Heroes to Hunted

Though I made my vows, I wasn't actually sure how to act on them, given I was bound up, injured, and weaponless.

'Guess I should focus on what I CAN do for now," I sighed out of frustration.

Rather than escaping, I focused my attention on gathering information. "Why would you eat my second heart?"

Malgam rubbed the back of his head and blushed. "Oh, not me. I'm human. HUUUUMAAAAN," he emphasized it as if speaking to an illiterate child. "Yup, it's the demons are the ones who'll be doing the eating.

'Demons?' Every answer he gave left me with more questions.

"Did you say demons?" I asked. "What do you mean by 'demons?'"

"It's exactly as it sounds!" he frustratedly threw up his arms. "The nobles you danced with are all demons, Lady Vlad, too!" He then pointed his finger at me as if to lecture. "Oh, but Weiser isn't. He's human, like us!"

Malgam's attitude changed at Weiser's mention. He pouted and crossed his arms. "I never liked him. He's always messing with me and trying to fiddle with my mind," he finished with a pained expression while rubbing the temples of his skull.

I ignored the part about Weiser; I had more important things to consider. Like the demons, for example. That's what he called them, though that isn't how they looked...at all. They had no inhuman features, no monstrous deformities. In fact, it was the opposite; they were all unrealistically beautiful.

"How are they demons when they all looked so human?"

Malgam brought the scalpel back into his coat's pocket, shelving his hands. "Well, of course! They aren't some low breeds!" he said condescendingly.

His word choice of 'low breeds' intrigued me, but that didn't matter. What mattered was learning who or what I was dealing with. "What are they then?"

He became oddly reserved with my question, and his intense gaze seemed to pierce through my eyes to the depths of my soul. "They're a force that humanity has feared since we faced our first night. When the shadows that crept around our bonfires churned, that was them. They're Fullkin."

"Fullkin?" I furrowed my brow, confused.

His eyes were filled with disappointment, and his expression became condescending, as if I'd just asked what two plus two was. Then he slammed a closed fist on his other open palm with an epiphany.

"Oh, that's right. I suppose those from your world wouldn't know them by that name," he clawed at his chin and averted his gaze upward.

When he finally returned to reality, he did so with a new expression of excitement. "I remember! You call them vampires! Probably? At least that's what another of you heroes compared them to before I killed him."

Aside from how casual he was about murder, I loathed that I couldn't bring myself to be surprised about the idea of vampires existing. Between being transported to another world and devoured by our esteemed hosts, the idea of them actually seemed plausible.

However, their self-proclaimed "vampirism" did beg a new question.

If they were vampires, would they follow the same rules as the fictional ones back home? Maybe there was hope to live after all. "Don't vampires only drink blood? Why do you need our hearts too?"

Malgam brought a finger up. "Oh, they'll do that too! That's why I'm collecting all your blood in that big container thingy over there," he gestured to the hanging torsos. "As for your hearts, I'm not sure myself, but they eat them to gain power…probably?" His curious tone seemed as if he were the one asking the question.

"Power?" I questioned.

"Yes, power," he nodded with a smile. "You otherworlders have exceptionally potent second hearts. So you are just chock full of the mana they enjoy eating. So we summon you for them; they eat you instead of us. Does that make sense?"

'Make sense?' Did the situation where I was strapped to a bloodied wooden shelf and about to be eaten by alleged vampires to gain power make sense? 'Of course, it doesn- Wait, what was that last part?'

"Malgam," I hoped I was wrong, "what did you mean by 'we summon you'?"

"Huh?" he tilted his head in confusion. "It's just as it sounds."

"By 'we,' you don't mean...mankind… Do you?" I took a hard swallow as I braced myself for the answer. I feared my own question.

"That's right," he nodded matter-of-factly.

My heart sank into a bottomless pit as hopelessness crept in. It weighed heavy on me, dragging me down to the depths of despair. I was used to petty human infighting, but would we war against one another even in the face of literal monsters?

'Of course! Why would I even be surprised? It's such a classic human move. It's always every man for themselves until that man needs saving,' I cynically chuckled.

My disappointed laughter soon transformed into pure disgust. The revulsion brought an onset of a nausea-inducing headache. However, I had nothing left in my stomach to act on it.

After the sickness came throbbing anger. I imagined how many had lost their lives because of the betrayal. If the vampires planned to kill us anyway, they could have at least been forthright about it!

I clenched my fists, pushing my arm's veins to the surface and bruising my calloused palms with my fingernails.

Amidst my feelings of hatred, my thoughts involuntarily turned to the memories of my brief companions. Kamida, Takagi, and Agawa each appeared in my mind, and even though my time with them was short, I couldn't help but feel regretful about their fates.

I gritted my teeth, and a vein pulsated to my forehead; I couldn't contain my rage anymore. "Why the hell is mankind helping demonkind?! Aren't they the enemy?!" My heartbeat rhythmically slammed against my chest, and my breathing became quickened.

Even when faced with my sweltering anger, Malgam remained happily unhinged. "Oh, I guess they were. After the first party of heroes failed, humanity had to make a pact with demonkind for survival."

"Of course they did," I snarled under my breath to curse them. No matter where I was, it was always the same. I always needed to clean up someone else's mess.

Block a bullet for a foolish subordinate? I was there. Kill a father, a mother, a brother or a sister over a war some politician instigated? I was there. Sacrifice myself for a convoy of blank faces because it was my duty? I was FUCKING!!!.....there...

'So why? Why can't I ever rest?! I'm supposed to be dead! So why?! Why does it always come back to this?!' Like a floodgate opening, my negative thoughts and emotions swept me away with a strong current.

'Stop, think. Calm down. This isn't the place for an emotional breakdown,' I reasoned with myself. However, calming the turbulence within me was no easy task. If I had to compare it, I'd say it was like stuffing a hurricane in a bottle, but it had to be done. So I forced what might've been the deepest breath I'd ever taken, expanding my diaphragm to its limits.

Loudly exhaling, I was ready to continue my questioning. "...Why... Why do demons need humans to summon us? Couldn't they do it themselves?" Though I quelled myself from rage, my voice still staggered from the fury that festered within me.

"Simple," Malgam said, "the summoning ritual is built in such a way that only humans can summon other humans. If any other species tried," he held a hand to his throat and mimicked the throes of death, "they'd die."

"So you summon us for the demons, just so they can devour us? What the hell does that make us, then?! It's almost as if we're-"

"Why you're cattle, of course!"

'Of course we are. We're cattle. Goddamn…cattle!'

It was expected, though. Humans would always deceive other humans, even when faced with a common threat. 'Ours really is a disgusting, self-serving species,' my thoughts inevitably transformed into a torrent of insults toward "humanity."

However, my session of cynicism was cut short when Malgam took hold of my throat. "Oh, this is a problem! I forgot your collar!" Despite his unstable emotional state, this was the first time I'd seen him looking so panicked.

'A collar? So they really do intend to kill me like a dog...' I sighed tiredly.

Despite my exhaustion, I'll admit that I was giddy to see Malgam panicking. Could this have been a chance? No, even if it wasn't... I'd make it one.

'Fate lost its chance to kill me when it resurrected me into this hell!' I clenched my fists and teeth in defiance toward any that would stop me.

Malgam frantically removed his hand from my neck and receded toward the darkness. "I'll be right back to get your collar, so stay there, okay!" Eventually, both his silhouette and clacking footsteps disappeared.

I had only one response to his order. One line summed up all my thoughts and emotions at that moment.

"Like hell I will."