1982: Small Town Bloodline Records

The hunters in the reeds raised their guns and formed a straight line at three points.

This is a simple shooting range converted from an empty hotel room.

The only light source is an incandescent lamp without a lampshade overhead, and there are large and small cardboard boxes piled up in the corner, but even so, it took a lot of talking to persuade the proprietress to lend it to them.

Ravenna raised his wrist, aimed at the target in front of him, and pulled the trigger of the pistol with the silencer installed.

After a few bangs, Ravenna flicked his wrist, stared at the few scattered bullet holes in the center of the target with dissatisfaction, and then practiced again.

That's what their family taught: as long as you can hold a gun and cast spells, you shouldn't let up.

Husserl walked in during the intermission. He glanced imperceptibly at the bullet-ridden target, and finally set his eyes on Ravenna, who was sitting on a cardboard box drinking water.

"Is there anything important?" Ravenna's face is always reminiscent of derogatory words such as acrimony, especially when he is not in a good mood, and no one is willing to lean on his side.

Except Husserl.

Husserl has always been the one who doesn't care about anything, even if he does things that are more terrifying than Ravenna.

"That's activated." He handed Ravenna a towel. "Wipe the sweat. It's not fun to catch a cold in this weather."

Ravenna took the towel, "Thank you." He wiped his face and neck carefully, then looked at Husserl suspiciously, as if trying to discern the authenticity of what he said, "Are you sure there is no problem?"

"It shouldn't be a problem, I did it very carefully. I used the commonality between the two to disguise the curse as a non-disclosure agreement. Even my teacher was deceived when I met him for the first time. See through it casually." Husserl consoled, "Even if you find out, it's too late, the curse will quickly melt the victim's internal organs, causing him to die quickly."

Ravenna obviously still had concerns, "I don't want our secrets to be spread everywhere." He stood up as if thinking of something, "If that vampire embraces her at this time..."

The guy with Carl Morrison happens to be a vampire.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt it made sense. He didn't care about cleaning up the mess here, so he wanted to take Husserl together to deal with the girl who probably didn't die.

"Calm down, have you forgotten what I said? That vampire, Edgar Fogelsang, is an outlier among vampires." Husserl patted his chest confidently, and once again held Ravenna Pressed on the box, "So far, he hasn't had a first hug with anyone. I don't like to create vampires of the same kind. I don't believe he will make an exception for such a little human girl."

Several hours had passed since the incident, and Karl was anxiously staring at the closed door in front of him, for fear of missing a little bit of change.

The room was too quiet, and there was no light leaking through the crack of the door.He paced back and forth, as if doing so would calm his uneasiness.

If it wasn't for the inappropriate scene, he would probably think of the man outside the delivery room.

"Calm down." Regarding this, Edgar seemed much calmer than him.

Knowing that he was too anxious, Carl stopped, "I'm a little worried." As if afraid of being misunderstood by the other party, he added, "I believe in Eugene, I just..."

According to Edgar, a true first hug is a very deliberate act.

So the moment Daisy reluctantly nodded, Eugene sternly drove them out, making sure that only the two of them were left in the room.

Carl leaned against the hallway wall, "just feeling so powerless."

He tried every means to free Daisy from the threat of death, but he failed in the end.

To ease the ubiquitous suffocation, Carl asked the old question again: "What is a first embrace?"

"The first embrace is the establishment of an unparalleled intimacy between vampires and humans." Edgar answered his question again, but the answer was subtly different from before, "From a human to a dark creature, psychologically There will definitely be a gap, how to find the balance between reason and instinct to maintain personality depends on the teachings of the vampire who transformed him."

"Todd's going to be like that, it's got to do with Ignatz, right?"

Most of the blood descendants of Ignatz showed completely different personalities from when they were humans. It is not difficult to imagine what this green-eyed vampire did to them: destroy their original personalities, and then build from the ruins. More twisted souls.

Edgar looked along the window in the corridor today, "Yes, some vampires, including Ignatz, will exercise mind control over their descendants at that time to ensure that they regard serving him as the most important thing. "

"Have you ever done this?" Carl knew it was wrong, but when he thought of the words "unmatched intimacy", he couldn't help but feel sour.

He was jealous, jealous of the blurry vampire for no reason.

"Have you ever hugged someone before?"

Edgar's answer was beyond his expectation, "No." He shook his head, meeting Carl's shocked eyes, "Really, never."

It was that kind of look again, like sadness and emotion, reminiscing about some past that he didn't know, but it finally fell on him.

He was looking at him with extremely focused eyes, as if there was nothing else in it except him.

"Why?" Stared by these glacial eyes, the poisonous vines in Carl's heart gradually withered.

Ignoring the threat lurking in the shadows, Edgar stroked his hair, "Because I once swore to dedicate everything I have to that person, and since that's the case, it's impossible for me to have the same behavior as others Relationship."

Even during the time when he lost himself and made many mistakes with Ignatz, he kept his word.

"No matter what?"

"Yes, so today you should thank Eugene for being in this place. I will never break my oath."

After speaking, he took Carl's hand and walked towards the stairs.

"Let's not bother. Newborn vampires are extremely sensitive to the outside world and can be easily hurt, so take extra care of them. This will probably last for a few days. As long as Eugene doesn't speak out, it means your friend is fine."

Transformation into a vampire is only a moment, but the subsequent teaching will last for a long time.

It will take at least three or four days, and it will take more than a month at the longest, depending entirely on the leading party.

Edgar pulled him into a simply furnished room, "Go to sleep first."

"but……"

Seeing what Karl wanted to say, the vampire didn't criticize him, but just stared at him gently.

"Your body is still human. I can see that you are reaching your limit, so now you must rest."

Carl wanted to say how do you know.

He tried his best not to fall down, but the vampire easily saw through his exhaustion.

In the brightly lit workshop in the deepest part of the underground store on Barceló Avenue, Ignaz was sitting at the table, with an old book that looked quite old spread out in front of him.

The cover of this book is made of leather, which looks like it will fall apart at any time, and the yellow and brittle pages are covered with some twisted snake-shaped characters in green ink-if Edgar is here, it must be Recognized that the writing was identical to those on the manuscript he had found at Webster Manor.

In order to escape persecution, the special characters invented by the spellcasters in the Middle Ages condensed the wisdom of the spellcasters at that time, but they have been almost lost in the passage from generation to generation.

During those years as an apprentice to Ray Hope, Ignatz learned how to read and write the script, and taught it to many, including Edgar, over the centuries, But that's all.

"Searching for the Essence of the Soul." Ignatz read the title of the page.

He read the things in the book word by word as if he had never read these things before.

It turns out that spellcasters have noticed the relationship between soul and body since so long ago—no matter how powerful spells they can use, the human body is fragile.

In order to get rid of the shackles of fragile flesh, many ambitious spellcasters began their own attempts.

In the past few hundred years, he was too obsessed with immortality including the body, but forgot that there was such a method, until he was reminded by that vulgar man Peg.

I don't know how long it took until someone knocked on the door before he broke away from his thoughts.

Ignatz threw Peg, who had lost a lot of blood, to the care of other vampires, and stayed in this place by himself.

Generally speaking, no one would dare to disturb him at this time.

He looks towards the door.

Not the dead Briana.

"It's me, father."

Melinda Croft stood respectfully by the door, never daring to take a step beyond.

Every vampire who comes here should know where they can go and where they can't, and this is one of the areas that is absolutely not allowed-if you break in, turning into ashes is only the slightest punishment.

"It's you."

Melinda saluted, "Do we still need to supply potions to those humans?"

The "holy water" that turned this small town into a ghost town is just a by-product of an experiment: its function is to turn people into vampires in the most common way, but because of other ingredients, the process will be infinitely prolonged and convenient The experimenter observes.

Ignatz made it, used it a few times and found nothing, until this time, he found a whole new use for it.

Nothing could be more dramatic than watching unwitting humans drink a highly poisonous potion.

"No need." He smiled secretly, "Melinda, prepare something, I want to go out and have a look."

The female vampire complied, and prepared things to go out as he said.

Go out.

Ignatz could hardly contain the smile on his face.

Then it was up to him to find the perfect container for his dear teacher.

He already has a goal, as long as he can get that body, everything will be accomplished.

Near the early morning of the next day, snow fell outside again. At first, it was just a few fine snow particles, and then it gradually turned into thick flakes the size of an adult's fingernail.

A thick layer of snow had accumulated on the window lattices, while the glass windows were covered with thick and solid ice flakes, which would not break even if they were knocked with hands.

Edgar stood outside Karl's room for a long time, motionless, like a loyal sentinel.

Until some invisible signal woke him up, he took out a metal cylinder from his pocket, took out the special chalk inside with his hand wearing a leather glove, and drew a few weird symbols on the door of Karl's room .

The symbols formed a neat circle—if something forced its way in while he was away, at least he would know it from the outside.

The door of Eugene's room was still open.He thought for a while, and drew the same symbol on the Carmen there before, then put the chalk back into the tube and put it back in his pocket.

Before leaving, he knocked on Mr. Morrison's door.

Because it was still early, the middle-aged man took a while to come out and open the door.

He was wearing a nightgown, rubbing his sleepy eyes, and met the face of the blond vampire by accident.

"What's the matter?" He kept looking behind Edgar, unexpectedly seeing nothing, "Is Carl not with you? Where's Eugene? Is this... going to leave? "

His face is haggard, his eyes are swollen, and there is still stubble on his chin, but he still looks optimistic-losing his wife, about to say goodbye to his only child, and the sadness of leaving his hometown is accumulating day after day In my heart, it made him look more and more old, and the fire a few days ago was almost the last straw that broke the camel's back.He didn't expect those things that were chasing them to be so impatient. As soon as they left the house with their front feet, the fire broke out with their back feet.

Even though he knew that he would never go back again, when he thought that the traces of their past life were all

"...Did something happen?" After going through so many crises and having his sense of smell trained a little bit, he keenly sensed something different.

Facing Mr. Morrison's question, Edgar didn't hide anything, and simply told what happened last night.

"Daisy Willard had an accident, and Eugene first embraced her to save her life, but newborn vampires are fragile, and you all have to stay here until her condition stabilizes."

After hearing all this, Mr. Morrison forced a smile, trying to make a bad joke, "So, I'm the last human here?" He also saw the weather outside the window, "It's snowing. "

"Carl is resting in his room." Edgar said the message he really cared about. "He's too tired, so I let him rest."

Mr. Morrison thought for a while, then agreed in a low voice, "Well, I think so, he looks like he's cornered by something, but I'm sure he won't tell me if I ask him."

"Please help him prepare some food, human food, he should need this." Edgar made his own request to him, "Eugene is not very convenient now, during the time I'm away, no matter who comes Don't open the door. Just wait, 10 minutes at most, and I'll definitely be back. If Carl wakes up, just leave everything to him, ordinary vampires are no match for him."

Hearing the heavy warning behind the words, the middle-aged man responded in a low voice, "I see...I won't open the door to anyone, is that enough?"

"I am leaving."

After explaining the necessary things, Edgar didn't leave the main entrance, opened the window and jumped directly into the garden.

His figure was very light and agile, and he didn't even leave deep footprints on the snow.Mr. Morrison had been standing by the window watching his figure go before returning to his room.

Edgar's boots creaked as they stepped on the snow.

The snowflakes fell on his hair and shoulders, but they didn't melt at all.Without looking at these things, he looks like an ordinary passerby.

In just over a month, the streets of Brodika Town were completely empty: blood-sucking monsters were lurking in the dark, the government did nothing and even concealed the truth, most young people left the town, and the remaining old people, women and The children were terrified, sad and helpless, they could only shut themselves in the house and pray that the long night would pass as soon as possible.

Edgar was walking on the empty street. When he passed a dark alley, his figure flashed, and he entered the dirty and narrow alley, going deeper.

Today is Tuesday and tomorrow is Wednesday, the day Ignaz leaves Barcelo.

Before that, he was going to meet a vampire, a vampire who was oppressed by Ignatz.

At the end of the dark alley, there is a dilapidated small door.

He first knocked three times quickly, and then knocked twice at a slower speed. After repeating this three times, the small door opened a crack, revealing an extremely thin pale face.

The vampire inside the door saw his face clearly, and his hunchbacked body flinched——Edgar saw clearly that his pupils were loose, like a piece of cloudy glass, without any brilliance in it.

If it weren't for being able to smell the dark creatures emanating from his body, Edgar would have regarded him as an ordinary human old man.

"Knight's head, lance, rose, Spain in the fifteenth century."

After confirming that the signal was not enough, the vampire's nose twitched twice, and then he said in a hoarse voice: "...Yes, it's you, you're here, Mr. Fogelsang."

"It's me." Edgar said slowly, "We have an appointment to meet at this time, and you will tell me how to sneak into Yige..."

"Don't say that name!" The vampire screamed nervously. After Edgar stopped talking, he moved his nose vigilantly again, but he still didn't let go of his slender fingers gripping the latch.

Edgar was silent, and he muttered again, "Don't say that name, he'll hear it, he'll really hear it." Even though his face was so wrinkled, Edgar could tell This is the look of fear.

"Come in, come in and say." He released the latch and beckoned Edgar to come in with him, "Don't be outside, his eyes are everywhere, everywhere."

Inside the door was a low passage that Edgar had to bend over to pass through, and he walked in behind the thin and crooked vampire.

The air along the way was hot and humid, with an indescribable rancid smell, as if something had rotted and fermented at the end.

They walked for a long time until they came to the low living room.

Relying on the vampire's excellent night vision ability, Edgar walked to the round table and sat down.

There were traces of burning on the table, and there was a candle that was about to burn out in the center.

"Mr. Fogelsand, would you like something to drink?"

Before Edgar could reply, the shriveled vampire fumbled to get a bottle from the shelf, and poured it into the cracked glass goblet.

"It's not a good thing, but please don't mind. It's been a long time since I have entertained a fellow of your kind." He pushed the wine glass to Edgar, "Please use it."

The blackened liquid in the cup had solidified somewhat, Edgar did not show any disgust, he took a sip calmly and then put it down.

"Your eyes can't see." He said softly. He had noticed from the very beginning that the vampire in front of him was blind, and he relied on his sense of smell and hearing to tell where he was, "before or after."

The vampire laughed lowly, his laughter was hoarse and crazy, "After, it's after." His tone became more nostalgic and sad, "I accidentally killed a young woman when I was very young, in order to avoid being chased by the witcher. Kill, I said goodbye to the blood father and came to this small town. How ridiculous, at that time I was full of joy, thinking that I had escaped from the clutches of the demon hunter, but I didn't know that this was the beginning of another bad luck."

Ignatz Dulles rules over the town, every vampire who comes here must see him, and he is no exception.

"I served him for a long time—even though I didn't know why, but I just did it, until a certain opportunity came, I woke up, and I found that I was actually controlled by him." Cold, he trembled twice, "He controls us, makes us think that his service is the highest honor, and conducts cruel experiments on us. He draws our blood and extracts some kind of substance. I thought it was nothing, but soon I found that I was aging—vampires can actually age, can you believe it? In that hell, I saw the same kind of people who had the same experience as me. Some of them were not voluntarily transformed, but were transplanted with vampire internal organs The blood was drained when it was between a man and a vampire."

"You escaped."

The vampire laughed, with a little smugness in his laughter, "Yes, I escaped, I burned two of my kindred with the sun's rays, and used their ashes to disguise myself as mine—he's so arrogant anyway, he can't remember The servant's life and death. Do you know? That person can see everything happening outside through our eyes." He pointed to his dull eyes, "I blinded my own eyes so that he couldn't see me Where are you."

After discussing what the vampires have been through, it's their turn to cooperate.

"Why are you doing this?"

Edgar asked the most important question.

What on earth made the vampire in front of him willing to help him against Ignatz Dulles.

He said that dark creatures are born liars. If the vampire in front of him is lying, then what awaits him may be a more painful lesson than decades ago.

"That man, he's gone mad." The vampire showed a look of fear, "He's gone mad! In order to give that tumor eternal life, he's going to sacrifice us all. Did you see what he did? He clearly There is no need to transform so many people, but this small town is almost becoming a ghost town, if it continues like this, no one of us will be able to escape, whether it is humans or vampires!"

After Edgar closed the door, Karl tossed and turned on the bed for a long time, unable to fall asleep anyway.

The body was exhausted to the extreme, but the spirit was still excited. He turned over. The bed board was very hard. Because of the long-term rain and snow, the quilt was slightly damp, and he could not warm up after lying in it for a long time.

He tried to close his eyes, and opened them again after a few minutes, staring at the ceiling in the darkness—there was a large damp mark on the ceiling, with slightly yellowed edges, like an irregular map.The map, he thought of Edgar's plan again, in short, a series of things passed by in groups in his mind, and he couldn't get a clue no matter what.

He thought of Daisy saying she had heard Todd's voice, more than once.

Obviously at that time he watched him get on that train with his own eyes, and he could even recall the despair and fear in his heart when the fingers he was holding were separated.

"Are you still looking at us?" He whispered into the air, with a strange light shining in his gray-blue eyes, "Todd, are you still looking at us?"

Unexpectedly, there was no response, and he smiled self-deprecatingly.

"You know, Daisy misses you so much, so much. I miss you too, but maybe not as much, because I have too many things to worry about."

When the conversation started, he couldn't stop, no matter whether anyone was listening, he continued, "Your father, he has reached a cooperation with the witcher and is investigating the truth of this town. Soon, Justice will be done to you soon. And your mother, who was turned into a vampire, we haven't seen her again for a while. She...she may not be the person you remember." And if necessary If not, they will definitely kill her.

The only answers to him were the wind outside the window and his rough breathing.

Thinking of Daisy who had lost so much blood and was still alive or dead in another room, his heart felt as if it had been cut by something.

"I'm sorry." His throat was choked by something, "I didn't fulfill my promise, I didn't protect Daisy. She was cursed and almost died."

He sank himself into the cold blanket and curled up into a ball.

Suddenly, it seemed as if something gently brushed against his cheek, so light that he thought it was his own illusion.

"are you still here?"

He immediately lifted the quilt, wanting to see what kind of things existed in the darkness: there was nothing, exactly as he expected, only the cold air.

Extremely disappointed, he fell back to the bed again, closed his eyes, and waited for sleepiness to fall.

After lying down for nearly an hour, he finally managed to drift off to sleep.

The familiar feeling flooded his heart again, just like dreaming about the long underground corridor in the past, this time he was very clear that he was dreaming.

Another dream about the past.

At first it was a long stretch of darkness.

The moment the darkness suddenly disappeared, he saw the blood-colored moon hanging in the sky, and the lavender mist surrounded him, looking extremely ominous.

He moved his body tentatively, and when he found himself unable to move, he looked down and saw a huge magic circle drawn with dried blood on the ground, surrounded by men and women wearing linen robes whose faces could not be seen clearly.

There is a silver badge on the neckline of the linen robe: it is round, with the totem of the sun printed on the inner circle, and in the center of the sun is a pair of simple eyes, as if watching all the creatures on the ground all the time.

Countless tentacles protruded from the magic circle and wrapped around his body—he saw toes that resembled birds, and saw falling white feathers. It was obvious that this was not a human body.

While he was struggling to escape, a man who seemed to be the leader of the group stepped forward.

He took off his hood, revealing a fairly handsome face - they should be about the same size, but because he was entangled in the air by those tentacles, the man had to look up at him.

The black-haired and blue-eyed man's eyes were full of madness, and this look made him feel very uncomfortable-later he knew how to describe this feeling, like the prey of a poisonous snake.

The man wanted to touch him, but he had to stop in mid-air because of the fear in his eyes, and he didn't dare to touch his body.

"We've got you." There was imperceptible cruelty in his words, "We've got you."

The screen went black, and he stood there silently, waiting for a new scene to appear.

Going back in time, back to a more distant past.

In the dark days, I feel unexpectedly at ease.

The ancient stone roads, the smelly city, and the curfew era, the streets were empty, and the dim light of kerosene lamps was like duckweed in the water, which floated away and then dispersed.

He was walking along a winding dark alley with a certain person. The whole body of that person was hidden in a wide cloak, so he couldn't see clearly.

At the end of the dark alley, a coquettish woman is waiting.

As if she didn't notice his existence, she skillfully raised her arms and wrapped them around the neck of the man in front of her.

"Honey, you finally came to see me..." Before she could finish her sentence, the man in the cloak bit her throat.

The sound of gurgling and swallowing was very clear in the darkness, and he waited quietly against the cold stone wall for the vampire's meal to end.

After an unknown amount of time, the vampire finally raised its head from the woman's neck.

He could hear the woman's faint heartbeat and breathing—the woman was not dead, and in order not to cause trouble, vampires generally would not kill their prey.

"I've kept you waiting for so long." She had a nice voice, deep and smooth, with a slight smile.

He didn't make a sound, his eyes fell on the sleeping woman.

The vampire's face was hidden under the wide hood, only the blood-stained lips and delicate jawline could be seen clearly.

After a few hours, the woman will wake up automatically, forget everything that happened tonight, and no longer remember what the vampire did to her.

"You are different from her, no matter what, I will only have you alone." Sensing his eyes, the vampire walked towards him step by step and stretched out his hand.

The moon pierced through the clouds, and the silvery brilliance fell on the world.

This is the time for creatures in the dark, and under such beautiful moonlight, they are allowed to do anything.

He opened his mouth to speak, but what came out was not human language, but a sharp hiss.

Even so, the vampire showed no signs of impatience or disgust.He looked up, and the hood slipped a little.

Glacier-transparent blue eyes stared at him tenderly.

He saw himself reflected in it—grotesque, not human in any way.

"No matter how much time passes, I will only have you, even if we can't be together every moment, nothing can separate us."

He doesn't remember how he responded, maybe he said something, maybe he didn't say anything.

"Even if you don't show up again one day, I will find you."

……

As if he had been punched by someone, he suddenly broke free from this dream.

In the suffocation like drowning, he pressed his chest and breathed violently, unable to break free from the bottomless sadness for a long time.

The hunger surged again, and the shadows were about to move, but he didn't bother to order them to be quiet, and just sat quietly on the bed, feeling lack of oxygen no matter how hard he breathed.

This was a feeling he had never felt before. It took him a long time to distinguish between the real world and the edge of the dream. He touched his face and found that he was crying in a mess. It hurts to rub it.

"Carl, are you awake?" There was a knock on the door, and he woke up in his grief, recognizing his father's voice.

"...Wake up, what's the matter?"

He got dressed and jumped out of bed as fast as he could, opened the door, and saw his father standing outside the door, looking at him nervously.

"What happened?" He dodged twice, not really wanting him to see that he had just cried, "Where's Edgar?"

"He's not here, he has something to go out."

Carl looked back and saw the symbol painted on the door. He felt a little familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere. When he was about to reach out to touch it, he heard his father say awkwardly: "I don't know, but he should have been out for a while."

"When did he go out? Did you say when he would come back?" Carl raised his hand and wiped his cheek with his sleeve while he was not paying attention. "How long have I been asleep?"

Mr. Morrison thought for a while, "You have been asleep for almost half a day."

It was two o'clock in the afternoon, and it was almost seven or eight hours since he fell asleep.

Carl thought he had only slept for three or four hours at most, and was stunned when he saw the time pointing to 2.

"Is something wrong?"

Knowing that the other party couldn't wake him up for no reason, Karl became alert.

Edgar is not here, he must protect everyone here - Eugene, Daisy and Dad.

He has no chance to make another mistake.

"I...I don't know what to say." Mr. Morrison's expression was like swallowing a toad alive, "I don't know if this is a big deal."

Carl was tensed by him, and also held his breath, "What's wrong?" He lowered his voice, as if he was afraid that the content of the conversation would be overheard by something invisible.

"You come with me."

Mr. Morrison led him to the door.

The footsteps of the two of them were very light, echoing in the empty house, sounding inexplicably gloomy.

"I've been reading in my room just now. You know, I don't have much to do, and there's no TV, so I just read to pass the time. Then I heard someone knock on the door. Of course I couldn't open the door, because Mr. Fogelsand made the trip to warn me not to open the door even if he came back—he knew how to get in. Terrified, I peeked out the window and saw that there was no one at the door... I thought I heard it wrong, but when I got out to make tea, I saw this."

While talking, they walked to the gate.

"Well, this is it."

A letter lay quietly on the floor.

Mr. Morrison looked at it as if he were looking at a poisonous snake. "I remember very clearly that there was no such letter on the ground an hour ago."