I held my breath and stood stock still after the initial thud on the door, hoping whoever or whatever was on the other side of it would leave after finding it locked. As another, harder strike against the door shook the frame causing dust to fall, my hope shattered. I bolted to push the table harder against the door and watched in horror as I heard wood splintering from the impacts which just kept coming. The top corner of the door started to warp inward until it shattered inward, showering me with splinters and revealing a massive, fur-covered, and clawed hand jutting through the gap. It was easily the size of my head and imagining whatever beast was behind it sent chills down my spine. Abandoning the table as a lost cause, I ran across the room as I saw the hand grip the door and start yanking outward, seemingly wanting to rip it off its hinges. Cube still in hand I bolted into the pantry and shut the door behind me in the pitch darkness as I heard the front door flying off its hinges and the table getting shoved hard up against a wall.

The now dim cube was the only source of light in my all too small hiding place but it did not seem to emanate that glow at all, appearing to be floating in my hand. I stood as far back behind the door as I could, hoping it would miss me if it opened it. I already regretted not running to the bedroom in my haste and panic where I could have snuck out of a window.

Unlike its loud struggle to get in, the creature was now quiet, the only sound being its occasional nearing heavy footsteps that seemed to scrape against the hardpacked dirt floor. As it seemed to stop on the other side of the door, I heard almost wet-sounding sniffing sounds. My body was tensed up and shaking profoundly, while in my mind I knew that I was dead the moment it saw me.

The door slowly creaked open as whatever was there nudged it before pushing it aside as it tried to fit in through the all too small doorframe. The door hid me for now as I saw the back of the creature's head peering in from the bit of light that flickered through. It was large and wolflike with thick, grizzled gray fur standing on end. It had its canines bared in a silent growl and its ears flicked back and forth as it listened intently. The same monstrous hand from earlier gripped the edge of the door as it pulled itself in. It was a massive, true-to-life werewolf.

With its head held high, it sniffed the air and suddenly let loose rapid-fire sneezes like a dog, leaning down low as it brought its hand onto its snout. It seemed that whatever spices were stored here did not agree with its sense of smell and I saw the probably one and only opportunity to strike. The choice was to either act or wait to be slaughtered and took the initiative, raising the cube above my head and jumping out to slam the sharp corner into where its eye socked was located. It easily pierced its closed eyelid, causing the beast to let out a powerful, pained growl that shook me to my core as it lurched back, only to slam its head into the top of the doorframe. This staggered it but I had nowhere to run as its body occupied the entire doorway and with its massive size there was no way for me to injure it any more than I already have.

As it regained its senses, it turned on me with visible fury in its one good eye, the other closed shut and bleeding. Standing directly in the face of the monster I felt completely powerless, my legs about to give out from under me. It lurched forward with its maw wide open and I fell back against the wall hard with my hand gripping the cube outstretched at the beast in a feeble attempt to block its vicious bite. A scream of pain erupted from my lips as I felt intense pain shooting up my right arm from where its fangs sunk in, but suddenly just as fast as it had come at me, it began lumbering and flailing within the doorframe as it tried to get out, one of its arms pressed firmly against its snout which seemed to be drooling with saliva and blood.

My bloodied and mangled arm fell limply to my side, enacting another mind-numbing surge of pain as it hit the floor I had fallen onto. The cube landed on the ground without so much as a bounce. Seeing a ray of hope, I fought through the pain with gritted teeth as I grabbed the cube with my still good hand and began propping myself up against the wall, sweat dripping and breath heavy. The beast had extracted itself from the confined space of the pantry and stood crouched, ready to pounce while nursing its broken right fangs and watching me intently. After briefly considering me, it seemingly decided I was not worth the effort as it turned to the broken entrance and lumbered out, disappearing from view.

I let out a breath of relief, not realizing I had been holding it in during the very brief staredown. My legs finally gave in and I once again collapsed where I had been but a moment earlier, the motion once again sending a shock of pain up my arm that threatened to knock me out. I knew I could not rest yet as I had to make sure it was truly gone and tend to my arm, which I was scared to even look at. Deciding safety first was the priority I inspected the cube quickly to find not a single scratch on its surface, clean of any blood and the soft glow still the same as ever. Whatever it was and wherever it came from, I was glad it was here with me more than ever, as my life would have been over without it.

I crawled back up and cautiously made my way past the overturned table and closer to the broken-down entrance. The wind blowing in stung my arm but did not deter me. Outside was quiet and peaceful, and under the starlight I caught sight of the beast climbing over the stream a ways away from the bridge where the corpses were and disappearing from view down a ridge in the direction of the rest of the village. It seems to have made a home there and knowing at least roughly where it was gave me a slight peace of mind if it even was the only one of its kind in the area.

I feared that everyone in all those houses was dead but quickly pushed the thought to the back of my mind as I had to first focus on myself. Steeling my nerves to finally take a look at my injured arm now that there was more light to see, I looked down to see multiple puncture wounds going down my forearm, with a second albeit smaller line on the opposite side. What surprised me however was how clean it looked, with barely any blood to be seen aside from what had already congealed within the wounds. One close to the elbow was particularly deep and worried me the most as it was nearly the width of my thumb, while the rest were all smaller. Taking a couple of deep breaths to calm myself, I tried to twitch and move each of my fingers individually causing me to let out involuntary groans of pain every time but ultimately it left me somewhat relieved.

A sudden pang of hunger made me chuckle despite myself. With the door gone, not that it was much use, the house no longer provided much protection from the beast and I wanted to get as far away as soon as possible. Thankfully the cube could carry the food left here so I had no reason to stay aside from the roof sheltering me from the weather. That was when I remembered that I was apparently a vampire, causing me to once again run my tongue over my own fangs, and had to also shelter against the sun. This made my earlier thought of legging it with the food more complicated and another realization that the kind of food I needed might not be what was in store here. Maybe I could survive off of regular cooked food as drinking blood was neither appetizing nor a viable solution currently.

I was a little concerned about accepting this fact so easily but I did not have time to dwell on it as the sun could rise at any moment or the werewolf could return. I rushed as fast as I dared with my arm in the state that it was back to where I had been fighting for my life but a moment earlier and rummaged through the food lining the shelves, hanging from rope and filling barrels. I reckoned there was enough here for multiple months for two people, but most of it I did not recognize, the seeming fruit and vegetables all being slightly off from what I knew in one way or another. I settled on trying some dried meat strip that I found first, of which there was significantly less of than the rest of the stock, as I figured it was closest to what a vampire's diet might include. Sniffing it before taking a bite, I could not tell what meat it was as both the flavor and smell were very bland and almost unappetizing, tasting very slightly of burnt rubber. Chewing was a bit difficult with my fangs and I had to force myself to swallow it but soon started to gag as it went down and quickly gave up on eating more of it. I also found what looked like a whole smoked lamb leg but it yielded the same flavor, resulting in me spitting it out. I tried various things I found that looked edible but no luck and my mood took a turn for the worse.

Not only did it seem I had no choice but to drink blood, but I would not be able to enjoy meals anymore and I was very much a fan of eating tasty food. If I indeed could not go out in the sun, which was looking more likely by the second, I could not decide if the loss of daylight or food was worse and I started to question what I did to deserve this fate, hoping that there was some way to turn back to normal, if I could even return home alive at this rate.

"Hey, uh, cube? You really need a name. Can you collect all the food that is in this room? Aside from what I spat out."

It gave an affirmative with its signature double blink and started approaching each individual item one by one, every one of them glowing slightly before vanishing. I figured that even if I could not eat it, leaving this much food behind was a waste, and taking it along was not much of a hassle. It was not like anyone here needed it. That grim thought left me with a horrible aftertaste as I was practically plundering from the dead.

I can't let that hang me up. I don't have a choice and this situation is not my fault. I gotta keep moving.

With newfound determination prodded along by the constant fear of the beast making a return, I entered the bedroom and started collecting everything I found on top of the cold bed.