Vamp!

Vamp! II - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - The Two Walk the Path of the Eater, and...

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Rudy was dreaming.

There was a story unfolding in his dream.

A re-enactment of his past, caused by the memories etched into his mind.

This was why the boy could allow himself to suffer. Because the scene before him was both a dream and reality.

Because its nature as a dream made it impossible for him to resist.

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"My name is Theodosius M. Waldstein. Call me Theo."

He was dreaming. These were the words of the vampire before him, who wore a gentle smile.

With that image as the start, images from the past began to weave themselves into a tale before his eyes. Sometimes in fast motion, other times slowly, and yet other times, repeated over and over as though in a proud boast.

But it was fun.

The images he saw were from much happier days.

It was partly the joy of having made a new friend. But if he were to be honest, looking back on it with hindsight in consideration, it was perhaps closer to a sense of amusement derived from his feeling of superiority to the rest of the world.

Having met a vampire--having broken out of the limited frame of the mundane world--Rudy felt as though he had become someone special.

The moment he saw Theodosius--Theo--transform into a flock of bats, he became the hero of a fantastic story. The hero of the tale he created for himself. His childhood friend Theresia, ever by his side, was probably the best fit for the role of heroine.

This was what he thought.

To be frank, perhaps he had never thought this way at all. But now, as he thought back on it, that was the only possibility that presented itself to him.

'If I never thought that way... then I never would have done such a thing. I never would have stupidly brought him to the village...'

The boy was disappointed. He had managed to befriend someone from what seemed like another world entirely, yet there was no audience to witness it.

As he became dissatisfied, he began to grow greedy.

'I'll introduce this vampire to other people.'

He was certain: To be friends with a vampire was an astounding feat.

'I'll act as a bridge between the world of humans and vampires.'

He was already playing out the story of his own heroics in his head. A selfish tale where everything ended happily ever after, with himself on the receiving end of endless praise from the people.

But in the end, the boy's failure was not the fact that he trusted a vampire.

It was merely that he was unlucky.

That the vampire he just happened to encounter was Theodosius M. Waldstein, a fiend and monster without peer. This was the start of the tragedy.

There was screaming.

Blood, flesh, death.

They were dying. They were all being murdered.

In his dreams, his family and his friend were being killed.

"Why..."

"Why... why did you kill them?!"

"Tell me. Why?! What did I...? What did they ever do to you?!"