If someone told you monsters were real, would you believe them? The creatures only featured in myths and fairy tales, all the things that go bump in the night, walking among people. For fifteen-year-old Ren Nightwalker, stories of monsters being real would sooner put him to sleep than keep him awake. Living in a coffin of darkness, he was sure his life couldn’t get much worse than it already was.

Ren walked down the hallway with his hands in his pockets. Every step he took seemed to echo through the hallway. As he passed, the other kids in the hallway ran out of the way, clinging to each other in fear. They avoided him like the plague, afraid of being his next target.

His famously bad reputation was plastered throughout the town, evidence of the unfathomably bad company he kept. However, it was his sheer capability of violence that made him feared. But for Ren, his company and aggressive attitude were merely a way for him to escape a dead reality.

The year before, Ren’s mother had died in an accident. Not the typical car crash kind of accident either. The kind of accident where a clean apartment suddenly bursts into flames and explodes.

Most people thought it was your accidental kitchen fire that spread out of control. But Ren knew it was no accident. There was not a single lit flame in the place when it happened. The dining room had just burst into flames out of nowhere, and the fire spread almost too fast. It took only a minute before two other rooms were engulfed in flames. Then the fire exploded outward. The windows shattered as the flames shot out into the cool winter air.

Ren’s mother pushed him away from the fire just as the windows exploded. He watched as he fell three stories, hitting each level of the fire escape stairs on his way down.

For most of Ren’s life, it had been just him and his mother. His father’s job always kept him away from them. Being just the two of them, Ren was very close with his mother, so when she died, it hit him hard.

No one believed him when he said there was no way it could have been an accident. It wasn’t just the fire that made him believe that either. It was the figure he saw looming next to one of the door frames. Everything had happened so fast that he barely had a chance to get a good look, but he still saw them.

After she died, Ren’s life just spiraled out of control. He had nowhere to go and no relatives to call on. He was utterly alone in the world. With no way out, he took those who had been his enemies and used them to his advantage. Now, his only closure was in a single girl he’d known since they were infants.

Ren walked into the classroom and threw his bag to the floor next to a seat. The kids in the class turned their heads to avoid making eye contact. A nervous tension filled the room. He sat down and propped his feet up on his desk. Leaning back, he stared at the ceiling momentarily before closing his eyes.

A tap on his shoulder forced him from his rest. His childhood friend Kelsey stared down at him. “Hey, Ren, moody as usual, I see.” She pinched his cheek.

“Stop it,” he said, gently smacking her hand away. She laughed and sat down on his desk. He moved his feet to the side for her. He wished he had more classes with her than just this one.

Once school ended, Ren walked Kelsey home before heading to the south end of town. Winter in Florida was still winter, just without any snow. The cool winter wind blew down the road, wrapping around him like a blanket. He hated the cold. 

Ren came upon an abandoned building off to the side of the road. He unlocked the chain and slid the rusted iron door to the side. This building belonged to the relative of one of his unsavory companions, and they let him crash there since he had nowhere else to go.

Turning on the lights, he headed up a set of stairs. What was once an office was now his bedroom. A single bed, a nightstand with a lamp, a bookshelf full of books, a beat-up desk with an old office chair, and his own personal bathroom. It wasn’t much, but it was home.

Setting his bag down, he headed back downstairs and entered a dark room. He flicked on the lights and turned to see a man with bleach-blond hair and a goatee sitting at the table. Ren looked for the knife he kept nearby but couldn’t find it.

“Looking for this?” the man asked. He held up a spring blade knife. Damn. “Sit,” the man told him.

Ren walked over and sat down across from him. The man put the knife on the table. “So, this is where you’ve been staying. I’m sorry I haven’t been around. You’ve done well for being alone, all things considered.”

“What do you want?” Ren asked the man.

“Is that how you talk to your father?” Ren ignored him and pressed him for more information.

“How did you find this place?” Ren asked, ignoring his comment.

“I have my ways. As for why I’m here, I’ve come to get you. I took some time off from my job. I’m taking you back to India. You can live with me there,” his father said.

“Why bother coming to me now? Where were you when I needed you a year ago?”

“You want to keep living in this dump? Alone?”

“I’m not alone; I still have Kelsey,” Ren reminded him. “I’m doing fine without you.”

The man released a heavy sigh. “This is my fault. I shouldn’t have left you alone. You’re coming back to India with me, no exceptions. I’m giving you your life back, and all your vampiric powers with it. Pack your things; our flight leaves in two hours.”

His father got up and walked out of the room. Ren sighed before heading upstairs to pack what little belongings he had. His father came upstairs carrying a suitcase. Ren filled it with his already minimal possessions, so there was plenty of room left.

Next, he sent Kelsey a message. Since she was all he had left, he at least wanted her to know. He couldn’t leave without telling her.

Downstairs, Ren turned off all the lights and headed out the door. He locked it behind him and walked to the car parked at the side of the road with the back door open. His father sat in the front seat, talking on his phone. Ren put his things in the back before looking back one last time at the place he called home. He opened the passenger side door and sat down in the seat, a new life ahead of him.

⸸

“Targets sighted,” Ren said through his earpiece.

“Copy that,” a voice on the other side of the earpiece said back. “The rest is up to you. Good luck.” There was a click, and the voice was gone.

Ren leaped onto the tiled roof of a house and made his way to the other end. A man and a woman stood on a balcony overlooking the ocean. They were engaged in conversation. Ren jumped down, landing behind them. They whirled around in surprise, and he quickly slit their throats and threw their bodies over the railing. They fell into the water below, sinking to its depths.

Using his earpiece, he notified the person on the other side that the mission was complete. There was a brief silence before the person on the other side informed him of a potential new mission. A new mission, so soon after this one?

Curious, Ren requested details, inquiring as to the objective. He never would have guessed that by accepting it, it would change his life forever. The new mission was set to occur in America, in the city where he used to live no less. It was time for him to return home.

“Anything seem out of the ordinary?” Ren asked.

“Not out of the ordinary, no. But there are a lot of shades here,” Marcus said. Ren and Marcus looked out at the city from the window of their plane. From the palm trees to the busy streets and the towering skyscrapers, it was just as they remembered it.

Silence passed between them as they took in the city they used to call home. “It’s been three years. Time to find out what’s changed,” said Ren.