My legs curled into my chest into a fetal position as I leaned by the walls of this place. This dungeon that's filled with a strange darkness that suffocates all possible lights.

I couldn't see anything. I could only feel the rough metal collar biting into my neck, as though to constantly remind me of my current predicament. I couldn't even move much, not with the chain coming from the walls attached to an ankle collar.

The chain's length was short, no more than a meter. I couldn't even touch the bars of my cell.

The chains used to be longer once. I used to be much freer, that was before Gasper left.

I know it's wrong for me to hate him. I know it's incorrect to blame him for what happened, but I just… can't help it. I can't help but hate my childhood friend. I can't help but blame him for leaving me here for so long without rescuing me.

Ah, my light inside this oppressive darkness, where were you when I needed you the most?

There's a voice inside my head. It tells me of frightening things that mortal minds were not meant to understand whenever I sleep and dream.

The voice came into existence the night I helped Gasper escape. Marius was furious, so he removed all my teeth. One by one with clamps made from shadows. When the pain became too much and I became unconscious, I found myself standing atop an ocean.

It was a dimension of whiteness, and I alone stood above an ocean that seemed to stretch beyond the horizon. This sea… was calm. Tranquil. The ripples I made when I took a step echoed throughout this starry ocean.

Eternity and infinity. This place embodied it both.

Looking down at the starry ocean, filled with galaxies, stars, planets, and celestial objects. I could see my own reflection upon the source of eternity. It was like looking at a shallow pond. Through my reflection, I saw how all my teeth were still there.

There, as I raised my head and swept my gaze across this sea, I found a small interruption— the Grail.

Like me, the Grail resided upon the skein of infinity as though it were a table. Strangely, its reflection upon the sea was of three smaller grails.

"Valerie…" The Grail called to me. As it spoke, a ripple spread from the Grail, disturbing this tranquil sea.

"This is… is this the afterlife?" I asked as I looked around some more in curiosity. Did I die?

I wouldn't mind staying here as my afterlife. This no-place of no-time. It's so peaceful, completely in contrast to my life of violence and pain.

"In a sense." The Grail said. Its voice was strange. It spoke not with one, but hundreds of different voices, some high pitch, some deep, all of them coalescing into a single definition. Like trees combining into a forest, or perhaps individual cells making up a single body.

"What… is this place exactly?"

"The Source."

A million different voices came from the face of eternity that I stood on. A million different faces strained against the skein of infinity, trying desperately to break out. They imprinted themselves upon it like someone trying to push through a very thin fabric.

They spoke of impossible information. On the horizon, shapes that don't make sense rose out of this sea. I tried to make sense of it. I couldn't.

"Ah." Pain assaulted my eyes as I closed them shut. At the same time, I clamped down on my ears to try and block out all the voices.

"Accept it. As my wielder, it is your duty to know the Principles of Life."

Hands reached out from eternity. Hands of various shapes. Some hands had five fingers, others had few, while some had no fingers but instead suckers. The hands of every life alive or dead wrapped around me. Some I recognized, most I didn't.

I started panicking. The embrace of infinity was making those voices louder.

They pulled me down.

Just as the last whiteness of the sky disappeared, eclipsed by the reaches of infinity I found myself waking up.

Fully healed just as one of the dungeon's guards brought a bowl of blood. Enough blood that I could heal from my injuries after drinking it.

Even as I pleaded with the guard to keep quiet, unmoved, that vampire reported immediately to Marius, alerting him of the strange occurrence. It didn't take long for Marius to figure out that I possessed the Grail.

I tried. I really did try to resist him. But the methods he used were too much, and without the reprieve of a dreamless sleep, I broke against the stress. I went with the path of least resistance and I changed my fellow dhampirs into whatever he desired. I used the Grail and removed their weakness, turning them into stupid relentless killing machines that feared nothing other than a vampire.

How pathetic. Even as they cried out for me to not do it, I still performed the deed.

Why was I given this power? I can't even end my miserable existence anymore. I tried once, but I was too scared as the wooden stake was mere centimeters away from actually cutting into my skin.

Day in and day out, I was shrouded in this darkness. Day in and day out, I was forced to perform those dirty, monstrous deeds, taking away the minds of fellow dhampirs before changing their body according to Marius' directions. Day in and day out, I tried to stay awake for as long as possible, for I do not wish to dream as to dream is to hear the Principles of Life.

At the very least, being awake makes the voice into this tiny whisper that I can easily ignore.

Thus became the life of Valerie Tepes.

What a horrible person.

A better, braver person would've had the courage to finally end it.

The sound of footsteps caught my ears. I stood up, facing the bars of my cell and readying myself for another session of altering the other dhampirs.

There, my nose then picked up on a horrible stench that was never there before. It was a smell I'd never experienced, and if I had to describe it I would say it's similar to eggs that've been left out for too long. It caused discomfort in my nose.

The oppressive darkness didn't feel so heavy anymore now that I could suddenly see through it.

Marius ran into view. He stopped by the door of my cell, shaking his arms for who knows what reason—

His arms suddenly fell to the floor.

I tilted my head in confusion. Before I could make another thought like wondering why his arm suddenly fell to the floor, a bitter and cold liquid splashed across my body.

As I steadily opened my eyes, I could feel the liquid slowly sliding down my frame like raindrops falling onto the slanted roof of a house. I looked down at my feet. The liquid covered every meter of my cell.

Blood… for what other crimson liquid could it be? But not human blood.

I raised my head, my eyes trailing up from my feet and only stopping until I saw a chunk of meat residing exactly where Marius had stood moments before.

Ah, it seems my death has finally come. So that horrible smell must be the stench of Death. Perhaps I will finally receive a reprieve from this life? This hellish existence?

A colorful figure stepped into view, their steps silent and making the barest of ripples against the pools of vampire blood on the uneven dungeon ground.

It bore an austere hood, a white mask of death, and dark clothing with colorful patterns around the interior. Around Death's arms were a pair of gauntlets, with the one on their right arm having an extension. Probably used to harvest souls.

Most importantly, they had no soul that the Grail could detect.

It really is Death. Their presence made me feel that the Grail was no longer there.

"Hahaha…" I couldn't help but let out sounds of laughter. Death didn't look like anything I imagined them to be.

But I like this version better. I imagined Death— True Death, not those phony Reapers of Hades— wore clothing of somber darkness, not this colorful one full of joy. I guess the colors can serve as the celebration of a life lived instead of the sadness that it's gone.

I welcome them. My hands stayed firmly down at my waist, leaving my neck completely unprotected.

Please, give me a quick end.

Death approached the bars. With their left hand wreathed in a cover of hazy blueness, they touched the metal bars.

Like touching warm butter, those bars bent to Death's will, breaking apart wherever the hands touched. Of course, no mere metal bars could hold out against the ever-approaching specter of death.

Very quickly, they cut down several of the bars, and tread in.

I felt nervous. It's only natural that even as one desires death, their body fights vehemently with the mind to survive.

The jester-like Death approached me until they were right in front of me, the blueness around their left hand ceasing to exist. Though I could not see their eyes in that mask, I could still imagine them staring at me, judging me.

Then their hands became a blur, and I closed my eyes to embrace my demise.

*Tang*

Sounds of metal breaking echoed several times inside this cell like a tolling bell. As I stared down at my naked body, I found that all the bindings that held me were gone.

F… free?

Hesitantly, I took a few steps. One, two, and three steps further than I ever had been capable of for years.

My knees grew weak and I collapsed.

"Is it… not my time yet?"

Seeing how I was once more useless, instead of getting impatient and stressing me out as Marius would've done, Death picked me up into their arms, carrying me like a princess in a fairy tale.

Though the horrible stench was almost unbearable, I found it pleasant. I found it clouds the Grail's presence in my soul. It choked out the whispers like noxious gas choking out a human. I found myself alone inside my mind for the first time ever since the Grail awakened itself.

This soulless being… I closed my eyes and leaned into them even as they spoke no words.

They began to move. I don't care, for the only thing on my mind was to be closer to the source of this smell, this wonderful, wonderful smell that silences the Grail's whispers.

Very soon, I felt the cold night's chill hitting my naked body. Being a dhampir, the cold didn't affect me much. What did affect me was the fact that I could now see the Moon in the night sky for the first time in many, many years.

I cried.

It was so beautiful. The Moon, so high up, so peaceful, so serene, so detached from the woes of the mortal world.

So worth pursuing…