Sol’s POV

The girl and I ran into the woods without any care for what was going on outside of us. The sharp stones that stuck out the ground pierced our already bloodied feet. It stung, but it was insignificant in the face of death that we had escaped from only moments ago. Hundreds of us had split to either side and the path was chaotic as people tried to push against each other. They were all focused on their own individual survival and we were no different. Eventually, either the fight had stopped or we had run far enough that we could no longer hear the sounds of clashing - we had made it to the forest.

However, we did not stop running and continued, regardless of the cuts and gashes we received all over our bodies. There were still hundreds of us running in the same direction, but eventually, we had all gone different ways for our best chances at surviving. I only had this girl by my side and had serious doubts about being able to find a way out of here alive. I sat down and that’s when my thoughts completely took over my body.

How will we get out of here alive? Can we even do anything as children? Would we die after all we had done to survive? Why did we have to die? Where was Nor? Where was Rosa? What was even happening!?

Questions endlessly poured out of my head like a stream of water that had no end. As I continued to question as if I were mad, the girl next to me grabbed my left arm tightly.

“Sleep”

“W-What are you saying?!”

“I’ll… try to keep us alive while you rest. We can’t go on until you get some rest.”

“Then what about you?! Don’t you need some rest too?!”

She looked at me with a slight smile that seemed to radiate confidence in her abilities, but even I could tell she was worn out from all the events that happened in quick succession.

“We’ll both die at this rate. It’s better to have one person rest while the other keeps watch… I have experience after all.”

I didn’t know what experience she is referring to - keeping watch or… combat. From what I knew, I simply assumed that she meant she was good at keeping watch for enemies. I didn’t want to leave her alone to guard me, but considering the way things were heading, she was right. It seemed that she held a firm stance that I slept first and I didn’t want to waste time arguing with her when time continued to tick by. I expected that it would take some time to fall asleep, but surprisingly, I fell asleep quickly after lying against the tree. As I fell asleep, I remembered that I still didn’t know her name - I would ask after waking up.

* * *

The sun shined directly into my eyes as I woke up. I heard shuffling all around me, perhaps the sound of beasts. What had occurred before I fell asleep slowly came back to me and I got up from the tree I laid against. A few moments later, I heard the sound of shuffling leaves nearby and was on guard. I stepped back away from the sound of leaves and conjured fire into my hands - I realized that I had used magic without the use of a stone, but I didn’t have time to think about that. I saw some leaves pop up and eventually, the entire body came out. It was the girl from the other day, and she seemed to have made a hat out of the leaves nearby. To me, it looked unnecessary, but I didn’t bother to interfere with her own business.

“I never got to ask so I’ll ask now… What’s your name?”

“... Nephthys”

“I’m Sol if you wanted to know”

“Mhm, I know”

I didn’t know how she had known, but I didn’t question her - there were more important things that needed to be done. Nephthys was unique and one I had never heard before - not that I knew much about the world in the first place. We discussed what we would do from now on and concluded that we would look for Rosa and Nor. I asked Nephthys if she had anyone she needed to find, but she simply shook her hood while saying no. Shortly after, we got ready to leave for somewhere - I didn’t exactly know where we were or where Rosa and Nor had gone. While we were getting ready to leave, I noticed something on Nephthys’s face.

“What’s that red stuff on your chin?”

“Oh, probably just some berries I had while I was out… wanna go get some?”

When I was reminded of food, my stomach growled loudly and I decided it would be better to go get food for now.

“Sure… why not”

While being supported by Nephthys, I slowly made plans to find Rosa and Nor to run towards a safe place - away from this territory at the very least.

Nephthys’s POV

I was sold into slavery at a young age because my parents were extremely poor and had no other option. I did not blame them for their decisions, but on some days I wake up and hate that the people I called my parents would do such a thing. After being sold like property, I was dumped into a cart full of other people and stayed there for weeks, maybe months, I couldn’t tell. Throughout this time, I continually had thoughts about revenge and torture onto those who had wronged me. Eventually, I was let out and I had never felt any weaker - we were barely fed after all. The owner told us that we were going to be sent to a cave of mine; I could barely carry myself forward, but I didn’t want to die either - that would only happen after I was satisfied with what I accomplished in this worthless life.

We were brought in and I was deemed to have demonic powers, but our race all possessed this power - it was innate. I did not understand why I was considered special for having this power, but it had turned out that way. For some reason, I had become the leader of a group, but no one thought of me as such and I didn’t bother to argue with them. I was abused even in my own group because I couldn’t carry my weight - they wouldn’t let me do anything, simply neglecting me like a piece of trash. Perhaps another part of the reason was that I wouldn’t speak, but I refused to speak because I wanted some control over my own life and not follow directions like a mindless doll like my parents. On the positive side, I had a lot of free time to do what I wished when I wasn’t being beaten by adults who wanted to take out their anger or guards who thought I was going against them. On some nights, I would go to bed and wake up in a mysterious world where I would scream for help, but no one had ever come to my rescue - I still continued to try anyway. My “mom” had told me that our race had the power to communicate to everyone around me through dreams in intense, emotional moments - perhaps these dreams were what she had described to me.

As many days and weeks passed by, people started to starve and turned on each other - it had become survival of the fittest. I had learned some magic so I was more or less safe from others who tried to target me as an easy meal. Others went insane and killed themselves in the process; some even decided that this life wasn’t worth living and had committed suicide. As time went by, I had the brilliant idea of creating sharp objects so I could effectively defend myself from those who tried to kill me. I would be able to use them as practice targets before I acted on my revenge in the future. The first victim came a few days later and he was unsuspecting… After all, I was a child and children couldn’t possibly be dangerous - or so he had believed. I took him out in an instant, carving out his guts - strangely enough, although I had never drunk any other blood than my parents, I felt an overwhelming urge to drink all the blood that was spilled out in front of me and I did just that.

From that day on, I felt rejuvenated, as if I had a fulfilling meal. Why had my “parents” never told me this? People were scared of me, and I was happy about that - no one would dare to body, and if they did, I would put their bodies to good use. The guard who had tried to beat me when I was trying to speak for the first time in ages had also been made unrecognizable. I was just trying to tell him that the recent kill still needed to be drained of their blood. The guards who “checked up” on us were not even bothered by missing bodies because they assumed that they had been killed due to natural causes. This was the perfect way to survive in the environment I was in! I continued to kill, carve, and drink nonstop - I no longer cared how much time had passed, I was drunk on the delicious taste of blood.

* * *

How much time had I lived in these mines? I didn’t know, but that night, I went to sleep and woke up in that dreamy, mysterious world once again. It began just like any other and all I could do was scream for help. But soon someone came into view, a young boy who seemed skeptical of me - I didn’t know why. I was mystified by this boy. Did he also survive these mines? Was he someone I could trust? He seemed to be around the same age as me and I thought it would be nice to have someone around me to keep me company at all times - a companion, yes, I would make him my companion. However, what if he knew of what I had done, of the people I had killed…

“Help me…”

I called out for help, almost desperate for the first time ever. I needed someone to talk to, live with, laugh with, and all the other things that I had never gotten as a child. I was scared of what he thought of me, but before he answered me, he asked me a question; he asked if he knew me. I hadn’t really focused on anyone other than myself ever since coming here, so I did not know if he had caught a glimpse of me, but before I could tell him anything, I was sucked out of the dreamy world - unwillingly. I was angered, but I knew that there would be a second chance to talk to him eventually. Then, on the day that chaos broke out, I saw the boy from my dreams and I was confident it was him. However, he was about to be killed and the guard was too far away for me to accurately kill - all I could do was yell at the guard to distract him.

I yelled louder than I ever had to defy the death that would occur only moments later - it was a scream at both the guard and the world that I would fight against the reality I was born into. After all, we vampires were stubborn to the very end.