CHAPTER 1: ENDLESS

The night felt the longest with the complete silence in her surroundings. All she could hear was the sound of her raging heartbeat and the shortness of breath that resulted from her running with no specific direction. Even the sound of crickets she usually hears wasn’t around. It was maddening, but she kept going.

It felt endless. She couldn’t remember how long she had been running, but she had to if she wanted to live.

The woman stopped after a moment and looked around. It was dark, but her eyes had already adjusted to it from running in complete darkness. She could see the shapes of the trees, the branches scattered all around the wounds, and even the shining eyes of forest animals that seemed harmless during the day. She lost count of the times she tripped and fell, but the drive to stay alive kept her going.

She gasped loudly as she felt a cold hand on her neck, even before she thought she was safe. The man she had been fleeing appeared in front of her, his eyes glowing crimson and his gaze devoid of remorse.

The vampire hissed like an animal, his fangs protruding as he spoke.

"You should die."

The sound of the door opening woke her up. She wasn’t really surprised, as that scene has always been one of her worst nightmares whenever she tries to sleep. It was who she was before her current life, and it was also the most vivid memory she had. It doesn’t even scare her anymore, although she can perfectly feel the fear of the person in her dream.

"Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up." He quickly admitted his fault, observing the woman with a nervous smile. Their team leader is quite hotheaded, and he doesn’t want to be scolded just because he accidentally woke her up. He actually made sure to enter as quietly as possible, but the woman was woken up by the slightest sound.

Alice got up from the chair where she had surprisingly fallen asleep. She was a light sleeper, but days of no sleep tired out her mortal body. They have been busy lately thanks to pesky vampires.

She checked the time and promptly gathered her things. Humans are natural day walkers, but their job requires them to keep up with the beasts of the night that most people know as fictional characters.

"I’ll leave you out of today’s mission if you want to space out like that. I don’t mind leaving a person. " She spoke without blinking and then went out of their quarters.

"W-wait for me!"

--

Hunters usually go in groups. It was their way of preserving each other, but Alice preferred to work alone.

She did— until the organization decided to make another unit to kill high-profile vampires and made her the team leader. She didn’t take it lightly, and the people in her team suffered from it. More than half have already quit or practically begged to be reassigned, even to the most awful departments, just to get away from her. That’s how severe the situation was. Her team went from 35 members to less than ten.

Alice is sure that almost half are going to leave soon too. She did a mental count of the remaining members she had before they left. She might have hated working with people, but she wouldn’t let them get into trouble under her wing.

"Let’s review the information." She ordered while checking on their equipment to be used later.

The woman beside her pulled out a tablet and spoke, "Aurelius Norton, he is the biggest supplier of narcotics in the north. He barely shows his face to anyone, but our intel says that he would attend the party that was held by a politician in this city. He's estimated to be around 200 years old."

The only reason Alice agreed to this kind of setup was because she needed to have access to the records of high-profile vampires. She figured that she wouldn’t find the vampire she had been looking for for seven years if she continued pursuing small fry vampires.

It was the vampire that haunted her dreams, the vampire that was meant to kill her for an unknown reason. She had already searched the whole accessible database, even the ones that were already marked as dead, and still couldn’t find the person. All she knew was his face but not his name or whereabouts.

Either the man was already reduced to ashes or he was that good at hiding himself.

She could remember her past lives ever since she was young, and all of them were killed by the same person, a vampire. All she did in her past lives was run away as soon as they met that vampire, but they all faced the same fate. They were all killed, and it was the same dreadful process she had to see and experience in her dreams since it started.

But Alice wouldn’t let it happen to her. She would get to him and kill the vampire before he could.

"It’s my first time attending a masquerade ball." One spoke with excitement in his tone. Alice glared at the man before putting on her mask.

"I believe we came here for work and not to enjoy the party." Alice hated the organization for giving her "prodigy" newbies. She didn’t care if they aced all of the tests. They weren’t ready for this yet.

The car stopped, and it was the start of their act. The seven people, including Alice, were in the team, plus the back-up they had from the disposal team. Three people would stay outside, and four of them would report from the party. They couldn’t kill a high-profile person inside. They had to patiently wait until the opportunity came.

Alice casually entered as well as the others on her team. They scattered and mingled with people while trying to find their target. Vampires are easy to spot in a crowd like this. They have a certain charisma that humans are naturally drawn to, and hunters were trained to resist such a compulsion.

She could feel stares from people around her, mostly envy and desire. That was all she could see in their eyes. She was used to it, after all, Alice was aware of her looks.

Her eyes continued to scan the place until they locked gazes with a vampire. Not with her target, but with the man she has been eager to kill ever since she understood what her past lives had been like. They were all defenseless and had absolutely no idea why they were killed.

The vampire was also wearing a mask that covered his eyes, but she had seen that face a thousand times. She dreadfully remembers all the details of her killer’s face. Alice could even imagine his face without the mask. But it was the first time she saw the man with his normal eyes. It was intimidating and showed authority, but all she could feel was rage. Her hands automatically formed into fists.

"Blood moon." She heard a voice from her earpiece, which was hidden by her hair styled to the side to keep the listening device hidden. Blood Moon was their code to say that they had already found the target, but Alice didn’t respond. Not when she had the chance to save herself.

The vampire grinned and slowly approached her.

"You found me this time."