Author's Note:

100% prompted by the reddish eyes of Giorgio's 3D model.
Chapter titles are things related to 'night'. Let's see how long Evan can survive staying a human without being bitten XDD
Length-wise, I'm hoping that this won't get longer than 'Hay or Water?'
Enjoy! :DD

Special thanks to June Ellie for beta reading and grammar checking!

【Chapter 1: Dusk】

Palermo, Sicily

Nighttime. A comfortable darkness blanketed the world in calm and peace. Finished with the day's toil, most creatures fell into a relaxing and pleasant slumber, but it was not the case for a certain district in the heart of Palermo.

The night sky was lit by fire as the Bruno Family's grand mansion burned.

"Father! Stay with me!" Giorgio called out with a trembling voice, tears pouring down his cheeks as he held his dying father in his arms.

The shadows of fire danced across his desperate face, glinting against the long canines of his gritted teeth and his unnaturally reddish eyes. All around him, bright red pools bloomed under the countless dead bodies of his brothers as they laid among the flowers. Everything was in chaos. Holding back the pain of the multiple bullets that had penetrated his torso, Giorgio was at a loss of what to do.

"Giorgio... Son...!" Giovanni gripped tightly at Giorgio's sleeve with his bloodied hands, his voice hoarse as he coughed out more blood. "You must go...! Leave!"

An explosion. Giorgio cringed. From beyond the flames, heavy foreboding footsteps were heard coming towards them, step by steady step. Giorgio held his father closer to him protectively.

The smoke cleared to reveal a dandy, middle-aged man dressed neatly in a trench coat. The gun in his hand was the scythe of the grim reaper, and the flames reflected in his round purple glasses were much like the fires of hell itself. He promptly stopped in front of the two, a strong aura of strength and authority surrounding him.

"Ah, Giovanni Bruno, Giorgio Bruno..." the man said, wiping the blood off the cross carved in his silver gun with a handkerchief. "The name's Wild Dog. Vampire hunter. I've taken care of the rest of the Brunosーthe two of you should be the last survivors here. I'm surprised an entire family of vampires could remain undercover for so long without my notice. Hahaha."

Giovanni struggled and forced himself to stand back up, standing in front of Giorgio protectively. "You! This is madness! The Bruno Family has never attacked any human for blood. What have you got against us?!" He protested.

"Oh? Whether you actually do any harm or not, you still pose a possible threat for humanity," Wild Dog said without pity, holding his gun up and pointing it at his prey. "I'm simply... doing my job to cleanse this world."

"Then I guess it can't be helped," Giovanni responded. With a wave of his hand, the blood flowing from his wounds swirled and solidified into a longsword. Giovanni gripped onto it, pointing it at Wild Dog. "We'll have to protect ourselves."

"Father! You can't be serious!" Giorgio grabbed his arm, urging him to stop. There was no way he could win with his current condition. Giovanni shoved a pouch into his hands and pushed him away.

"Take that and get away from here, Giorgio!"

"But father!"

Wild Dog laughed, firing at them. Giovanni blocked the attack with his sword. The bullets having been treated with holy water, the ones that managed to graze his skin caused severe burns. Giovanni gritted his teeth painfully.

"GO!" He urged Giorgio as he charged at Wild Dog. Giorgio refused. He was planning to aid his father, but a shower of bullets stopped him.

"Wild Fang here! Survivors spotted! AHAHAHA!" Manic laughter was heard as Wild Dog's men arrived, attacking Giorgio with their own weapons.

Dodging their attacks and being pushed back, Giorgio saw Wild Dog deal the finishing blow, taking the life of his last remaining family member.

'Father...'

Giorgio's heart sank. Holding back both sadness and anger, he turned and made a swift escape. The last things he heard as he took cover in the darkness of the night were the echoes of Wild Dog's demonic laughter and the eternal crackling of the inferno.

You can run, but you can't hide.

A few days later, Paris, France 18:21

Dusk had fallen. It was Halloween.

The sun had completely set and the festivities were in full swing in the City of Lights. This year, a lot of food stalls had been set up along the Seine. Children dressed in the costumes of various monsters and ghosts ran around laughing happily as they played with each other and asked for sweets. Some adults joined in the fun with very realistic, terrific makeup, scaring their friends as well as unsuspecting passers-by. Everyone was having a lot of fun.

"Messieurs! Les bonbons, s'il vous plaît~ Trick or treat!" The three children of Evan's neighbor asked him cheerfully when they bumped into him and his friend Bastien in the streets. This year, the kids were dressed as three little vampires. Mischievous looks on their faces, they were all ready to pull a prank on Evan if he didn't have any candies with him.

"Oh! Guess what, kids? You're not going to get me again this time! I know you've been waiting to ambush me," Evan laughed. He pulled out a huge pack of sweets from his bag, making the children's eyes shine with excitement. He passed them the sweets.

"Run along and have fun now. And promise to be good kidsーno weird pranks!" He said. The children nodded eagerly, thanking him and running off to play.

"That was quite generous," Bastien laughed, wondering a little about what they had done to Evan last year. Must have been something quite horrible to get his friend so fully prepared today.

"Just happy to see that they're having fun," Evan grinned. But then the next moment, a deep sigh escaped him, his shoulders slumping down wearily.

"...? Something wrong?" Bastien asked.

"Well... Non. I just hope I can have a little more fun in my own life. Things haven't been going very well recently, tu sais (you know)?" Evan answered.

"Hm? I'm all ears," Bastien said with concern.

"My construction job. I'm currently tasked with doing a pretty difficult project with that skyscraper over there," Evan said, pointing at a half-built building on the horizon. "I don't think I can handle it. Everyone else seems to be doing okay, and I'm the only one tiring out. I feel like I'm such a loser."

"Alors, Ev, we all know that that's not true."

"Oh, that's easy for you to say! You won't understand because you're not the one doing the job!" Evan snapped angrily. "Mon Dieu, if only there's one thing in this world that I can do right!"

"..." Bastien looked at him worriedly without a word. Evan remained quiet for a moment, before realizing that he probably stepped over a line there. Bastien was just trying to help him and he was being such a jerk.

"...Bastien, désolé (sorry)," he apologized immediately. "I think I've just had a long week... Either way, I've asked for a break from work so I can clear my mind. I think I'll just go home and go to bed early tonight."

"But... Evan!"

Evan turned and walked away quickly, ignoring Bastien's worried calls.

'Merde, why's everything so shitty?' Evan thought to himself as he kicked a pebble, walking with his hands in his coat pocket.

He had taken a quieter road towards his apartment, away from all the cheerful people and festivitiesーthe bright mood just made him feel so left out and he didn't feel like he belonged there. He felt so small and insignificant as he walked alone down the narrow backstreet.

Evan knew very well that life was full of challenges and that he should take it as it came. The only problem was that he'd never know whether or not he would succeed, and the fear of everything being nothing but a wasted effort had never been so great.

Frustrated, he took in a deep breath, looking up to the night sky as if the universe would provide him with an answer.

...Of course, nothing came. What was he thinking? He felt a little foolish. It was then that he heard the light, miserable sobbing of a woman.

"...?!" Surprised, Evan looked around.

Paying attention to the voice, it seemed to have come from an alley to his left. He rushed there, finding a young woman sitting by the dustbins, shoulders shaking as she sobbed pitifully into her hands. Her skin was pale, her hair was disheveled, and her little dress was torn and covered in blood in various places. She wasn't wearing any shoes.

Halloween makeup? Did her boyfriend dump her in the middle of a date or something? Evan wasn't sure, but she definitely wasn't looking so good. He felt sorry and worried for her, so he approached her and knelt down.

"Excusez moi, mademoiselle. ...Tout va bien? (Is everything alright?)" He asked with a little hesitance.

The woman stopped sobbing, slowly lifting her head to look up at him. She had a charming face and beautiful red lips. Evan thought that there was a strange reddish glimmer in her eyes, but it could have just been his imagination. Either way, he decided to try and comfort her.

"Well, this is not a nice place for a lady to hang out in. Let's get you somewhere better so you can calm down. I'll come with you if you want, alright?" Evan offered gently with a kind smile.

The woman didn't answer, but her gaze seemed to be fixated on him. She looked at him in a somewhat... unsettling manner, if Evan could put it that way. Her eyes trailed down from his face to his exposed neck, her gaze holding as much interest as that of a man who had just stumbled upon the world's greatest treasure.

"Euh... Mademoiselle...?" Evan asked, feeling a little uneasy.

To his surprise, the woman suddenly launched herself at him with a gut-wrenching screech. Evan screamed in shock.

"PUTAIN! What the FUCK?!" He cursed as the woman knocked him down to the ground with the strength of a wrestler, madness and psychopathy gleaming in her now brightly-lit red eyes. As she grinned, Evan thought that he saw vampire canines, his eyes widening in horror.

"SHIT!"

With little to no effort, she wrenched Evan's arm away and made a dive for his neck. Evan used his other arm to knock her away with his bag, narrowly avoiding her bite. Kicking her off of him, Evan quickly got to his feet. As he attempted to escape, the woman grabbed him by the legs, pulling him down before pinning him against the ground again with both his hands beside his head.

"FUCK...!" Evan cursed in panic as the woman loomed over him. Try as he might, he couldn't escape her grip, which had the firmness of iron shackles.

Chuckling like an evil witch, she leaned in to lick his neck as if to check his taste. Evan could only curse and shudder helplessly, feeling as though he was a hare in a lion's claws. Squeezing his eyes shut, he prayed for his life. But just as the woman was about to bite him, she suddenly froze.

"...?"

Feeling no pain, Evan peeked, seeing the woman stiffen with a red sword pierced through her heart from the back, her blood dripping onto his shirt. Her consciousness fading away, the woman dropped to his side lifelessly. Evan looked up to see a tall brown-haired man clad in a red greatcoat looming over him.

As if by reflex, Evan quickly pulled back and moved away, hurriedly scurrying to his feet.

"What in the world?! What did you just do?!" He yelled, looking up and down between the man and the woman's dead body, not really comprehending what just happened. Had he just witnessed a murder? Was that woman really dead?

"If this is just some elaborate Halloween prank, you're not getting away with this! EXPLAIN!" He demanded frantically.

"Vampires," the man standing before him told him with an exhausted voice. He sounded so tired and old for his young and handsome face, swaying and moving unstably as if he could collapse any second. Evan watched him cautiously, noticing the man's badly torn and bloodied coat. The man continued, trying to speak despite his fatigue.

"If... If they don't feed on blood for a long time, they'll lose to their natural instincts and turn mad like that, attacking anything in sight for food," he explained, looking to the woman with pity. "There's no saving them once they've become like that. Death is the only mercy left for them."

"Whー... I'm sorry, monsieur, but I'm afraid you're not making any sense...!" Evan protested, unsure whether this was still part of the prank. He was feeling quite scared now.

"Whatever you want to believe. A great number of those might show up soon. Just... be carefulー..." the man trailed off as he felt light-headed, the exhaustion finally overtaking him. Evan caught him before he could fall to the ground.

"..." Evan wasn't sure what to make of what he had just seen and heard. A strange noise came from beside him. When he looked, he saw the dead woman's body slowly disintegrating into ashes, leaving nothing behind as though she had never existed.

"Putain..."

Everything was so weird that Evan didn't know what to think anymore. After calling the ambulance, he dug into the coat pockets of the unconscious man he held in his arms, in case he could find any of the man's emergency contacts or the like. He found the man's identity card in his wallet.

"Monsieur Giorgio Bruno... From Sicily?" Evan said quietly to himself as he read the name and address written on the card.

Unfortunately, the man had no phone or anything else with him. Evan sighed in exasperation.

This was going to be a long night.