A girl woke up from bundle of corpses. Under her ragged clothes, smooth fair skin was revealed. She stood in the middle of dead bodies, many eyes on her. She could see dirt and sand was pouring raining down on her like misty rain. Those labours were standing around the pit they dug, filled it with corpses and dirt. A big hole where dug for thousand of bodies that marked with a significant cause of death. Two crimson mark were carved on the side of their neck, it was the act of a vampire.
“Someone is alive down there!”
“Let her come up first!”
“Little girl! Use the ladder!”
They threw a rope ladder into the pit, it stretched all it way down to the girl. She made her way to the ladder, stepping on those bodies. She slipped for few times when stepping on those rag dolls, but she managed to bring her balance back. All of them was dead, no sign of living. She was the only survivor, this was going to concern those labours. A single problem was how she broke away from the sight and control of the vampire. Since all those bodies were sent to the labours by the vampire. They were ruling the country, they don’t need unnecessary panic or riot from the human if they see the death of their own kin. The vampire was very smart, they kept it clean from their world, so that they don’t have any reason to rebel. They didn’t destroy human, waiting them to manipulate, so that they can keep feasting on human’s blood and flesh.
She grabbed the unstable ladder tightly then climbed along it to the surface. More strangers were revealed to her as she went to the surface. Labours were surrounding her, offered her water and food. They were wondering why she was still alive. The bodies that threw into the hole were usually dead peoples. They wondered why she still has the energy to climb up a ladder that was two floors height after stacked under so many bodies..
“What’s so interesting in there?” a sharp female voice came behind the crowds.
The girl witnessed the change of their face, turning into pale white and fear was growing in their eyes. Those men turned to the source of the voice.
“No...No...No...Nothing…” a man waved his hand behind him, where their newcomer’s sight can’t reach. Another man behind him received his order, pulled the girl to his back, intending to hide her. Inside the middle of men, she could felt their anxiousness in the air. The hand on her shoulder was trembling. She wondered what and who is that female that struck their heart with terror.
“Then why is everyone stopped the work in your hands?” the female voice was louder now.
“We...we will get back to work.” the man spoke again, looked like he was the supervisor here.
“You better.”
“Yes...Let’s get back to work my lads.”
“Wait!”
The girl saw those men were moving apart, making way for their superior. The hand that was protecting her was shaking vigorously. She knew she was there, but she still couldn’t see her. By the reaction of majority, she knew that woman was a very powerful character. His palm was sweating on her skin right now.
“Stop hiding that girl from me”
The man can’t resist the fear and command she gave. He stood aside to reveal the girl. At the same time, a girl in black tuxedo also revealed to her. She was a head shorter than those men like her, but those men feared her so much. Her size was half of those men. Her dark short hair was swinging above her shoulder back and forth as she was approaching. The reaction on their face was paused when she passed by. Her terror in their heart was unimaginably deep.
“Whose girl is this?” She stood in front of that girl.
No one was making any noise, other than the power machine that was doing it’s job, supplying the light bulb. No one from the ground knew what was happening in this underground mine. In deep of the labours’ heart, the woman was an existence of danger that could take away their life anytimes.
“You don’t want to mess with me.” the girl said, in her voice was mingled with rage and calm. She stood steadily on her ground, staring at the woman, her eyes glared with anger and hatred. Men around her were shocked, they knew she will be a dead meat for any second from now. A mortal cannot defeat a vampire, she will stand a chance if she is a vampire hunter.
She pulled her face nearer, with fierce of wild beast in her eyes, in expectation of fear from the girl that taunted her seconds ago. Clash of Ice and fire, in their eyes. The girl’s icy cold eyes didn’t break the direct contact with the eyes in fire of vampire.
“Do you meet a vampire before? Do I need to suck your blood so to prove what I am?” she pressed further to chase out the fear under the calm face. She thought the girl was hiding her emotion under the surface.
Her eyes widened and jaw dropped. Silence groan stucked in her throat, couldn’t escape with her last breath. She laid onto the girl like a rag doll then to the ground. A crimson line was drew on the back of her neck, it was a deep cut. Blood pouring down along her neck, painted her cloth with red. The labours’ face were equipped with minor smile, the tension and terror in their blood were relieved.
A shadow loomed over the poor struggling soul, watching the writhing vampire. She tried to speak her last word, but she choked with her own blood. Under the dim light, the face of newcomer was revealed. A young girl that was around the age of eighteen stood beside the body, having a machete in her hand.
“You are just a level two vampire, stop acting like a boss here. You head could earn me a meal of a week.” the girl beheaded the vampire. She stored her bounty in a bag. Some men realize the body should be vanished from the world, they threw it into the pit that was dug for corpses that were killed by the vampire. Basically these labours were working for the vampire by force.
“Jurina, please take this girl with you, I have no work for her to do here, she deserves a better place.” the supervisor said. He knew this was not a place for girl, she will be more safer with a hunter.
“What is your name?” the hunter wiped off the blood on her cheek.
“R...Rena.” she stared at the hunter with her icy cold eyes.
“Ok, Rena. Where is your parents?” Jurina asked. She didn’t speak but kept shaking her head.
“My boss will decide where you should go. She would probably keep you with us. Is that ok for you” Jurina cleansed the blood on the machete on her leather boot.
Rena nodded. She has no place to go but followed the hunter. They went back to the surface, a horse was tied with a tree. Jurina took Rena with her on the horse, they rode it back to the city.
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“She is going to let you stay” Jurina consoled Rena. They stood before a building, behind the door was the hunter’s home. Jurina drew her key and unlocked the door. “Mariko!!! I am back!!!”.
An elder girl with short hair came into their sight, with a smile. Then, disappeared. “Who is this?” she said “How many times I told you? We are not charity organization, we could barely feed ourselves.”
“Mariko, calm down, calm down. I will investigate any case you want me to do.” Jurina tried to persuade her to let Rena stays. “She is a poor girl. Her parents died and she just has an encounter with a vampire. If we leave her outside, she will either starve till die or kill by a vampire.”
“If we let her stay, we will die. It’s a no.” Mariko strongly disagreed with Jurina.
“I...I can work.” Rena broke her silence.
“No...not for us. Unless you can get a job outside and give us all you salary.” Mariko offered a condition.
“H...How did you? Rena don..”Jurina was angry for her offer.
“Deal.” Rena offered a handshake before Jurina finished her sentence. Mariko shook her hand, they had came with an agreement.
“Jurina, we got a job. We need to go now.” Mariko doesn’t like Rena so much even though she met her expectation and request.
“Rena, feel free to explore your new home. We will be back very soon” Jurina went out with her master. Rena stood in the middle of the living room. She knew if she don’t hide her identity, she will never find the truth of her death. She swore that she will reveal the plot of her enemy. Before that, she will be living with Jurina and her master as a camouflage for her. Any attention will place more obstacle to the conceal assassination of her.
Rena closed her eyes, knowing that Jurina was far enough not to detect her identity. “Argghhh...that temptation to kill, I want to draw blood so much.” the environment around Rena was growing with dark and terror. Aura of darkness was dancing around her, like a source of darkness. The innocent in her eyes has morphed into the madness of a maniac. The whole living room was filled with her dark aura. The animals sensed the danger, they started to flee out the reach of that aura. A big dark spot was moving across the top of everything, a swarm of bird was escaping. Rat moved out from their hideout to save their own live.
A man was peeping into the house through the gap of the window from the outside. He saw a shadow figure, a dark fire of terror was wrapping and burning around her. She had her head down, laughing by herself. The man couldn’t run, his legs were pinned onto the ground without responding to his command. The aura was too strong, filled his lungs with fear, force him into panting. His breath grew heavier for every second his eyes fixed on her. Inside the darkness aura, he made contact with a pair of white eyes that was full of murderous though. That moment, a thousand of weight was added mentally. He couldn’t resist the pressure of her aura. Any moment he would go crazy or blood running down from his four senses organs. But, he didn’t. Rena hid her leaked aura to save him from the death.
The man fainted and fell onto the ground afterward. A random pedestrian found him and sent him to the near by hospital. Rena thought to herself, she should keep her murderous aura conceal to enable her blend into the life of normal people that live under the tyranny of vampire.
The big dark spot met an aeroplane in it’s path. A lot of audience witnessed the plane came out of the swarm with fire on it’s right wing’s engine. Losing the control and capability of flying, the plane crash into the residential area. From far away, a flash of light illuminated the darkening sky for a second then followed by the scream of explosion.
At this time, Jurina and Mariko were at a very far place. The only thing they saw was just a flash of explosion far from their back and a loud bang. They turned back and saw nothing. Both of them entered a mini grocery store. They went to the counter, showing a note that wrote with a line of code on it.
“What? Just both of you?” a man in singlet with a messy afro hair stood behind the counter. He talked with disdain in his welcoming greet. “He will be here in around this time. Make sure you can stop him.”
“Did I sound like a guy in the phone?” Mariko shrugged, she looked at him with a tone of dissatisfaction.
“I thought you were just their manager. A tough guy or two will be more dependable in this case.” he observed Mariko and Jurina, from bottom to the top. “A mid age women and a little girl, go home now. I don’t need it to be worst. I rather give him the money than risking my life”.
“What? You are wasting my time.” Mariko squeezed the note into a ball shape and threw it away “You need to compensate my loss of time even you cancel it”.
The man came out from the counter, pushing them to the entrance. “Get out, get out”.
“Jurina, teach him a lesson. This guy is a jerk, wasting our time and energy.” Mariko asked her student and employee to show him some lesson.
“No, that’s what you taught me. Human don’t fight human. We should just leave.” Jurina grabbed her arm, trying to persuade her to leave the place peacefully.
Mariko struggled. She escaped Jurina’s grasp, a punch was landed on the man’s cheek. It does no effect to the man, in return he swung his fist onto Mariko’s cheek and she fell onto the ground. In further to express his anger, he charged forward and grabbed Mariko’s shirt collar to land another punch on her face.
“What makes you so angry my boss”
He stopped what’s his hands were doing, cast his attention to the owner of the voice. A topless young man with jean on the bottom stood before them. The man released Mariko and ran toward the newcomer. “Help me finish them, they threatened me for money.”
“Are you alright?” Jurina gave Mariko a hand to get her on her feet. She whispered in her ear. “Our target is here.”
“Where? Where is he?” Mariko swept away the dust on her cloth, searching for their target in panic.
“Master...Just in front of you.” Jurina whispered in her ear again.
“I know, I just want to test your awareness against your enemy. To test whether you can sense their appearance or not. It looks like you improve a lot at this one.” Mariko scolded Jurina.
“Alright, I will finish you first.” the young man unhide his original form. A pair of saber tooth as he smiled, his deathly fingernails have been revealed. The muscle in his leg tighten as he performed a quick dash toward Mariko with his razor fingernail as a spear.
Mariko’s reaction time has delayed for half a second as the tip of his finger has already in front of her eyes as she decided to dodge. But it just stopped there, Jurina held his outstretched arm. The vampire tried to attack Jurina with his free hand. In a slow motion, Jurina released her right hand’s grasp on his wrist, with the same hand, a uppercut was struck at his elbow joint. His outstretched arm was twisted in an abnormal way. The moment he realized his arm was broken, and hanging on shoulder, instead of attacking, his arm came back to hold the malfunction hand to relieve the pain.
“Jurina, you shouldn’t interfere our fight. I was planning to test his capability.” Mariko pulled out the parang on Jurina’s back. The vampire recognized the steel, before he could beg for mercy. The slash ran straight directly over his neck. From the view of the vampire, his world was spinning then turned into full dark. No sound, no feeling, no conscious.
“Sorry, my master. I don’t think you can dodge his attack.” Jurina took the hand over parang.
“I am your master. I can dodge it just now. Don’t do this next time.” Mariko warned Jurina while staring at the man that was trembling.
Without any hesitation, the man took some cash out of his pocket and handed it to Mariko. “Please, show me some mercy. My wife and my children are depending at me to feed them.” He put his knees on the ground, tears on the face in hope that Mariko will spare his life.
Mariko turned her back against the man and left the place with Jurina.
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