Chapter Text
Nao knew the town she grew up in like the back of her hand. Better, even. She knew each of the streets, down to the individual, cracking bricks she’d skipped over as a child. The hidden alleyways the youngest of the residents didn’t think the adults had found, when they were the ones who passed down the knowledge to the next set of troublemakers in the first place. The times the lights littering the streets began to flicker on, in a gentle warning a few minutes before sunset.
And, most importantly, she knew not to stay out any later than those flickers. Once the sun went down, something changed in the world around them. The air became colder, more forbidding, as something came after those within the town.
It hadn’t always been this way. The first of the attacks was two decades ago, when Nao was a baby. She didn’t remember much of a time before they happened, as a result, nor could she remember the worst of the incidents. But she was told stories of a couple was walking home from the market one night when they decided to take a detour through the woods. It was a beautiful night, one where the lack of clouds allowed the stars to dot the sky and illuminate the dark. They thought it would be sweet to wander the path in only each others’ company on their way..
Only one had returned, screaming at the top of her lungs about a shadow that had ripped her lover from her side and disappeared into the night.
Some had been sceptical, at first, and the sentiment grew as they attempted to organise search parties to scour the canopy of trees the following morning for any sign of life. Those parties continued to look over the following week. But nothing ever emerged, and the group willing to search dwindled down to a select few local people.
One of those few people remaining was the second disappearance, having strayed just a few feet away from the others in their search of the woods. The people around them felt a chill, and something moving through the air faster than they could see. One moment, their neighbour was peering around a tree, the next their flashlight was the only thing remaining where they stood.
From there, more and more people were taken, plucked from the quiet streets in the dead of night over the months that continued. By the twelfth disappearance, there were no more hopeful people banding together to try and find the bodies. Everyone who hadn’t been taken was more concerned that they may be next to feel guilty about abandoning those missing. So it was agreed that nobody was to be alone outside — or to leave the village at all — after dark, unless they wanted to run the risk of being the thirteenth.
The theories varied. Everything from angered spirits to a crazed killer had passed between their mouths, but nothing could be agreed on. The stories kept people sane, to rationalise the mysteries however they could. It kept them under control, for the most part. But it could stop how, a year after the first, one body – a young woman who sold flowers door-to-door – went missing. She was the first body to be recovered, and she was found with deep puncture marks on her neck and her body drained of blood.
That was the first time the word vampire had crossed from thoughts and into the open after a band of hunters, who had quietly passed the knowledge of their methods of deterring and slaying vampires to their children, came forward from the shadows. With records, dotted throughout the past centuries, of two other series’ of bodies found with the same wounds along their bodies. Records that they’d held onto in case history decided to repeat itself, as it had.
The number of hunters increased faster than it ever had in the organisation’s history, no longer keeping the occupation within bloodlines, and from there the patrols became nightly. They had yet to capture, kill, or even confirm the idea that vampires were behind the deaths in the past decades, however the precautions they had proposed to be put in place had improved safety significantly enough for it to be accepted as the truth.
People stayed in their houses at night, as they always had. Hung garlic and silver along their home. Protective wards were placed around the village, and a small fence was built around the boundaries to show that potential threats were very much unwelcome into their spaces. And it continued on until the attacks were a rarity, reserved only for those who slipped between patrol groups and into the unprotected treeline.
The night that Nao joined the statistics of attacks marked three years since the last.
She’d gone through her day as she normally did – having breakfast with her parents in the morning, running out to her shift at the local library before doing a small art workshop with some of the younger children after they finished school. They spent their time dusting the stone pathways with chalks of all colours, painting streaks and patterns along the floors as she attempted her loose explanations on how they worked.
It didn’t seem particularly like the science behind it made a difference to them, but they still looked up at her with wonder and glee as she explained with fancy words they couldn’t quite comprehend. It was something she enjoyed, far more than anything in the little town. Her art made her feel a part of something bigger — some far-out world much more beautiful than the one she’d grown up in — as long as she had the strength and inspiration to make it herself.
Passing that passion on to the young children of the village was the most she could do. There was little use for paintings and artwork around her. No point in creating a name for herself in a small place that already knew her better than even she did. And so she painted for her, and for the future generation that may have a shot at breaking out of the confinement she’d lived with her whole life.
She liked to steal as many moments like this as she could, tucked away in her own world where she could pretend that she might still have that chance, too.
But the hours spent teaching went by too quickly for her. One by one, her students would head back home, finishing up their work or vowing to collect it the following session in a few days before they left.
As she followed the streets toward her own house, watching as the sun fell in the distance despite only being late in the afternoon — she always had a personal vendetta around how quickly it disappeared as the winter drew nearer — as she stopped on the way by the town square.
There were always shops to wander, and she peered through the fogged glass of several as she wandered. It was one of her favourite places to be, with the smells of various freshly baked goods paired with the gentle chatter of the other people in the area. Always busy in the quietest of ways.
As every other evening, someone was sweeping the leaves away from the cobblestone path along the other side of courtyard. She could hear the bristles scrape against it with each movement, dislodging the dust and dirt that had piled up in the cracks. It was clear that they’d already done the majority of the area, as the ground beneath her feet was clean and cleared already. Piles of dark orange and brown leaves were swept along to the walled of the stores that she passed, some having been kicked down and scattered vaguely once again. Nao often saw the children doing that, before being told off by their parents and pulled away once again.
In the centre of the yard, where she’d often sit to sketch or daydream for a bit of peace, was a grey stone fountain. The water always ran, jetting up into the air and falling along two tiers before hitting the bottom of the structure. There were countless coins thrown in, a mixture of wishes and superstition that it would bring them safety and happiness.
At that time, a foldable table had been set up where she usually chose to take a seat. A small group of people stood around it, discussing a series of papers spread out in front of them that Nao couldn’t quite make out. Occasionally, one of them would join in with speaking, but the conversation was heavily led by a familiar face in the crowd, framed with ginger bangs that, if Nao didn’t know any better, she’d have assumed the girl had cut for herself.
She watched for a minute or two, letting them go through whatever it was they were so focused on, before some of them slowly stepped away from the table to turn away. The chatter still continued, but whatever presentation her friend was giving had seemed to die down, and so Nao took the opportunity to call out.
“Sara!” she yelled, and the mayor’s daughter looked up from the papers she was reading to wave at her. A few moments of talking to the people around her passed, before she slipped around the table toward Nao. “Busy day?”
“Mhm, never dull around here,” Sara smiled, glancing back toward the group she’d wandered from. It seemed they had fallen back into their work as normal, even without the company of the girl. “I’m just grateful my father hasn’t made me attend all of his meetings. Yet .”
Though she would tease, everyone knew she had to have some interest in her dad’s job as mayor. After all, she shadowed him daily on his work, and she was the sort of person that everyone could see as an authority figure someday. He’d held the seat, unopposed, for the past decade, and always joked that his only successor would be his own child.
Meanwhile, Sara had just turned nineteen — that day, in fact — and had no plans to share with him that, for now, she wanted to enjoy her life and worry about taking on for him at a later date. If she ever decided to.
“Have you got any plans for your birthday then?” Nao asked, smiling as she saw the way Sara’s face perked up at the mention. Sara always had some sort of plan, something she’d keep mostly hidden until the invitations went out to her friends. “I’m surprised you left it until the day to announce anything.”
Sara opened her mouth, about to speak, before she closed it again and stepped closer. “I may have something. Can you keep a secret?”
“Of course!”
Nodding, she pulled at Nao’s arm, starting the two of them walking together. Each footstep clicked against the stone path loudly into the quiet. “A few of us have been talking about, uh,” she stopped, glancing around before lowering her voice to continue. “Going into the woods. Tonight. Do you want to come?”
Nao’s heart sank at the words, and even asking twice if she was sure granted her no other answer.
“You realise how dangerous it is, right?” She hissed, and Sara only nodded in response. “We could get kidnapped! Or die, or be caught, or—“
“It’s a big enough group. We’ll stay with the gate in sight, so any sign of danger we can run back in. Maybe even see something, if we’re lucky…” Sara trailed off when she saw how Nao was watching her in horror. “ Plus, we won’t be alone. We’ll have a hunter with us.”
Nao let the words sink in for a moment as she stared back at the girl. “How did you get a hunter to agree to this?”
“Pretty easily, actually. You know Kai, right? And how he’s taken on training new hunters?”
Of course Nao knew Kai. He was almost never found anywhere outside of the Chidouin’s house up on the hill, ever since he was tasked with protecting the mayor’s family. Every time Nao had gone over to visit, he’d been waiting somewhere, whether it was watching from the grounds or inside one of the rooms.
He was nice enough, if not a bit eerie to see surveilling her from one of the windows.
So Nao nodded. “I do. But I don’t think he’d be too happy with the idea of watching us die—”
“It’s not him. One of the hunters he’s training has been shadowing him for the past two months. His name is Ranmaru. And he was more than happy to be coming with us.”
Nao spared her the embarrassment of commenting on the way her lips pricked up into a smile as she said his name. “I… I still don’t think this is a good idea. It’s still the woods, which aren’t protected. Aren’t you supposed to be the level-headed one here?”
“I’ve done everything right my whole life,” Sara sighed as she spoke, eyes serious as she regarded Nao’s worry. “You don’t have to come, but I want to do something rebellious for once. We’ll be safe, and protected, and if anything happens you can be the first to say you told me so.”
There were a few looks exchanged — Nao’s concern growing and wavering in turn as Sara all but pleaded her to join. They’d been friends for years, even though Nao was a couple of years older. She was the first person to really enjoy her art, outside of Nao’s old teacher who taught her what she knew and loved, and they’d been inseparable ever since. Even as they branched out and made new friends, they knew they could count on each other.
So it was no surprise when Nao caved, and agreed to meet up after sundown.
“This may just be the stupidest thing you’ve ever agreed to. You know that, right?”
Nao stared up at her bedroom wall, the boring beige coated with fluffy pastel clouds and patterns that she’d been yelled at for creating above her bed. She’d ruined the sheets in the process, of course, but she’d be damned if she lost the character of her room to monotone walls.
Her friend, Shin Tsukimi, was sat backwards on her desk chair, leaning his chin on the back and swivelling it around as he spoke. It had taken some convincing to allow Sara to extend the invitation to include a guest, and she’d hesitantly mentioned the plans to her other closest friend. One that wouldn’t hesitate to tell her when she was setting herself up for failure — or worse.
“Yes, thank you so much for your input.” The words came out drenched in sarcasm, and she couldn’t help but groan. “I have to say no, right? Or like you threatened to tell my parents if I left?”
He hummed in thought, before a grin overtook his face and she knew she’d lost. “Nope. I’ve been trying to get you to do something reckless all our lives. This is the first time it’s actually worked.”
“You didn’t do anything!”
“No, it was goody-two-shoes Miss Sara Chidouin that wore you down. Gonna have to thank her for that.”
He earned a pillow thrown into his face for the comment, which was subsequently launched back at Nao. It landed at her side, but picked it up and smothered her face with it in the hopes that it would bury the bad decisions with it.
They’d already worked out some of the details. Nao was going with the story that, as the general consensus to those outside of the inner circle stood, she was having a get-together with Sara and some friends for dinner. What they neglected to mention to those people was that the dinner was more of a picnic in the woods.
After that, she’d just come home from the late-night party and say they lost track of time, depending on when she made it back.
Shin had let his family know similarly, however he had moved out the previous year, so had no risk of them enquiring as to why he was returning so late.
The two of them had met up at Nao’s house a little before it was set to start. Everyone was in agreement that people would make their way, staggered, out of the fence, so the large crowd wouldn’t gain attention. Nao and Shin were two of the last to arrive, and so sat in wait for the time they’d leave. Which, unfortunately for Nao, the clock in her room was showing to be within minutes.
She felt uncomfortable, having pulled on a darker outfit so she could blend into the night with as much ease as she could muster. Lots of black shades on black, that she’d dragged from the back of her usually bright wardrobe. Anything to make herself harder to be seen, at least.
Even the coat she’d pulled out to keep her warm was a muted grey — the closest to a dark colour she had to wear — and she zipped it up over her clothes before she called out to her parents that she was leaving and headed out of the front door with Shin in tow.
They kept their voices low as they walked the streets, quiet in the hopes that they would draw as little attention to themselves, only speaking a few words at a time as they came closer to the crack in the fence.
It was one of the places they refused to mention to anyone that could fix it, though they weren’t sure why. Usually they rationalised it as the gap being too large for anything to fit through unless it really tried, or that it was their quick escape if something went wrong in the town with one exit. But they never seemed very convinced by the reasoning.
But the crack was perfect for that night. They’d slipped through the alleyway leading up, their footsteps muffled by the sounds of music coming from one of the bars nearby. If they were quick, they’d slip through unnoticed.
One particular light flickered above them in warning, before they pulled the dislodged stone out of the wall and ducked through.
The hardest part was reaching back through to drag the stone roughly back into place. Her fingernails scraped on the rock a few times as she attempted to find grip, before she managed to grab it and roll it to cover the gap.
She stood up, still crouched to stay just below the fence’s height, and brushed the dirt off of her hands as she looked at Shin. He looked back at her, grinning, before grabbing a small pocket torch out. A few tries and he’d flicked it on and was shining it toward the tree line.
It wasn’t entirely necessary, given that they could just make out a distant light, but it helped to show where the potential tripping hazards laid in front of them.
“Aren’t you scared, too?”
He nudged her, before he started walking. “Try terrified. So let’s go.”
It didn’t take long for them to reach the group. The rest of them had already made it — namely Sara and her closer friends from class, and a boy sat by a crackling bonfire in the centre of a circle of seats, armed with a loaded crossbow in his lap who she could only assume was the hunter-in-training, Ranmaru. His eyes had been trained on them as they made their way over, only relaxing as Sara waved them over.
“Won’t someone see the fire?”
Sara gestured flippantly into the air. “We’re far enough out that they won’t see unless they’re looking for it. We tested it out.”
She kicked a chair gently with her foot, urging Nao and Shin to take their seats. On the other side, next to Ranmaru, were three faces that Nao had spoken to a few times in the past when she visited Sara.
A brunet boy, animatedly telling a ghost story, pushed a marshmallow onto a stick and lunged it toward the flames. “It always tastes better if it’s been on fire,” he interrupted his tale to explain, quickly pulling the sticky treat out from the heat and blowing on it to put out the fire that had been carried out with it. With a grin, he looked triumphantly at the charred blob, and began eating.
Joe was always keeping people on their toes, whether he was telling the truth or making up some idea to cover for the fact that he’d set his food on fire.
The other two were rarer for Nao to speak to. She recognised the girl, watching with her knees tugged tightly toward her as she did anything but listen to the story being said, as Anzu. The brightly dyed blue-to-red hair gave her away, even under her hood as she drew the strings closed on it to cover her face.
The third, she didn’t quite know the name of, despite having spoken a few times. But Joe mentioned the name Ryoko in his story, earning him an eye roll in return, and she had to assume the dark haired girl was called Ryoko, too.
Nao took a marshmallow and a stick — along with a set to hand to Shin, who sat beside her, and joined in with the conversations as best she could.
For the most part, they kept quiet enough. They couldn’t risk drawing too much attention to themselves, even if they could no longer hear the noise of the quieting town from where they were. But they still talked, and sang and ate together with as much enjoyment as they could. Passed theories of what was out there in the woods with them, or the plans they’d make if they weren’t surrounded by trees.
The younger generation knew there was a world out there around them. There were goods once imported to them, even though they’d now become mostly self-sufficient to recuse the amount of outside help. Anything brought in was collected, with those older than Nao trekking on days-long journeys to bring back what they needed. There was communication allowed within the town, too, but they had no technology outside of that. That didn’t stop them from wondering, and dreaming what they could find if they wandered away from the comfort of the known world.
No, Nao knew there was something bigger out there. It took stepping outside for the first time to realise how deeply it ran through her veins, thrumming through her in the hopes she’d follow the curiosity.
She curbed the thought by grabbing another marshmallow.
But as she turned to skewer it with the stick, she looked up in front of her and her eyes met red. Soft, glowing red looking back at her from the tree line.
She didn’t know whether to scream, or quietly get someone’s attention. Instead, there were a few moments where she couldn’t tear her eyes away. The air caught in her lungs as she watched, tasting metal in her mouth and hearing the pounding of her heart in her ears. She was painfully aware of how fast it was beating. She reached out her foot, tapping a few time on the leg of Shin’s chair beside her, but he didn’t seem to react. The glow regarded her, unwavering, before they blinked back.
That was when she screamed, a single word ripping through her throat.
“ Run!”
The eyes followed, lunging forward and bringing a shadow form with it. The people around her darted up to their feet, grabbing hold of each other and tearing through the trees around them. Nao heard a cry for help, and she stopped running to look over and see Ryoko being surrounded by the dark figure.
She began to make her way back, despite knowing she couldn’t do much in the fight, but she was beaten to it. The creature moved fast, too fast to see past a blur, but that didn’t stop Ranmaru from launching a wooden arrow directly into it.
It shrank back into the treeline, shrieking as it disappeared, and Nao looked over to see the hunter load another arrow into the crossbow. He glanced around, weapon following the direction of his gaze, but he backed away slowly regardless. The two locked eyes, and silently agreed to start running once again.
The treeline wasn’t far. Nao could see the fence approaching, even as Ranmaru overtook her. Even as she watched the others escape to safety through the hole.
Even as she lost her footing, tripping up on an exposed tree root that looped around her foot and sent her tumbling to the ground.
She yelled as she made contact with the floor, trying to pull herself back up, but the creature was faster than her. And it had found her.
Before she could register what had happened to her, she was on her feet, slammed against a tree so hard the air was knocked out of her lungs. When she managed to take in her surroundings, she saw the same red that had stared back at her from the fireside, now looking at her through what seemed to be hair. Choppy, dark hair, framing a face that glared at her so much that she may have died from the fear.
She’d always heard stories of the vampires that haunted the town. Taller, with claws and sharp teeth that they wouldn't hesitate to tear you apart with. Something with the remants of humanity still clinging to their forms, but long-since lost to time.
Now that the creature had stopped moving, she could see something far more human. And she didn’t know if that was worse.
But it was still regarding her with curiosity, not bloodlust, and she found it hard to fight back. Even if she tried, there wouldn’t have been much point. The hands gripping her, pressing her against the bark with so much force that it dug into the back of her neck, were firm enough to stop her from moving at all. So she stood, helpless, as it moved closer to her, baring fangs and moving toward her neck.
She wished she could have said she fought. That her instincts to survive — fight or flight — had kicked in, and she’d tore herself from its grip and ran. But she was paralysed, even as she felt the harsh prick of teeth at her skin, only daring to pull away numbly as she was bit.
There wasn’t much time to process. She’d barely registered the pain as an arrow flew, tearing through the air and sticking into a nearby tree. But the vampire still backed away, hunched over and staring at the person who had saved her.
It was Shin. Already shakily clicking another projectile into place as he raised it up to them. “Let her go,” he said, voice trembling ever so slightly. “Let her go, and I won’t shoot another.”
They gained confirmation, at least, that the vampire could understand them, as it slowly backed away and slunk into the shadows once again.
Nao’s legs buckled under her, and she slid down the tree to the ground. She could hear Shin running over, muttering the word ‘ no ’ on repeat under his breath as he laced an arm around her to pull her up. “You have to help me, Nao,” his voice was far away. Nao clung to it like a lifeline. “I can’t get you up if you don’t help.”
Somehow, as he started to drag her to her feet, she joined in. Together, she found herself stood, and she leant on him as they raced back toward the town. It wasn’t far, but her legs felt weak underneath her. She didn’t know how much she’d been drained, if at all, but she could feel herself slipping out of consciousness already. Every few steps, she’d feel herself give way, stumbling closer to the ground before she straightened back up again.
She was practically pushed through the gap in the fence, pulled out the other end by Sara who wrapped her in a hug. There were words being said, in her ear and in the background, but she couldn’t hear them.
All she could do was fall down and sleep.