Just Before the incident...
The sky hung heavy above the city, painted in hues of bruised violet and iron grey. The clouds churned like restless spirits, smothering the moonlight beneath their weight. David's car tore through the silence of the sleeping streets, its engine roaring with fury.
His hands were clamped tightly on the steering wheel, jaw clenched as the events of the last hour played on a loop in his mind. Anika's voice still echoed in his ears—confused, frightened, and certain of one thing: Lopez had not been herself lately.
His phone vibrated on the centre console tray, the screen lighting up with a name that made his heart stutter.
Lopez.
He snatched the phone, tapped it onto speaker mode, and raised his voice.
"Hello?"
Her voice exploded through the speaker in gasps—breathless, desperate, coated in terror.
"David... help... help me! I'm in the forest near my apartment. They—they tried to kidnap me! The demons, David—they're here!"
Her words tripped over each other in panic. The sound of CRUNCHING LEAVES and her heaving breaths made it clear—she was running. Fleeing for her life.
"My car... it's on the road near the entrance... I escaped when... when their manipulation started to wear off—Huff—Huff—They know I remember now!"
The line crackled again. Her voice wavered like she was on the verge of collapsing. David felt his stomach drop as if gravity had turned cruel.
"Stay hidden," he ordered, his tone hardening with urgency. "Do you hear me? Stay where you are—I'll be there. I'm coming."
He slammed the gearstick into place and floored the accelerator.
The car growled, surging forward with the SCREECH OF TIRES. His pulse pounded in sync with the engine's roar. Wind whipped past the windows. Streetlights blurred. His mind sharpened to a single point of focus: Lopez.
"Demons manipulated her... That's why she's been acting strange... withdrawn, paranoid. They got into her head... but she fought it off."
His fingers tightened on the wheel.
"And now they're trying to silence her."
Minutes passed like seconds, and soon, through the haze of shadows and fog, David saw a parked car half on the shoulder of the road.
Lopez's car.
He hit the brakes.
SCREEEECH! THUMP!
His car jolted violently to a stop, tires skidding against gravel and wet leaves. He burst out of the vehicle, heart hammering, and ran straight to her car. The driver's side door was wide open. The engine was off. The cabin light flickered dimly, revealing an untouched purse and a pair of sunglasses tossed on the passenger seat.
"She didn't even stop to lock it..." David muttered, eyes scanning the treeline ahead. "She ran. She ran straight in."
As if responding to his awareness, something in him changed.
His irises darkened to gold, glowing subtly beneath the gloom. His pupils contracted into sharp, slitted ovals. He inhaled through his nose, long and deliberate.
There it was.
The scent of sulphur and ash. The unmistakable rot of demon presence. It clung to the air like poison, drawing him into the woods like a beacon of evil.
He took off into the forest without hesitation.
Branches clawed at his clothes as he sprinted through the underbrush. Every leaf CRACKLED beneath his boots. The wind HISSED between the trees. Rain began to fall, soft and needling, as if the storm itself were creeping closer, stalking him.
The scent grew stronger.
Then, in a small clearing beneath a canopy of dying oaks, he saw her.
Lopez.
She lay sprawled on the cold earth, barely conscious. Blood soaked through her shirt. Her arm had been torn open, the skin shredded in wide, jagged claw marks. But it was her stomach that truly turned his veins to ice—a deep, gaping wound had been punched through her abdomen, like something massive and merciless had rammed straight through her.
"Lopez!" David dropped to his knees beside her, sliding in the mud. "Hey—hey, stay with me. Look at me! You're going to be okay."
Her eyes fluttered open for a second. She tried to smile but only blood bubbled on her lips. Her skin was ghostly pale, soaked with rain and blood, trembling from shock.
David ripped off his jacket and pressed it hard against her wound, trying to stifle the bleeding. His hands were soon slick with her blood, the smell of iron thick and nauseating. His breath came in ragged bursts. The weight of helplessness was crushing.
Then—it happened again.
The shift.
His hands, soaked in her blood, began to twist. Bones realigned. Flesh warped. Thick, curved claws pushed through his fingertips like black daggers. His breath shortened. His muscles coiled. But he didn't lash out. Not yet.
He crouched low beside her, one hand still on her wound, the other curled into a claw, ready to strike at the first sign of movement.
Then a voice broke the silence.
It wasn't human.
It came from everywhere and nowhere at once—low, reverberating, smug.
"You're late, David..."
David stiffened. His head jerked up. His glowing eyes scanned the woods.
Nothing.
He stood slowly, every muscle in his body on edge. Claws extended. Eyes burning. He spoke, voice sharp as glass.
"Show yourself, you coward. Only monsters attack a woman who can't fight back."
The voice chuckled, deep and unhinged. It sounded like madness wearing a man's skin.
"Hee... hee... Haw... waw... huh-huh... HAHAHAHA!"
Then—
CRAAA-KOOOM!
A jagged bolt of lightning split the sky, illuminating the entire forest in stark white light. For one terrifying moment, the world held its breath.
Rain exploded downward like sheets of glass, slamming into leaves and earth.
The demon voice spoke again, soaked in disdain.
"You foolish little hound. You think this is about you? My thoughts... my purpose... your feeble mind couldn't possibly comprehend."
David snarled; teeth bared.
"Then let's end the guessing game. Come out. Face me."
More laughter.
Then stillness.
Then words that froze his blood.
"My work is already done. I'll be leaving now. Let's see how you handle what's coming next."
The scent vanished.
No footsteps. No movement. Just cold air. Rain. And the silence that followed a nightmare.
David's jaw tightened. He exhaled slowly, rage simmering just beneath the surface. He turned to lift Lopez—but then he heard it.
FOOTSTEPS.
David's head snapped up. His eyes darted toward the source.
A figure stepped out of the mist and shadow, slow and deliberate.
Raindrops dripped from his hair. His face was calm, untouched by fear or exhaustion.
JOSEPH.
David's breath hitched. For a second, the world stood still.
Joseph said nothing.
The trees groaned in anguish as rain poured harder, drenching the earth and flooding the forest floor. Water pooled around Joseph's boots as he stood frozen, his figure half-hidden beneath a gnarled, skeletal tree. Every heartbeat felt like a cannon inside his chest, echoing through his bones.
His breaths came short and sharp.
His gaze was locked on the figure before him—Lopez's lifeless form cradled in David's arms.
Everything else disappeared.
He didn't even seem to register David's voice, didn't feel the rain soaking through his clothes, didn't notice how the mud sloshed beneath his shoes. His mind was an ocean crashing in on itself, bombarded by a thousand thoughts—images he had buried deep inside for so long now roared back with a vengeance.
Joseph staggered back a step, his spine hitting the bark of the tree behind him. He reached up and gripped his head with both hands, fingers digging into his skull like he could rip the pain out physically.
His knees buckled, crashing into the sodden ground.
"AHHHHH... ACCCHKKK—!" A strangled groan clawed its way from his throat.
Suddenly—visions erupted behind his closed eyelids.
A cave. Torches flickering. Shadows stretching.
"THERE! SHE'S RUNNING!"
The mob's voice echoed through the memory like a phantom chorus.
Lady Aria, terrified, running barefoot through the stone corridors, blood trailing behind her.
"JOSEPH! GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM! NO MORE ARGUMENT!"
His father's roar—Lord Vampire William II—shaking the walls, forcing the young Joseph to obey as the door slammed shut.
Another memory. A quieter one.
Aria, lying weakly on a velvet-lined bed, her face pale, lips bloodless. Her voice tender despite the agony.
"Don't blame yourself, honey... What is written in destiny is bound to happen."
Joseph clenched his jaw, tears burning hot as they mixed with rain.
"NOOOO—!!" he roared to the heavens.
His back arched. His body spasmed violently.
Something ancient awakened.
His fingernails stretched into claws, curving like obsidian blades. His canines sharpened, protruding over his lower lip like polished ivory fangs. White, ethereal wings burst from his back, tearing through his shirt in sprays of blood and shadow. Veins glowed faintly beneath his skin—red and pulsing, as though magma flowed through him.
His scream split the storm.
"AAAAAAACCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
He flung his arms apart. His wings spread wide—majestic, terrifying—and from his glowing crimson eyes, tears mixed with blood spilled freely.
The storm above roared in sympathy, thunder rolling through the earth as lightning carved a white scar across the dark night sky—heaven itself seeming to acknowledge his wrath.
David stared, wide-eyed, frozen mid-motion with Lopez still limp in his grasp.
He didn't know what horrified him more—the transformation, or the sheer, unbearable pain twisting through Joseph's face. But then a terrible realization struck him like a blade through the chest.
"He thinks I did this..."
David swallowed hard. He could almost see the pieces falling into place in Joseph's unstable mind. The scene. The blood. The betrayal buried deep.
"No..." David muttered, raising one hand in a placating gesture, the other shielding Lopez.
"No, Joseph—listen to me. It's not what it looks like!"
Joseph's bloodshot eyes flicked toward him.
For a moment, time froze.
And then he spoke.
His voice was hollow. Empty.
"Why... did you betray me?"
A single tear slipped down his cheek, glowing crimson in the darkness. The tear was like the symbol of the pain raging wild within him. Something wilder and strong than the storm outside.
David's breath hitched. "Joseph, I—"
"Are you with them? The demons? Did you help them... seal my memories?"
The words were a dagger. David looked down, shame flickering across his face.
"Sealing your memories was for your own good. You were just a child, and I'm not with Dem—"
WHOOSH!
David barely ducked in time.
Joseph vanished and reappeared in a blink, claws slicing through the space where David's face had been seconds before. The wind from the swipe left a stinging cut on his cheek.
David leapt back, eyes flaring gold. His own transformation began—his arms elongating, hands mutating into lupine claws, muscles swelling beneath his skin as dark silver fur rippled down his arms and chest. His face contorted, bones snapping, jaw pushing outward into a powerful wolf-like snout.
He stood, towering, his golden eyes blazing through the rain. One look at Joseph told him the truth—he wasn't in his right mind anymore. Whatever had awakened inside him had shattered his reason. And now, the only way to bring him back... was to knock him out.
"I don't want to fight you," David growled.
"But if I have to stop you from hurting yourself—so, be it."
Joseph snarled. "Then stop holding back! Show your true colors!"
They launched at each other like twin bolts of lightning.
CRACK!
David swung a massive right hook, aiming to drop Joseph in a single blow. But Joseph caught the punch—with both hands. The force cratered the ground beneath him, sending a shockwave rippling through the trees. The impact cratered the ground beneath his feet, spraying mud outward in an explosive ring.
Joseph pivoted his body and twisted David's arm behind him, dragging the werewolf closer. His fist blurred through the air—a brutal uppercut that crashed against David's chin and sent him soaring a few feet off the ground.
But David wasn't down.
Twisting midair, he clasped his fists together and came crashing down like a meteor— he slammed down with both fists clasped together like a hammer aimed at Joseph's skull.
The hit struck—BOOM!
The blow crashed into Joseph's shoulder, driving him into the dirt. The ground split open beneath them, roots snapping like bones.
A crater burst into existence, dirt flying, but Joseph was gone. Just a blur in the chaos.
David turned in the chaos of dust—then saw the glow.
A red flash.
Joseph burst through the haze like a missile; his arm extended in a spear-hand thrust.
David sidestepped, spun, and caught his wrist. Using Joseph's momentum, he hurled him up and slammed him into the ground like a battering ram.
THOOM!
Joseph's body slammed into the earth, leaving a smoking crater.
David didn't stop. He grabbed Joseph's leg and swung him like a ragdoll.
THOOM! Left.
THOOM! Right.
THOOM! Again.
Again, and again.
Each impact shook the ground, splinters of wood and dirt flying with every slam.
Finally, Joseph went limp, his body leaving a crater where David dropped him.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The forest trembled.
Finally, Joseph went still, unconscious or close to it.
David staggered, chest heaving, dripping blood and rain. "Stay down... Joseph...".
David, panting, dripping blood and rain, collapsed to one knee. His body shrank slightly as he reverted halfway to human form. He pulled his ripped shirt back on, arms still in claw form.
But then—
A flicker of red shine from back took his attention.
Joseph rose. Slowly. Terrifyingly. His face was bloodied, his body trembling, yet his eyes—unyielding, glowing like molten coals.
David sighed, exhausted. "Why do you have to be so damn stubborn..."
Joseph roared, wings unfurling again.
They both charged once more.
CLASH!
They locked arms, claw against claw, snarling and shoving. David leaned close, growling through gritted teeth.
"Wake up, Joseph! You're not thinking straight!"
Joseph spat blood, eyes wild with rage.
"Shut up. I'll myself carve the truth from your flesh and blood!"
But then—
CRACK.
A sharp noise cut through the chaos.
Both froze.
Their eyes snapped toward the sound—left, along the muddy trail that led through the underbrush.
A figure stood there, drenched in rain, pale and stunned. His mouth slightly open. His eyes wide with disbelief.
THOMAS.
He stood like a statue, one arm still outstretched where he had pushed aside a branch. His mind clearly trying to comprehend the impossible scene before him.
Two monsters. One forest. A blood-soaked battlefield.
His employee—unrecognizable.
To be Continued...