BLOOD CROWN: 030

Kaizen sauntered down the rails of stairs that led to the basement of his home, dragging along with a heavy iron chain.

It was that time of the month again. 29 of each month, to be precise. That time of the month when the darkness inside of him grew and became unbearable—a creeping dread feeling he knew too well.

Kaizen felt it in his bone; it was there—that familiar tightening of his chest and the gnawing hunger that sluggishly began to consume him from the inside and slowly made its way outside.

He walked into the basement; it was dark with a rotten smell in the air and chains hanging from the wall heavy and rushed, their links thick and malicious. He remembered the days he had spent alone in this basement, every 29 of each month, caging the monster within him from coming out to play.

Kaizen remembered the first time he shifted. He was just a 14-year-old boy who thought he was abnormal for not growing up the same way the rest of his peers did. He remembered that day vividly. He had