As the bony fingers of the vampiress held the silver goblet half-filled with a red substance, the doorbell rang, with the sounds reverberating throughout the entire mansion. Curious as to see who it was, the elegant vampiress made her way to the entrance. Bound by a special spell that’s only seen by people with supernatural powers, the doors opened up gradually when the spell was lifted after countable years of centuries. 

 

---

 

What appeared in front of the vampiress took her by surprise. It had been ages since a human stood in front of her. As she struggled to find the appropriate words to greet this smol bean, the person spoke first in a hasty manner. 

 

“Are you Countess Judy?” The tiny human squeaked in the ears of the vampiress as she stared at her unspoken courage of speaking rather informally to the high-ranking vampiress. 

 

“..Yes. What’s the matter?” Her deeply-sunken eyes showed no fear of the other female. 

 

“I’m here to kill you.” 

 

Without hesitation, the vampire huntress took out a miniature silver needle and was about to poke it into the left eye of the vampiress when a cold arm caught her right in the nick of time. 

 

“Sorry, dear. But mummy ain’t feeling well today. Please come back another time.” The smiles of the older seemed to have left an internal scar on the younger girl and she was seen retreating back as quickly as she came. 

 

Looking at the scampering huntress through the door ajar, the vampiress chuckled. 

 

“Ahh, she was so cute. I can’t believe I had to stop myself from feeding on her at that moment.” The blue odd-eyed lady paused before thinking back to the thoughts again. 

 

“But knowing her personality, I would definitely see her soon.” 

 

With her few fingers scrolling in the air, the spell was once again placed on the entrance of the mansion.

 

---

 

The vampiress was right. It had only been two weeks since the last knock on the door was heard. 

 

Listening to the pattern of the knocks, Judy took in a long breath before she welcomed her old customer. 

 

“Yes honey, anything you want from me today?” The vampiress smiled at the huntress again, much to the other party’s annoyance. 

 

“Can’t you just die already so I can be promoted to the head of the organization?” The girl still kept her sentences short, seemingly not willing to waste time chatting about useless stuff. 

 

The vampiress didn’t speak much after that statement was made, but instead, she made an offer for the human girl to stay at her place for a while. 

 

“Why should I?” The huntress remained still at the door, frowning at the older woman’s request. 

 

“If you don’t take up this offer, I may never open the door up for you again. Then.. that means you would have failed your mission right?” The vampiress’ eyes glowed a little towards the end of the sentence, incurring an immediate response from the other party. 

 

“..Fine.”

 

“In you go, my princess.” The vampiress then held the door open for the human girl to enter into her safe haven, knowing fully well the consequences of the act. Maintaining a poker face, she coughed out a small amount of blood up as the young girl continued to wander around in her place of residence with curiosity. 

 

---

 

Weeks went by since the two women made acquaintances with each other. As the huntress continued to receive lessons on the origins of supernatural beings taught by the vampiress, she gained knowledge of things she didn’t know beforehand and had some of her previously biased knowledge erased by the new ones being granted to her. Entranced, she decided to stay on a lil bit further with the older woman. 

 

Knowing well of the younger girl’s plans, Judy allowed herself to leak some secrets about her own during their time together.

 

“Now that you've learned of the differences in the needs of each different species, perhaps I’ll let you in on some of my personal experiences with a few of them?” The vampiress whispered next to the ears of the young huntress, whose reaction made the older woman laugh a little. 

 

Staring back at the freshly ripe tomato across the table, she smiled a little. It reminded her too much of her past, where she was still ignorant and carefree both physically and mentally. But it was also the time where she got too caught up with herself, and hence the massive bloodshed surrounding her. 

 

Not willing to get any of those thoughts get to her, she waved it off, slightly pulling attention towards herself as the huntress stared back at her politely, waiting for new information to be received. 

 

---

 

Several months had gone by since their last meetup. As the vampiress looked far away into the void out of her window late at night, she was suddenly reminded of her personal notebook which she kept hidden away for years. The book that she swore never to touch again since ‘her’ death, she plucked up the courage to pick it up once again since she felt that the time is right.  

 

Slowly making her way to the library, she whispered out a magical line. After several minutes of concentration, a dark-blue journal made its appearance in the middle of the library and it slowly descended back into the hands of the vampiress. 

 

Subtly blowing onto the dusty covers of the book, she sighed heavily..

 

“At long last..” The tip of curved slightly upwards as her fingers flipped open the first page of the object made out of ancient wood. 

 

---

 

“I got you animal liver.. Heard from my colleagues that’s what vampires eat nowadays.” The huntress came with a package in her hand with bright smiles but soon faded when she saw how progressively weak the vampiress was getting. 

 

“Thank you for the offer dear, you can put the basket down on the dining table..” The pale woman turned towards the worried huntress as she walked towards the young girl cautiously.

 

“Before you asked further questions, how do I address you as?” Judy flashed a benevolence smile at the huntress before the latter had any questions to come up with. 

 

“My code name is Lip / Rip.” The girl stared downwards, not keeping eye-contact as she feared for her own life in the hands of the old vampiress.

 

“And I suppose you were called that due to your exceptional ability to get rid of any supernaturals in this world?” Judy giggled a little when she saw how flustered the young girl was while denying the fact she just pointed out. 

 

“There’s no shame in hiding that. Besides, you should be proud of it when you’re in your field of work. Because that’s who you are deep down right?” The vampiress slowly swirled the goblet in her hands while talking to the young huntress. 

 

Noticing how the setting between the two of them fell into an awkward silence, she stood up from her seat and handed the girl an object. 

 

“If you don’t mind, may I request you to read me the story in this book?” Judy spoke softly to the girl while maintaining her strong gaze on her. 

 

“Is this a diary?” She seemed to open the object quite hesitantly before she was given full permission by the older woman to do so. 

 

“I’d like to be treated as a child lately, perhaps you can satisfy my simple need?” 

 

Both locked eyes at that very instant and words of the vampiress were well taken in. Soon, the mansion was enveloped by a voice of a certain human girl as she spoke through each and every word hand-written in the book belonging to no one else but Judy. 

 

“Once upon a time, there was a young witch who lived alone near the mountains. Not many knew about her existence, but those who did treat her with high amounts of respect. 

 

One day as she was returning from her herb-picking sessions, she found a baby wrapped in red cloth with an upside-down xross stitched on it. One look and she knew who left it there. Hesitant at first whether to take the abandoned child in when she knew the uncountable risks of raising one, she eventually felt sympathetic towards the helpless young’un and brought her in. 

 

Years went by and the child grew up healthy and well. Much to the foster parent’s surprise, the child didn’t show any signs of teething or fear of elements as she played around with her tools sometime later. Convinced that she could only belong to the few remaining species, the young witch decided to name the child after her own daughter who died shortly after birth. With the completion of a spell, the young child would now be named ‘JinSoul’.

 

As ‘JinSoul’ learned how to blend in properly with the human community, she was well-known as the flirtatious and passionate girl amongst her peers. People would always be charmed by her, no matter what background they were from. All were attracted to her by some means or another. Where some are already cautious of her origins, others didn’t seem to mind due to her constant presence adding to the harmony of any group settings. 

All was well until the girl hit 20 years of age. Suddenly, the once happy girl was brought down into a confused state of the unknowns as her brain was constantly flipped up and down during several times of the day. It was also noted that she couldn’t walk under the bright sunlight after the time of noon without protective layers. As suspicion starts to build up whether she was truly human, it happened. The first murder in the closely-knitted community. 

 

Initially, there were rumors of a crazy butcher being involved in the crime but at the end of the third event, no one truly believed that nonsense anymore. Growing more wary about the most popular girl in town, people start to hide their children from her by placing a curfew agreement that was to be implemented by several families. Hungry for more victims, she had no choice but to chase after her close friends whom she befriended in school. 

 

On the night of the full moon, ‘JinSoul’ came crying back home after she slaughtered her fifth and last victim. Being tired of being kept in the dark about her origins, she felt sorry for stepping into the house of the witch and therefore stayed outside of the mushroom home sniffing under the cursed moonlight. As the witch took in the view from inside her home, she heaved a sigh and reached out to one of her personal books tucked away in her bookshelf and started chanting the forbidden spell. 

 

Tired of it all, the young vampire pleaded the witch to end her life with any tool made out of silver. Ignoring the request of the younger girl, she gets ready to spill her final secret to the distressed vampire. 

 

‘With the name you bear, I heed the Devil to bring you down with me in eternal hell forever.’

 

Eerie laughter burst out from the walls of the tiny mushroom as a dark force attempts to drag down the young girl into the seemingly endless black void. Not willing to throw away her life so meaninglessly, ‘JinSoul’ clutched her teeth as she swiped a metallic object down her arms, slowly allowing freshly drawn blood to drip down to the black abyss on the floor. 

 

Perhaps it was a mistake on the witch’s side, that she forgot that ‘JinSoul’ was a pureblood vampire. The moment the red liquid hit the black surface, it stopped the dark force from perpetuating the entire neighborhood at that very instant. It all happened in a second, but the witch’s haunting facial expression disappeared downwards into the space the young girl was trying so hard to escape from for the past few moments. 

 

Taking a few deep breaths in, she decided it was finally time for her to move on. To do so, she decided to come up with a name on her own. Not one that had a previous attachment to the past owner or anything of that sort, it was a new one that holds a much greater significance to only her and herself.

 

‘I’ll call myself Judy from now on.’

 

The young girl smiled before realizing something new had occurred to her after her near-death experience. The sight from her left eye is now a blur. Puzzled as to how she could regain back her sight, she took some books off the shelves. After grabbing several more items from the mushroom house, she took one last look at the now run-down house and left the community on that night as well.”

 

When the last line of the sentence was read off the book, the pupils of the huntress were shaking uncontrollably. 

 

“It couldn’t be..!” She gasped loudly, which caught the old vampiress off-guard followed by cheeky laughter. 

 

“What couldn’t be?” Judy laughed out loud while still observing how shocked the young huntress looked. 

 

“It’s exactly what you think it is.. This book is actually my journal back when I was in my younger days. Everything in it that happened was true. And so do my past experiences that I’ve told you all about.” The vampiress then slowly took off the eye-patch over her left eye and revealed a doll-like blue glass eye. 

 

“So when you stopped me that time, it was because..” The young girl immediately felt apologetic towards the older woman about her rash behavior and hung her head down low. 

 

“Don’t feel terrible about it. I was actually pretty surprised at how well you know my weakness when we faced off each other at the start. Good job on making me fazed a little, Lippie.” 

 

The huntress almost choked when she heard her nickname being called like that. She could never have imagined her mortal enemy to praise her like a child with such a friendly tone. She was about to rebut when a loud cough was heard. 

 

The scene in front of her ached as she witnessed the slow descent of the old vampiress in front of her. She was not yet ready to fully embrace the whole situation when a line threw her off the chair. 

 

“Jungeun, kill me.”

 

“...”

 

Staring intently at the other woman, the huntress looked a tad bit confused before the vampiress growled loudly at her, clearly displeased at how the young girl wasn’t paying attention to her. 

 

“..I. I can’t. Besides, how do you know my real name?” The huntress tried to avoid all forms of eye-contact between her and the other party, but ultimately failed when she was forced to face the dying supernatural as she spoke her last few words. 

 

“What do you think is the true function of this doll eye? Besides, you should never lose sight of your goal ever since you stepped foot into this house.” Judy then carefully passed the same metallic object she used to scrape herself in the past to the hands of the younger girl. 

 

“But-” Hesitation never seemed to leave the young girl’s mind. 

 

“You can’t keep hiding your lies from me, soon-to-be Queen of Vampires. That’s who you are.. So to pass this test and get to where you’re destined to be, eradicate my existence from this world right now.” A lone tear dropped down the pale and wrinkled cheeks of the old vampiress as she braced herself to be stabbed by a silver needle. 

 

“I don’t unde-”

 

“DO IT!” 

 

An unseen force made the huntress hold back all her doubts and in the next second, only a lifeless body stayed lying on the ground in a pool of red while the other stood there huffing loudly. 

 

“I did it.. I did it! I DID IT!!” 

 

Chuckling at the sight of the dead vampire, she grinned widely to herself. 

 

“At long last, my promotion to being a 5-star rank huntress draws near.. Hahah.. HAHAHHAHAHA!!!” 

 

Maniacal laughter echoed throughout the entire mansion as the huntress looked down at the useless disfigured product on the floor. 

 

---

 

Meanwhile, in a wooden cottage somewhere.. 

 

“Congratulations, M’am! It’s a girl!” The midwife brought the baby close to the mother’s arms. As the baby was later put to rest in the crib, her left eye seemed to glow with a bright blue color as she slowly opened both eyes.