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4

...eternally young figure staring back at you in the shattered reflection of the display case. The eyes held a depth of weariness, a silent testimony to a life spent navigating the shadows between duty and defiance.

As Darius Blackthorn studied his reflection, the fleeting memories of struggles past intertwined with a sense of reluctant acceptance. He'd fought against the chains of servitude, yearned for liberation from the clutches of unseen overlords, yet found himself eternally tethered to their whims.

His mind raced, recalling nights spent executing orders, feigning compliance while burning with an unquenchable thirst for freedom. The emptiness of abandoned aisles mirrored the void within, a perpetual hunger for independence.

But tonight, amidst the decrepit remains of a forgotten convenience store, Darius Blackthorn's reflection in the fractured glass reminded him of the resilience etched within his immortal essence—a determination to survive against all odds, an unyielding spirit amid the unending night.

It looks like they used the entrance you made to get in, but they closed it again so no one from the road can see their flashlight.

You are in the middle of the three shelves of the abandoned convenience store, invisible in the darkness.  On the opposite side of the store, a small hallway leads to three doors: a locked bathroom ahead, the office where you slept to the right, and what you assume is a storage room to the left.  Mortals are trying to open it.

You count four of them: a man and a woman in their twenties, a very old woman, and an older, frail man with gray hair, even smaller than the old woman.

The younger woman whispers something in Spanish that you don't understand, and then forces open the storage room door with a clang of metal.

"There's almost nothing here," the young man says, shining his flashlight into the storage room.  He's carrying a lot of weight: crowbar, backpack, water bottles, flares...those are his flares!  They must have found your Honda.

Whoever they are, they are either foolish or desperate to bring in a woman in her seventies (at least) and a guy who isn't cut out for this kind of work.  You are surprised that they are so far north without having made contact with someone before.  The younger woman begins to fiddle with the bathroom handle, which is located between the stock room and the office.  Bored and undaunted, the old man limps along one of the shelves.

And his Beast screams behind his eyes.

Other vampires paralyze their prey with the ecstasy of the Kiss, but the Hecata Clan is not so lucky.  On the other hand, he's heard that a good choke makes people still.  However, you will need to get the perfect timing right.  He waits until the others enter the storage room, taking most of the light with them, and then he rushes towards the old man, hands ready to cover his mouth so he doesn't scream.

Although the man is not in good shape, he worries, even as he approaches, that he is not strong or capable enough to restrain him before his canines are revealed.

The old man turns, sees you, and lets out a scream of terror.  Before he can escape, a shadowy figure appears in the hallway, gliding silently.  With a quick movement, the figure grabs the old man and throws him to the ground, immobilizing him.

You notice distractedly that the woman's body is almost drained of blood.  Then you turn around and see something scary in the bathroom.

Members of the Nosferatu Clan are never known for their beauty, but this one is particularly repulsive: a tall, hunched being with a misshapen head and pointed ears that resemble those of a demon.  His dark, empty eyes seem to contemplate death.

Next step...

"At the end of the day, we are weaker than them," says Olivia, observing a trio of teenagers in the 7-Eleven parking lot. She takes a sip of blood from her giant cup, and then uses it to point at the mortals. "I mean, spiritually, we're weaker. We're like victims of scurvy or something — we can't cure ourselves."

"The Beast," Darius says.

"I'm not going to ask you what you did under its influence," Olivia says. "Or what you did on your own and blamed it on the Beast. But I know the Beast will devour you if you're not careful. It will devour your soul and dwell behind your eyes. When that happens to one of us, the Camarilla calls them wraiths and hunts them."

"What about the Tremere?" you ask.

"I don't know," Olivia says. "I never had the courage to ask."

Next step...
The Ventrue—the mindless wight that had once been a Ventrue—spots you. But then it turns, and though you cannot see the tough-looking Gabriel and the old woman, you know that they're cornered in the storage room. As the dead woman's blood runs down its chin, the creature weighs its options. It turns toward the storage room, moving awkwardly because a huge iron chain is fastened around one of its legs. Then something lashes out of the darkness and the wight reels back, more in surprise than pain. Gabriel strikes the creature again with his crowbar.

That won't be enough to fend off a monster like this. These people will be dead in moments, and then the fallen Ventrue will turn its mindless rage on you.

It looks like you're going to have to risk your own skin. You throw an empty can at the Ventrue's head, then let the blood flow through you, occulting you from sight, as you vanish behind a shelf. The monstrous thing howls and rushes you, abandoning the mortals.

But you're easily able to vanish in the darkness of the unlit convenience store. You slide around another shelf, then spot the younger man, Jake, creeping forward to retrieve the dazed old guy, Arthur—almost under the creature's nose. You find an abandoned and long-expired box of Frosted Flakes and throw it, distracting the fallen Ventrue as Jake scoops up his elder.

Then the old woman, Ethel, shouts, "There's a way out!"

The Ventrue runs for the voice but gets caught on its chain again. You follow the men back to the storage room. Ethel has raised the door of the loading dock. As the Ventrue rips apart the convenience store, you and the survivors race outside. You slam the door shut, and it locks with a satisfying click.

Next, the adrenaline-fueled escape left you all panting but safe for the moment.

"It is his place now," Ethel says, watching the shadow of the Ventrue as it shambles through the abandoned convenience store. She says something else in an indigenous language that you don't understand, her hands gripped tight around her cross.

Then she grabs Jake's shoulder before he goes back for Arthur. His shoulder is hurt, and he has a cut on his scalp. The cross doesn't move you, but you get away from the blood.

Arthur moans, and the two of them help him stand on his own.

You have a thousand questions and one problem. Where did the Ventrue come from? Who chained it up? Was it imprisoned because it had become a wight, or did it lose its mind during its imprisonment?

And what are you going to do with these people, who just saw a bloodstained, bat-eared monster kill a woman?