Chapter 1

My brother raised me all by himself. We had no parents. As far back as I could remember, one thing had always been deeply ingrained in my mind: my brother was the only person I had in this life. He was all I had.

He became my parent, and he loved me more than anything. He did everything he could just to keep me alive. Even at such a young age, I could still clearly remember every sacrifice he made for me.

That was why I loved him more than anything else. I could lose everything, as long as I didn't lose him.

Although... our age gap was wide.

I could still picture his gentle face in my mind, along with his soft hands that were always careful whenever he hugged me—as if he were afraid I might break.

He was always there for me.

And now, he was missing for reasons no one could explain.

He had simply disappeared.

Where was he?

I remained frozen for several more seconds before finally letting go of the flyer and allowing the wind to carry it away. My hand fell limply to my side as I drew in a deep breath.

It had been ten years.

From a twelve-year-old girl to a twenty-two-year-old woman, I had been through so much during those ten years without my brother by my side—including everything I had endured in the profession I chose.

I chose to become a police officer, and he was the biggest reason I had chosen that path.

That night ended with another failed attempt to find him.

Once again, there was nothing I could do but look up at the vast sky and wish that he was still alive and that he was okay.

I would never grow tired of making that wish.

A couple of days later...

"You still haven't stopped, Silverie? Come on, your brother Trevor has been missing for ten years already!"

I lowered the picture of my brother and picked up the thick stack of printed flyers bearing his face. I had been handing them out everywhere and sticking them onto trees, hoping that someone, somewhere, had seen him.

"I believe my brother is still alive." My voice was firm despite my trembling hands and body.

Whenever I thought that maybe my coworkers were right—that my brother was truly gone and would never come back—I felt weak. But there was still a part of me that refused to give up, a part that couldn't accept that he was gone.

Somewhere deep inside me, I still believed he was alive. I just needed something. Even the smallest sign. A clue. Anything that could lead me to him.

I wouldn't give up—because he had never given up on me.

When I was young and broken, he stayed. He was there when no one else was.

I'd do whatever it took to find him.

He was my only family. Without him...

I had no one.

Kite shook his head at my words.

"Have you ever considered that maybe he really did leave you?" I pressed my lips tightly together, my grip on the flyers tightening as Glenn spoke.

"He would never do that."

I couldn't tell them the whole truth about what I had witnessed that night. Even I still couldn't bring myself to believe the mysterious event that had happened.

I knew they would only tell me that perhaps it had all been a dream—a desperate attempt to escape the truth that my brother had simply given up on me and abandoned me because he could no longer raise me.

"There's been a crime in the next town!"

Eclise said it after putting down his phone. I was certain someone had reported it to him.

My coworkers immediately sprang into action, and I had no choice but to set down the flyers and follow them.

Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the crime scene.

Chaos met us head-on.

People crowded the area, their voices overlapping—whispers, gasps, speculations, rumors spreading like wildfire. Fear clung to the air, thick and suffocating. Conversations filled every corner, the collective unease almost tangible.

We pushed through the crowd, shoving bodies aside as people strained to get a glimpse of what had happened.

Why did people always crowd around tragedy as if it were some kind of spectacle?

I positioned myself between them and the taped-off area, stretching out my arms to keep anyone from getting closer.

"Stay back," I warned, though my voice barely managed to cut through the noise.

I turned my attention back to the victim. His body lay still, moments away from being transferred onto the stretcher. I stepped closer and examined every detail, forcing myself to memorize what I could before he was completely covered by the body bag.

Pale skin. Lifeless eyes staring into nothing. His face was twisted in what looked like frozen surprise... or fear. But it was his neck that stopped me cold.

Two small puncture wounds—clean and precise—marked his flesh. Tiny, yet impossible to miss. They sat there like a cruel signature, spaced just far enough apart to resemble a colon.

No... fangs?

My stomach twisted.

His pallor wasn't natural. It was too extreme, as if someone—or something—had drained the life right out of him.

I swallowed hard, the weight of the moment pressing down on me.

What the hell is going on?

And why did it feel like this was only the beginning?

In my two years as a police officer, I had never seen a victim of a crime like this.

What was that?

I thought it would be the first and last time we'd encounter something like it.

I was wrong.

The following night, another case surfaced with the exact same pattern as the one we'd witnessed. Then another.

It kept happening throughout the week, and soon, panic began to spread among us.

Whatever—or whoever—was responsible wasn't easy to catch.

It operated at night, and we had no idea who it was, what kind of creature or person we were dealing with, what it wanted, or why it was doing this. Every victim was found dead, with no chance of survival. There were no witnesses. No one could give us even the slightest piece of information. All we could do was wait for the doctors' findings.

But the doctors concluded that the victims had been attacked by a wild animal.

And I simply couldn't believe them. Something inside me refused to believe that a wild animal was responsible for attacking people.

If it wasn't an animal...

Then what was it?

"Silverie."

I immediately straightened in surprise when I heard someone speak behind me.

It was Lieutenant Javier.

"L-Lieutenant!"

I quickly stood and saluted him, and he returned the gesture.

"I want you to join the search team. Your team will hunt down the criminal lurking at night and killing people using the same pattern. The other half will stay here on standby in case we need backup."

I don't know why, but his words slowly seemed to drown me.

A strange sense of unease settled over me, as though something dangerous was waiting for me just beyond my sight.

I packed my things and left the station to carry out the mission.

We searched.

We hunted every night.

But we could never catch the killer.

We were always too late, or it would strike somewhere far from where we were stationed.

The number of deaths continued to rise, and it was becoming alarming.

This was no longer something we could dismiss.

Fear spread throughout the entire city.

People began criticizing the police.

"Into the forest!"

I immediately stood from my seat, gripping my gun, and followed my fellow officers as we infiltrated the forest.

Strange sounds echoed through the darkness—the creaking of dry leaves, the snapping of branches, and noises we couldn't identify.

We could feel a heavy presence moving around us.

Then, one by one, my companions disappeared.

Just like that.

A single scream echoed somewhere in the distance.

Then everything fell silent.

I was alone in the middle of the forest.

"Shit! Who the hell are you?! What do you want?! Why are you doing this?!" I screamed in frustration.

My emotions were spiraling out of control. One moment, my companions had been beside me.

The next, they were gone.

I pulled the trigger and fired into the air. The gunshot echoed through the forest, sending birds and bats flying from the trees. Then everything fell silent again.

I looked around frantically, gripping my gun tightly in case whatever was out there suddenly appeared beside me.

It was dark.

I could only rely on the moonlight filtering through the leaves above. The flashlight I had brought was useless now—it had suddenly died, and no matter how many times I tried, I couldn't get it to turn back on.

This is bullshit.

I started walking, forcing myself to remain alert and listen for the slightest movement around me.

"Show yourself. Come on! Show yourself!" I shouted, trying to sound brave.

But inside, fear and anxiety were already taking over. I nearly jumped when I turned around.

A figure stood not far behind me. It was staring directly at me.

I could feel its gaze fixed on mine.

But what made the blood drain from my face—what made my entire body go weak—was when the moonlight finally illuminated its eyes.

They were glowing red.

My hands trembled as I forced myself to raise my gun and aim it at the monster.

But before I could pull the trigger, it vanished from my sight.

A hand suddenly grabbed my arm and yanked me away.

I was about to scream when I heard it make a soft, urgent sound.

"Shhh."

I immediately shut my eyes and forced myself to remain silent.

A few moments later, the hand released me.

I spun around and immediately pointed my gun at whoever had grabbed me.

Only to find an old woman staring back at me.

Moonlight illuminated her face.

She looked harmless.

Familiar, even.

Just an old woman who had somehow gotten lost in the forest.

Or was she?

Wait...

She was the woman I had spoken to the previous night.

"Why are you here? It's dangerous here. Y-You're the woman I spoke to last night, aren't you?"

I was still trembling as I slowly lowered my gun.

"You're the one I should be asking that, hija," she replied. "The forest is dangerous. It's dark, and it's the middle of the night. Why are you here?"

"I'm a police officer. We're looking for a criminal who's been attacking people at night."

"A criminal?"

She laughed.

There was something unsettling about the sound that made the hairs on my body stand on end.

"Hija, the thing you're looking for isn't merely a criminal. The criminals you lock away are not even a fraction as dangerous as creatures like them."

Her expression turned serious as she stared at me.

She tilted her head slightly, as though studying me.

"W-What do you mean? What do you know?"

She grinned at me.

It was a terrifying smile.

Then she looked up at the moon shining between the branches of two trees.

It was turning red.

For some reason, the moon itself seemed to be changing before my eyes.

I knew she had been strange the first time we met, but this...

This was an entirely different level.

She was creepy.

"Lunar eclipse. The red blood moon. La Luna Sangre. The reddening of the moon..."

Her gaze slowly returned to me.

"What you're looking for isn't merely a criminal. They come from the depths of hell. Servants of darkness. They cannot be destroyed by ordinary bullets."

She paused.

"They are vampires. Creatures of the night."

Her eyes seemed to darken.

"And blood is their life."

Something twisted violently inside my stomach.

I couldn't shake the horror spreading through me as her words sank in.

"The moon is red. The path to the other world will open."

She smiled.

"This is your chance to find the one who has been missing from you for so long."

I didn't understand what she meant at the time.

Before I could ask another question, the forest was swallowed by a defiant silence.

Then, without warning, she pushed me.

Hard.

It was only then that I realized there was a cliff directly behind me.

I screamed as I began falling.

I could see the old woman standing at the edge above me, looking down.

But as I descended farther and farther, her figure slowly disappeared from my sight.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Then I felt myself crash into—

Water.

The salty ocean burned my throat when I accidentally swallowed, the sting sharp and bitter.

I was drowning.

When I opened my eyes underwater, the moon loomed above me—huge, distant, and completely unreal.

The sounds around me blurred, as though the ocean had swallowed the world along with me.

The current dragged me deeper.

Deeper.

But I couldn't feel anything anymore.

Just the silence.

Just the moon.