Lynn's POV
I stood frozen in the middle of that dark narrow alley, staring at the other side, my body trembling.
*Crack Crack Crack*
The hard tip of the hammer was already smeared with blood, dripping and pooling onto the cobblestone ground, continuously slamming and penetrating the flesh and scalp of the man who lay crushed beneath it.
Until a few seconds later, the man holding the hammer stopped striking. He stepped back a few paces, the sound of his heavy labored breathing clearly audible in the silent, cramped alley.
I couldn't make out his face due to the darkness, only his lips with a still-burning cigarette tip were visible.
The man took a drag of his cigarette before exhaling a puff of white smoke into the air. He was tall, dressed in a black suit and trousers, and wearing black gloves that were already drenched in blood.
My body was paralyzed, even moving felt incredibly difficult.
What stood before me was clearly an act of murder. If I stayed here any longer, I could easily become the next victim.
The chill of the autumn night only made me tremble more violently.
I had to run, right now.
The moment that thought surfaced, the man holding the hammer turned his head toward me, and for a few seconds, I felt as though our eyes locked, even though I couldn't see his eyes in the darkness.
My heart seemed to stop beating for a moment.
A danger alarm instantly blared in my head, and in that very second, my brain commanded me to run.
I spun around and ran with all my might, even abandoning the plastic bag containing the groceries I'd bought from the mini-market just moments ago.
I had only decided to go out for groceries because I was completely out of food at my apartment. Since this was the route I usually took every day, I hadn't felt any bad premonition. I never expected this horrific sight to greet me on my way home.
I don't want to die.
I truly don't want to die.
*Buagh*
Suddenly, I felt a hard impact on my lower back, which sent me tumbling and rolling several times on the ground until I finally stopped when my back hit a wall. My palms stung from being scraped by the uneven surface of the ground.
My head was spinning and my ears were ringing. When I realized it, I saw it was 'him' who had kicked me.
How could he move so fast? I was certain the distance between us was quite far when I fled.
The man slowly approached me, his feet clad in black Chelsea Boots taking slow, deliberate steps that constricted my throat. Each step made my heart pound faster. The scent of musk and the metallic smell of blood mixed together, making my head swim even more.
I tried to drag my body backward, but my back was blocked by the wall.
My eyes were already filled with tears. I shook my head, and with a trembling body, I clasped my hands together to beg him, no longer caring about the stinging pain from the scratches on my palms. "Please don't kill me. I'll forget everything I saw, I won't tell anyone. Please, I have a brother still in college, I need to support him."
I kept begging desperately, but the man crouched down and wrapped his hand around my neck, then raised his hammer high above his head. I trembled violently, fear completely overwhelmed me. I cried, my breathing catching in my throat.
"Don't kill me! Please!" I shrieked frantically in despair.
Just as the blood-stained hammer swung fiercely toward me, I closed my eyes, waiting for the impact on my head.
However, after a while, I felt no pain at all. The surroundings suddenly fell silent.
The grip on my neck loosened, and then I felt a soft breath against my palm, and something wet and warm slid onto it. A strange sensation traveled down my arm to my shoulder.
I dared to open my eyes, and what I saw was a pair of glowing golden eyes in the darkness. They were sharp and seductive, languid as if concealing a burning desire.
I froze for a moment, my heart still racing from the fear, before I felt something sharp pierce my palm, causing a throbbing, aching pain. I instinctively tried to pull my hand back, but the man held it fast.
It felt as if all the blood was draining out of my body, and dizziness immediately struck my head. My vision started to spin.
The next second, everything went dark.
★★★
"What is she doing here? Did she sleep here all night?" - A woman's voice, "Her skin is so cold."
"Quickly wake her up. She's paler than a corpse. Does she even have any blood?" - A man's voice.
I heard the voices of two people talking beside me.
"Hey, miss, miss, wake up."
It felt like someone was tapping my cheek.
Who is it?
My eyelids felt incredibly heavy. I tried to open them several times, but it was so difficult. Finally, slowly, a little light entered my vision, and the first thing I saw after managing to open my eyes was an elderly couple staring at me with worried expressions on their faces.
"Hey, dear, you're finally awake. Were you too drunk that you fell asleep here?" the old woman asked, then sniffed my body. "But you don't smell like alcohol."
I rubbed my pounding head and tried to sit up. I paused for a moment when I felt like my joints were about to give out and my bones rattled.
My vision spun, causing nausea.
"Dear, you look anemic. Have you been having anemia symptoms lately?" the old man asked this time.
I just shook my head weakly, my throat was too dry even to speak.
"What's your name, dear?" the old woman asked.
"Lynn," I answered as best as I could.
"Do you want to go to the hospital? Your face tells us you're not well."
I shook my head again and tried to answer, "N-no, I'm fine."
I tried to stand up while enduring the intense pain in my body. The elderly couple still watched me with concern.
"Are you sure you're alright? Your skin is paler than a corpse," the old man asked again.
I nodded. "I'm fine. Thank you for asking."
The two elderly people finally just sighed, perhaps giving up after seeing my stubbornness. Then, the old woman extended a plastic bag containing the groceries I had bought last night.
"We found this not far from here before we found you. Is this yours?"
Seeing the grocery bag, I recalled last night's events, when I ran from the killer.
I stared at the elderly couple with a shocked expression. "Didn't you see a body over there?"
The woman and man exchanged confused looks. "A body? There's no one here but you, miss."
I blinked. How could that be? I personally saw a man being beaten with a hammer until his head was smashed.
I pointed toward the spot where I had seen the corpse last night. "He was there. Didn't you see him?"
The woman and man looked at each other again. "Miss, you seem truly unwell. Perhaps you hit your head on something. My husband and I just came from there, but we didn't see anyone. Are you absolutely sure you're alright and don't need to go to the hospital?"
My eyes widened. How is that possible? I tried to stumble toward the corner where I'd witnessed the murder last night, even though my entire body felt as if it had been thoroughly beaten up. When I arrived, there was indeed nothing there. There were no traces of the blood I'd seen splattered on the wall and ground last night. Even the corpse of the man with the smashed head seemed to have vanished. The place was utterly empty, so clean as if a murder or anything of the sort had never happened.
I rubbed my temples. It couldn't have been just a dream, could it? My skin even prickled when I remembered the pain of the killer's chokehold last night.
If last night was just a dream, why am I still here now?
*Phone Ring*
Suddenly, my phone rang.
The screen showed my brother's name, Julius.
I answered the call, and a voice I didn't recognize came from the other side.
"Hello, is this Julius's family?"
I raised an eyebrow upon hearing a voice that wasn't my brother's.
"Yes? Who is this? Where is Julius?" I replied.
"Excuse me, once again, is this Julius's family?"
"Yes, I'm his older sister."
"Thank goodness. We are from Nova Hospital. We are informing you that your brother, Julius Caesar, was in an accident last night and is currently being treated here. We have tried contacting you many times but received no answer. Please come immediately to accompany the patient."
I froze, my heart seemed to stop beating, and my phone nearly slipped from my hand. "What?"
★★★
Meanwhile, in a dark corner of the basement of a large Mansion standing on the edge of Lake C City, a man dressed all in black stood facing the corpse of the male victim whose head was already crushed.
He licked the remaining blood off his glove.
The moment when he sucked the blood of a woman in the alley last night played like a film in his head.
In the dark, his golden eyes gleamed sharply with wild ambition, and his husky deep voice whispered.
"Ah, pure blood."