Black Cross: The Blood System

CHAPTER 2 — TO THE EARTH WE COME, TO THE EARTH WE WILL RETURN

The coffin sank slowly into the wet earth as the funeral came to an end. Rain poured down on umbrellas of different colours, turning the graveyard into a gathering of people dressed in black suits.

Adrian stood with his own umbrella over his head, dressed in an all-black corporate suit.

His eyes stayed fixed on the grave of his wife, his lover, his anchor. Sarah. The person who had brought joy into his life was now slowly being lowered into the ground. Adrian still felt like all of this was a joke.

He had woken up days earlier, injured and bandaged in several places. The doctors told him that he was lucky to be alive because when they found him, he was already dead.

The only name he kept repeating was Sarah as he constantly asked whether she was safe but reality hit him harder than expected when he heard she didn't make it.

He didn't cry, as it felt pointless at this point.

All his emotions just shut off as he tried to tell himself that all of this was a joke. A prank that would end with Sarah walking into the room, smiling with that bright smile of hers.

Students, teachers, and even the headmaster pulled up to her funeral as they offered him different words of comfort and paid their respects to Sarah.

Emily pulled him into a very tight hug immediately after she saw him. She looked into his eyes and asked, with worry in her voice if he was okay. Adrian barely whispered, “Yes,” but everyone knew it was a lie.

Kellan came to the funeral too, looking more serious than Adrian had ever seen him. The lazy teacher was gone, and standing in front of Adrian was a sad man with sorrow in his eyes.

He hugged Adrian and whispered in his ear that he was available if Adrian ever needed anything, and Adrian just replied with a nod.

Colleagues, neighbors, and a few students attended the burial and approached Adrian with flowers, cards, and even gifts. Adrian accepted everything with a weak smile.

They all offered the same lines of comfort. Words like, “She’s in a better place,” “Time heals all wounds,” and “Let us know if you need anything.”

One after another, they took their leave until the burial ceremony became scanty and quiet, except for the rain that wouldn't stop falling.

Adrian stayed behind even after everyone else had left, staring down at the newly made grave that had the name and date of Sarah boldly written on it.

The rain fell on his umbrella, and the wind blew some of it onto him, running down his neck, but he barely felt it as the guilt ate him up relentlessly.

If I had taken the normal road…

If I had fought harder…

If I had been stronger…

He squeezed his fists until he felt pain in his hands and stopped the urge to punch himself in the stomach.

His decision to take a shortcut had cost Sarah her life.

Another person appeared beside him, also dressed in an all-black long coat. He had tired eyes, a rough demeanor, and scattered hair that made him look like John Constantine.

He stood in silence, watching the grave alongside Adrian.

“Sorry for your loss,” he said, pulling out a lighter and a cigarette before lighting it as smoke puffed out of his mouth.

“I want to say she's in a better place right now, but Heaven and Hell are not real, according to my belief”

This man was the detective who had been at Adrian’s bedside when he first woke up. At the time, he didn't believe a word Adrian said about the vampire. He simply called it trauma and hallucinations caused by guilt.

But after he visited the crash site and saw the twisted metal, blood-soaked ground, and scattered bullets on the ground, he had been forced to reconsider, because this clearly wasn't a simple accident.

“What do you want?” Adrian asked, his voice flat, not in the mood for a chat.

“I came to pay my respects,” the detective replied, taking a long drag of the cigarette on his lips.

“I still find the idea of a bloodsucker insane, but with what I saw at the crash site, even I don't know what to believe,” the detective said.

“But I'm telling you now to drop it. You're not going to find that thing, and nobody will believe you. I know you are in pain right now, but I suggest you let it go.”

Adrian didn't respond as the detective's words passed through his right ear and went out through the left. The monster that killed his wife was out there, and nothing would stop him from getting revenge.

“But if you ever prove that you really saw a vampire that night, I mean real proof…”

He handed Adrian a card. Adrian hesitated before collecting it, but he did anyway.

“Call me.”

He then patted Adrian on the shoulder, wished him good luck, and walked away.

The following month was filled with obsession and dead ends as Adrian abandoned his old life and poured everything into his search.

He hired every investigator and detective he could find, hoping for some good news, but most of them turned him away after hearing his story about the vampire.

Some said he was crazy, while others told him to go for therapy or a rehabilitation center.

Adrian couldn't find anyone to work with him, so he did the work himself. He searched everywhere, from deep online searches and old news articles to stories shared by people.”

He also visited a few people who had claimed to have encountered a similar creature with red eyes, unnatural strength, and pale skin, but their stories didn't offer him any real leads. With every person he met, he ended up back to square one.

Doubts started creeping in as he began questioning everything.

Maybe he was drunk that night too. Maybe it was an animal. Maybe his mind was already fractured from the trauma. The guilt and emptiness in him seemed endless.

One evening, Adrian was in a bar, gulping down glass after glass to numb the emptiness in his heart, but no matter how much he drank, it changed nothing.

He activated the strange floating system panel only he could see as it was the thing that miraculously brought him back from the cold hands of death.

On the screen was his information, from his name to his age to his race, along with other sections that were locked for reasons Adrian didn't understand.

The system had promised to help him get revenge, and at first, he was happy, already having his hopes high, but the damn thing gave him nothing at all. No training guides, no vampire history, no weapons, nothing at all.

It only had just had one condition glowing below on the screen.

The More Vampires You Kill, The Stronger You Become.

Adrian stared at it bitterly as he thought to himself.

How the hell was he supposed to kill vampires when he couldn’t even find one?

He paid his tab and walked out of the bar, climbing into a taxi and preparing to go home after another wasted day. The engine had just been turned on when the system panel flashed urgently in his vision.

[Urgent Notification]

Vampire detected in the vicinity.

Adrian’s heart started pounding wildly as he read it again. It was hard for him to believe it. After all these months, he finally found a vampire.

He looked around the taxi [→ backseat], hoping to find a weapon, a crowbar, a glass bottle, a knife, anything at all, and his eyes settled on a metal baseball bat under the driver's seat.

He quickly reached under the seat, pulled it out, and handed the driver 200 dollars for the bat before jumping out of the taxi. Guns hadn’t worked last time, so maybe raw force would.

Following the system’s direction, he walked through the streets until he reached a narrow, dark alley, and there it was. A vampire kneeling over a body, blood dripping from its mouth to the ground.

All the fear in Adrian disappeared as pure rage took over him.

Adrian raised the bat and charged with everything he had as the metal connected with a solid crack against the creature’s head, but did no damage.

The vampire stopped what it was doing and stood up completely, turning toward Adrian with glowing red eyes full of annoyance.

It stood tall, pale skin visible in the dim light, with its fangs extended. Before Adrian could swing again, the vampire snatched the bat mid-air, yanked it from his grip, and bent the thick metal into two useless pieces with an easy twist before tossing the now-useless bat aside.

Shock flooded Adrian's face as he took a few steps backward.

Shit. I fucked up.

“Did you really think a bat would do any damage to me?” the vampire said as he stepped closer to Adrian with slow, deliberate movements.

“You… you can talk?” Adrian said, completely caught off guard.

The vampire paused, looking at Adrian in disbelief.

“Really? You’re surprised I can speak? You thought we were just mindless animals that drink blood? Not that it matters, though. You won’t live long enough to tell anyone.”

It attacked him, and Adrian threw up his arms to block, but the vampire’s speed and power were on a completely different level from a human being. The vampire's solid grip closed around Adrian's throat, lifting him clear off the ground as his legs kicked uselessly in the air, making the vampire smile.

“I don’t know why your eyes are so full of hate, but I’ll be merciful and end your misery.”

He said and began choking Adrian with the pure intention of killing him. The smile stretched on his face as he watched the life start to fade from Adrian's eyes.

Two gunshots tore through the alley as the vampire jerked when bullets slammed into its side.

It dropped Adrian, who fell to the ground, gasping for air, and turned toward the new threat.

A woman strolled casually into the alley like she was walking through a park.

She wore a sharp black blazer suit that made her look more like an office worker, but her confidence and stance made it clear she was a fighter.

Her Golden hair was packed neatly, black-framed glasses were on her face, and a strawberry lollipop rested between her lips.

A silver dagger hung at her waist as she moved with calm and confidence, as if this was just another Tuesday.

The vampire roared in fury and charged at her, and what followed was a brutal, one-sided fight.

The woman didn’t flinch as the vampire swung a clawed hand. She deflected it effortlessly with her forearm, redirecting the force so the vampire stumbled slightly off balance.

She countered immediately with a precise kick to its knee. She was definitely a professional because this was not the first time she had done this.

She read every punch the vampire threw like an open book and easily dodged or deflected.

A jab aimed at her head was parried smoothly, followed by her driving an elbow into its ribs with greater force than her frame suggested. The crack of bone was loud enough for Adrian to hear.

Adrian watched in silence from the ground as this woman fought like a professional, like someone who had turned killing vampires into an art form.

The vampire recovered and came at her with renewed rage as its claws slashed wildly in a wave of attacks, but she blocked and weaved through them, her movements precise.

One slash grazed her blazer, tearing the fabric, but she paid it no attention. Instead, she closed the distance, grabbed the creature’s arm, and used its own momentum against it, flipping the much larger vampire over her shoulder and slamming it hard onto the concrete.

Before it could move again, she drew her dagger and drove it straight into the vampire’s chest.

The creature let out a painful shriek as its body convulsed violently and blood poured from the wound. Its red eyes widened in shock and agony, then closed as the life drained away.

The vampire collapsed on the ground, cold and motionless.

The woman stood up, brushed off her suit, and pulled out a match.She struck it and dropped the flame onto the body.

The fire caught instantly, consuming the dead body in bright flames as she watched for a moment to make sure it burned properly, then turned to leave.

Adrian pushed himself to his feet, his legs still shaky after what he had just witnessed, and rushed after her.

“Please wait!” he called out, his voice loud and pleading.

She stopped and turned, looking at him with those calm golden eyes behind her glasses.

“You just killed that vampire like it was nothing,” Adrian said, breathing hard.

“This isn’t your first time. I can tell, so please let me join you or your organization. Whatever it is, I don't care. I need to learn how to do this. I need to hunt them. I need to make them pay for what they took from me.”

He clasped his hands together in a desperate attempt to show he was serious as he stared at her.

Silence stretched between them for a long moment and then, without warning or change in her expression, she pulled out a gun and fired at him, then fired again.

The two shots hit Adrian square in the chest as he staggered backward, eyes wide with shock at what she had just done. He looked down at the wound, then back up at her unchanged expression.