Chapter Sixteen: Bloody Moon

[Eva-Beatrice]

Deep in the Russian wilderness, the full moon cast its light upon the dark woods blanketed with snow. The sound of construction echoed throughout the night, disrupting what would have been an otherwise peaceful evening. Trails of blood mixed in with the snow could be seen here and there, each leading into the dark woods. As the construction workers gazed upon them, it served as a grim reminder that they were only a few feet away from vampire territory. They didn’t have too much time to dwell on their lost comrades, however, with their attention heavily focused on the construction of the soon-to-be border wall.

Suddenly, the construction sounds gradually ceased as yelling could be heard in the distance. “Somebody stop him!” The construction workers at the border had little time to react as the sight of a man rushing toward them flashed before their eyes. Pushing anyone standing in his way aside, he charged toward an open area along the border not yet touched by the construction. He dove across, straight into vampire territory. Struggling to catch his breath, he slowly stood, taking in his new surroundings. As he finally managed to compose himself, a smile appeared on his face, clearly satisfied with his decision. He spread his arms, shouting into the night. “Please! If anyone can hear me, make me one of you! My blood is yours, so come take it!”

Silence filled the air. There was no response. The man began walking toward the trees, a sense of desperation setting in. “Come on! I didn’t realize you vampires were hard of hearing!” Still no response. Several moments passed as the man fell to his knees. Just as he was about to lose it, a voice answered him back. “What foolishness.” A colony of hundreds of bats suddenly appeared, obscuring the man’s vision completely. As they finally cleared, he noticed the sky, as well as the once pale full moon, were now stained blood red. He was so captivated by the sight that he didn’t notice the person standing before him. As he looked down, he finally noticed her – a tall girl with knee-length silver hair, blood red eyes, and stern expression fixed upon him. She studied the human before her, smiling as she shook her head. She flipped her hair back before returning to her previous stern expression.

“What is it with you insolent apes disturbing us these past few weeks? Jumping blindly over the border with the false hope of becoming one of us? Hate to tell you, but the others who did the same...” She narrowed her eyes. “Are dead.” The man’s eyes grew large, fear overtaking him. He found himself unable to move, perhaps from the fear, the bitter cold, or even both. The girl yawned. “I haven’t been able to get any sleep thanks to you imbeciles, you know…” She raised her head to look across the border at the construction workers, meeting their eyes. Without looking away, she grabbed the man by the neck and held him up with one hand. “Let this be a lesson to you. Any human who crosses into our territory shall receive no mercy. Know your place!” She threw the man down. Before he could reach the ground, the girl lowered her heel into his back, forcing him into the ground with a thunderous boom, masking the sound of his spine shattering.

All further movement had ceased. The man was killed instantly from the immense impact. The girl then lifted him by the neck one more time, biting deeply into his neck. After several moments, she threw him back across the border. “You can have your garbage back.” With that done, she turned around, heading back into the darkness of the woods. As she walked, another person appeared by her side. Her green eyes pierced through the darkness. She had flaming orange hair tied into two bushy ponytails, and was wrapped tightly in a thick winter coat. She spoke through the cold. “S-sis…h-how could you still be wearing a short skirt in this kinda weather?” The other girl looked at her as they walked. “Hmph. You clearly are not yet disciplined enough, Kokoa…” They continued walking through the night, with the one named Kokoa shivering despite wearing a winter jacket, and her sister completely unaffected despite wearing a short skirt with what appeared to be a school uniform.

Elsewhere…

“Here you are, Lady Sunako.” The voice of a young man with short, pointy blue hair addressed the girl sitting before him as he poured blood into a wine glass. She daintily raised the glass to her lips, taking a sip. “Thank you, Tatsumi.” The girl had long dark purple hair, and dark eyes. She set the glass down on the table as the one known as Tatsumi spoke again. “What are your thoughts? Do you believe something should be done about Kaname Kuran?” She looked down, staring at her reflection in the glass of blood before her. “No. He’s a good leader. I’m sure he’s acting the way he is because he senses that something bad is about to occur. If that’s the case, it would be suicidal to act out against him. Besides, there isn’t anything we could really do anyway. He’s much too powerful. I believe our best course of action for the time being would be for the Shiki to support him until we are unable to do so.” She took another sip of blood as Tatsumi nodded. “Yes, I understand. If you believe that is the right thing to do, I will obey with no questions asked.”

Edited December 8, 2017 by Eva-Beatrice

[Fukuda Kazuma]

There were almost two dozen workers who witnessed the incident.

Some did try to stop him from running but they immediately stopped

as he crossed the border. No sane person would continue after having

seen the numbers of bloody trails that start right on the border…

Instead, all they could do now is just pray and watch as he

dashed into the forest like a mad man.

 

 The commander is charge would have been screaming at the men to

get back to work, but he was also unquestionably curious about

what would happen to the guy. Unlike other cases, where people

presumably die as soon as they cross the border, he was

definitely alive hundreds of feet into the other side. All they could now

was just wait as he disappeared.

 

 Just moments later, the silence was broken by the screeching of perhaps

hundreds, even thousands of bats. Those who weren’t wearing any kind of

audial protective gear immediately found themselves laying on the ground,

covering their ears from the high-pitched loud noise.

 

After what seemed like an eternity, the screeching finally

stopped and a massive “THUD” shook the ground. Bewildered, the

workers took a few steps back, confused about the sounds. Before

anyone could say a word, what appeared to be a projectile

suddenly came flying towards them.

 

Luckily, it didn’t seem to hit anyone, only crashing into a pile of logs.

As the dust settled, some workers approached to see what the object was,

only to be horrified by the sight. What they saw was their colleague, or at least,

what remained of him… The body was totally mangled from the collision,

his legs were bent the other way around, and his body was bent at

a horrifying angle. What got most people frightened was

the bite mark that was on his neck.

 

Before anyone got closer the body, the commander yelled,

 “What are you doing idiots?! Don’t touch that thing! Who knows

what crap it could contain… A virus outbreak is the last thing we need…”

 

Soon a sound of an armored truck was heard as it drove towards the

construction site. Men wearing protective gear ran out with medical

equipment, but most of the workers knew he was dead already.

 After an hour of examining the body, a they stuffed it into a

black bag before loading it into the truck.

 

“Where are you bringing it?’’

 

“The incinerator, then the Arctic Sea…”

 

And with that, the truck sped off into the Arctic tundra, while the workers continued to build the wall.