Chapter 403: Chapter 403 The Night Nobody Would Sleep

The alley was quiet for a moment. Only the soft buzzing of police radios and the faint dripping of water from a broken pipe could be heard. Markov, the senior forensic, stood over the ten bodies that had been laid out separately. His face was hard, tired, and cold. He had seen horrible things in thirty five years of work, but this was different. This was wrong in a way he could not explain.

Behind him the young forensic, Leonid, stepped forward. His gloves were stained with dried blood from the earlier examination.

Markov did not even look at him at first. He only said his name in a heavy voice.

“Leonid?”

Leonid swallowed but did not back down. “Sir, listen. We have been learning about strange cases these past months. People with inhuman abilities. Abilities that do not follow science. Abilities that should not exist. What if vampires are just another one of them?”

Markov finally turned his head, slow and sharp. The look he gave Leonid could have frozen him in place. “Leonid, can you hear your own words? Vampires? Are you serious?”

Leonid stepped around one of the bodies and pointed at the man’s neck. Two clear puncture marks. No blood left in his veins. Skin pale like he had been drained at once.

“How else do you explain this?” Leonid asked.

His voice cracked at the end. Not out of fear, but out of frustration. He had been thinking about it since they arrived. Nothing about this scene made sense. No animal could do this. No human could do this. Nothing natural could drain ten people so clean.

Markov shook his head, anger rising. “Science, Leonid. Evidence. Test results. That is our job. We collect. We study. We analyze. We do not jump into fairy tale bullshit because we are scared.”

“It is not fairy tales,” Leonid pushed. “Sir, you have seen the news. The strange fires. People throwing ice. Humans moving like they are not even human. How long are we going to act blind?”

Markov cut him off with a firm voice. “Enough. We take these bodies to the lab. We check the blood. We check the wounds. We check everything. That is our work. Leave your imagination out of it.”

Leonid clenched his jaw but stayed quiet. There was no winning against Markov today. Not here. Not now.

Markov turned away again, pulled out his notebook, and wrote down the last details of the scene. “Pack the bodies. We leave in ten minutes.”

The younger forensic nodded and went back to work. But as he bent over the corpse, his eyes drifted toward the dark end of the alley. Something in his gut crawled.

He whispered to himself. “Tell me this is not vampires.”

But he did not believe his own words.

⸻

Meanwhile Seo yoen’s house was packed with noise from the TV. The news anchors were talking fast, confused, and scared. Every channel showed the same thing. Dead bodies. Blood on walls. Reports coming from different parts of the city.

Kelly sat with her arms folded, staring at the screen. Ann leaned back on the couch, expression blank but eyes tight. Dickson stood with his hands on his hips. Seo Yeon was sitting on the table, knees pulled close.

They had all gone silent for a moment.

Seo Yeon broke it first. “So these monsters are going around targeting homeless people and sucking them dry? Then just dumping their bodies like trash in alleys and parks?”

Dickson nodded. “That is what it looks like.”

Seo Yeon’s eyes drifted to Liam immediately. “Alright. So what are we going to do about that?”

Everyone turned to Liam.

He did not even hesitate.

“No.”

The answer was so quick, so flat, that it hit the whole room like a slap. Even Lilith who was leaning against the wall blinked in surprise.

Ann frowned. “What do you mean no?”

Liam kept watching the screen like nothing had happened. “I said no. I already told all of you before. The vampire war is not mine to fight.”

Dickson lifted a brow. “You serious right now?”

“Yes,” Liam said.

Kelly sat up straight. “Liam, people are dying.”

“I know.”

“And you still say no?”

“Yes.”

His expression did not change. No guilt. No doubt. No second thoughts.

Seo Yeon stared hard at him. “So you are just going to sit down and let them kill people?”

Liam finally turned away from the screen and looked at her. “I said it yesterday. My focus is on our own battles. We have enough enemies trying to kill us already. If we keep fighting every war out there we will die fast.”

Lilith stepped forward a little. She did not look angry. She looked like this was the first smart thing she had heard in a while.

“He is right,” Lilith said. “The vampire race is the werewolves’ problem. Let their packs handle it. They have been fighting each other for hundreds of years before any of us were born.”

Dickson rubbed his neck. “Still feels wrong to just leave it.”

“And what do you want to do?” Lilith asked. “Charge into Russia? Kill every vampire you see? Fight a war that has nothing to do with us?”

Dickson had no answer.

Nobody did.

Liam leaned back on the couch and crossed his arms. “We handle our problems first. When we are strong enough, maybe we can deal with bigger things. But right now? No. Not vampires.”

Kelly let out a slow sigh. She did not agree, but she could not argue either.

Ann rested her head on Liam’s shoulder. “So we really leave this one alone?”

Liam nodded once. “Yes. If the werewolves need help they should call their own people. We keep to ourselves.”

The room stayed quiet after that. No one spoke. Everyone just watched the news as another report came in. More bodies. More death. More confusion.

But Liam did not move.

And he did not change his mind.

———

The day passed in a blur. It felt too fast for most people, almost unfair. Nobody wanted to fall asleep and wake up to another horror waiting for them outside. Nobody wanted to step out of their home and find bodies stacked like trash in their alleyway again. Nobody wanted to see blood on the walls.

Cities were not built for nightmares, but today the city felt like it was holding its breath.

Across the blocks, curtains stayed shut. People stayed inside. The morning news had been a punch to the gut. Some tried to go to work, but even those people rushed back home before the sun dropped. Everyone knew something dangerous was walking among them. Something real. Something merciless.

By nightfall the streets were empty.

No drunk man wandered around. No late jogger. No group of teenagers laughing loudly. Even stray cats seemed to disappear. The only sound across the city was the low hum of police cars as they moved through the roads.

Blue and red lights flashed on walls. Engines idled. Every officer looked tired, stressed, alert. They wanted answers. They needed answers. They needed to know what hunted them last night.

Nobody had a name for it. Nobody had an explanation. Rumors were running wild everywhere. Some said it was a cult. Some said it was a plague. Some whispered the word vampire with shaky voices and forced nervous laughs because they could not accept the truth of what they saw.

Inside a small apartment, Leonid lay awake on his bed, staring at the cracks on his ceiling. His blanket was pushed aside, and sweat covered his forehead even though the room was cold.

He turned slowly and looked at his clock. The bright red numbers showed 11:00 PM.

The night felt too still.

Too quiet.

He listened carefully. He could hear nothing but his own breath. The silence outside was heavy. It was the type of silence that felt unnatural, like the whole world was hiding.

Leonid sat up fast, almost like he had been waiting for that moment. His heart beat with a mix of fear and excitement. He reached for his camera on the desk beside his bed and held it tight in his hands.

His fingers trembled a little.

He closed his eyes and whispered to himself, almost like he was warning himself.

If nobody will believe me…

If they want to call me crazy…

Then I will show them.

He opened his eyes again and spoke quietly but firmly.

“If nobody believes that vampires exist, then I will prove it,” he said.

He grabbed his jacket, slung the camera around his neck, and stood up in the silent room.

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