel when I’m in that state. And for the fact that the transformation looks and feels… unsettling.”

I nodded in response as I began to wonder what his transformation would look like. He already looks terrifying in his normal state, so no telling how scary his werewolf state would look. It honestly has me curious… and worried.

“Ah,” I snapped my finger. “I apologize. It was rude of me. But I never asked for your names.”

The owl girl then leaned forward and looked at me. “Well, my name is Sebrisha Walkens, and I’m a blood sorceress.”

“Huh, a blood sorceress. I heard it was hard to use that magic properly?” I scratched my head.

“It’s a lot easier when you don’t overthink it.”

I shook my head as I pondered her words for a couple of seconds.

“My name is Nigiel von Keth,” the Creature said calmly.

“Holy shit,” I slightly laughed. “Are you a supervillain?”

“No,” he mumbled.

“Are you sure? Because everything about you, from appearance to name, fits the requirements for a villain whose main mission is to take over the world.”

“The same thing I was telling him,” Sebrisha laughed. “You should have seen how the security was looking at him. All of them had their weapons at the ready.”

Nigiel grunted in response, and we continued to talk, some conversations about each other and how we all ended up here.

I opened the door to my hospital room and was quickly greeted by Vinessa who was currently drinking water from a clear glass cup. “Finally, you’re back. Wondering how long you would be exploring for in this small build—WHAT IS THAT!!” Vinessa screamed as she suddenly dropped the cup, and somehow, before the cup even hit the ground, she reached behind her back and pulled out a pistol.

Once the glass of water shattered on the ground, she already had her pistol aimed at Nigiel who was behind me.

“Jesus Christ, Medusa, chill out.” Sebrisha said, with her head peeking through the door.

“I'm not here for you… doctor,” Nigiel said as he continued to walk through the doorway.

I slowly stood in the way of Vinessa’s aim with both my hands as I tried to de-escalate the situation. “Calm down, sweetheart, he’s not as evil. He just looks, sounds, and talks evil.”

“And reeks of blood.” Vinessa added.

“Don’t worry, it’s mine,” Nigiel said as he placed his scythe against the wall.

Vinessa slightly lowered her pistol as she gave a concerned look. “Your bleeding?”

“I bled, but I just didn’t have the time to change.”

“Then what’s up with the bandages?”

“A personal matter,” Nigiel said while taking his coffin off his back and placing it on the wall right next to his scythe.

“This is the girl we are going to kidnap?” Sebrisha asked as she grabbed a plastic from a table and began walking toward Vinessa.

“What,” Vinessa said as she backed up.

“She’s kidding,” I said while grabbing the bag out of Sebrisha’s hands. “We just came here to make you an offer.”

“What possible offer could you even give me that would be worth hearing out?” Vinessa asked while putting her pistol away.

“You tell me?” I said while taking the blood bag off the metal pole. “You remember when you said you wanted to go to a place called Ghoul Town?”

Vinessa then raised her eyebrows in interest.