Sol shuffled slowly through a hallway as his wide eyes tried to peer into the darkness. He had been following the drops of blood on the floor until it got too dark to see. His heartbeat was pounding loudly in his ears as adrenaline pumped through his veins. The dull pain in his right palm was throbbing but he was reassured by the silver symbol in his other hand. The sunburst was the only thing preventing the thin-blood vampire from ambushing him as he stumbled through the darkness, clumsily bumping into objects and cursing softly.

“Where is the thin-blood? Why hasn’t it attacked me yet?” Sol mumbled quietly in confusion.

“Right here, morsel. I must admit that you are the first meal I’ve had deliver themselves to me. Hmmmff, you smell simply intoxicating,” a sinister voice echoed from the darkness ahead.

Sol jolted with fright, looking around himself in panic. He couldn’t see anything in the darkness, not even the way back out. His heartbeat went out of control when an eerie dim white light appeared, illuminating a silhouette in the hall in front of him.

“Would you care to join me?” the thin-blood vampire asked as they stepped away from a doorway, gesturing inside. The light from the room was coming from a moon-stone, a low-tier magic item, too expensive for the likes of Sol to be able to afford.

“Gulp, I-I’m here to kill you, dirt-blood. N-not to become your dinner,” Sol stuttered, causing the vampire to hiss with rage at the slur.

“You will regret your choice of words, morsel. I was feeling generous and would have made your death quick. Now, I will make you pay for that,” the vampire sneered.

The glamour in the vampire’s words faded as it became agitated, allowing Sol to regain control of his fear. Sol gripped the wooden stake tightly in his hand while raising the silver sunburst toward the vampire. It hissed and retreated into the room behind it. Sol hesitated a moment to gather his courage before charging after it through the doorway.

The illuminated room inside was a scene of horror. Limbs and bones scattered the floor in varying states of decay. A bloated corpse was discarded in a corner, stinking of rotting flesh. The beggar hung upside down from the ceiling, he was unconscious but still breathing. The vampire had disappeared through another doorway and wasn’t inside the room. The smell caused Sol to retch and empty the contents of his stomach on the floor.

“What the fuck… you monster!” Sol exclaimed. Sol gagged and straightened as he wiped the vomit from his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Homely, isn’t it?” the vampire spoke, its voice was right beside Sol’s ear. Before Sol could react, it bit into the flesh of his exposed neck.

Sol cried out in pain in surprise, instinctively thrusting the wooden stake upward into the vampire’s eye socket before it could react. The vampire shrieked in agony, stumbling away from Sol while clutching at the stake embedded in its eye. The inhuman noise continued as the vampire bumped into the doorframe as it fled the room into the darkness.

Sol began to feel dizzy. He clutched at the bleeding wound in his neck to stop the bleeding before collapsing to his knees. Blood was pouring through his fingers, staining his clothes crimson. The vampire had become quiet in the distance. Sol used the opportunity to begin crawling. He was moving toward the beggar hanging from the ceiling. Reaching up, he used the man’s ragged clothes to drag himself to his feet. Fumbling with the knotted leather, he managed to untie the man with numb fingers. The beggar landed on the floor with a thud. The impact awoke him with a grunt. The beggar whimpered when he saw Sol standing over him, illuminated by the eerie light.

“Please, don’t kill me…” the man begged.

“I’m not here to kill you. Stand up. We need to get out of here,” Sol muttered tiredly, reaching down to help the beggar unsteadily to his feet. They leaned heavily on each other as they stumbled toward the exit.

“I know you. You gave me an iron coin once. I was able to afford lodging for a week before the owner drove me out with that,” the beggar mumbled.

“Yes. It was my last one, but it’s unsightly to see a man forced into the street to become food for these monsters. Ironic that it’s how we’ve both ended up now,” Sol laughed dryly. Before leaving the room, Sol noticed the moon-stone sitting within reach on a rickety table. It was resting beside an empty chalice stained with what looked like dried blood spilled over the rim. He picked the glowing moon-stone up and handed it to the beggar. “Hold this, I don’t have any hands free. I have a sunburst which should keep the thin-blood away while we look for a way out. We’ll never make it back down the window.”

“Praise the Lord. This is worth a fortune. Even though it’s the lowest quality moon-stone. We can live like kings for a year with this!” the beggar exclaimed with excitement, almost forgetting his fatigue.

“Don’t get too excited. We need to make it out of here alive first,” Sol stated.

“Indeed you do.” The vampire replied behind them. Its hands at either side of the beggar’s head from behind. It savagely twisted, breaking the man’s neck and killing him instantly.

“Shit!” Sol cursed in surprise.

Turning to face the vampire, Sol could see a gaping hole in the creature’s face. The vampire had removed the wooden stake, the flesh was reknitting at a visible rate to fill the void. Sol was forced to let go of the limp beggar’s lifeless body as it crumbled to the floor. He hurriedly swung his hand holding the silver sunburst toward the vampire. It intercepted his wrist to catch his hand, shrinking away from the sunburst but refusing to let go.

“Ugh! Phew,” Sol cried out in pain before spitting blood into the vampire’s remaining eye. The vampire sneered, drawing back and then biting its teeth into Sol’s neck.

The sudden shock caused Sol’s to gasp in pain as his body stiffened. His knees buckled and the pair collapsed to the floor intertwined. Blood oozed from the vampire’s mutilated eye socket to drip onto Sol’s lips as it continued to drain him of blood. The pain began to fade as Sol slipped into unconscious oblivion. The last thing he was aware of was the vampire shrinking away from the sunburst and retreating warily backward into the shadows. He was able to hear faint whispers begin speaking around him as his eyes glazed over to stare blankly toward the dark ceiling.