Pain!

  I only feel pain!

  I feel like my skin is burning!

  My eyes want to explode from unbearable pressure!

  My teeth are breaking one by one under an invisible force that crushes them in my mouth!

  I feel how every part of my body hurts in different ways, my heart is beating wildly, just a few beats away from bursting out of my chest.

  The air entering my lungs is pure fire and ash. It suffocates me. It drowns me. It burns me.

  I try to cough, but my throat closes up, trapping me in endless agony.

  But what truly goes beyond pain… are my arms.

  They are being ripped off!

  Again and again.

  They are torn from my body with impossible strength, my bones breaking, extracted, crushed without mercy.

  And then... something strange replaces them.

  Something that doesn't belong to me, something forced into my flesh but doesn't fit.

  And then it breaks again.

  It comes out.

  The process begins again.

  A thousand times.

  A repeated, endless torture, impossible to endure.

  Why does death hurt so much?

  I should be resting in peace, not suffering eternally… I don't know what I did to deserve this torment.

  Unable to do anything, Lucius could only suffer in silence, for he no longer had vocal cords to scream.

  The pain lasted so long he felt like years had passed, until suddenly everything stopped and the pain slowly faded.

  Lucius slowly opened his eyes.

  The first thing he saw was a stone ceiling.

  —"What just happened?"

  He felt truly disoriented; he didn't remember where he was or how he had gotten there. The last memory he had was saying goodbye to his friends.

  —"Now I get it… they brought me here… they're going to pay for this."

  Feeling better, he began to get up from the floor and that's when he realized several things. First, not only was the ceiling made of stone, but the walls and floor were also stone.

  He was in a cave.

  —"That's bad. Zephyros doesn't have any nearby caves recorded... the closest one is over five kilometers from the city."

  He really didn't want to believe that the idiots he had for friends had dragged him over 5 kilometers from the nearest city without him noticing a thing.

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  His weapon was nowhere in sight either, which meant he was completely unarmed and defenseless.

  But what really worried him was something else.

  —"I'm naked."

  Indeed, he was in his underwear, with no trace of his shirt or pants anywhere, just a single piece of clothing to preserve his dignity.

  —"The situation is this: I'm naked, unarmed, and at least five kilometers from the city… they are definitely going to pay for this."

  With no other option, he started walking through the cave. He could see that the exit wasn't far.

  After a short walk, he reached the cave's exit, and what he saw left him speechless.

  It was nighttime. He could clearly see the stars and some constellations forming in the sky.

  —"That's really bad..."

  The desert around Zephyros usually reaches extremely low temperatures at night, so low that it's normal for some animals to die from the cold. In this case, Lucius was the animal that could die.

  —"They really went all out this time… I'm not just going to make them pay—I'm going to kill them... how did they even manage to bring me here from the city so fast if it's still night?"

  Lucius didn't understand how it was possible for his friends to bring him here. After all, they were kilometers away from the city. There was no way they carried him that far, stripped him of his gear, and dumped him in that cave without him noticing.

  The only possibility was that they used a glider, but there's no way they'd be given one in the middle of the night for no good reason, especially not for a prank.

  While thinking about how he ended up there, he noticed something.

  He wasn't cold.

  It's not that he didn't feel the cold—it was just really mild. Considering the situation, he was nearly naked, in the middle of the desert at night, and all he felt were slight chills. From what he could see, it was likely already dawn, which should be the coldest time of night… and still, he only had mild shivers.

  —"That can't be normal."

  Then he saw something.

  In the distance, a man was approaching. He was dressed in black, but Lucius could see him clearly. He saw his dark hair and also noticed that his face was truly beautiful—but what shocked him the most were his eyes.

  Red eyes, like blood, staring right back at him.

  For a moment, Lucius felt relief. If someone was nearby, maybe they'd help him. But he quickly tossed that thought aside. The man looked terrifying and suspicious.

  Someone dressed in black at night, likely to avoid being seen, walking through the desert without any light source… that was suspicious and possibly dangerous.

  "What should I do?"

  While there was a chance the man wasn't dangerous and might lend a hand to a half-naked stranger in a cave, Lucius was pretty sure the guy staring at him while approaching wasn't there to help.

  So he picked the most logical option.

  Run.

  Lucius started running in the opposite direction of the mysterious man.

  As he ran, he was surprised to notice his body felt much stronger and faster than before—as if he were channeling essence through it. That's why he was even more shocked when he saw how fast he could move once the essence flowed through him.

  —"I'm like two—no, three times stronger than before. What the hell happened?"

  He felt completely different. Since waking up, his whole body felt like it had changed.

  But before he could keep fleeing and analyzing himself, Lucius was hit.

  He received a blow to the back of his head so hard it knocked him to the ground and made him see stars.

  The one responsible was the mysterious man, now standing next to Lucius.

  In an instant, he had closed the distance between them!

  Without hesitation, the man grabbed Lucius by the neck and began to drag him.

  When Lucius regained consciousness again, the first thing he saw was a stone ceiling.

  —"Why does my head hurt?"

  Lucius asked himself as he sat up. He was sure he had seen that same stone ceiling before, but didn't remember why he was in that place.

  When he looked around, he saw he wasn't alone in the cave.

  In fact, there was a very handsome man. His skin was extremely pale, almost as white as a sheet of paper. His features, long hair, and red eyes gave him a supernatural majesty and beauty.

  Though Lucius was impressed by the man's beauty, what really caught his attention were those red eyes.

  That's when he remembered.

  He remembered how he left the city to catch the criminal, how he joined the fight, and how he was defeated in a second. He also remembered hiding and waiting for his chance.

  He also remembered the criminal's attack and how he was cut open like a pig.

  —"I... died."

  Lucius couldn't believe it, but it was true. He fought and died pathetically. All he could do was stare at the floor and hold his head in his hands.

  "You're not dead... but you're not alive either."

  The suspicious man, who hadn't said a word until now, refuted Lucius's words.

  Unable to believe it, Lucius looked at him and realized it was the same masked man who had fought the criminal.

  He was afraid to ask, but he had to know.

  How had he survived?

  What did the man mean?

  Why was he so strong now?

  "So... what happened to me?"

  The man stared at him with no intention of answering. His gaze was so severe that Lucius almost regretted asking.

  Then the man spoke.

  "Now, you could say... you're a vampire."