Vampire Cultivation System in a Hidden World of Monsters

I ran up and tried to pull him off of her. "Get off her!" I said. He was surprisingly strong for a human.

"You don't understand!" He said. "I need to—"

I broke his neck from behind in order to release his grip from Chelsea. Chelsea came to and saw me and Chad on the ground.

"You killed him," she said, acting shocked and emotionally distant.

"You hired me to do that," I said.

"I know, but when you see it in person, it's… different," she said. She was saying her lines and hitting her beats perfectly, but I wasn't convinced. She was hiding something.

"She's happy he's dead, even though she's trying so hard to pretend not to be," the golden mouth said.

'I know,' I thought. 'The question is why?'

"Maybe she's just a sociopath," the mouth said.

'No. There's more to it than that, but with Chad dead, we can never hear his side of the story.'

All I could do now was let her go and take care of Chad's body.

"Get out of here," I said. "This ain't a peep show."

She was staring at the body acting all shocked but I knew she was enjoying seeing Chad dead. It gave me the creeps and I don't know why. I mean, if someone killed my parents and was stalking me, I'd be happy to see them dead. But this felt different. Wrong, somehow.

After Chelsea left, I loaded the body into the trunk of my car that Johnny lent me for the job. I was supposed to drive the car to a drop off point, exchange the body with someone else and they would take it to an undisclosed location to dispose of it.

Halfway to the drop off point, I heard banging in the trunk. And then someone yelled, "Let me out!"

I pulled the car onto a dirt road and drove for a bit before stopping and opening the trunk. It was Chad, back from the dead somehow. I might have to get more creative with this one. It would help if I knew what kind of monster he was though first.

"What are you?" I said.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"I don't know! I can't die. Or I can die, but I always come back," he said.

I pulled him up out of the trunk and got him on his feet. He didn't try to run or kill me. It seemed like he just wanted to talk.

"When did this start happening to you?" I asked.

"When my parents died," he said, tears running down his face.

"When your parents died?" I said. "I thought you killed her parents."

"No. Who told you that?" He said.

"Some idiot," I said, thinking about Johnny. "Ok, then you killed your parents? And you what, killed yourself and came back to life? How does that work?"

"No. I didn't kill my parents! Chelsea did. And then she killed me," he said. "Then I woke up, I heard the cops coming, and I got out of there. I was confused.

I followed Chelsea home from her work to ask her why she did it, but she killed me again. And again. And again. And then I guess you got called. What are you a hitman?"

"Currently, that is my line of work, but I do not enjoy doing it unless the targets are actually bad people. And you're not a bad person. My question is why did you try to kill her this time?" I said.

"I think that's why I keep getting brought back. To avenge my parents' deaths." He said.

"Oh my god, you're a revenant!" I said.

"What's a revenant?" He said.

"A person who's been brought back for revenge!" I said.

"Does that mean when I get revenge, I die?" He said.

"Maybe. Do you want to die again?" I said.

"Not particularly." He said.

"Is not dying worth it enough to you to not get revenge?" I said.

"In this scenario, does she get to keep living with no consequences to her actions?" He said.

"Hell, no! I'm going to kill her! In that scenario, of course." I said.

"I think I can be ok with that if I get to live this half dead existence longer," he said.

"Undead existence, but yes, I get what you're saying. I'd like to put you up in a motel, but I only have two hundred dollars. Is that enough? I haven't been in a motel in a while." I said.

"Yes, even in this economy, it is. More than enough actually. I could buy snacks at the vending machine!" He said, laughing genuinely.

"Ok! Get back in the car. Let's do this." I said.

I dropped Chad off at a motel, and then I drove back to Johnny's and burst into his office. "Did you get the money from the Chelsea thing?"

"Yes," he said, looking pleased. "Do you have any other plans tonight or are you heading to bed?"

"Good," I said. "No I'll be staying up for a little while longer. I have to go kill that Chelsea girl."

"What?" Johnny said. He had been eating a hot dog and hot dog debris sprayed all over his desk.

"You know you shouldn't talk with your mouth full," I said, pointing at the food debris on his desk.

"Why are you going to kill our client?" He said.

"Because she's the real killer. She killed Chad's parents and she killed him too," I said.

"What do you mean she killed him too? If she killed him, he would be dead," Johnny said, continuing to finish his hot dog.

"Ok, sorry. I meant she shot him and tried to kill him, but he survived," I said. I needed to watch what I said more carefully. I didn't want to reveal the monster world to Johnny or worse, make him thing I'm crazy.

"Oh. That makes sense," Johnny said, swallowing the last of his dog. He considered it for a moment, and said, "I mean, we already have her money. And you did kill Chad right?"

"Yeah. I killed him. Broke his neck." I said, completely honestly.

"Good. Well then, I don't see a problem if an individual not associated with the Calabrese crime family, were to, uh, take care of business. You know." He said.

"Understood," I said, smiling. Sometimes Johnny was alright.

"You know where she lives right?" I said.

"Yeah, she lives at 154 Marigold lane, apartment 23." He said, now smoking a cigar. This man had an oral fixation.

"Cool. I'll see you later. Leave the door unlocked in the back. My room is same one as before right?" I said.

"Yep. Same one," He said, nodding at me through a cloud of smoke.

"You know, you're really not supposed to smoke inside," I said.

"This is my house! I'll smoke inside if I want," he said, as he waved his hand in front of his face, trying to clear away some of the smoke.

"Ok. You do you," I said, and left.