Absolute hatred. That's what I feel for him. Like a disgusting, pestering bug that never seems to get out of your way. Like a pendulum moving back and forth, his ignorance is constant. Pushing me to the end of my wits, yet no one seems to notice. Innocence. That's what they see. It's absolutely mind blowing the amount of things he gets away with. Not anymore. I refuse even in the slightest to let him live another day. The sooner he's gone the better.

"GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEADS! WE HAVE TO FIND HIM!!" They just stare at me. I can feel them losing the respect they once had. Ever since that brat left, ever since we haven't been able to find him. They have been questioning me. This is our time to rule. Centuries of hiding and just now when I'm at the peak of my power everything is falling apart. Insignificant pieces that will with no doubt lead to my downfall. I turn away and head back to my lair.

"Master, if I may speak..." I look at Ravi, my right hand man, allowing him to continue. "Perhaps he's dead."

"Don't be stupid, Ravi. You of all people should know that he cannot be so easily killed. Besides, if he was dead I would have felt it. Our fates are intertwined." I sit on the jewel encrusted throne that once belonged to my father before his...passing. Such a human term.

"If I may say so, I do not think he is a threat to you--"

"I'm well aware that his power is no match to mine. No need to flatter me at such a time."

"I beg your pardon master, but I was doing no such thing. You see, if he has not made a move yet, maybe he has no intention of doing so." I cannot argue with him. My half-brother while he did get on my nerves was not the type to make foolish mistakes such as challenging me.

"Ravi. This is your last chance. Find him and bring him to me." He bows, leaving immediately to set off his new mission. This is a matter of respect and I will not have my lowly servants losing respect for their master. I have worked far too hard for that. Kim Jongin I will find you... And you will die by my hands.

~~~~~~~

Jongin's POV

The days passed, the clocked ticked... The hunger grew. I sit in the dim, dusty room reflecting on all I once knew. A previous life, you could call it.

I was a normal child once, before my eighteenth birthday. I grew up without a father. My mother was a hard worker. She worked two jobs and did all she could to support us. When I was seventeen, she was diagnosed with brain cancer and died a week before my eighteenth birthday.

The days passed quickly and one day a man approached me. He had an unexplainable aura about him. One that you just couldn’t describe, every word that would come to mind would be shaken off as you continue to search for a better adjective.

He told me everything.

Why I had been feeling so strange.

Why I could suddenly hear things clearer.

Why I suddenly could run much faster.

Why I could actually feel the oncoming presence of people.

Why I preferred my meat suddenly raw.

Of course I didn’t believe him. Vampires? What a foolish thing to believe in. He smirked at me. That’s what I remember most about my father—he was always smirking.

“What do you believe in Jongin, if you cannot believe in your own kind?”

“Nothing. There is nothing to believe in.”

Four years have passed since I met him, and two since he was killed by hunters. The hunters themselves were quickly exterminated. My half-brother, who never knew his mother, blamed me for our father’s death. He said my human half made me weak, and that was why I couldn’t protect him that night. He doesn’t know that the only reason he’s still alive is because of me.

The old man approaches me as I rid myself of the memory “Jongin. Did you go out last night?” I nod although he already knows the answer. He stays quiet for a while. He knew this was coming. I wait for him to tell me to leave, to move onto the next city or town, but instead he asks, “Why didn’t you tell me?” His question catches me off guard. All I can really do is turn and look at him. It has been two days now and even though I ate last night, my eyes still hold that iridescent red glow. He is not shaken by my look as he once was.

“I… I didn’t think you would approve.”

“I don’t.” He stares at me. Only his disapproving looks could cause any sort of guilt to flow through me. “What’s happening with you Jongin?” The wrinkles around his eyes seem to deepen as he waits for my response, but what can I give him? I don’t know what’s happening. It’s been four years since I made this transformation and yet nothing compares to this.

“I don’t know.” He stares at me a while longer and then looks at the ground. I hear his tired heart beating. The sound echoes and suddenly a smell of rust fills the room. I stumble back as his eyes flicker to me. I try to hold back, but excruciating pain fills me as I resist my fangs from extracting.

“AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” I fall to the ground and cover my mouth, physically trying to keep my fangs from coming out, but it’s hard to stop the natural order of things. The fangs cut through my hand as black blood oozes out and I know I’m close to losing control. This has never happened to me.

“Jongin-“ My eyes instinctively snap to him. He needs to leave. Before it’s too late.

“Go. Now!” The room fades to a deep red color just as he exits the room. My head is throbbing. The world is shifting from its original color to the way my kind sees it. The color of blood. Something cuts my bottom lip and I know there’s nothing else I can do. I accept it.

I feel this. I know it’s my body, but something new is in control now. An animal I never knew existed has awakened in me. I sense everything. Someone is in this house. Something weak, an easy kill. Its heartbeat is steady, but falters. The creature worries for me.

No.

I fight against this beast knowing exactly what—who it wants. I refuse to lose to this thing. I will not fall victim to another restriction. I worked on myself, escaped my old life, I threw everything away so I could live normally again. I will not let this monster rip apart everything I have worked to build.

‘Stop.’ It doesn’t.

‘Stop!’ It doesn’t.

‘I SAID STOP!’ For a moment it does. Then it continues.

I fight my own staggering steps to the door. Fighting to stop this new monster from killing the man who saved me from everything I was running away from.

I scream, though the sound is internal. I have no control of my physical body. It approaches the door.

‘STOP THIS!’ I beg my own self.

Somewhere far away it’s like I hear laughter. Two separate parts of me fighting each other.

The voice is quiet, but its words are clear.

‘Stop resisting, Jongin. You belong to me. ONLY to me.’

The red fades, now I enter a complete darkness.

*****

Ravi’s POV

The time is ticking, my master is waiting. I’m hungry and not a single soul is in sight. Thinking back, I used to like humans as a child. I used to think that we misunderstood them just as they misunderstood us, then the hunters killed my parents, so I do the same to them. Now all the hunters are gone and my master’s plan is slowly working itself out. Soon they’ll all be gone, and with them, the ruins of the disgusting world the created.