The two found themselves sprinting out of the mall and onto the lively streets that connected the shopping district to the social district. Auric was plagued with second-hand embarrassment from the existence of Preston Park. To think his brother had the ego to have an amusement park created after himself was absolutely insane . . . but it happened.

“That was Amie just now. Apparently there’s been a disaster at the amusement park. I’ve been informed that some have been found dead.”

“Disaster? What the hell?”

“All she told me was that it was on fire and that there were deaths. There isn’t much to go off of yet. She said it was on the news, and some people are starting to call in as well.”

Nearly out of breath, Auric breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the mountain range-like bundle of roller coasters appear in the distance. Some of them were covered in ominous flames of black and green.

“We have no time to stare Auric, come on!”

Galavaine yanked him by the arm as he continued to dash onwards. As they sped through the parking lot, frenzied citizens ran amok as if they were ants. The panic had set in full force. Through the chaos Auric spotted a variety of posters and billboards set up, each with photographs and artwork of Preston stylized differently. A giant sign was hung ahead that read “Preston Park”. The two of them somehow managed to squeeze past the flood of people pouring out of the admission booths, and entered the park.

Right away, Auric noticed something unsettling. Despite the mass of flame that spread throughout the area, he didn’t feel any heat. The smoke was missing as well

“Galavaine, something’s off. This isn’t your average act of arson.”

“Indeed.”

Galavaine hastily looked around for someone to get information out of, but realized that it wasn’t going to be possible. Fear had driven everyone mad, with their only intent being to escape the park in one piece.

“Follow, we'll find the source of this madness.”

Unable to run due to the sheer amount of people flailing about, they progressed a bit further into the park. Plenty of gift shops populated the grounds, which split into multiple paths that each lead to different sections of the park. In between the paths rested unoccupied food stands and carnival game booths. Corpses were strewn about, motionless and mangled. Some were littered around the ground, while others hung over the various railings and signposts that directed crowds. Out of the corner of his eye Auric spotted two somewhat-familiar faces. Standing at a row of vending machines to his far left were the foreigners he’d run into this morning. The one in black wore a look of amusement while his friend’s eyes were wide with disbelief.

“Galavaine It’s them. I’m sure of it!”

He nodded in their direction

“The people we ran into earlier? Are you sure?”

“Yes I’m sure! They look sketchy as hell! Plus what else would they be doing here?!”

“Auric. . . if they’re from another region there could be a lot of reasons they’re here. Also, I’m fairly certain they were still in the mall around the time I received a phone call from Amie. “

Ignoring him, Auric rushed off to confront the two. He had to back away for a second to avoid being run over by Sara and her camera crew, who were still filming the catastrophe.

“I’m taking you guys into the castle! Stop this immediately!”

The pale-skinned guy in the black coat took a sip from his milkshake and shifted his eyes towards Auric.

“Thanks, but I’m going to have to decline that invitation. I’m rather entertained watching this chaos unfold.”

Sass? Taking a deep breath, Auric kicked at the ground in anger.

“I MEANT YOU’RE UNDER ARREST!”

He nearly choked on his milkshake.

“Mate what!? We’re just trying to have a fine time!”

“FIX THIS NOW AND EXPLAIN!”, Auric commanded, now severely stressed out

“I swear it’s not us! How could it be us! You SAW us at the mall like twenty minutes ago!”

“Then how did you get here so fast!?”

The teenager took another sip of his milkshake and looked away nervously

His friend began to look just as anxious. He opened his mouth, hoping to pitch a reasonable excuse.

“That’s not—”

Galavaine caught up to Auric and intervened

“Auric it’s not them”

Auric waved Galavaine away, as his immense wit began to take effect.

He truly understood what was going on. The disappearances and murders in the city, the break-ins, the pale skin,

eyeliner, and black jeans. He was amazed it took him so long to catch on.

“You guys are vampires aren’t you!”

The one in the brown coat wasn’t really sure what to make of the accusation, but his friend simply looked over at him and began to laugh hysterically, spitting out his milkshake in the process.

“He, he thinks we’re fucking vampires! Oh my god! Don't kill me!”

In no condition to speak, he simply exchanged glances with his friend and continued to roll with laughter.

“A vampire wouldn’t be able to do this”

He quickly opened his palm, which drew a nasty glare from his friend in the brown coat.

“Matt, seriously! ” he shouted.

Galavaine let out a heavy sigh, his eyes nearly rolling into the back of his head.

“Lord Auric. . .vampires don’t exist. Now quit messing with these guys and look.”

He pointed towards one of the roller coasters nearby. Like a glow stick mangled by a child, it spiraled into incomprehensible shapes with an equally confusing neon blue paint job. The “Royal Twist”. Endless commercials familiarized Auric with the ride, perhaps a bit too much.

On a wooden bench near where the lineup would be, sat two boys that looked around Auric’s age. One wore an oversized black T-shirt, with his arms wrapped in dingy bandages. A threatening stare could be seen from underneath his black bangs. The boy next to him sat cross legged, in a white hoodie patterned with green swirls. Lime hair flowed out from underneath the hood that covered most of his head. He looked to the sky and stretched his arms out of boredom.

“Well my Lord, how’s that for sketchy?” said Galavaine.

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Authors Notes:

First off, thanks so much for reading up until this point! I really am grateful. I understand the story has been rather slow up until this point, due to it's slice of life-esque nature. Even as I was writing some of these chapters months ago, I thought to myself "Man, this is pretty boring. Are people even going to like this?"

Once again, I just want to thank whoever is reading this for keeping with the story through it's slow start. Look forward to the next chapters! This is a high fantasy story, and it'll begin to show more and more as we get further into the arc. If the comedic, non-serious approach is something you don't enjoy, I'll be posting another series I've been working on for a while now fairly soon, which is drastically different than Bladed Advent, so look forward to that too!