NAPE - 64

“But Doyoon drank my blood before.”

“Did he stop himself? Was your neck not choked?”

“...I don’t remember. I lost consciousness halfway through.”

“How was your body when you woke up?”

“I was just fine.”

“...That’s fortunate. Something serious could have happened. Especially since the target was his dietary preference...” Isabel breathed a sigh of relief.

“I gave birth to him, but I truly marvel at how strange and tough he is. A vampire walking around fine while enduring thirst is... similar to a human hiking with shingles. It’s also incredible that he’s quenched his thirst with only blood packs and iron supplements for 60 years.”

Though Bibi didn’t know what shingles were, it was clearly something quite painful. Doyoon, during his thirst cycle, would sweat and groan, looking very distressed.

“Why has he only appeased his thirst with blood packs and iron supplements for 60 years?”

“As we entered the modern era, it became a time when humans couldn’t be harmed carelessly. Honestly, it’s fine as long as you don’t get caught... but Doyoon was unlucky. About 60 years ago, he bit and killed all the humans in a red-light district. From a human perspective, one might see it as psychopathic tendencies. Anyway, he didn’t show it then, but I think he felt disillusioned with himself for not being able to control himself. After leaving the London commotion and going to Korea, he started to appease his thirst only with blood packs and iron supplements.”

Isabel checked the time and, with a satisfied look, brought over a large box. “Now, hurry and put this on.”

When she opened the lid, it contained a white mask and a dark dress, just like Isabel’s. Bibi thought deeply. Should she refuse or not? The temptation to learn more about Doyoon was overwhelmingly strong.

She made a big decision and nodded.

________________________________________

As the moon rose, the sun, which had warmly embraced the earth, fell into a brief sleep, and the hushed darkness came alive. Children of the night, honoring their parent and revealing their desires, gathered in the basement of the Tudor family mansion.

Dong. Dong.

The grandfather clock struck midnight. Bibi, wearing a white mask and black cloak, followed Isabel to the mansion’s basement.

The scale of the Tudor family’s basement was larger than she had imagined. It was reminiscent of the Catacombs in Paris. As Bibi descended the old stairs, she was slightly surprised.

Hollowed-out stones formed the cave walls, and upon closer inspection, they were all skulls. Some were shin bones, some hand bones, some rib bones. Where had they all come from?

Upon closer look, skulls are strange. When alive, encased in skin and moving, they must have been distinct individuals, beings with dignity. But in death, with flesh decayed and only gaunt bones exposed, a person’s unique characteristics were eradicated. Death was truly such a futile corrosion of life.

“Vampires don’t have much fear of death. So they keep it by their side like a romance and appreciate it. Sometimes they even worship it. Oh, of course, they do feel fear of being extinguished by silver bullets, or being eaten by someone, or experiencing pain.”

Bibi somewhat sympathized with Isabel’s explanation, but she still couldn’t understand the hobby of collecting dead animal carcasses.

“I decorated this myself,” Isabel said proudly, pointing to a heart-shaped pattern made of shin bones. She then proceeded to introduce the pirate costumes and dresses she had put on the skulls.

“You have good taste.”

“Thank you.”

Exchanging compliments amiably, the two finally arrived at the underground palace hall, formed by arched pillars.

Upon entering the lightless space, Bibi’s pupils greatly dilated. She could see a vast crowd gathered in the darkness. All were dressed in hooded cloaks and masks, just like Bibi and Isabel.

The air was heavy. Bibi felt overwhelmed by something. It was a different dimension from feeling fear or being in a frightening situation. It was like... facing an ancient tree with an unimaginable number of growth rings, having lived for an extremely long time.

Not a lush and vibrant kind of forest, but a forest of monstrous trees skilled at sucking the blood of others. Compared to these immortals who treated death as a romance, Bibi was merely a newborn sprout. Feeling herself shrink, she clutched Isabel’s hand tightly.

“It’s okay. We are all the same here. No one cares what you do here. We’re wearing masks too.”

Isabel reassured her. As she said, the vampires were too busy chatting in small groups. It wasn’t lively conversation, but a low, humming noise, like incantations, that drifted sporadically. Bibi followed Isabel cautiously, moving further inside.

Pushing through the shadow-like figures and reaching the center of the hall, she saw intricate circular equations, inverted crosses, and pentagrams drawn on the floor. It seemed to be drawn with red ingredients, mixed with the blood of various animals—for example, goats, cats, toads, snakes, and so on.

In the middle of the unique drawing was a tall stone altar decorated with roses. The carved figures of fire and angels at the very bottom were impressive. All the angels had their arms raised upward and their mouths open, as if crying out. They were so detailed they looked as if they could come alive at any moment.

Lost in admiring the altar, Bibi saw a small light flickering like a heat haze. Turning her head, she saw a group of elderly humans walking, relying on small LED lights. They were bare-faced, without masks.

Bibi’s eyes widened in surprise. It was like seeing well-aged jerky wandering around in a cage filled with predators.

“That’s right. Over there is the Prime Minister, over there is the President of Paris, and a Chinese Communist Party official.” Isabel recognized their faces and recited their identities.

“Can humans come to a place like this?”

“They probably consider it a privilege. Only ten humans out of the 7 billion population can participate in this ritual. Due to the treaty that vampires don’t interfere in human affairs, we can’t invite any more than that. These are the ones we minimally interact with to supply us with humans we can eat.”

Indeed, there was no fear in the humans’ expressions. They proudly displayed their trust and pride that the beasts wouldn’t harm them.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Elizabeth Bathory, Alistair Crowley.” Courageously, they even offered polite greetings. The vampires who received the greetings merely nodded arrogantly, not mixing words with the humans.

Dong. Dong.

The bell rang again. Torches lit up all around. Everyone stopped talking. Hundreds of vampires gathered in concentric circles before the altar, like a single organism.

The illuminated altar glowed with a brilliant light, like the sun. The carved angels also gleamed from the light. They looked as vivid as if they were stuck in hellfire, screaming for their god to save them.

But this was the darkness of the underground, the stronghold of desire. A natural world where only appetite reigned. In this vampire den, where even God lost his omnipotence, good and evil were useless, and no moral standards could be applied.

“Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas, Pestis.”

“Remember the Black Death.”

The vampires circled the altar, mumbling unknown phrases.

“The Black Death?”

“It’s a disease that killed half of Europe’s population. Everyone thought the disease spread because of rats, but actually, a vampire named ‘Pestis’ was the cause. It seemed like we were going to witness human extinction. From then on, vampires created an implicit rule not to interfere in human affairs. After scientific technology developed, we even made an agreement with humans.” Isabel kindly explained.

The crowd surrounding the altar stirred and parted like the Red Sea. A tall man walked out from among the vampires. He wore a crow mask with a conical beak-like protrusion around his mouth and nose, and round glass eyes.

Not only his face, but not even a glimpse of his eyes or a single strand of his hair was visible, making him seem bizarre and chilling, like facing the Grim Reaper. The man held a staff with a sharp blade and slowly ascended the stairs, dragging the hem of his black cloak.

When he reached the top of the altar, the vampires knelt on one knee in reverence. Bibi awkwardly bent down, following suit.

“The Executioner.”

“Our envoy has arrived.”

A voice mixed with awe came from somewhere. Bibi flinched and lifted her head. The Executioner? Was the one wearing that crow mask the Executioner?

Clank.

The moment she instinctively wanted to leave, the sound of chains came from somewhere. Two humans stumbled, pulling a cart, and approached the altar. On the cart was a large box, from which a man with a hood over his head crawled out.

“Ugh, where am I...!” He couldn’t distinguish his surroundings properly, perhaps not having adjusted to the darkness. Regardless, the humans silently grabbed the man, dragged him, and pulled him onto the altar.

“I shall now recite the crimes of this sacrifice. Child sexual assault, rape and murder of his wife in front of her husband, drug dealing. This is a beast of a man who can never again be released into society.”

“What? Who are you people? And who are these people?! Is this a masked gathering?”