Crimson Flame ~ Book 1 - The Royal Blood Collection

Chapter 1

This world was not ours anymore. It all started with a mistake, a suggestion perhaps but something so sinister and deadly that it left this world quaking with fear. Everyone looked over their shoulders now, everyone rushed home before the sun fell to the horizon.

Death lingered everywhere. The icy cold grip of the afterlife was always waiting for us, one mistake and death would take us. No one mourned the dead, more grateful that it was someone else rather than them.

Rules were different now, the government made employers compliant to the changes that had occurred in our world and failure to comply was met with terrible punishment. The government believed that they needed everybody alive and they weren't prepared to risk even one person. Employers were always compliant, I was yet to hear of someone who wasn't. Mostly due to their own fear, they'd shut their shops when the sun started to set.

There wasn't a care for a customer that might be mid-purchase, just boot them out the door and then lock it. Though it was rare to see anyone venturing out to go shopping so close to dusk. Midday was the peak time for doing anything and everything. The sun was at its highest and it was the opportune time to get life done.

I've never liked the gloomy days, the overcast sky and the drabness to the surroundings that the winter months gave. There was something about the sunny and bright days that was so refreshing and tantalizing, so perfect. So safe.

Winter was hell on the government and their rules, the sun would set so much earlier which meant that our time roaming the land was short. Moreover, it was hell on us as well. I knew a lot of people that bought their stock in surplus during the last days of summer, only venturing out of their homes to go to work. I was yet to submit to that way of life, my neighbor always said it would happen one day soon. I'd get prepper fever. It was similar to the doomsday preppers but different. Different in the way that our doomsday wasn't a cataclysmic disaster, it was something that was alive.

It walked. It breathed. It drank blood.

They could have the blood of anything but their favored food was humans. We were like a delicacy to them. We were an addiction.

Hiding from them didn't mean their demise, they survived on any form of blood but for the long term, they needed to feast upon what pumped inside humanity.

Fights began, sides were formed and it created an unholy mess. Some said that the creature needed to integrate into society and find an alternative food source rather than killing humans. Others said that the creature needed to be exterminated before it plagued the Earth. If only they'd listened to them.

But even in despairing times, hope can be found. It is said that the creatures cannot form a path for their future. They fight between themselves, bickering over the stupidest things. Of course, not all things are stupid. They cannot agree on anything and I often hear the ungodly fights that erupt late at night.

They fight, yet they were civilized. I'd even go so far as to say that they were classy. There was an elegance to them that we could not match. I'd seen a few walking down my street and it was like watching a show for the refined and well dressed.

Many feared them, it was justified but in a way, it was unnecessary too. The creature lusted for our blood but they never broke into our homes to get to us. We had bars and locks, we had alarms and spotlights but they were all pointless. No one had ever suffered an attack in their own home. No, the creature always took the fool that dared to step out of their home of a night. Sometimes it was sheer luck on their part, sometimes they watched the repeated foolishness. I was not a fool yet with the weather turning, I was going to be in trouble soon. At least I wouldn't be the only one.