Beta by Bellum Gerere

Well writing the author notes again because it was not very well written i was posting the chapter before going to sleep and remember i am not from a country that speak english as first language. The story have a beta to stop any grammar or cohesion mistakes so don't worry. Well resuming what i had said the first episode was good... just wanting to see more character development and Cinder appear that she will have, hopefully.

The carriage was going remarkably fast. The horses galloped at full speed and the coachman whipped, demanding more and more, faster and faster. He would not arrive in the city during the night, as the road itself was only a dirt path, largely unused. They came from the south of Yharnam, and there was their destination. The city of miracles where the blind could see, the lame could walk, the deaf would hear and the mute would speak. All diseases were cured, all maladies vanished. The city where everything was possible—the small could become tall, the weak strong, and the man could become a beast.

The passengers were the kind of people one would expect to be going to Yharnam. Many were coughing, a sign of tuberculosis, for which the only cure was in Yharnam. But among these sick and dying, there was a singularly rare individual. She looked perfectly healthy, though sometimes diseases and troubles could be hidden, destroying the person from within. She was young, at the most seventeen or eighteen years old. She wore a black hood and a white shirt under a red vest, and black trousers. Her hair was black as well, and cropped short, and she had silver eyes and an innocent face. She gazed out the window as the landscape passed, enthralled, as though she were seeing everything for the first time.

As all things do, the carriage was approaching the end of its journey. The sunset was closing in, and to be outside at night in Yharnam was a deadly thing, and the motive of the carriage's velocity. They entered the outskirts of the city as dusk began to fall, and many of the townsfolk were retreating to their homes, leaving the streets empty. Some prepared arms and torches, blocking streets, but luckily not the road that led to Iosefka's Clinic, which was famous for its blood transfusions. When the carriage arrived at its stopping-point, the passengers emptied, looks of hope on their faces at the thought of a cure mere steps away. The young girl did not descend until the rest had entered the clinic, thanking the coachman before she entered.

Just inside the clinic was a small set of stairs, with a man sitting at ta desk at the bottom—a worker, with a queue of people from the carriage waiting inside. The girl stood at the end of the line. Beside the desk was the door leading back to the clinic itself, though which she could see nurses preparing treatments. Those that passed the desk were shown through the door, and after some time the girl was at the front.

The man at the desk was fat, his skin folding heavily over itself, and dressed in the garb common of citizens of Yharnam. "Treatments are listed on this paper," he said in a bored-sounding voice as he handed her a piece of parchment where the treatments were listed and a picture on the side representing them probably to the illiterate thanks that her mother teach her how to read and write. "Tell me your problems, and quickly. The night approaches."

"I don't have money for any of these treatments," she replied, dismayed, as she read the paper over. "Please, isn't there some other way?"

"Leave. We don't do charity transfusions here."

"But please. I need a blood transfusion."

"Should've had the money, then. Next!"

She stepped out of the queue while the man spat on the ground. "Damn foreigners," he murmured. She sat on the street outside the clinic, wondering what she would do now. She really need the blood transfusion and there was no way that she could go back.

"Why are you upset, little girl?" She looked up to see a man in a wheelchair whose eyes were covered by bandages. He wore tattered clothes and a dirty old hat.

"First of all, I am not a little girl. I drink milk. And what happened to your eyes?" It only took her a moment to realize her mistake. "Oh, I'm sorry I asked."

"It's no problem. I see things that are better left unseen, and then I didn't see anything. Why are you crestfallen?"

She hung her head, staring at the damp cobblestones. "I need a blood transfusion badly, but I don't have the money for a treatment."

"Well, I could solve that problem for you. You see, I am a blood minister, and I can give you a transfusion."

Her head snapped up, and hope shone in her eyes. "You can? Thank you, sir, thank you?"

"There will be a cost, of course. You see, a friend of mine needs someone for a job and I think you may qualify for it—even enjoy it. Come, let me prepare the transfusion while you read the contract."

"Sir, do you want some help?" she asked as he started to push himself along.

"I don't need it. It's just ahead of these stairs. There, you can push me."

They mounted the stairs to another place, very similar to the room downstairs, but much smaller, with only two tables for treatment. "Sit at the table in the middle. I will bring you the contract and prepare the transfusion." She pulled herself up on the table and began whistling to pass the time. Shortly, he came back with the contract, and as she started to read she saw that the contract was for her to become a hunter. It was only temporary, until this hunt ended, and she had no choice.

"Where do I sign?"

"Here." She scribbled down a signature. "Now lay back, and I will start the treatment.

"Do I need to take my clothes off? And will it hurt?"

"Good. All signed and sealed. Now, let's begin the transfusion. Oh, don't you worry. Whatever happens...you may think it all a mere bad dream."

"Wait, are you going to administer it? But you're blind, and—"

The last thing she could perceive was the laughter of the blood minister.

When she woke, she could move, or remember what happened. She looked to the side and saw a figure wearing a white cloak with their back turned to her. The sight gave her a sense of familiarity, but before she could place it, the figure started to turn around with a growl. When she looked back, a wolf had emerged from a pool of blood behind her. It immediately charged at the figure, and she tried to warn them, but she couldn't speak. He clawed at the ground and started to eat what had once been a living person, staining their white cloak red. She tried to close her eyes, but something made her watch until the end. She wanted to cry, but she couldn't. The beast moved away from the still body and approached her. She couldn't move, she couldn't get away—but as the beast neared, it burst into flames, then fell to the ground.

She heaved a sigh of relief, but when she looked back, the white cloak and the wolf had disappeared, and on her other side was a small creature, next to her right arm. Its body was so thin she could see its bones, and it was completely white. As it started to crawl towards he face, another one appeared with a different face, then another one. They continued their trek while she struggled vainly to move, and suddenly there was one next to her head. Her eyes slipped closed, and right before unconsciousness took her she thought she heard someone say "Oh, you found a hunter."

She woke breathlessly, jumping. A nightmare, she thought, it was only a nightmare. She looked down at her body for any signs of the creatures, but found only a small bandage on her right arm that must have been the site of the transfusion. She got up off the table and noted with confusion that there was something glowing in the corner of the room.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" she called as she walked towards it. It was a message in some glowing substance that read seek paleblood to transcend the hunt. "Paleblood? What's that? And why do I need to transcend the hunt? I need to do this, for my treatment? Or to complete the hunt?" She walked away from it and towards the door, which was so heavy she needed two hands to open it.

Weak sunlight still shone on the ground when she walked down the stairs. Twilight, perhaps? All of the tables in the clinic were empty, but as she started to advance she could hear something that sounded almost like…eating? And it was getting louder. Soon she could see why: right next to the exit of the room was a wolf-beast, eating a corpse off the ground. She put a hand over her mouth so she wouldn't retch and ducked down behind a table to her left. This was not a dream. There was a…thing…near the exit and she didn't have any weapons. A distraction? There was nothing around for that. Best to try and move quietly around it.

She started to move silently, ducking table to table. The thing was to her left, with only one table between the two of them—when suddenly the thing put its snout in the air, sniffing in her general direction. She didn't even have time to think. She stood and ran, springing towards the door, and as she started to take the stairs to the exit two at a time she felt a crippling pain in her back. She fell, hitting her chin on the steps, and before she could even register the pain she felt it biting her feet, dragging her down. Once it had her on the floor, it slashed at her with a claw, gouging her sides. Then she could see the foul thing in all its glory, meat in its sharp bloody teeth and eyes so white that it appeared they were glowing. For a moment, everything stopped. Then it moved its claw to her chest, tearing her clothes and skin like they were paper.

That was when she screamed.

It didn't stop after that first tear, though. It just kept going, ripping more and more, breaking her ribs one at a time, and the pain was unfathomable. She felt it put its disgusting maw inside her open chest and eat her. She kept screaming until her vision started to fade, thinking that this was how death must feel.

She started to feel cold then. Why could she even feel anything? How was she not dead? She opened her eyes, and she was laying facedown on the rocky ground, the source of her chill. She stood up, thinking this must be where people go after death. That was certainly what it looked like, anyway, and if it was, she was very disappointed. She stood at the bottom of a small hill, with a house at the top, a door in front of her. The path up to the house was ringed by tombstones and flower beds, and when she looked behind her, she could see the horizon. Maybe she was only sleeping, and this was a dream? But when she looked at her chest, there were scars where the wolf-beast had torn into her. I must have died, so why am I healed?

The best thing to do would be to check the house, she thought, so she mounted the stairs towards it. As she climbed, she saw tiny creatures on the ground, giving off a brilliant light. The things she saw after the transfusion. She skittered away from them, and while they didn't try to follow her, the looked strangely crestfallen. The door to the house was open, and when she looked inside, she saw a small workshop table surrounded by quite a selection of weapons. Bookshelves lined the walls, and at the far end of the house was an altar. But the strangest thing was that in the middle of the room sat a man in a wheelchair, wearing a dingy old hat and even older clothes.

"Are you a god?" she asked him.

The man looked at her silently, fleeting surprise on his face before he schooled it into a neutral expression. "No, I am not a god. I am—"

"So, are you some kind of messenger? Did they send you to test me now that I'm dead to see if I'm worthy of—"

"Stop. I was not sent to test you and you are not dead."

"Oh. Okay. I'm sorry, sir."

"Call me Gehrman. I am the master of this workshop and you are its new hunter. This is the Hunter's Dream. You don't have to worry about anything. Just go out and kill the beasts. It's what we hunters do. You'll find you get used to it very quickly.

"Wait, did the contract I signed send me here? And I don't have any weapons, how will I kill beasts?"

"Yes, the contract sent you here. Every time you die in the waking world, you return here. The weapons are with the messengers, on the stairs."

"The creepy small white guys?"

"Precisely. Now, go out and kill some beasts. Everything in this workshop is at your disposal, including the doll, if it please you, and you can use the workshop to repair your weapons or attach blood gems to them."

"So can I use you?"

Silence fell. Gehrman's face became livid. "What did you say?"

"If I can use everything in this workshop, and you're in the workshop, I can use you, right?"

He was becoming a bit desperate. Had he found a pervert as his successor? Would she try to force herself on him? "Why would you want to use me?"

To help me in the hunt. If you are the master of the workshop, then you must know how to fight beasts, right?"

His relief at those words was tremendous. "Unfortunately, I can't exactly enter the waking world." He gestured towards the wheelchair. "Besides, I am old and I need some rest."

"Okay," she said. "I'll go now. Goodbye, Gehrman." She left the house and knelt down by the messengers on the stairs. The first group was offering up guns—a hunter's pistol or a blunderbuss. She chose the pistol and they dissolved into the ground. The next group offered three weapons: a hunter's axe, a saw cleaver, or a threaded cane. She thought for a moment, then selected the saw cleaver. It had a serrated edge, which would be good against beasts. She was about to leave when she realized that she didn't exactly know how, so she embarrassedly trudged back up the stairs and hovered in the doorway to the workshop.

"I'm sorry, Gehrman, but how do I get back to the city?"

"Look at the tombstones. The names of places you can visit are etched on them. There will be lamps there that you need to light—they are your key to the dream."

"Okay. Thank you."

She went back down the stairs and looked at the tombstones carefully until she found one that read Iosefka's Clinic. When she looked at it, she started to fade—apparently that was how one travelled here. A few moments later she rematerialized in the room she had woken up in. When she descended the stairs, she could see the wolf-beast that had killed her—but this time she was ready for it. Instead of darting from table to table, hoping to evade it, she stood tall and walked straight down the middle of the room.

The thing noticed her quickly enough, and ran in her direction, hoping to catch her off guard with its speed. She sidestepped easily and slashed at it with the cleaver, then pressed the trigger to extend her weapon and delivered a more powerful attack at its head. The beast stumbled for a minute, then collapsed, dead. She felt something entering her, filling her with euphoria and power. The blood of the beast, she realized, and though she reveled in the sensation, she felt that something was missing. She looked back at its fallen body and realized there was still some blood in it—and out of that pool little white messengers appeared, holding syringes and jabbing at the leftover blood. When they were finished, they offered up the syringes to her, and she took them uneasily, not quite sure what to do with them. After a moment of thought she asked "if I inject this, will it cure me in the middle of battle?"

The messengers started to clap and do a little dance. "Okay, you guys aren't so bad." They danced more, clearly happy with her compliment.

She proceeded to the entrance of the clinic and opened the door. A new hunter had entered the hunt.

Finally, she thought, and after how much time? It had taken her so long just to open the door next to Gilbert's window. He was a very educated fellow compared to everyone else in this city, and had informed her that paleblood could be found in the Healing Church. According to him, they controlled all kinds of blood transfusions, and were located across the bridge in the Cathedral Ward. Going there seemed like her best bet, so she needed to use the house hat would transport her to the middle of the bridge and clear out the beasts around her to make her way there. This would take some time, so it would be best for her to start soon, since they wouldn't die if she didn't move.

It took her a while to kill everything, but soon enough she was walking to the entrance of the Cathedral Ward. In front of her was a large door into the ward itself, and then a smaller door that would take her directly there, according to Gilbert. She didn't like killing the beasts, though the feeling it gave her was intoxicating, since the feeling of blood on her wasn't entirely pleasant. When she died, she felt it being pulled out and onto the beast that killed her, and if she wanted to recover her strength she would need to kill it. What was the blood even used for? Would she absorb it and become stronger—was that why it was getting easier for her to kill the beasts? Well, not all of them. Killing the humanoid ones were more difficult, and she remembered her first time seeing one all too vividly.

She had just left the clinic, and was proceeding through the great door in front of her, which she'd needed two hands to open because it was so heavy. Once she was in the street, she wasn't quite sure where to go. A carriage blocked the rest of the alley to her left, so she proceeded down a flight of stairs to a dead end, where a body laid surrounded by coffins and benches. When she looked at the corpse closely, she saw the messengers again, siphoning out his blood and offering it to her. "Thanks again," she said as she took the syringes from them, and they danced. She retraced her steps leftward, where she saw a dead horse and another carriage. As she approached it, she heard a noise. There was a man ahead of her coming towards her, carrying an axe in his left hand and a torch in his right, dressed in deceivingly normal clothing. "Hello," she called. "I'm a new hunter; have you seen any beasts around? I saw one in the clinic, but I took care of it already. If you could just point me in the right direction?"

The man did not give any signs that he had listened to her at all, but he moved closer and swung at her with the axe. She ducked to the side. "I'm sorry if I said anything! I'm just trying to hunt beasts!" He attacked again, and this time she didn't have any room to dodge, so she shot at him instead to parry the attack. He stumbled, but began swinging his torch in the hopes of burning her. "Stop it! If you do that again, I'll have to hurt you!" He didn't listen, but kept swinging at her. She stepped back and delivered a hit with her saw cleaver to the arm which held the torch. The hit was stronger than she'd intended, but though he dropped the torch he didn't show any discomfort, simply attacking with the axe instead.

"Hey! What's wrong with you? I didn't do anything!" Before she could say anything else she felt a sharp pain in her chest, and when she looked down, there were three metal prongs sticking out of her shirt. "What?" she managed to croak out before she fell to the ground, her eyes closing. When she opened them again she was in the dream, and she signed deeply. Why had that man attacked her? Why were hunters so hated? She was just trying to help them, and she didn't want to hurt any innocents, only hunt beasts. When she entered the workshop, Gehrman was sitting in his chair.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but…are hunters hated in the city?"

He looked at her with disinterest in his expression. "Yes, we are, but why? It's the night of the hunt, and most of the citizens are in their homes."

"Some crazy people attacked me and I didn't know how to handle it…"

"Kill them."

"What? But they're not beasts! Hunters only kill beasts, right?"

He sighed. "We kill anything afflicted by the plague. The crazy people, as you call them, were inflicted. Look in their eyes. If they are not perfect circles, and are completely black, they are infected, and no better than beasts."

"But they don't look like beasts, just normal people. Is there a cure? Or some way to lock them up?"

"There is a cure. Kill them. They are only a step away from becoming wolf-beasts."

"I don't know if I'm capable of that. Even if someone has lost their mind, they're still a person, right? The beast I can kill, but…"

"If you don't want to do it, then stay here for eternity until another hunter appears. Choose now, and stop wasting my time."

"Yes sir," she said, and though she had made her decision, she left the house with a heart full of doubts.

It wasn't the last time she died, as she found it incredibly hard to just kill one beast. The more she died, though, the more she got used to it, and eventually she fell into a rhythm. Dodge, slash, shoot, find the next beast. The idea of this becoming routine was an uneasy thought to her, but was this not a hunter's job? She feared that she was losing something, some essential part of her.

However, all of her thoughts and doubts were interrupted when something huge jumped over the gate into the Cathedral Ward. It looked almost like a normal beast, but…massive, there was no other word for it. One of its arms was vastly larger than the other, and there were horns on its head, and a huge jaw filled with teeth. The thing looked strong-boned and muscled. A cleric beast, she thought as it started to creep towards her. If it's so big, it must be slow to turn, she thought. The best course of action would be to stay at the thing's back. Suddenly it jumped, throwing its strong arm at her, and she flew into one of the walls surrounding her. Despite the pain, she got up quickly and injected a blood vial while doing her best to dodge the attacks.

It jumped towards her, and she dodged to the left, immediately running for its flanks, slashing at them as fast and hard as she could. Just when she started to think she was doing some real damage, and it turned and swiped at her full on. She didn't allow herself time to stumble, but ran right back at him and slashed at him, absorbing a bit of his life as she did so. It was a trick all hunters learned, and especially her, since she'd died so many times. One of the thing's legs was broken after her flurry of swipes, and she continued to hit it there, exploiting its weak spot. When it swiped at her again, she dodged it easily, and continued hacking at the leg. It was already limping, best to make sure it could never walk on that leg again.

Somehow, the thing managed to heal his leg, and unleashed a flurry of attacks in her direction .She dodged the first two, and though the third caught her, she wasn't thrown away. She ran to his back and slashed, pressing the trigger to extend her weapon and deal more damage. The thing jumped in the air, and the fury of its landing caught her off guard. She rolled to the side and injected another blood vial, painfully aware that she only had a few left, and that she needed to end this quickly. The beast still had a lot of fight in it, though, but she resolved to carry on. She swiped at its right leg, sidestepping to avoid its attacks, but it kept charging at her, making it difficult to do a lot of damage at once. She swiped and slashed any chance she got, especially after one of its attacks to recover some of her health. It positioned itself in front of her and tried to close its hands around her, but she rolled to the left and slashed quickly—only once, she didn't have time for two—and followed its back as best she could for safety.

The thing was mad now, and her attacks simply weren't enough. She barely had time to dodge or inject one of her few blood vials. She needed a better way to hurt it, and then she remembered she'd picked up some Molotov cocktails and oil urns, and beasts like this hated fire. This gave her an idea. The next time she dodged, she threw one oil urn, and then another, drenching the beast. It cost her some speed, though, and the beast hit her, breaking her right arm. She only had one blood vial left, and it wouldn't be enough to heal this. She threw the cocktail and immediately the beast started to scream as the fire ravaged his body. She took out her pistol and shot at it, one, two, five times, and it stumbled. Not the best opportunity, but beggars can't be choosers. She lunged forward, shoved her left hand inside it, and pushed. The action always felt bizarre to her, but it worked. The beast screamed and dropped dead on the ground. She felt its power rush into her veins and exhaled harshly.

A lamp appeared, and she decided it would be best to recover before she continued to the Cathedral Ward. As she approached it, she saw the messengers trying to give her something. She picked it up, and saw a badge—the Sword Hunter badge, that would allow her new weapons if she could find a seller. "Thank you, this will really help me!" They started to clap and dance; it was clear they enjoyed being praised. She lit the lamp and returned to the dream. Now to repair my weapons, and then back to the Cathedral Ward. As she started to climb the stairs, she heard an unfamiliar voice.

"Welcome home, good hunter. What is it you desire?"

She jumped to the side, pulling out her gun and shooting at the origin of the voice. It hit what looked like a woman in the middle of the chest. She had been expecting a beast, not a pale woman with near-white hair, wearing brown shoes with a black skirt and a corset-like top. Her shoulders were covered with a brown cape and a red scarf, and her hat had flowers stitched on it. All of this, however, was insignificant compared to the hole in her chest, which she stared at vacantly, then looked back at the hunter again. "What is it you desire?"

The hunter was a bit startled, having just shot someone who was not a beast. And she was still moving, still speaking, and didn't even seem to notice the gaping hole. "I…I just shot you, and you're fine!" she gasped, moving closer to try and stop the bleeding.

"Yes, good hunter. Why would I not be?"

When she took a closer look at the wound, she noticed it wasn't bleeding at all—but how was this possible? "Because I shot you in the chest! Why aren't you bleeding?"

"I am only a doll, and do not bleed."

"What? Of course you're not a doll! You're a person!"

The woman showed the hunter her hands, and she saw the obvious joints. "You…are a doll. A living doll." Now I've seen everything, she thought to herself.

"Yes, I am, good hunter. What is it you desire?"

"I just shot you! I'm so sorry! You scared me, I thought you were a beast, I—it'll never happen again, I promise!"

"Do not fret, good hunter. I am only a doll, and you may treat me as you wish."

The hunter grimaced. "Of course not. You can't treat people like garbage, and even though you're not a person, you're still alive, so you must feel pain. I'll never shoot or attack you again."

The doll only stood, expressionless. "Thank you for your kindness, good hunter. What is is you desire?"

"I don't know, what can you offer me? I know! New guns—no, new weapons!"

The doll continued to look at her, her face unchanged. "Honorable hunter, pursue the echoes of blood, and I will channel them into your strength. You will hunt beasts, and I will be here for you, to embolden your sickly spirit."

"Why is my spirit sickly? And what does embolden mean?" The hunter began to search her clothes for something to use as a mirror. The doll looked more agitated now.

"Good hunter, stand still, and give me your arm so I can grant you my strength."

"Ah. All right." The hunter held out her right arm, and the doll took it and knelt. Immediately, she felt the blood she had taken being pulled out of her, and power given back in its place. It lasted only a few seconds, then stopped, and the doll stood.

"Is there anything more that you desire, good hunter?"

The hunter backed away, still a bit shocked. "No, everything's fine. Okey dokey, I'm going back to the hunt now. Thanks!" They walked towards the tombstones, searching for a name. Cathedral Ward, that sounds right. She focused intently on the name and within a moment she had begun to fade, leaving only the doll in the dream.

"What a curious hunter."

Now do whatever you want but let a review so i can know if i am actually in the right way

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