More Death

Ezeikel and Kyle stepped into the market area, their minds filled with thoughts regarding their situation. After walking together for a while, the two eventually went their separate ways, and Ezeikel was left with his spiralling imaginations once more.

His pace lessened as the night breeze blew past him, pushing his hair back as his gaze seemed perpetually fixed to the road, his eyes squinted as though searching for the answers to his questions on the ground.

"I need a breakthrough. I can't keep on going like this," he repeated to himself from time to time in a limitless cycle. "Dad is already putting so much pressure on me to get a job. I need to do something about my situation soon."

As Ezeikel walked past the busy market stalls, he could see people cherrily buying and selling. Moreover, certain items were now on sale, particularly dark red decorations and ornaments. The reason for this was because a special occasion of the vampires was approaching, the day that the first vampire king in history was coronated, known as The Crimson Day.

It was a day filled with jubilation which was always celebrated on the 28th day of September. The celebration was now just a week away, and everyone, including the nobles and royals, were preparing for it in earnest.

'Everyone's getting ready to celebrate while I'm in deep trouble. This life just ain't fair,' Ezeikel thought as he stopped in front of one of the stalls. There was a man who looked to be in his thirties behind the counter. Many customers were currently patronizing his shop as he went about settling all of them.

'I haven't tried asking him for a job. Maybe I should give it a shot?' He walked towards the crowd of people and made his way through to meet the stall owner. He called out to the man, but the owner simply glanced at him before turning his attention back to the customers. It was clear from his actions that he was the only one around to settle the customers.

'I guess I'll just wait till this crowd scatters,' Ezeikel thought, stepping away from the crowd and moving to a bench placed to the side to take a seat. He wasn't the only one on the bench, since there was a young man sitted on one side and a fairly older woman sitted on the other side.

"I can't believe we didn't make it on time. Now there's so many people and we can't even get decorations," the man said, shaking his head.

"Oh, don't best yourself up, son. There's still a week before crimson day. We can just try coming earlier tomorrow," the woman replied.

'Man, why do I have to listen to this,' Ezeikel suddenly stood up from where he sat and began to walk away from the shop. 'It's obvious this line won't leave for a while. I might as well just continue my search somewhere else, but still, it's almost crimson day, and all these shops are already filled with staff to assist them. This is basically the only shop I've seen being run by only one guy.'

Ezeikel travelled throughout the market place once more, and as usual, there were no available job openings. The feeling of defeat wafted into his mind like a bad dream as he made his way to the other end of the market area, where a similar event as what happened the previous day seemed to transpire.

There was a large crowd of people gathered around the end of the market. Seeing this, Ezeikel was quickly reminded of what he had witnessed the previous day, and the sense of dread returned as well.

He wished to stop and turn back, to avoid witnessing the horror from before, but a strong sense of curiosity surpassed his fear, forcing him to walk towards the crowd and make his way into its innermost part.

"What is this?! Why are there ten shrivelled up corpses just lying here?!" A woman screamed, her habds trembling as sweat streamed down her face.

The large crowd was brimming with gossip as the citizens were filled with fear. First, it was a single victim, and now, there were ten of them. Moreover, unlike the last time, it appeared that there were those amongst the crowd that recognized and were related to a couple of the victims.

"Mary! Why?! Why did this have to happen?!" A man yelled, rushing forward to the corpses, unafraid of what might happen to him. He bent down and grabbed one of them, holding the dead body tight to his chest. "Curse whoever did this!"

There were others to rush forward as well. This time, it wasn't just someone they were familiar with, it was one of their own, their family. These were people they were just happily chatting with the previous day, and now, they were but husks of their former selves.

'This...' Ezekiel's though trailed off, he couldn't even form a complete sentence in his mind. He looked all around, and saw that the others shared the same thoughts as him. Things were started to get serious, and something needed to be done about it.

'I hope that now those damn authorities will finally step in,' Ezeikel eventually said in his mind, forcing himself to walk away from the scene. 'At least with the help of those related to the victims, they should be able to uncover clues that would lead them to the cause of this death, and then others won't have to die in the future.'

Just as he thought, the relatives of the dead victims had made an official complaint to the local police station, including the mother of the dead vampire from the prrious day. They marched towards the entrance and stepped in as a group before heading to the responsible officers to lay their complaints.

Once they were done filling reports, the citizens waited for the head officer to arrive, complaining and lamenting over the death of their loved ones.

Since in this scenerio numerous deaths had occured within a short time, the police decided that they would take the matter seriously and begin their investigation immediately. The matter was quickly handed over to the head of the police branch, a vampire who appeared to be in his late forties named Thorne Blackwood, a stern man who always strived to get the job done.

"The victims of the dead. We will need to bring them in for questioning," Thorne said, reading through the case reports.

"Of course. They are currently waiting at the entrance," the vice head of the police branch replied. Her name was Doris Kearns. She was a young vampire looking to be in her mid twenties, with her black hair tied into a ponytail while wearing the standard blue shirt with a tie and black trousers meant for any female officer.

The only thing that differentiated the various ranks in the vampire corps were the number of stars on the badge they would wear on the right side of their chest. They ranged from zero to five stars, with none being the lowest and five being the highest. Usually, the head of police branches in various towns in the West only had stars that went up by two, while those in cities in the East had stars that went up to three. Meanwhile, the police branches that were commisioned in the North and South had department heads whose stars went all the way up to five.

In this scenario, Thorne and Doris had two and one star respectively, while those below them had no stars to their badges.

Thorne sighed, shaking his head. "This is really strange, so many people dying in just two days?" He asked.

"It's been a while since something like this has happened, sir. But, I believe that we can get to the bottom of this," Doris replied.

"You're right. Come on, let's get this case over and done with," Thorne said, getting ready to head out of his office to begin his investigation.

He walked out of his office with quick steps, heading to the crowd of vampires in the station with his deputy following closely behind him. It wasn't long till he met with the crowd, and all their attention was now fixated on him.

"Officer Blackwood! Please, bring the scum that killed my daughter to justice!" One of the victims' relatives yelled. He was the man that held the female vampire named Maya that was out dead on the streets. Tears poured down his face as he couldn't contain the emotions weighing down on him.

"Officer! My daughter, she was the first victim of this heinous line of murders! Please, sir. Bring the killer to justice. Punish the criminals that killed my daughter Vanica!"

Everyone present had something to say as the police station became as loud as the local market. Meanwhile, Thorne adjusted the black hat covering his head, the stern look on his face remaining.