I never told you what I do for a living.

Deep sleep carried me away in her warm arms. Nothing seemed real anymore and immortality was just a dream. I was dwelling in unconsciousness, fighting to get out. I never knew what it was like to be dead, but I knew it couldn’t be much different than this.

The pure nothingness wasn’t peaceful, it was frightening. I wanted to go back, I had to. I had to fight.

There was a tiny speck of light at the end of this road in this black nothingness. I kept running and running, but without progress. When I looked behind me, my footsteps were filled with puddles of blood. This was it. This is the moment you are not just in a dream anymore. The dream was transforming into a nightmare.

I heard screaming but when I looked around me, there was pure emptiness. Suddenly something grabbed me by the throat. But again; there was nothing to see.

The sounds started to get dull. I was floating. I was being pulled under water without actually feeling the water. I had to snap out of it. Now.

I decided to do everything I could to get back to that speck of light. I frantically looked around, but there was only darkness at first.

As I started to move as frantically as I could, the speck of light was beginning to grow bigger and bigger and I could hear the screaming again. I didn’t know why but I was going into the right direction. Back into consciousness.

People were fighting but I couldn’t understand why. This was wrong. I had no clue what I was getting myself into, but it wasn’t a good thing.

I screamed and I fought to open my eyes but they wouldn’t open. Every time I tried to slam my arms around me, they were pinned down.

My eyes flung open and I could see what was happening around me. My sight was very blurry but I had to know what was going on.

I could identify the beach I was laying on. Okay, check. I knew where I was, that was a good thing.

I tried to get up and that worked. Also a positive thing. The only thing I liked less was that my head was still hurting like I was being knocked out with a hammer. My sense of smell was still working when I felt like I was being slapped in the face with it the smell of iron. Apparently I was laying in a puddle of blood. Unfortunately, it was mine.

When I inspected my body, I came to the conclusion that my arms were full of cuts. I was soaking wet because I was laying on the beach in the breaking of the waves and my mouth was full of dirty, salt water. When I moved, my whole body was hurting as if an eighteen-wheeler had run over me in my sleep. Although it was an uneventful inconvenience, it didn’t matter right now. The only thing that did matter was getting myself out of here.

Far behind me I heard a lot of commotion. Punches were thrown and kicks were given. The yelling was almost incomprehensible. Escaping plans were shooting through my head and I had seen my chance. As long as they were busy with fighting each other, they wouldn’t see me sneak off into the woods.

I tried pulling myself up, and I had to say I was having a harder time than I thought I would have. I felt the cuts in my arm stretching as I moved and it stung. The only thing I really hoped right now, is that the fucker who did this is already dead.

As I was planning my escape, I looked around and all I could see was dead people lying in their own blood. It wasn’t a pretty picture and I am actually feeling bad for the first person to discover this mess. I was used to this. I did this every month, but if the person who would be here first is a bit sensitive, they might have to be included in a mental institution.

I could already see where I have to go to get out of here. It was possible for me to crawl so I had to go with that. I couldn’t run, I was weak and if I would stand up they would definitely see me. It would be my death.

As soon as I had seen my chance, I went off into the forest. They didn’t notice me, too busy with fighting and killing each other, I guess. When I knew I was far enough so that they couldn’t see me, I looked behind me. Melusine was losing against one of the werewolves. Good. Let the blobfish die.

I let myself fall against a tree. I couldn’t walk anymore, I was too weak. Even here, a few miles from the fight, the scent of blood was really strong and it would surprise me if vampires couldn’t smell this.

Sitting against a tree was nice for a change, the only doubt I had was if I was still going to be able to get up. I was really tired and my legs didn’t want to cooperate with the rest of my body and my mind.

And there it was again. The feeling of numbness you feel right before you fall asleep. Functioning was hard when you were missing several litres of blood. My eyelids started to get heavy. At this point, I wasn’t even scared anymore. Just annoyed that my body was shutting itself down whenever it wanted to.

I was getting really cold, but that wasn’t strange; it was November. The trees were already releasing their leafs or were already empty. The forest floor was covered with crimson pieces.

The smell it gave off was lonely and reminded me of death.

When I closed my eyes, a warm, familiar scent entered my nose. It startled me, it couldn’t be Frank. Frank was mad at me, he wouldn’t look for me. I was sure about that.

I looked around but the only thing I could see was darkness. The only thing that gave off light was the pale moon.

I heard footsteps coming closer. I was weakened but I wasn’t afraid. When the footsteps were coming closer, I hissed to give off a warning not to mess with me. It’s not that I could actually fight or do something, but hey, it wasn’t the first time I bluffed myself out of a situation.

The footsteps were coming closer despite my warnings. The footsteps were accompanied by a voice this time.

“Hello?” the voice said.

Wait a second. I knew that voice.

“Who’s that?” I croaked.

“Gerard?!” the voice yelled.

I gathered up all my strength to lift myself up for a bit. It was a good thing that I let myself fall against a tree, otherwise I was more helpless than I already was.

I stumbled to the other side of the tree and tried to look around me. A few metres away from me, little red dots appeared.

“Show yourself!” I yelled. I started to get irritated because I couldn’t see who I was dealing with and that way I couldn’t calculate any potential danger.

The little red dots were coming closer and I could see the forms of a face and body now. The face had a pointy jaw and black hair that was hanging in a fringe across his face. He wasn’t really tall and his scent was more than delicious. My mind wasn’t working like a wanted to and his scent pulled me into hunter-mode. I growled.

He took a step closer.

“Gerard?” he said softly.

I could see him now. The red dots were his beautiful hazel eyes. His pupils were dilated and had a vibrant red halo around them.

I stumbled forwards and grabbed his shoulder with my hand. I fell against him as I lost my balance.

“Gerard?! What happened?”

“I... I was..” I tried to speak but it was hopeless.

“Gerard let me help you. Please tell me what happened!” he pleaded.

As he was talking to me, I started to see black smudges in my vision. I dropped myself on the forest floor because I couldn’t hold myself up anymore.

I could hear Frank’s voice in the distance, but it was already too late. I passed out from blood loss and fell into the empty void which I’d become so familiar with.

Notes