A/N: Welcome to the fifth chapter!

As always, hope you enjoy :)

I do not own Elsword nor its characters blablaba.

Ara found nothing but a single light on when she got back home, coming out of Aisha's room. She was still confused and shocked from what had just happened, not even being able to give a reason to her own behaviors. Storming out of the house like that, searching through the garbage, letting that man hug her, calm her down and allow herself to be soothed by him. Everything seemed unreal to her, ever since that night at the castle everything had been turned upside down with the discoveries she and her friends had made, the new feelings and all the unanswered questions that loaded her mind. And yet, nothing had really happened. They were just emotions, sensations, intuitions and nothing more. No proofs, no actual facts she could rely on even if only to stand firm in reality.

She knocked on the door softly in the middle of an oppressive silence. Hearing her friend's permission to go in, she walked into her room, illuminated only by the faint light of a gas lamp placed on the nightstand. Aisha was reading a book, the only thing that could keep her awake that late at night, but she left it aside immediately after taking a look at Ara.

"God Ara, are you alright? What happened?!" she asked with a voice full of worry and alarm. Ara's face was crossed by a deep shadow of anguish; her hands were covered in dirt. She walked over the magician and collapsed on her bed, crawling next to her and burying her face in the girl's chest.

"I don't know, Aisha, I'm so tired" she told her with a thin voice, barely audible. "I wanted to see someone, I'm so lucky you're awake" she added, her voice trailing off as she closed her eyes. Aisha wrapped her arms around her, cuddling her gently.

"It's okay dear, you're with me now" she cooed, rocking back and forth softly as if to cradle her. "Just tell me what happened, let everything out".

"When we were here after going on patrol, I suddenly remembered the things that happened back when we saved that man. I thought I could find something that could clarify things a little bit so I rushed out and went back to that alley. I didn't find anything, of course, but Add Kim appeared there to leave a candle where his friend died, and he found me there. I asked him what had happened but he didn't tell me anything besides what we already know. I saw the stain of blood of that man we killed to protect him, but…" she cut herself, hesitant, feeling like she had to prepare herself before continuing with her story. "There was no more blood, not even where the first corpse was. And Add was…acting so strange" she said, falling silent and burying her face against her teammate even more.

Aisha listened to her with attention, caressing her hair all that time, pondering her words. "Strange how?" she asked, frowning slightly.

"I don't know, he hugged me so I would stop trembling and then, suddenly, he pushed me back and said he had to go. He looked really pained, like he was suffering. It was really abrupt" she explained with a shaky voice. She knew the only thing she could do right now was to seek support from a close friend.

Aisha nodded, remaining silent for a while as she thought about what had been said. "So you say…there was no blood from the corpse we found that day. Are you thinking it could be related to what we discovered today?" she asked, trying to be as cautious as possible.

"I don't know, but…maybe" she said, not wanting to confirm it as a reality. "Do you think he was a vampire, Aisha? What killed him was a bullet, so he wasn't drained to death by one" she paused, unsure of her own words, afraid to keep darkening the subject even further. "But vampires do have blood, right? Then why? Why wasn't there any?" she kept throwing questions at her friend, desperate for answers.

"They do have blood, Ara. Some people say they use it to transform the people they bite into vampires, and also that it has the power of healing" Aisha explained. "But if he was a vampire, how come a bullet in the head could kill him? And why was he completely drained? I don't really know" she added, releasing a sigh. She had some answers, but not all of them. Of course everything Ara was saying made her question a lot of things herself.

"Maybe it means that someone…took all the blood from him after he was shot, before it could get spilled on the ground" she said. "But Add was the only one there besides the man with the shotgun. Does that mean that…?" she added, trailing off as she realized the implications of her words. She sat down on the bed hurriedly, startling her friend. Her eyes wide open, her hands shaking Aisha's shoulders. "Or maybe…maybe the other guy was a vampire, and he shot him and then drank all the blood, and then, and then…" she spoke frantically, trying her best to explain it in a way that wouldn't mean the man she had been so dangerously close to was actually a threat.

"Ara, I understand that you're upset. And believe me, I'm as confused as you are. But I think it's time for us to get some rest now, we'll get into that again once we have more proof, okay?" she said in an attempt of reassuring her, calm her down. "You can sleep with me tonight if you want" she smiled, patting the side of the bed next to her.

The next day, Ara had a resolve. If she wouldn't be able to know exactly what had happened the day they met Add, then she was at least going to figure out what they were facing. She told herself that morning, in front of the mirror, that she couldn't keep letting all of this get to her, she had to be strong. No matter what happened, she wasn't going to back up.

She was heading for the library, people walking past her as if nothing was happening in their town, with smiley faces and carefree attitudes, some of them with their minds clouded by work. The town during the day and the night seemed like completely different worlds. She almost couldn't believe she was walking the same streets that led her to horrifying discoveries just hours ago. Everyone walked over the same stones that had been stained with blood so many times.

Ara turned a corner, now closer to her destination. That street wasn't really crowded, it was a common thing to find no more than three or four people walking around since it was short and only had bars that weren't open in the morning. That day was no exception, and she wasn't surprised of finding herself alone, with only the murmur of activity coming from its perpendicular streets. She then saw something that caught her attention. There was a tall man supporting his back against a wall, bending over himself, covering his face. He had grey skin.

It felt like she was being held down on her spot by an invisible force, unable to move, almost incapable of breathing. It couldn't be, could it? It couldn't be him. Her stomach was like tied up in a knot, constricting her, the air stuck in her throat. White hair. Suddenly all that affliction building up in her guts turned into something darker, an infuriating sensation. She started to shake with anger, thoughts of a different time clouding her mind like a storm.

"You left me"

"You betrayed me"

"You left us, betrayed us"

"You killed everyone"

"You disappeared"

Her heart was pumping in her ears and she could feel all the veins in her body twitching, her blood being poisoned by the resentment, the rage, the disappointment.

"How dare you"

Moved almost by pure instinct she ran towards the man and threw herself against him violently, grabbing his shoulder to force him to stand straight and face her, smashing his body against the wall he was leaning on. She was faced with a deep, beastly growl and dark blood was splashed on her face. The veins on his face were so bulgy she would have been afraid of them exploding if she hadn't been as blinded by anger as she was. His eyes were of a bright red that glanced at her full of a murderous instinct.

She cursed, first under her breath and then out loud, shouting, screaming.

"Damn it!" she shouted over and over again, screaming as the head of the demon collided with the wall multiple times under her hands, splattering blood everywhere. Her voice was almost tearing her throat. She didn't stop until hot tears started to stream from her eyes, mixing up with the black stains on her skin.

Leaning her head against the one between her blood stained hands, she cried herself to exhaustion.

"Where are you?".

A/N: I have something to point out.

ferdiewinardihavisakwee : I never read twilight or watched the movie, I never really wanted to for all the horrible critiques made to the story. So I don't really know how to take that review ;_;. But I promise no one is going to sparkle in this fanfic.

As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Please let me know how you feel about it!

Until next time.