A light drizzle is more than enough to stir Seungjun awake as he can faintly hear the drops from above ground. The weather is slowly changing and he hasn’t spare time to waste anymore before Solji arrives with her children in tow. He changes quickly, not bothering to do his hair as he decides he won’t be taking an umbrella with him. Yuji loves giving him hell for leaving behind wet tracks all over the house whenever he comes back from being out in the rain, but Seungjun doesn’t have time to worry over it as he slips past the usual duo lounging in the living room. Inseong is nowhere in sight, but Seungjun has already asked him to drop by his human’s home again, so his whereabouts are quickly forgotten as he feels the slightest bit of rain fall down on his cheeks.

His destination is clear and almost automatically he finds his feet stopping on a rooftop a few feet away from the witch’s shop. Her door is decorated with red lanterns that glow dauntingly amidst the gray city smoke that fill the air with the rain. Silently he lands on the ground, walking

briskly and almost human-like to the door. Despite the rain and the chilling night air, there are plenty of people still going about their business as if it were the middle of the day. Seungjun passes them all without much care, approaching the witch’s shop as the front door opens without any welcome for him.

Inside, the fireplace crackles loudly as the smells of pine and death quickly fill his nose. It’s exactly the same as he last visited, aside from the witch looking up at him brightly in her normal guise. He’s seldom seen her smile without the enchantment on and the whole thing sends a chill down his spine.

“Come in,” she says, gesturing him to follow her to the back. He does as he’s told, the door behind him immediately locking shut and curiously he glances back.

“Tonight is a special night,” she says, “Better to be safe than sorry.”

“Right,” he drawls, clearing his throat. “Have you figured out the siren spell?”

“I have,” she says. The witch gently presses a dainty finger against an empty vial laying on one of her worktables. “Your blood proved quite useful in an experiment I recently worked on, by the way.”

“The siren spell,” he reminds her.

She gives him a very toothy grin before letting her face fall into a more serious facade, “The spell isn’t a spell. There’s magic in it, but none like I’ve seen before. It’s as if it was ripped from the source and stored in some type of container, only to be let out and used. There are hunters that harness actual magical abilities, however the hunter who used this siren on you had none.”

“He stole it from a witch then?”

“Or someone gave it to him. It’s safe to say that this isn’t a very common case. I can’t trace it to anyone since it wasn’t cast, but rather used.”

Seungjun furrows his brow. “This was a waste of time then.”

“No,” she immediately says. “It’s useful information. I fear this hunter is experimenting and you were simply a lab rat. Witches seldom work with humans and let me tell you, this is something that I have never witnessed before. Whatever or whomever gave that hunter this spell is a very powerful being to be able to allow others to use their magic. Do not take this lightly.”

“Are there any countermeasures we have against this? It sounds like we’re at the disadvantage here.” There’s enough to worry about with Solji and Jihun and now this? What’s Seungjun supposed to do to ensure his human’s safety?

“I can’t promise anything,” she says with a sigh. “If I had a sample of this magic, a physical and tangent one, then perhaps I can prepare a charm of some sort to fight it off. However, obtaining the physical form of something that doesn’t have one to begin with is a difficulty all on it’s own.”

“So, nothing then. We are to sit here like ducks and await annihilation. Perfect.”

“Don’t be so negative,” the witch says with a smile. “Did I not tell you that tonight is a special night?”

“What am I supposed to make of that?”

She wags her finger condescendingly at Seungjun as if he were an ignorant child. “The rain brings me good news. There’s a clairvoyant nearby, perhaps in the small town close to your territory. I can’t gauge how long she’s been here, but her presence is now known.

“A clairvoyant?” He asks, a sharp pain stabbing his chest. He can recall the last clairvoyant he knew and how badly that had all ended. “Here?”

“Yes. It was very faint, but I could feel it in the air. The rain allows for wonders, after all.”

This is all rather ominous and Seungjun can’t help but feel that perhaps he’s to blame for the start of The End.

-

By the time he’s gotten to work, the rain is falling down harder than he’s ever really liked and Jihun can feel his bones rattling from the cold. It’s another slow night and he’s thankful that Youjin is by his side with idle chatter to keep him from absolutely losing his mind. They’re on a break, the musty walls of the back room looking less and less comforting in the middle of the night. Youjin is sitting across from him, an antsy look on his face as he constantly fidgets with the phone in his hand.

“Are you alright?” Jihun asks, his brow raising with concern. It’s so unlike the other to look worried.

He pauses, clearly not expecting the question. “Yeah. I– Yeah. I’m alright, just a little on edge tonight.”

“Are you waiting for a call?” He asks, glancing at the phone in Youjin’s hand. He hasn’t let go of it since they entered the break room.

“God,” he lets out a dry laugh. “I hope not. I might lose my if she calls right now–”

He stops mid-sentence, looking red and embarrassed, as if he’s been caught saying something he shouldn’t have said. It should be a sign to stop prying, however Jihun can’t help but ask, “Girlfriend?”

Youjin laughs again. “No. It’s a complicated situation, I’m just worried, I guess. She’s always saying to be careful on rainy nights and well, it’s raining.”

“That’s a bit cryptic,” Jihun says, “I mean, what? Can she see the future or something–”

The laugh Youjin lets out this time is loud, but not at all filled with much amusement. “Or Something. Look, don’t worry about it though. I mean, she said–”

Just before he can finish his sentence, the phone in his hand lights up as a familiar ringtone goes off and he’s practically jumping to his feet. “Sorry, I’ve got to take this.”

He’s gone before Jihun can say anything else and the door shuts behind him almost silently. It’s strange seeing Youjin so worked up and Jihun feels like perhaps it wasn’t his place to ask so many questions, but he can’t help it. Lately, he feels as though his mouth contains no filter when it comes to the other male, he even found himself talking to Youjin about some of his childhood memories – a topic that he and Heejun don’t even graze. It’s odd, as if his co-worker has some kind of charm that can make Jihun spill all of his secrets at a moment’s notice.

The silence that doesn’t follow right after Youjin’s departure has Jihun standing to his feet immediately, taking notice of the vampire casually present in the middle of the room, humming softly as if he were making a cup of coffee at the coffee machine. It isn’t Seungjun, but Jihun still recognizes the vampire before him. The wards pierced in his ears scream silently and the hairs on his skin stand in alert. Even though he knows this vampire’s face, he isn’t exactly at ease with being so close to the creature. Whatever agenda he has, Jihun isn’t sure if it’s safe for him or not.

“Relax,” he says, eyeing Jihun with scrutiny. “I’m just here on an errand.”

“You’re Seungjun’s friend.”

“I’m Inseong,” he clarifies, clearly not liking the title.

“Oh…uh, nice to meet you?” Jihun says and the very words sound incredibly stupid on his tongue. “I’m, er, Jihun.”

“This is for you,” he says, not at all affected by the awkward mess that is Jihun and places the blood bag carefully on the counter, not bothering to move an inch closer to him. “I meant to personally give it to you yesterday, but there was another with you.”

“You– My co-worker. He was just here too–”

“I know,” Inseong interrupts. “I’ve been waiting for an opportunity all night to give you this. I’d prefer not to have to drop by your dwelling again and meet with that small human.”

He must be talking about Heejun, but Jihun stops himself from letting that information out. He has a duty to protect everything about the younger, even his name. “Thanks, I guess?”

“No problem,” Inseong says and tries to give Jihun a friendly smile, though it turns into something quite comical. He immediately goes back to looking as stoic as he possibly can. “I want to ask before my time is up, but there was a strange marking on your window the last I was there. It was a crescent moon with an upside down letter T.”

“The ward?” Jihun asks, tilting his head. “It’s just a simple protection ward I was taught by my father.”

He isn’t sure what the vampire is inquiring, but Inseong looks at him blankly before opening his mouth again – possibly to interrogate Jihun further – but before either of them can ask anything else, the next moment comes in a red blur as blood splatters across the room and the vampire is on the floor with Youjin looming above him, silver dagger dangerously close to his heart. The scene sends Jihun’s head into a confused haze as the two struggle against each other, the vampire clearly just as confused as to how a human is currently overpowering him.

“Stand back!” Youjin commands and Jihun takes a step back without even thinking about it. There’s red pooling underneath Inseong and Jihun can see that the vampire has a large bloodstain right on his side from where Youjin must have stabbed him. Jihun hadn’t even seen it coming and neither did Inseong apparently. He had managed to sneak up on the vampire with such ease.

“Who are you!?” Youjin spits, brow furrowed and dragger stilling right over where Inseong’s heart is. “What are you doing here!?”

The vampire doesn’t seem inclined to answer as he digs his fingers into Youjin’s arm, warm blood dripping onto the break room floor as he tries to push the human off of him. His eyes are a deep scarlet and he hisses in response to the annoyed look Youjin gives him.

“Get off him!” Jihun finds himself shouting, stunned at the amount of blood the two are currently painting the room with. “He’s here for me!”

Youjin doesn’t budge, clearly not interested in anything Jihun has to say, but it’s Inseong who manages to wrestle the other off of him. It happens in another blur that Jihun can’t seem to keep up with, but Inseong somehow manages to have Youjin thrown against the wall, the dagger falling to the floor with a loud clang as Inseong holds Youjin ruthlessly by his arms above his head. The look on his face is sharp and feral and Jihun begins to understand just how fearful the vampires can be when angered.

“You’re very strong for a hunter,” he speaks and his voice is nowhere near as calm and collected as Jihun had previously thought. “How interesting.”

His voice seems to shift tones at the end and in another blink, the vampire is gone and the room becomes hauntingly still. Jihun can’t seem to breathe for a few brief moments before Youjin begins to cough violently and it’s only then that his feet begin to work again and he rushes to the other’s side.

“What the was that,” he says all at once, sitting the injured Youjin up against the wall. “Seriously, what the was that.”

“We need to get out of here,” says Youjin, staring down at his bloodied arms. The skin is raw and red as his fingers twitch at the sudden loss of feeling. “Now.”

“Y-Yeah, alright,” Jihun uselessly stammers, carefully lifting the other up. “Can you walk?”

“I’m fine,” he says, but immediately clutches his side as he stands. “Must be a broken rib from when he pushed me up against the wall. We’ve got to get out of here before someone shows up.”

“Where can we even go? You can barely stand, I think we need to call an ambulance–”

“No,” Youjin says adamantly. “We can go to my house, it’s close.”

It isn’t an easy feat to get Youjin out of the warehouse, but they manage before any of their co-workers can spot the two and Jihun briefly wonders how they’ll be able to explain all of the blood. Youjin’s house is much bigger than Jihun had been expecting, but it’s just as close as the other had said it was. They make it safely to the building just as a police siren goes off in the distance and Jihun worries that maybe he won’t be able to make it home the next morning.

Youjin leads him in and the inside is spacious and almost luxurious compared to the small one room apartment that Jihun shares with Heejun. There isn’t much furniture, but what looks like unopened moving boxes litter the living room instead and Youjin flops down on the only available sofa. They had to wrap his arms in ripped bits of his t-shirt and the rain had washed away a lot of the blood that had splattered across his skin. Jihun brushes his own wet hair out of face, finally getting a proper look at the situation.

“What was–”

“My bag,” Youjin interrupts him, eyeing the brown knapsack he had made sure to stop by and grab before they left. “Toss me my bag.”

Jihun grabs his bag from where Youjin had dropped it by the entrance way when they arrived and places it at the edge of the sofa. The other male quickly zips open the bag and pulls out a glass bottle with a strange liquid inside. He uncaps it and immediately downs the blue liquid as his skin begins to radiate with it’s presence. It’s only then that it hits Jihun.

The way Youjin’s skin begins to softly glow blue sends a horrifying realization throughout Jihun’s brain. It’s almost just as Heejun had described to him weeks ago when Jihun had awoken feeling more strange than he had ever before in his life. It’s unnatural and almost terrifying seeing Youjin glow that fluorescent blue and Jihun would think the other were possessed had he not seen him drink the strange concoction.

“You were there that night,” he says breathlessly. “The night this all started.”

“I need you to go downstairs,” Youjin says, clearly ignoring Jihun. “There’s a girl down there. She doesn’t know you’re here yet– or maybe she does, but I need you to go and get her for me.”

“Answer me,” says Jihun, a tiny spark of anger growing from within him. “What were you doing there?”

“Saving your life,” Youjin all but shouts. He’s irritated and so is Jihun, it’s a first for them both to be like this with each other but so was Youjin fighting with a goddamn vampire right in the middle of their break room. “Go get the girl.”

Jihun inhales sharply, not ready to give in just quite yet, but understanding that Youjin is injured and clearly needs help. He glares at the other, but sighs in ultimate defeat. “You better explain everything to me,” he says firmly, sauntering off to the stairs.

The lower level of the house is the complete opposite to the first floor. It’s much too small and cramped with odd things shoved into jars and strange boxes that look like they belong in an antique store. The smell of the entire place is pungent and reminds Jihun of an herbal medicine shop. In the middle of the room is a small girl with a dainty face and sickly pale skin. Her hair is just as white and her eyes are gently shut as a sparkly black veil painted with gold stars drapes her tiny frame. She doesn’t seem to notice Jihun and instead mumbles strange words as if chanting some mantra. The whole thing is surreal and Jihun would think he were dreaming had the recent events not happened.

Slowly and without warning, the girl opens her eyes. She smiles warmly at Jihun and he notices that her irises are a starkingly pale blue.

“I’ve been expecting you,” she says.

-

It’s still raining when Heejun wakes up, the darkness consuming the entire room as he squints into the emptiness. It must still be the middle of the night and Heejun feels frustrated with what little sleep he did get. He had stayed up late the previous night and spent this night doing the same. He has work in a few hours and regrets wasting so much time trying to figure out what the note could possibly mean. The light comes on after twenty or so flickers, a fuzzy yellow that makes Heejun feel sick sometimes. He shoves his hand into his pocket, feeling the taunting note folded safely where prying eyes can’t reach it.

I’m still waiting.

It doesn’t make sense. Who’s waiting and what are they waiting for? It had to be someone that knew either Heejun or Jihun and who clearly knew they had stayed at the abandoned house but left it behind. Why was the note there? Were they expecting one of the two to return, if so then kudos to them for figuring out what a complete moron Heejun was for going back. What if Jihun had found the note? Would he think it was from that horrid asshat of a vampire– Seungjun?

And what if it was. What if this note wasn’t meant for Heejun in the slightest and was from the bloodsucker who was so intent on ruining their lives. Perhaps he should have burned it right when he found it, but something kept bothering him about the note, something that just didn’t seem to fit into any logical explanation he could come up with.

There was something about the note that kept Heejun from destroying it– something very special about it that made him think that perhaps this note was meant for him.

He pulls it out from his pocket, reading over the same three words written in that very neat hand writing that he’s got completely memorized. He reads it again and again as if it’ll change or reveal some hidden meaning if he keeps staring at it. Part of his brain is screaming at him to call it quits, while the other part is obsessed with figuring out what this note could mean and why it was left for him to find.

The rain seems to pour down harder outside and Heejun begins to lose focus as he feels the cold creep down further into his skin.

“Why is this so difficult?”

He lets out a frustrated groan. Great. Now he’s talking to himself. What was it that the bloodsucker had called him? Infuriating? Well, he was right about that, Heejun thinks. He really can be quite infuriating, especially when it comes to giving up.

He reaches down into his shirt, pulling out the small silver locket tied around his neck. It’s a very plain locket with engravings of stars sprinkling the cover and he brushes his thumb over the pattern. Jihun was left with a dagger and a useless ward while all Heejun has to remember his family by is this trinket. He gently clicks the locket open, a photo of his old home staring at him, reminding him of the things he’s lost. A soft melody pours from the locket, a song that has no words or name, a song that Heejun has heard thousands of times since he can remember. He lets his eyes close shut, the song playing a duet with the rain as his mind wanders down into the depths of his memories.

It starts off like any other summer day; the sun blazing on their skins, the sound of cicadas buzzing across the trees, and the sweet smell of watermelon as his dad prepares the fruit for him and his sister to share. Jihun stops by after lunch to play and they get lost in the tall grass while looking for gophers, but Heejun knows they’ll find their way back once night falls and the stars light up the way home. It’s his mom who had taught him to navigate his way using the stars and he’ll always remember the look of delight she had when he was able to correctly name every constellation.

But, it isn’t the stars that lead them home that night. Instead, a blazing wall of red alerts the boys of what is happening back home.

Their little legs can only take them so far in such short time, the exhaustion of the day slowing them down and when they reach the fire, it’s already too late.

Everyone is gone and all Heejun can see is red.

His eyes fly open and he’s staring at the ugly yellow room in a town far from his past and the sound of the rain drowning out anything else. He closes the locket, stuffing it back down into his shirt as he glances out the single window in the room. It’s really coming down now, the droplets of rain hitting the glass in loud thuds and Heejun wishes it could have rained like this back then too.

-

Things were escalating now and Inseong didn’t have an exact date for when The End would come, but it surely hadn’t stopped him from pouring over every single book he could get his hands on in one of Yuji’s libraries. She had many different rooms full of old artifacts and books, things that she had no need for and yet still kept around. Some were from the same time as she was, while others seemed to be from eons ago. Inseong had always carried an interest for the history behind each object, but that interest began to dwindle when Hyeyeon had left them. Still, he can recall each memory he had of her from the days they spent reading together or telling each other stories from when they were children.

He brushes past a few books left open by his bed as he s his shirt, tearing the wet fabric from his skin before tossing it in an empty wastebin. The wound on his side has healed completely now, though his skin still tingles slightly from the silver dagger. He isn’t used to being roughed up like that, especially since he’s never quite enjoyed a fight as much as Seungjun has. His fingers fan out across the skin that was once gaping with blood and he presses down slightly, upset that the hunter got the better of him.

Three hundred years and this was all Inseong had to show for it? Maybe he should have gotten more accustomed to fighting after all.

He slips into the bathroom connected to his bedroom, turning on the faucet to as hot as it will go before soaking a hand towel. Briskly, he wipes all the blood off of himself, splashing water onto his face as well. He doesn’t have time for a shower, quickly changing out of the rest of his wet clothes into more comfortable attire before settling onto the edge of his bed. The books laid out before him are all on different wards and protective spells, a subject he used to be familiar with. It was during his time that humans began to create such things to ward off evil and keep them safe from even the simplest of creatures. His parents hadn’t really bought into the whole thing and ultimately that’s most likely what led to the family’s demise.

Carefully he scans one of the more older books, one a little unlike the rest. The pages detail out different methods used by ancient hunters who would seek out witches and vampires and exterminate them. There are crude drawings scattered about and Inseong swears that what he’s looking for is in this book. Most of the pages have become worn, but there’s very little information in here that could be of any use to Inseong anyways. He already knows the easiest ways to kill a vampire and he knows of the more horrific ways too. It’s towards the very end of the book that he finds exactly what it is he saw just the other night in person: a crescent moon with an upside down letter T crossing through it.

This isn’t a ward and he knows it, looking closely at the drawing. It’s a family crest, one marking those who have been in the vampire hunting business since the beginning, a very old family in name. The human Jihun had said that it was something his father had taught him, but Inseong isn’t one to jump to conclusions. He was interrupted before he could further question the human, interrupted by none other than the very hunter they were looking for. How ironic that the hunter was the human beside Seungjun’s pet the entire time. He wasn’t much to look at, but the strength he held and the mark his weapon left were no laughing matter. It was frustrating and only getting more so. They hadn’t the upper hand at all.

There’s still so much that they don’t know– things about the hunter and things about Jihun. Inseong can faintly hear the rain still pouring outside and he fears that there may be many more things that remain hidden from them.