Drawing by Caio Vincent Corsini.

Dionne’s old archenemy had somehow survived his death, but much to his chagrin, Dionne was more angered that she had failed to avenge Trian than scared of what Jakarian might do.

She hadn’t failed quite as badly as she had thought however. Dionne had completely destroyed Jakarian’s body all those centuries ago (thanks to her magics, she also ensured that Jakarian actually felt every cell in his body exploding.)

However as a result of all the magics Jakarian had sampled over not just his time as king, but his journey’s with the Hylexans, the vampire’s spirit had become stronger and more durable to the point where his ghost wasn’t instantly sucked into the afterlife for vampires.

Just after he created the book from which all vampires would originate. Khastran created the beginnings of a pocket dimension that was linked to it, which would eventually form over several hundred years. (A relatively insignificant task for the former master of the hellish realm.)

The souls of all vampires, as well as Khastrans other creations and even the creations of those loyal to him, such as the Turok Han and werewolves (who were created by his loyal pets the Lycans) would be sent to this pocket dimension after their deaths. In some rare cases, certain vampires were powerful enough to send the souls of their victims to this dimension too. The dimension itself resembled the earth when Khastran last walked it, a mostly desolate wasteland (as a result of his visit.) All of the vampires and creatures within this dimension could still be killed, but they would return to life the following day, meaning that they were forced to hunt each other for all eternity.

Carlene and Amy had both made their peace with the fact that they were going there in spite of how many good deeds they did. No magic on earth could save a soul permanently from this dimension. It was possible for some vampires to be resurrected, and Khastran himself could bring any soul he wanted out from it. (Which is what he did when creating the vampire horde, though even then his power was so depleted he needed to use his book and the restorative power of Tairos itself.) It was the same way that no magic on earth could cure the curse of vampirism. Khastran was very careful in making sure that his curse, his only lifeline could never be undone. Even after the victims died.

Carlene however did admit to Dionne that when she first found out that she was destined for his dimension, she had a mental breakdown and very nearly gave into her demonic nature, believing that it didn’t matter since she was doomed anyway.

Still Carlene eventually found peace in the fact that whilst she might not be able to fight Khastran’s curse, she could at least get back at him by using it to do good throughout the universe, and stop his curse from growing, wherever she could.

Jakarian however was seemingly the one exception, though even then, his spirit was only able to barely cling onto this world and was so faint that it couldn’t influence it at all, not even to the tiny extent that other ghosts could. It was a living hell for Jakarian, who would be forced to endure this for 100s of years. At any point he could have let go and fallen into Khastran’s afterlife, but he refused because he knew that there were plenty of vampires waiting on the other side to make him suffer. Those who viewed him as a traitor, for renouncing his kind when he came to help humanity in the war, those who hated him for betraying the earth, and finally even those who had served under him. They’d all be wanting for a chance at revenge.

Still the powerless state the former vampire king found himself in, as well as seeing how the world eventually came to forget him, would drive Jakarian even further down the path into madness.

The horrors he had committed, though still having an effect centuries on. Would ultimately be eclipsed by the final years of the vampire war, with both the Queen of the vampires and obviously the Emperor carrying out even greater atrocities in their desperation. Jakarian soon faded from memory as the irrelevant ruler who had been killed in the earlier years of the war, before the important battles.

Even his role in betraying humanity to the Hylexans had been somewhat forgotten, with most simply referring to it as the Hylexan invasion of earth.

In his later years Jakarian clung on, not just out of fear, but a desperation to remind the people of Tairos who he was. He hoped for centuries that someone or something would sense his presence and find a way to bring him back to the world of the living.

That chance would come from the most unlikely of places. The father of all vampires. Khastran himself. Just as before this vile monstrosity was able to cheat death to an extent. The magics that the allies used to destroy him were not as powerful as those of the Angels and the gods, and his weakened spirit was able to cling on for a short while after. Much like Jakarian however his spirit was so weak the demon god was unable to influence the world around him, and drifted harmlessly throughout the world he had devastated.

After centuries however eventually his spirit would sense the presence of Jakarian’s, who he instantly contacted.

Khastran did not have the power to possess one of his children like before, and even if he could, none of them would have let him after his betrayal. Jakarian however, Khastran knew had no loyalty or beliefs and would happily side with anyone who could help him, or indeed grant him power. Even Jakarian however was skeptical of helping Khastran at first, but soon realised this might be his only chance, and that Khastran could help him avoid ever going to his afterlife.

The two spirits then merged into one hideous creature, though both’s consciousness survived and would take it in turns to control the new demonic spirit.

Both meanwhile had set their sights on Dionne for a reason beyond simply revenge. Even this spiritual form couldn’t hold together indefinitely. They needed a new body that would be strong enough to contain them, which no even vampire, demon or warlock was capable of being. Their spirits were simply too unstable and would rip the bodies of the creatures they tried to possess apart. The unique magical structure of Dionne however would be more than capable of holding their essence, as buried deep in Dionne’s body were magics from when Khastran had last walked the earth, that had long since vanished. Jakarian had seen Dionne being transferred into the past, and had monitored Friaj, knowing full well when Dionne was to return. Jakarian had only spied on Dionne at first in the hopes that he could use whatever spiritual power he may have had left to influence the world in some way to destroy Dionne, but thankfully he didn’t have any.

Now however Jakarian’s knowledge would come in useful for Khastran, and the two monsters buried themselves deep in this church for over 100 years until they knew Dionne would arrive.

The church was the perfect place to hide, as little did the villagers know, it had been desanctified. A powerful demon who had been an ally of the humans against the vampires, and had even helped set up the church, had also devised a spell that would allow him to enter the church whenever he wanted. After the war was done, he would use it for human sacrifices, which eventually desanctified its holy power. A desanctified area contained a darkness that was more potent and powerful for demons and warlocks to utilise, as it represented evil triumphing over good.

Thankfully the demon was slain before he could put his plan into action, and the church afterwards was abandoned out of fear by the locals, though over time propaganda would cause this tragedy to be forgotten about. Ironically the demon responsible had been a great hero during the war (though only because of the mutual threat of the vampires.) Many did not want to admit that they had been duped by him, particularly the founders of the settlement nearby. As horrifying as it was for the victims, he was rewritten into being a hero who had died slaying the “real” killer of his victims.

Sadly however Khastran/Jakarian could sense the darkness in the church and it became the perfect place to keep their spirit stable for the century until Dionne arrived. However even then the church was not enough on its own, and both demons would frequently make a trip to the black woods, to absorb a little of the Terrible One’s magics. Even they were mindful not take too much as in their weakened state it could consume even them. Still these magics along with the church helped keep their spirits alive, and even now and again allowed the demons to satisfy their sadistic urges and inflict pain on the unsuspecting citizens of Tairos. In fact Dionne speculated that they were behind many of the more recent natural disasters that according to the Karsen library, had become more common in the last century or so. Many assumed that it was down to the magical upheaval of the land, but it certainly wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility that both of these demons were responsible for at least some of the disasters.

Dionne laughed at the two demons, telling them that most of her magics had depleted anyway, and that she only had a tiny fraction left. Jakarian however told her that actually, deep down, she was as powerful as she ever was. The later incarnation of the Circus Family had placed barriers around the magics in her body when she was sent backwards in time. Jakarian didn’t tell her why of course, not that it would have mattered anyway.

The two great demonic spirits attempted to fuse themselves to Dionne’s body, but using what little power she had, even with the barriers placed around her powers, she fought them off. It was more her will and hatred for Jakarian that drove her however. In spite of the desanctified church preserving them, both Jakarian and Khastran were weak as they had used up a lot of the power from the black woods when torturing the inhabitants of the nearby settlement. Even now both monsters couldn’t help themselves when given an opportunity to hurt people. Sadly however just as Dionne was about to push them back and flee outside to warn the Circus Family. Jakarian conjured up an image in her head, for just a brief moment.

The image revealed that Trian’s spirit was trapped in a special holding dimension of Jakarian’s, where he would send the souls of his worst enemies to suffer unimaginable pain and agony. The only way Dionne could find out where it was, would be to let Jakarian possess her, otherwise Trian would suffer for all eternity. Dionne knew that it had to be a trick. Jakarian never had that kind of power, and even if he did, why not advertise it to further strike terror into his enemies hearts

Still the possibility that her love might be suffering like that, for all this time, whilst she was unaware was enough to make Dionne let her guard down. She swore to me that it was not intentional. After all she knew that Jakarian would never keep his word, even if it was true, but sadly the anger and sorrow it provoked, caused Dionne to become more reckless in her attempts to destroy the spirits. She didn’t have anywhere near enough power to destroy them as it takes quite a lot of power to destroy a spirit, even a weak one completely. She should have fled outside. Maybe the Circus Family working together could have brought them both down, but sadly Dionne’s recklessness, allowed both spirits to by pass her more easily and enter her mind.

Once that happened Dionne had no chance of expelling Khastran. The demon god instantly destroyed the barriers around her powers from within and then merged itself to her ancient magics, increasing its power and making its hold over her seemingly iron clad.

Now in complete control of Dionne’s body, Khastran/Jakarian went outside to face the Circus Family.

The two demons instantly took control of Carlene before the others could even see anything was wrong with Dionne, and forced her to attack Samuel. The rest of the Circus Family naturally focused their attention on Carlene, whilst Dionne/Jakarian/Khastran prepared another attack. Friaj meanwhile along with the Gorgonopsid fled the area, though again none of the others really had time to notice. Saumel was barely able to evade the vampires attempts on his life, and was only saved by the intervention of Amy. Whilst the werewolf and the vampire were battling, Samuel used one of his gadgets designed to hold vampires, to restrain Carlene. He was extremely reluctant to use it on one of his best friends, but obviously he had no choice. Anck Su Namun and Tarkan meanwhile were busy still trying to hold off the Gargoyles who had instantly attacked again when the Circus Family’s attention was drawn to Carlene.

Tanith on the other hand soon turned her attention back on Dionne. She knew the the tell tale signs of possession (being something of an expert herself) and attempted to expel the unnatural power she could sense controlling Dionne. Unfortunately however, now aided by the magics in Dionne’s body. The demons instead were able to reverse Tanith’s spell, and used it to very nearly rip her spirit out of the body she was possessing.

The thought of going back to the nightmarish in between state she had been trapped in for centuries was enough to genuinely terrify Tanith, to the point where she screamed “No! Please!” At the monster inhabiting Dionne. Normally she was too proud to show any fear towards her enemies, and after what she had been through Tanith did not fear actual death. She knew however that whatever was possessing Dionne would quite happily condemn her to that fate again, when a cruel smile appeared on Dionne’s face. Somehow whilst it wasn’t telepathic, it could sense people’s worst fears. (This was also why it had set Carlene on Samuel, as her worst fear was giving into the demon inside and letting Alex turn her into a monster like him.)

Fortunately Amy was able to tackle Dionne before it could tear Tanith’s soul from her body, though Amy’s strength was still dwarfed by the beast that subsequently threw her over 40 feet through the air.

Tarkan meanwhile wisely tried a softer approach and tried getting through to Dionne, reminding her of how her hatred of Jakarian had almost convinced her to change history before, and how she had the strength to overcome that and become a better person.

Ironically Tarkan had no idea that it was Jakarian possessing her, but his words nevertheless gave Dionne just a seconds strength to overcome the two great evils inside her to the point where she retreated from the area and flew into the forest ahead. Sadly however her control only lasted for a few seconds, and once again both demons overpowered her, vowing to make Dionne suffer, so she would know her place.

The two demons instantly headed for the nearby settlement, where Jakarian/Khastran singled out Ajian, who they knew from Dionne’s own memories and transformed him into a hideous, vampiric demon. Dionne fought as hard as she could to try and regain control, but it was hopeless and she had to watch every second of it, as Ajian’s daughter begged and pleaded with her to stop, whilst her fathers body became twisted and mangled into a disgusting abomination.

Khastran was attempting to create a new race of children who would replace the vampires. He didn’t want monsters that would infiltrate humanity and understand them like the vampires were. In his mind that had made the vampires too human and weak. Now he wanted a race of demonic warriors who would claim this earth as their own in no time.

Again however trying to create these new and perfect warriors was a difficult task with his somewhat unpredictable new powers, but he certainly wasn’t going to have any problems trying.

Khastran/Jakarian would turn another 9 people in the settlement into similar monsters before flying through the air over the forest. Below they would transform hundreds more Dinosaurs, passing traders and even some bandits into twisted abominations.

Again Dionne was powerless to do anything, and Khastran taunted her saying.

“You’re a shallow, pathetic creature. Always so desperate for people to accept you. Both in your own time with that awful noise you made, and in Tairos with your cheap heroics. Now your face will be the one that slaughters countless innocents, that destroys worlds, that will be hated by all sentient creatures in the cosmos.”

Dionne could hear Jakarian laughing in the background of her mind. He soon piped up.

“You will repay tenfold for what I have suffered.” The former vampire king said through his twisted cackling.

“The centuries I spent unable to feel, unable to touch, to influence the world around me, drifting helplessly, whilst watching my legacy be forgotten. You’ll endure that. Unable to move in your own body as we tear everything you tried to save down.”

Worse than their petty taunts however, was the fact that Dionne could see both Khastran and Jakarian’s lives. Thankfully she could only see flashes of the atrocities they had carried out, but that was enough. Entire worlds burned by Khastran’s cruelty, whole species wiped out in an instant. She also saw and felt Jakarian’s joy when the Hylexans burned his own world. Billions of lives wiped out in an instant, and all Jakarian could feel was the satisfaction of his own petty little revenge.

The two demons soon took Dionne to Karsen. As possibly the largest settlement in the area it would make a perfect demonstration of Khastran’s power.

Flying in front of the wall, Khastran through Dionne spoke to the guards.

“You thought you had seen the last of me, Khastran, father of the vampires? You thought you were free? Unfortunately you didn’t even win this miserable excuse for a world. I will crush what’s left of humanity, finish what I started and burn this already dying planet to nothing but cinders and then with my new children, nothing in all the realms will stand against us. Be grateful though, at least some of you will be given the honour of following me.” Khastran said as he turned all of the guards on the wall into hideous, vampiric demons who descended upon the city below, whilst Khastran/Jakarian flew over the city, burning some people to a crisp, (destroying not just their bodies but their souls too.) As well as transforming others into abominations. Eventually Dionne/Khastran/Jakarian reached its target however. The force field that it destroyed with Dionne’s own sword.

The cities forces were completely overwhelmed. Karsen’s forces had become somewhat idle, having not faced a real threat for some time, but even the best army would have been overwhelmed by not only the power, but the cruelty and relentlessness that Khastran attacked with.

Meanwhile Jakarian was arguably in just as much pain as Dionne. He wanted to shout to the people of Karsen that he was back, that they would remember him for all time now, but Khastran deliberately did not let him speak. Whilst the demon god still needed Jakarian for stability, he was nevertheless naturally the more dominant of the two and was at least able to keep the former vampire king in check. Khastran had absolutely no reason to stop Jakarian from getting what he always wanted, other than just because the thought it was funny. Trust me, he and indeed most of his vampiric children didn’t need any more reason than that to completely crush a man’s dreams. Jakarian would most certainly have done the same thing in his place.

Dionne herself couldn’t help but muster up a brief chuckle, despite her plight at Jakarian being deprived of everything he wanted. “Even when you win you still lose.” Dionne said to him.

In the middle of the slaughter however, Friaj suddenly emerged from the crowd, not phased on the back of the Gorgonopsid, which roared to get the demon god above’s attention.

Khastran flew down to confront her directly.

“I thought you’d been wise enough to flee, mind you, where could you run too. I suppose it makes sense you just want to cut to the chase and get it over with.” Khastran speaking through Dionne taunted.

Friaj however just laughed. Both Dionne and Jakarian were unnerved, having never seen her show that much emotion before.

“You expect me to bow before you? Jakarian? You’ve failed at every single thing you ever tried. You failed to be a hero, failed to be a villain, failed to earn your place in history, no matter how low you tried to go to stand out from the rest of those animals.” Friaj said.

“I am in control.” Khastran shouted, as he lifted Friaj into the air, but she didn’t even acknowledge his presence and continued to taunt Jakarian.

“She beat you before, she’ll beat you again.”

It was at that point that Dionne realised why she had been able to take control before. Jakarian as always, was the weak link. Even though he wouldn’t admit it, he was scared of Dionne. She had after all killed him the most horrible way and condemned his soul to wander the earth for centuries. Even if it was an unconscious feeling, buried deep down, the terror of going back to that state, much like with Tanith was enough to make Jakarian briefly lose his grip. It hadn’t been Tarkan’s belief in Dionne that had given her the strength in herself back at the church, rather it had been Jakarian being reminded of how much stronger his archfoe was than he that terrified him. Sadly for Khastran as they were linked, then that also affected his control over Dionne.

Friaj continued to taunt Jakarian with the memories of being trapped in that nightmarish state as a ghost, telling him she knew he was watching her and she was laughing deep down at him, being so powerless he couldn’t even kill his arch foe when she was in a coma, helpless. Eventually it became too much for Jakarian who in a moment paniced, giving Dionne her chance to wrestle back control of her body and fly it away from Karsen and straight into the desert of Dynamos, where they crashed.

Sadly just as before Khastran soon took control again, though this time it wasn’t quite as ironclad as he had hoped. The demon god screamed at Jakarian to help him, but this time Jakarian refused.

“I’m not going to trade one prison for another.” Jakarian said.

“It seems you need me more than you thought. Unless you allow me control I will see all three of us burn.” Jakarian said.

Whilst it would have been sensible for Khastran to try and at least reason with Jakarian, the demon god was of course too proud to even consider indulging one of his own measly creations and the two fought with one another.

Little did they know however, Dionne hadn’t just brought them here by chance. She had flown specifically into the mountain she had first encountered the Drasker. Hoping that it would possibly be drawn by the magics that were eminating from her body and that whilst they were distracted holding it off, she could attack them. Either that or it would kill all three of them, which would still be preferable.

Several other creatures were drawn here, namely zombies which Khastran dispatched, as well as a few Vitox. Fortunately however Dionne was able to briefly control herself and warn them to flee, which they only did when she fired a beam of magic at the ruins of the mountain, vaporizing them in a display of her power.

The more that Khastran had to fight off the easier it became for Dionne to regain control, with Jakarian even in these circumstances still not wanting to give the vampire god control over Dionne’s body. As he said, Khastran would simply imprison him within their shared body and prevent him from being able to interact with the world, just like when he was a spirit. At least this way it would be over.

However Dionne’s plan backfired somewhat ironically when the Drasker came into view. The terror this beast invoked in Jakarian, caused him to temporarily forget his differences with Khastran and allow him control.

Khastran used Dionne’s powers to hold the giant Dinosaur mutation off and weaken it. Dionne however, still didn’t give up and spoke with Jakarian, or rather contacted him telepathically.

She played on his insecurities. Having seen him, when he was the great hero against the Hylexans, she now knew how much he loved being seen as a hero, how people believing in him, had driven the vampire to do those uncharacteristically heroic things. She taunted the vampire king that deep down that is what he still wanted, and that even if Khastran restored his place as the evil vampire king in the history books he would still lose, as that wasn’t what he really wanted either. Even the mightiest god after what he had done, could restore him to ever being the hero again. Of course Jakarian’s desire to be seen as a hero was not out of genuine altruism or guilt for his actions. It was entirely down to his own ego, though admittedly Dionne did admit to me, that she thinks that perhaps during his time helping humanity, he may have for a short while experienced something approaching a genuine desire to do good. Still now certainly, all he was motivated by was his hatred and desire to make the world be sorry for rejecting him. Dionne however, who in some ways knew him better than anyone else ever had, for just a second gave Jakarian a moment of hopelessness, which allowed her a chance to attack Khastran, whilst the latter was using all his power to try and finish the Drasker.

With all of her strength, Dionne took control of the magic inside her from Khastran, and used it to push both demons from her body, regaining control again, with the strain almost killing her.

The two demonic spirits tried to possess her again, but this time Dionne, now able to harness her magics, wielded her sword against them. Still not giving up however, Jakarian and Khastran flew into the now dying body of the Drasker. Even when it was healthy, they would have worn it out eventually, but for now they had no choice.

Khastran and Jakarian (who again were now working together out of necessity) whilst possessing the body of the Drasker picked Dionne up in one hand and prepared to devour her. It seems that they both hoped they could consume the magics in her body as well and mixed in with the Draskers strength, become virtually unstoppable.

Dionne however, used her magics to literally blow apart the Draskers hand. It took a large section of her power to do so, as even dying the beasts body was still ferociously powerful, and was now mixed in with Khastran and Jakarian.

Then, flying through the air, Dionne used her sword to slice the monsters throat, before taking its head clean off. She made it clear to me how much she regretted what she had to do to the Drasker that was still just trying to survive, but obviously she had no choice and it was dying anyway.

Sadly however the spirits of Jakarian and Khastran were still not dead, and both would attempt to possess Dionne once more, taking her by surprise when she believed they had gone down with the monster. Whilst it took an even greater strain than slaying the Drasker, Dionne managed to not only fight them off, but hold their spirits in place long enough to then strike them both with her sword. She channelled all of the magics in her body through her sword for that final strike.

Jakarian’s last words were a wretched “Khastran, Khastran, protect me!” Ultimately however the combination of all of Dionne’s magics channelled through her sword was now enough to completely destroy Jakarian’s soul for good. Just like on the sky city against Jakarian’s minions, Dionne could feel his spirit literally break apart. Ironically however Jakarian in a way ended up winning as now his spirit would finally be at peace, and be spared Khastran’s cruel afterlife. As for Khastran, well Dionne felt the same thing for the destruction of his spirit, but who knows if a small part of him still managed to survive. It would hardly be the first time that wretched creature had escaped death.

Channelling her power proved to be such a strain, that just like before Dionne was left completely drained and collapsed to the desert floor. She didn’t fall into a coma this time, but she could still barely muster enough strength to move her arms. Fortunately the presence of the Dresker had scared off most other creatures of the desert at first, but after an hour or so, several vultures would be drawn to its carcass.

Several of them descended around Dionne, but whenever they got too close, a quick jerk from her hand, head or leg would usually be enough to send them away.

A Pterosaur, similar to a Pteranodon soon arrived, and Dionne knew she was in trouble. Unlike the vultures it wasn’t here to scavenge. Rather it knew she was alive, having been drawn by the smell of fresh meat. As the giant reptile prepared to take a chunk out of her leg however, a deep, more mammalian roar suddenly drew its attention.

It was the Gorgonopsid, with Friaj riding on its back. The Pteranodon tried to stand its ground and opened up its wings, but the Gorgonopsid was having none of it. It’s safe to say it had seen far worse, and as soon as the reptile like mammal charged at it, the Pteranodon took to the skies.

Friaj helped get Dionne onto the back of the Gorgonopsid, who then took them through the desert and back to the Tent, which had been protected by a special magical shield, that even rendered the Tent invisible. Friaj however, somehow had a device to override its defences (which had been given to her by the future Circus Family) and used it to enter the Tent, where she placed Dionne down upon her bed.

Friaj then explained everything to Dionne. She was there when the later incarnation of the Circus Family, who were led by Anck Su Namun herself, limited Dionne’s power and even took part in it. She was also given instructions by them on how to guide Dionne when she next arrived in Tairos. They did so not only to preserve the timeline, but also to ensure that Dionne did not use up the limited power she had left in her body before she could face Khastran. After she had destroyed Jakarian’s weapons the first time, there were still tiny traces of the magic in her body. Enough to slowly regrow over the decades she was asleep for. Now however, she had used the last of it up to destroy Khastran’s spirit, for good.

Of course Dionne still didn’t entirely trust Friaj, though it’s worth mentioning that she never used any magics afterwards. Dionne later told me that if she had had the strength, she would have strangled Trian’s own sister, for helping to steal her power, manipulating her, letting her be possessed to the point where she would be made to kill innocent people etc. Ultimately Dionne knew that Friaj had no choice and that the timeline needed to be preserved, and that Khastran needed to die, but she would still harbour a hatred for the man she loved’s sister for the rest of her days, as well see the images of the people she killed whilst under Khastran’s control alongside others she had failed, for the rest of her life too.

Nevertheless before Friaj departed with the Gorgonopsid, Dionne told her that there was a possibility that Trian’s soul was trapped in a holding dimension of Jakarian’s invention. She still didn’t think it was true, but if there was even a hairs breath it was true, then she had to let Friaj know about it. Friaj told Dionne that she would search Jakarian’s island and do all she could before leaving with the Gorgonopsid back through the desert. At the very least, Dionne got to say goodbye to her beloved pet this time.

The rest of the Circus Family meanwhile were busy cleaning up Jakarian/Khastran’s mess. First they dealt with the monsters he had created at the settlement. Amy much to her regret was forced to kill Ajian in front of his daughter, who he was about to devour.

The Family then headed to Karsen, which was being torn apart by Khastran’s new, twisted children. The Circus Family, including even Carlene who had regained her senses (though she would be left shaken by what had happened for a long while afterwards) managed to save the city and slaughter most of the infected. Unfortunately however just two of Khastran’s new children would escape into the woods outside and continue to infect others, leading to the creation of a new race of demons who would plague Tairos for many centuries to come, the Khastriaks. Fortunately these monsters without their father to guide them would never be able to become the threat that the vampire horde were. Many demons would attempt to lead them however by claiming to be Khastran (whose apparent final death at Dionne’s hands was never known.) These frauds however would always be found out eventually.

After the city of Karsen was saved however, the Circus Family were not celebrated as heroes, but rather ran out as traitors who had helped to revive Khastran. It was easier to think that, than to believe that they had simply let Khastran slowly grow in power again.

The Family were forced to go on the run in the woods of Tairos whilst searching for Dionne/Khastran, until eventually Dionne, after she had recovered, was strong enough to pilot the Tent to the others. (With the Tent being linked to Tarkan, making it easier to find him. Whilst only Tarkan could pilot it through time and space, others could still make it travel across short physical distances.)

Sadly even the Circus Family at first took some time to be convinced that Dionne wasn’t still possessed, but after they accepted her, the Family took off from Tairos. Dionne would never return again.

Dionne would also only travel with the Circus Family for another few months. Things between her and the rest of the group were hard for a short while. She found it hard to forgive Anck Su Namun for limiting her powers, but soon understood that ironically Anck Su Namun (who was the only member of this Circus Family who would be part of the future one. Even Carlene had left them by that point) was ironically only working on her orders to limit her powers. In fact when hearing about it at first, Anck Su Namun refused to believe it. Still it obviously created quite a large rift between them for most of Dionne’s subsequent time in the Family.

Tanith and Carlene meanwhile felt uneasy around her. It wasn’t anger, it was more just that seeing Dionne reminded them of of what Khastran had done to them. How he had reduced Tanith to begging, something she always believed she would be too proud to do. Carlene meanwhile had been long believed she had conquered the demon within, but to be reduced to a savage animal, attacking the people she loved again reminded her that no matter what, the potential for it to take over was always there. She almost had another breakdown, but ironically the fact that Dionne had ultimately triumphed over the father of the vampires, Khastran, gave Carlene hope that despite their supernatural power. The vampires could always be overcome.

Ironically just before the end, she and Dionne’s bond would become closer than ever as a result of this.

The only three members that Dionne had no problems with where Amy, Samuel and ironically Tarkan who she was able to make some peace with. After she explained everything that had happened in order for the information to be passed onto the next Circus Family to complete the stable time loop. Tarkan admitted that he had misjudged Dionne somewhat, as he was amazed that she was willing to set up a timeline where she would suffer to such an extent. Having seen first hand the extent at which Ajian’s death had affected her. Dionne had demanded to know what had happened to the settlement and Karsen from the others. They all didn’t want to, to spare her feelings, but eventually she forced it out of Amy, who was forced to share every detail, and how Aijan’s daughter swore to make both Dionne and Amy suffer.

Still in spite of that, for the greater good of the timeline Dionne wasn’t going to change history, and Tarkan later told her that he wasn’t even sure if he would be willing to make that sacrifice.

Sadly however like many of the Circus Family members before her, Dionne’s time with them would come to an end, as she was needed to stay behind in her own time. To be fair those are the lucky members of the Circus Family. Many don’t have the luxury of leaving alive, never mind going back to their home time.
Still the time had come, and just before she left, Tarkan was forced to de-age her in the same way as before.

It was one of the hardest days of Dionne’s life, saying goodbye to the Circus Family. Even the normally stoic Tanith struggled to contain her sadness, whilst she and Anck Su Namun in some ways made peace with each other too. Still again at least unlike the first time, she was able to properly say goodbye to her old life.

From the world’s perspective, Dionne had only been gone for a few minutes from our time.

Just as before it took her a while to adjust, but thankfully she was able to keep out of the public eye. Her own record label dropped her (by text) due to her previous erratic behaviour and her own failure to produce anything else a few months after arriving in our time. Not that she was complaining. Whilst the way they dropped her was low, cowardly and unprofessional, if she had wanted, she could have easily released her own music independently. Ultimately however she sadly just wasn’t interested anymore. What Jakarian had put her through in the camps all those years ago had made it impossible for her to enjoy the very thing that had once been her greatest passion. Even killing that wretched monster twice failed to take away that pain. It was more than that however. The fact that her music had gone from being something that she was passionate about to, something that people exploited her with or because, whether that was the gutter press peering into her life, or Jakarian using it to torment her, or even the people of Mosterik who had plucked her from her own time, caused Dionne to now see it as something that she wanted to hide from the rest of the world.

It was tragic that she would never release anything else, though towards the end a part of me did think that she was maybe beginning to rediscover her passion. She would often play for friends and family. Like I said before, she even played a few pieces she had written in Tairos for me. There were even rumors that she was planning another album just before her death. I’m afraid I can’t tell you if there was any truth in those rumors as she was always very guarded about her music. I hope they are true, as not only does it mean we may get more great music from her one day, but it would also be lovely to think that she had finally overcome the last of her issues with Tairos.

It’s also worth nothing that whilst Dionne never made any music of her own during this time, she would still set up her own label that would launch the careers of many other artists. In fact some of the most popular and acclaimed songwriters of the past 30 years would emerge thanks to Dionne. Really in her later years, her passion for music was channelled almost exclusively into finding others and making sure that they didn’t go through the same experiences that she did. Some of her most die hard fans argued that she changed music just as much by giving indie artists more of a chance in the limelight. Personally I think that’s a huge exaggeration. Sadly she may have helped a few who otherwise wouldn’t have been noticed, but ultimately in the grand scheme of things I don’t think one person could ever really change the industry that much. Killing vampire gods yes, making record execs treat their artists better? Now you’re stretching things.

Whether she did change the industry or not however, Dionne, through taking a more background role, and cut off from the cruel media was eventually able to move on with her life. She met and married a good man named James Harbour Sande who she would eventually have a child with, Shingai.

Whilst the media after her death would try and paint these years as sad and lonely, I know from experience that they were anything but. Dionne had a truly wonderful life with her friends and family for over 40 years.

Still it must be said that even after she was able to share her secrets with me, the weight of Tairos still preyed on her mind. How could it not? Some people think that getting over something means you never think about it again, but honestly unless you’re a robot. Your past will always stay with you to some extent. It’s just the extent at which it does that matters, and ultimately given how well things ended for Dionne, and what a wonderful person her daughter ended up being. I’d say she was able to overcome her troubled past as well as anyone could.

Dionne passed away at the age of 78. Her death was sudden and unexpected. I’ve always suspected that it was the magic that de-aged her that may have worn Dionne down to some extent. Despite the suddenness of her death, she had begun to rapidly age in her last few years. She had lived a healthy lifestyle, and didn’t have anything wrong with her according to her doctors. To be fair maybe it was just the life she had led in Tairos and with the Circus Family catching up to her after all that time?

Whatever the reason, a few days after her funeral I would finally get the conclusive proof of her exploits in Tairos that had eluded me for so long, when the Circus Family arrived to pay their respects. For the most part I had always believed Dionne. My own experiences with the supernatural, mixed in with the trust I had in her, allowed me to have confidence in even some of her wildest claims most of the time.

Still I guess deep down maybe even I had some trouble in believing all of it. I never thought she was lying, but perhaps I may have felt that some of her wildest claims were the result of some demon or sorcery tricking her. When I actually saw all of those strange characters Dionne had told me about around her grave, it was terrifying. I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh.

The only reason I had arrived there was Tanith, who had summoned me with her magics.

As Tarkan would reveal to me, after Dionne left, this incarnation of the Circus Family would visit Tairos a few times more. Whilst thankfully they told me that Khastran’s death seemed to be final. Sadly Dionne was now remembered as a monster in the age of Tairos who had sided with Khastran and created a new race of monsters to terrorise the world.

The Circus Family told me that I was to write a memoir using the knowledge I gained from Dionne, (with knowledge that she had never even been able to share with them) that they would pick up from me on the 7th of November in the year 2109.

Whether or not it was to preserve the timeline I am unsure. They simply said that this would be help restore Dionne’s reputation in a time far beyond the age of Tairos. Whilst Dionne having seen what had become of Jakarian no longer cared about being remembered or her legacy, at the same time the Circus Family understandably did not want her to be remembered as a monster, and told me that when the time was right, this would help restore things.

This is the real reason I have chosen to write this memoir. In one weeks time it will be delivered to the Circus Family who will meet me by Dionne’s grave.

I have decided to keep one copy for myself, if I’m allowed to that is. Whilst I obviously won’t be publishing it in my lifetime, at the very least it will help me to make more sense of everything that has happened.

In some ways I knew Dionne better than anyone else. She certainly had as big an impact on me as any other major person in my life, perhaps more. Not all of it has been positive mind you. There are times where like I said I’ve been terrified at the prospect of coming back as a Vasta. Where any positive development or step forward in society has left me feeling cold, as I know that in just a few centuries it will all be reset. Writing this memoir wasn’t easy either, as I was terrified if I got anything wrong and history didn’t go the way it ought to then I’d have been sent to the Abyss.

Still overall I feel privileged to have been among the only people to know the true life story of a great woman, who was sadly so often misunderstood in both her own time and in the age of Tairos. A woman with a truly special talent and a big heart, who was forced to deal with the most crushing tragedies and responsibilities, yet rose above them all in the end.

I only hope that in the future, she is finally understood for who she really was.

The End

Drawing by Caio Vincent Corsini.

The metropolis of Karsen was in many respects more beautiful than any of the cities Dionne had seen during the apparent golden age of Tairos.

It was surrounded on all sides by a gigantic wall, though as Dionne would later learn, it was actually something inside that provided the key to its defences.

The time travellers were greeted very warmly by the heads of the city. Whilst Karsen may have become isolationist, it nevertheless did not harbour any prejudices towards outsiders. As long as they were not hostile, then the Karsen’s would treat them with respect. That said however the fact that the Circus Family were there on the recommendation of the Vitox undoubtedly helped their case.

Tarkan talked with the heads of the city about why he had come here. Surprisingly they were familiar with the Circus Family, though it had been a later incarnation they had worked with in their respective past. At the very least they knew that there had been multiple Circus Masters and expected the change by this stage.

Whilst Tarkan told the leaders about the mission and discussed plans, the others were free to explore this beautiful metropolis and even learn a bit about its history and the history of Tairos. Dionne naturally was the most eager to find out how the war had ended, and what had become of her beloved Gorgonopsid. Sadly however she could not find any historical records pertaining to her in the local library, touted as having the most complete historical records in all of Tairos. Even with events that she was a part of, such as the Dragons graveyard and the fall of Mosterik and most notably the death of Jakarian, who according to history books was killed by the armies of the sky city.

The answer would soon become clear when she was visited by two old friends. Friaj, Trian’s sister and Dionne’s trusty pet Gorgonopsid, both of whom miraculously were still alive. Dionne almost didn’t notice Friaj at first as she was so overjoyed to see her favourite pet alive again, which still recognised her even after all these centuries.

Friaj would explain to Dionne that after she was placed into suspended animation, Friaj wandered Tairos on her own. She did not take part in the war for years. Unlike her late brother, she surprisingly felt no desire for vengeance as she had been made numb to virtually everything around her.

Friaj wanted to see if she could experience joy again and so she travelled the world with Dionne’s trusty Gorgonopsid by her side sampling the best of what she could from the cities around Tairos, avoiding the vampires and slowly but surely mastering what little magics she could.

Eventually however Friaj would be drawn back into the war again, when one of her favourite sanctuaries fell to the vampires. Realising that if not stopped the bloodsuckers would rip the joy she had rediscovered from her again, Friaj however said that she was still not motivated by anger or hatred, but simply practicality to finally help eliminate the bloodsuckers from the face of the earth.

Friaj and the Gorgonopsid were present on the final day of the war alongside many other great heroes of Tairos such as Gina, the Queen of the Forest and the Mysterious Mr Diassa, when the vampires lost and the Emperor was finally killed. She told Dionne that the stories she had heard in her day about the Emperor were wrong. The Emperor wasn’t simply a mutated vampire that had survived the Hylexans attack. Rather he was in fact Khastran, the ancient demon that had created vampires in the first place.

According to legend Khastran was the oldest and most powerful of all demons. He is known to have visited our earth twice. First when his spirit crashed into the planet 66 million years ago at the end of the age of the Dinosaurs. Khastran had previously ruled over the hellish realm, but an alliance of gods, angels and even demons who had enough his cruelty, led to the demon finally being destroyed.

Some of his lackeys, centuries later would attempt to revive him however, but they were only able to awaken his spirit which was forced to flee to earth to escape. There Khastran’s spirit would proceed to take over the body of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, after which he would exterminate the Dinosaurs (except for those he turned into Demonic creatures like himself.) Aided by his new army of demonic Dinosaurs, Khastran would return to the stars and inflict a bloody reign of terror across the omniverse for millions more years to come. At the time of early man however the demon would return to our earth once more still inhabiting his Tyrannosaur body, though what for is still a topic of debate, at least among historians. Either way he was destroyed by another alliance of demons, gods and angels, who made sure that his spirit was eradicated this time. Just before his death however, Khastran who knew that he could not stand alone against the angels and the gods, attempted to create a race of lesser demons, who could bring him back to life centuries later. His first attempt were the savage Turok Han, who were deemed a failure as they were too monstrous. The second however were the vampires, who were created from a book he made, bound in his own flesh and inked in his own blood. Each page of the book could transform someone into the first of a new breed of vampire.

The vampires were more than just Khastrans creations or his children as many referred to them however. They were linked directly with him to the point where when they outnumbered the dominant natural creatures on earth. The humans, then he would live again.

This had always been the goal of the vampire race, to kill off humanity, but again they had failed ironically due to the fact that they were such vicious, power hungry, backstabbing monsters.

The Hylexans dark magic meanwhile had allowed the few scant traces of Khastran’s spirit, scattered over the earth to reform briefly enough to the point where he was able to possess the corpse of a fallen vampire, one of his “children”. The host body allowed Khastran’s spirit to remain on earth in one form, though his power was obviously depleted to a huge extent.

At the very least however in this body, Khastran could not only bring his children back (though still only using his book which it took years to find), but he would also be able to influence them to a certain extent, at least enough to work together under him, which had ultimately been what created the vampire horde in the first place.

According to Friaj, the Emperor had concealed his true identity to prevent any of the gods or angels from finishing him whilst he was vulnerable. As the war came to a close however, the Emperor/Khastran in desperation actually attempted to drain the life force from all of his children to gain at least a fraction of his former power to destroy his enemies.

Whilst Friaj was never exactly clear to Dionne what role if any she had played, she nevertheless saw Khastran’s final attempts go up in flames and the ancient demon who had caused so much pain and suffering endure its final end.

With Khastran dead, the surviving vampires he hadn’t already sacrificed were no longer united. They scattered and fled across Tairos, becoming mere shadows of their former selves. Dionne herself meanwhile was at some point after the war brought backwards in time by the Circus Family themselves. Though it was not this incarnation, but rather a later one. Dionne had always suspected that it may have been them, but she didn’t want to probe, knowing how delicate time itself could be. In the decades that followed Khastran’s death, several historical records would be lost of the war as the cities struggled to survive, but in the case of Dionne, they would be lost on purpose. Many people had come to worship Dionne as a god after her final battle against Jakarian, coming to place all hope that she would return and smite the vampire horde. Even after the war however many hoped she would return and rebuild the world as it was. The founders of Karsen felt that relying on her was not a good motivator for the people. Also it must be said that many of the founders would rewrite history so that the cities they had come from, had been responsible for Dionne’s and other great figures victories as a useful form of propaganda.

In time given how hard life was in the new Tairos, even compared with the original, it became easier to belief that a beautiful goddess was not watching over them and the myth of Dionne faded until virtually no one knew her name.

Friaj herself for the record protested the removal of Dionne from the records in Karsen, but eventually she became bored of Karsen and the other survivors petty arguments and returned to wandering the earth on her own, with her magic keeping her and the Gorgonopsid young and strong.

In spite of what Friaj told Dionne about feeling joy and happiness again, she still spoke in every bit as monotone a voice with a blank expression as she had done when she first got out of the vampires camps, centuries ago. Even Tanith and Anck Su Namun, two literal walking corpses were somewhat unnerved by her.

Friaj however had also been told that this would be the day when Dionne would return to Tairos by the Circus Family who brought Dionne backwards through time. She demanded Dionne and the others come with her now, stating that they couldn’t afford to wait for the city of Karsen to come to a decision. The cities leaders as always were somewhat ineffective. Their city generally didn’t need to do much in order to protect itself, thanks to a powerful force field that served as its real protector. The wall was simply to mark the end of the force field and serve as a back up. The force field was generated in the centre of the city, by the statue of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. (Who were naturally still regarded as the kings of the forests.)

Whilst the statue appeared to be gold, in actual fact it was made out of magic. (Remember that gold is the colour of magic.) The statue had been created from the most powerful surviving warlocks, wizards and witches from numerous destroyed cities.

The combination of the city having the perfect protection, and its isolationist policy meant that it very rarely ventured into the outside of Tairos anymore, unless there was something in it for them.

Instead the city would just send the 7 heroes of Karsen out to deal with any other problems. The 7 heroes, who were known as Karsen’s 7 or Jameela’s 7 (After their founded) had been protecting the city and in some cases the rest of Tairos for decades now. They had first formed to retrieve the Tyrannosaur statue after it was stolen by a demon. The group were not formed by the leaders of Karsen who were too busy trying to stop the demons forces from climbing over their walls. Rather they were formed by the witch Jameela, a fairly low level member of the city who had long questioned their isolationist policy.

The 7 successfully retrieved the statue and were hailed as heroes, and subsequently allowed to explore Tairos as much as they wanted, unlike the other citzens. They acted on their own mostly, but if Karsen ever needed them, they would have to return right away.

Typically the leaders rather than waste their own resources, simply told Tarkan to wait on the seven returning to Karsen. They were away on a mission on the other side of the planet, though with the magics of Tairos that wouldn’t necessarily be a long time. Still understandably the Circus Family weren’t going to want to wait that long, and whilst Tarkan was distrustful of Friaj to some extent. (He was a bit distrustful of everyone truth be told.) He agreed to go with her.

Just before the Circus Family left Karsen however, Friaj would make sure to give Dionne her old weapon that the sky city had constructed for her all those centuries okay. Her sword, that only Dionne could wield because of the magics in her body. Technically others could pick it up, but only in Dionne’s hands would it possess its unique powers. Sadly however due to how badly her powers had been depleted, even in Dionne’s hands it was now nothing more than a sword. Still Friaj had faith that Dionne could find the power to use it.

Friaj took the Circus Family to the other side of Karsen, away from the black woods, telling them that what they were looking for had already absorbed the power from the Terrible One’s cave and was ravaging the countryside.

The Family soon came upon a small settlement of mostly farmers who had got by on a few tame, prehistoric animals such as Indricotheres, Entelodonts and some Hyeanodons as both protection and in some cases food.

The latest threat to the settlement however had been too much, even for their prehistoric mammals. A large, powerful spiritual creature that had been abducting settlers and transforming them into hideous demons. The creature however hadn’t attacked them in two days.

One of the settlers, a young man named Ajian, told the Circus Family that the creature had just two days ago had abducted his daughter, who had been out playing with her friends near the edge of the settlement when the creature came unexpectedly during the daylight hours. He personally rode on his pet Hyeanodon into the woods to try and find her, battling many of the mutated horrors this entity, whatever it was had created. Eventually however to his surprise, the mutants suddenly collapsed, and he found his daughter as well as her friend, crying and scratched, but otherwise unharmed on a nearby rock. Up above he saw the entity, which had taken on the form of a black smoke drift quickly through the sky until it reached the ruins of the old church, which had ironically been used as a sanctuary for survivors during the vampire war.

Of course he didn’t follow it as he had his daughter to think of, though admittedly in the two days since, no one else had been brave enough to go there.

Hell even the Circus Family themselves weren’t too keen, but they knew this was what they were here for, and wasting no time the unlikely band of vampires, mummy’s undead aliens, werewolves and rock stars headed through the woods to the church.

Along the way they encountered the corpses of the numerous mutants this spiritual abomination had created. One of them was still alive, though it was not a threat to the Circus Family. It could barely move, and was clearly in the most heinous agony. All of its bones looked broken, in fact some were poking out from under its skin. Numerous other parts of its body looked torn, with its transformation having clearly been haphazard and unfinished.

All of the Circus Family, even Tanith were horrified at the state the creature had been left in, so much so that Dionne held its clawed, broken slimy hand whilst Tarkan put it out of its misery.

Once they reached the church they could feel a dark presence right away. Carlene in particular felt uneasy. Two of the Gargoyles meanwhile that adorned the church’s roof came to life and began to attack the Circus Family. These beasts were actually a simply security system, that all churches in Tairos once had. Still they were enough to give the Circus Family some trouble, and in the middle of the fight, one of the creatures zeroed in on Dionne and dragged her a few feet through the air and through the church doors, which then slammed shut behind her.

As Dionne tried to use her sword to cut it down, she suddenly heard a voice taunting her from behind.

“My dear Dionne. What’s it been several life times. You haven’t changed a bit. I meanwhile well that’s a different story.”

Dionne knew that voice only too well. It was Jakarian.

This wasn’t the Tairos that Dionne knew at all. The effects of Jakarian’s bombs and the many more devastating weapons created and used by both the vampires and the allies since had destroyed huge sections of the forest.

Before Tairos looked beautiful, but now its ugliness was there for all to see.

The Circus Family had landed in an area that now looked like a vast desert, with a few barren mountains. It was actually where the great city of Dynamos had once stood. Having been the most powerful metropolis in all of Tairos through its trade of Dinosaurs during most of the war. Dynamos sadly had never really recovered from Jakarian’s attack, though many of its people were too proud to admit that and accept help from the other cities. Instead they tried to rebuild the city on their own. A final attack from the vampires would see the then leader of Dynamos activate a self destruct button to ensure that none of the vampires would get access to their magics and Dinosaurs.

Like all time travellers the Circus Family were mindful not to change established history. Their travels took them to important periods in both the past and the future, where they had to create history. For example it was only because of the Circus Master stopping an attempt to build an army of vampires in Victorian times that said army didn’t overtake the earth back then.

The Tent itself would tell them, or rather the Circus Master what to do in order to ensure history went on the correct path, via images contained within the fountain inside the Tent, which also served as the controls for the vehicle.

The images were often vague however and would only give the Circus Master an idea on what to do, as knowing too much about your future could end up disrupting it. According to the vision for this journey there was a great evil rising in the ruins of the black woods, specifically in the Terrible One’s cave, which Dionne knew only too well. If this evil, which appeared to be spiritual in nature were not stopped then it would absorb the magics from the Terrible One’s cave and end up consuming the entire world.

Dynamos was not far from the black wood, and so the Circus Family (who were also known as the Circus Folk) would have to make a long trek through the perilous desert ahead.

The Circus Family at this stage, aside from Tarkan, Carlene and Dionne herself included four other members. They were the werewolf Amy Tunstall, the mummy Anck Su Namun, alien Tanith and a vampire hunter named Samuel Williams.

Amy Tunstall was born in Glasgow in the year 1940. Much like Carlene she had tried to make it as a singer, before she was infected by a werewolf. After becoming a target for other demons and hunters as a result. (Vampires contrary to popular belief were among the only supernatural creatures who did not despise werewolves, as the curse of lycanthropy could poison and kill almost every other kind of supernatural creature except for vampires.)

Amy eventually fled to Darrow too, which was something of a hotspot for supernatural creatures. There she became a part of the criminal mastermind known as mad Lord Paul’s empire, which included many supernatural creatures too. (Lord Paul was one of Carlene’s greatest adversaries.)

Amy however soon turned against Lord Paul’s orders, being unable to comply with his ruthless actions. She soon became a thorn in his side and would now and again help Carlene against him. Still in spite of this however, the two were initially enemies, as Amy still turned to crime in order to make ends meet, though she never killed anyone. Carlene who eventually convince Amy that she didn’t need to give into the curse and could still be a good person, after the two rescued another street girl named Sally Chappell, who Amy had taken under her wing from one of Lord Paul’s demonic servants. Amy had taken pity on Sally after vampires had killed her family, though she had only intended to look after her for a short while, the girl grew too attached to Amy for her to just abandon her. When Sally was caught up in her feud with Paul Amy would surprise herself with the lengths she was willing to go to protect her, including even sacrificing herself.

This finally convinced Amy to take Carlene’s advice to heart and she and Sally eventually left for Paris where they would spend many years battling evil, with Amy becoming every bit as great a hero as Carlene herself. The two would remain in contact and became best friends until Carlene’s disappearance in 2007.

Carlene always said that the reason the two got on so well was because Amy was a Glaswegian and Carlene was a cockney. She joked that Glaswegians and cockneys are soul brothers or sisters in this case, as they are both so similar. Both are stereotyped as violent, drunken thugs, with links to gangsters in the media. (Something which to be fair, both play up to for humour.) Both in spite of the stereotype however have a strong artistic streak, and are quite left wing. Finally both even have their own rhyming slang too.

Anck Su Namun meanwhile was a former Egyptian princess who had fallen in love with her high priest Imhotep. In her attempts to use the black arts (stolen from a book of Imhoteps) to escape from and punish the Pharoh who had chosen her as his latest concubine. Anck Su Namun would end up uninentionally unleashing a dark plague upon Egypt which she would die from.

Several thousand years later, she would be revived by a wizard in the hopes of harnessing the plague that she had unleashed. Fortunately however Anck Su Namun would escape from his control and now an undead creature with unique powers. She would become determined to make up for the deaths caused by her plague and for causing her lover Imhotep to go down a dark path in his attempt to bring her back. Despite her background as literal royalty, Dionne always said she found Anck Su Namun to be among the most down to earth approachable and sweet of the Circus Family. This was probably due to the fact that Anck Su Namun hated almost anything associated with her original life. From the trauma of being forced into a marriage she hated, to the unintentional pain and suffering she would cause, to what ultimately became of the man she truly loved, Imhotep. Anck Su Namun always considered her second life her true life.

Tanith on the other hand was something of a wild card among the family. She was an alien queen who came from a far away planet, which she had conquered through magic. Tanith had actually been the first to discover the black arts on her world, which made her conquest all the easier. Whilst she was always utterly ruthless in dispatching her enemies. At first Tanith was a beloved ruler at least among the masses. She used her magic to cure diseases, end poverty and restore the lands that had been devastated after the wars of her predecessors. (She had only discovered magic in the first place to restore her land that had been left to rot by the elite after the way.)

Ironically she didn’t even want to become queen at first. She only wanted to dispose of the corruption at the top, and aid her people. Unfortunately however they all mistook her for a goddess and insisted on following her regardless. In time it didn’t take long for Tanith to see herself as a goddess either.

Tanith would rule over her planet for many centuries using magic to prolong her life. Eventually however others would discover the secrets of the black arts and whilst none ever became as powerful as she was individually. A revolution of sorcerers and sorceresses was soon mounted against her, which eventually ended in her death. By this stage her own power had corrupted Tanith to the point where she was in many ways no better than those she had disposed. There would even be parties held in the streets to celebrate the once loved monarch’s murder. Thanks to her magics however, Tanith’s spirit survived, and in order to stop it from being exorcised or destroyed by her enemies, the last of Tanith’s followers cast her soul into space in a spaceship containing her corpse. They lacked the facilities to resurrect her after Tanith’s palace was destroyed (and even if they had it would have been pointless anyway.) All they could hope for was that Tanith’s ghost would find a way to restore itself.

Unfortunately for Tanith however she would remain in space for centuries. The torture of going from having the power of life and death over a world, to being trapped as a mere echo in a cold, dark room, floating aimlessly through space would cause Tanith to go completely insane. Years later she told Dionne that she sometimes wondered if her servants had done this to punish her? She wasn’t exactly the most generous and loving master and perhaps this was their way of ensuring that she wouldn’t be let off so easily for her crimes?

Either way her torment would eventually end, when a lone earth ship stumbled upon Tanith’s vessel after it had drifted far away from its home. Tanith’s spirit would take over the body of a woman on board, ironically one of the lowest ranked members of the ship to avoid detection. The weakness of a human body however meant that Tanith’s powers were greatly reduced from what they once were. (They had also depleted from the centuries of solitude as well.)

Having lost any morality she once had through the centuries of power and then solitude, Tanith killed the rest of the crew, except for a few she made into slaves before heading back to her home world, a journey which took many decades. Much to Tanith’s horror however, she discovered that her people had been killed off in the centuries since she left. The magics she had introduced them too had led to further wars which eventually transformed the planet into a desolate, hell world, filled with magical mutations and monsters.

This revelation was enough to penetrate even Tanith’s arrogance and snap her back to sanity. She became determined to make up for all the suffering she had caused to her people. Sadly she could not release the woman whose body she had taken over, who was long dead, but she did release her slaves (one of whom, a man named Fraska, who was the lover of the woman Tanith had taken over, would become obsessed with destroying her afterwards and became Tanith’s greatest enemy.)

Tanith would travel the universe for many centuries, fighting evil wherever she could to make up for her past sins, before joining the family.

Despite her remorse however, Tanith could still be arrogant and often clashed with Tarkan’s leadership. She was also by far the most ruthless member of the Family too.

Finally Samuel Williams was an experienced vampire hunter who had previously assumed the costumed identity of the Demon of Datheca to fight monsters on the streets of his home city. The years of magics he had used to help in his battle had somewhat affected him, granting Williams some limited magical abilities, though his real power lay in the numerous magical gadgets and weapons he had created in his war against the supernatural. Samuel had taken the longest to adjust to being part of the Circus Family as he had previously preferred to work alone. Ironically however it would be Tanith that he would become the closest too. Dionne always suspected there was something between them, but she wasn’t completely sure.

In spite of the difficulties with Dionne’s attempt to change the timeline in slaying Jakarian, the family still cared for one another, and this adventure would arguably push them to their limits in this respect more than any other.

The desert of Dynamos was populated by many nightmarish creatures and distortions left over by both the war, and the final self destruct spell. The first monster to attack the family was an undead Dinosaur, nicknamed a bony Dinosaur by Dionne. It was literally the reanimated skeleton of a Charcaradontosaurus, a large member of the Allosaur family that could grow to over 40 feet long. Whilst only a skeleton on the surface, the undead creature was far stronger than it had been before, through the magics that gave it life, or rather unlife. Whilst devoid of any flesh, it did have eyes of some sort, specifically giant red magical flames in its eye sockets.

Tanith’s magics had no affect on the monster and it chased the Family for miles. Tarkan tried to lure it away with his floating head, but he wasn’t as fast as he thought, and the undead Dinosaur sent his head flying across the desert with a well placed strike of its tail.

Dionne, Anck Su Namun and Carlene fled after Tarkan’s head, (along with his body, which could survive for up to an hour headless) whilst Tanith, Samuel, and Amy did their best to lure the Dinosaur away.

Tanith was eventually able to best the Dinosaur in her usual ruthless way. Given that this area represented the ruins of a civilisation that had been abandoned, there were clearly a lot of corpses and skeletons left under the ground. Tanith had a talent for reanimating the dead. It was how she had been able to restore herself to life in the first place. The others however did not like her using this power for obvious reasons and even in these circumstances, Amy tried to stop Tanith, but true to form the arrogant alien summoned up a small army of twenty or so corpses from the ground. The resurrection magic was as basic as could be. The corpses would only “live” so to speak for half an hour, and they were nothing more than extensions of Tanith’s will. This was how the alien often justified using the bodies this way, claiming that she wasn’t really bringing them back, though again even someone with my limited knowledge of magics, knows that the most basic resurrection spells can still inadvertently rip someone out of their afterlife, even if they are not placed into their new body. It can also disrupt their rest in other ways too. Clearly someone of Tanith’s power would know that too, but she either felt she could control it, or perhaps just didn’t care. Even at her best, Tanith could still justify carrying out small evils to stop greater threats.

In this case the reanimated dead did manage to hold off the bony Dinosaur long enough for Tanith, Amy and Samuel to flee, though unfortunately they were forced to flee in the other direction, deeper into the desert.

Dionne, Anck Su Namun and Carlene meanwhile would soon by ambushed by another gang of magically mutated humans, survivors of the fall of Dynamos. These creatures known as the Vitox were not like the Vasta in that they were not completely unhinged. They were capable of loving one another, and even had something at least resembling a culture and a code of honour, though sadly as the desert of Dynamos was such a harsh and unforgiving place, their first instinct is still often to attack.

The Vitox stood over 7 feet tall, and had the shape of a humanoid, but little else in common with us physically. They possessed a single line of spikey hair similar to a hedgehog that ran from the tops of their heads straight down their backs. Their foreheads meanwhile where thick and robust like a Neanderthal mans, whilst their skin was a dull grey and scaly, somewhat akin to that of a reptile. (Dionne said that some had speculated that these humans had been merged through the magical blasts with some of the Dinosaurs in Dynamos.)

The abominations also only had three fingers on each hand, and three toes on each foot all of which were clawed. Their eyes meanwhile were bright yellow circular dots, whilst their noses were small and pug like.

Their mouths however, according to Dionne were the most unusual and disgusting part. Their lips were thin and wrinkled looking, but when they opened their mouths, the lips would pull back the way, much like a monkeys, though unlike a monkey, their mouths were filled with green slime. Rather than a set of teeth however, each of the monsters had a long retractable tongue which was covered in teeth and could be used to strike at their victims, ripping off a massive amount of flesh in the process.

The creatures much like the Vasta were skilled hunters, and though Carlene, Anck Su Namun (in particular) and Tarok were still stronger than them, (even without a head) the monsters still proved to be too much. In the middle of the fight however, Carlene was able to help Dionne escape using a gas bomb which she kept in her hair. Carlene wore a beehive haircut, which had been in fashion when she was turned in the 60s. Since then she kept it, not only as an affectionate reminder of her human life, but also because she had converted it into a magical weapons chest that was bigger on the inside than the outside.

The gas bomb only briefly distracted the monsters, but it was enough for Dionne to escape. When she finally got clear of the gas, she could see that Carlene Anck Su Namun (who had briefly reverted to her mummy form to try and fight them off) and the headless body of Tarkan were being restrained by several of the Vitox at once. Carlene who spotted Dionne screamed at her to go, saying she should get the others. With no other choice, Dionne was forced to flee through the desert ahead. to escape. Carlene, Anck Su Namun and Tarkan meanwhile were brought to the Vitox’s cave. The monsters had already decided Carlene’s fate. They knew she was a vampire. Carlene had done her best to conceal it knowing how vampires were viewed at this point in history, but they had been around them long enough to know.

They planned to dispose of Carlene and Anck Su Namun who they knew from her transformation was a walking dead of some kind, the same way they did for any vampire or zombie that came here. They’d leave them out in a small closed off, but open area at the back of their cave, where their pet vultures would devour them alive. Dionne knew these vultures only too well. They had been created during the final days of the vampire war, or rather the final days before she was placed into suspended animation.

They were simply vultures who had not only been made larger and more powerful through magic, but had also been given a craving for undead creatures such as vampires and zombies. The Vitox used these birds to protect themselves form the numerous zombies that stalked the desert mostly, but any vampire unlucky enough to stumble into the desert would be offered up as a special sacrifice to the birds. In many ways this spectacle was more of a treat for the Vitox than the vultures.

Carlene and Anck Su Namun were tossed into the pit before they could even attempt to explain themselves, not that they would have believed them anyway. Fortunately however the creatures didn’t remove Carlene’s beehive as obviously they had no idea it was a weapon. The creatures also foolishly untied both women’s arms before throwing them in as they did to all vampires. It was not out of altruism, but simply because it was more entertaining if the vampires had a sporting chance. To be fair that’s still more than the vampires would have given them under the same circumstances.

Unfortunately however the vultures could only be killed by a certain kind of weapon. One made of diamond to be precise. Whilst Anck Su Namun did her best to hold the swarm of monsters off, Carlene searched through her beehive. She kept weapons made from all manner of natural sources to fight off demons and magical creatures and diamond was a weakness of many breeds. Fortunately she found one diamond knife, but sadly even with this weapon and Anck Su Namun’s help, Carlene was only able to bring down two of the vile birds, as they were so fast, numerous and relentless.

Thankfully the two women held out long enough for Tarkan’s head to find his body. It had been looking for the others as much as they had it. The head made its appearance, first by flying into the vultures just as they had overwhelmed Carlene and Anck Su Namun. Tarkan’s head couldn’t harm the vultures but it was considerably faster than them which distracted the demonic birds of prey long enough for Carlene and Tarkan to climb back up the pit and fight the Vitox. The vampire and the mummy in turn distracted the Vitox long enough for Tarkan’s head to fly back onto his body, allowing him to take some of the Vitox by surprise.

Another few gas bombs from Carlene allowed all three to escape from the cave and out into the desert with the tribe of angry Vitox in hot pursuit.

Dionne meanwhile had become lost in the desert, though at least she had appeared to lose both of their attackers. She did however witness a few vultures overwhelming and devouring a zombie. Whether it was one of Tanith’s she didn’t know, but it was a truly disgusting sight all the same.

Eventually Dionne would stumble upon a different flying terror, a large Pterosaur chasing what looked like a child Vitox. What was strange though was that the Pterosaur was not attacking the child from the air. It was chasing it on the ground, galloping on all fours.

The Pterosaur was a Queztacoatlus and it was gigantic, at least the size of a Giraffe. The winged reptile (though at a glance it was hard to tell that it was a reptile as its skin was fuzzy rather than scaly,) was trying desperately to snap the little mutant up in its huge bill, and Dionne, despite knowing what the Vitox were like, obviously couldn’t just leave it. Armed with no weapons, Dionne did her best to try and distract the Pterosaur. Sadly her magics were again no use. Recently her already limited powers had begun depleting, though for why she wasn’t quite sure. Dionne was instead forced to throw rocks at the creatures face, and at first it tried to shrug them off, before Dionne managed a lucky hit in the beasts eye. As it turned its attention to her. Dionne wisely fled, trying to keep ahead of the carnivore, but it was too fast, as clumsy as its movements may have seemed the Pterosaur grabbed hold of Dionne’s left arm in its huge bill like beak. The animal then hoisted her up through the air, dislocating her arm in the process before it threw Dionne over ten feet face down into the sand. Dionne was knocked out instantly, but as the great Pterosaur then prepared to scoop her up in its beak, the young Vitox intervened. It jumped onto the Pterosaurs small, almost vestigal tail and climbed up its back and onto the reptiles head. The animal instantly started to panic and flap its wings around, with its bird like screeches waking Dionne. The great reptile managed to throw the Vitox off just as it took to the air. Dionne then grabbed the young Vitox in her other arm and head off in the opposite direction as the Pterosaur continued to circle them from above, being able to cover twice as much area from the air.

Eventually the winged terror swooped down at Dionne and the Vitox child from the front (having easily flown ahead of them.)

Dionne barely managed to jump out of the way and in the process fell on her dislocated arm.

The Pterosaur meanwhile crashed onto the desert ahead of them. It continued to flap its wings and struggle to get back up off the ground, and Dionne knowing that it would kill them as soon as it did, wasted no time. She popped her arm back into place, lifted up the nearest large rock she could find and brought it down on the Pterosaurs skull just as it had almost pulled itself up. She was forced to strike it another two times to put the reptile out of its misery.

A most disgusting and vile act, that Dionne was ashamed to talk about decades later to, but she knew it had to be done. The desert of Tairos was every bit as brutal as the jungles, and you had to act quickly or else you’d be the next carcass the vultures would pick clean.

Still even in the darkest of places there was room for compassion, mercy and pity, which Dionne had shown to the Vitox child. In response, the child whose name was Vitanna, promised to take Dionne back to her tribe, stating that they would reward her for helping one of their own.

The way back through the desert however was difficult. In the distance Dionne and Vitanna would spot the bony Dinosaur, battling a gigantic Dragon made of fire. It seems Tanith’s zombies hadn’t lasted as long as she had hoped, but at least the Dragon now occupied their former pursuers attention.

They also stumbled upon a fight between two Pteranodons and a gigantic spider like creature, with the Pterosaurs literally ripping the spider in two with their beaks.

Their most perilous encounter however was with the Drasker, a monster that was the result of several Dinosaur species merged together. This creature had been created by the magics of Dynamos that had leaked out when the city fell. Dynamos in its heyday had created via magic many hybrid species of Dinosaurs, such as the dreaded Tyrannosaurus Al, a hybrid of Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus.

In this case however the magics consumed several of their normal Dinosaurs at a time and fused them into one monstrous creature. Measuring over 200 feet long, standing over 60 feet tall and weighing in at over 150 tones. This animal or rather mutation had the body of a Brontosaurs in terms of size and overall shape, the skin of an Anklyosaur the legs of a Hadrosaur that could allow it to adopt both a bipedal and semi bipedal stance. There was also a raptor like claw on each of its feet and claws of a Spinosaurus on each of its hands. The dorsal plates of a Stegosaurus ran down either side of its back (with the sail of a Spinosaurus running down the middle.) It’s head meanwhile resembled that of a Tyrannosaurus, whilst finally the end of its tail possessed an Anklyosaurs club with spikes on either side.

The creature was the undisputed king of the desert. Indeed the only reason it didn’t rule beyond the desert was simply because it didn’t care enough to venture out of its territory.

Dionne first saw the animal when it literally came crashing through the side of a small mountain and devoured a Brontosaurus. Dionne had spotted the lone sauropod in the distance and knowing how aggressive these animals could be despite their reputation as gentle herbivores, she kept herself and the Vitox hidden until it passed them.

However within seconds this mighty Dinosaur was literally ripped apart before it could even defend itself. The Drasker, first grabbed the Brontosaurus’ neck in its jaws and then pulled its entire neck and head clean off, before going on to tear all of its legs off and toss them aside (with one of the Dinosaurs legs very nearly hitting Dionne.)

Dionne could see both the bony Dinosaur and the flame Dragon become distracted from their fight by the roars of the Drasker, and they both instantly turned and fled in the other direction. The former singer and the mutant soon followed suite and ran as fast as they could, too scared to look behind them in case the monster was following. Eventually however Dionne would run straight into Carlene Anck Su Namun and Tarkan as Vitanna was leading Dionne back to her cave. Before a fight could break out with the other Vitox who were not far behind, Vitanna stopped it, telling her tribe how Dionne had rescued her from one of the Pterosaurs. This still didn’t stop some of the tribe, from wanting to attack Carlene, but they were held back by the leaders.

The Vitox agreed that Dionne and her friends would be reward as much as they hated giving shelter to either a vampire, or anyone would would work with a vampire. Once they arrived back the cave, the leader agreed to shelter Dionne and her friends for one night, which is less than they would normally do under the circumstances.

Vitanna would also be greeted by both of her parents, who were elders in the tribes. The young Vitox had only ventured out on her own to try and prove her worth. Even though both of her parents had always said they were proud of her, the other children in of the tribe, knew how favoured the elders children were and often teased Vitanna that she was a third rate hunter who would never be picked if it weren’t for her father and mother. Sadly however her embarrassing failure wouldn’t help her reputation any time soon, though right now she was just grateful to be alive.

Vitanna’s father insisted on a rescue mission for Dionne’s friends. Even if one of their number was a vampire, he thankfully didn’t let his prejudice blind him to the debt he owed Dionne.

Tanith, Samuel and Amy meanwhile after escaping the bony Dinosaur had now been cornered by the deserts most common and persistent predators. The Kovras. These monsters were gigantic snakes that grew to over 30 feet long and weighed in at over 3 tons. Their skin and teeth appeared metallic, though they were not robots. In fact both their eyes and blood were bright yellow. They were the main predators of the Vitox, particularly of their young, though they would take any prey they could.

Four of them had managed to corner the three time travellers against a small hill.

Tanith did her best to try and hold the metallic reptiles off, but she had suffered something of an unexpected power drain from raising the corpses. It was her own fault. After the bony Dinosaur easily dispatched her zombies, she summoned up several more, and more after that, all just so she and the others could keep a head start on the Dinosaur. Whilst it had worked, unfortunately she had pushed herself somewhat. Amy meanwhile instantly morphed into her wolf form, which was over 7 feet tall and bipedal. Her claws and teeth were strong enough to pierce the snake creatures hides. In her first few strikes she sent all four back somewhat, before focusing her attention on the largest, alpha female of the group.

Samuel meanwhile did his best to try and protect Tanith who needed a rest after her ordeal. Despite his lack of overt powers, Samuel more than made up for it with his weapons and gadgets. He discovered that the inside of the monsters mouth was its weak spot, when one of his bombs landed on the tooth of the alpha female and sent the giant serpent scurrying back further than even Amy had.

Still whilst Samuel and Amy were able to hold off the snake monsters for a short period of time, they were not able to overwhelm them, and the largest female snake there soon returned, just as Amy had managed to drive back three more, and landed a surprise hit with its tail, sending Amy flying through the air until she hit the small hill Tanith and Samuel had been cornered against. She was knocked out cold.

Samuel then tried to be more aggressive in his approach, but instead the alpha snake latched its jaws around his foot and dragged the former costumed hero across the sand and swung him through the air like a rag doll, before another snake grabbed onto his arms, with both snakes preparing to tear him in two. (This was a favourite method the beasts used to kill the Vitox.)

Spurned on by her fury Tanith unleashed all of the magic in her body, which was powerful enough to send three of the snakes flying over twenty feet through the air. Even in her weakened state however she also had enough power to hold Samuel in the air and stop him from being sent away with the snakes. The largest female snake however was able to remain on the ground and pushed through Tanith’s force, and as it opened its jaws and prepared to strike, Tanith made her final move and blasted the snake’s mouth in the wound that had been created by Samuel, which caused its entire head to explode.

The strain was enough to knock Tanith out, and as all three of the time travellers lay unconscious on the ground the other three snakes returned and prepared to swallow them, but thankfully they would be saved by both the Vitox and their four companions. Together, they dealt with the snake beasts. Carlene took a high explosive out of her beehive and lured one of the snakes away from the others with the help of Anck Su Namun, who jumped into its mouth. Using her supernatural strength Anck Su Namun kept the snakes jaws open long enough for Carlene to leap into them and drop the bomb down its throat before both women jumped out and ran as fast as they could. The snake was blown apart completely from the inside. Tarkan meanwhile using one of the Vitox’s weapons flew his head inside the snake, then released the weapon from the inside. (The weapon was designed to poison the creature.)

On the outside Dionne said the snake’s entire body appeared to rust before it collapsed on the earth, after which it dissolved into a puddle of yellow slime, which soon dried up completely and was blown away in the wind.

Dionne and the rest of the vitox meanwhile struggled somewhat with their snake as their weapons were more basic. They were able to cut the monsters strong skin, with Dionne producing a nasty cut in its forehead. Carlene, Anck Su Namun and Tarkan soon joined in, but even they were not able to get past the snake. Tarkan tried the same trick again, but the snake this time swung round with its tail, as unlike the other snake it was more cautious after its wound. The tail missed Tarken but caused him to drop the poison which soon congealed on the floor. At the same time the tail hit Dionne, Anck Su Namun and Carlene, as well as several of the Vitox, knocking them all backwards. The snake then turned round and scooped up two of the Vitox, but before it could swallow them, Samuel threw one of his weapons into the wound created by Dionne’s sword, which blew out its eye, causing the beast to drop the Vitox and collapse to the ground.

For a second they thought it was dead, but when Dionne and two of the Vitox got near the snake reared up and went in to bite them both, only for Amy to then jump onto its head. Though the snake still had enough strength to thrash around, Amy was able to dig her claws into its eye wound and rip the entire top section of its head above its jaw off completely.

Again even though they were monsters, Dionne felt sick at the sight around her. They all did except for the Vitox who were dancing with joy at having slain some of their enemies. It had been a long while since any of them had been able to take down four of these monsters at the one time. For a moment the Vitox even seemed to forget that Carlene was a vampire and one of them even tried to dance with her.

Samuel would carry Tanith back to the cave with the others, who were all given a warm welcome this time for helping to slay the snakes.

The leader promised to allow them to stay two nights in the cave before they would have to move on. Tarkan however, not wanting to waste the opportunity instead asked for their help in finding the dark wood.

As soon as that name was mentioned, the leaders good mood instantly vanished. He wasn’t angry however, but terrified.

“When you see the kind of place we live. The horrors we deal with every day, and then consider the fact that even we are terrified of going near the black wood. Only a fool or a madman would even try.” The leader warned Tarkan.

Just then however Dionne interrupted. Though Tarkan was the leader, he understood that Dionne had more experience of Tairos than anyone there, even if this was a very different Tairos to the one she knew, and he basically let her take over.

“I have been there. I even entered the cave of the Terrible One, yet here I am. We, I know exactly what we are getting in for, but we have no choice. Please.” She asked.

The leader did not know what to say. He felt Dionne had to be insane. No one could possibly have survived the Terrible One’s cave. Dionne actually thought it would be a historical fact by now about her previous adventure into the Terrible One’s cave, but sadly at least around these parts it wasn’t and even with everything they lived alongside, they found her claims of having travelled through time somewhat improbable.

Still at the same time the leader knew he now owed Dionne and the others again for helping to kill some of their enemies, and so he agreed to help these strange travellers by summoning an old ally, the city of Karsen.

Dionne had never heard of it, as the metropolis had been founded sometime after the vampire war by survivors of the cities that had been completely destroyed. They hoped through pulling their resources together that they could create a city that would help the other surviving cities recover and unite them. It eventually became largely isolationist however, as the problems with the warring cities and tribes petty problems became too great after they lost the mutual enemy of the vampire horde. Though some have argued that Karsen simply wanted to take them over. Either way however, Karsen had surprisingly remained close to the Vitox.

It had come from when one of the Karsen’s rival cities had wanted to build a base in the ruins of Dynamos, in the hopes of gaining access to its secrets on how to build and hyberdise Dinosaurs. The Vitox sided with the Karsen, who though also interested in gaining access to those secrets, were smart enough to try a softer approach with the Vitox, not only helping them drive out a force that wanted to colonise their area, but supplying them with help in other respects. The Vitox for their part would allow the Karsen to utilise some of their secrets, though both parties would largely remain separate, and there would still be some conflict between the two.

Overall however at least their current leader had a great relationship with the Karsen, and as soon as he contacted them via magic, a small rescue team was sent out, which arrived by the end of the day.

The rescue team travelled through the desert inside a Triceratops. Using a combination of their own magics and those from Dynamos, Karsen had created Dinosaurs that had their centres hollowed out and could be piloted as vehicles themselves.

These Dinosaurs were not only larger, (obviously to accommodate having humans inside them.) They were also stronger and more durable too. The Karsen always insisted that the Dinosaurs did not suffer. They were placed into a trance like state when given commands and had no idea of what they were doing, when carrying them out, only waking up once the command was done. The rest of the time they could enjoy themselves and actually lived better lives than the animals who had been used as beasts of burden by other cities in a more traditional way.

Still many naturally found the practice cruel and exploitative and Dionne herself resented having to travel this way.

Sadly however the Family had no choice, as ultimately whilst the leader didn’t promise anything. The city of Karsen would be much more likely to help them, given their resources than the Vitox.

When the Triceratops arrived, the Family could see right away that it was no ordinary Dinosaur. It stood over 30 feet tall, and was over 70 feet long, whilst its skin was bright gold, though its horns appeared to made of platinum, whilst its eyes were green.

The Dinosaurs back opened up straight down the middle and a stair case soon emerged from the left hand side, which the family climbed up.

Inside the Dinosaur was rather fetching, at least Dionne begrudgingly admitted to me. There was a bar, a comfort area with several couches, a book case and even a television set.

Dionne instantly headed for the bar, as did most of the family after the day they’d had.

The Vitox bid them all farewell as the Dinosaurs back closed and the giant, golden Ceratopsian made its way through the desert ahead. The Dinosaur was too big to be bothered even by most of the horrors in the desert.

There was a scanner on each side of the inside of the Triceratops which allowed the family to see outside.

As much as Dionne may have hated the exploitation of a Dinosaur, she couldn’t help but admit that she was glad she didn’t have to walk through that nightmarish place.

Among the many sights they saw on the journey to Karsen, included a large Griffin creature scooping up a centaur in its claws, in much the same way an Eagle would a rabbit. They also saw a large area of the ruins of Dynamos, which appeared empty from a distance, but once they got closer to them, dozens of horrible mutations emerged.

These creatures had long, thin, crest like heads, pale white skin, mouths transfixed into hideous toothy grins, and no other facial features. Fortunately they didn’t give the Triceratops much trouble other than throwing rocks at it.

They also passed a vulture eating the corpse of a human, only for the corpse to come alive and devour the vulture. Dionne definitely needed a drink or two after that one.

However after an hour or so of travelling, they soon came across the one creature that could harm them. The Drasker.

The creature crawled over a nearby hill and very nearly pounced on the Triceratops, being a lot faster than its gargantuan body would have suggested.

The Triceratops ran as fast as it could, but not only was the Drasker fast, the entire ground around the Triceratops was shaking from the Draskers presence, making it hard to keep its balance. Carlene and Tanith attempted to hold the monster off, by climbing out of the monsters open back, and hurling whatever they could at the hybrid Dinosaur.

Tanith hit it with all the magic she could, whilst Carlene threw the most powerful explosives she had in her beehive at the Dinosaur monster. Nothing even slowed it down for a second. Even when they deliberately went for its eyes, the Dinosaur didn’t even blink and carried on with just as much relentlessness. Tanith very nearly fell from the side of the Triceratops the ground shook so badly, though fortunately Carlene managed to catch her in time.

With no other choice, one of the rescue team climbed to the top of the Triceratops and held up a glowing sphere. This device was capable of attracting any magical creature in the nearby area. It was only be used as a last resort for obvious reasons, but there was literally nothing else they could have done against the Dinosaur.

Just then several more bony Dinosaurs emerged from around them, including a Styracosaurus, several Kentrosaurus, Brachiosaurus and Hadrosaurs, as well as many gigantic, griffins and even a few flaming Dragons. Whilst all would normally flee at the sight of the Drasker, the sphere temporarily had too strong a hold over them, though it could not control them completely, it simply influence them.

The Drasker started to attack the other monsters, who as a response were instantly snapped out of their trance and began to fight back.

The Triceratops, narrowly managed to slip past the monsters and make its way out into the wider desert. Before they retreated back inside, Carlene and Tanith saw the Drasker from the distance kill most of the attacking monsters, before driving the few survivors away. Fortunately for the Family however it had two dead Griffins to feast on now so it wouldn’t given them any more trouble.

After another couple of hours, the Triceratops finally reached their destination, the city of Karser. Now the real mission could begin.

Illustration by Caio Corsini Filho

The Spinosaurus eventually tore through Dionne’s forcefield, though doing so had produced many gruesome wounds all over the animal, to the point where the golden waters went red with its blood. The sail backed beast didn’t seem bothered at all and let out another massive roar, before bringing one of its huge clawed hands down on Dionne who only barely managed to evade it.

As the animal thrashed around in the water to try and find its small prey, Dionne did all she could to try and conjure up another spell to use against the monster, but not surprisingly she couldn’t focus clearly having to constantly dodge the Dinosaur’s bites and even just its massive body thrashing around. At one point however her fear became so great that she unintentionally produced a magical blast. This came just in time for Friaj, as the Spinosaurs was about to consume her whole.

Unfortunately for Dionne however it just drew the animal’s attention back to her. Her trusty Gorgonposid, despite struggling to stay afloat in the water itself, nevertheless came to her aid and bite the side of the Spinosaurus’ neck. It held on so tightly that when the Spinosaurus reared its head out of the water, the Gorgonopsid was still holding onto its neck. One quick whack from its claws however sent the Gorgonopsid crashing back into the water.

Still the beasts distraction had not only bought Dionne enough time to get some distance, but for the shark to return. The Spinosaurus blood that had filled the water, not to mention Dionne’s strange and unpredictable magics had drawn several red sharks to the area beyond the original, which had survived the Spinosaurus’ attack.

Not being one to back down the Spinosaurus instantly began to attack the sharks. The sea monsters became engaged in a truly vicious fight, which Dionne could barely make out due to the thrashing, and the blood. She was however almost hit by one of the dead sharks that was thrown over twenty feet through the air, and that’s stomach had been sliced open by the Spinosaurus claws.

After a few minutes of searching Dionne found the others, and together they all swam as fast as they could away from the bloodbath ahead, not being sure which of the great beasts had emerged victorious.

Another hour or so passed as the escaped prisoners swam aimlessly through the golden waters. There was some trouble with a curious Plesiosaurus, though the Gorgonopsid managed to scare it away. Even though the Plesiosaurus was much bigger, like most normal predators, it was not looking for a fight, but an easy meal and therefore one snap from the Gorgonopsids mighty jaws to its face when it leaned in close was enough to make the brute think twice, before it sank back beneath the waves.

Thankfully help would soon come for Dionne and the others in the unlikely form of the winged, feathered Gorilla’s from ape island known as the Tyrak. Having been sent by Dionne’s old ally Corlax. The apes had detected Dionne’s magical blasts against the sharks and the Spinosaurus from miles away, as had many other great powers, including the vampires themselves. Luckily for Dionne the apes found her first and she had no objection to being taken to them, though Moska did try to resist at first, he was easily overpowered.

Upon arriving on ape island, Corlax would personally greet Dionne. Being somewhat friendlier to her than he had ever been during their alliance. After the former prisoners were given time to recover from their ordeal, and to eat and sleep, Corlax would tell Dionne about what had happened.

Sadly the vampires after conquering the sky city had gone on to take many more important strategic points. Unlike the inhabitants for the sky city, they had no problem with dropping bombs from above. (Even the sky city would not go that far, out of fear of contaminating areas and causing magical mutations.)

Even worse the access they gained to the sky cities studies on the magics within Dionne (That she had willingly taken part in.) Allowed the vampires to modify the sample they had extracted from her to create even greater weapons. Many of the largest cities had fallen to the vampires in just a matter of weeks, such as Dynamos, a city that traded Dinosaurs, and held out against them for centuries before hand.

These developments were enough to terrify even the apes into breaking their second period of isolation. Corlax however also finally revealed the reason the apes had cut themselves off from the war again to Dionne.

At the centre of their island, the apes had discovered the greatest concentrated form of the Hylexans magic that had originally laid waste to the earth. This small sample had become buried underground, when the earth was restored, rather than destroyed like the rest of it. The earliest samples of the Hylexan magic that had been discovered years ago, had ironically been the spell that Dionne along with Trian had originally been sent to the island to retrieve in the first place. However at that point even the apes didn’t know the full extent of what it was, and those samples had been diluted as well, through exposure to the magics that had rebuilt the earth. The most dangerous and undiluted Hylexan magic that had been buried deep, the apes did not want unleashed. They feared that their island would first be made into more of a target by the humans and the vampires to harness the magic, and that the humans would not only be reckless in using it against the vampires, but each other and that it would destroy the earth a second time.

To be fair the apes didn’t even trust their own to have knowledge of it, and for a long while it was kept secret, except for a tiny elite. Now that the vampires however were almost on their doorstep, they knew that it was better to side with the humans, but even here Corlax was still mistrustful of the humans, that is except for Dionne.

Part of the reason that Corlax trusted Dionne, it must be said, was because she was not of this time, and therefore lacked any true loyalty to any individual city or settlement, like almost everyone else did. From a practical point of view there was also the possibility of her going back to her own era, taking any secrets with her. Finally due to the unusual nature of her powers, she could potentially use a sample of the Hylexans magic to cripple the vampires defences around the sky city and pass it off as her own powers.

Dionne was still reluctant however to help unleash such a devastating weapon, and at one point, along with Friaj and Moska and her Gorgonopsid, she even attempted to flee the apes island, though her attempt was stopped not by the apes but a horde of Caradon soldiers from the ocean. These monsters had been drawn by the trail of magic left behind by Dionne to the island, and had been waiting for the right moment to strike, knowing that they could never take the island itself.

Dionne once again was able to conjure up magics to hold the Caradons off long enough for the apes to show up to fight the shark men. Though the Caradons were ultimately driven off, sixteen of the Harvia were killed in the process.

Corlax was furious with Dionne. Had she not been a time traveller, he would have surely killed her in fact. Instead however he was able to use Dionne’s guilt over the deaths of the Harvia to convince her that she owed it to him and the rest of the island to protect them from the vampires, which she reluctantly agreed too.

To this day however, whilst she knows it was the right thing to fight back against the vampires, she still wished she hadn’t been so weak in giving into Corlax. The horrors that would be unleashed by her guilt would endure for many centuries to come.

Dionne would train for a few more weeks to try and harness her powers. It didn’t take her long to realise that it was her emotions that were controlling the magics inside her. She thought back to all she had endured in the camps. Seeing the man she loved, even her beloved pet being degraded and humiliated, as well as all of the innocent people the vampires king had killed in front of her. She thought about ripping the king to pieces, about burning all of the vampires, repulsive, frail bodies into nothing but ash, and the rage as well as ecstasy of that, made her magic so powerful that on her first test alone she fired a blast strong enough to rip through a mountain.

Some of the apes even argued that with Dionne they didn’t need to use the Hylexans magic, but ultimately Corlax believed that it was a safer bet as Dionne’s magics were still unpredictable.

Friaj and Moska meanwhile would be sent to live in one of the few settlements that was still safe from the vampires, where he would be reunited with his wife and children. Sadly however Friaj it seemed had been left completely broken during the ordeal and said barely anything to Moska. Dionne would never meet Moska again, and like I said before it would be one of her biggest regrets that she would not be able to make peace with him.

After gaining control of her magics to some extent, Dionne would fly to the sky city in a forcefield and deposit the sample of the Hylexans magics. In an instant it wiped out the main defences around the city, allowing the apes to launch a full scale attack. Almost all species of the apes took part in the fight. Dionne meanwhile at first could only stare down in horror at what she had unleashed.

Normally she had no problem with killing vampires. From the very first time she had killed them, ironically during another attack against the sky city, she had never seen them as humans. However the way in which this dark magic tore the demons apart. It wasn’t just their bodies that were destroyed, but their very essence. Somehow Dionne could literally see their souls being ripped to pieces. She couldn’t describe it to me, but she just knew that was what she was looking at, and it was enough to make her wretch. For a few minutes afterwards she just floated there, almost numb to the warzone below her. Vampires and apes tearing each other apart, giant gorilla’s battling the Dinosaurs that the vampires had managed to control and tame into being beasts of burden. Her Gorogonopsid which was being ridden by none other than Corlax himself also took part in the battle and killed many vampires.

Eventually however as the magics keeping her afloat began to fade, Dionne mustered up her old rage and actually the prospect of seeing the king die like the soldiers began to excite her.

With her magics Dionne easily ploughed through several of the vampires and even managed to knock a few Dinosaurs off their feet, including an Allosaurus. She definitely even with her magics would not have been powerful enough to make her way through them all alone, but fortunately the apes occupied most of the vampires attention.

True to form the king, Jakarian was getting ready to flee on the other side of the city. As soon as the fight began to look fair, the monster naturally didn’t to be part of it. Just before his departure however the king ordered that all the weapons be fired below. Doing so was a risk that not even the vampires were willing to take at this point as that amount of dark and unknown magic could permanently contaminate the land of Tairos below, even for the vampires themselves. Jakarian however did not care. He wanted to send a message to the humans what would happen if they tried anything like this again, as well as possibly to cripple the city responsible. Dionne however also believes that it may have been because he knew she was going to kill him and wanted, much like before to take the entire earth down with him.

Dionne stopped the cowardly king’s craft just as it was about to escape the city and sent it crashing through several buildings.

When the king emerged from his craft however, he was not completely helpless. He held a young girl, no older than 13 by the neck and threatened to rip her heart out if Dionne did not let him go.

Years later, Dionne told me that was the hardest moment of her life, to fight the urge to just tear the king apart, regardless of whether he could kill the girl in time or not. She told me that she had always tried to convince herself that it was the magic that was compelling her to not care about the girl, but deep down she knew that wasn’t true.

Thankfully Dionne’s better side won out, though as soon as she let her guard down the kings guards instantly began to attack her. They struck Dionne with magical ropes that had what looked like knives on the end of them. Each one cut straight through her, though they did not despite appearances, cut through her flesh. They were spiritual knives which would pierce a persons soul only causing greater pain. These weapons had ironically been created from the very magics in Dionne herself.

The vampires used the ropes to pull Dionne to the ground and proceeded to whip her with them. The pain was greater than anything she had even felt in the camp, and as she lay there too weak to barely fight back, the king became cocky and even started to kick Dionne, breaking her ribs and then standing on her hand until it snapped. He also spat in her face several times too.

Sadly the apes and even Dionne’s pet Gorgonopsid were too preoccupied with the vampires, who despite the apes weapon still had the upper hand. As the vampires stabbed their knives into her once more however, Dionne this time used the pain and the anger it caused to power herself up. She sent the darkest, most powerful magics in her body through the blades and the ropes they were attached to, into each vampire that was holding it causing them all to burn away into nothing but ash.

With the magic now producing a golden glow that surrounded her entire body to such an extent that almost every fighting creature in the city was distracted by her even just for a moment. Dionne rose over thirty foot the air to confront the king, who again hid behind the girl like the wretched coward he was.

“I’ll kill her if you move an inch.” Jokarian said through trembling teeth.

Dionne however was completely silent for a few seconds, before the king suddenly felt a great surge of pain run through his body, enough to drop him to his knees, allowing the girl to escape.

“That’s okay. I don’t need to move to kill you.” Dionne said calmly. She had finally mastered control of her magic in such a way that could never be accomplished through training. This was her hatred, her fear, but also even just her confidence, to not give into this dark power, to master it finally coming together to give her complete control. Ironically it had only been through the king’s cowardly attempts to hide behind a girl that Dionne had gained that confidence as the fact that she had not given in then, convinced her that she was stronger than any dark forces in her body.

Dionne used her magic to quite literally rip the king from the inside out. She caused his entire body to explode in front of his vile horde. Right to the end the King pathetically begged for his life, even trying to convince Dionne that Trian was still alive and that he could take her to him. Thankfully she wasn’t fooled. After the king was no more, Dionne turned her attention to the vampire horde and with a powerful scream and blast of her magic she sent hundreds of the vampires flying through the air, whilst none of the apes were hurt. The rest of the bloodsuckers, having no idea what she was capable of, all fled as fast as they could. Dionne however didn’t let them off that easily and used as much power as she could to destroy hundreds of the vampires and send hundreds more of their ships crashing back down to earth where they were vaporized completely before hitting the ground. She also destroyed countless more vampires on the ground below, delivering a devastating defeat to the monsters the likes of which had never been seen before. The apes that could all cheered and started chanting Dionne’s name and her pet ran up to her, with Dionne giving it an affectionate stroke of its mane one last time. Unfortunately however, Dionne still had the kings weapons to stop.

Several of them had already struck the cities they had been sent too. Millions would die that day. It was arguably the single most devastating event in the history of our planet since the Hylexans invasion. Had it not been for Dionne however 100s of millions more would have perished.

Dionne flew through the air to a couple of hundred feet off the ground and using her powers was able to stop several of the blasts in the air before they reached their targets. Doing so as well as forcing the magics to dissipate until they became harmless took a tremendous amount of power, so much so that it took Dionne, even with her new mastery over magics several days to do so, after which she was left almost completely drained of power and fell back down to the earth.

Only the tiny left over residual magics in her body prevented her from dying in the fall, though she still fell into a coma. The survivors of Dynamos would find her just a few days later. Dionne would be proclaimed the greatest hero Tairos had ever seen as a result of her actions, and the surviving cities would place her body in a state of magical suspended animation to help her recover.

The war meanwhile would next enter into its final phase. The devastation inflicted by the kings weapons had changed the face of Tairos, making things more difficult for both the humans and the vampires, who had both suffered huge losses.

In spite of how difficult things would become, Dionne at no point would be brought out of her suspended animation, even after her body had healed. Whilst the official reason given was that Dionne was dead, or that she had earned her rest from the conflict. In truth the leaders of the new alliance were terrified of Dionne, who had for all intents and purposes from their point of view become a goddess. Whilst there were temptations to release and unleash her upon the vampire horde, ultimately none of the heads of the alliance were willing to be forced to bow down to a Goddess afterwards.

Sadly despite Corlax’s efforts to conceal the nature of the Hylexan magic. A team sent by the human alliance to the ruins of the sky city would discover samples of the Hylexans magic which they would use to create other weapons of that kind, which would in turn force the vampires to up their use of the black arts. More of Tairos’ jungles and forests would be laid bare as a result in the final stage of the war, which saw some of the most brutal battles in the planets history take place.

Still ultimately humanity won out over the vampire horde. Whilst what followed the war would be anything but a golden age, at the very least humanity was finally free from the greatest army of demons that had ever been assembled.

At some point after humanity’s victory, Dionne would be sent backwards in time. She is still not exactly clear of how she was sent back, but either way this time she retained her memory of everything that happened in Tairos. As far as she was concerned, one moment she was falling from the sky, and the next she was back in her living room, which from her perspective she had last been in ten years ago.

Her powers were mostly gone. Even after all that time in suspended animation, she had still burnt most of them out fighting against the king’s weapons. Adjusting back to 21st century life for Dionne was hard to say the least.

For a long while she was sure she must have gone insane and dreamed the entire thing. The spell to send her back had also de-aged her in order to make sure that the timeline was not altered. However she would get proof that it was real, every now and again when her powers would return usually for just a few seconds at a time.

To the general public, this would be the time when Dionne began to spiral out of control somewhat. I don’t like writing about it. Even already I feel like one of those gutter trash articles, wallowing in her despair, and pushing the bullshit tortured artist cliche.

Still it’s safe to say that for two years, Dionne shunned everyone around her from her record label, to her friends and her family. She’d only make public appearances when she was getting into trouble for something, as she quickly turned to drinking to help block out the pain and the stress that one day her powers could return and change history.

In spite of how horrifying Tairos had been however, she also missed Trian and her pet Gorgonopsid, both of whom she had been denied a chance to properly say goodbye too.

Eventually however this dark period would come to an end when Dionne would be visited by another time traveller. The fourth Circus Master.

The Circus Masters were a lineage of great heroes who commanded a group of time travellers known simply as the Circus Family, named so because they travelled through time and space in a magic circus. In actual fact the Tent as it would become known, was a complex time and space machine, constructed by the vandals, when they were in power in Europe. The original Circus Master was a renegade, reformed vandal who stole the Tent from under them and use it to travel through all of time and space, battling evil wherever he found it. The reason it was called a tent was because the mix of different magics used to create it, left it with several bright colours, which the first Circus Master, through some modifications was able to disguise as a Tent.

In time the first Circus Master would assemble a team of creatures from all over time and space who would become known as his family. The Circus Master gained his name, not just from the fact that he was the leader of the team, but also because he shared a special link with the Tent. After the first Circus Masters death, a successor would be chosen by the Tent itself and so on and so on. In total there were seven Circus Masters, all of whom over time would recruit different heroes and monsters and creatures to be part of their Circus families.

The fourth Circus Master was a scarecrow brought to life through magic. He was known as Tarkan and was originally created to protect a small village just outside of Wistman’s woods, a notorious hot spot for supernatural creatures. After it fell he would join the circus so to speak, being selected to become its new master.

Tarkan was in some ways the most unpredictable Circus Master. Dionne in particular could get quite annoyed with his childish humour, such as taking his head off and making it fly around and chase people.

Dionne’s best friend in the Circus Family, ironically would be Carlene, a vampire from 1960s London. Carlene like Dionne had once been a singer, but was sadly turned into a vampire by a deranged fan who had stalked her in life and wanted to force her to be his vampire bride.

After escaping and slaying her insane stalker. Carlene fled to the town of Darrow where she would learn to control her thirst. Working alongside Detective Cushing, she would battle many monsters and vampires and creatures, becoming a hero. She would later travel the world, eventually coming to settle in Aviemore in Scotland in the early 21st century. Following the great monster break out of 2007 in the highlands (an event which most people would know by the official cover story, the earthquake of 07.) Carlene would be blasted back through time into the Victorian age by a supernatural force, where she would live for several decades, doing what she always did, fighting evil, until she joined the first iteration of the Circus Family.

Carlene was by the time of the fourth Circus Master the only original member left. As a result in some respects the others all deferred to her, including even Tarkan, though ultimately he was still the leader.

Dionne naturally clashed with Carlene at first. Having trouble believing that a vampire could be anything other than a monster. I must confess that even I found it difficult to believe at first.

Vampires however are far more complex than you would think initially. It’s true that there are hundreds of different species of vampires, all created from the pages of the book of Khastran. All share a number of traits such as a need to consume the blood of natural creatures, immortality etc.

Still overall all vampire species can be grouped into four different categories. soul vampires, pure vampires, born vampires and savage vampires.

The differences between these categories is entirely down to how each species is created. The majority of vampires reproduce through infecting a human with the demonic energy in their bodies, which over time causes a human to transform into a similar demonic. Different vampires can infect humans in a number of different ways, through a bite, a drop of blood, making a human consume their blood etc. Sometimes the human can still be alive whilst this process happens, other times they are dead, but the result is always the same.

In the case of a savage vampire, the demonic energy quickly grows into a demon, that ejects the soul from the body. The soul, as seen with ghosts, is where everything we are comes from, our minds, memories etc. Savage vampires therefore are not people at all, simply a demon occupying a human body (which in turn has been transformed into a demonic body.) They are generally as single minded as animals and have no desire but to kill and torture their victims. They are among the strongest and most feared vampire breeds, with the likes of the dreaded Jiang Shi belonging to the savage vampires.

Pure vampires meanwhile are when the demonic energy transforms the human soul into a demonic one. They are still the people they once were technically, but all positive emotions such as love, compassion, remorse, and empathy are extinguished from the soul once it is transformed into a demon, and not only is a killer instinct added, but any negative emotions and traits the person had in life are also amplified too. These can be traits the person was aware of, or darker urges that were buried deep in their sub conscious. Either way pure vampires in many respects can be seen as twisted demonic caricatures of the people they once were. They embody the darkest side of humanity and of demon kind. (Khastran the creator of all vampires was quite possibly the most evil creature in all of creation.)

Pure vampires are also by far the most common. They consist of roughly 95 percent of all known breeds.

Born vampires meanwhile are the rarest, but also the most powerful and evil. As their name suggests they are the children of two vampires, and were never human. Only a very few species of vampires are capable of having children, and all are pure vampires. Born vampires also unlike other breeds do age, at least at first. They will start out as children and mature over the course of at least a century, though it may take longer in some cases. Born vampires not only possess greater strength, but a number of other great powers, and both before and after the age of Tairos, they were usually ranked first in any kind of vampire hierarchy, with many believing the Emperor to have been a born vampire. Unlike all other breeds born vampires are not capable of infecting or transforming someone into a member of their kind.

At the bottom of the vampire hierarchy meanwhile are the soul vampires. These bloodsuckers are created when the demonic energy grows into a demon inside the humans body, when they are either dead or alive. The demon however does not cast the soul out. Instead it keeps it there, and continues to allow the soul to control the reanimated, now demonic body.

The demon however does still influence the human soul. Not only does it add the killer instinct, but it eliminates all positive emotions such as love, compassion, remorse, guilt, empathy, and just like with pure vampires it heightens any negative qualities a person has in life, either conscious or unconscious.

The difference between soul and pure vampires however is that it is theoretically possible for a soul vampire to fight the demons influence. As the human soul still exists, it’s capacity for love, compassion and remorse are still there, just trapped under the demon, unlike in pure vampires where the human soul has now become a demon soul.

It is exceedingly rare, but there have been a few documented cases of soul vampires fighting their demonic urges and rediscovering their humanity. As a result of this and the fact that they were generally the weakest vampires, The soul breeds were looked down on by the others, and are only ever used as foot soldiers in any vampiric society or organisation. Ironically however Jakarain was a soul breed, though again he was the exception in terms of his high rank. Professor Fang, the vampire time travelling vampire hero was probably the most famous reformed soul vampire of all time. Dionne would even meet him a few times on her journey’s with the Circus Family.

Carlene meanwhile was probably the most famous (to those who knew about the supernatural of course) example of a soul vampire overcoming its dark urges successfully from the entire 20th century. She later told Dionne however that ironically it was probably her anger at her sire that drove her to overcome the demon’s influence. Prior to being turned, Carlene’s stalker had ruined her life for months, making her terrified to play any gigs or even leave the house. The idea that he now damned her was too much to take and she became determined to control her vampiric nature to show that he had no real power over her, even after she finally slayed him.

Even with this knowledge however, it still took Dionne quite a while to trust the reformed vampire, something she later told me she deeply regretted. Still Carlene understood as she had more than enough experience of people treating her differently, and in time she and Dionne came to be best friends, bonding largely over their shared love of soul music, which Carlene helped Dionne rediscover somewhat after what Jakarian had done in the camps. Sadly however it would never quite be what it had been before, hence why she wouldn’t release any albums afterwards.

Still Carlene ironically despite what she was, became the friend Dionne needed at that stage in her life and gradually Dionne was able to put at least some of the pain from her last year in Tairos, and the death of Trian as well as her regrets over how she had treated his family behind her.

Dionne would go on many adventures with the Circus Family. Surprisingly though she didn’t share many of them with me. I think that unlike Tairos however she felt she didn’t need to, as they didn’t have the same traumatic impact on her. That’s not to say that they weren’t dangerous and scary at times, but still unlike in Tairos, Dionne now had an entire family of people to help her.

She would spend from her perspective 5 years with the Circus Family. During that time she travelled to hundreds of different planets and even a few new universes too. She famously told me about one universe that was literally made of music. I’m not joking. The life forms, the planets, the stars were all different musical vibrations. Needless to say contact in that universe was a little difficult.

She also fought the Hylexans many times. These octopoid monsters were the most recurring adversaries of the entire Circus Family. Dionne later told me that she couldn’t help but feel more than a bit satisfied at giving some back to the monsters who created the nightmarish world she had found herself trapped in.

Dionne would also encounter her archenemy Jakarian a few times when travelling with the Circus Family too. This was obviously earlier from his perspective, though at least it explained how he recognised her before and did not underestimate her.

Dionne first met Jakarian from his perspective ironically when he was helping humanity against the Hylexans. She found it hard to conceal her hatred from him at first, and was even forced to help save his life from a Hylexan scout party, which was probably more painful than anything she went through in the camp.

Still over the course of their first adventure together, whilst Dionne hated him right the way through, she nevertheless admitted to me that she saw a somewhat different side to Jakarian, when the vampire unexpectedly returned the favour and later saved her from the Hylexan’s commander. In doing so, Jakarian actually took a risk pushing her out of the way of a blast that very nearly killed him. When Dionne later asked him why, he simply told her “You saved my life. It’s the least I could do.”

Her hatred would soon be mixed in with guilt at being forced to leave him to his fate. She often wondered afterwards if perhaps she and the Circus Family had taken Jakarian with them and supported his attempts to get clean from blood, that he could have maybe ended up like Carlene or Professor Fang. Obviously she knew it was out of the question to attempt to change history in this way, but that still didn’t stop her from feeling responsible. Carlene however didn’t agree. She reminded Dionne, when she was first turned she literally had no one to support her. She couldn’t go back to her family and her boyfriend, the vampires regarded her as a freak and traitor. The only support Carlene had to begin with was Detective Cushing, but even he was skeptical of a vampire being anything other than a monster.

Furthermore Jakarian’s evil had arguably eclipsed that of even his fellow vampires, in betraying his entire planet out of nothing more than spite. Whilst Carlene wasn’t completely unsympathetic, she also did not think that Jakarian’s evil was entirely down to what he was.

Dionne herself would get a nasty reminder of how cruel the future vampire king could be in her second meeting with him as part of the Circus Family. By this stage Jakarian was working with the Hylexans and he used his former experience with the Circus Family to lure them into a trap for their old enemies.

Dionne was so overcome with rage at having been tricked by him again, and having been stupid enough to feel sympathy for him at one point, that she very nearly ripped the vampire apart when she got free of the Hylexans. Over the course of her adventures with the Circus, Dionne’s powers had slowly begun to resurface. They would still never get to the point that they were when she would later (from his perspective) kill Jakarian, but she was nevertheless able to control them to a greater extent than she ever could before.

That is except for this moment when the anger and hatred she felt was so great, she almost ripped the vampires body to pieces, not caring about the effects on history. Fortunately Tarkan would stop her just in time, though Jakarian would remain terrified of Dionne for many years after. This also explains why he was so desperate to make her suffer in the camps years later and also why he did not simply kill her, as even he would not dare change history.

Dionne’s attempt on Jakarian’s life would drive a wedge between her and Takran, who for a long while afterwards found it difficult to trust her not to interfere in established events.

Eventually however Dionne would get a chance to prove herself when the Tent took the Circus Family back to Tairos, many years after the war between the vampires and the humans was over.

The vampires had three rulers in the age of Tairos. The Emperor, the king and the queen, with a supreme council ruling below them. The Emperor who it is believed lived through the aliens destruction of the earth, and was responsible for bringing the rest of his kind back, was their overall ruler, though he was a shadowy figure that most hadn’t even seen. In fact Dionne said that she wasn’t sure if he was a myth or not for most of her time in Tairos. Either way the King and the Queen took a more direct part in commanding the vampires. Of the two the Queen was far more powerful and also a much more competent leader, though admittedly she had help from her right hand, the Caradon known as Marachai. Caradon’s were magical Shark men, created from a ritual that fused both Sharks and humans together via a spell into a new life form. Most Caradon’s were vicious predators, but Marachai for some reason was able to retain his intelligence and possessed a loyalty to the vampires. He was a brilliant tactician and many believe that most of the vampires greatest strategies and battle plans originated from him.

Jakarian the vampires king meanwhile whilst not the most skilled leader, was nevertheless arguably one of the most evil creatures ever to have lived on the planet. His cruelty and sadism were certainly unmatched in the age of Tairos. Whilst almost all of the battle plans were left up to the supreme council on his end, Jakarian still retained his position as the Emperor found his sadistic nature to be a far greater piece of propaganda to terrify the humans with. Many argued that both the king and the queen were nothing more than figureheads to the rest of the vampires, and that neither really did much of anything. The king and the queen only met one another three times in total. (And like everyone else the queen found Jakarian to be utterly repulsive.) Still they both did possess authority, and not only had the final say on any plans, but the supreme council were also in most cases forced to allow the vampire king to indulge in any sick little games and desires he wanted.

The council all to the last despised the king for many reasons. First and foremost, he took credit for their work (as a further part of the propaganda.) Also the king was actually part of a lesser breed of vampire, that was normally looked down on. It was entirely through his brutality that he had been given this position. Furthermore, ironically whilst his breed were often looked down on for their supposed greater humanity than other species of vampire. His cruelty at times shocked and disgusted even the council. Finally however the real reason the king was despised not just by the council, but almost all life forms in Tairos, was because he had been responsible for the Hylexans winning the war and devastating the earth in the first place.

The king had originally taken part in the Hylexan war on the side of humanity. For a while he was even a celebrated hero, who was held up as an example of how even the darkest and most evil creatures can change. Vampires at first due to their treacherous and evil nature, even by demon standards were not allowed to fight in the Hylexan war, but eventually when the aliens began to gain the upper hand, out of desperation many vampires were recruited including Jakarian who at that point was nothing more than a common vampire, hunting and killing to survive.

Jakarian who apparently even as a man, had led an unremarkable life, found his calling in battling these aliens, and on some level at least according to certain historians wanted to change and better himself. Surprisingly Dionne herself believed that to be true, though why I’m afraid I can’t quite say just yet. Still either way whilst his spirit may have been willing, Jakarian was also a weak man in many ways, and began to give into temptation and feed on some human survivors from colonies the human forces rescued from the Hylexans. When the higher ups found out, they initially not only covered up Jakarian’s killings, but even supplied him with people to feed on. The leaders of the resistance ironically much like the Emperor felt that Jakarian was too useful to simply dispose of. His great heroism had helped inspire people not give up, as if even a vampire, the most evil, bloodthirsty demons on earth were capable of changing then humanity would have no choice but to unite.

Sadly however the more Jakarian fed, the more out of control his bloodlust became and eventually he would be exposed ironically by a former Hylexan collaborator, who escaped from him. Traitors and deserters made up the a large percentage of those that were sacrificed to not only Jakarian, but other demons too.

Jakarian was thrown under the bus by those who had supported his bloodlust and forced to go on the run. Fuelled by hatred for all of humanity for betraying him and devastated at his reputation being destroyed, Jakarian would eventually come to work with the Hylexans and played a pivotal role, due to his inside knowledge in helping the Octopus aliens break through humanity’s defences and launch the missiles that would destroy almost all life on the planet, except for the survivors camped out on Point Nemo.

Jakarian would then travel with the Hylexans for a short while afterwards helping them carry out other atrocities, before fleeing from the octopoids. (As he did not want to simply be their slave.) Travelling the universe on his own, the former vampire of the people continued to give in to his sadistic urges, becoming one of the most wanted criminals in the galaxy, before he finally returned to his home planet earth after sensing the return of his kind. (He also felt it would be the perfect hiding place as everyone else believed the earth was dead.)

Upon arriving back home however, Jakaria would instantly fall under the emperor’s control, though rather than be punished, the emperor at least according to the legend, sensing his hatred and appetite for destruction, appointed the traitor to the position of king not long after. Much to his minions fury and disgust.

By the time Dionne had arrived in Tairos, Jakarian had long given into his demonic urges to possibly a greater extent than any vampire before him. Another reason he was made king was because he had once been seen as a hero. The Emperor in contrast felt it sent out a better message that vampires could never redeem themselves and that the more they did, the worse their relapse would eventually be.

Dionne and Trian meanwhile possessed an even greater hatred of the vampire king than most others in Tairos, if that were possible, as the monster had been the one to lead the attack against Mosterik. Again the battle plans were drawn up by his subordinates, though as always he took the credit for it to the masses. Still Jakarian was the one who not only singled out the city, but put more effort and resources into taking it. He even personally took part in the slaughter. To Dionne’s shame, both she and Trian took tremendous risks at the possibility of revenge against the monster in the early days of their time with the sky city when they had more pull.

When the king found out about their hatred of him, at first he actually grew scared. Despite his power, he was still a disgusting coward, having lost all of the bravery due to his comfortable life on Tairos. The king was terrified that Dionne’s unique magical powers, which had also been sensationalised due to more propaganda could allow her to tear down his defences. He also more than any other vampire took Dionne seriously as a warrior, despite having seemingly never encountered her up close.

Eventually however, after seven years the vampire king would discover something that he could use to draw his two archenemies out. Trian’s little sister Friaj, who had survived the initial slaughter by the vampires, and had spent the last seven years in a vampire camp. Those the monsters didn’t turn they simply put in their camps, both as slaves to harness magic and resources from the earth, and to use as test subjects.

Friaj had been through many horrific experiments to the point where she had been horrifically disfigured and completely broken mentally. The King however would figure out her identity, ironically after his first battle with Trian.

The vampire king and Trian first came into direct conflict, when the king was taking part in the capture and slaughter of a small town, for no reason other than his own enjoyment.

Initially the sky city did not want to bother protecting the town from an attack (they knew it was coming as several vampires had been preparing the town for something big.)

The sky city simply viewed it as another standard raid by the vampires, designed to recruit either new vampires or slaves. As horrible as it may have sounded, the sky city didn’t have the time or resources to waste on smaller settlements across Tairos. Trian however believed that this raid could be reserved the king, knowing about his love of taking direct part in the action when the victims were helpless. Hardly anyone else who had been involved in Jakarian’s raids had ever survived, as the vampire only made sure to take part in them when there was no escape for the enemy.

After successfully convincing the leaders to help through his experiences in Mosterik. Trian was successful in fighting off the bloodsuckers and even came face to face with the king himself. Though he had once been a powerful warrior, centuries of indulgence and having servants do everything for him had not only rendered Jakarian a coward, but also relatively useless in a fight, and he only barely managed to escape from Trian’s wrath, earning a nasty scar down his face as a result.

Following this the king would train hard, rediscover many of his old skills and soon ironically became obsessed with making Trian pay, as word of his humiliation soon spread among both the vampires and their enemies.

Jakarian would also begin all kinds of new and twisted experiments on the prisoners and slaves in his own personal camp. One area where he did take a more active role was the experiments, not just to satisfy his own cruelty, but also because of his knowledge gleaned from visits to other worlds. The camps inmates were all made up of survivors of cities and villages he had personally conquered over the years. Perversely he referred to them as his collection. It wouldn’t be long however after fighting Trian before the bloodsucker would discover that his archenemies sister was still alive. When she was selected for yet another experiment, the king this time instantly detected something familiar about her scent. The blood trace which he could smell from her wounds, instantly matched that of her brother, and after further questioning and torture, the young woman admitted that her brother was called Trian, which led to the king setting a trap.

Announcing that he had Trian’s sister and that he would tear her to pieces unless he came to face him alone. Jakarian made it clear that he just wanted to restore his reputation in a fair fight, but of course Trian and Dionne wisely didn’t trust him and prepared for a double cross. Dionne insisted on being part of the team along with her trusty Gorgonopsid, despite her and Trian not being on the best terms at that point.

Sadly however Trian and the others were hopelessly outmatched by the vampire forces, thanks to a new weapon that the king decided to unveil. It was a special kind of magic that could allow life forms to phase through solid objects. The vampires had been working on this for many years, and had recently made many great advancements, though in spite of this the king went against orders by using these test subjects, and all but one of the vampires slaves given this ability, proved to be so unstable their bodies were unable to reform properly a few times after phasing. Most of them died instantly when trying to reform, some’s bodies however slowly collapsed over the course of several days. Still these creatures were at least able to catch Dionne and the others off guard with their new unstable power (two of them actually reformed whilst phasing through two of Trian’s guards, causing them to fuse into a single monstrous being, which died in agony a few hours later) allowing the vampires to then surprise and capture them.

Trian didn’t even get to fight the king for that long before he was forced to surrender to save the others

All of the soldiers were butchered by the vampires, with Dionne only being spared alongside Trian on the king’s order. The other soldiers bodies were strung up in the place Trian and Dionne had been captured for the rest of the sky city to see.

Dionne alongside Trian would then be taken back to the king’s own island and placed in his personal camp, where she would endure the worst year of her life. This would be the part that she unsurprisingly was not always eager to share, and the few times she did would always be very difficult.

The king would allow his vampires to practice their experiments on Dionne during the day to try and extract the magical patterns from her body. There were no words to describe the pain these experiments caused her. They burrowed into her very soul.

Trian meanwhile endured all the tortures and humiliations that the king and his vile subordinates could think of for the first few months, until eventually the vampire grew bored and instead sent Trian to work in the mines. This however would be a greater torture for Trian, as he was forced to take part in helping to construct some of the vilest and most twisted weapons that the vampires would use to slaughter other cities like they had done to Mosterik. Sadly Trian had no choice as if he didn’t, then they would have tortured his sister. Still being forced to help the vampires in their war effort it seemed finally broke Trian after all he went through. Jakarian would often torment Trian by bringing in survivors of the other cities he had butchered to show them how their once great hero had taken part in the construction of the weapons for their slaughter.

Perhaps the cruellest punishment the king would inflict on Dionne however would be turning her against her greatest love, music. For a few months every night the king would force Dionne to sing for him and his twisted followers. If she didn’t meet their satisfaction however he would subject both Trian and his sister to a night of the most horrific torture. The songs she would be forced to sing would often be demeaning, humiliating, or virtually impossible, and the vampires would boo her, throw feces and rotten fruit at her to throw her off. Not surprisingly she very rarely amused the king who relished in letting her know that the torture of the man she loved was her fault. Now and again however he would let them off, and even compliment her singing, though this was only to give her a sense of false hope that she had a chance to save them each night.

Eventually towards the end of her time there, the king would bring out prisoners that they didn’t need and kill them if Dionne’s singing didn’t amuse him. He would also force Dionne to watch as the vampires tore them to pieces.

Even after her escape Dionne would never forget the faces of every single person the vampire king slaughtered in front of her.

Dionne’s Gorgonopsid was also not spared from the bloodsuckers cruelty. The poor animal was chained in the darkest, foulest cave of the camp, where every day it would be shaved, though in most cases its hair would be ripped out in huge clumps. Its sabre teeth would also be pulled violently from their sockets, only to be made to regrow the next day with magic. It would also be starved, whipped, muzzled, and even spat on regularly by its jailer. Dionne would also be taken to see it every day after her ordeal in the lab.

By the end of her year in the camp, the king’s forces had managed to extract a sample of the dark magic from Dionne. The process almost killed her, and she was rendered comatose for several weeks.

Still the magic extracted from Dionne would allow the vampires to build new weapons that would give them a considerable edge in the fight. In fact they would even be able to overrun the sky city itself, just like they had done to Mosterik. Trian was forced to watch as the bloodsuckers slaughtered his new home city just like his old one.

This time, his brother Moska would not escape and would be brought to the king himself, who wanted to execute him in front of Trian and Dionne.

Fortunately however when Dionne awoke from her coma, she would be different. The vampires experiments had tampered with her body to such an extent that she could now harness the unique magics in her body in a way that not even other witches could. Dionne’s body contained a combination of magics that could never have existed otherwise.

Upon awakening, thanks to the magics, Dionne, overcome with new power and a burning rage and hatred for the vampires instantly started to slaughter the vile bloodsucking monsters. She would ensure that her Gorgonopsid in particular would have its revenge when she not only released it and restored it to full health, but locked it in the same room as its vile jailer. According to Dionne the jailer pathetically begged her and even blubbed when the Gorgonopsid approached him. His pleas however fell on deaf ears as the Synapsid slowly crushed his head in its jaws.

Whilst Dionne freed most of the slaves and killed many of the guards, unfortunately however her powers began to wane once she broke through the more advanced defences for the kings castle. In fact she was so weak after using them that she collapsed. The king meanwhile instantly called for help, whilst he and his elite did their best to squash the rebellion. The prisoners did outnumber the vampires, but they were sadly still no match for them as just one vampire could kill four people easily.

Trian, both of his siblings, and the Gorgonopsid took Dionne to a nearby ship in the midst of the battle, but unfortunately the king followed them there, wanting to make sure personally that Dionne couldn’t escape. Whilst the Gorgonopsid fought off the king’s men, Trian and the king himself fought each other one on one. Sadly however the king’s training, matched with Trian being weak from the year of torture and imprisonment meant that Trian had no chance. This time, overcome with rage and also still fearful for his own wretched life, the king would butcher Trian by tearing his heart out of his chest. Still Trian’s actions allowed Moska, Friaj, Dionne, and the Gorgonopsid to all slip away on the boat.

Dionne was lucky that she was unconscious and didn’t have to see the gruesome sight, though she would always feel a tremendous amount of guilt for not being there. She also however blamed Moska at first for not trying hard enough to save his brother. At the same time however Moska blamed Dionne for encouraging Trian to take part in the war in the first place. After being rescued from Mosterik, Moska had simply returned to civilian life, married and had several children (who had luckily been able to escape thanks to his efforts from the sky city.) Moska constantly urged his brother to do the same. This had sadly led to a rift between them, with Trian even branding Moska a coward.

Dionne later said to me that she felt tremendous guilt over what she said to Moska in the heat of the moment, and that she wished she had told Trian not to take part in the war. Sadly however she would never get a chance to tell Moska how guilty she felt over telling him he didn’t do enough to save his brother, and she would carry that with her to the very end.

The journey away from the island was extremely hard. None of the makeshift crew had any idea where they were going, and when Dionne awoke an entire day after, leaving, aside from the tensions between her and Moska, he also put constant pressure on Dionne to use her powers. As much as she wanted too, for some reason she just couldn’t, and for a few days the crew were forced to scrape by on the meagre supplies left behind in the boat. Whilst the vampires themselves may not have needed food, their human slaves did.

Friaj was a lot easier for Dionne to deal with, though that was only because she barely said anything, to anyone. She’d often just stare into the vast golden oceans around them, even when Dionne and Moska were arguing.

The ship was constantly followed by sharks meanwhile of various different species, though fortunately none large enough to damage the boat, they still made the journey more than a little unnerving. On their fifth day however, the ship would be attacked by a large, red shark, unlike any in our time. It was over 40 feet long and over 20 tons in weight. It could have been mistaken for a Megalodon at first, but this monster was merely an extension of a dimension that we know as Davy Jones locker. Legend has it that this pocket dimension was created by Poseidon itself to punish humans who dared meddle in his domain. Either way it survived long after the gods left the earth. Davy Jones locker in our time, only has power over the dead. Those who die at sea are in danger of being sucked into this pocket hell dimension for all eternity, though fortunately there are numerous spells that can overcome this and only a very few are taken back to the locker.

Davy Jones Locker will survive the Hylexans attack on the earth and endure after the oceans are restored by magic to beautiful golden waters. Sadly however the magic of the new seas will allow Davy Jones Locker to extend its reach, creating hideous abominations capable of dragging living people in the ocean and even on the land back to the locker.

The red sharks send anyone they devour straight to Davy Jones Locker forever. Their only purpose was to hunt humans and other sentient creatures in the ocean. The shark would have surely sunk the boat, had it not been for Dionne who was suddenly able to conjur her power and drive the demonic fish away.

She didn’t realise it at the time, but her magics, much like the ectoplasm of a ghost were linked to her emotions. Only when they were at their strongest, could she harness them. Back on the island, her seething hatred and anger towards the king and the vampires had driven her, but now it was her fear of the shark. It didn’t help that she’d always had a phobia about sharks. It was their cold black eyes that freaked her out the most. Well that and the fact that they can you know eat people.

Fortunately that old childhood terror helped Dionne summon up the magic, though as she had no idea how to use it at the time she couldn’t finish the shark and it soon returned within a few hours.

This time however Dionne wasn’t able to quite muster up the necessary fear, ironically because she had faced the shark before. In the back of her mind, she felt that her magics could easily defeat the beast, and this grain of reassurance ironically prevented her from having access to those very magics. The shark soon sunk the boat, being strong enough to literally rip it apart with its jaws and send all of the crew tumbling into the water below.

As the shark circled them however, waiting for the right moment to strike, Dionne noticed that the beast was not alone. A large aquatic meat eating Dinosaur known as a Spinosaurus soon emerged from the golden waters, to confront the shark. This Spinosaurus was similar to the Vasta in that it was mutated magically. Normal Spinosaurs were among the largest meat eating Dinosaurs of them all, but again this mutant was far larger, being close to 70 feet long. It also like the Vasta looked as though its skin was wrapped directly over its bones, and lacked any lips, which made its long teeth stick out all the more. Finally like both its human and Tyrannosaur counterparts it was also completely unhinged.

Though the Spinosaurus was initially drawn here by the scent of the humans. (Dionne also thought it may also have been because of her magics.) The great reptile now focused all of its attention on the shark rather than the crew. Despite being somewhat smaller than the Spinosaurus, in the water the sharl was faster and delivered many devastating bites to the larger Dinosaur. The sharks jaws were not only dangerous because of their strength, but also because they contained numerous different forms of poisonous black magic. It was a testament to the mutated Spinosaurus’ strength that it was still alive after that many shark bites.

Eventually the Spinosaurus gained the upper hand and grabbed onto the red shark’s tail with its long, slender jaws. Despite the demonic fish weighing in at over 20 tons, the Spinosaurus flipped it dozens of feet through the air like it was a haddock. The Spinosaurus then turned its attention back to Dionne and the others. As its mighty jaws lunged towards Dionne in particular, again she found the terror to conjure up her magic and repel the monster. Unfortunately however the Dinosaur was not as easily driven back as the shark.

More than a few hours passed before Dionne woke up in a cage, surrounded by six other people. All survivors of the city of Mosterik, who like Dionne had fled into the woods and been captured by these monsters.

Outside the cage meanwhile was a huge campsite where the mangled bodies of several Dinosaurs and people lay gathered together in different piles.

In the distance however, there was one living Brontosaurus that was being restrained by several Vasta using ropes. Now and again the Vasta would capture the odd Dinosaur and use magics to place it under their will, though this only lasted a short while. The Vastas as Dionne later discovered had been having some trouble in their hunting grounds and hoped to use this creature to try and clear the area.

All of the prisoners, were thumping on the gates and causing as much of a disturbance as they could. They knew there was nothing they could do, but at the very least they were going to give these monsters as much trouble as they could. The Vasta however sadly were used to screams and didn’t seem phased as they dragged in more bodies and parts of bodies from their latest hunts.

Hours passed, before the Vasta lit up a huge fire in the middle of the forest which caused the Brontosaurus to become more agitated. Those in the cage including Dionne were intended to suffer a far worse fate than those the mutants simply hunted. The Vasta, being magical creatures, could sense when a life form had special and distinct magical patterns. All life forms possessed magic in their bodies, though only certain people and beings with enough skill could harness their magic and in turn use that to control other forces in the world through specific enchantments and rituals. Those who had fully mastered this process would become witches and warlocks, whilst those who had altered their magic to such an extent that they were now magical creatures, were known wizards.

Certain people meanwhile possessed distinct magical patterns for various reasons which could potentially allow them even greater power. In Dionne’s case, though she didn’t know it at that point. Her unique pattern was due to the time she’d spent in the vortex. The others who were from Mosterik, it was most likely due to the strange magics the city itself utilised. The Vasta meanwhile would extract these magical patterns from a living creature, by placing them in their special flame, itself created through the black arts. The flame literally burned everything but the magic in a persons soul away. However even then the process had to be slowed, as the power that created the flames was so hostile to natural organisms that it was in danger of burning their bodies up too quickly and destroying their souls completely, including the magics with them. As a result of the process being slowed however, the flame kept its victims alive for in some cases days, in a state of constant agony as it slowly burned them away. Even once their bodies were burned to nothing, the soul still suffered even greater pain due to no longer having the limitations of a body. Despite their savagery, the Vasta still knew how to use magics, and were not above even trading the magics they extracted with the vampires, bandits and other renegades if they needed too.

The other prisoners fell deathly silent as soon as they saw the flame being lit. They had all heard horrific stories about the flame, but had hoped they were nothing more than propaganda from the Vasta. Soon some of the prisoners started to genuinely panic and try to push against the cage, and this time the Vasta began to react, by laughing in that repulsive, hyena like cackle of theirs.

Luckily for the prisoners however, before the Vasta could place their first victim in the flame, the Brontosaurus broke free and started to attack them. The Vasta for once genuinely looked terrified and struggled against the giant reptile that provoked even further by the sight of the flames, was almost determined to crush every one of the vile creatures around it. Before the long necked giant could reach the cage however it was suddenly opened by a young man, who one of the prisoners, another young man instantly hugged. Their rescuer had also been the one to release the Brontosaurus when the Vasta were distracted with the flame.

“Brother, I thought those vampires had torn you apart.” The prisoners who had hugged their rescuer said.

“I escaped, but I’m afraid I am the only one. I checked in our city this morning and there was nothing. Not even the wail of a ghost. We are truly all that is left” their rescuer said with despair.

None of the survivors had any time to take it in however, as most of the Vasta’s had either been squashed or scattered by the Brontosaurus and if they didn’t move they would be next.

Along with the rest of the prisoners, Dionne fled deeper into the forest, until they all eventually reached a long and wide river. With no other way forward, the prisoners cobbled together a small raft made from bits and pieces of trees and logs which they tied together with vines from the forest.

None of the crew had even talked to Dionne, never mind recognise her, as they were too busy just trying to stay alive.

As the raft drifted down the stream, the former prisoners realised that the Vasta were no longer following them, for some reason. Dionne thought they had just lost the creatures, or that they cared more about the Brontosaurus. Sadly however she couldn’t have been more wrong. The Vasta always placed a greater importance on harvesting unique magics, and indeed with the collapse of an entire city, this had marked potentially their largest harvest in a long while.

Little did the prisoners know they were drifting into an area that even these monsters were terrified of. They soon caught the first glimpse of what they were in for with the sight of numerous remains of other Dinosaurs, including a Hadrosaur, a few Triceratops and even a large sauropod all scattered throughout the woods and even along the river bank. At first Dionne was terrified that they had stumbled into another Vasta camp, but it soon became obvious that this was something else. A large Triceratops emerged from the forest ahead of the raft and began drinking along the river bank. Triceratops were among the strongest, and most aggressive herbivores, but only if provoked. Even the Vasta were wary around them, hence why none had been hunted in the ambush that had captured Dionne.

The prisoners were very quiet as they drifted by the giant reptile, but after they got about ten or so feet away, they suddenly noticed the trees behind the animal moving. Something was actually about to pounce on the horned Dinosaur from behind. It was a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the most famous and ferocious of all Dinosaurs. It looked somewhat different to how Dionne had always been used to seeing it in media growing up however, though the overall shape was instantly recognisable at least. The Tyrannosaurs body was a lot thicker, and bulkier than it was normally depicted as, whilst lips covered its infamous set of teeth. Despite the Tyrant Lizard King’s size of over ten tons, it was almost completely silent as it crept through the woods. Dionne told me that she was conflicted, as on the one hand she didn’t want to let the Triceratops fall victim to the Tyrannosaur, but on the other if she alerted the Triceratops and it fled rather than fought, the Tyrannosaur could then turn its attention to them. As hard as it was, she and evidently the other prisoners felt it was better to let nature take its course, though not that anything in these woods could be called natural.

Little did the former prisoners know however, they were also being stalked by another Tyrannosaur from the other side of the stream, that similarly moved silently through the forest. Whilst the Tyrannosaurs weren’t the fastest runners among the meat eating Dinosaurs, they were still capable of short bursts of speed, and the animal was only on the river bank for a seconds before it leaped out, and scooped up one of the prisoners, a young woman closest to the edge of the raft.

All of the prisoners except for the brother who had released them from the cage, let out a scream at the gruesome sight of the second Tyrannosaur crushing the prisoner to a pulp in its jaws, as well as the sound of the prisoners bones crunching too. At the very least though her death was over in an instant.

The prisoners former rescuer meanwhile tried to pull one of the logs free from the raft to use as some kind of deterrent for all the good it would do. Unfortunately however another one of the prisoners who had been standing near the woman who had been devoured, was knocked over board by the Tyrant reptile when it originally attacked. As he struggled in the water the T. rex then emerged again and stood over him in the stream. The others tried desperately to row the raft upwards to help, but it was no use.

The Tyrannosaur attempted to scoop the prisoner up like a falcon grabbing a fish in its beak, and though the prisoner at first dodged the reptiles jaws and attempted to swim to safety under the water, the second time the Tyrannosaur grabbed him by the leg from under the water and lifted its prey high into the air. As it tried to shake him around however, the strength of the Tyrannosaurs jaws actually caused the prisoners leg to rip off in its mouth, with the prisoner then falling head first onto the river bank, where he was knocked unconscious.

The others could only look away as the Tyrannosaur literally ripped its victim to pieces on the bank, though Dionne did see his blood ripple down stream to their raft.

The prisoners screams meanwhile had alerted the Triceratops who began to panic at the sight of the Tyrannosaurus in the stream, and the second Tyrannosaur in response forgot its more stealthy approach and tried to attack the horned Dinosaur before it could notice. Sadly for this king of the Dinosaurs, the gamble didn’t pay off, and the Triceratops was alerted by the noise of the predator now running from behind.

The Triceratops impaled the Tyrannosaurus that tried to creep up on it, just as the predator lunged towards its intended victim. The herbivores left horn cut straight through the T. rex’s side and the Triceratops would then bring its horn down, cutting straight through the Tyrannosaurs entire stomach. Killing it almost instantly.

The other Tyrannosaur meanwhile, being alerted by its kin’s cries soon turned its attention to the Triceratops and engaged the three horned giant in a brutal fight. This time it would be the carnivore that won out. The Triceratops did manage to knock the Tyrannosaur off its feet when the T. rex tried to bite down on its frill, but before it could impale the Rex, the meat eater, grabbed onto one of the Triceratops’ horns with its three clawed foot and then scratched it down the side with the other. Whilst the Triceratops screamed from its wounds and briefly retreated, the Tyrannosaurus, with help from its small but surprisingly strong arms, hoisted itself up and delivered a bite to the Triceratops’ backbone.

The bite force of a Tyrannosaurus Rex was so great that it could not only pierce the strongest hides, but crush bone too. Absolutely no animal, apart from those with literal supernatural powers could survive a Tyrannosaurus bite, and even then most supernatural creatures were still not strong enough to withstand that force.

The Triceratops let out a bird like screech after being bitten that echoed through the entire forest, as it stumbled into the stream.

Despite the grievous wound however, the animal still attempted to stand its ground for a few seconds, but eventually even standing became difficult for this giant animal, and the Tyrannosaur, having still been careful of those horns, delivered a second and final bite to the Triceratops neck behind its frill.

As revolting as the sight was, with Dionne almost being sick at the Tyrannosaur ripping the Triceratops guts out afterwards. At the very least for a few minutes, she felt somewhat safe that the ferocious predator at least had no reason to pursue them anymore.

Deeper down the river however, the prisoners would soon have to deal with another threat. Three smaller meat eating Dinosaurs who seemed to be drawn by the prisoners themselves, and proved to be even more persistent than the larger carnivores.

These were actually juvenile Tyrannosaurus. They looked remarkably different to the adults however, to the point where Dionne at first assumed they had to be different animals. The juvenile’s in contrast had very slender bodies, small heads, and longer forearms. They were clearly built for speed and were evidently excellent swimmers as well. The prisoners former rescuer, who had clearly taken over as the leader, tried to bat them away as best he could with his log when they dived into the water. Fortunately the animals weren’t working together and two at the back even started fighting each other. However one of the juveniles soon swam under the raft and burst out through it from below, managing to bite the leader of the teams brother by the leg in the process. Luckily for him, juvenile Tyrannosaurs teeth were better suited to slicing, unlike the bone crunching chompers of the adults, and the others including even Dionne were able to drive the little Dinosaur away with a series of kicks and punches. It still left a nasty wound however.

The raft then drifted into a large very dark cave, where it was difficult to see much of anything ahead, though a horrific stench still pierced the darkness and it was soon followed by another screeching, bird like noise.

This entire area was a nesting ground for the Tyrannosaurus, who could actually be very social creatures, though they still hunted alone, even as juveniles. The Dinosaurs had only moved into the area a few months ago, and had even driven the Vasta out. This was why the Vasta had captured the Brontosaurus, hoping that the larger Dinosaur could help them drive at least some of the Tyrannosaurs back. Despite being skilled at hunting Dinosaurs, even the Vasta were terrified of the Tyrannosaurs, who just as they had done 66 million years ago, dominated any area they occupied.

The Vasta would ultimately never succeed in driving the Tyrannosaurs out and in the decade Dionne spent in Tairos, this area would actually become one of the largest and most prosperous Tyrannosaur nests in all of Tairos, with many powers from all over attempting to try and control the Dinosaurs in it for their war efforts, and almost all failing.

This cave meanwhile belonged to the alpha of the group, who soon made his presence known to the terrified prisoners. Whilst they could barely make him out in the darkness, Dionne could still see that this Tyrannosaur was gigantic, even by their standards. In fact he was almost twice as big as the others outside. Once again however despite its tremendous size, the Dinosaur proved fast enough to scoop one of the prisoners up in its mouth, though this time however the animals jaws also smashed the raft to bits in the process too and sent all of the survivors tumbling into the water.

They quickly headed to the shore, with Dionne seeing very faintly that the stream ended at the very back of the cave. Unfortunately that was the only way to go as the alpha Tyrannosaurus was blocking the way back. The survivors all fled, not bothering to check and see if their comrades were okay, they were so scared.

As Dionne ran through the darkness, she heard the Dinosaurs bird like screeches, followed by the screams of another two of the prisoners and their bones subsequently crunching. The Tyrannosaur could see perfectly in the darkness unlike the humans. Their species possessed the sharpest sense of vision and smell in arguably the entire animal kingdom. (This had been how the adults outside had been able to pinpoint the exact location of the prisoners in the jungle by picking up their scent from possibly miles away.)

Dionne soon hit the end of the cave, and with no choice she was forced to climb up the wet, slimy rocks. When she got higher however she not only heard the Dinosaurs screech, but felt it too. To her horror she turned around and saw that she had come face to face with the alpha Tyrannosaur. Dionne was literally frozen with fear, in fact she told me she almost went catatonic as the Dinosaur opened its jaws. Even describing it all these years later she still froze for a few seconds.

“I should be waking up any moment now. Any moment, any moment, any moment.” She kept saying to herself as she faced certain death.

Just then however the Tyrannosaur closed its mouth and looked up. Before it could do anything a hand reached down from above to Dionne. It was her former rescuer, who along with his brother had managed to climb up ahead and reach a ledge which led to the outside.

Dionne instantly snapped out of her petrified state and with his help pulled herself up to the ledge, that was just above the Tyrannosaurs height, whilst her rescuers brother kept the Tyrant Lizard King distracted by throwing rocks on its head.

Once it saw its prey was out of sight the Dinosaur let out a final screech before retreating back into the darkness of its cave. From this point, Dionne could see a bit more of the cave including the corpses and remains of the Tyrannosaurs many other victims.

The three survivors followed the ledge which led to outside. Thankfully they had escaped the Tyrannosaur territory for now, but on the other side of the cave was arguably something worse.

It was a pit designed by the vampires both to torture and enslave their victims, made up of the darkest forces from Tairos that they had harnessed. The pit twisted its victims into hideous monstrosities whilst also putting them through the most unspeakable agony. Only the very strongest were able to crawl out of the pit. Even then however they could only escape it permanently if the vampires wished, after which they were then brainwashed to be loyal foot soldiers to the vampires.

These monsters, who were simply known as Abominations, were among the most deadly of the vampires servants as they could not be threatened, or scared or feel any pain due to their experiences in the pit.

Over two centuries ago however, the founders of Mosterik were able to drive the vampires from this area, which was a large part of why the bloodsuckers had not only be so determined to reclaim it, but also make the people of Mosterilk pay (other than for the usual vampiric sadism.)

Despite many attempts however the people of Mosterik had ultimately been unsuccessful in eliminating this stain on Tairos, or in even freeing many of the damned souls still trapped within. The vampires meanwhile had thankfully been unable to reclaim it due to the Tyrannosaurs moving in.

The two brothers knew exactly what this place was, but unfortunately there was no way forward but to go around the pit. During the daylight, of which there was still a little left, the pit looked like nothing more than an empty chasm. Much like the vampires themselves it was inactive, and in fact it didn’t even exist during the day. The brothers were desperate to get across the wide chasm as fast as they possibly could before nightfall. There was an exit of sorts on the other side that had been made by the vampires years ago. The other sides of the chasm meanwhile were all surrounded by large walls that were too steep to climb. The brothers warned Dionne that if she held them up, this time they would leave her.

Fortunately Dionne had done some rock climbing as a girl, so she wasn’t completely useless. Ironically the wounded brother ended up being more of a liability as the injury got worse, the more he walked on it.

At one point he had to rest, and whilst both the brothers in all fairness told Dionne not to wait on them, she decided to stay. She later admitted it was more out of fear of being alone in this horrible place, but either way for the first time in this ordeal it earned her genuine trust among the survivors.

For one thing the brothers both finally revealed their names to Dionne. The wounded brother was named Moska, whilst the other was named Trian.

Moska thought he knew Dionne from somewhere, but she quickly played it down, being scared they might see her as dead wood if they thought she was just a spoiled 21st century celeb who didn’t know what she was doing.

After a few minutes rest, the three travellers pressed on once again, but unfortunately despite their best efforts, by the time they had almost reached the end of the chasm, it was night fall. The bottom of the pit suddenly turned into a green, swirling ocean in resoponse. Moans and screams started to emit from it as did some clawed and mangled hands.

As they almost reached the exit on the other side however, Moska suddenly felt a hand grabbing onto his wounded leg. He and his two companions looked down to see a horrible slime drenched monstrosity. The monster had begun as nothing but a large puddle of slime crawling its way up from the lake, but as soon as it got near Dionne and the brothers however, the upper torso of a man emerged from the puddle. The upper torso was completely white, had no features, other than a mouth with no teeth, with both the bottom and upper lips being connected at certain points via strips of slime.

When Moska tried to kick it in the face, the slime started to crawl its way up his leg and pull him further down. By this point dozens of even more disgusting and horrific creatures had begun to emerge from the green lake, and slowly crawled, slithered, squelched and scuttled their way up the cliff towards the three prisoners. Trian of course stayed to help his brother, whilst Dionne though once again having the option to flee, nevertheless also stayed to help. She always played it up to me as just being because she was scared of being alone, but honestly I don’t think that is why she helped the brothers. Knowing the kind of person she is, I think it was a genuine desire to help them. Remember as far as she knew there was no way she could fight off the monsters from the pit. If she was really just scared, well a safer option would still be to take your chances in the jungle up ahead.

Still whatever the case, Dionne and Trian both tried to pull Moska to safety, but the slime monster was much too strong and began to drag all three of them down the cliff, yet neither let go and continued to pull as hard as they could.

Just as all hope seemed lost, then suddenly several of the monsters emerging from the lake were struck down by what appeared to be bright lights, in reality magical blasts.

Dionne looked round to see several soldiers dressed in strange armour coming from the exit. Their weapons did not kill the vampires former servants, but they helped to repel them long enough for Dionne and both of the brothers to escape. The three former prisoners of the Vasta were then taken by these mysterious soldiers to outside of the exit of the pit, where they could see several glowing, circular crafts, each one no bigger than a lorry. They were all instantly hurried into one. Dionne at first was scared, but that faded when she saw that the brothers were relieved the soldiers had shown up. In fact Trian was angry that it had taken them this long. The soldiers all then fled into their crafts not just to escape the monsters who were coming in droves out of the pit, but the Tyrannosaurs who were emerging out of the jungle ahead, having been drawn by the lights.

One of the crafts wasn’t able to take off in time however and fell victim to a Tyrannosaurs that grabbed hold of it in its jaws by rearing up. Not only did the Dinosaur bite through the hull easily, but the animal then threw the craft to the ground, killing the pilot instantly. Finally the Tyrannosaurus then tore the craft open with its jaws and devoured three of the men inside, with the last only barely managing to escape. However another of the Tyrannosaurs then chased him into the direction of the monsters from the pit, some of whom then tried to attack the Tyrannosaur itself. These monsters unlike everything else in Tairos did not fear the Tyrannosaurs, though that didn’t give them any more of a chance against them. The Tyrannosaurus crushed all of the attacking monsters under its feet rather than eat them, as it could smell that they were too toxic to eat. Even the slime monster couldn’t stand against the Dinosaurs, as whilst it could wrap itself around one’s foot, it wasn’t big enough to consume it completely or strong enough to even attempt to pull it away and had to retreat. Escaping alive however at least meant it had done better against the Dinosaurs than the others.

The ship that had rescued Dionne meanwhile did its best to try and rescue the other soldier who was being swamped by the monsters, but as soon as it got near another one of the Tyrannosaurs grabbed onto the vehicle with its jaws. Fortunately for Dionne and the others however, the Tyrant Lizard had only managed to bite the tip of the vehicle which it still broke off, but not enough to make it crash. However the Tyrannosaur still not giving up then rammed the vehicle when it was close enough, sending it hurling through the air and almost into the green lake ahead, with the pilot only just managing to pull it out in time. As he flew back out however, the pilot saw the soldier they had tried to rescue being dragged down by the same slime monster that had attempted to consume Moska and knowing there was nothing he could do, with regret the pilot flew to safety with the other soldiers.

Dionne and the brothers were taken to a literal city in the sky, that appeared to rest on several clouds, though as Dionne would later discover, the clouds were naturally made of magic, as was the city itself.

The soldiers of the city had been too preoccupied with their own battle against the vampires to help Mosterik and had only actually been drawn to Mosterik after the slaughter when they detected a major magical upheaval, in reality Dionne arriving via time travel. They were able to trace Dionne from the portal she arrived in from the vortex, straight through the jungle, due to the unique magical pattern caused from her time in the vortex, though even they did not quite understand what it meant at first, having never seen a pattern like it. Still they eventually traced her to the vampires pit. Sadly they lost 15 men in total going through the Tyrannosaur territory.

As soon as she arrived, Dionne was placed into their prison, much to the protests of the two brothers. Several of the guards (including one who had even been to her concert with Freddie Mercury.) Knew who she was and after their leaders realised that she was behind the magical upheaval placed her in the cell to ensure that the timeline couldn’t be changed.

Sadly however the secrets of time travel were lost with the destruction of Mosterik, and for the time being, Dionne had to be kept in isolation.

The brothers constantly put pressure on those in command to free her, but it was no use. The leaders didn’t even want to investigate the unique magical pattern she had out of fear it would change history. Dionne herself later told me that she started to go temporarily mad during her time in prison after everything she had been through, and even started to attack the guards when they arrived to feed her every day. A few weeks after her imprisonment however, they were forced to release Dionne when the city fell under attack from the vampire horde.

Riding on the backs of their tame Triceratops, the vampires slaughtered their way through the cities armies, but Dionne proved to be surprisingly useful during the fight when she discovered she was immune to the vampires mind control thanks to her unique magical pattern. This particular breed could place anyone they bit under their control completely, and even the strongest magics were unable to reverse the process. This had been how the vampires were able to attack the sky city in the first place by biting one of their soldiers on the ground and then using him as a secret agent. Dionne however was able to turn the tables on the invading vampires, by pretending to be under their control after being bitten and then using one of their explosive weapons to slaughter a large number of their forces, including their leader. She told me that she had no problem with murdering the vampires. After seeing what they had done in both Mosterik and the sky city, she didn’t see them as remotely human. She did however also say that prior to the weeks in Tairos she doesn’t think she would have been able to. That world brought out the worst in absolutely everyone.

Dionne was hailed as the saviour of the city afterwards, and the question of locking her up again became impossible among the public. In fact the previous leaders who had ordered it were forced to resign in part due to this and the vampire attack. Dionne meanwhile was also able to demand that the city work on a way to try and send her home, not wanting to be part of their war. Sadly however the new leaders whilst agreeing, also insisted that until then she take part, not just because of the propaganda that could be drummed up around her now, but also because of her unique powers, which she had only just begun to explore.

Again the reason for Dionne’s strange magical pattern, was because in the vortex, her body had become fused with many ancient forms of primal magic from throughout history. Normally exposure to these kinds of magics in the real world would have either killed, or twisted a life form beyond all recognition, but as Dionne was outside of the vortex and therefore outside of the natural laws themselves. They had fused to her body over time in a unique way. When she arrived in Tairos, most of these unique magics had remained trapped in the vortex, but a few scant traces remained in her body, not enough to mutate her, but enough to make Dionne immune to numerous, though not all forms of magic in Tairos. There was no way to extract the ancient magic from her body however, at least not yet. Not only would it have most likely killed Dionne, but if unleashed from her, these alien, prehistoric forms of magic could end up creating more mutants or having unintended side effects. The city leaders also advised Dionne not to try and harness them as weapons, though they didn’t have to worry about that as Dionne wasn’t a witch.

Still they hoped that her unique magical constitution could be used as a weapon due to her immunity, though they were unable to force her due to fear of changing the timeline. Dionne completely refused to be drawn into their conflict, until Trian was captured by the vampires on a later mission.

In contrast to Dionne, Trian despite his dislike of the sky city, (even more so for them seemingly abandoning Mosterik until they thought they could exploit Dionne) was eager to take part in the war against the vampires and make them suffer. Moska wasn’t his only sibling. Friaj, Trian’s little sister of only ten years hadn’t made it out of the city, along with his parents and even his pregnant fiance. Whilst he may have seemed brave and loyal to Dionne, sadly the only reason Trian had survived was because he fled. The vampires had terrified him so much, that he ran in the middle of the chaos, and didn’t even notice that his fiance was not behind him until it was too late and one of the bloodsuckers had her in its grasp. There was nothing he could have done as the vampires instantly tore her throat out before he could attempt to run back, though he always doubted that he would have. He also did not go back for any of his family either, fleeing until he reached the forest, only returning several weeks later. It was only through being forced to survive for weeks in that hell of a forest, that Trian was finally able to work up any kind of courage, but it was too little too late. Worse the presence of the vandals meant that he now knew that he would never be reunited with his loved ones, even in death either.

In many ways all Trian had left was his hatred and his guilt.

Still Dionne felt she had seen a different side to him and after he rescued her twice she wanted to return the favour. She took part in a secret mission to save him from a vampires castle where they were torturing him for information about the sky city. The castle was guarded by Allosaurs. Dionne’s unique magical constitution didn’t prove to be any use in this mission and at times her anger at the vampires very nearly put the team in danger, but they were nevertheless successful in rescuing Trian, though the team still suffered one casualty at the jaws of one of the Allosaurs thanks to Dionne’s carelessness.

Following this experience, Dionne vowed to help battle the vampires, for her new friend Trian, for the man she got killed and also because she had come to realise after six months that there was no way the sky city could return her home. Not only did they not have the know how, but despite what they said, they weren’t really devoting any time to it. All of their resources now had to go into fighting the vampire horde who were stronger than ever.

Over the next year Dionne spent all of her time training, as well as testing through small samples, which magics were and weren’t effective on her. She became a very skilled and powerful warrior, able to hold her own in one on one fights with vampires, demons and other creatures. She and Trian also developed a very close relationship over this time, with Dionne being the only person he eventually shared the truth with about what had happened with his family. Even his own brother didn’t know that he had just fled. Dionne however did not judge Trian too harshly, as she understood what it was like being in that forest, with no way of defending yourself, death lurking around every corner. She understood that sometimes instinct just kicks in. Very few of the others in the city had been in the helpless position they had endured. The sky city, which was actually known as Carresa, was ironically originally established to escape the chaos of Tairos. It had been formed in the days before the vampire horde emerged, in response to the civil war brought about by the resurrected animals. It was now the oldest surviving city in Tairos as a result. As the vampire horde grew in power however, eventually even Carresa realised that it couldn’t hide any longer. These monsters were a threat to all sentient life on Tairos.

Still in spite of that, whilst they had certainly taken a more active role in the war, even then most of the cities inhabitants had been shielded from the horror of the forest below. Even the soldiers only dared venture down into that hellish jungle for short periods and missions. Very few could understand what Dionne and Trian had been through.

Their bond as well as their skills would be further strengthened on many important and dangerous missions together as Caressa was pulled into more and more conflicts, just to survive. The unprecedented vampire attack on the sky city had taken its toll, and now Caressa was forced to rely on other more powerful cities for protection, which soon dragged it into their other petty conflicts beyond the vampires themselves.

Dionne and Trian meanwhile were always eager to go on any mission they could, and over the course of 7 years, they arguably became the cities most skilled and respected warriors.

Among the missions they embarked on together included a journey to ape island, which as its name suggests was dominated by nothing but various species of apes. Among its native species included the gigantic Megaprimatus Kong, the prehistoric Gigantopethicus, the mythical Yeti, the ape men known as the Harvia, Neanderthal men, the flesh eating Monkeys called the Harkissen, the scaly Baboon known as Leannax (which was a crude attempt via magic to create a Dinosaur primate hybrid), the winged feathered Gorilla’s who looked more like harpies known as the Tyrak and finally the Gorra, a hairless aquatic ape, so immense in size it dwarfed the mighty Kongs.

Dionne and Trian’s mission to ape island was largely a disaster with the entire crew of 20 all being brutally killed except for Dionne and Trian. They had originally been sent there to steal a new form of black magic that the Harvia had developed, but these seemingly primitive ape men proved to be a greater challenge than they had predicted. In the end however Dionne and Trian were able to convince the leader of the Harvia, known as Corlax to part with some of the magic for the greater good of stopping the vampire horde. The Harvia and other primates of the island generally tended to shun the world of humanity and its petty problems. The vampires however had launched several devastating attacks on their shores recently, and now much like the sky city, ape island knew it couldn’t hide for much longer and really more for its sake than anything else, the Harvia allowed the Sky City and other cities to use their new magic formula which increased the strength of several soldiers to greater than that of the average vampire, though it could not do so indefinitely.

The apes would prove useful allies in other respects for the next few years against the vampire horde and Corlax even ended up becoming a close ally of Dionne as well.

The alliance with the apes however eventually did collapse, though no one was really sure why at first. For some reason the apes appeared to lose all trust in humanity and once again resigned themselves to live on their island, cut off from the rest of the world.

Still whilst it was short lived the ape alliance did help push back the vampires significantly and for that alone Dionne was celebrated.

Aside from Trian, Dionne’s other closest companion during this time was a creature known as a Gorgonopsid. These reptiles existed from before the time of the Dinosaurs. They belonged to a group known as the Synapsids who came in many shapes and sizes and ruled the earth for millions of years in a period of earth’s history, called the Permian era. Sadly the Synapsids were killed off by a disaster known as the great dying, which allowed the Dinosaurs to become dominant in the first place. One group of Synapsids however, the Cynodonts would later evolve into the first mammals, whose descendants would ironically take over after the death of the Dinosaurs.

From our perspective the Gorgonopsid resembled something of a cross between a reptile and a mammal. It measured over 20 feet long, was covered in a light fur coat (except for its legs and feet, which were still scaly.) It also had sabre teeth and stood on all fours like a mammal. Its skull however was more akin to that of a meat eating Dinosaur, whilst its tail was also thicker, longer and more muscular like a Dinosaurs too.

Dionne would acquire her Gorgonopsid within her second year on a mission to stop a mutated Tyrannosaurus Rex, that was to their kind what the Vasta were to our kind. These mutant Tyrannosaurus grew up to sixty feet long, had no lips, and much like the Vasta they had no muscles, only skin covering their bones. Once again however, much like the Vasta they were not only stronger than any natural Tyrannosaurus, but possessed significantly greater strength, durability, and were also unstable too, hunting for seemingly no reason other than sadistic cruelty.

These monsters were among the most feared in Tairos and even just one of them was capable of decimating several settlements. This Tyrannosaur had slaughtered a small city and almost all the life forms in the surrounding area, including the Gorgonopsid’s family. Dionne personally slew the monster with a special sword that only she could wield due to her unique magical constitution. This was the first time that it had been used, and it would become her signature weapon from this point on, helping Dionne slay many other powerful beasts and monsters. The Gorgonopsid meanwhile would be taken in by Dionne because she always was one to take in stray animals. Prior to arriving to Tairos she had almost never been without a pet of some kind since she was about 8. Granted she told me that at first she thought the Gorgonopsid was just a cute little animal the size of a puppy, but when it grew to full size in just a few years, she found it a little harder to cope with. Still she loved it as much as any of her pets, and when she told me about it decades on, she spoke with such affection that at times it felt like she was talking about another child instead!

Another important mission for Dionne and Trian however would be their journey into the Dragon graveyard. Centuries ago in the early days of Tairos, the Dragons gave their lives against a great evil that had been created from the magic used to restore the earth and create Tairos itself. Magic of that scale often comes with a price, and in this case, the price was a creature named Vaskalia, made of concentrated dark magic which laid waste to many areas of Tairos and transformed others inhabitants into monsters. The Dragons nobly sacrificed themselves as part of a huge spell to destroy the monster once and for all. The sight of their and Vaskalia deaths would remain untouched for generations afterwards out of fear of disturbing the spirit of the creature.

One Demon however, named Dakeria would dare to venture to the Dragons graveyard, in the hopes of harnessing their spirits. Dakeria was one of the oldest Demons in all of Tairos, being among the first to be revived when Tairos itself was born. Like most Demons he desired power and after failing to get it for so long, he finally became desperate enough to tamper with the Dragon graveyard. Most of the Dragon spirits had long since vanished, but a few scant traces remained and through those, Dakeria was able to revive them. At first he was only able to bring the Dragons spirits back at the sight of the graveyard which at least allowed him to secure it, but eventually he was able to stabilise them to the point where he could send certain spirits beyond the graveyard, still completely under his control to ravage certain towns, cities and settlements belonging to both the vampires and the allies.

Dionne’s unique magical constitution however when mixed with certain magics belonging to the sky city, was able slip past Dakeria’s defences and battle the Demon directly. Though his control over them was vanquished by Dionne, the Dragon spirits soon went rogue. Crazed and feral, Dionne and Dakeria were both trapped in the graveyard. Worse the unpredictable spiritual energy and magic from the ghosts was also allowing Vaskalia’s spirit to rebuild itself. The sky city was forced to destroy the entire area to sever the spirits link with the world, but Trian bravely fought his way through the Dragon ghosts, who without the demons control were more feral, and rescued Dionne, whilst Dakeria was left to die. The Dragons however, though feral in their last moments were able to help Dionne and Trian keep Vaskalia’s spirit trapped in the graveyard until the entire area was destroyed by the Sky city.

This mission more than any other showed Trian the extent at which he cared for Dionne as more than any other he genuinely thought he was going to lose her in this mission, and it very neatly tore his entire world apart, as much as the death of his fiance had done years earlier. By this stage they had been working together for three years, and Trian had clearly begun to develop feelings for Dionne. Indeed most believed that they were involved anyway, given the amount of time they spent together. It wasn’t just all of the life and death situations that had brought them together however. Trian was fascinated by the era Dionne came from, when things were so secure that they could delude themselves into thinking that vampires were nothing more than myths. He also loved her singing, which even in these circumstances Dionne appreciated. Arguably even more so considering that Dionne’s music hadn’t exactly reached the sky city due to its bad relationship with Mosterik other than a few exceptions (though even the guard who had gone to her concert was more of a Queen fan, than a fan of hers.)

With encouragement from Trian who always told her to never stop singing, Dionne rediscovered her love for music in Tairos and the new songs she would make even became quite popular in the sky city. She even wrote an anthem to inspire the allies against the vampire horde that would endure for many years to come, and eventually be adopted by other cities. She sang it for me one night actually, though she assured me it wasn’t as good as it sounded in the future. Apparently through their use of magic, the people of Tairos had created all new kinds of sounds that she didn’t even think were possible, though I often wondered if that was just an excuse. She could be so self conscious about her voice, amazingly enough.

Whilst the Dragons graveyard made Trian realise that he loved Dionne, he wouldn’t tell her until their journey into the black woods, the most feared area of Tairos a few months later.

The black woods was the one area on earth where the restorative powers of Tairos had not worked, at least not completely. They had restored some life to the area, enough that it was a forest, rather than just a waste land, but the life forms that were restored were transformed into hideous creatures. No one knows quite why the land was twisted in such a way, but it is believed that it was because it was the area the Hylexans missiles containing black magic had struck the earth and therefore was the most concentrated.

Whatever the case, the black wood was somewhere that even the vampires were terrified of. Dionne and Trian meanwhile were sent into the most dangerous area of the wood, the lair of the Terrible One. This horror had once been arguably the most feared creature within the wood, but it was finally slain several decades prior to Dionne arriving in Tairos by Mr Diassa, one of the original wizards who had helped to create Tairos itself.

The monsters lair, which on the outside resembled nothing more than a small cave still remained and nothing even within the black woods itself had dared venture in there. Dionne however once again proved immune to the lairs magics, and was sent on a mission to try and retrieve further samples of the Terrible One’s black arts to use as a weapon. It was a huge risk even for her, but Dionne agreed that it was too golden an opportunity to waste.

Trian meanwhile despite having grown up terrified of stories of the black wood like everyone else in Tairos, absolutely would not let Dionne go into those woods alone.

At first the mission went well, with Dionne managing to retrieve samples from the Terrible One’s cave, but unfortunately the spirit of one of the creatures of the cave was able to hitch a ride with one of Dionne’s samples and soon escaped into the black woods. This creature was made from the magics the Hylexans had used to destroy the earth itself made flesh. The Terrible One’s cave were where the magics of the wood that even he was scared had been sealed off.

Dionne and Trian were forced to work with other monsters of the black wood to try and contain the beast, as well as return the samples that she had stolen, with Dionne realising that they should never have been released, not even to try and stop the vampires.

Over the course of their adventure however, Dionne would very nearly succumb to the creature she had released’s poison, and thinking she was going to die, Trian finally confessed that he was in love with her and had been for almost as long as he had known her. Dionne however would be cured by the other creatures of the forest who still needed her to enter the Terrible One’s cave. Fortunately for Trian however Dionne felt exactly the same way and the two would soon begin a relationship.

Sadly however it wasn’t to last. Whilst Trian did love Dionne, he still couldn’t get past the guilt of what had happened with his family, and would suffer nightmares of leaving Dionne behind in a vampire attack too. Furthermore Dionne and other higher ups also felt that she and Trian’s feelings for each other were affecting their ability to do their missions properly. Something she later regretfully said she might have agreed with

After just a year together the two separated, though they tried to remain friends, they eventually drifted apart. Furthermore Dionne’s position within the sky city had also fallen considerably after the black woods mission. She had ultimately returned all of the samples back to the Terrible One’s cave, as well as the creature she released. Even in her old age, she never regretted it for a second, but others in the city, particularly as the vampires began to recover their losses and score more victories, came to hate Dionne.

For the next three years, Dionne and Trian would keep a low profile, though Dionne would still be sent on some important missions due to her unique magical constitution. She would ultimately be less celebrated, which she was actually quite happy with.

Eventually however after 7 years in Tairos, Trian and Dionne would be brought together once again to combat their greatest enemy. The vampire king known as Jakarian.

Illustration by Caio Corsini Filho.

Dionne P Nash was undoubtedly one of the most influential singer/songwriters of the mid 21st century. With a voice from a bygone era, a colourful, eccentric personality, and a cheeky sense of humour. She captured the hearts and minds of millions of fans around the world in no time. Sadly however like so many great creatives before her, we all know how Dionne would be plagued by her personal demons, which coupled with the usual unsympathetic and exploitative treatment from the media affected both her career and reputation. She eventually became a complete recluse for the last several decades of her life.

Many bemoaned the waste of her talent, but little did anyone, including even those closest to her know however. The reason for Dionne’s torment and seclusion was actually a dark secret that she was forced to keep, even from her family until the very end. One that would have surely seen her ridiculed and even locked up had she shared it. Dionne knew the truth about what was really out there, demons, vampires, the supernatural, but even more than that, she also knew what was to become of our world in the future. How all of the progress we make today will ultimately be worthless in just a few centuries time, yet she could never share that burden with anyone, that is until she met me.

I had the pleasure of getting to know Dionne in her reclusive years, which were not as dark as everybody says. Quite the opposite actually. I first met Dionne who I always knew as Mrs Sande (her married name) through her daughter Shingai, who has been my best friend since the age of five. I can still remember my first meeting with Shingai. I was a shy kid, who hadn’t made any friends in my first six months at school (which felt like an eternity,) when she suddenly invited me to play with her and her friends. I didn’t know why she did it at the time, but as the years went on I’d see her do the same thing again and again, even when we were adults at college together. She’d always be the one to ask the shy kid at the back to nights out and try and talk to them. I eventually realised that was just who she was, which is why to this day I count myself lucky to have met her. Other friends have come and gone, but even with the life I’ve led, Shingai is the only friend who has stuck with me right the way through. Recently she even made me the godfather to her adorable little son, which honestly is one of the greatest honours of my life. I know that Shingai was just as wonderful a daughter as she was a friend, and that she and her parents were very close and happy together.

Sadly however in spite of this even Shingai never learned the complete truth about her mother. Dionne regularly used to tell me how every day she wanted to tell her the truth. However sadly Dionne knew that even if Shingai did believe her, then she would still just be dragging her daughter into the same despair. I can’t say I ever disagreed with Dionne or Mrs Sande about protecting Shingai from that.

The only reason I became an unlikely confident to Mrs Sande, was because I had earlier thrown myself into the never ending war between humanity and the supernatural. I was just fifteen when I met my first vampire. It was preying on the inhabitants of an old folks home. I lost my grandfather that way, just a few weeks after he had been admitted.

Whilst I helped a more experienced hunter kill the vampire that took my grandfather (and by helped I mean, sharpened his stakes.) I sadly wasn’t cut out for the life of a vampire hunter like I thought. I went on a few more hunts, even actually managed to take down a few demons myself, but I just couldn’t cope with the horror. As monstrous as they were, I could barely bring myself to actually slay a vampire. I tried to make out it was because I was too pure and good for that life, but my co hunters felt I was just too much of a wimp for it.

At any rate I went back to my old life, in my old neighbourhood and was eventually able to settle down there and be happy, but many years later my past caught up to me again when a demon began to possess people in the local area. I instantly recognised the tell tale signs of a demon attack, but I soon discovered to my surprise that Mrs Sande did too.

After we vanquished the demon back to hell together, Mrs Sande or Dionne as I would come to know her in her later years, (whose knowledge of exorcisms far surpassed mine.) Grilled me about how I knew about the supernatural.

After I shared the little pedestrian experiences I’d had with vampires that back then seemed so impressive, Dionne would slowly start to open up to me about what she had seen. I’ll be honest actually, I somewhat forced them out of her. Even with me she was worried what the truth would do, but I assured her that after the monsters I’d seen, nothing could shock me. Sadly much like my belief that I could be a badass vampire killer. I was wrong.

It took me a long while to process how bleak our future seems in some respects, though I can’t even begin to imagine what it was like for Dionne having seen it and being on her own that entire time.

You might be wondering why, even with the life I’ve led I believed all of Dionne’s stories. Well for one thing even before I became her confidant, I knew and trusted Dionne enough to tell when she was lying, which was never. Finally conclusive proof would be offered to me many years later, though I am afraid I can’t quite share what that was until the end of this tale.

Ultimately all Dionne ever shared with me were small tidbits, and even after all this time I’m still not completely sure of what the full story was. It’s mostly lost, at least to our generation. Whilst talking about it did offer Dionne some relief, at other points it brought her to tears to the point where she couldn’t talk anymore.

Still I was able to piece together an overall picture of what her life in the future was like and here for the first and only time is an account of the secret life of Dionne P Nash. I hope that one day when the truth is revealed thousands of years from now, Dionne will be recognised for the hero that she was. Until that day however this must remain hidden to protect the timeline and also to make sure that I’m also, you know not seen as a lunatic by my friends and family.

Dionne P Nash was born on the 6th of May in the year 2030. Though she would often make out she was working class and perfected a gruff cockney accent. Truth be told she was a spoilt rich girl who from the very beginning was poised for some kind of career in showbiz, with her mother being an actress and her father being an industry big wig.

Still that’s not to say she didn’t have talent. I don’t need to tell you that if you’ve heard her music. You’ll know how incredible her voice alone was. Dionne grew up on a healthy diet of classic female singer songwriters from Dinah Washington, to Ella Fitzgerald, to Amy Winehouse, all of whom helped shape her own style in the early years. Amy was undoubtedly her greatest idol. In fact I’d say her favourite era overall was that late 00s-early 10s wave of eccentric female singer songwriters that Amy Winehouse kicked off, which was fitting as Dionne herself inspired a similar wave of retro singers in the mid 21st century. I can remember Shingai even showing me a picture of Dionne when she was just a little girl dressed up in a beehive, much to her mothers embarrassment, though only because of how rubbish the beehive was. She felt she didn’t do her idol justice, despite the fact that she was only 9. I personally always thought it was adorable, though that just made Dionne even more embarrassed.

Anyway, it didn’t take long for Dionne to realise she wanted to be a singer, and her first album, titled “Blackheart” was released when she was just 18 years old in 2048. Its mix of different genres from hip hop to soul to even Jazz won her great critical acclaim, but it was her second album “Travelling” which largely abandoned Jazz, and focused entirely on soul that really put Dionne on the map. It proved to be an international hit and three more albums were released over the course of the 2050s, “Spoilt” a satirical, more punky look at her upbringing, “Empty” a more sombre soul effort inspired by the sad passing of her father, and finally “Frown” which saw her move unexpectedly into the country and western genre. None of these albums matched the overall success of “Travelling”, but they all were at the very least big critical darlings, except for “Frown” and she remained respected within the industry for being able to mix so many genres, again except for her foray into Country and Western, though personally I have always rather liked that album. For many that’s probably as dark a secret of mine as the vampires.

Despite the continued success, Dionne didn’t view this period as a particularly happy one. At least that’s what she told me. Whilst she obviously loved the acclaim and the free time, the attention her work drew from the media who as always began to scrutinise and lie about her private life obviously wasn’t appreciated. Her label also came down on her quite badly, constantly threatening to drop Dionne if she didn’t do things exactly their way, like focus on soul music rather than move into other genres. It’s safe to say that every single album of hers took them by surprise, for better or for worse.

Added to that her focus on her career hadn’t left much time for her personal life and as Dionne’s 30s approached she even spoke regularly to her friends from that time of how much she would just love to give it all up and escape the industry for a few years. She used to joke to me that the entertainment industry was the last place a truly creative person should be.

Sadly she ended up getting her wish in a way she never expected when not long after her 30th birthday, Dionne was whisked away by a magical force far beyond what she, or indeed anyone from her time could comprehend to the strange land of Tairos.

Little did Dionne know at that point however, she had actually already visited Tairos twice before hand. Tairos is the name our planet will be given several hundred years into the future. At some point many centuries from now, the surface of the earth will be destroyed by a hostile race of alien monsters known as the Hylexans. Almost all life on the planet will be exterminated, except for a small group of warlocks, witches and civilians, camped out on Point Nemo, an island further away from any other landmass on earth.

For over 100 years this colony of survivors on Point Nemo will work on a spell, powerful enough to eventually restore the earth to life, covering it in a beautiful, magical forest in the process, as well as reviving the oceans as golden waters. This reborn earth will be christened Tairos which simply means home in the language of magic.

Dionne was taken to a time long after the rebirth of the earth, when humanity had to some extent rebuilt. Most of the world was still forest, but there were at least several cities and settlements, scattered around the planet that had been founded by the descendants of the survivors on Point Nemo.

The city responsible for abducting Dionne meanwhile was called Mosterik. I’m afraid that Dionne didn’t share much of its history with me, but apparently Mosterik was founded by some of the warlocks and witches of Point Nemo, specifically those who had preserved the historical records from before the alien invasion. As a result this city came to appreciate the arts more than any other civilisation of Tairos and would make its money through the trade of old, otherwise lost pieces of art and music.

Eventually Mosterik became one of the most powerful cities on Tairos thanks to its trade, and mastered magic to such an extent that it even discovered time travel. Now according to Dionne, time travel is a lot stricter in real life. It is impossible to change your own established history and timeline. If you were to go back and say stop your father from meeting your mother before your birth, you would create a paradox, for the simple reason that you would never exist to stop your parents meeting in the first place, which would then allow them to meet, meaning you would be born only to go back and stop them meeting, which would ensure you’d never exist to stop your parents meeting, who’d then meet without your interference and on and on it would go. All you’d accomplish would be to trap yourself in a time loop that could never move on from this point.

In order to stop these time loops which in extreme cases can trap entire worlds, and have a corrosive effect on the timeline in general. Creatures known as the Guardians will abduct and erase any time traveller who changes history and imprison them in an area outside of time and space known as the Abyss, an endless dessert where they will never age or die, as they are no longer subject to the natural laws. No one knows where exactly the Guardians come from, though certain myths claim they were the invention of the creator of our Omniverse to maintain order in His absence.

Either way no one and nothing can stand against the Guardians. Despite this however time travel is still practised by many beings across the universe, as it is possible to not only travel without interfering, but in some cases it is possible to create your own history too. For instance, imagine you travelling backwards in time was the reason your parents met in the first place, that would be you creating the circumstances of your birth, rather than changing anything.

The civilisation of Mosterik found this out the hard way when several of their earliest time travel experiments drew the wrath of the Guardians. Following this future incursions took the utmost care not to interfere.

Mosterik’s time travel technology was used primarily to abduct famous actors, singers, artists and writers from throughout all of history for a few weeks at a time and have them create new songs, films, books and art for Mosterik to enjoy and profit from, before sending them back to their own time. (With all of their memories of Tairos wiped afterwards to preserve the timeline.)

For centuries Mosterik was able to hold concerts with the likes of Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain, create original operas with Freddie Mercury and Adelina Patti, and have Sir Henry Irving perform in plays shown on television and written by William Shakespeare. Even to cities who had no knowledge of the earth’s past, the novelty of deceased artists producing new work, always ensured big sales and money.

Dionne herself was brought back to Tairos three times. Like all others her memories were wiped when she was sent back after the first two visits, though each time she returned to the future, bits and pieces of memories of her previous visits returned, but never enough sadly to fully remember her experiences. She did however have until the very end, an image in her head of being on stage with Freddie Mercury from her second visit which she described as among her only good memories of Tairos. The only visit to the future Dionne would remember in full sadly, was the third where everything went wrong.

Dionne’s third visit was planned just before the city of Mosterik was overrun by the vampire horde. These bloodsucking demons will also return to our world once it is restored and become a more unified force than ever before.

This period represented arguably the height of the undead’s power, where many of the greatest civilisations of Tairos fell to them.

The vampires whilst evil and sadistic, were still careful not to anger the Guardians and made sure after they took the city, all of the figures from history were sent back.

In Dionne’s case however, she was the last to be brought through. On the night the vampires took the city, the machine was programed to pluck Dionne from her living room in the 21st century, where she ironically thought she could have a nice relaxing evening.

The attack from the vampires (which took Mosterik completely by surprise) initially damaged the machine, resulting in Dionne being trapped part way through her journey to the future, in the vortex itself. She described the experience as being one of the most beautiful and terrifying of her life. In the vortex Dionne saw visions of all of history. Dinosaurs frolicking in their natural habitat, the Roman Empire, the second world war, the fall of our society thanks to the Hylexans. It was too much to take in however, the voices, the pain, even the joy and happiness. She could almost feel it, or fractions of it and both shut her eyes and covered her ears until the journey was over and she was finally brought into the now dead city of Mosterik.

After the vampires repaired the time machine to send back the people from history, little did they know, the magic of the machine also automatically finished its original instruction and brought Dionne into what was left of Mosterik. The process normally took a few weeks from the people in Tairos’ perspective and so Dionne arrived after the vampires had completely destroyed the city like the barbarians they were and fled.

Dionne had no idea how long she spent in the time vortex. She preferred not to think about it.

As soon as she arrived in Mosterik, Dionne was confronted with the sight of a teenage boy, who helped work the machine’s mutilated corpse. The vampires had forced him to repair it, and after they had what they wanted from him, they slit his throat. The cowardly monsters didn’t even bother feeding from him!

The rest of the building was filled with the corpses of other victims, who had not got off so easily from the vampires fury and sadism.

Outside meanwhile was even worse. Beautiful golden buildings, of the most exotic architecture lay in ruins, and bodies or in most cases parts of bodies lay strewn through the streets.

Dionne was actually sick at the gruesome spectacle around her a few times, to say nothing of the stench of the corpses. She eventually made her way to the very edge of the city, desperately searching for and calling out for any signs of life.

When Dionne reached the edge of the forest outside of the city however, she barely stood three feet into it before retreating. It had begun to get dark and the screams, roars and howls from that jungle would have made even the most experienced hunter from our time retreat. Furthermore Dionne was not only still having to deal with the shock, but also vague flashes of memory of her previous two visits, which were trying to force themselves painfully back into her head.

She soon took refuge in a nearby building that was at least partially intact in order to try and make sense of what was going on, not that she could. Still anywhere would have been better than the streets, well apart from the jungle.

Dionne was sure and hoped that this was just some horrible dream, but it soon became apparent that sadly wasn’t the case. The next few hours were spent trying to make sense of the vague memories flooding back into her head. From what she could piece together she was able to get the names Tairos and Mosterik, as well as a vague idea of what this world was. She knew that it was the future and that she had been brought back because of her music, which even in these circumstances she found extremely flattering. (Especially after the bad reviews for “Frown.”)

Still that was all she could piece together of this strange world. She had no idea who, or what would be capable of causing this slaughter.

That night however she got some gruesome reminders of just what was lurking in these jungles. Almost as soon as it got completely dark, the city was flooded with the moans and screams of the ghosts of its former inhabitants. Dionne was even greeted by the ghost of a young man who had been butchered by the vampires in the lower level of the building she was hiding in. She had actually earlier tripped over his corpse and when she fell she landed right on top of him and saw his face up close. Even as an old woman, decades on from her perspective, she still never forgot the sheer look of horror and agony on the boys face.

Upstairs his ghost attempted to talk to Dionne who was so petrified she could barely even speak. The boy at first wasn’t even aware he had died, but as his memories started to flow back of the vampires tearing his throat out, he began to panic which caused Poltergeist activity to affect the room. The walls started shaking, chairs started flying about the place, and the few windows that weren’t already broken even started to crack. It soon became too much for Dionne and she hurled herself out of one of the already broken windows onto the grass outside.

As she looked around however she saw that hundreds of similarly confused and frightened spirits were appearing and disappearing all over the ruins of the city. In our time ghosts can take a long while to manifest in our world. Sadly however in the age of Tairos, due to the magical forest covering the planet. Not only did spirits manifest more frequently, but most of them often didn’t even reach the veil. The mix of unusual magics that created the forest, instantly trapped their souls on earth, resulting in the spirits of Tairos also being more feral and unstable.

Several of the ghosts of Mosterik started to grab Dionne, with their fear and anger also making it easier for them to interact with the world. A ghosts ability to interact with the physical world stems from its emotions and will.

Dionne tried to push the tormented spectres away, but there was nothing for her to push against. That’s the worst thing about ghosts, they can hurt you, but you can’t hurt them.

The spectres were all screaming at her to let them know what was happening simply because she was flesh and blood.

After a few minutes however the spirits started to flee. The only thing that could terrify a ghost was its natural predator, a vandal. These demons were old rivals of the vampires ironically. Both species have been feuding since before our recorded history began and will continue to feud long beyond the age of Tairos.

There are in fact many different breeds of vampires and vandals, all possessing unique powers, though all vampire species have a need to drink blood, and all vandals have a desire to consume souls. This particular breed of vandal, one which doesn’t exist in this day and age, known as a Jurak, is said to be among the strongest, but is also as single minded as an animal, hence why it is shunned by other breeds.

These creatures stalk the jungles and ruins of Tairos looking for any souls they can devour. There are two ways that vandals can feed on souls, though they must always use their claws (same way that all vampires use their fangs to draw blood.)

They can either stab their hands into their victims stomachs and drain their souls whilst the victims wither and die in agony. Or they can hunt the ghosts of those who are already dead.

A massacre like this was an all you could eat buffet for the Juraks in the age of Tairos. Despite the age long hatred between vampires and vandals, the bloodsuckers were only too happy for their clawed enemies to deal with their left overs.

The Juraks were tall creatures, standing over 7 foot, and they possessed large, plated black scales, no hair, huge wings and bright red eyes than shone through the darkness.

These monsters cut their way through the spirits of the city with virtually no effort. Just one Jurak was capable of taking down dozens of spirits at the same time. Dionne was lucky that the soul devourers didn’t even notice her, the spiritual energy was exciting them so much. As she neared the end of the city however, one of them did turn its attention to her. The creatures arms were so long that they could move around on all fours like an ape. Also despite their size, they could move at a tremendous speed, with this creature managing to catch Dionne off guard and send her crashing to the ground before she even caught sight of it.

Fortunately for Dionne the vandal was distracted by the ghost of a warrior, who still thinking he was alive, nobly charged at the demon to try and rescue a damsel in distress. Sadly he didn’t last more than a few seconds as it shredded his entire spirit to pieces, but it was long enough at least for Dionne to escape. Whilst he along with the rest of the army may have failed to save Mosterik, with this action he did unknowingly at least help to ensure the monsters responsible for this atrocity would one day pay.

With no other choice, Dionne fled into the forest up ahead. The roars and screeches were deafening and at one point Dionne later told me she almost felt like giving up, as she threw herself to the ground and screamed back at the roaring darkness around, hoping that something would claim her and this nightmare would be over.

Instead however something incredibly happened. The roars and screeches suddenly stopped as a gigantic Dinosaur emerged from the woods around her. Specifically an Anklyosaurus. These magnificent beasts, though a by word for extinction to us in the modern day, will once again roam the woods of Tairos. Though technically they are all around us today, as birds remember are Dinosaurs.

Still the non avian kind will be a common sight on Tairos. These Dinosaurs are not survivors of the extinction event from 66 million years ago however. Rather they were revived from the spell to restore the earth, that will also revive life forms from throughout the entire history of the planet, aside from Dinosaurs. Even humans from different time periods will be among those returned to life. This will be an unintended side effect of the spells restorative powers. It will only be a few hundred creatures from every species and era that will be revived however, and even many of them will not last beyond the subsequent great conflict for resources their reappearance will create during the early years of Tairos. The Dinosaurs however ultimately will persevere well beyond the war and flourish. In fact they will continue to exist on our planet long beyond even the age of Tairos. (It is also through this restorative spell that many demons and supernatural creatures will return to our world including the vampires themselves.)

The Dinosaurs of Tairos will be a varied bunch. The unpredictable magics that brought them back will in some cases restore the ancient beasts to exactly how they were. In others however the restoration spell, will twist their bodies, making them larger, and more aggressive. Added to that certain cities and forces such as the vampires will turn the Dinosaurs into mounts and further distort and mutate them via magic to aid in their war efforts, creating whole new species, hybrids and monstrous caricatures of these great reptiles.

Thankfully for Dionne however this was a real Dinosaur. She could tell from the brief glimpses she had seen of the 66 million years ago in the vortex. The Anklyosaurus was a plant eater, though it was still not to be trifled with. From what Dionne told me in fact the plant eaters could be even more aggressive than the meat eaters.

The Anklyosaur waved its clubbed tail at Dionne, which could swing with a force of over four tones. She dodged it and fled deeper into the jungle in response. She was so scared she almost didn’t realise what she had actually seen at first, and once she was a safe distance, Dionne soon found herself staring in marvel at the prehistoric beast which knocked down several trees to clear a path. The trees would only be gone for a day at the most before they instantly grew back. (With the cities being built over them using magic.)

At the very least the presence of this 7 ton reptile seemed to stop the screaming from the woods. Through the darkness and up above, Dionne could see that the trees were rustling as a result of the Anklyosaurs path. Whatever dwelled in them had been scared off at least for now, though Dionne didn’t want to wait and find out what was in those trees.

For the next few minutes, the forest was eerily silent. Then suddenly throughout the darkness emerged the noise of a young woman screaming for help.

“Please, please, please someone help me!”

Dionne looked around but saw nothing. It was clearly one of the ghosts that had escaped the city she thought as she ran through the woods, until she tripped over another body. That of a young woman this time, whose corpse was lying on her stomach in the mud, though her head was actually tilted to the side, and much like the boys corpse was caught in an expression of horror and pain. Her back meanwhile had been ripped open, with three very distinct claw marks on her shoulders. Death it seemed had come from above and just then, Dionne noticed the trees beginning to rustle again.

“Please, please, please, someone help me.” The exact same phrase repeated again and again, and Dionne moved slowly back through the woods constantly looking around and above. After she got a few feet away from the corpse, something came bolting down from the tree tops, with Dionne only narrowly managing to avoid it.

It was another Dinosaur, known as a Dromeosaur. This animal was roughly 7 feet long and about 4 feet tall. It was completely covered in feathers, except for its snout. Its face was also covered in blood and most disturbingly of all when it opened its mouth, rather than a roar, it spoke! Specifically it said.

“Please, please, please, someone help me.” Dionne would later learn that just as some birds can mimic human speech, like parrots, then it seemed so could some of their Dinosaurian relatives too. In this case it was clearly a crude way for Dromeosaurs to lure prey out into the open, human or otherwise by mimicking their calls. These creatures also like birds lived in and hunted from trees, jumping on their victims from above, pinning them down with the claws on their hands and feet and then literally eating them alive. This Dromeosaur was most likely imitating the screams of the young woman whose corpse Dionne had found, who had been its latest victim. These were probably her last words as the Dinosaur ate her alive. The screeches Dionne heard earlier where all Dromeosaurs nesting in the trees, screaming at the disturbance caused by the vampires, as well as imitating the humans from the cities cries as they were being slaughtered. The Anklyosaur making a path for itself had chased the small bird like Dinosaurs away and made them go quiet. However the further Dionne got into the woods, the closer she got to more nests.

At first Dionne didn’t even think it was a Dinosaur, it looked so avian, (though again ironically all birds are Dinosaurs.) It was only when it opened its blood stained mouth that Dionne saw it had teeth rather than a beak, right before it lunged for her. This time she wasn’t as quick and the Dinosaur knocked her down. When it tried to bite down on her neck however, Dionne reached up, grabbed a hand full of its feathers from its side and ripped them out. The momentary pain distracted the Dinosaur long enough for Dionne to push it off after which she wisely ran, screaming out for help just like the last Dromeosaur’s victim had done. Just like its last victim, the Dromeosaur even started to mimic Dionne’s cries for help back at her, almost as though it was mocking her.

Unfortunately however whilst Dionne was able to keep barely ahead of the feathered predator, she was so distracted that she failed to see another jump from the trees above on top of her. The sheer force of the Dinosaur that’s torso landed on Dionne’s head, knocked her unconscious instantly.

That would have been the end of her, had it not been for the fact that luckily Dromeosaurs were solitary killers. They could now and again join together into loose groups to take down bigger prey, but even then once the prey had been killed, they would fight and even kill each other over the carcass. Being knocked out ironically saved her life, for both of the Dinosaurs believed Dionne to be dead and as soon as one tried to take a bite out of her, the other would intervene. Both soon engaged each other in a brutal fight, with Dionne being awoke by the screeches of the victor, pinning the other down and stabbing its sickle like claw through its opponents neck, making the other Dromeosaur literally choke to death on its own blood.

Once the other Dromeosaur was dead, the winner set about disembowling it with its jaws, which allowed Dionne to quietly slip away through the undergrowth. She would literally crawl along the forest floor for the next several hours too scared to even stand up, in case she came to the attention of more Dromeosaurs. Now and again she would hear more human sounding screams and cries from throughout the woods, which she was sure were more of those horrors.

Eventually when the sun rose Dionne felt the courage to stand up again. Little did she know the Dromeosaurs actually hunted at night anyway, but she felt at least a little bit more secure now that she could actually see where she was going. The forest surprisingly looked beautiful during the day. The leaves were so bright and colourful they almost shone, whilst the pools and lakes were gold. If she didn’t know any better she’d honestly think the forest of Tairos was a paradise

Dionne soon stumbled upon a large herd of plant eating Dinosaurs, which included several Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and numerous duckbilled Dinosaurs, all frolicking together near a large golden lake.

For up to half an hour Dionne simply stood there observing these incredible creatures, though she later admitted to me that it wasn’t just the wonder of these prehistoric beasts that kept her here. She felt safe being near these gentle giants as she hoped that none of those feathered fiends from the tree tops would be foolish enough to come near when all of these larger Dinosaurs were present. Whilst the herbivores could be aggressive, as long as she kept out of their way directly then she’d be safe. Dionne also needed a rest just to take everything in.

Sadly however whilst Dionne was right that no Dromeosaur would dare attack a herd this big, an even more dangerous predator had already laid eyes on them, a particularly vicious tribe of humans known as the Vasta.

Just as many of the Dinosaurs had not been brought back as they were when the forest of Tairos had been created, and were made larger and more aggressive by the magics. Then sadly the same had been true of some, but not all of the humans throughout history up until that point too. Whilst only a small amount will be brought back as the Vasta, I hate to say because it sounds so self centered, but I constantly worry that I might be one of them, or that the people I love like my wife and two sons, or Shingai could end up being transformed into one of those monsters. It doesn’t matter if our bodies are long gone by then. According to Dionne our souls will still be torn from the hereafter, made flesh and transformed into one of those hideous abominations.. Dionne herself said that for years this was why she didn’t have any children as she didn’t want to introduce a child into a world where even after death there was the possibility of no peace for them. I shudder to think that one of those monsters tormenting Dionne could have been Shingai and can only pray that it wasn’t.

The Vasta as they referred to themselves, were a very particular type of magically mutated human. They stood over 9 feet tall, appeared incredibly gaunt to the point where their skin almost looked wrapped directly over their bones, whilst their teeth and finger nails were not only far larger in length and width and sharper, but they also lacked any lips or hair of any kind too. Their skin overall appeared much thicker and leathery, whilst their eyes were also larger and looked almost bulging out of their sockets.

Despite their somewhat frail appearance however, the Vasta were far stronger and faster and more durable than any normal human could ever be.

Worse than that however, the Vasta were also much like the magically mutated Dinosaurs, mentally unbalanced. In fact they were absolute savages who enjoyed hunting and killing just for fun. Their sharp intelligence and great strength made them some of the most dangerous creatures in all of Tairos.

The Dinosaurs instantly started to panic as soon as the Vasta came within reach and Dionne was very nearly crushed to death under a stampede of Triceratops who were the only Dinosaurs that managed to escape the area unscathed. The Vasta meanwhile had sneakily prepared for the other Dinosaurs, by having only some of their number at the back to chase them, whilst others waited in the tree tops where the Dinosaurs were fleeing too, who’d then spear the reptiles from above. Three Stegosaurs were brought down this way along with one Hadrosaur. The Hadrosaur suffered a quick death, as one of the Vasta from above was actually able to jump on its shoulders and pierce the Dinosaurs throat. The alpha male of the Stegosaurs however required several blows from multiple different Vastas who at first overwhelmed the great reptiles from above, until the alpha was significantly weakened, after which another group of Vastas then surrounded it, and slashed whenever they could. The Stegosaurus was able to land a few blows with its tail, but unfortunately the Vastas durability and accelerated healing factor allowed them to easily shrug them off.

The twisted caricatures of humans laughed like hyena’s as the Dinosaurs strength faded. One of them jumped onto the back of the Stegosaurus, whilst it slowly died in agony, and even imitated the Dinosaurs screams as it breathed its last.

Dionne watched the gruesome spectacle from afar, almost too petrified to move in case she ran into one of those horrors. Once the Dinosaurs were dead or at least too weak to fight back and the Vasta started to tear their bodies open and gorge on the reptile’s entrails like animals, Dionne slowly tried to walk back the way through the woods, whilst trying not to be sick. At this stage she’d rather take her chances in the ghost city than deal with these mutants.

Unfortunately however she was so transfixed on the monsters ahead, she failed to notice one of the Vasta hiding behind a nearby tree, which soon leaped out and pinned her to the ground. The monster then let out a scream which alerted two more of its tribe, who were smeared in Dinosaur blood over and though she struggled as hard as she could it was no use and a quick strike to the face knocked her out cold.

She was now at the mercy of these horrors.

To Be Continued

Illustration by Caio Corsini Filho

The Diary of Lindsey Kate McIntosh

July 15th 2001

It’s funny how quickly your life can change. I’m sure you all know that by now, but I wonder how many of the people reading this will be able to relate to what I’ve been through these last few weeks? I hope for your sake you’ll just look on this entry as the scribblings of a mad woman and nothing more. Whilst it has been quite an adventure for me, I’m not blind to the fact that the life I am choosing for myself is one of loss and horror. The enthusiasm I have right now to fight the good fight is probably just a coping mechanism, that will wear off in a few weeks time.

I’ve already seen good people die at the hands of those monsters, and I doubt they’ll be the last I’ll lose in this fight. (Assuming I’m lucky enough to not be next myself.) Still I know that I can’t go back and I know that there is an entire world out there waiting for me to explore that I simply can’t resist.

Writing this down will not only hopefully help me process everything I’ve been through, but it will also let those of you who do care about me know the truth if anything ever happens to me. Again I don’t doubt a lot of you will think I’ve gone insane, but one day the truth about what’s really out there will be known. Perhaps sooner than even I realise. I know that it’s not even the same world than when I was a little girl.

Looking back on it, I had a really easy life growing up. Granted I always did feel quite privileged given my job and my family and friends, but considering just how dangerous I’ve learned the world really is. Even I had no idea I was so well off.

I was born in Wemyss Bay to a fairly upper middle class family in the year 1975. My father was a Dentist and my mother was a Doctor, and we lived in a big fancy house overlooking the bay. Growing up I was taken all around world. Germany, Switzerland, France, Poland, the Netherlands, I’d visited them all with my family by the age of 15. Sadly however as a young un I could never really take in just how rich my experiences truly were. I often marked these holidays more by what videos we watched in the hotel than the beautiful culture and scenery around me. We were among the first people even in Wemyss Bay to have a VHS, and I remember my dad in particular being angry that I only ever remembered my first holiday in Poland for being when I first saw “When Harry Met Sally” that my mum had taped off the tv. Fortunately I’ve visited Poland many times since and know for sure what a lovely country it is, though “When Harry Met Sally” is still one of my favourite films.

At the very least these holidays began my love of travelling that would carry on to this day. In my early twenties I was fortunate enough to be able to turn that passion into a profession, when I got a job writing for travel logs. I must admit that when I started I hoped It would be a stepping stone to something bigger. I’ve always wanted to write, though I’m not exactly sure what about? I had such an eclectic range of interests, everything from middle eastern history to Dinosaurs, I could never settle on just one thing! Still I guess I was hoping inspiration would come from visiting so many different parts of the world, but instead I think I just became too cosy and secure.

It was a very comfortable and rewarding life though. I got to see so many wonderful cities and places and meet so many amazing people on my travels, but there would be one quaint little area in my home country of Scotland that would end up becoming my true home away from home. The Galloway regions.

I was there during Wigtown’s first book festival in 1999, which they brought back the following year and from what I gather they plan to this year as well. Here’s hoping it carries on for a few more years to come. In actual fact I had only arrived to see the book festival, but Wigtown was such a welcoming, beautiful place that I ended up coming back here whenever I could for the next almost two years.

A place like Wigtown, surrounded by the most beautiful scenery, with the friendliest locals and fuelled by a passion for the arts truly did seem too good to be true. I knew there had to be a catch somewhere. Sadly I would have never guessed that would be the undead.

For the past few months according to the locals there had been rumblings of something happening near the beaches of Galloway. A few teenagers going missing, a shark showing up mangled by something in the water. I was shocked to hear of such things happening here of all places, but I foolishly wasn’t scared for myself. As tragic as it was I assumed that it was something the authorities could handle and I wasn’t going to let any potential danger spoil my visit.

It would be on the 20th of June however when the evil brewing in this seemingly quaint area would reach me. It was late at night, I’d just been enjoying an evening out in my favourite pub, The Smoking Fish with my friend Lucy, a resident of Wigtown I got to know on my very first visit here. On the way home through the long road back to Wigtown, which lay next to a field leading out to a small forest behind. We spotted someone staggering about, seemingly hurt in the distance. Normally I loved the walk back from the Smoking Fish, The countryside was just so beautiful even at night, and I’d hardly have to worry about anything in a place like Wigtown.

Sadly however this time would be different. When the figure came into view more clearly, we could see that he was holding his neck, which was bleeding.

He tried to say something to us before collapsing on the road. Lucy instantly went for her phone, but before she could call the emergency service another figure came jumping out of the bushes at the side of the road. He was dressed in similar clothes and carrying a wooden stake. At the time I assumed it had to be something else and I just couldn’t see it very clearly in the dark.

He said to the first figure. “I’m sorry brother. You now that I’m sparing you from being with them forever.” Before he stabbed the stake into the bleeding mans chest.

Me and Lucy both screamed and instantly ran back the way to the Smoking Fish. Lucy was so scared she couldn’t think straight and started shouting at everyone else to call the police even whilst she was actually holding her phone! She’d never been very brave, mind you neither had I. I’d like to think that Lucy like most of us, if faced with no other choice would be brave. If I can, anyone can.

Most of the customers tried to calm her down, whilst one of them, a large burly man named Kent went outside to look.

“There’s no one there.” Kent said.

“I’m telling you there’s a psychopath with a wooden knife!” Lucy shouted, only to be met with some mild sniggering from some of the patrons.

“Well wherever he was he’s” Before Kent could even finish he was suddenly pulled up by something above. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was one of them. The undead demons, that feast on human blood that we know as, vampires.

Kent’s corpse dropped to the floor in front of us less than a minute later. His neck had been cut open just like the man on the street and there was blood everywhere. I didn’t know Kent that well. He was a lot older than me and generally tended to just stick to his own little group whenever he went to the pub, but I still can’t believe that his entire life and identity were just taken so quickly and so easily. His friends didn’t even have a chance to try and fight to save him, not that there would have been anything they could have done anyway. The whole bar started to panic, but as the patrons all got out of their seats and headed to the back door, they were suddenly stopped by two ghoulish figures that dropped from above just outside the back.

The one that killed Kent meanwhile also dropped just outside the front door. Standing roughly six feet tall, he was dressed in ratty, filthy clothes, and looked human from a distance. When he walked slowly through the door and into the light of the pub however, we could all see the monsters grotesque face more clearly. Its skin had a greenish tint to it, whilst the ridges above its eyes were thick and scaly like a reptiles. It also had bright red eyes, with a small black pupil and long, thick blood stained fangs in its mouth.

The creature screamed at us, with its roar sounding more like a lion’s than a person. We were all so transfixed and repulsed by this monster we failed to notice that several more of them had gathered by the windows with the others by the back door slowly advancing too. There was still only five of the bloodsuckers in total, but that was more than enough to take care of all us. The demons started ripping as many people as they could apart. A few of them fed on their victims, but most either just tore their limbs off, or punched their fists through their stomachs and heads. Fortunately I didn’t get a good look at the gruesome spectacle for long, as I just ran as fast as I could through the slaughter, as did Lucy. I felt like a coward, I still do for not trying to help anyone there. I even left Lucy on her own, as she did me. Still I know that if I’d stayed those blood thirsty monsters would have ripped me to pieces too. They were more like sharks at a feeding frenzy than people. Me and Lucy only managed to just slip out of the slaughter and no more, but once we were outside we saw a dozen or so more of the monsters walking through the fields slowly towards the pub.

In an act of panic I ran as fast as I could down the road towards Wigtown, whilst Lucy was too scared to even move. Several of the vampires however cut me off and with nowhere to go but into the open field where another six of them were waiting, I ran that way hoping I could run past them in time.

Lucy meanwhile took her chance and ran up the road and back to Wigtown whilst the vampires were distracted with me. I don’t blame her. I had done the same thing after all. Fortunately the bloodsuckers were so preoccupied with me and the slaughter in the Smoking Fish, which they eventually burned to the ground, that they didn’t chase her down. She managed to make it home safely and alert the authorities, though by the time they arrived everyone else in the pub was dead and the vampires were gone.

I would speak with Lucy a few days after all of this was over. Sadly she wasn’t ready to face the truth yet. When I tried to tell her what I saw after, and what those men really were, she just assumed I was in a state of shock. Even though she saw them, their inhuman faces, the way they tossed fully grown men around like babies, the way they acted like animals rather than people. Deep down she knows what they are, but she just isn’t ready to face it. I’m certainly not going to push her into this life. I just hope that she is able to cope with it in the best way for her. Maybe denying it is for the best after all. I’d imagine more than a few people have done that throughout history and gotten away with it. Still if more didn’t then maybe those people at the Smoking Fish would be alive.

Whatever the case, I managed to make it a short distance into the field before the vampires caught up to me again. They had superhuman speed as well as strength.

They soon gathered around me in a circle, some of them baring their fangs and hissing at me, others cackling like Hyenas at my plight. I genuinely couldn’t believe I was even in this situation. I had no idea what the hell these things were at this point, if they were really monsters, or just gangsters on some really weird shit. Either way for it to happen in Wigtown of all places seemed even more insane. I even tried pinching myself to make sure it wasn’t some horrific nightmare, though I’d hardly need too as I’d soon be in enough pain to let me know I wasn’t dreaming. The largest of the vampires reached out and grabbed me by the arm. It’s strength was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. My arm would be covered in bruises afterwards just from its grip, though I know that bloodsucker could have either snapped my arm in half or ripped it out of the socket if it wanted! It’s grip was also freezing to the touch and a little bit slimy too. It reminded me of holding a slug or a snail. Not that I have ever held either animal. They give me the creeps almost as much as vampires, but if I were for some reason then I’d imagine it would be like touching a vampires skin.

Before the vampire could begin feeding on me, another one of the crazed bloodsuckers snatched me by the other arm with just as much force. The two monsters pulled so hard I thought I was going to be ripped in two until another one of the Demons grabbed my hair from behind and nearly sunk its fangs into my throat, but it was stopped by yet another, that struck me across the face in its effort to get at my neck. I was briefly knocked out, and when I came too just a few seconds later I was on the ground, covered in mud, cuts and bruises made by the vampires trying to get at me. All of the bloodsuckers in fact were fighting over me again like a group of crazed animals in a feeding frenzy, and I tried to crawl along the field in the commotion, until one of them noticed and mounted itself on me, pinning me to the ground.

I tried to scream to alert the others, but they were so caught up in their blood lust it didn’t do any good. The monster smiled as it sat atop me. Up close it was even more disgusting, with slime and blood dribbling from its mouth and into my face which stung as much as it stunk. In fact the monster stank badly overall. I closed my eyes and prepared for the brute to sink its teeth into my neck, when suddenly the monster let out a scream and fell off me. I got up and saw him lying on the floor, with a wooden stake straight through his heart. Within a few seconds my attacker exploded into a cloud of dust before me. I couldn’t believe it. I almost fainted again, but fortunately my rescuer helped me to my feet. It was the same man who had stabbed the figure on the road earlier who looked even more beat up than I was. The other vampires meanwhile were soon drawn by the sound of their comrade dying. Though from what I’ve read when they are that close they can feel one of their own kind dying as its soul is dragged to the other side, that is the other side for them.

The monsters charged at us, and I tried to run away again, but my rescuer held me with one hand and whipped out a crucifix with the other which caused the demons to instantly cower. I had by this point already put all the pieces together in figuring out what these things were. I think anyone could a this stage, but even then I was still having trouble taking it in. Not that it was uppermost on my mind. I was more concerned with just getting the hell out of there!

As I tried to pull free from my former rescuer however I saw that several more, similar creatures were emerging from the pub that was now in flames.

With no other choice, the man who has just saved me ran the other way into the country side and woods ahead, whilst still holding my hand. I didn’t fight him this time as well I’d have been stupid too. Even if he was a psychopath, fighting off one guy with a cross would definitely be easier than taking on 10 guys with super strength and fangs!

We made our way across the field and were soon lost in the forest, but the vampires hadn’t given up just yet. They could see in the dark just as well as we could in the light, but my new friends cross would always ward them off when they got too close.

Unfortunately just as we were nearing the end of the patch of woods, which ended in a cliff leading to the ocean, one of the vampires descended from the trees above. It knocked us both down, sending the cross flying through the air and over the edge of the cliff. The monster then picked up my former rescuer by the lapels of his ratty, torn coat and smiled as it prepared to bite him.

Rather than simply run, which I’ll admit I was tempted too, this time I was able to muster up the courage to try and fight the monster, though fight might be somewhat of an exaggeration. I simply threw myself at the bloodsucker. I obviously didn’t have any fancy moves, and I’m pretty sure that one of my “punches” would have hurt me more than it would it, so I hoped that if I rugby tackled the vampire I’d knock it off its feet. All of the vampires were insanely thin. They almost looked like skeletons, with some of the bones almost poking through the skin and muscle. That didn’t mean they were weak, but hopefully they’d be easy to topple because they were so slight. Sadly my gambit didn’t work and I simply bounced off of the vampire that remained as sturdy as a rock. The monster simply turned round at me and sniggered, but little did he know I’d bought my new friend a few precious seconds to pull out a bottle of holy water from his pocket which he used to splash in the vampires face. The bloodsucker let out a scream that spread throughout the entire forest as he sank to his knees, clutching his smoking face. The other vampires meanwhile had now caught up with us and with nowhere else to run, the vampire hunter grabbed me by my arm again, and pulled me off the edge of the cliff with him. We both fell about 30 feet into the water below.

For the record I can swim. In fact on my travels I’ve swam in some of the most exotic oceans around the world. However the panic and shock I was in from, well everything meant that when I hit the water I flailed around wildly until the vampire hunter pulled me into a nearby cave inside the cliff. There I took refuge on a rock whilst the hunter sprinkled the holy water into the ocean leading into the cave.

“Don’t worry. It’ll affect the water for the next few hours until the sun comes up.” He said as he pulled out another stake.

I meanwhile was so scared I honestly felt like jumping back into the water and just swimming. I didn’t even know where, just anywhere away from here. Wigtown had suddenly dropped in my estimation.

Fortunately however I knew that wouldn’t get me anywhere and after a few minutes I mustered up the courage to talk to the vampire hunter I owed my life too, who was still constantly on the look out.

“I think I know what those things were, but just for confirmation.” I said, trying to sound as cool as possible and not like I wanted to scream to the high heavens.

“They were vampires. Of the Dehona breed. Not common around these parts. They’re here for something big. Me and my friends. We tried to stop them, but it was, well as you can see above. They were feral, desperate. We also underestimated just how many of them there were. It was a massacre.” He said without even looking back at me.”

“Lucy” I suddenly thought to myself. In all the panic I didn’t even think about what could have happened to her, I’m ashamed to admit. I tried to push past the vampire hunter but he stopped me. I tried to explain frantically to him, but he warned me that the vampires might not be away yet. They were tenacious and above all else vindictive, hateful creatures who would never let prey escape from them if they could.

We argued for about five or so minutes before we were interrupted by a hand reaching out of the water which soon pulled the vampire hunter below the waves. I screamed for all the good it did, but within a few seconds the water started to turn red. Soon after the culprit emerged. It was the vampire that had been burned with holy water at the cliff edge. The other vampires were smart enough not to jump into the ocean, knowing the hunter would have come prepared with holy water, but this vamp clearly didn’t care. He was so enraged that he wanted to tear the hunters heart out no mater what. However the pain of the burning holy water was too much even for him and he soon crawled onto the rock next to me. His skin was burnt to a crisp, whilst his hair had almost been completely singed off. One of his eyes even appeared to have melted out of its socket, whilst his nose was nothing but a stump. He also had a stake embedded in his right shoulder, yet in spite of this he still jumped straight onto my rock and tried to bite me. I was told later that human blood can help a vampire of his breed heal from almost any injury, besides a wooden stake through the heart, decapitation and direct sunlight. As he tried to bite me however I managed to twist the stake in his shoulder before pulling it out which made him wince in pain. I then dug my nails into the wound which made him scream. I can’t deny feeling just a twinge of satisfaction at finally turning the tables on the monster and with a further slash to his face from the stake, I sent the undead abomination tumbling back into the water.

He instantly rose back up, his flesh boiling and reached out for me, and before I could get away, he got me in that iron, slimy grip of his, but with my stake I kept slashing and slashing blindly until he eventually sank back beneath the water and swam out of the cave. A few seconds later the hunter emerged from the bloody pool beside me, though I almost stabbed him at first in panic. The vampire had managed to bite him, but the wound wasn’t serious. He assured me that he wouldn’t turn either. In order for this breed of vampire to make someone into one of their one, they had to drain a substantial amount of the victims blood and then force them to drink the vampires blood, which is what happened to his friend above.

Though as I said to him at the time that is what someone who would have been infected would say and the next few hours were rather tense, not just in waiting for any of the vampires to attack, but also for the hunter to potentially change.

He was also waiting for me to constantly try and run out to save my friend too. Though deep down now that I had time to think about it, I hate to say that I wasn’t as eager to go out there and look for Lucy whilst those monsters were running around.

The hunter tried all night to contact other members of his team on his phone, but he either got no response or they were preoccupied. Vampire attacks were happening all over Galloway it seemed. One of the hunters allies, a woman named Sophia was holed up in a resturant a group of the bloodsuckers were trying to tear apart near Stranraer, whilst another was holed up in a cinema.

The hunter who saved me, who spoke in an Irish accent revealed to me that his name was O’Brien and he explained that Scotland was something of a hotspot for demons and vampires. Apparently it was all to do with the Roman empire. Centuries ago, Trajan, the most celebrated of the great Roman emperors led a crusade against vampires and other supernatural creatures to the point where they were forced to flee to the one place in Europe that Rome hadn’t conquered yet. Scotland. The monsters soon built a unified force there that lasted for many centuries, even after the Empire collapsed. O’Brien meanwhile belonged to a organisation founded by Saint Columba. You might know him as that priest who famously fought off the Loch Ness Monster in the old legend? At least that’s all I knew him for before this. Anyway apparently that wasn’t the only monster he fought off. Saint Columba had been sent here from his home in Ireland to try and clean up Scotland’s monster problem. Needless to say despite his skill, Columba knew it would be too much for one person to accomplish and so he set up a secret order known as Scathach, named after the famous warrior woman who had taught him everything he needed to know about the supernatural and had served as his mentor, before she was called back to Scotland and died in battle with the Turok Han. It was her death that motivated Columba to desperately try and save her homeland of Scotland in the first place.

O’Brien also however explained to me that the number of demons from the Galloway and other regions of Scotland had dropped dramatically. Round about the same time these vampires had first arrived. He didn’t know why. Demon and vampire communities were known to fight over resources, namely people and vampires were shunned by many other demon species and communities, being viewed as too evil and corrupt even for them. However this was again an organised massacre of many different demon species, even those who didn’t compete for humans.

In a few hours dawn broke and O’Brien assured me that the vampires would be gone now. This breed like most would die in direct sunlight.

Sadly however the hunter still didn’t let me go. He explained to me that this wasn’t just a random vampire hunt, hence why the monsters had been so bold. These bloodsuckers were preparing something huge and that until they were dealt with, I couldn’t simply go back to my old life. I had been marked by them now. and the monsters didn’t like to leave loose ends. I protested, telling him I could just leave Wigtown, but he told me that he didn’t know how wide this vampire cult’s reach spread, and that there was no guarantee that there weren’t humans secretly in league with them all throughout Galloway.

I soon came to see he was right. I’d only survived because of his knowledge. At the very least there was clearly more I needed to know about these bloodsuckers that were apparently all over Galloway.

After a few more minutes O’Brien was finally able to contact another member of his team. Only three more had survived the vampires rampage last night. Close to 100 civilians meanwhile were butchered. It’s incredible how in spite of this staggering loss of life, people still won’t accept the truth about what is really out there. Not that I am judging. Had I not been caught up right in the middle of it I probably would have bought the official cover story too. O’Brien would assure me that it was for the best that humanity not discover as the way things were now it would be like throwing gasoline on the fire that is humanity’s problems. I’m not sure I quite agree with him, but I’m in no position to change that now anyway. I’m happy to write this journal that no one would believe, but if I were to try and go public, then not only would most still look on me as a crackpot, but O’Brien and others like him would do their best to undermine and silence me, and I’d also be a target for every demon and vamp in Scotland and beyond, all of whom rather like their anonymity. Again though given how bold the vamps were in this attack I do wonder how long this powder keg can go on without exploding.

We soon met up with the three survivors of the attack. Sophia was one of them, whilst the other two were a young man and a woman my age called James and Elizabeth who were in a relationship.

There had been twelve units sent in to deal with the vampire infestation last night, and this was all that was left.

“There were just so many of them. They didn’t even feed, they just slaughtered their victims. Even when they were feral, they knew exactly where to target, what they were doing. This is not just an ordinary vampire hunt. This is part of something huge.” Sophia said she patched up a really nasty vampire bite on her arm.

“Agreed and that’s why I think we need to talk to the Great Caradon.” O’Brien argued.

The others were clearly a little taken a back at his suggestion. None of them were what you would call cowardly, but the thought of going to see this beast put the fear of god into all of them and they soon started arguing. Elizabeth preferred waiting for reinforcements, whilst James felt they needed to question the locals, maybe see if they could find any of the vampires human servants. He figured an operation this big could only work if there were people to shelter the vampires during the daylight hours. At one point he even turned his suspicion towards me just for surviving.

Sophia meanwhile who was clearly the leader of the group didn’t like any of their ideas.

The Great Caradon was a legendary beast that lived below the Castle of Saint John in Stranraer. It was an 80 foot tall shark man. The Caradons from what I was told where a race of magical shark men. They are born using a spell that works in the following ways. An area of water is doused in magic, after which a shark and a person are then placed into the area and the shark will then under the influence of the magic, devour the human, after which their souls will both merge together into one monstrous entity. A Caradon.

Just as there are different species of sharks, then there are multiple different Caradons. The Great Caradon as he is known, was the result of a human, or rather several humans and a Megalodon being merged together. (The Megalodon had been brought back using magic first as they went extinct before humans evolved.)

For centuries the Great Caradon had been a fierce warrior under the ocean who had taken part in the great mermaid wars, but eventually he grew tired of that life and retreated to a massive cave beneath Stranraer, where he now resides in a beautiful garden he created and sustains with magic. There are just two entrances to the garden. One from a cave leading out to the sea, and the other from above, contained in a hatch beneath the castle.

The creature will kill anyone who uses the entrance leading out from the ocean. You are only allowed to enter via the castle. Even then however, you have to bring the shark something or else he will eat you, and even then if he doesn’t like it he will still devour you! If the gift pleases him however he will give you vital information and maybe even some magical power. The shark has no alignment generally and has been known to help both hunters and demons. Though he has a special dislike for vampires, viewing them as the ultimate filth and has never been known to help one.

Naturally O’Brien hoped that with this in mind he might help us against the new and improved vampire horde, but even then Sophia was still unsure as the shark was notoriously difficult to please. About 80 percent of people and demons who had gone to him asking for a favour had never returned. The shark had very eclectic interests. Much like me. Sometimes he would be happy with a film taped off the television. (Though my suggestion of When Harry Met Sally was shot down right away.) Other times he’d eat you for giving him something so common. A lot of hunters and demons had come to the conclusion that he just liked messing with people.

Still his help was always valuable and given the unprecedented vampire attack last night it seemed that we had no choice. Elizabeth’s suggestion of waiting for reinforcements didn’t seem likely as they would have to wait hours for people from the offices in Aviemore and Glasgow to arrive, assuming they weren’t dealing with their own crisis. Sadly the Galloway office had been destroyed by the vamps last night too. Meanwhile even if we did find the vampires human minions there weren’t enough of us here to deal with them.

The question was just what gift to offer the monster? Sophia was dead set on a lubrins demon. These disgusting creatures were a favourite prey of the Caradons that lived in the waters near Scotland. It was really the safest bet. Added to that these creatures, though known to prey on humans, were relatively easy to catch and draw out too. Really it would take about half an hour at the most to draw one out and restrain it.

James and Elizabeth were still unsure, thinking it would be suicide to even consider the great Caradon, but with no other options. (My other suggestion of just running like fuck out of Galloway was also shot down.) Me and O’Brien went to the castle, whilst Sophia and the others went demon hunting. The owner of the castle (which was open to the public.) A man named Harris, knew all too well about the giant shark living in his basement and was also familiar with O’Brien’s little organisation too. The castle had been through about 20 different owners in the last five years. All of whom had foisted it on their successor without telling them about the monster in the basement. To be fair I doubt any potential buyer would have believed them. The Great Caradon isn’t actually that bad a roommate though. He generally just keeps himself to himself, it’s more the demons and the hunters who constantly come barging in, threatening the owner and sometimes even wanting to use him as a sacrifice to the giant shark below that are the problem.

Harris had not dealt with any visitors in a long while, but he was still always prepared for them and knew to step aside when the hunters arrived.

As we waited above the hatch, O’Brien tried to make some small talk with me. Not surprisingly however we didn’t have much in common. I was interested in his job to some extent, but sadly that was the one thing he didn’t really want to talk about, not just because he wasn’t allowed too, but I’d imagine the trauma of seeing so many people be ripped to shreds by those monsters isn’t something he’d be eager to revisit. Having said that though it was incredible how much he and all of the others were just getting on with business after seeing so many people they’d known for years be killed by those things last night. Clearly this was just another day for them.

Eventually the others arrived after half an hour or so of awkwardness, complete with a demon bound and gagged. It was even more disgusting than the vampires. It’s skin was not only slimy, but dripping, whilst its eyes were jet black, and its teeth almost looked too big for its mouth. Its hands meanwhile only had three fingers, all of which were covered in sucker cups whilst its body was also covered in barnacles and a long thin fork like tongue, writhed in between its dagger like teeth.

Sophia assured me not to feel any sympathy for the beast as it had caused quite a fuss a few days ago, when it tried to devour a small child. One of their agents chased it away, but it still managed to take the child’s foot off with that nasty set of teeth. The increase in vampire activity caused the monster to sadly slip the hunters minds until now.

All of the hunters went down the hatch, and I was forced to come as well. Apparently the Great Caradon will not talk to you unless everyone who is there with you comes. That way he can be more sure of who he is giving advice too.

When the shaft opened up there was a large, glowing, yellow light that we just stepped in, and within a few seconds we all found ourselves in what looked like an underground jungle.

The demon tried to wriggle free along the floor whilst we were all still in shock, but it was soon stopped by a horde of Velociraptors that emerged from the trees around us.

They must have stood about six feet tall, were scaly and blue in colour, though their eyes were a piercing red. They soon surrounded all of us. The hunters instantly raised their weapons, but I was completely transfixed on the Dinosaurs.

I definitely should have been scared. Those animals could have torn my guts out and come back for seconds in the blink of an eye. Still I’ve had such a fascination with Dinosaurs since well before I can remember. There’s literally a picture of me dressed in Dinosaur pyjamas when I was just a toddler. To see one in the flesh like this, unlike with the vampires, fear was replaced with wonder and amazement, though granted when the Dinosaurs started to roar and bare their blood stained teeth, I did get a bit scared.

O’Brien later told me these Dinosaurs were not quite as they were in life. Very rarely are resurrection spells able to recreate someone exactly as they were and these Dinosaurs (who the Great Caradon had brought back from their bones using magic) were therefore altered somewhat. This explained why they had no feathers and the raptors were huge. Still they looked realistic enough to me.

We soon saw however that there were other horrors living in the jungle. Several Pterosaurs started to circle us above, and the Raptors began to scatter, though they still remained close by, when a giant frilled lizard came into view. It must have been close to thirty feet long and quick as a flash, its long tongue pulled a Pterosaur into its mouth, which it then swallowed whole in an instant as a normal lizard would a fly.

At this point I was starting to get scared, but fortunately and I can’t believe I am saying this, the Great Caradon soon emerged from the trees behind us.

He was even larger than O’Brien had described. He must have stood over 70 foot easy. He was far bigger than any of the trees around us that is for sure. The Raptors meanwhile ran up to their master, like affectionate puppies. They even started to playfully lick his feet, with the giant shark reaching down and patting the largest member of the pack on the head. Clearly they were his favourite pets in the forest, as the Pterosaurs and the Lizard both just retreated instantly.

Given the close relationship between vampires and Dinosaurs it’s quite surprising that the Great Caradon likes Dinosaurs so much, but I guess he doesn’t hold that against the great reptiles.

The giant Shark man looked down at us for a few seconds. It’s always hard to tell what’s going on behind a shark’s blank, lifeless eyes. Granted normally there isn’t anything going on under there, but after a few agonizing seconds, the shark reached down and picked up the demon that was still trying to wiggle its way across the forest and held it upside down.

“THIS is what your brought me?” The monster said in a booming, but otherwise human sounding voice, before he chewed the demon up in a single bite and swallowed its remains.

“Not bad. I would have preferred it if you’d got me at least three of those things. Normally I’d eat one of you. The most useless member for getting me too little.”

I suddenly started to look scared.

“However I know why you are here. The Children of Khastran are gathering.” (Children of Khastran by the way is a really pretentious name for vampire.)

He then led us through the jungle ahead. At either side of me I could see more Dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, some of which I didn’t even recognise. I got distracted however by a fight between two male Tyrannosaurus Rex’s tearing into each other near a lake. I almost didn’t realise that the rest of the group were about twenty feet ahead of me until Sophia thankfully noticed and shouted on me.

We soon reached the Great Caradon’s, I guess living quarters which consisted of a massive red and golden chair sitting in front of a glowing purple sphere, which he could apparently watch the world above with.

He sat down on his throne and started to show us footage of the vampires rampage last night on the sphere. The entire team had to watch their failure to protect both the civilians and their team mates from the blood suckers last night, as well as many other attacks they didn’t even know about. I meanwhile saw myself running away and leaving everyone behind in the pub, though fortunately none of the others it seemed judged me. I guess they were all too upset about their own failures or maybe despite only knowing me for a few hours they didn’t expect anything different.

After it was over Sophia was the first to speak.

“I don’t understand why you bothered showing us the horror we already lived through? Is it just some form of torture before you finish us off for not bringing you enough demons to eat?” Sophia snapped. James and Elizabeth meanwhile both looked at her with a combination of disbelief and anger. Hell I felt the same way. For a supposed expert of the occult, she didn’t seem to realise that it’s probably not a good idea to shout at the giant shark god that keeps Dinosaurs as pets! If she was at the end of her tether and not caring anymore, well she could at least not drag us into it.

The shark however thankfully wasn’t angered and stood up from his throne.

“I just wanted to see what you were made of, and I must say that your track record is not impressive.” He said to the hunters, who all meekly accepted it, again except for Sophia.

“Well you know you can’t judge us by just one night, I actually have killed two Turok Hans.” Sophia protested.

The shark responded to her boasts meanwhile by picking Sophia up, which caused the others to lift out their weapons. Even Sophia didn’t back down and reached for her weapon for all the good it would do.

“You have courage. Well most of you.” The shark said in what I’m sure was a little dig at me. I let it go however, which sadly proved his point I suppose, but still.

“I’d prefer someone else like the Circus Family or Professor Fang to deal with this, but since you’re all that’s here. You’ll have to do. You’re all right these vampires are not just killing for the fun of it. Their slaughter last night was part of a wider sacrifice. That’s what all of these killings have been. The slaughter of humans, demons, even animals like that shark that washed up on the beach. It’s all part of a resurrection spell designed to bring a vampire back from the grave.” The shark said as it placed Sophia back down.

“I knew that some vampire species have the power to come back to life, but in our experience when most of them die, they stay dead.” Elizabeth said.

“Whenever a vampire dies its soul is sent to a pocket dimension created by Khastran. The demon that created every single vampire species on earth. There their souls hunt each other for all eternity, dying but constantly coming back within that dimension. It is theoretically possible to bring any vampires soul back from that world, but in order to do so it requires incredible power that is beyond even most witches and warlocks.” The shark replied as he sat back in his chair.

He continued. “This spell is used to bring back one of the most powerful types of vampire. It first requires the souls of several hundred mortals and several hundred demons. They have that now after the last few weeks. All they need is the life of the killer of the vampire they wish to bring back.”

“Well how on earth are we supposed know who that is?” O’Brien asked, before realising that he was perhaps a little too blunt with the shark.

“I suspect the vampire these leeches want to revive is none other than the Blue Devil. The former vampire king of Scotland. He was the only member of his kind. Unlike all other Alpha vampires created from the book of Khastran who sired and spawned other members of their kind. The Blue Devil famously didn’t make any others like him so that no one could ever figure out his weaknesses by killing his lesser eh children.” The shark explained.

He also went on to tell us how the Blue Devil had been a vicious Pict warrior who collected the heads of Roman centurians before being turned into an Alpha and how he had a greater command of dark magics and demons than any sorcerer. He also explained that if the Blue Devil was reborn, the souls of all the people the vampires killed as part of the ritual to bring him back would be sent into the book of Khastran in his place to be hunted by the vampires forever. If push came to shove the shark said he would destroy the Blue Devil himself, but he did not want it to come to that and hoped we could prevent it. Even he it seemed was appalled at the idea of anyone being condemned to the vampires dimension forever.

Finally the shark told us who killed this monster. It was a sorcerer who morally speaking wasn’t much better than the Blue Devil himself. They had both killed each other in a final duel, and so the vampires were planning on reviving her before killing her again to complete the ritual.

Unfortunately however her soul had been placed in an interdimensional prison. Ironically of her own making. This place was a mini hell dimension where the souls of the her enemies were banished. Men, women and even children were imprisoned in this nightmarish dimension. The portal to this mini hell was contained in Glen Luce abbey of all places. The Great Caradon had a spell to access it which he fused to our very bodies. It had taken the vampires over 20 years to try and break into it using all the magics they had. The Caradon warned us that as soon as we broke into the portal, the vampires would follow. (It would take them another day to break in otherwise.) He also warned us not to try and help any of the other spirits in the dimension. By this stage most of them will have gone crazy after exposure to the black magics of the place for centuries. On top of that, if too many spirits were freed at once, the dimension would try and stop them from leaving.

It wasn’t the most enviable task I’d been given I’ll admit, but we evidently had no choice, and after giving us the spell, the Shark warned us that if we failed he might just eat us before the vampires could.

Once he was done explaining, the shark whisked us back to the castle. I honestly wondered if I’d just dreamed what I’d seen. Hell I still wonder it, but with no time to waste I was soon forced into a car along with the other hunters and taken to Glen Luce Abbey. I’d always found the place a bit unsettling to tell you the truth even on my previous visits. The gateway was in a hall in the abbey that always had an echoing sound to it. We simply entered the hall and when we came out the other end we where in a dark, twisted, nightmarish version of Galloway.

The woods were dark, withered, the sky was red and there were howls and screams in the air. As we walked through the woods we saw ghosts and spirits wandering around aimlessly. Some of them were just children and there was a temptation to try and help them, but I heeded the sharks words and they all failed to notice us. To be honest I don’t think any of them knew what was in front of them either way. As we made our way deeper into the woods of this nightmarish caricature of Galloway however, we started to notice the ghosts getting more agitated. It was the vampires who had arrived in the hell dimension thanks to our actions, as by entering we had finally broken down the last of the barriers for just a few minutes which allowed the vampires, who were trying to break in from another area to instantly be pulled in too.

The vampires very presence was enough to disrupt the hell dimension. Vampires were made from the very darkest power from Khastran, the former god of all demons and it conflicted with the magic used to contain that reality, due to its creators hatred of vampires.

The ghosts all started to become crazed and attacked each other, and whilst they still didn’t seem to pay much attention to us. (Even as they were phasing through us in their panic.) One of them did eventually reach out and somehow manage to bite James. I don’t know how a ghost can bite with no teeth, but apparently there is some metaphysical explanation behind it all? Anyway, Sophia soon told us to scale the nearest tree. I’d climbed a few trees as a little girl, but I still needed some help from Elizabeth to get to the top of this one because it was absolutely disgusting to touch. It looked dry, but was actually quite slimy when you put your fingers on it and if you held onto the bark long enough then horrible little insects would start to appear over your fingers. When you got to the top among the bare branches meanwhile large featherless birds with human or should I say demon faces would start attacking you. I was useless in holding them off, but Elizabeth and James had plenty of demon repellents with them.

Below meanwhile I could see the vampires in the distance slaughtering their way through the ghosts. The vamps had knives made from the claws of another race of demons called vandals. James filled me in that apparently vandals are the sworn archenemies of vampires and that they feed on their victims souls rather than their blood using their claws. The vampires were actually capable of harming and even killing ghosts on their own. Again by harnessing the dark power inherent in all vampires from Khastran, they could easily destroy a persons soul. This however was a lot quicker and the monsters sliced and diced their way through dozens of angry spirits no problem.

Little did the vampires know they were actually performing an act of kindness by freeing these ghosts from their torment, though a few of the bloodsuckers had overpowered a spirit and were torturing it with the vandals claw for information about where the witch’s ghost was. I can’t imagine though it would have made any difference for the ghost whose entire existence in this place is nothing but torture.

As the vampires continued to hack their way through the barrage of ghosts, I suddenly noticed the lake in the distance beginning to rumble. It was completely black, in fact it looked more like mud than water so it was hard to tell, but soon it became obvious as the water started to bubble furiously. I thought there was maybe a lake monster or something in it. After all O’Brien had mentioned Nessie earlier. However it soon turned out that the lake itself was the monster.

The entire lake soon rose up into the air and formed into a massive demonic face which let out a hideous cackle before sweeping its way across the forest. Our trees stood above the water so we were safe, though only just.

The vampires meanwhile were instantly swept away, with the water slowly burning them until they were nothing but dust. All of the ghosts were also swept up in the water too. I could see them very clearly through the black water as it flowed all around the tiny tree top I was on. They were all reduced to nothing but skeletons, though they didn’t vanish completely like the vampires and they were still able to move and in some cases still desperately tried to swim to safety. Those who managed to poke their hands and heads above the surfaces’ flesh was restored, though only on the parts above the water, which melted off again when they were dragged back down with the current.

Thankfully in a few minutes the water retreated back to the lake, whilst all of the skeleton ghosts fell to the earth and slowly began to regenerate their flesh. Unlike the vampires who the water beast wanted to destroy instantly, clearly the ghosts had been through this unimaginable agony thousands of times before. I wanted to help, I still do, but sadly there was nothing any of us could do. At least for now. According to O’Brien the team at Scathach are constantly trying to find a way to bring an end to not only this mini hell dimension, but sadly the many others that are scattered around Scotland, but with so many other distractions. Their efforts haven’t been quite as successful as they’d hoped.

After a few more minutes to make sure that there were no vampire survivors, we all crawled down from our trees and continued to search the forest. Mindful to keep away from any large body of water.

We reached the witch’s prison. She was locked in a cage, so small she could barely move that was contained within a cave at the edge of the forest. As she would later tell us, she was trapped in here for centuries, barely able to move, with the souls of all the other people trapped in here coming in once a day to spit on her. (In what was ironically their only reprieve from the horrors of this place.

Her jailer was a large, red skinned demon with small tentacles covering its head and no other facial features. It did however have a massive eye in its chest, whilst its arms and legs had no joints and could move in every direction. Instead of hands it also had two massive suction cups.

The monster started to attack us the second we got within the cave. Elizabeth learned the hard way what those suction cups were for when the monster used them to strip two large sections of skin from her arms. I nearly puked at the sight of it, but soon the monsters eye caught me in a large beam of light. It kept me completely frozen and in a state of pain so severe that I was completely knocked out, and when I came too a few minutes later I saw that my companions had dealt with the monster. At least that’s what it looked like. They were covered in red goop, and bits of the demon were splattered all over the cave. I think it’s safe to assume that it wasn’t suicide.

The witch we had come here for meanwhile was surprisingly calm, in spite of having endured centuries of torture. She didn’t say a single word to us, but happily went along with us nonetheless.

As soon as we got out of the cave however, all of the ghosts, (whose flesh was still regrowing.) Walked towards us slowly, as did several other demons like those in the cave. More demon birds also began to circle above, and even the monstrous Lake was beginning to rise again.

As I faced certain death all I could think was how on earth did I get into this situation? Just last night I was going for a drink with Lucy and now I was in a literal hell? I honestly just gave up and waited for the monsters to kill me, but this time time the witch incased us all in some kind of magical bubble which then elevated us above the dying jungle. It then flew us across the forest in a matter of a seconds and through another swirling portal that was surrounded by a circle of large stones. She warned us it would hurt and oh dear god!

Every single part of my body, even my eyebrows were in constant pain. When we finally came through the other side we landed in a small dirty little chasm that went on and on for ages. The witch then imprisoned us in the very same bubble she had used to pull us out of that hell dimension.

“Not that I’m not grateful for rescuing me from that torture, but forgive me for being a little suspicious. Nobody would ever want to rescue me out of the goodness of their hearts as I’m not a very nice person. I am however extremely powerful and foolish people who don’t know I’m not a very nice person have thought I’d help them if they helped me.” The witch said.

“Believe me, under normal circumstances we’d be happy to let you rot in the very hell you created. However as it is, we need to protect you. The vampires who I trust you must have sensed when they entered are looking to resurrect you, so that they can kill you and complete their ritual to bring back the Blue Devil. ” Sophia said back to the vile spectre.

The witch instantly released us from the sphere.

“Nothing unites people better than hatred. For now we’re allies.” The witch replied.

I was surprised she believed us so quickly and I even asked her why she did.

“I know vampires. Most of them are just degenerate bloodsucking monsters, happy to maim, torture and kill for their own amusement. The fact that some of them were able to enter my hell dimension however shows that they must all be working together on something big. You don’t access that place easily. The Blue Devil and his servants were always a cut above the average little blood rat.” She replied.

“I know we had to go to that big shark man to get in.” I replied.

“The Great Devourer? I’m shocked he didn’t eat you. He must have gone soft in all the years I was locked up.” The witch replied.

I almost laughed at her idea of him going soft, but looking back on it now there are worst things for a giant shark man to do than potter about in his garden.

After some more discussion about how we were going to help the witch, we made our way through the long cavern ahead. Suddenly however Sophia stopped us in our tracks. She could sense it. Ever since it almost swept her away to the netherworld on a previous mission, and just a few seconds later we could all hear its engine roaring. It was the Ghost Train of Old Galloway.

I’d heard stories about it, I think everyone in the region had. One time I even overheard some children playing a game of Ghost Train. Obviously I never thought it could be real, but after fighting vampires, well running away from them and talking to a shark man I should have been prepared for anything.

As Sophia later explained to me. The Ghost Train was a result of the witches mini hell dimension, albeit unintentionally. It created a great spiritual upheaval in the local area, hence why ghost sightings in general are a lot higher here. Fortunately most of the time they were harmless. The ghosts would be dragged into our reality for a short while where they would be dazed and disoriented only to vanish back into the netherworld again. The Ghost Train however was a special case. Due to being a large concentration of spirits, it was capable of dragging still living people back with it. At the same time the Train did not come from the Netherworld, which was the natural resting place of all natural beings like humanity. Over the centuries numerous, witches, gods and even demons had found a way to channel souls into their own pocked dimensions or in the demons cases, their home realities (leading to different myths and legends of the afterlife.) Evidently the Ghost Train for whatever reason was sent to one of these pocket dimensions. No one knows exactly where. Apparently Sophia and her team of people have been trying to exorcise it for years now, but the Train pops up at random and is here for such a short time that no one can ever find it for too long. Given we were near an open portal to the witch’s hell it made sense that it would arrive here.

It wasn’t even running on any tracks it was just blindly driving its way towards us through the cavern. There was no way we could have outrun it and for the first time Sophia, Elizabeth, James and O’Brien actually looked helpless. None of them feared death. Even when going up against the vampires. Clearly wherever this Ghost Train was going to take them, it was worse than death.

Fortunately however the witch who having no idea about the train’s history, but sensing the dark power from the ghostly apparition whisked us high above cliffs and the cavern as it sped past us and eventually faded into thin air.

We soon saw from above that we had arrived on a small island. Apparently this had been the witches own personal island when she was alive and it was where she built the pocket dimension in the first place. She said it was concealed from the rest of Scotland by a magical fog. Indeed the fog was so thick it looked like night time as the entire sky was completely black above. Fortunately however she had a boat that could take us all away from it. She lowered us back down into the cavern however telling us she was using almost all of her power just to manifest and not fall back into her own hell and that she wouldn’t be able to even life us up in the air again like that.

After about half an hour walking through that cavern we reached a beach on the other side, where there was a single old fashioned boat washed up. The beach was also covered in the corpses of sea creatures, including octopuses, and small sharks.

As we made our way to the boat however, several large, hideous creatures began to emerge from the ocean around the boat. They all must have stood about eight feet tall and were covered in slime and sea weed. They had a vaguely humanoid shape, though it was hard to tell under the green slime. The only facial features I could make out were two large black eyes.

The witch stood before the creatures calmly and said.

“Do no worry my children, these people are with me. They may leave this island and.” Before she could even finish, one of the monsters grabbed her in its stumpy, slimy hand and soon absorbed her into its grotesque body.

We all backed away a little bit from the monsters as they plodded towards us, until I suddenly felt something biting down on my foot. I screamed and pulled away only to see one of the dead sharks had taken a chunk out of me! It couldn’t have been any longer than about three feet. Its skin was so decaying it had turned completely white, its guts had already been torn out by either whatever had killed it in the ocean or a scavenger and yet it moved, or rather wriggled along its side very slowly, but determined to take another chunk out of my foot.

As I looked around the beach I could see all of the other corpses had started to move, or at least squirm. Whilst I was distracted by the horrifying spectacle before me, a zombie octopus’ tentacle wrapped itself around my foot and sent me head first into that filthy sand. Dozens of other monsters then started to crawl their way towards me. Crabs, small sharks, and a jelly fish like creature, all decaying, all squirming. I tried to get back up, but the octopus wrapped another tentacle around my throat and pinned me to the beach. I tried to pull free, but its strength was immense. A few more sharks started to nip at my arms and feet, whilst the crabs crawled over my face. One of the crabs tried to stick its claw down my throat and rip my tongue out, but I manage to wrestle one arm free from the Sharks and pulled it off, though the little bastard then grabbed onto my thumb and very nearly pulled it off instead. I thought I was done for when I saw a much larger zombie shark, it must have been about five feet long slide along the beach on its belly towards my throat. It could easily have taken my head clean off with those chompers, but Sophia saved me by impaling the octopus holding me down through the head with a silver knife. I jumped up, with some of the crabs and smaller sharks still holding onto my legs and arms. I pulled them all off, though in the process the little bastards took whatever it was they were holding with them. At least I didn’t lose any fingers or toes, but it hurt like hell. Well maybe not quite as much as the portal to that actual hell dimension, but it was a lot more disgusting.

The rest of the gang meanwhile had their hands full with the slime monsters. They were throwing all the weapons they had at them, silver knives, wooden stakes, but none of it was working. In fact as soon as one of their weapons touched one of the monsters, it was sucked into it, just like the witch had been. Those monsters were like black holes that would just consume everything they touched. I got to test that theory when one of the abominations zeroed in on me. I call out for help, but sadly none of the rest of the team were able to respond. They were all doing their best to not be absorbed by those monsters themselves. With no other choice I picked the large shark that just a minute or so earlier looked set to take my head off with both hands and I threw it into the slime beast. Unlike the witch, the shark didn’t go down so easily. It appeared to swim about inside the slime monster and even poked its head back through and clamped its jaws around the Demons head, before finally disappearing into the larger abomination. Whilst I was distracted by the spectacle another smaller shark clamped its jaws around my foot. I pulled him off, losing a chunk of my foot in the process, though when I held him up by his tail, he swung back round and bit my arm again. I was only too happy to throw the little bastard into the monster after that.

Unfortunately as I tried to throw more zombies in, they seemingly got wise to my idea and started to flee. In desperation I tried to run to the boat, but three more of the slime beasts came crawling out of the water in front of me.

Just as all hope seemed lost the witch suddenly crawled her way back out of the monster that had consumed her. She had managed to absorb parts of the creature into herself, creating a temporary, but extremely frail body. That wasn’t her plan all along. These monsters as she later explained, belonged to a group of ocean dwelling demons, who were normally her servants. She used them and the zombies on the beach to guard her island and prevent any souls from escaping her hell. However she had been trapped in that dimension for so long, the beasts now had difficulty telling her apart from any random prisoner.

Still she had at least turned the tables on the monster that ate her and drained it of its life force, leaving it nothing more than a puddle of green sludge on the beach.

With her new, squishy body that allowed her to use more of her powers for a short while, she blasted her way through the demons and led us to her ship which soon made its way through the fog. Outside the fog it was still bright daylight outside and the ocean looked rather lovely. Though I kept expecting some kind of giant shark or serpent monster to come leaping out and try and eat us.

When I looked back to see the island it was gone. It was obviously part of the spell. The witch said that no one she didn’t want could enter the island, though apparently the spell wasn’t full proof, and sometimes ships would inadvertently pass through the forcefield and end up on that godforsaken monster beach. I can only shudder to think of the poor sailors who stumbled into that hell hole unaware

The witch meanwhile spent the whole journey trying to keep her new body together. For the most part she looked normal, but her skin started dripping in certain places.

“This is only temporary. When we get back to my castle I’ll have a new body in.” Before she could finish Sophia slapped cuffs around her, which bore a strange symbol, that was designed to hold ghosts and would keep her trapped in her body. Fortunately for us, as a spectre she didn’t have enough power to break them.

“What treachery is this.” The witch said, yelling so loudly that he whole neck began to sack until she put it back into place.

“This is to make sure that you don’t go off half cocked trying to take down the Blue Devil’s minions. We don’t know how many of them there are or how powerful they are.” O’Brien explained.

“I can reach my castle in no time. At full power I could blast those puny bloodsuckers away to nothing.” The witch protested.

“Well last time you lost. Badly to them. Hence why they pushed you back to that godforsaken island. Besides we don’t like you anyway.” O’Brien said before walking away.

The witch stopped the boat in its tracks as it had been powered by a spell of hers, but fortunately Sophia, O’Brien and the others did not back down and after a few minutes the witch gave in and started the boat up again. She simply had no choice and the longer she waited her in an unstable body, the bigger the danger that it would collapse, and she was barely struggling to keep her spirit without a body from falling back into that hell. She gave in to their demands for now, but was adamant that she would easily escape from them soon.

Eventually we reached Port Patrick. The Scathach organisation always had a special room reserved in the hotel overlooking the bay. We could use it until their reinforcements arrived. I loved Port Patrick personally, but sadly I was given the task of babysitting the witch. Sophia, rightfully felt the vampires would be able to track the witches presence and would be here soon. Fortunately the room, at least Sophia assured me was warded against vampires. The entire grounds of the hotel were in fact. Still that didn’t mean that the vampires wouldn’t try and cause havoc in Port Patrick to draw us out and Sophia wanted to be ready for them.

Unfortunately however the vampires sent one of their strongest minions to attack Port Patrick. A white wolvron. This beast was the offspring of two werewolves, born when the female was in wolf form. They looked like nine foot tall bipedal wolves with snow white fur and a more twisted, demonic, but still human face, though they were completely devoid of any humanity in terms of personality. They were savage, vicious animals who killed without reason. According to Sophia, they were also still capable of taking a kind of perverse pleasure in torturing their victims and they were also fiercely loyal to vampires. Contrary to what many of us have been told in the media. Vampires and werewolves are not sworn enemies. In fact ironically werewolves are among the few species that vampires don’t instantly view as as trash or food.

This is because the creator of the werewolf race, was a loyal follower of Khastran, the father of the vampires, creating a bond between them. Whilst some werewolves who retain their humanity do have a problem working with vampires, because you know they’re homicidal bastards. Wolvrons who have no humanity at all make the perfect pets and foot soldiers for vamps.

I was lucky enough to be spared an encounter with the wolvron at least at first. The vamps let it loose in Port Patrick, in another display of how bold they were becoming. O’Brien and Sophia instantly rushed down to the village to try and help, whilst James and Elizabeth searched any nearby areas for vampires.

Sophia told me that going in, they knew they couldn’t prevent any casualties. The best these two professional monster hunters could hope for would be be to try and distract the wolf demon and lure it away from the village. They certainly couldn’t kill it. Only decapitation or fire could destroy a wolvron, and it would take a lot of fire to do that, whilst their flesh could only be pierced with a weapon made of silver, or the claws of the strongest earthly demons.

The wolvron had already killed about six people before the two hunters arrived. Every time the mass of fleeing people tried to escape one way, the wolf would descend and chase them back the way they came. Sadly when Sophia and O’Brien arrived, it didn’t make much difference. Even though they only had silver bullets, the monster was a lot faster than its 900 pound body would suggest and they weren’t able to land a hit on it. The monster enjoyed toying with them and all of its victims by swooping down and picking them off slowly. The first two it killed in front of Sophia and O’Brien were a young couple. It stabbed its clawed hands through their spines, breaking them in half, and then lifted their corpses up and used them as shields to protect itself from Sophie and O’Brien’s barrage of bullets, before fleeing. Less than a minute later the monsters next victim was an old man that had struggled to try and get into a nearby cafe through the crowd, hoping he’d be safe indoors. The wolf however grabbed him from above just as he reached the entrance and took him to the top of the cafe where it ripped him apart in front of the whole village, before throwing several pieces into the panicing crowd, all of which it did whilst easily dodging its enemies bullets. It’s next victim meanwhile, a young woman who was closer to the bay, it jumped over 70 feet towards and clamped its jaws around her entire head which it then crushed it to pulp. It then landed on a crowd of young teenagers, about five or so of them who it completely tore to pieces. Arms and legs and other body parts just flew into the crowd and the hunters before the beast again seemingly vanished into the sky.

O’Brien and Sophia stayed close together. I mean really close together, like back to back as the monster continued to toy with them. Sadly however the beast still managed to catch them unaware and knock both monster busters to the ground. Fortunately however, O’Brien who had held onto his gun was able to fire six rounds of silver bullets into the wolvron’s chest as it lunged towards him. It didn’t kill the monster, but it was enough to make it shriek in pain and stop for a few seconds, after which Sophia shot another five or so rounds into the beast. Not used to pain of any kind, the wolf monster fled, but just before it did, it grabbed hold of a civilian named Jonathan. Holding him up as a shield to the hunters who held their fire, the monster then ran its claws down his chest before seemingly vanishing.

Unfortunately as soon as she was sure the wolf was gone for good this time, Sophia shot Jonathan in the head. Those who white wolvrons bite or scratch transform into dark wolvrons themselves, though those who are created via infection are always less powerful than those who are born wolvrons. Furthermore, those who are created by infection can only transform others into dark wolvrons who are smaller and considerably less powerful.

Still either way there was no cure for this strain of the poison of lycanthropy, and unlike other breeds of werewolf, when a person becomes a wolvron they remained the wolf all the time. Jonathan would have died anyway and Sophia couldn’t take any chances. Like many demonic infections, including vampirism. The curse of Lycanthropy can be unpredictable in how long it takes to infect the victim. Sometimes it can be days (though its always within a week.) Other times it can be hours, and sometimes there have been cases of people changing within only a few minutes. Sophia couldn’t let any more of these creatures loose in Port Patrick. Sadly however and not surprisingly, the rest of the locals who witnessed the gruesome sight didn’t see it that way and they instantly surrounded both Sophia and O’Brien. Since their explanation probably wouldn’t have been believed, even with what they saw. O’Brien fired his guns into the sky scattering the crowd. Unfortunately however they couldn’t make it back to the hotel as the police soon cut them off and with nowhere else to go, Sophia and O’Brien were forced to jump into the harbour and swim to safety.

This had been part of the vampires plan however. They had ordered their dog to not only attack a crowded area to draw any hunters out, but to infect someone, knowing that even if the wolf didn’t get all of the hunters, the survivors would be forced to kill the infected in public. Whilst the bloodsuckers may have been acting more boldly than ever before, at the same they hadn’t lost any of their craftiness either.

Meanwhile back in the hotel I did my best to try and strike up a conversation with my captive. Though to be honest in a way we were both captives.

I tried to amaze the witch with examples of modern technology but A/ she knew about them, as ironically some of the demons who had been torturing her for years had enjoyed them. (With one of her demon captors being a big fan of the tv show Gladiators in particular.)

Still I was at least able to find out the witch’s name. It was Higressa. I was also able to find out a tiny bit about her past and what made her tick. To be honest I think she just wanted to rant about all the injustices she felt she had suffered. I’m not saying that being locked up in a hell dimension for hundreds of years isn’t a horrible thing to happen to anyone, but let’s just say she pushed the limits of my sympathy.

It was quite fascinating in a way how she talked about how slaughtering people the same way I would about what I had for breakfast, whilst even the slightest thing that happened to her was told with such unbelievable self pity.

Apparently she was once the Roman empire’s leading expert on black magic, and had even helped design weapons used in the Trajan wars. She was also responsible for casting one of the blackest spells over Scotland as a revenge for it resisting Roman rule. Her spell was so strong that it very nearly dragged the country into a hell dimension.

This action horrified the Emperor Hadrian, who had succeeded Trajan and who had made a concentrated effort to conquer Scotland, not just for the good of the empire, but to take care of the supernatural creatures who had made it their home. Higressa’s actions were designed to take us and the demons out completely in one blast. I guess however she overestimated her sway over the Emperor and the fact that she had committed this war crime, and failed to eliminate Rome’s enemies at the same time, (either Scots or demons) just made the members of the senate who had secretly backed her betray the witch.

She was ironically forced to flee to Scotland to escape. She lost everything. Her family, her coven, who she was forced to abandon, or who betrayed her. She had genuinely believed in the Empire for all of her then 300 year old life and to be cast out from it and erased from its official history was the hardest blow of all. Even more than the torture she endured in that prison. At least that’s what she told me.

It amused me no end the way she kept talking about how if only her spell had worked and Scotland, MY country had been reduced to an uninhabitable rock, then it wouldn’t have gone so badly! I almost felt like shouting to the vampires “she’s here, promise you’ll hurt her real bad.”

In the end she was able to create the nightmarish hell dimension we found her in from the excess dark magic left behind from her weapon, which just made her imprisonment there all the more fitting. Still from what I would later experience about the monster whose minions trapped her spirit in her own hell, the Blue Devil, incredible as it may have seemed, she really was the lesser of two evils!

I’d get an unpleasant reminder of how awful the monsters we were protecting her from were soon when one of them came crashing through our window. It was a totally different type than the ones who had chased me earlier. It had grey, rotting skin, long hair, crooked fangs and black sockets where its eyes should have been. Despite you know not having any eyes it could see us very well, and charged for us. Unfortunately Higressa couldn’t use her magics to fight it off, as they were all being used to hold her together. Instead, she pushed me into the vampires arms and ran like hell out of the room. And to think I let her moan on for ages about how hard it was that she failed to carry out a genocide of my people?

The vampire however luckily for me just tossed me aside and went after its main target. It took me a few seconds to work up the courage to follow it and even when I did I hoped that it would be so fast I wouldn’t be able to catch up to it. At least this way I wouldn’t look as cowardly as I actually was I thought.

I picked up a stake (I wasn’t even sure if that was lethal to this breed) as well as a gun loaded with silver bullets, that had crosses carved into them, and headed out down the hallway. Surprisingly no one else had been alerted from their rooms by the noise, though downstairs I soon heard some screaming as the melting woman and the vampire pushed past people in the lobby.

When I got outside however I could see the vampire and the witch facing each other. Her body was already beginning to break off into bits of slime on the floor, but the vampire at least seemed to tread more carefully in case she had any more tricks left. In a few seconds however a prehistoric, flying reptile, like a Pteranodon suddenly swooped down and grabbed Hegressa in its talons. Its wingspan must have been over forty feet and its skin was bright green and scaly, again signs that it must have been brought back with crude magics as real Pterosaurs were furry and in Pteranodon’s case a lot smaller!

The animal picked Hegressa up as though were a child, but the flesh she had made from the Demon’s slime soon dripped through the flying reptiles claws, until eventually her entire body melted into nothing more than a huge, really, really disgusting puddle of slime on the floor.

However the Pterosaur, somehow still held onto her spirit with its claws. She tried to pull free as best she could, but the winged horrors grip appeared to be too strong and it flew away with her over Port Patrick.

The vampire meanwhile turned his attention towards me. I shot him twice in the chest, but it did nothing. Thinking quickly I ran to the beach as I didn’t want to drag him back to the hotel where innocent people could be caught in the crossfire. (So much for the hotel being vampire proof.)

On the beach below however I saw a young family, who had retreated to escape the commotion with the wolvron above. The vampire naturally seemed to pay more attention to them, roaring and slabbering in their direction, so this time I shot him in the kneecaps. He collapsed to the floor in pain at least right in front of the cliff we had both just climbed down. It was then I got an idea. I needed to at least try and get this stake through his heart as it was the only real weapon I had, but obviously there was no way I could overpower him, so I decided to shoot at the rocks on the cliff behind, whilst he was on his knees.

The blasts from the gun were strong enough to create huge boulders which after enough shots buried the vampire and trapped him. It wouldn’t hold the demon for long, so I took my chance and rammed the stake into his chest whilst he was down. Sadly it wasn’t as easy as they make it out in the movies. I had to hit it several times with the butt of my gun and eventually one of the heaviest of the boulders I could lift. I managed to hammer it through his heart just as he had pushed the largest boulder away from his right arm.

Fortunately this was lethal to this breed of vampire unlike the silver bullets and he soon crumbled into a tiny pile of ash on the floor.

The family were in complete shock, and I didn’t bother to explain it to them. Who knows maybe they’d have been open minded and would have become among the greatest vampire killers of all time if I’d shared the truth, but in hindsight I think it was probably better to get the hell out of there.

I crawled back up the cliff and ran into the hotel. I couldn’t believe I’d actually taken the life of something. Even a vampire. Just before it crumbled to dust there was a look on its face, as though for a moment I could get a glimpse of the person it had been when it was a human. The line between the human they once were and the demon they have become can get blurry depending on the breed, at least according to O’Brien. Maybe in that moment the man came alive one last time as the beast lost its control. I don’t know, but that look will stay with me. Somewhat disturbingly I’ve already found it gets easier to take a life. Since then I’ve killed another four vampires and I’ve never experienced anything like the first one. Hell I even made a little joke after the fourth staking. I don’t have any regrets over my actions though. Had I not staked that monster he would have killed me and the family and god knows who else for fun. I just hope that I’m not too quick to jump in there with a stake in future, given how easy I apparently find it.

I waited in the hotel for the next 20 minutes or so trying to contact any of the team. It was absolute chaos down in Port Patrick as the authorities struggled to keep everybody in line. James and Elizabeth were the first to respond to me. Whilst they hadn’t found any vampires, they’d had a run in with another Pterosaur. A red, from the sound of things Rhamphoryincus that was similarly oversized. They had not only managed to shoot it, but tossed its corpse into the sea. A pity as I would have liked to have seen it, but still I told them that the hotel wasn’t safe. They later told me, based on my description, that the vampire that had entered the hotel came from a fairly rare breed that prior to today had last been seen in Scotland over 100 years ago. It like the others had arrived here to help the Blue Devil’s resurrection. Sadly due to its rarity, they hadn’t been able to gather data on what magics could harm it, allowing the bloodsucker to slip through their defences.

James and Elizabeth naturally didn’t want to take anymore chances and they met up with me outside of Port Patrick, making sure I brought plenty of weapons from the hotel first. All the while they continued to try to contact O’Brien and Sophia, who eventually did respond, after they’d both managed to swim to safety and settled back in Glenluse.

When we met up, Sophia revealed that one of the bullets she shot into the wolvron had come equipped with magics that could allow them to track it. She always kept one of them in her rounds in case her gun didn’t work.

The wolvron had retreated back to Morton Castle presumably with its vampire masters. With no other choice, we were forced to steal a car, as it was too long on foot and time was of the essence. To be clear I didn’t hotwire the car in case they ever figure out who did it! O’Brien promised that he would pay back whoever’s car it was.

Anyway once we reached Morton Castle, the vampires who could go out in the daylight soon emerged to confront us. This breed were hideous, green skinned, bat like creatures. According to O’Brien they were common in Norway, but almost unheard of in Scotland. Vampires from all over the world really were coming to witness the Blue Devil’s resurrection. They ended up being the least of our problems however as a giant Dinosaur soon emerged from the lake by castle Morton.

It didn’t look like any Dinosaur I’d ever seen, either in a museum or in the Great Caradon’s garden.

For one thing it was bigger. It was over 70 feet tall and stood completely erect, like a Kangeroo and dragged its tail along the ground. Its skin meanwhile was chalk white, whilst its eyes were bright red. Its roar on the other hand sounded almost a snake hissing and a bird screeching at the same time! I’d later learn that this monster was known as a Vyrkosaurus Rex “undead lizard king.” It was a Tyrannosaurus that had been brought back via magics, but deliberately tampered with to be larger and more powerful. Vampires revered and worshipped the Tyrannosaurus Rex most of all. To be fair we all do. I know it’s the most boring and predictable answer you could give, but they’ve always been my favourite Dinosaur. Still in the vampires case it was because Khastran, the Demon who created all vampire species was possessing the body of a Tyrannosaurus Rex when he did so.

The magic used to create the Vyrkosaurus however was unstable and dangerous, even for vampires and so these creatures were very rare. Again it said a lot about how much the vampires looked up to the Blue Devil that a Vyrkosaurus was here. It had been brought by a vampire king of a region in South America who had used the Vyrkosaurus to stamp out opposition for decades. He had also been the owner of the two Pterosaurs that had attacked Port Patrick.

Despite the fact that we were literally ants to the undead reptile it still went for us above all else. Vyrkosaurs are completely and utterly loyal to their vampire masters after all.

With one swing of its enormous tail, the Dinosaur sent our little car flying through the air before O’Brien could reverse. The Dinosaur didn’t even do us the courtesy of trying to eat us. Instead it simply placed its giant foot on top of our car and slowly started to crush it while we were inside.

As I struggled to crawl free from the roof of the car coming down on me I could hear those hideous bat like creatures cackling in the background.

Help however soon came in the form of the Great Caradon himself, who burst out of the ground from under the Dinosaur, knocking it off balance, though thankfully not on top of us.

The giant shark man had been monitoring our progress for some time and had hoped he wouldn’t have to interfere, but evidently he didn’t have too much faith in us to escape from that sticky situation it would seem. Not that I had a problem with that.

The shark man picked our car up, ripped it open and gave us a quick scolding for being useless before telling us to stop the resurrection which was almost complete.

He also gave us help in the form of twelve of his Raptors who emerged from the hole in the ground he had come through. The Dinosaurs instantly started to attack the vampires.

Meanwhile the Vyrkosaurus started to engage the Great Caradon in a truly brutal fight. The shark man seemed to have the upper hand at first, tripping the Dinosaur up and delivering a flurry of punches to its stomach, but the giant reptile was seemingly able to shrug off the shark man’s attacks and delivered a devastating kick to the Caradon’s chest which sent him flying about 50 feet into the lake. It was obvious who was stronger between them, but we didn’t have time to worry about the Great Caradon now as ungrateful as that may have sounded.

We made our way into the castle with six of the Raptors, as the others were too busy fighting off the vampires, though as more vampires of numerous different breeds descended on us, five of the Raptors were soon distracted battling the bloodsuckers ,leaving us with just one of the Dinosaurs before we even reached the second floor.

As soon as we made our way to the next level of the castle we were set upon by a hideous white skinned, red eyed vampire, that I am told is known as the Nosferatu breed. One bite from these creatures and you are placed under their thrall for good. Fortunately however, James took care of it with a splash of holy water, which caused the bloodsucker to retreat, though before it could, the Raptor pounced on the vampire, causing both to go tumbling backwards down the stairs.

Before we could help the Raptor however, several more vampires emerged from down the hall and surrounded us. They all belonged to different breeds. One had no eyes, yellowish, orange skin, wore no clothes and had a mouth full of razor sharp teeth too big to fit in its mouth. Incredibly enough, it wasn’t even the most repulsive looking one there! Another was bloated, had green slimy, dripping skin, three black eyes like a shark on its forehead, another three that were yellow with a red pupil each, on its stomach and four arms. When I say it was bloated I don’t mean he was overweight. I’d never be that judgemental, just to be clear. I mean that literally every single part of his body, from his fingers to his nose, to his stomach, to his teeth were about three times the size of a normal person. It wasn’t simply that the creature was giant either. It honestly looked swollen and puffy. Another vampire meanwhile walked on all fours, with a row of spikes down its back and a long, serpentine neck, which the spikes also ran down, with a small oval shaped head and a tuft of yellow hair at the back, two yellow eyes with no pupil, and long, almost silver teeth, fixed into a permanent hideous grin.

Finally the largest there, that appeared to be in charge stood over 7 feet tall and had an incredibly muscular body that was covered in what looked like hair. (In actual fact it was feathers.) Whilst his hands looked more like the talons of a bird of prey, whilst his face was scaly like a reptile, though he had no lips, whilst his long fangs retracted from an otherwise toothless mouth that slabbered constantly.

I think it’s safe to say that these types of vampire didn’t ever recruit willing people. Sophia was the first to defend herself, throwing a strange chemical over the feathered vampire that made his skin boil.

Meanwhile James and Elizabeth tried to attack the others with stakes, whilst O’Brien held off the serpent vampire with a silver sword.

I quite naturally stood on the sides. I’d have just made things worse had I jumped in, though I did at least provide a distraction of sorts when the serpent necked vampire knocked the sword out of O’Brien’s hands. I tried to tackle it like I had done to the vampire near Wigtown, but he was too fast for me and managed to wrap his neck around me like a snake. Up above I could see him open his jaws, wider than my entire head, but luckily O’Brien seized his chance and sliced straight through the vampires neck.

He then asked me if I had been bit and made it very clear that it that thing had sunk its teeth into me he would have killed me straight away, as that breed spreads vampirism through its bite. I knew that it wasn’t an idle threat from what I’d seen outside the Smoking Fish, but to be fair to him he asked me to do the same thing if he was bit too. In a way it was quite flattering that he trusted me to slay him if that ever happened. To me it was the first indication that I was ready to join the team rather than just being the load.

A few seconds later the walls of the castle suddenly came smashing down. Two of the vampires who were exposed to the sun, the feathered vampire and the eyeless bloodsucker instantly burned up, whilst the green skinned brute reached for the shadows just in time, though not without gaining some serious burns.

The great Caradon had been knocked straight through the wall of the castle. For a second I thought he was dead as his body was so cut up, though when I looked outside I could see the Tyrannosaurus was as equally roughed up. The Caradon soon got up and charged at the Dinosaur, causing both to go tumbling back into the woods behind. The Caradon actually managed to lift the Dinosaur up over its head for a few minutes before slamming the Dinosaur’s spine down on its knee.

For a second I thought the Dinosaur was dead as it lay there motionless, but when the Caradon move a little closer, the Dinosaur used its tail to smash many of the sharks teeth out of its mouth, before tripping it up, after which it then smacked its tail down on the shark several more times.

As much as I would have liked to continue watching the two beasts clash, we had to press on. Two of the Raptors from below joined us. Sadly that was all that seemed to be left of the group downstairs and outside, but they still seemed to be better off than the vampires at least.

We made our way into the main hall where Higressa was bound to an altar. The bloodsuckers had completed the ritual to restore her to life. (If there was one thing vampires seemed to be experts on, it was raising the dead.)

The leader of this gathering of the undead soon morphed from a red skinned, scaly, yellow eyed, bald headed demon into a human form when we arrived. The funny thing was. I knew him, I’d even looked up to him. His name was Lord David MacKenzie and he was a patron of the arts in the Galloway region. I’d even spoken with him during my last visit in Wigtown. The fact that he could assume a human form unlike the other bloodsuckers and therefore blend in with humanity and gain influence in the real world, was clearly how he had managed to gather the resources to put this plan into action. O’Brien would later tell me that the more human looking vampires, though sometimes looked down on as inferior in the modern world were ironically often the leaders of vampire clans and sects. It was all Lord MacKenzie’s plan meanwhile. He had used his resources to find out all he could about the Blue Devil and the old legends of the area, and he had even bought Morton castle a few years back.

There were eight other vampires in total surrounding him, including two more serpentine vampires, two winged vampires, two yellow creatures and two of the green, bloated creatures. They all advanced towards us, whilst the leader assumed his vampire face and prepared to bite Hegressa’s neck. The Raptors tackled the two flying vampires, with one of the Raptors actually managing to jump at a flying vampire whilst it was in mid flight, over twenty feet off the ground!

The other members of my team were both cornered by two vampires each, leaving me to face the leader by myself. Well I say face, he didn’t even pay me any attention at first. I couldn’t help but take it as an insult that I wasn’t any kind of threat. I mean I wasn’t, but he didn’t know that for sure.

To save both my pride and the world, I lifted out my gun and fired at the vampire. I hit him twice in the chest and he didn’t even flinch. My third shot however missed and by sheer luck, the bullet fired through the nearest wall of the castle, causing a ray of sunlight to shoot through and catch one of the vampires that was cornering Sophia. Its body instantly caught fire. I then shot more holes in the wall, which scattered the other vampires, apart from the bats. The Raptors however had already dealt with both of them easily, and in the confusion, Sophia freed Hegressa. Unfortunately however the vampires had supressed her bodies ability to harness magics when they resurrected her. She was sure she could break the block, but she would need help to do it.

We headed back down the castle stairs, but on the next floor we were cornered by the white wolvron. I can’t believe I’d forgotten about him, considering he was what we followed here. Our two Raptors jumped on him at once but the monster instantly batted them away, sending one outside of a window to its death, before slowly advancing on us.

We all, including me, fired dozens of rounds at the wolvron, but it was too fast and dodged our shots. Still one of the Raptors managed to surprised the wolvron and jumped on its back and dug its claws into the beasts neck as well as clamping its jaws around his skull.

We all opened fire at the wolvron whilst it was distracted with the Raptor, hitting it this time and causing it to slump to its knees, however before we could knock the monster out, another Raptor emerged from the lower level.

The Dinosaur ran our way and we thought it was going to help its comrade, but instead it jumped at Hegressa. It was over in a second as the Dinosaur crushed her skull in its jaws.

This was the Raptor that had fought with the Nosferatu. The vampire had managed to land a bite on the Raptor in the struggle, allowing it to take control of the Dinosaur.

After all we had went through, vampires, Dinosaurs, shark men, seeing our friends, comrades die, literally travelling to hell and back, and it had all been for nothing. Worse all of those people killed to bring this wretched monster back would now be condemned to the vampires hell dimension.

As soon as Higressa was killed the earth, literally began to shake and Morton castle began to crumble.

The wolvron, having been badly wounded jumped through the castle wall, and fled into the woods outside. We soon followed, though we jumped into the lake instead to break our fall.

Only the raptor that had fought with the wolvron appeared to escape the castle besides us and the wolvron. It engaged the Raptor the vampire was controlling in a brief fight before fleeing, with the vampires Raptor subsequently being crushed.

In a matter of minutes not only had Morton’s castle collapsed, but the ground had also begun to open, and the Blue Devil soon crawled out, before it sealed up again!

The Blue Devil stood proudly in the sunlight as a sign of his superiority to the other bloodsuckers.

He was over seven foot tall, incredibly muscular, his skin was bright blue, his hair was long and flowing, his eyes, yellow with no pupil and his fangs were massive and white.

He actually looked more human than some of the other brutes all things considered, but right away you could deal there was something different about him. The other vampires, though cocky when they had their prey trapped, or at least thought they had it trapped, had always deep down seemed like desperate creatures, even to me. They came over less as powerful immortals and more blood rats forced to live in the shadows for most of their miserable existence. The way that first pack almost killed each other just to try and rip my throat out proved that. Clearly they weren’t used to hunting out in the open as much.

The Blue Devil on the other hand, radiated confidence and arrogance. He looked as though he thought of himself as a god who showed no fear of anything. Even the sight of the Great Caradon and the Vyrkosaurus wrestling with each other in the background made him laugh more than anything else.

He spoke, with a loud, booming, deep voice.

“Caledonia, I see nothing has changed in the centuries I’ve been gone.” He said with a smirk at the sight of the two monsters fighting. Suddenly the Raptor that had escaped Morton castle jumped on him, but not only did the Blue Devil not even react when the Raptors sickle like claws dug into his flesh and drew his disgusting yellow blood. He simply batted the Dinosaur away with one hand into the ruins of the castle, with the impact killing the beast stone dead.

Sophie soon shot the Blue Devil in the head and chest in response, but it did about as much to hurt the former vampire king as the Raptors claws had done.

She then threw holy water at the beast which again did nothing but make it laugh, after which she then lifted out a gold knife, which for the first time made the bloodsucker back away a bit.

“You couldn’t hide all of your weaknesses. This changes things now.” Before Sophia could even finish, the Blue Devil, despite his size darted towards Sophia as fast as he could and and grabbed her hand holding the knife. He then literally pulled her arm out of its socket, and stabbed one of his hands through her stomach before literally tearing our commander in two.

He then threw her top half into the lake and advanced on us. We all shot at him, but it did nothing, The only thing that stopped him was the the Great Caradon who intervened. Covered in blood and barely standing, the Caradon nevertheless reached out for the blue devil, who not only kept his cool, but roared back at the shark beast, that was soon pulled back by its Dinosaur foe’s tail, that wrapped itself around the Caradon’s throat like a boa constrictor.

We meanwhile all dived below the water in desperation and fear. It’s safe to say that having to swim through Sophia’s blood and entrails has probably put me off swimming for life!

When we went back to the surface, the Blue Devil was gone. I’m guessing that he must have felt we weren’t worth pursuing and had other things to do? Or maybe he realised that it was a good idea to run away from the big shark man? Whatever the case the Great Caradon was now on his last legs. He’d put up a great fight against the Dinosaur, but the vampires pet Tyrannosaur had proven to be just too strong.

It was now playing with the Great Caradon, allowing the shark to barely haul itself up, only to push it back down. Finally growing tired of its game, the Dinosaur placed its foot on the sharks back and prepared to finish him. We all shot at the Dinosaur but it did nothing. Thinking fast, O’Brien used his zippo to light up the tree next to the Dinosaur, which drew its attention.

We then got in front of the Caradon and continued to fire, with O’Brien telling us to aim for the inside of its mouth as no bullets could penetrate its scales. Unfortunately however the giant Dinosaur was faster than he looked and quick as a flash he scooped up Elizabeth in his mouth and swallowed her whole.

James screamed in anguish, as tears filled his eyes. The Dinosaur then swung its massive tail at us. I only narrowly missed it thanks to O’Brien who pushed me down in time.

Poor James however wasn’t fast enough, and the Dinosaurs tail smashed him to a pulp, before nearly coming down on me and O’Brien.

The Tyrannosaur then turned round, jaws open and ready to devour us both. It could have easily chomped us both up at the same time with that frightful set of teeth, but the Caradon having had time to regain his strength, ripped the flaming tree out of the ground and wielded it like a weapon, despite it burning his hands. He smacked the Dinosaur in the face with it three times knocking the giant reptile on its back. The Caradon then used what few teeth it had left to rip a chunk out of the Dinosaurs chest, which it then impaled the still burning tree right through. The Caradon lifted the tree, with the Tyrannosaur on the other end of it, up over its head, whilst the reptillian beast still struggled before it slammed the Dinosaur hard onto the ground. The shark finally, with its remaining teeth bit into the Dinosaurs throat, whilst it was writhing and finished its rival off.

The shark man instantly collapsed after that last bit of adrenaline wore off and for a few minutes we thought he was dead before he crawled back towards the hole in the ground he had made and dropped down it, with the hole then vanishing instantly afterwards.

O’Brien and I got out of there as fast as we could before the fire could spread throughout the forest. Thankfully no one else was in the forest at the time. The Scathach would have a very hard time trying to cover this up. The destruction of a famous castle, a forest fire, and several dead Dinosaurs isn’t easily explained.

After O’Brien returned me home, he told me that someone else would be in touch from Scathach soon. He didn’t think I was in any immediate danger as with the Blue Devil free, the vampires clearly had bigger fish to fry. Still he told me to keep a low profile which I did for the next few weeks.

Things ironically seemed to quieten down after the Blue Devil’s resurrection, or at least I didn’t hear anything for the first week or so. I tried to get on with my life as best I could, but how can you after something like that? Every little jump made me scream, anyone who looked at me for longer than a split milisecond I became terrified that they were a vampire wanting to kill me to keep quiet. Everywhere I went I carried a massive crucifix, that I’d make my friends touch all the time, and I’d also make sure to have a bottle of water blessed every day by the local priest (who fortunately knew the truth.)

The week seemed to go on forever, until finally O’Brien and another agent from Scathach arrived at my house, to make sure I wouldn’t try and reveal the truth.

O’Brien told me that strangely there had been no sightings of the Blue Devil. There had however been a few sightings of Hegressa’s ghost, showing that she hadn’t gone back to her own wretched hell dimension yet. The Great Caradon meanwhile was still recovering from his fight. He was deeply embarrassed at his performance. All those years in his garden, he really had felt he’d gone soft and was determined to make up for it. Though what that means for us, I don’t know yet.

O’Brien was shocked when I told him I wanted to join Scathach. I guess he felt based on my performance during this whole debacle that I wasn’t cut out for this life. It was a little hurtful as I had already killed one vampire, and I stopped them from sacrificing Hegressa. Granted that Raptor killed her two minutes later anyway, but that was as much his fault as mine.

The other agent meanwhile was more willing to give me a chance, as the recent vampire attacks had depleted their numbers all over Scotland. I was given a trial run for a few weeks, where we went after a few vampires. It seems not all of them had been killed in the destruction of Morton castle after all. Lord McKenzie was sadly among those who had escaped.

I killed four more vampires during these hunts. One of them had already been taken down by my partner and I just finished him off. Still that seemed to win me some praise as most people don’t have the will to stake a vampire in general. I wonder what that says about me.

After my initial training period was done, it was decided that I was to go to their main office near Aviemore, where the final, more extensive stage of my training would take place. O’Brien sadly wouldn’t be joining me, though given he didn’t think that I was cut out for it, maybe it was for the best. In spite of what he said however, I feel that he had shown great trust in me during our ordeal and I do hope one day we can work together and he can see I am cut out for this life. O’Brien was sent to their office in Glasgow, which had all but been destroyed by the vampires. Most of their hunters are being sent up to Aviemore in fact, as after a few weeks there has been a sighting of the Blue Devil there. O’Brien was their only senior hunter down in Glasgow to make sure at least someone is manning the post down there. It’s most likely that Blue Devil will be preparing an attack on the main office in Aviemore meanwhile.

Tomorrow I will be moving up to the highlands. My accommodation has been set by Scathach. I’ve got a nice little chalet just outside of Aviemore. Under normal circumstances I’d be thrilled at going to Aviemore. I used to go there all the time when I was a girl. My parents enjoyed holidays there every new year. I know it’s a cliche, but there really is no better place to spend the new year than the Scottish highlands. Again though as a young un, my favourite part of it wasn’t the beautiful scenery, it was a tacky little amusement park called Santa Claus land. There was one ride on it, the Dinosaur Ride, that was like a haunted house ride where you’d get driven through this dark room with Dinosaurs (obviously) on the wall, roaring. It was just the most thrilling, amazing thing I’d ever seen as a child, I honestly felt like I was seeing real life Dinosaurs. If I went now, I’d probably find it to be either quite tacky, or who knows maybe it would trigger some form of PTSD?

Still clearly this visit to Aviemore won’t be all fun and games. I don’t mind telling whoever reads this, I’m absolutely terrified. I’m still not sure why I’m going, if it really is to explore this new fascinating world, or to save people, or if it’s just to make sure I don’t ever feel as scared and trapped as I did in the first week after that ordeal?

Either way like I said at the beginning. Things are changing. The vampires are moving together for something bigger than even the Blue Devil and I want to be there when it happens.

Scathach have assured me that should anything ever happen to me, then this will reach my friends and family who I probably won’t be seeing for a long time regardless. (Though you will also be told and threatened if need be not to reveal any of it to the public, not that they’d believe you anyway.) I’m hoping that it won’t come to that, and that perhaps one day you’ll be able to read this when I am still alive.

Whatever the future may hold however, I know that I and all the other agents in Scathach will give our lives to protect the rest of the world from monsters like the Blue Devil, as Sophia, James and Elizabeth were. Here’s also hoping we can also finally free those trapped in his and that monster Hegressa’s hell dimension too.

Illustration by Caio Vincent Corsini.

Ching Kwan was quite possibly the most skilled non mystical vampire hunter of all time. He is believed to have killed up to 700 vampires during his lifetime, as well as over 200 Demons. His greatest legacy however was his creation of the new fighting style, “Jineng Chaoguo Liliang” skill over strength, which through careful, precise technique’s, allowed normal people to take on vampires, demons, vandals, monsters and other supernatural creatures in direct combat. It’s no exaggeration to say that almost all vampire hunters around the world have utilised this method of combat to some extent, and whilst there have been many variations of the practice, its core principles still stem from Kwan’s pioneering work.

Sadly however despite these great achievements Kwan remains a controversial figure to many modern vampire hunters due to his role in the Hatsuka tragedy. Whilst he did what he did to protect those closest to him. Kwan was still indirectly responsible for the slaughter of countless innocents as well as the return of many dangerous Demonic creatures to our world. His most ardent followers will tend to downplay the Hatsuka horrors and his role in it, but ironically that is the last thing Kwan himself would have wanted. He carried the guilt over this catastrophe to his grave and spent the rest of his life trying to make up for his mistakes. He would be horrified to see the lives he had taken be airbrushed from history. Above all else however Kwan devoted his life to helping people combat the forces of darkness and therefore he would want his mistakes to be known, to prevent anyone else from repeating them. His entire philosophy was in learning to overcome superior odds which cannot be achieved unless you acknowledge that you have vulnerabilities and weaknesses.

With this in mind please do not view this as an insult to what was in spite of his flaws, a hero and a great man. It is simply an attempt to chronicle the cause of a real life tragedy that took so many lives, and understand how good men can be forced to do terrible things and finally how the forces of darkness can manipulate the very best of us.

Ching Kwan was born in the year 1943 in Hong Kong. After the chaos it endured during the war, Hong Kong, along with mainland China suffered an infestation of vampires, who attempted to take advantage of their strife and hardships. Kwan’s home town of Jaisa was hit particularly hard by the vampire plague however. By the time he was a teenager, the bloodsuckers more or less ruled the town. As a result of several near fatal run ins with the local undead inhabitants. Kwan developed an interest in martial arts and study into the occult from a young age. Though books on vampires were banned in Jaisa once the vampires really got their hooks into the towns leaders. Kwan’s family were still able to hold onto their collection in secret, as they were a wealthy family.

Despite this however, Kwan’s parents were always careful not to antagonise the vampire forces of the town as they grew stronger. They wanted their son to be able to defend himself if need be, but they were not foolish enough to try and take on what was one of the largest vampire communities in Hong Kong at that point. Kwan however like a lot of young boys was rebellious and frequently got into fights with the vampires human servants and broke curfews and deliberately provoked the vampires as much as he could. Even as a child, the young Kwan would often shout at the vampires as they went by the window of his house, whilst carrying the remains of their victims.

Eventually however when Kwan was 18 he would have his first major confrontation with the undead when his girlfriend, Michelle was captured by them. Her own brother had been a familiar of the vampires and agreed to hand her over in order to be turned. It was a typical test from vampires to see if someone was worthy of becoming one of their own. Not only did the familiar hand over the person they loved the most, but they were also forced to feed on them after turning.

Kwan fought his way into the vampires stronghold, killing up to 17 of them, including Michelle’s recently turned brother, before rescuing her. The vampires were completely unprepared for someone to challenge them, and furthermore Kwan’s knowledge of their weaknesses allowed him to catch them off guard. Even then however by his own admission it was a desperate fight, and he was forced to rely on long range weapons, such as a crossbow bolt, holy items and the sun itself to destroy them. He frequently said that had he attacked the bloodsuckers during the night they would have torn him to pieces.

Following this, Kwan, his family and Michelle were forced to flee to mainland China to escape the wrath of the vampires. It wasn’t an easy move, as Kwan’s fathers business was local. In China the family were more or less reduced to paupers and Kwan’s father was soon forced to take loans from the Triads to make ends meet.

This in turn led to Kwan falling in with the Triads. When he learned that their main enemies were vampires, he offered to help pay off his fathers loans by taking jobs to slay the undead. The Triads were actually able to gain a lot more influence by offering protection to people from the vampire horde.

At first Kwan was happy to work with the Triads as they certainly made his hunts easier and he even learned many techniques from them. However it didn’t take long for Kwan to become disgusted with their ruthless practices and the fact that they charged people for help against the undead.

He soon went on to hunt vampires on his own which earned him the wrath of both the Triads and the vampire population. Kwan was not only in direct competition of the Triads as a vampire killer, he also supplied knowledge to many people on the weaknesses of the vampire which further rendered their services obsolete.

Eventually the Triads responded by killing his family, and Kwan in retaliation murdered the leader of the Triads before being forced to flee from the police. Michelle remained behind, having grown to be a formidable vampire hunter in her own right thanks to his training. She initially wanted to go with Kwan, but he told her to remain here as someone needed to spread the knowledge on how to combat vampires so that the Triads hold would vanish. Michelle reluctantly agreed though what became of her is a story for another time.

Kwan fled to America where he became a freelance vampire hunter. He hated having to charge some of those he saved for money, but sadly he had no choice. He had many successes against the American vampire population, who similarly were not used to being targeted in such a direct way, and his antics soon brought him to the attention of an eccentric millionaire named Harold Jackson. Jackson’s home city, Lawless had been infested by vampires much like Kwan’s. The bloodsuckers owned everything in the city. The media, the police, etc. Jackson’s own father, a big shot tv producer had even been a slave to the vampires, supplying them with some young up and coming actresses to feed on. Desperate to make up for his fathers sins, Jackson adopted a costumed identity, the Devil of Lawless and along with Kwan, who adopted the costumed identity of the Dragon of Lawless, they battled the vampires and their human allies on the streets of the city throughout the early to mid 60s. Whilst they endured many losses over the years, ultimately the costumed vampire hunters were able to crush the bloodsuckers stronghold in the city by the end of the decade. Afterwards both Kwan and Jackson went their separate ways and continued to hunt vampires in different parts of the world. Many believed that the two had a clash, but in truth Kwan simply wanted to explore Europe next and spread his new knowledge and techniques there.

In Europe Kwan worked with many other famous vampire hunters over the next few years and continued to improve on his knowledge and fighting skills. He decided that many traditional forms of vampire hunting were inefficient for single combat. Prior to Kwan’s pioneering work, most vampire hunters avoided direct, one on one combat with vampires if they could.

Legendary vampire killers like Daniel Holtz and the Cushings preferred to hunt the undead using traps, long range weapons such as crossbows, flaming torches and crosses. They also preferred to combat them during the day time and when they were on their own too. When it came to staking meanwhile, it was often a messy and prolonged process. Simply stabbing a wooden stake through a normal persons chest would be a very difficult process contrary to how most modern vampire hunters make it look. Vampires meanwhile often have stronger bodies than humans and therefore most vampire hunters for centuries were forced to use a hammer or a mallet to drive the stake into the chest. As a result hunters could only really stake vampires during the day when they slept.

That’s not to say that the likes of Daniel Holtz and the Cushings couldn’t handle themselves in a fight, and that there were never any instances of a skilled fighter overpowering a vampire. Generally speaking however, one on one fights were things that vampire hunters wanted to avoid, due to vampires supernatural strength, speed, agility and endurance.

Kwan however was determined to find a way for an ordinary human to defend him or herself from the undead in any scenario, and so he built a new method of fighting that not only incorporated many different kinds of martial arts, but also numerous different techniques from vampire hunters too.

Using this style Kwan worked out how to use a vampires greater strength and endurance against it, studied all of the information available on the different breeds and matched them with the correct forms of martial arts. Perhaps his greatest contribution however was the creation of a new method of staking vampires.

Using a similar process to the famed one inch punch. Kwan worked out a method where an ordinary person, through carefully pressing their entire body weight onto the stake, could push it with enough force to cut through even a vampires chest easily.

This method soon spread throughout the vampire hunters community thanks to the many contacts and allies Kwan had built up during his time in Europe and it eventually become mandatory training in most vampire hunting organizations. Even freelance and lone vampire hunters would study and learn Kwan’s new staking technique that was jokingly referred to as the “one inch stake.”

Many tall tales and stories were told about Kwan during this time, with some claiming that he could beat any vampire or demon or monster. Kwan himself however always remained humbled by the admittedly few defeats he had endured. He constantly reminded his students that no one is unbeatable, and that one must never become arrogant when dealing with the supernatural. The basis for Kwan’s entire philosophy was that it’s not just about the punches you throw, the kicks you make, but also the environment, the weapons and above all else your knowledge of your opponent. The second you buy into your own hype as unstoppable vampire killer and forget that, then even the most inexperienced, common vampire can defeat you.

Kwan’s new fighting style that he dubbed Jineng Chaoguo Liliang proved vital in pushing back the massive wave of vampires that had emerged in Europe after the second world war. Whilst the Nazis were thankfully crushed at the end of the war, the vampires they had allied themselves with and who had been given a chance to spread and unify throughout Europe, continued to thrive and grow in power throughout the 50s, 60s and early 70s to an even greater extent than in the East.

Kwan’s technique couldn’t have come at a better time, and in addition to this, Kwan himself also played a vital role in taking down one of the leaders of the European vampire war machine, Roskaria, a vampire king and former friend of Hitler, who was carrying out a eugenics program on a secret island. Roskaria wanted to create the perfect human who in turn would make the perfect vampire. Those he captured were subject to horrific experiments as well as put through gruelling tests to make sure they were strong enough mentally to be part of his super race of vampires. From this island Roskaria also controlled many of the vampire operations throughout Europe.

Kwan was part of a special team, which also included his old friend and former partner Harold Jackson and his former lover Michelle who infiltrated the island, though it was Kwan himself who personally slew Roskaria.

Following this incident, Kwan then travelled back to Hong Kong. Feeling that he had somewhat neglected his own people by focusing too much on the vampire crisis in the West.

First Kwan took care of the original vampires that had forced him to flee from Jaisa in the first place. He dispatched them within the space of a week, showing how far he had come.

Following this he came to settle in the town of Hatsuka, which also had a thriving vampire population He initially hoped he could free this city as easily as he had done his own town and Lawless, but Kwan soon learned that these bloodsuckers were much better organised and were in fact at the centre of the vampire operations of Hong Kong, forcing him to stay a lot longer than he he had intended.

Whilst there he soon fell in love with a young woman named Valerie Yeoh, whose husband had been killed by a particularly vicious vampire. With her help, Kwan tracked down and killed the vampire which would subsequently inspire other people in the city to start fighting back against the undead. Kwan also opened his own martial arts school in Hatsuka, which helped many others learn how to fight back against the vampires.

Kwan and Valerie meanwhile later married in 1973, with Kwan becoming the adopted father of her teenage daughter, Amy born in 1957. Unfortunately however, Amy did not like Kwan. In spite of the fact that he had avenged her fathers death, she viewed him as a menace, who was antagonizing the vampires unnecessarily and that sooner or later it would lead to catastrophe. In all fairness to Amy this was later proven to be correct somewhat, not only by the constant attacks by vampires against the family. (At one point Amy’s school was even attacked by a pack of vamps) but the greater tragedy that was to befall Hatsuka as a result of Kwan’s notoriety.

Just as in most other places, the local gangsters, the “Red Dragons” in Hatsuka had been feuding with the vampire community for many years and the vampires had by and large emerged victorious. Prior to the war, the Red Dragons had been the equals to the vampires who also always had a presence in the city, but the greater influx of vampires after the war had diminished them to a small, pitiful collection of thugs and amateurs, forced to carry out a few petty crimes just to make ends meet. Most people weren’t even aware they still existed.

This proved advantageous to the remnants of the gang however when they were able to successfully capture both Valerie and Amy, who they threatened to kill unless Kwan agreed to destroy a powerful resurrection spell contained within the legendary Hatsuka Pagoda.

The Pagoda was located outside of the city and was long believed to have been abandoned. Rumours however persisted that it was haunted or populated by unnatural creatures, but no one, including even the vampires were seemingly brave enough to check it out.

In truth however the Pagoda contained a powerful spell that had been created by the supreme vampire king of the East, Hu Sian. Once a powerful wizard who fought to protect the people of China. Hu Sian had fallen victim to a vampire during one of his many battles against the undead. Slowly but surely he united his new people, the vampires and other supernatural creatures together under his rule. Sadly for him however any empire or organisation he tried to build never lasted, as vampires were such cowardly, self serving creatures. Still using his various resources and knowledge of magics. Hu Sian was able to build a powerful spell which could bring anyone who died in one particular area back to life, regardless of how they died. It was arguably the greatest resurrection spell ever devised in the history of the planet at that point, outside of the Gods own resurrection spell to revitalise the earth after Set’s rampage.

Hu Sian then built a stadium of sorts using magic in this area where he forced creatures to fight one another over and over again. Each creature would be allowed to die five times after which if they had failed then they were then banished through a portal to Quortoth, the darkest of the dark worlds. If they survived however they would not be released, but they were given extra lives. Obviously none of the combatants were volunteers. They had all been kidnapped by Hu Sian’s vampire and demon minions from all over the world.

The arena was located below the city of Hatsuka. Most of the cities population didn’t even know it existed and even Kwan himself was sceptical.

These sick and twisted games became a useful way for Hu Sian to further gain influence and power as vampires from all over the world came to see the fights and payed anything, magic, victims, favours of various kinds to see them.

The magics required not only to resurrect the creatures involved, but keep them locked up and the portal to Qurtoth open were kept at the very top of the Pagoda in the form of a large magical sphere. Hu Sian had tremendous affection for the Pagoda, and Hatsuka in general, as it had been the scene of one of his greatest triumphs as a man. Though some think by making it the center of his new vampiric empire, Hu Sian was also wanting to purge himself of his former humanity as most vampires do.

Each floor to the Pagoda was guarded by a creature that had previously fought in the games and proven its worth. There were five floors in total. Kwan knew that he would have no chance to defeat the creatures on his own, but fortunately he was allowed to take only two men to accompany him on the floors of the Pagoda. The magic that guarded it prevented any more than three people from taking part in this twisted game. Quite why Hu Sian had designed it this way, is not known, but many suspect that it was because he never lost his sense of honour and wanted to give even his opponents a sporting chance. Kwan chose his two most promising students, Yixen Chan and Ying Hung who had already helped him take down a particularly vicious nest of vampires.

The Red Dragon wanted Kwan to destroy the talisman that was creating and sustaining the games in the hopes of crippling the vampires empire and influence. Sadly there was nothing Kwan could do to save his wife and adopted daughter other than to go along with the Red Dragons wishes. The criminals had enlisted the aid of a powerful demonic sorcerer and rival to the vampires for help, and through dark magics he had encased both Kwan’s wife and step daughter in a bubble which would rip them slowly apart if any of the Red Dragon were killed. It would also only evaporate if the Pagoda’s spell was destroyed.

Finally the Red Dragon had also lied to Kwan, stating that the vampires were forcing innocent humans to take part in the games. (The bloodsuckers only didn’t use humans because they didn’t last long enough.) Kwan however should have investigated further and would have if it had been any other case. Sadly he was all too eager to brush aside the larger consequences for the sake of his family. To be fair even the Red Dragon themselves had no idea of the full horrors they would be unleashing, thinking that the monsters would turn on the vampires for enslaving them. They also did not think there were anywhere near as many monsters as the more elaborate tales had claimed and that whilst things would get difficult, they could easily ride it out.

Kwan insisted that he and his students visit the Pagoda during the daytime however. He wanted to be sure to have the sun as an advantage if there were any vampires nearby.

When they reached the Pagoda Kwan and his companions saw that there was no entrance. The entire building looked beautiful. It was bright gold, which is the colour of magic, which suggested that the entire building was constructed out of magic.) Suddenly however a skeleton creature appeared out of thin air to Kwan, asking him if he was here to compete in “the Trials”. Kwan reluctantly said he was, and the Skeleton then told him that in order to destroy the sphere at the top he would have to wear a special magical, yellow suit, with black stripes down either side. Again Kwan agreed and the suit suddenly appeared on him, after which a door opened up leading to the first floor, with the skeleton creature vanishing just as quickly as it had arrived.

The first floor of the Pagoda was straight forward enough. It was filled with six zombies, all of whom could move fast and were very skilled fighters, though other than their instinctive fighting skills, they were still dumb and consumed with a desire to eat the flesh of the victims. The first floor was also filled with the bones of their former victims. Kwan and his two students weren’t allowed to bring weapons into the Pagoda either. Instead they could only use the weapons that were supplied on each floor. On the first floor were three large blunt object’s at the very back.

Kwan had never dealt with zombies before. His speciality was after all the vampire. Still he knew that most breeds of zombie could be killed by a sharp blow to the head. (The magic that reanimated them, often took root in the head.)

However when Kwan and his two friends struck the zombies in the head though they would die, the magic of the Pagoda instantly revived the magical creatures.

Worse there was no way to simply skip past this stage. The stairs to the next level only appeared if all the guardians of the first floor were slain. Kwan however soon figured out that the zombies could be killed by completely destroying the head, rather than just a simple blow. Working together, Kwan’s two students would hold the rest of the zombies off, whilst he used the weapon to smash each zombies head into mush. Once the last of the corpses was taken care of, stairs appeared at the back of the room, allowing Kwan and his students to ascend to the next level.

On the second floor, there was a giant praying Mantis creature, whilst the weapons, which this time were by the stair case, were three cutlasses. This creature was not a demon however. It was a beast, an order of creatures that originated within the Savage Realm. Beasts were not as malicious as Demons. They simply hunted and killed to survive like animals, though unlike animals they possessed unnatural powers and in some cases greater intelligence. Cyclops, Centaurs, Manticores, Hydra’s and Minotaurs were other more famous examples of beasts.

This creature’s species meanwhile known as the Instregia, were very rare. They stood up to 12 feet tall, and possessed tremendous physical strength. What really made them so dangerous however, where their lightening fast reflexes.

Kwan and his two students attacked the beast at once, but it easily managed to deflect their blows with the cutlasses using its pincers. No matter where and how fast they tried to strike, the Mantis continued to deflect their blows. Kwan tried to work round this by having his two companions strike either pincer whilst he tried to go for its eyes, but the beast it seemed was smarter than it looked, and pushed Kwan’s student into him as he prepared to strike.

The beast then started to make its attack and began slashing its pincers at Kwan. He did his best to try and block, but he wasn’t fast enough and the Mantis slashed his chest and then clubbed him out. Again Kwan’s two students tried to strike the insect from behind, but it swung round and knocked them both out. The beast then dragged Kwan towards the other end of the room, where the remains of its previous victims were. It intended to wrap Kwan up in a sack which would keep him alive for weeks, possibly years as it slowly ate his flesh. The Instregia did not have to eat much to survive and therefore could live off of their prey for a long time. The magical properties in its sack could keep its victims alive without food or water, and even after their organs had been removed. The creature liked its meat to be fresh after all.

Kwan came to as the Instregia started to wrap its sack, which it spun from its mouth in a delicate process around his legs. He’d never felt a force like it before. He honestly thought his legs were being crushed at first and he couldn’t move them at all. He tried to crawl away using his arms, but the giant insect held him tight. As he looked around he could see the remains of the previous creatures victims wrapped up in similar sacks. Only the head and torso of the one closest to Kwan remained, and even then most of its skin had been peeled off and its torso ripped up the middle. Its face had been so mangled and disfigured it would have been impossible to know who it was in life, but even then Kwan could still see an expression of unbelievable, horrific agony etched onto the unfortunate souls distorted face.

For the first time in his life Kwan was genuinely terrified and did his best to try and crawl away. He wasn’t even attempting to fight back as he knew it would be pointless. Fortunately however Yixen Chan who had come too distracted the beast long enough for his master to crawl towards his cutlass which he used to cut through the sack covering his legs. Chan’s distraction did nothing to hurt the giant insect meanwhile. He struck at one of its legs, using his cutlass with all his might, but the cutlass actually bounced off of the creatures skin.

It was at that point however that a plan started to form in Kwan’s head.

Running under the creature and towards his student. Kwan snatched Yixen’s cutlass and pushed his student behind. He then struck at the Insect with one of the cutlasses, and again the beast effortlessly blocked it.

This time however Kwan held on and pushed his cutlass towards his opponent, until eventually Kwan’s sword was knocked high into the air when the insect pushed back. Kwan then struck the Insect with his other cutlass, and yet again it blocked it, but this time Kwan held the animal in place whilst his previous sword fell on top of one of the Instregia’s eyes and cut it.

That had been Kwan’s plan all along. He knew that if he just threw the sword at its face it would block it, so he had to make the abomination think that the sword had just been flung out of its hand and then he had to keep it in place and distract the abomination with another strike.

His gamble paid off, and whilst the Instregia was distracted by the pain, Kwan struck its other eye with the cutlass, blinding it.

The beast started flailing around, desperately clawing at the air, whilst Yixen dragged Ying who was still unconscious to safety. Kwan meanwhile waited for the right chance and soon jumped onto the Mantis’ back. Holding on tight, he climbed up towards its head and stabbed his cutlass straight through its eye and into its brain.

The beast instantly collapsed to the floor and with its death, another stair case appeared leading to the next floor.

The three men needed a few minutes before ascending to the next level. Kwan knew it was wrong to even ask his two students, who despite their skill were clearly out of their depth to come along, but sadly, even now he wasn’t prepared to ask them to leave. The Instregia had shown him how much he needed help.

The guardian of the next floor was a monster. Much like the word beast, monster has come to refer to any unnatural creature in the modern age, but originally the word was used to refer to a particular group of creatures who originated from outside our omniverse. Where they actually came from, no one knows. Some speculated that they were from another omniverse that had died, others that they were the creation of a rival to the creator of our universe. Whatever the case, the monsters came in many shapes and sizes, but they were all seemingly devoted to the destruction of all life in our reality.

This monster however appeared to be relatively human in appearance, but as soon as Kwan approached it, one of its arms turned into a long green tentacle and it not only smacked the cutlass out of Kwan’s hand, but hit him across the face, knocking several of his teeth out in the process.

Kwan’s two students instantly tried to retaliate, but this time both of the monsters arms turned into tentacles and it grabbed both men by the legs and started swinging them into the air before tossing them to either side of the room.

Kwan meanwhile noticed that there were three pairs of nunchucks on the wall beside the stair case. He instantly ran towards them, picked up a pair of nunchucks and went to his friends aid, before the monster could keep tormenting them.

The guardian swung its tentacles at Kwan, but he managed to deflect them with his nunchucks, which seemed to create electrical shocks for the monsters tentacles. Obviously they were made of some mystical force that could harm this relatively unknown creature. The two fighters continued to strike at each other, both landing blows, but nothing serious for the next few minutes. It soon became obvious to Kwan that the monster was merely toying with him however, as it slowly drove him back to the staircase. Yixen attempted to intervene and attacked the monster from behind, cutting off one of its tentacled arms. He then impaled it, before the beast whacked him with a tentacle towards Kwan.

Enraged, the monster started to assume its true form. Both its legs and its arms (with the severed arm instantly re-growing) turned into several long tentacles, whilst its skin turned completely green. The monsters head meanwhile transformed into a bald, green skinned, reptillian looking monster, with large fangs and a forked tongue.

It was hard to make out the rest of its body as it was concealed behind a mass of tentacles but it appeared to be long and serpentine. Kwan tried to use his nunchucks again, but this time there were so many tentacles that he was overwhelmed. The monster not only beat Kwan to the ground but it soon ensnared him in several of its limbs.

Yixen meanwhile tried to slash at its tentacles, but a quick strike from one sent him tumbling back down the stairs to the second floor again, breaking his arm in the process. The monster then picked up his cutlass and shattered it to pieces.

Ying meanwhile, having dislocated one shoulder when the monster threw him across the room, still continued to try and fight the tentacled abomination. He slashed his sword as fast as he could at the incoming tentacles and managed to slice several of them off, but there were just too many of them and worse, much like a Hydra they’d keep regrowing. Several of the tentacles were able to trip him up from under, whilst more soon came down on his back whilst he was on the floor. Cutting him like a vicious cat o nine tails.

Meanwhile Yixen crawled his way back up the stairs and fetching another pair of nunchucks attacked the monster. He was soon overpowered, but his distraction bought Ying enough time to take off more of its tentacles. He even managed to hack at several of the tentacles that had ensnared Kwan, though Kwans attempts to try and reach the monsters head proved to be just as futile as his two students.

Once again however just as it seemed as though this monster was indestructible. Kwan quickly got an idea. Picking up his nunchucks and a cutlass, Kwan sliced off one of the monsters tentacles, but before it could regrow he struck the stub of its tentacle with the nunchuk. Whilst the tentacle did regrow, it took almost a minute longer and the monster actually recoiled in pain when the nunchuck hit its stump, which it had never done before.

Using this combination Kwan sliced off almost all of the monsters tentacles, and hit them with the nunchucks afterwards until they were almost all gone. In desperation the monster resumed its human form, with both its limbs (made up of surviving tentacles.) It dodged Kwan and tried to make a break for ironically the last pair of nunchucks to defend itself until its limbs could grow back, but with one strike of his cutlass, Kwan parted the monsters head from its shoulders. It resumed its original form one last time, before melting into a puddle on the floor, after which the staircase to the fourth floor appeared.

The guardian of the fourth level of the Pagoda was a vandal. These demons were rivals to vampires. Both were created by two different members of the same ancient race of demons. The Kardons, and therefore were ironically much more closely related to each other than they were to other demon races. Both however instinctively despised one another as their creators had been bitter rivals.

Whilst vandals shared many of the same powers and weaknesses as vampires, they fed on their victims souls rather than their blood, and they fed on them using their claws instead of their fangs. There were many different species of vandals, just as there were vampires. Kwan had a few dealings with vandals over the years. In fact he had even been forced to work with one, reluctantly, to take down a powerful European vampire king. Still just because vandals were the sworn enemies of vampires did not mean that they were not every bit as evil and twisted as the bloodsuckers themselves.

This vandal belonged to a particularly vicious breed known as the Jascersia, though its appearance was mostly human however. It was slightly more gaunt and its expression more blank than a normal person, and as soon as the three challengers entered the fourth floor, the vandal’s finger nails grew into 12 inch long claws. Its eyes also started to glow red and a cruel smile started to form on its lips.

Kwan as always was the first to strike with his nunchucks, but the vandal sliced through them instantly and delivered another deep scratch into Kwan’s stomach, and then another across his right hand cheek, before kicking him in the chest.

Yixen attempted to land a blow next and went for the vandals feet. He did actually manage to catch the demon off guard and trip it to the floor. Ying then intervened and impaled the monster through the heart with his cutlass. Sadly however it didn’t even hurt the vandal, who responded by slicing Yings throat with one of its claws.

Yixen attempted to help Ying as the latter chocked on his own blood, but sadly there was nothing he could do and the vandal after pulling the sword out of its stomach sliced Yixen with it across the chest as he attempted to defend his friend, whilst a quick slash to the chest sent Kwan crashing to the ground. The vandal then picked up Ying as he was nearing death and stabbed its left hand straight through his stomach.

The vandal glowed blue as Ying’s body started to wither. Kwan had seen this revolting process of the vandal devouring its victims soul before and sadly he had been just as helpless to stop it the last time. After the demon stopped glowing it threw Ying’s lifeless husk of a body at his two friends, and then pulled Kwan out from under the withered corpse of his student by his foot.

It was stronger than before after its recent “meal” and felt it could have fun with Kwan. It repeatedly slashed at him. Kwan however was able to trip the soul devourer to the ground by grabbing hold of one its feet with both of his.

He briefly held the vandal there for a few seconds before it broke free due to its superior strength. Yixen meanwhile tried to strike at the vandals throat with his cutlass, but with one swipe of its claws the vandal cut the blade into pieces. Kwan however seized the opportunity and with a powerful air kick he sent the vandal flying several feet.

Kwan then had a quick scan of the room for weapons, only to see that in contrast to the previous floors there was nothing on any of the walls. However he soon saw that there was a large wooden pillar at the centre of the room. A wooden stake through the heart was the most common weakness of both vampires and vandals.

When the demon rose to its feet again, Kwan told his student to stay back. For now. He then jumped over the Demon as it charged at him and landed next to the pillar which he broke in half with one kick.

Kwan then lifted one half of the pillar up and rammed it towards the vandal. The demons claws however however easily allowed it to slice through the stake before Kwan could get it anywhere near its heart.

Yixen then tried to kick the the vandal towards the stake from behind, but again the clawed monstrosity was too quick, and it overpowered Yixen. The vandal held its claws to Yixen’s throat and demanded that Kwan put the stake down and kick it toward it which he did. The soul devourer then used its strength to completely snap the stake with its foot.

At the same time however Yixen managed to land a lucky strike on the vandals foot with his own whilst the demon was distracted by Kwan, after which he then flipped over the vandals head and pushed it towards Kwan, who delivered a punch with all his strength to the vandals ribs, breaking them.

Whilst the vandal was temporarily stunned by the pain, Kwan lifted it up over his head and brought the vandal down onto the bottom half of the broken wooden pillar sticking out of the floor. The vandal was impaled, though not deep enough to pierce its heart, but Kwan, wasting no time delivered a series of furious punches to the vandals stomach which pushed it down deep enough for the broken pillar to go straight through its heart.

The vandal instantly crumbled to dust and a stair case to the fifth and final floor appeared.

Sadly neither Kwan nor Yixen had time to mourn their fallen colleague as they were so desperate to get this nightmare over with, they both instantly ascended to the top floor. Both men were also running almost solely on adrenaline. If they actually stopped to think about it, they’d not only feel the exhaustion, but the numerous deep cuts and broken bones they had endured too.

The top floor was darker than the others. So dark in fact it was difficult to see. There were no windows of any kind and the walls appeared to be made of wood, or rather magic resembling wood. Finally there were also no weapons to be seen. The fifth guardian meanwhile soon emerged from the darkness ahead. Kwan couldn’t believe it when he saw the creatures monstrous face came into the very little light that was there from the staircase to the fourth floor. It was a Turok Han. Kwan had read about these creatures extensively in his research, but had been lucky enough never to encounter one before now. 

The Turok Han was contrary to popular belief not strictly speaking a vampire. It was a relative of the vampire family, created by Khastran, the creator of the vampire race. Khastran was once the most powerful and feared of all demons and the ruler of the Hellish realm. He was ultimately slain on our planet, by the combined might of both the Gods and the Angels. Just before his death however Khastran created lesser demonic creatures solely for the purpose of ensuring his resurrection. Once these demonic children, who he shared a link with, even from beyond the grave outnumbered humanity then he would live again. The Turok Han were the first such attempt to create a race like this, but despite their power and ferocity. Khastran soon abandoned them. The problem with the Turok Han was that they were too demonic and could not blend in with humanity. The vampire proved to be a much more effective creature, as whilst still as evil and bloodthirsty as the Turok Han, it’s more human appearance and the fact that they were once human, meant that they could infiltrate and understand humanity better. Though thanks to people like Kwan they had never managed to outnumber us and resurrect their father.

Still a few Turok Han survived and continue to multiply over the centuries. The fact that Khastran didn’t bother to perfect the Turok Han curse the way he would with vampirism meant it was more difficult and unpredictable for Turok Han to turn others into members of their own kind. Whilst anyone could be transformed into a vampire, only those with the absolute strongest bodies could withstand the change into a Turok Han. Ironically Kwan himself probably would have been an ideal candidate.

The Turok Han shared their vampiric cousins thirst for blood, though they lacked any higher intelligence. They were driven purely by an instinct to kill, and torture and were feared even among other demons.

The fifth guardian was naturally the strongest of them all and when Yixen tried to attack first this time, the demon sent him flying over ten feet to the other end of the room. Kwan was a little luckier and managed to land a punch on the Turok Han’s chest, but the bloodsucker didn’t even flinch. Fortunately Kwan was able to duck its retaliation and tried to trip the Turok Han up, like he had done with the vandal. Unfortunately however due to its vastly superior strength, he couldn’t even budge the brute’s legs. The bloodsucker then responded by kicking Kwan across to the other end of the room.

Yixen meanwhile jumped up and tried his best to fight off the demon. He delivered a series of punches to the vampire like creatures chest and face, but again it did nothing and the Turok Han, proving to be a lot faster than its towering, almost seven foot frame suggested. Easily deflected one of Yixens punches and started to twist his remaining arm. Yixen tried to pull free as hard as he could, but the Turok Han’s strength was just too great.

Kwan tried to bring the Turok Han down with an air kick, but the bloodsucker simply swatted him away with its other hand. It then put its foot on Kwan’s chest and held him down.

The monster, proving that it wasn’t quite an animal in terms of intelligence despite its savageness, made Kwan watch as it slowly tortured his student. First it broke Yixens remaining arm, which it then pulled off completely. Then it ripped off his already broken arm, before disembowling him with the talons on its hands.

All the while Kwan furiously struck the bloodsucker to no avail. Yixen tried to remain stoic at first, but as the Turok Han tore more pieces off, he began to scream and beg Kwan for help, but sadly there was nothing his old teacher could do.

After a few more minutes of torture, the Turok Han finally put Yixen out of his misery. First it brought his spine down on its knee, breaking it in two, and then it pulled on both his shoulders and legs until he was ripped in half, after which it tossed either piece aside.

The Turok Han then reached down for Kwan and lifted him up by the throat with one hand, whilst another it dug its talons into his stomach slowly. Kwan in desperation started to dig his thumb into the Turok Han’s right eye. At first the sadistic monster tried to shrug it off, but eventually it became too much even for it and the demonic fighter dropped Kwan.

As Kwan tried to flee however, the Turok Han reached out and dug its claws into his back. Before it could hoist him into the air again, Kwan managed to pull free, albeit at the cost of the flesh the monster had grabbed onto.

Kwan knew he couldn’t possibly hope to defeat the Turok Han on his own and with no weapons, so he headed back to the stair case, hoping he could find the nunchucks on the third floor. Unfortunately however when he reached the stair case it vanished.

The Turok Han soon caught up with Kwan again. (It didn’t help that entire room was now completely dark) and snapped Kwan’s arm like a twig before throwing him on the ground. (Making sure Kwan landed on his broken arm.) The bloodsucker then stood on his broken arm, before trying to bring its foot down on his spine. Fortunately however Kwan had just enough strength left to dodge its attack, but the Turok Han was relentless. It kept trying to crush him under its feet, with Kwan only narrowly keeping out of the way, rolling ahead of the undead demon until eventually he hit the wall of the fifth level.

Knowing there was nowhere else for him to go. Kwan stood up to face the Turok Han one last time, but soon saw that the vampiric creature was suddenly being more cautious around him, after it had been gripped in the throes of bloodlust.

Kwan suddenly figured it out. He remembered reading in the Cushings diary, that one weakness the Turok Han shared with many of its vampiric cousins was a vulnerability to sunlight.

Clearly the Turok Han was scared of accidently breaking the thin wooden walls in case Kwan ducked. Now at last with an advantage, Kwan walked slowly to the side with the Turok Han following him, before reaching out with his good hand and jabbing the Turok Han in the same eye he had previously stuck his thumb into.

Whilst the super demon briefly keeled back in pain. Kwan turned around and used two one inch punches to break through the wall behind, allowing sunlight to pour into the room. The Turok Han was briefly caught in the suns rays and its body instantly began to burn, but it managed to get out of the way in time before it completely caught fire. The monster however was severely burned and overcome with rage for the first time towards its attacker, but Kwan wisely kept in the suns rays and continued to kick and punch at the wall, breaking more parts of it open. The Turok Han however kept retreating back into the shadows, and in desperation Kwan reached out to try and pull the demon into the suns rays. Instead however the Turok Han grabbed hold of Kwan and pulled him out of its rays. Fortunately however Kwan managed to lift a broken piece of wood from the wall with his feet which he then stabbed into the Turok Hans chest when it lifted him over its head.

Unfortunately however a stake through the heart could not kill a Turok Han, but Kwan didn’t stop there and ripped the make shift stake out of the monsters heart and slashed it across the face several times before stabbing it in its wounded eye which he used after it dropped him, to push the demonic guardian into the suns rays. This time its entire body started to go up in flames, yet it still struggled to get free of the sunlight. Kwan then delivered a final air kick to the stake in the monsters eye which finally sent it tumbling backwards and out through the hole in the wall. The Turok Han’s body completely burned up into nothing but a pile of ash before it even reached the bottom of the five stories of the Pagoda.

With its death a new door appeared at the back of the room, leading to what Kwan had come here for in the first place.

Before he could finish his task however, he had to rest. The exhaustion and his injuries had finally caught up with him and he collapsed on the Pagoda floor. It also now sunk in that he had led two young men, who had originally come to him for help to their deaths. He had made it clear to both Yixen and Ying before that there was a strong chance they wouldn’t make it back, but they still readily agreed to help him. Kwan had helped rescue their families from vampires after all, and so they felt it was the least they could do to try and save his. Still he should have known they were not ready, but again he was desperate for help and they were the best he had.

Kwan actually hoped that some of the injuries the guardians had inflicted on him would turn out to be fatal, as whilst he would do all he could to protect his family. In many ways he didn’t want to make it out of this alive either.

After a few more minutes, he hoisted himself up and trundled towards the door. On the inside of the room was nothing but a large blue sphere. As Kwan prepared to muster up the energy for a flying kick, the skeleton creature from outside suddenly reappeared.

“Congratulations. I didn’t think you would have defeated the Turok Han. He had over 900 kills in the arena, without a single defeat. Including me. I was once a great warrior like you, you know.” The creature said before Kwan interrupted.

“Unless you have anything useful to tell me, please I’d rather not have an audience.” Kwan said.

“Why is that? You’ll be freeing lots of innocent people, or do you know deep in your heart that is a lie, one that you’ve spun as much as those vile men who have imprisoned your loved ones?” The creature asked.

Kwan didn’t say anything. He knew he couldn’t.

“You won’t be rescuing anyone but your family. Worse if you break that sphere, you’ll be unleashing all of the demons, monsters and beasts locked up in the arena. Your city will become a haven for the very kinds of creatures you’ve devoted your entire life to fighting. Are you really willing to let that happen?” It asked.

Kwan paused for a few seconds.

“Help me.” He asked.

“You clearly have greater power than that sorcerer if you’re a part of all this. Please. I defeated your champions. I overcame your trials. You owe me. Destroy the spell the Red Dragons have placed around my family.” Kwan pleaded.

Sadly however the Skeleton creature was not co-operative.

“I want too, but I am afraid, just like guardians I am bound here by the magic of Hu Sian. He would never help you. He loves to play his games. They’re the only thing that makes his immortal life worth living. The only way I can stop you is to tell you that thousands of people will die if you destroy that orb. Your conscience is the final challenge.”

The Skeleton creature vanished and Kwan thought it over for a few minutes. He tried to rationalise it in his head, arguing with himself that if he didn’t break it, his family would die, but that this way he could help fight the monsters that were unleashed into the city. He also tried to make himself believe that the Skeleton was lying to him as well, but in the end, he put all the thoughts out of his head and smashed the sphere with an air kick. He let his emotions take over for just a second and it was enough to damn him.

As soon as the sphere smashed, the entire Pagoda began to shake and break apart. Kwan wisely stumbled down stairs of every floor and outside, just as the Pagoda turned into a massive ray of light, stretching up into the sky, which then vanished completely, leaving nothing behind.

Up ahead meanwhile Kwan could see that the city of Hatsuka breaking apart. Buildings collapsed as the ground opened up at various places and hordes of monsters, beasts and demons all emerged in search of new victims. Kwan instantly ran back to the city to try and help, but there was obviously very little he could do.

For the next few weeks, the city was completely ravaged. Hundreds of people lost their lives as Hatsuka became a no mans land. Kwan was able to find both his wife and step daughter meanwhile. Whilst Valerie was grateful for what he had done, Amy called him a murderer and selfish, accusations that Kwan didn’t argue with.

Eventually Hu Sian whilst amused by the chaos his former pets were causing, soon felt that Hatsuka was more trouble than it was worth and decided to destroy the city to avoid the paranormal being exposed. Using the portal to Quortoth underneath it, Hu Sian sucked the entire city to the darkest of the dark worlds. He gave Kwan a warning, 24 hours before as a sign of respect for passing his trials. (He also allowed Kwan to keep the yellow suit from the Pagoda too, which did allow Kwan a certain immunity to certain magics and had even healed his wounds after the Pagoda had collapsed. Kwan continued to keep the yellow suit as his main battle costume for the rest of his life. He became instantly recognizable for it. Some say that he kept it not just because of its power, but also as a reminder of the horrors he had unleashed.)

At the same time however Hu Sian also sent a Nelapsi after Kwan to try and block his escape from the city, viewing it as another fun game. (The Nelapsi were similar vampiric creatures even more ferocious than the Turok Han. Hu Sian hadn’t even let it fight in the arena as he felt it would be pointless as it would slaughter all competition.)

Kwan was able to get several people to safety before the city was sucked into Quortoth, but sadly most of the cities surviving population were pulled under with it. Finally as Kwan would later learn, some of the demons and beasts and monsters had also managed to escape the city, including some who had become extinct in the wild, who once again flourished.

After escaping, Kwan and his family fled back to Europe. Utterly crushed by what he had done, Kwan left his family for their sake. Valerie begged Kwan to stay, but he refused. He felt that not only was he putting them in danger, but that he did not deserve Valerie. Kwan would devote himself to finding and destroying Hu Sian. He brought down many of the vampires other operations and sick games all over China. At first the vampire king found Kwan’s antics amusing, but eventually he grew to genuinely be angry with Kwan and their feud became more bitter on both ends.

Ironically Kwan later worked with Amy, who took up being a vampire killer in his absence. Their relationship greatly improved over this time as they both worked together to destroy the monster that had dragged her home city to hell. Amy even apologized to Kwan for having been so hard on him, having come to see how there is a need for people to do what he does, and that had other people stepped up sooner then Hatsuka may not have been lost. At the same time however she also made clear that whilst she understood why he saved her and her mother, she could never condone the choice he had made in the Pagoda. Kwan agreed and every night he was haunted by nightmares of seeing the city he had once sworn to protect be pulled into the darkest of dark worlds.

In 1976 after a year of working together the two finally brought down Hu Sian’s empire though this led to problems of its own as the supernatural without a leader became more chaotic and unpredictable. After working with his step daughter to battle many of the demons that tried to take Hu Sian’s place for the next ten years, Kwan finally disappeared in 1976. It was later discovered that he had joined the enigmatic time travelling, benevolent vampire Professor Fang on his travels throughout all of history.

What became of Kwan on these adventures is a story for another time however.

Whilst Ching Kwan did go on to do many more heroic things, sadly nothing could ever make up for the Hatsuka tragedy. Over two thousand people, either lost their lives or were condemned to the most nightmarish hell dimension thanks to his selfish actions. Contrary to what many of his defenders and followers say. He knew the full ramifications of what would happen if he destroyed the orb. He overcame the most powerful opponents knowing what would happen. Neither the claws of a Turok Han or his own conscience could stop him.

The important lesson to learn here is that you can never, ever play by the rules of the forces of darkness. No matter what is at stake. Kwan, despite his great intellect and bravery, let himself become a pawn of not just the Red Dragons and their Demonic sorcerer, but of Hu Sian himself. Whilst his most ardent followers would insist that anyone would have done the same as Kwan, and maybe that’s true, we must always remember that no good can come of bending to creatures like vampires will, no matter how we try and justify it to ourselves.

Sadly Ching Kwan, who was otherwise quite possibly the greatest vampire killer, will always serve as a stark reminder to the rest of us. For all his great accomplishments, to many he will only be remembered as the man who condemned thousands of innocents to the darkest hell dimension to save his own family.

It’s difficult to describe your reaction the first time you meet a vampire. Many things go through your mind at once. On the one hand you try and rationalise it any way you can, on the other however there is a twisted fascination because it challenges everything you thought you knew.

If vampires exist, what else is real? You now know that life after death is possible, that creatures who defy the natural order exist, and that mankind does not rule the world in the way we would like to believe.

Above all else however is the terror of not just facing such an unforgiving, relentless monster, but of knowing that thousands of others like it are out there, hiding in the dark.

My name is Ferne Shelley and this is how I came to learn the truth about vampires.

My first encounter with the undead occurred in the quaint little town of Lista. I had just finished my Psychology degree at The University of Essex. I must confess that I had largely become a student in the first place simply because I wanted to put off going to work for a couple of years. In many ways this trip was supposed to just be another way of postponing my inevitable move from being a carefree, happy go lucky student, to the trenches of a 9-5 desk job.

I had three real friends throughout my time at University, Marie, Claire, and Diana. They were really the first friends I ever had. I was always something of a loner as a child, and I was picked on a lot throughout my childhood and my teenage years. I remember being so happy in my last year at school simply because everyone just forgot who I was, which sadly was a step up to how I had been treated before.

My relationship with my parents had also been somewhat cold too. They were never cruel, but at the same time they never really paid that much attention to me either. I remember wanting to confide in them about what was happening at school, but they just weren’t interested in any meaningful way.

They always struck me as being the type of people who didn’t really want to give up the rich social life they had before I was born. Even when I was a young girl, I can remember them leaving me with babysitters and relatives to go on holidays and even just nights out.

When I went to Uni it was like being transported to an entirely different universe (well at least that’s what it felt like at the time. When I did visit another universe years later it was a somewhat different experience)

I’d been mistreated for so long that someone being polite was an alien experience to me. All I really wanted was to matter to someone.

I finally did find someone who loved me for who I was not long into my first year at Uni, Claire Jane. She was a lot more confident than me, she had a boyfriend named Michael who had been her high school sweetheart, but I still got the impression that she was desperate to meet new people as well.

It was easier for her than me, as she was such a friendly, nice, chatty person and it was through her that I would meet Marie and Diana. All four of us were in the same class, and having already loosely known Claire, she asked me along with Marie and Diana to go for a drink one time. The four of us ended up becoming fast friends and my time with them for the next three years would go on to be the happiest in my entire life.

No one made me feel as sure and confident of myself as Claire did. Really she was the cool, older sister I never had. (Even though she was two years younger than me, she just always seemed so much more mature). I thought we would always be friends, with the both of us going down to the pub as old ladies, but sadly life would take us down very different paths.

It all began on our trip through Europe in the year 1979, (twelve years ago) which started badly, when we soon became lost in the German countryside. Sadly whilst Claire was a wonderful woman in many ways, she didn’t have the best sense of direction. To be fair we were all to blame however. We didn’t really have any proper plan. We had just hoped to travel through the German countryside, visiting small towns along the way, having fun at German festivals, getting drunk, maybe meeting some cute German guys.

When we finally reached the town of Lista it was such a relief, though if I had known what was about to happen to the town, I would have turned and run as fast as I could in the opposite direction.

Lista was a beautiful place, with a real innocence among its town folk, which may have been why the vampires had enjoyed targeting it for so long. The pack of vampires that had terrorised the town were led by a particularly vicious member of their kind named Caros, who had been turned sometime in the 15th century.

He was a survivor, having lived through the rule of the vandals (Demonic rivals of vampires who ruled Europe for many centuries) and both world wars. Unlike most other members of his kind he did not join the side of the Nazi’s during the conflict. Not for any moral reasons of course. Being a born survivor he wisely kept himself out of both World Wars and simply continued to prey on small rural areas.

Lista had been his latest target. For months his vampires had been visiting the town every night, dragging people away, men, women, children even infants. Their victims remains would usually be found strung up in trees near the town for their families to find the next day.

The people at first were too scared to do anything against the monsters. Some of the villagers even thought they could appease the vampires, but when it became obvious that the demons couldn’t be bargained with, the people finally fought back.

The vampires having believed that the townsfolk had been terrorised to the point where they were completely docile, were completely caught off guard when the people of Lista pelted the beasts with bottles of holy water. Overwhelmed, the vampires were driven by the villagers to a massive pit the villagers had dug during the day, filled with stakes. The vampires that fell into it were either impaled or burned to death, by being doused with holy water. Caros however was wise enough to flee as soon as he saw the holy water. (Vampires are notorious cowards.) Whilst most of his men were killed by the villagers. Unfortunately however Caros just became eager to get the villagers back for this humiliation. It wasn’t just petty revenge. Having built a reputation as the supposed king of the vampires in the local area. Caros could not allow this humiliation to go unpunished.

The villagers meanwhile foolishly believed that they had seen the last of the vampires, and celebrated afterwards.

When we arrived it had been two weeks since the vampires had been “defeated” and the town was still celebrating. We saw a mass of people gathered round an effigy of Dracula being burned, and there was also a festival in the streets with people wearing Dracula masks and even children holding up crude drawings of vampires with stakes through their hearts!

I remember thinking it was odd, but I assumed it was just an obscure festival like Day of the Dead. It seemed quite charming in a way and we even took part in some of the festivities before finding a hotel for the night. A warm cosy bed, a nice little town, with an eccentric, quirky festival I could tell people about back home. I honestly thought this holiday was finally beginning to pick up. I have tragically never been more wrong about anything in my entire life.

Caros had slowly been building up his forces in the fortnight since his humiliating defeat. Snatching hitchhikers, stopping cars going down the road and pulling their unfortunate occupants out and turning them into vampires. He also recruited numerous vampire clans from the local area, who again feared him and knew of his reputation as the “king”, and called in favours with other vampires from all over Europe to help bring about his revenge.

However what really gave Caros the edge was the fact that he was able to take control of the towns only priest, a man named George. Caros’ breed of vampire who were known as Nosferatu, had the power to take control of any human being that they bit.

Even the strongest wills couldn’t resist the power of a Nosferatu and Caros had bitten the priest on the night his forces were repelled.

The poor souls that the Noseferatu’s take control over are still awake, they are just unable to go against the vampires commands. The priest wanted to warn the town that the vampires were planning another attack with all his heart and soul, but he just couldn’t. Under the vampire kings command he would perform a black mass ritual to deconsentrate all of the holy water. (A ritual which involved him butchering a woman the vampires had captured.) He also obviously would not bless any more water either.

Caros and his now larger group of vampires decided to strike the people of Lista during the night, just after the party.

It was an absolute slaughter. The vampires butchered the people still in the streets, and burned down houses in order to drive people out (as the vampires could not enter a house without an invitation). Without the holy water to burn the vampires from a distance, there was no way anyone in the village could fight back.

I remember waking up to the sound of screaming in the streets. At first I assumed it was just people getting a little bit too rowdy during the festival, but then all of a sudden, something came crashing through the window.

Panicked, I instantly rose from my bed, still somewhat dazed and half asleep. I could see through the smoke which soon filled the air, that there was a fire at the end of the room. I realised what had happened as insane it may have sounded. Someone from the streets had thrown a petrol bomb in through our window!

I turned to wake Claire who was lying next to me. We had been lucky enough to get two rooms, one for me and Claire and another for Marie and Diana. Clare began screaming at the sight of the fire, but thankfully she didn’t let her fear overwhelm her and jumped out of bed whilst making sure that I was right behind her.

We both headed for the door which the fire hadn’t reached yet. Out in the hall everyone had fled their rooms, including Marie and Diana as they had all been petrol bombed. All of the guests and staff hurried down the steps in a stampede through the hall, down the steps and out into the streets.

Outside looked like a war zone. Buildings on fire, people running through the streets in sheer panic. Straight across at the other end of the road, I could see a figure standing over a woman seemingly biting her neck!

The woman was clearly dead. Her throat had been torn clean out, blood was dripping down the pavement and onto the street. The figure standing over her then looked up at us, all huddled together, utterly petrified.

The figure’s skin was completely snow white, its eyes meanwhile were just as red as the blood dripping from its mouth. It had no hair and every tooth in its head was razor sharp, though its upper canines were far longer than the rest of its teeth. The monsters clothes were ratty, and torn and slime dripped from its fingers. I could hear a squelching sound as it walked, barefooted and slowly towards us. It actually left a slime trail behind it just like a slug.

The smell that came from the creature was overwhelming. It practically choked me. Honestly I wanted to be sick just looking at it.

We all began to back away slowly from the monster, when all of a sudden one of the women at the back screamed. I turned and to my horror saw four similar creatures crawling down the walls of the flaming hotel like spiders.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but before I could take it in, the monsters suddenly jumped through the air and landed on several people in the crowd, including the woman who had screamed. The beasts ripped their throats out in seconds with their bare teeth! We all ran. Marie, Diana and Clare all kept close to me. As we fled through the town we saw people being cornered,  beaten, torn apart by more of the monsters, but there was nothing any of us could do to help them.

We could hear the creatures roaring and hissing behind us, but none of us looked back. I was just so terrified I had no thought other than to get the hell out of this place!

That began to look like an impossibility however. At the end of the road we could see five of the creatures completely covered in blood and entrails blocking the way forward. We all stopped and froze. There was seemingly no way of escape. As I turned round I could see more of those hideous things coming up the other direction. I still couldn’t even believe the situation I was in.

I almost felt like laughing at the absurdity of it all, when suddenly the monsters began to wince and cower. I turned around to see a young man standing in the road wielding a cross. He had come out of one of the houses. He was reasonably young, probably close to my age, had thick black hair, and was quite tall and athletic looking. He told us to follow him and we all instantly agreed. The fact that he didn’t have fangs, red eyes or stunk definitely worked in his favour!

He ran through the house he had come through on the left end side of the street. Though it was burning he still went through it as the flames hadn’t consumed the whole house.

Marie was a little hesitant to follow however which would prove to be a fatal mistake. She was scared of the flames, but as Clare reached out to try and help her, one of the brutes snatched Marie from behind and pulled her backwards. Another two then jumped her and they all began tearing her apart. The man who helped us said that there was nothing we could do for her and sadly he was right. That still didn’t stop us from having to pull Claire back.

After we made our way through the house we reached the garden. On just the outside of the garden there were the remains of a family. Clearly the occupants of the house who had tried to escape the fire and been pounced on by vampires waiting outside.

We continued to run down the street passing more burning houses, with the man who had saved us waving the cross in the direction of any vampire that came near.

Eventually we reached our destination, a the bomb shelter in the garden of another burning house.

There was a second man in the shelter. He was much smaller, somewhat out of shape with grey hair and clearly a lot older.

He didn’t look pleased to see us at all. In fact he started to scream at the younger man.

“Brian what on earth are you playing at? Rushing out there, when the town is being torn apart by those monsters! Always desperate to play the hero aren’t you? For all you know these three women have been bitten and are under their control.”

Brian tried to assure the older man who was called Alan, and was Brian’s father that he was sure we weren’t vampire stooges. Of course I couldn’t understand a word they were saying, but fortunately Clare who could speak German was translating for me and Diana.

Brian and his father kept arguing after we were let in the shelter. Eventually Claire suddenly interrupted them and asked “Excuse me, what do you mean under their control?”

Brian spoke softly to Claire and said “Those monsters, vampires, have the power to put anyone they bite under their control.” He began to tear up and couldn’t look at Clare anymore. “One of them bit my, my mother. They snatched her just outside our garden.  Dad tried to help her, but he had been cornered by the flames. They’d already petrol bombed our house. I was lucky to get out of my room alive. I could see what they did to my mother from my bedroom window however.  They forced her to, to murder my sister!”

Claire was in shock. I could see Alan at the other end of the room weeping uncontrollably, his head in his hands.

Brian continued “When they bit her they threw her and Sarah together. Mum and Sarah they hugged for a while. She even told Sarah that it would all be okay and then suddenly she threw Sarah to the floor. The vampires then handed mum a hammer and she, she”

He didn’t finish but he didn’t have to. Once he had regained his composure he explained that this bomb shelter was built during the second world war and that even the vampires couldn’t get through it. Brian said that it was best to wait here until some help arrived.

That could be months however I thought, assuming it ever did arrive. Sadly this was our only option. The streets of Lista were a literal war zone. None of us dared to brave them again.

The night was long and difficult. All five of us hardly spoke a word, though all of us took it in turns to cry. We had all lost so much that night.

I tried to remain calm and brave, but at times it hit me that I would never see Marie ever again. Then it would hit me that it was because of vampires! What was I going to tell her parents? It would get too much for me, and I’d break down.

I didn’t sleep at all that night. When dawn broke, Alan and Brian told us that we needed to go now asthe vampires could not go out during the day. Brian, ever desperate to play the hero went out first just to see that there were no vampires.

Brian and Alan’s house had been burned down. The streets were littered with bodies and pieces of bodies, blood literally caked the pavements, and most of the houses were in ruins. The stench of death was everywhere.

As we walked nervously down the street Claire suddenly tackled me to the floor. I looked up to see a car driving at an incredible speed down the road, before it smashed into a house on the other end.

Claire saved my life, whilst Alan, Diana and Brian had managed to jump to the other side. The car had come so quickly from around the corner that I didn’t even notice it. As I looked around I noticed a large group of people at either end of the street. The people were covered in cuts and bruises. Clearly the vampires had been torturing them all night, but the bloodsuckers hadn’t killed them as they wanted these people to be their eyes and ears during the day time.

We all instantly headed back to the Shelter with the vampire’s human servants in hot pursuit.

Fortunately we all made it in time, but not only was it apparent that there was now seemingly no way of escape, but the vampires also knew where we were hiding!

As we cowered together in the shelter one of the vampires servants spoke.

“You can’t stay in there forever. This place belongs to our Master now. When he rises tonight he will find you and you will die like the rest of this miserable town, alone, scared and in agony.”

A part of me felt like opening the door and just getting it over with, rather than slowly rotting away in here.

Brian however was sure that someone would find us and said we just needed to wait it out. There was about two weeks worth supply of food for five people in the shelter.

As we sat in the shelter, terrified that the vampires servants could break down the door at any minute, Claire broke the silence and asked, somewhat nervously who the vampires Master was?

Alan spoke, his voice quivering “You don’t want to know. And I hope for your sake you don’t have to”

Alan revealed that there was a pistol in the shelter. It had been placed here by his father, in case they were buried alive during an air raid, and could take an easy way out.

Sadly the gun would be of no use against any of their tormentors. Guns couldn’t kill vampires, and there were only 6 bullets in the gun, but close to 50 humans under the vampires control.

Alan told us that he had contemplated using it on himself last night. “After what those monsters did to my family I thought it would be easy just to end my pain. One quick shot to the head, then its over, the monsters couldn’t hurt me any more. But I couldn’t bare the thought of leaving my son alone to face this horror.”

He was still angry about Brian’s recklessness but also knew that had it not been for his son’s bravery then we would all be dead now. He was proud of Brian, but after telling him so, still begged his son not to ever do anything like that again. Of course given the type of person Brian was, he also knew that his warning would not be heeded.

The day was long and hard. There were so many times when I felt like opening the door and just running through them, but every time Brian and Claire would calm me down.

Claire as always was my rock. She had saved my life, but even more incredible was the fact that she was somehow managing to keep calm throughout most of this nightmare. She’d even try and steer the conversation back to normality, talking about the things she was going to do when this nightmare was over like marry Michael, and try and find a job teaching.

That had been her ambition as she had always loved children, though to be honest I think she just liked the idea of having all those holidays off. Diana had ambitions of wanting to be a writer meanwhile, whilst I sadly didn’t really know what I was going to do with my life, though again I didn’t really think my future was guaranteed at that point anyway.

There were moments when even Claire couldn’t keep her cool however. She cried about Marie several times. Whenever she started crying, me and Diana couldn’t control ourselves either.

When night finally fell we sat there waiting for the vampires Master to show up. Alan assured us that even he couldn’t get in here by force, but he was still terrified of what hideous trick the demons would try and pull on us next.

Sure enough the vampires Master (whose name I did not know at this point) soon arrived by the door with a group of his most vicious servants.

They had been able to enter the garden as the house had been completely destroyed and therefore no longer counted as a private residence. We could tell the vampires had arrived even before Caros issued his demands by the stench that arrived with them. Caros spoke in a loud and booming voice.

“Poor, pitiful creatures, clinging to life, when you know its pointless. Come out now and I’ll make sure that it’s quick” He said.

Just then I could hear the rest of the vampires burst out into fits of hysterical laughter, followed by a massive slam on the door which startled us all.

Caros spoke again “Very well then, how about I make you a trade? One of you come out here and I don’t tear this young woman and her child to pieces.”

We could hear a child and a woman screaming outside. Brian went to open the small window on the door to see for himself. Alan had warned him against it, telling him that it was a trick, but again Brian didn’t listen to his father. Brian saw a young woman, bloodied, her left eye black and swollen, hugging her screaming child who must have been no older than three.

Caros spoke again “We’ll kill both of them unless you come out NOW. We’ll make them suffer. You’ll hear the sound of them screaming for mercy. I’ll force the mother to watch as her child dies!”

Brian headed for the door. Alan instantly jumped in front of him and pushed him back.

“I cannot believe that you would be stupid enough to fall for that trick. If you open that door you will kill us all. That woman is clearly under their control.” Alan said.

Brian however could not leave a young woman and her child at the mercy of the vampires and tried to assure his father that he wasn’t simply going to walk out there and expect the vampires to keep their word. He was also confident that even if she was under the vampires control he could handle her. Brian also still had the cross he had used to fight off the vampires that had cornered us earlier, and hoped to use it maybe scatter the bloodsuckers around the mother and her child.

Alan was still against it. Claire also offered to go instead, which Alan was still against. Obviously he cared more for his son’s well being than any of us, but he thought it was an insane idea for anyone to go out there.

Diana and I contributed nothing to the conversation of course as we couldn’t speak German. I probably wouldn’t have been brave enough to go out there at that point, in fact I know I wouldn’t.

Brian couldn’t be bothered to argue with his father anymore and after picking up his cross he headed out of the door as his father shouted at him.

Outside the vampires instantly swarmed Brian, but as soon as he lifted the cross they began to cower. He quickly reached for the woman and the child. However as he headed to the door Caros placed his hand around the cross and even though it visibly burnt his hand, the vampire snapped it to pieces effortlessly. The girl and the woman then fled towards the shelter, leaving Brian behind, whilst Claire and Alan ran to the door, but there was nothing they could do. Alan did empty two shots into Caros but the blood sucker didn’t even acknowledge them.

Caros toyed with Brian for a while, breaking both of his arms before tossing him into the rest of the vampires who swarmed the young man and tore him to bits. Alan screamed in anguish as he kept firing at the vampires, and it was only Claire shutting the door that prevented him from running out into them.

We could hear Brian’s agonised screams from inside, but fortunately they didn’t last for long. Brian was at least luckier than most of their other victims in this respect.

Alan meanwhile sank to his knees. He didn’t even cry, he just looked completely broken.

I tried to comfort Alan, whilst Diana and Claire meanwhile went over to see the woman and her child, but the child ran away from them and cowered in a corner. Diana tried approaching the boy again, but this time when the child turned round, Diana saw the awful truth. The child was a vampire! It had buried its head in its mother’s breast before, and had been dressed in gloves and a hat to conceal its true nature. Its mother was human, but she was completely under the vampires control just as Alan thought.

Now Diana could see its hideous white face, massive fangs and bright red eyes and before she could move away the monster sunk its fangs into her throat. Within seconds it ripped her entire throat out. Claire and I ran over towards Diana, but it was too late. She bled out in a matter of seconds and was dead before we could even begin to help her. Brian’s heroic sacrifice had not only been for nothing, but it had cost Diana her life.

The vampire child soon attacked Claire too. Despite being just a child, it still had a much greater strength than either of us.

Before I could even try and help Claire, the child’s mother punched me in the face. I’d never been in a fight before and I was instantly sent crashing to the ground, my nose bloodied.

As I lay there on the ground, she grabbed me by the throat and began to choke the life out of me. I suddenly heard a bang, and her blood splattered on my face as she fell to the floor.

Alan was standing behind her with the gun still smoking. The vampire child turned around after the shot and ran towards Alan. Alan however managed to knock the beast towards the floor by hitting it in the face with his gun. He then impaled the Demon child right through the chest with a makeshift stake he had created from a chair leg that he hammered through with the butt of his gun.

Upon being staked the vampire crumbled into nothing but a tiny little pile of ash on the floor. Alan then put the gun to his head and blew his brains out.

There was nothing anyone could have said to talk him out of it. The vampires had destroyed his entire life. I just wish he hadn’t given the animals the satisfaction.

I felt like passing out from the shock of everything that had happened, and the pain in my nose was overwhelming. A combination of the pain, as well as the sight of Alan’s brains splattered on the wall, and Diana’s blood dripping from her throat actually made me vomit.

Claire helped me to sit down and checked my nose to see if it was broken. She lightly pinched my nose and when that hurt like hell she concluded that it was broken. She clearly wasn’t a medical student!

There were bandages in the shelter but as she plastered up my nose I could see a bite mark on her arm. The vampire child had managed to get in a lucky bite during the struggle.

It was the final straw. I instantly started crying. Clare realised what I was upset about and put her arms around my shoulders.

“The vampire who bit me is dead. I am no longer under its control. We don’t know if the bite is fatal or not. Just because it’s that way in the movies doesn’t mean”

I interrupted her. Barely able to speak through the tears I told her that I couldn’t imagine my life without her. Claire then told me firmly that if need be, I would have to kill her.

At that point I wished that Alan hadn’t used the last bullet on himself. I hugged Claire as hard as I could. I swore to her that I wouldn’t let anything happen to her, but it was all pointless.

Over the next few hours Claire began to weaken, her skin turned white, her hair fell out, her eyes began to go red and her teeth began to enlarge.

I held her in my arms. My best friend, the person I loved more than anything else in the world, as her life and everything she was, was slowly eaten away by a Demonic force.

She was brave at first, but as her condition worsened she began to cry. She screamed that she didn’t want to die, she was only 22, she wanted to marry Michael, she didn’t want her parents to go through losing their only child. Her final words to me just before she was completely consumed were,

“I can feel it, its all going away. Everything I am, I feel like I am already dead. Oh god this is what they feel like all the time? They can’t feel anything other than wanting to hurt people. Please don’t let me live like this Ferne. Please kill me!”

Within seconds she was gone. I hadn’t even had the time to grieve for Diana before Claire was taken from me too.

I walked away from her corpse and headed for the stake Alan had made, but when I turned around I saw that Claire had already risen. The sight of my friend as one of those things was the most horrifying sight I will ever see in my life.

I foolishly hoped that I might be able to get through to Claire. If I had known then what I do now I wouldn’t have hesitated to stake her, but I just didn’t want to admit that Claire was gone.

Claire began to speak before I had a chance to say anything. “Don’t worry old friend I will make this quick.” She said.

I foolishly tried to reason with her. I told her to remember Michael, remember her parents, and remember that I loved her like a sister and always would.

She laughed and said back to me. “Don’t worry I won’t change you. I couldn’t spend eternity with you, constantly prattling on about your sad little issues and insecurities. It would also just be too be cruel to make anyone live a life like yours forever. It’s not like the vampires would accept you anyway. No one has.”

I cried, as Claire laughed and continued to mock me. “There you are crying again like a little girl. That’s your solution to all your problems, just to cry and whimper and whine to whoever is unfortunate enough to be near you.”

I wasn’t crying for the reasons that she thought however. I cried because I realised that Claire was truly gone. She would never say such a thing, even on her worst day. She loved me like a sister. If there was one thing I was sure of it was that.

I ran to the door. Whilst I knew this monster wasn’t Claire, I still didn’t want to be killed by a monster that bore the face of my friend.

I managed to make it out of the shelter and to my surprise all of the vampires were gone. I didn’t stop to think why however as Claire was coming after me.

As I ran out into the streets I still saw no vampires? What had happened, had they got bored of torturing me and ran away? Just then as Claire came charging at me an arrow suddenly shot straight into her back. It narrowly missed her heart. As she fell to the pavement she pitifully started to beg me for help, but again I was not fooled. I knew the real Claire had died in the shelter. I just wish I had had the courage to slay the monster baring her face there and then. I was too scared to even look at her, and the blood sucker, being crafty and cowardly like all members of its kind soon reached up, overpowered me and used me as a human shield, stopping her attackers from firing any more arrows, before she then jumped onto a nearby roof top using her new inhuman strength and then across several more until she was out of view.

Two men armed with crossbows then came running out of the ruins of one of the houses and cornered me.

These men were from Rentros an organisation designed to track down supernatural creatures. They had managed to slay many of the attacking vampires, though sadly Caros had escaped (and taken down six Rentros troops before hand). The Rentros men would take me and the few survivors in. Among those who survived the slaughter included Brian’s mother, Carla, who the vampires had also kept alive to further torture. They wanted her to live for a few days knowing what she had done to her daughter.

According to one of the Rentros men, it was a favourite activity of vampires to make people murder their loved ones. He felt that vampires enjoyed dragging decent people down to their level.

The Rentros men provided an official cover for the story and sent us all home. My life would be a black pit of despair for the next few years however. Without Claire, Diana and Marie the loneliness was unbearable. Even to this day I have never made friends quite so close. Eventually however I would overcome my depression and join Rentros.

I wanted to make the vampires pay. It felt like that was all I had left. In a way the vampires had dragged me down to their level after all. I’d spend years training with Rentros, honing my skills and body and learning everything I could about the monsters until I was able to kill them.

However as the years passed I came to view them with pity. I saw that actually they were pathetic creatures, unable to feel anything but hatred. Slaying a vampire came to be an act of mercy for me.

I would also sadly have many more meetings with my former best friend Claire, who would soon go on to become my greatest enemy. I will kill her. One day. I know her better than anyone else, I know how her mind works. Even when it has been corrupted by a Demonic force.

I tell this story to let you all know how important it is to have knowledge on what is really out there. If the me of today were trapped in Lista, my friends would still be alive. The greatest trick the devil played was in convincing you he didn’t exist and it important that you do not fall for it like I did.

There is a war going on and whilst some people can get away with sticking their fingers in the ears and pretending it doesn’t exist for a time. Sooner or later unless they are not vanquished, the vampire horde will catch up with all of us.