He exhaled a thin stream of smoke.

  The man who should have been two miles away in a sealed car was leaning against the brick wall right in front of me. His hands were casually tucked into his pockets, and the cigarette between his lips was still glowing red. The ash hadn't even fallen yet.

  ?“How?” I gasped, stepping back.

  ?It was impossible. Even if he’d started running the exact second I jumped out that window, he couldn't have closed the gap. I was faster than anyone I’d ever known. I could have won an Olympic gold with that pace.

  ?Yet, this man hadn't just outrun me—he’d anticipated my exact route and cut me off.

  ?"I told you," Vaughn said, his voice as calm and steady as a grave. "You are no longer human. That speed you’re so proud of? It’s a toddler's crawl compared to what those who have truly awakened can reach."

  ?He pushed himself off the wall. He was acting like some kind of wise sensei, but the aura radiating off him was pure predator.

  ?"Now," Vaughn said, a dangerous glint appearing behind his sunglasses. "Run again. I’ll catch you."

  ?"Huh?"

  ?"You didn’t struggle when I tried to drag you to the car. Consider this your reward. A little game." He took a slow, menacing step forward. "Try again, 'Human’. Run. If I get bored, I’ll stop chasing and start breaking legs."

  ?"..."

  ?"Run. Now."

  ?The threat was real.

  ?Without looking back, I turned and bolted. I pushed my legs until they felt like they might snap, rushing forward with every ounce of strength I had.

  ?I don't understand! I screamed internally as the wind roared in my ears. The guy is built like a tank. He can't possibly be faster than me!

  ?His words echoed in my mind, but I shook my head, rejecting the idea with everything I had left. I wasn't a monster. I wasn't a vampire. I was just... having a really, really weird night.

  ?Huff. Huff. Huff.

  I forced the air in and out of my lungs, clinging to the habit of breathing like a lifeline.

  And then, it happened.

  As I sprinted through the darkness, the world around me blurred. Streetlights stretched into neon streaks. My legs moved faster — not because I was trying harder, but because my body had finally stopped resisting.

  I wasn't just running. I was accelerating.

  But it didn't matter.

  Every time I stopped, he was there.

  ?It didn't matter if I ducked into a narrow, trash-strewn alley or sprinted across a major intersection; Vaughn was always waiting. Leaning against a wall, standing under a streetlamp, checking his nails with the patience of a statue.

  ?“H-how? JUST HOW?” I gasped, my knees finally buckling not from fatigue, but from sheer disbelief.

  ?“I already told you, didn't I?” Vaughn replied, his voice as steady as if he were sitting in a jazz lounge.

  ?“There is no such thing as vampires in this world!” I screamed, the desperation clawing at my throat. "It's physics! It's biology! It's impossible!"

  ?"Who decided that?"

  ?The question was so arrogant, so utterly dismissive of reality, that my brain stuttered. I stared at him, dumbfounded.

  "W-what...?"

  ?“And yet, it’s strange,” Vaughn mused, stepping closer out of the shadows.

  ?“WHAT?”

  ?“Why are you still not hungry? By now, a Newborn should have attacked someone already. You should be a starving animal.”

  ?“Huh? Hungry? Attacking someone? You're talking nonsense again…” I tried to force a laugh, but it came out thin and brittle.

  ??“Is that so? Then tell me... why isn’t your heart racing?” Vaughn asked, tilting his head. “And that noise... that pathetic ‘huffing’. Who are you performing for?”

  ?“Huh?”

  ?“You’re panting because you think you should. It’s a habit. A performance for a ghost audience.”

  ?I froze. My mouth hung open, mid-gasp.

  ?He was right.

  ?I wailp?ted for the burn in my lungs. I waited for the stinging acid in my muscles.

  ?Nothing.

  ?My body was a silent, cold void. The huff, huff, huff... it was just me forcing air in and out of lungs that had stopped demanding oxygen minutes ago. I was mimicking a runner because that’s what living things did.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  ?I shut my mouth.

  ?Silence. Instant, terrifying silence.

  ?My chest stopped heaving. The frantic rhythm I had faked simply... ceased.

  ?I don't need to breathe.

  ?“Now,” Vaughn said, his voice dropping into that predatory chill. “Stop acting like prey. Run.”

  ?“Tch.”

  ?I spun around and bolted.

  ?This time, I didn't look back. I stopped the fake panting. I ran in total, eerie silence. No huff. No heavy breaths. Just the rapid, rhythmic tap-tap-tap of my shoes hitting the pavement.

  ?It was terrifyingly efficient. I felt like a machine made of cold marble and shadows.

  ?“What's going on?..” I whispered to the empty air, my voice perfectly steady despite running at thirty miles per hour.

  ?“Feels like he’s finally starting to accept what he’s become,” Vaughn’s voice echoed from somewhere above me, carried by the wind.

  ?I couldn't take it anymore. I collapsed onto the ground in a secluded side street, my head spinning with vertigo.

  ?“It can't be real. It’s impossible.”

  ?I was a student. I was a delivery driver. I was human. But the lack of fatigue was a silent, undeniable proof. This had to be a dream. A twisted, vivid nightmare.

  ?“Excuse me? Are you alright? Do you want me to call an ambulance?”

  ?A soft voice broke through my panic.

  ?A woman had stopped a few feet away. She looked concerned, her hand hovering over her phone, her thumb ready to dial 911.

  ?But as I looked up at her, I didn't see a Good Samaritan.

  ?“I'm alright ma'am, thank you,” I said automatically.

  ?But my vision narrowed.

  ?The world around her blurred into shades of gray, leaving only her neck in sharp, vivid detail. I could see the pulse of her carotid artery, thumping rhythmically against her skin. Thump. Thump. Thump.

  ?I could feel the heat radiating from her body. It was intoxicating. It didn't look like flesh anymore.

  ?It looked... delicious.

  ?The "Hunger" Vaughn mentioned hit me like a physical blow. A primal, screaming void opened up in my stomach, demanding to be filled. My fangs—my new fangs—ached to tear into that soft warmth.

  ?“Are you sure? You don't look good,” the woman said, stepping closer. Her voice was laced with the kind of pity I had come to despise, but all I could hear was the dinner bell.

  ?“Yes... I’m sure. I’m fine!” I choked out, scrambling backward on my hands and feet.

  ?I forced myself to pull away, turning to bolt before the heat of her pulse overwhelmed what was left of my humanity.

  ?I ducked into a dark corner behind a dumpster, my mind reeling.

  ?I–I wanted to eat her.

  ?Just seconds ago, I hadn't looked at her as a person. I had looked at her as a juice box. The realization was a cold, jagged spike through my chest. I curled into a ball, pressing my forehead against the cold brick of the alleyway, praying for the world to shatter.

  ?“This is all just a dream. This is all just a dream. This is all just a dream…”

  ?I muttered the words like a mantra, hoping to wake up in my cramped apartment with a migraine.

  ?But the lie wouldn't stick.

  ?The evidence was carved into my very bones. My legs had run for miles without tiring. My lungs had stopped breathing minutes ago. And my eyes... my eyes had locked onto a human neck with the precision of a predator.

  ?I wasn't a student anymore. I wasn't even human.

  ?I was a blood-sucking beast.

  ?What do I do now?

  ?A desperate idea took root in the darkness.

  ?If I couldn't be human, I shouldn't be anything at all. In movies, a stake to the heart worked. Maybe I could find something sharp and just... end it.

  ?I’d rather die as the man I was than live as the monster I was becoming.

  ?I stood up with sheer, hollow determination. My eyes scanned the trash-strewn alley. A broken beer bottle. A rusted metal pipe.

  ?I reached for a jagged shard of glass, gripping it until it cut into my palm. It didn't hurt. It didn't even sting.

  ?I raised it toward my chest, right where my heart used to beat.

  ?"Wake up," I whispered.

  ?My muscles tensed to drive the shard home.

  ?“Help! Get out! Help! Somebody help me!”

  ?The scream shattered my spiral.

  ?It was a woman’s cry—sharp, panicked, and terrifyingly real. Just a few yards away, at the mouth of the alley, a man was violently wrenching a handbag from a woman’s grasp. She was fighting back, but he was stronger. With a brutal shove, he sent her crashing to the pavement and bolted into the night.

  ?My eyes widened. I looked at my hands.

  ?Hands that had felt like rusted gears only hours ago now thrummed with a power I couldn't explain. Static electricity seemed to dance under my skin, begging to be released.

  ?Spider-Man. Superman. Iron Man.

  ?The heroes I’d worshipped as a kid in Seoul flashed before my eyes. A memory surfaced: a younger version of myself, running to my mother with a bedsheet tied around my neck.

  ?“Mother look, I’m going to be the best hero!”

  ?A warmth spread through my cold body. It wasn't the warmth of life—it was the heat of purpose.

  ?If I am a monster... I thought, my grip on the glass shard relaxing until it fell from my hand and shattered on the asphalt.

  ?Then I won't be a monster that preys on the innocent. I will be the monster that hunts the wolves.

  ?I didn't think. I lunged.

  ?The world warped. The gap between me and the fleeing mugger didn't just close; it vanished. I wasn't a "cog in the machine" anymore. I was a blur of shadows and silk.

  ?I slammed into the man with the force of a freight train, sending him sprawling across the wet asphalt before he could even process that he was being chased.

  ?“I don’t know, officer... he was just there. A blur. Like a shadow,” the woman stammered, clutching her recovered bag to her chest.

  ?“It’s alright, ma’am,” the officer replied, sounding bored as he cuffed the groaning, semi-conscious mugger. “Probably just a good Samaritan on a jog. Let’s get this guy to the station.”

  ?I stood in the deep darkness of the neighboring alley, watching them leave.

  ?My hands were trembling violently. Not from fear.

  ?From hunger.

  ?The residual heat of the mugger’s pulse had screamed in my ears like a siren when I pinned him down. His neck had been right there. Exposed. Vulnerable. A feast waiting to be opened.

  ?“You came back to me right after catching a thief,” a voice rumbled from the shadows behind me.

  ?I didn't turn. I felt his presence—cold, silent, and immovable.

  ?Vaughn stepped out of the gloom, his sunglasses reflecting the distant streetlights. “Tell me... how did you stop him?”

  ?I looked down at my hands. They were pale, almost translucent under the flickering light.

  ?“I wanted to wrap my hands around his throat,” I whispered, my voice thick with a hunger I barely understood. “I wanted to tear him open. I wanted to drain every drop of blood in his body until he was dry.”

  ?“But?”

  ?“But... I didn't,” I said, finally looking up to meet the dark lenses of his glasses. “A hero wouldn't do that. And neither would I.”

  ?The silence that followed was heavy. I expected Vaughn to laugh. I expected him to mock the 'childish fantasy' of a man who was now a predator by nature.

  ?Instead, a ghost of a smile touched his lips.

  ?“A hero, huh? Interesting.”

  ?“So...” I braced myself, my muscles tensing instinctively. “Are you going to dispose of me now? For being a 'clueless' Newborn who runs away? For almost exposing us?”

  ?“No,” Vaughn replied.

  ?He stepped fully into the light. The charcoal suit he wore looked as pristine as it had in the penthouse, untouched by the chase.

  ?“Most Newborns would be licking the pavement right now, trying to taste the drops of blood left behind. You?” He paused, looking me up and down. “You controlled the beast. That is rare.”

  ?“You’re telling me...”

  ?“Yes, Kang Eun-Woo. Your Sire left you with a gift of power, but you provided the willpower.”

  ?Vaughn extended a hand—not to strike, but in a gesture that felt like a bridge to a new world.

  ?“I welcome you as one of ours,” Vaughn said, his voice solemn. “Welcome to The Ichor.”