Walking out of her red, two-doors Jeep Wrangler, a certain black-haired woman cladded in an all-black long coat, black jeans and also black combat boots, walked on the empty dark road calmly. She had received few phone calls from the villagers for the past days about the vampires’ hunting activities at the area. The woman opened her notebook as she was scanning the surrounding of where she was standing. She then sat on an empty bench outside a random café, eyes still scanning the area ever so cautiously, as if she was waiting for someone. This kind of spots are the usual spots vampires go to mortal’s blood. And its Irene’s job to make sure that doesn’t happen.

It’s easy to spot a vampire. Skin as white as a paper, lips as red as blood, long nails and of course, their trademark fangs. Doing this job for over a few years, spotting a vampire was an easy task for Irene. The hard part is killing them without getting your blood .

Sensing that her surrounding suddenly feel cold, Irene raised her guard up as she put down her notebook on the bench and reached into her coat, grabbing her wooden stake. The woman somehow can sense when a vampire is nearby. Maybe it’s because she had been doing this job for years now.

Irene snapped her head towards a rustling sound behind her, where the dark alley was located. She furrowed her eyebrows as she cautiously, but calmly – with slow steps – walked into the said area. As she reached the dark alley, her suspicion was confirmed when the woman saw a vampire – who looked as if he hasn’t eaten in the past few days – trashing the big garbage bin there.

“Y’know,” Irene said, breaking the silence surrounding them and the vampire immediately stopped whatever he was doing, looking at the woman in front of him with bloodshot eyes. Vampires with red eyes, it’s never a good thing. “This is not the place for you to find your food.” Irene added calmly, stayed at her place to show him that she wasn’t afraid of him.

“Finally…” The vampire said while smiling smugly, his fangs were visible as he was drooling all over his pale face. “A human I can eat.” He then growled lowly, wiping his drool away with his hands. Irene could see the long, bloodied – fresh blood – nails of the man. She could only hope that the blood belonged to some animals and not humans.

As Irene was busy inspecting the vampire’s appearance, without any warning, the blood creature lunged forward the woman, startling her. The vampire hunter mentally thanked god for her quick reflex as she immediately avoided the vampire’s attack, making him land face first on the ground.

Growling louder, the vampire immediately stood up as he looked enraged and was ready to kill whoever was in his way. Irene, however was already used to this type of aggressiveness from vampires.

The man lunged towards Irene again and decided to punch her using his superstrength, but again, the vampire hunter predicted this too well and avoided his punch easily. She then grabbed his wrist tightly before making an uppercut on his jaw.

The vampire took few steps back due to the punch and smirked at Irene. “Y’know punching me isn’t really a good idea. Especially since I am a vampire and I feel nothing at your action.” He said confidently as he wiped his drool again, smirk never leaving his face.

“It’s just an appetizer.” Taunted Irene.

The vampire was about to retort back but out of nowhere, in a blink of an eye, Irene threw her wooden stake precisely at the vampire’s heart, immediately made the creature groaned painfully and fell onto the ground, his hand on the wooden stake, trying to pull it out. Unfortunately, Irene was faster.

The black-haired woman immediately run towards the vampire and pushed the wooden stake deeper into his heart, making the vampire vulnerable now.

“You piece of !” He snarled as he coughed hardly the deeper the wooden stake was pushed. “This- This can’t kill me!” He tried to sound dominating.

“I’ve been a vampire hunter for years. I know this will kill you. But, to make things interesting…” The vampire hunter smirked as she grabbed something from her coat’s pocket.

It was a silver handcuff.

Irene handcuffed the vampire to a tree using her silver handcuff and waited until the sun rose the next day, and she got herself a fried vampire who shouted out few profound words before his death.

The mayor rewarded her for her clean and effective work.

That’s how the vampire hunter made her living.

~~~~~~~~

It was early morning, and Irene was doing her routine morning jog at the park which was nearby her apartment. Exercising was one of her favourite activities as she can relieve stress and at the same time enjoy her alone time. As if she wasn’t living alone in her whole 18 years after the death of her whole family. Wearing just a plain black jersey and running shorts, the vampire hunter plug in her earphone as she blasted songs and started running.

Somehow, Irene managed to bring a small wooden stake with her wherever she goes. She wasn’t paranoid, no. It was just a habit of her to bring it. She needs to be ready for any unsuspecting attack from vampires during the day, which was very rare. But, better safe than sorry.

Irene was jogging around, peacefully enjoying her run and as if she was in some kind of a romcom movie or something, someone accidentally run into her, spilling her coffee on Irene’s shirt.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. It was so careless of me.” The girl said, face scrunching in fear and guilt as she was rummaging through her handbag, probably searching for some wet tissues.

“It’s okay.” The clearly irritated woman said as she was trying to clean off the stain on her jersey. Thank god she was wearing black shirt, none of the stains were visible.

“No it’s not, gosh I probably ruined your morning I can tr-“

“Lady.” Irene said sternly, closing her eyes and massaging her temples to calm herself down. “I said it’s fine, I’m gonna continue my run and act as if nothing happened here. So will you excuse me?”

“Yeah, yeah sure.” The girl with brown hair said and step aside, giving space for Irene to walk away from there.

But, even before the hunter could do that, she was once again stopped by the girl. The woman could only groan internally as she looked at the girl with a poker face.

“What?”

“Here.” The girl said and handed Irene her handkerchief, still with her guilty expression. “As a token of my apology.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Irene said short as took the handkerchief before fleeing out of the place as fast as she can, praying that she will never run into the weird girl again.

Thankfully, her whole day was pretty much normal.

~~~~~~~~

Irene had just finished hunting few vampires that were reported looming around the villages few hours away from her home. It was a tiring day for her but she received big cheques from the, somehow rich villagers and mayor in the village. So, who was she to complain?

After receiving her pay for the day, the vampire hunter reached outside her car after few hours of fighting vampires, it was a tiring job, she had to admit that. Irene took few deep breaths before finally manage to compose herself, and immediately took out her car key from her pocket. As she took out the said key, the woman realized that she dropped something else. Looking at the ground, Irene realized that it was the handkerchief the girl gave to her earlier today. She had no idea how it ended up in her coat’s pocket. Maybe it’s because she was rushing.

Without thinking any further, the woman took the handkerchief, and unlocked her Jeep before going in. Throwing her coat to the passenger seat, Irene locked her car and then took a look at the odd looking handkerchief. It was decorated in patterns at the corner plus a few puppies on each side of the corner. But what impressed Irene was a neat knitting at the corner of the thing.

‘Belong to Wendy.

If found call XXX-XXXXXXX’

That sneaky son of a b-, Irene thought before rolling her eyes, putting the handkerchief into her glove compartment, driving away from there as fast as she can.

The handkerchief was inside the compartment for a few days and the existence of the thing was long forgotten as it was left to collect dusts in the glove compartment.

~~~~~~~~

“You’re short one dollar and twenty cents miss.”

“Yeah, about that…” Irene was embarrassed. She’s filthy rich but right now she can’t even afford to buy a can of carbonated drink and a bar of chocolate. What kind of rich person is she? “Do you accept cards?”

“Sorry but we don’t accept cards if your items are under 20 bucks.” The bald cashier said with a pok