[Jaykobell]

It was a dark, lonely day. Fall had started to bloom, rainy days drowning out the colder breeze and the colorful falling leaves. It was beautiful in how morose it was, and how it could find the perfect balance between leaving people feeling warm, yet cold to the bone.

But the autumn colors meant little to this one young man who was walking pitifully down the streets, down the alleyways, down the dirt paths.

His suit had never looked all that good, nor all that well-kept. He was a free spirit, a go-getter: appearance was just a tool for self-expression, and professional attire never really looked good on him anyway. It looked especially drab now, soaked throughout and disheveled from the rain and the winds. He was just another piece of the scenery, morose and depressing.

[Jaykobell]

He stopped a little ways into the woods that bordered the town. They were kind of like a safe haven for him, full of sweet animals and beautiful fauna. He loved nothing more than to sit by a tree while the sun was out, letting the whistling wind and the dappled sunlight soothe him to sleep. In those moments, it felt like nothing could ever go wrong.

With the rain, the portrait was much different. The large leaves let down splattering rain, hitting him harder than the falling drops. Granted, the sound was soothing. As he settled down by a tree, clothes so wet he didn't even feel it when he sat on the soaked grass and leaned against the slippery bark, the pitter-patter of the rain lulled him to sleep.

Things almost didn't matter, in that moment.

[Jaykobell]

Until something bit him in the neck.

The situation shifted from a calm nap in the woods to a frantic fight for his survival. He didn't know what else to do but to scream when he felt teeth piercing his skin by the neck. He frantically flailed his arms and legs, hoping the random movements would hit and chase away whatever had latched on to him.

But whatever it was didn't let go. "No!" he screeched as hands grabbed onto him as well. His heart dropped to his stomach when he realized it was a human who was biting him. A vampire?! he screamed internally, feeling tiny, sharp teeth sitting in his skin, the rest of the human's mouth cupping the area where they had bitten.

"Stop!" he yelled, continuing to flail, but the human's hands grabbed a hold of his wrists, immobilizing half his limbs. "Ah! No no no no!"

[Jaykobell]

His world started to spin. In his panicked state of mind, he thought he could see the colors being stripped right off his body; from his skin, from his clothes. He was turning into a literal ghost, and that human, that monster, was doing something to him. The fangs stung, but the sensation was like something he had never experienced before. It was like a thin layer of skin was being stripped away from his entire body. Painless, much like peeling away loose dead skin from around his fingernails, but definitely something he could feel.

I'm going to die, he thought, panicked. It's going to kill me, suck me dry, in the dead of the woods. His mind ran through a loop of similar thoughts. No one's going to know what happened to me! No one's gonna know I'm dead!

[Jaykobell]

Choked by the panic, and still feeling the weight of the other on top of him, his mind blacked out. Just like when the mind finally managed to fall asleep, he became unaware of his surroundings. He wouldn't really need to know, anyway. He had expected the monster to drain him and then for them to eat him.

It took him a moment to process everything when his mind awoke some time later. His ears picked up the sound of rain, and his body shivered, feeling the wet, sticky clothes still on him. But he was comfortable, laying down on his side, feeling something plush under him. A dream, he told himself, the lingering fear and panic evaporating like dew in the morning.

He had probably walked home in the pouring rain and crashed on his bed without a care, zonking out in his wet clothes. Not the wisest decision, but considering how things had turned out, he wasn't the best at making good decisions.

[Jaykobell]

He prompted himself up, expecting to shift and bring his legs down his bed. Only then did his body and mind realize he wasn't sleeping in his bed. Patting the surface, he suddenly understood that it was plush because he was laying on multiple layers of greenery, grass and leaves alike. He opened his eyes, and he frantically looked around.

His heart quickened when he realized he was still in the woods. He was still in the woods, but he was still alive. That vampire monster hadn't killed him? Giving it some thought, he had to admit that he didn't feel all that bad, either. He had expected the blood loss to affect him a whole lot more, leaving him dizzy or exhausted. All things considered, he felt fine: as if nothing had happened to him.

But even with that in mind, the fear returned.

[Jaykobell]

Had they left him here to die to the elements? Had they run away? Were they going to come back and eat him then? He couldn't tell, and he didn't want an answer to all those morbid questions. He just needed to get up and get away from this place. He had always found these woods so lovely and so peaceful, but now they had become the source of a nightmare. The quicker he got out of them, the better. He had another kind of nightmare waiting for him at home, and it would be plenty of heartache all on its own.

He shuffled on the cushion of flattened greens, and he awkwardly sat up. All he needed to go was get up and leave, but his heart dropped to his stomach when he turned his head.

Right there, across from him, a bizarre Mahool sat. The animal was staring through him, piercing his soul. His body shivered again.

[Jaykobell]

"You are awake," the small bat-like animal spoke, in a voice flatter than the bed of leaves.

He failed to figure out if this Mahool was a friend or a foe. Had he caught them while they were stalking on him? Had they been waiting for an opportunity to eat him, only for the dinner to be spoiled by his waking up? "U-um," he stammered quietly, "wh-who are you?" he asked, and looking over this Mahool for a moment longer, he realized something. "Did... did you save me?"

They were sitting on the grass comfortably, wings tucked to their sides, their body language relaxed. Had this tiny bat been trying to feed on him, they wouldn't be so calm. They wouldn't be staring so intently, either. "Arjuna," the Mahool answered, offering a reply to the questions in order. "You fainted, so I brought you here."

[Jaykobell]

"Ah," he said quietly at the introduction of the Mahool, and at the explanation of what had happened to him. "I-I did?" With a bit of effort, he remembered. From the panic, he had struggled, and then his mind had shut down. It was a little embarrassing for a stranger to have found him like that, out cold in the middle of the woods.

"Yes," Arjuna answered to the question. "I apologize," they added without skipping a beat. "I did not expect you to faint."

He had warmed up to the fact this Mahool had saved him and meant him no harm, but the words surprised him. He couldn't quite place it — he couldn't quite figure out why it all sounded eerie to him. The flat, emotionless tone certainly unsettled him, but beyond that, nothing about the Mahool was out of place—

But when he repeated Arjuna's words in his head, it clicked. "Wh... what do you mean," he asked hesitantly, his body readying itself to get up and run, if necessary, "'I didn't expect you to faint'?"

[Jaykobell]

He assumed Arjuna would have answered him. He would have gotten an answer if it hadn't been for his subsequent reaction. "Wait..."

When he had shifted his body, his eyes had caught a glimpse of his shoes. It hadn't registered at first, but after a moment, something sent a chill down his spine. He wasn't so out of it that he didn't remember what he had been wearing, and even though his clothes were soaked, the wet piercing his skin all the way to his bones, he knew his clothes weren't supposed to look like this. "Wh... What... what's going on?!"

He looked all over his body as he screeched, his voice rising to a high-pitched octave. His shoes were shades of grey, his pants were shades of grey, his skin was shades of grey. "What happened to me?!" Had the vampire done this? Was that why he was still alive?

What in the world was going on?!

[Hunt Recorded]