Knowing the exit would do me no good, I scoured the sanctuary as the scarlet woman had called it top to bottom, trying to find a speck or lead of information to go on.

The room itself was about 30 meters long and 15 wide, with arching pillars that ran parallel about every 4 metres on either side, built probably 3 metres away from the wall in order to grant the room a walkway on either side. The problem was the inside of the archways lacked anything and the whole room that had started at a flat end became compacted and circular at the end, leaving a sort of black tile dome around the altar that spewed blood non-stop. It looked like a deeply perverted version of the church I had visited as a boy to give praise to Sol and thank him for bringing father home after all his fierce adventures, only it lacked any kind of holy warmth or illumination, cast in complete darkness that I still didn’t quite grasp how I saw through.

I was struggling to grasp a lot of things in all honesty.

My body was colder than I remembered and felt better than it had in a long time. Where a simple walk around the garden would have me gasping for breath if I managed to strength to stand, now searching the whole sanctuary thrice over didn’t so much as take a breath out of me. It was bursting with vigour, something that confused and concerned me more with each passing second now it was clear this was no result of adrenaline.

Have my captors done something to me? Mother was convinced that not even the best magic could fix my degenerating condition. What’s more, why would they heal me in the first place and greater than that, If this was really an attempt to capture and hold us, why are we not tied up or restrained in some manner?

None of it made any sense no matter how many times I thought through it. The cold body, the slowing heart, the sensory overload that I was struggling to get used to, it all left me utterly dumbfounded.

“If you can’t figure out the missing possibility then stick to the known absolute. This place is not my home, I don’t remember how I got here and these people or at least that woman clearly have an agenda of some sort”

It was something I had read in the biography of a famous and inventive mage, Lores Grimoire. Her approach was aimed at magic but it still held true for any situation that presented many unknown factors. It worked wonders for my psyche too. Focusing on the solid base information I knew allowed me to get some respite and helped me to calm more.

Even if I’m scared, I have to act how I would when calm.

And so the time in that room continued with me pacing from one end of the sanctuary to the other, sorting through my mind and searching for any knowledge relevant to where I was. Alas, my memory was fragmented and fuzzy, slowly unravelling itself as time went on. All the pacing really accomplished was exciting me at the prospect of walking again. I could’ve sat down, but I didn’t want to.

The small gift of freedom was one I cherished dearly, especially since I had no clue if it might be taken away again.

I was tempted to check the others in more detail but dismissed such an idea on the precept that I shouldn’t trade my morality for what in all likelihood would be useless information. Letting them sleep was the smarter option for now.

So there I waited, pacing between the columns and thinking through possibility after possibility nervously until a certain creaking door alerted my attention. Unlike the scarlet woman who entered last this person lacked both the strength and grace to soundlessly press the stone door open.

It was intriguing to me that this time, the small part of me that seemed more informed than the rest no longer urged me to look away. A face then body poked through the door with noticeable hesitation before taking a deep gulp and wrangling the courage to fully enter the sanctuary I had awoken.

A man, older than me but still under what would be deemed middle-aged, with shaking bright blue eyes and patchy blonde hair that was already receding. He was taller than me but shorter than the sleeping man, wearing an expression that could only be described as careful terror, maybe about 5.7ft. The jutting clack of metal against metal rang out as he wheeled in a sort of cart, but that sound was drowned out by the rapid pace of his heart. We were twenty metres away yet this man’s beating heart was like a cannon in my ear, firing second after second.

So close… so weak… so… Ripe.

Glee, that was what I felt as he hesitantly approached. Unrestrained glee that this thing was afraid, he understood. What he understood remained hidden to all but that small part of me, the same part that feared the scarlet woman, the same part that now urged me to incite more fear in the man.

The blonde man who wore a grey jacket with a white tunic and grey trousers crept closer to the middle of the room, frantically swivelling his head from left to right, making it all too clear he couldn’t see through the darkness. The way he walked was not the way someone who understood their surroundings did. It focused and filled with a precision that was unnatural for a normal stride.

He stopped rolling the cart dead in the middle of the room, cautiously gulping once more while I kept myself hidden in darkness, interested in what he might do. Maybe I should play with him…

No, the man’s frightened out of his stocks. Why would I torment someone who plainly is struggling to keep their undergarments clean?

I didn’t know, but I couldn’t deny that the sensation and desire to give this man a fright he’d never forget, to instil absolute fear was there within me, lurking in the darkness that clouded parts of my mind and made the rest fuzzy.

“*Ahem* Lady Rez informed me that one of you is umm… active. For the sake of clarity and instruction would you *cough*... show yourself?”

His voice was surprisingly deeper than I expected but still trembled in a way that made his fright apparent. Show myself? I pondered the thought for a moment before deciding that it was most likely the best course of action if I wanted to get information out of this man. I was still a little frightened myself, but the calmness of my body helped to settle such feelings.

I stepped out from the pillar with heavier steps than when I stalked, alerting the man to my general direction. His face scrunched a little at the realisation that I had put myself between him and the door he came in through. Seeing his rosy skin healthy as could be in comparison to my sleeping companions and my own painted a picture of just how unnaturally pale we were. That irked me. The fact that this man was so clearly human yet felt alien irked me even more.

“Are you there?” The blonde man called out, vaguely staring in my direction.

He wobbled unsteadily as I inspected the contents of his small metal cart. Clothes, plain and simple clothes. The type that was common enough to purchase at a flea market and simple enough that anyone could learn how to weave.

I took steps towards the man, each with increasing weight to make sure he was well aware of my impending arrival. Closer, closer… oh so close to…

Alive or dead.

…Alive.

“Argh!!!”

The man screamed as I entered his field of view, knocked back by a push that shoved him to the ground. My eyes met his and I could see the yellow of my iris for the first time, along with a brow drooping hair cascading down from the head of a woman whose jaw was now firmly locked on my forearm. Four chilling porcelain fangs jutted out from the top and bottom of her gums, stabbing into my forearm with enough force to draw blood from my veins and tears from my eyes. Salty tears metallic blood embedded with the rot that tainted the already stale air.

It hurts, get off!

I screamed internally, wanting the pain to end. It was nothing like my coughing fits that left a strong, lasting but bearable impression. No, it was less extended but sharp and instant, burning like the sun. But it was better in my arm than the man's neck.

“Leave now!” I attempted to say to the blonde man, but it came out as more of a growl.

There was a moment of surprise, thought and realisation then the blonde man was in gear, getting up then sprinting towards the exit with the vigour of a rabbit.

The woman who had awoken and attempted to bite the blonde man’s head off in the span of a couple of seconds snapped her eyes at his back, ignoring me all but completely despite her teeth being entrenched deep in my forearm. Those brown eyes were filled with a hunger reflected in my own, seeing the way my face contorted on the mirror of her iris was...

Animalistic and unrestrained.

In one moment she ripped her jaw off my forearm, scrunching her mouth and spitting out dark red liquid, then in the next, she was bolting towards the back of the blonde man. A million thoughts were racing through my head but the image of that scarlet woman shoved them aside. She had said if I was “feeding” or “hunting” then discipline would be in order. Now I had just an inkling into what she might have meant and if we were treated as a group then this girl was about to doom us all.

Discipline from “Lady Rez” as the blonde hair man called her wasn't something I was interested in receiving anytime soon. Pain stung my arm and fear stemmed from the way the brown-haired woman raged towards the blonde-haired man like a frenzied animal, but all those feelings became numb under the crushing fear that women had provoked.

With great effort I pushed off the stone floor with all the strength I could muster, preparing to run for the first time in years. She grew closer to sealing our fate with it, urging me to move quicker.

I didn’t think, I just moved. One step, then two steps, four steps, ten steps and I hadn’t fallen flat on my face like expected. She was upon the man now, almost scraping at his back but I too was close, only a few feet away from her.

A loud crash resounded, the chaos that started in a moment ending just as quickly. The door slammed signalling the safety of the servant and allowing me to sigh in relief despite my body being racked with jabbing pain. Cold skin and stale air were the only respites I got before my cheeks went scarlet and I pushed myself off of the naked girl who I had tackled into one of the columns.

Heavy steps brought me to the opposite pillar before I slumped onto it, pain in too many places to count and mentally spent. I met the girl's brown eyes for a moment that held nothing but confusion before mine began to get heavy.

The mental stress that had been building like water against a dam finally reached its limit. I didn’t want to sleep but my eyes refused to stay open a second longer.

Just… a… few… more…

*****

Darkness. True and undeniable darkness surrounded me… but I wasn’t afraid. That was odd, especially for someone who spooked at their own shadow. There was no air, no sound, no sight, no touch, no feeling. Just darkness.

It was the amalgamation of nothingness, the truth of oblivion. Darkness was not a thing, it was just the absence of everything else. Here there was no space, no time, no laws, just the darkness… and I.

What do you want?

A question was asked, with neither voice nor mind, but pure intent transferred through a means I couldn’t fathom. The sole fact remained through confusion, that this question required an answer. But what did it mean? Want was a vague thing at best and downright cryptic at worst. The problem with having a lot of knowledge and very little life experience was that I tended to overthink things when the answer was simple to begin with. I thought and thought, clawing at the recesses of my mind for an answer until it became clear.

I don’t know.

No, you do not understand.

What? I didn’t understand? Somehow I had gotten an answer yet felt even more confused.

I don’t follow.

No, you do, you just refuse to accept.

The nothingness that surrounded me made less sense with every sentence it spoke. I was beginning to get fed with this string of intentions that denied my answers.

Then explain what I must accept.

No.

Why?!

Because there is no point in giving you an answer you already know.

********

“Wakey wakey, spineless one.”

A quick and mighty blow to my face along with words far too close for comfort ripped me from my dreaming, forcing me to face the sight of all familiar scarlet eyes. They stared into the depths of my soul with a small flicker of interest at what I might do next. I wished they would go away but I knew they wouldn't. I'd have to face them whether I wanted to or not, which irked me all the same.

“Time to join the family.” She heaved, standing back up and clearing my field of view.