Against the rattle of gunfire outside, the warehouse seems unnervingly quiet.
The vampire's invitation still awaits a response. The girl bows her head, staring at her shadow.
Pyrrhos: Let me remind you that, although my life may be everlasting, my patience is not.
Pyrrhos: I have to say, your hesitation is disappointing.
Rubuska: ...
Rubuska: What's this going to cost me?
She looks into his crimson eyes.
Rubuska: Every time I've been offered any kind of gift in my life, every time I've even come close to something ...
Rubuska: It's either been taken away from me or turned out to be a complete fraud.
Rubuska: So, sir, which one is it?
Pyrrhos: Neither. Because I'm not offering you any "gifts," only an alternative reality.
Pyrrhos: All it takes is a drop of blood and a little bravery, because there's a good chance you'll end up just like them.
He lifts a limp arm, waving it at her mockingly.
Pyrrhos: A small ask, I'm sure, for someone such as yourself.
Pyrrhos: What's a little risk when your dreams are so very close? This is what you want, isn't it?
He stands by the window, hand reaching for her.
Rubuska: Yes, I crave it.
Dizziness grips her. A sudden, crushing tide of "fortune" crashes over Rubuska.
Stone, walls, cargo ... everything melts away.
She stands in the middle of the cemetery under a blood moon.
Yes, the same damp cemetery her mother described a thousand times.
Before her looms the vampire, Pyrrhos, cloaked in black like an ageless shadow.
Pyrrhos: I can read it in your eyes.
Pyrrhos: The urge, the desire—an eagerness to embrace the stillness of the dark and be rid of all your mortal troubles.
Pyrrhos: And here I am, your wish-maker. Come to send you to the sweet cradle of night or of death.
Moonlight spills over his face. His red eyes overflowing. Blood, corpses, and the reek of death reflecting in them.
She sees more than that; their dead eyes meet hers in the reflection.
"Choose!" They whisper.
You cannot refuse us, just as you cannot refuse your past.
Pyrrhos: Well? What do you say?
Rubuska: ...
Faces flicker before her—mother, father, brother, and comrades.
It is a chance to see them again. How could she refuse?
Rubuska: Yes.
Children: Rubuska!
Annabelle: She's not here.
Armed men storm in, but the familiar figure is gone.
Blood stains the floor, still warm, trailing like a serpent.
Semmelweis: There are drag marks. Seems they've transferred some of the captives.
Yellow light cuts across the room. Shadows twitch in the corners. A familiar voice whimpers faintly.
Little William: whimper Home. I just want to go home.
Dorothy: It's alright, child. I'm here with you. We'll be fine.
Annabelle: William! Ms. Dorothy!
Annabelle rushes forward, clutching her long-lost kin.
Dorothy: Don't! There's—
Shadows lunge from the opposite corner.
???: Arrrrgh!
Corvus: Prepare for battle!
COMBAT
Infected Soldier: coughing
The soldier crumples, eyes bloodshot, veins crawling like creeping vines across his temple.
Corvus: Where's Pyrrhos? Where did he take the girl?
She seizes him by his bloody collar.
Infected Soldier: W-Warehouse. At the station. Lots of ... Lots of them there ...
He coughs, words slurred, gurgling.
Corvus: Did he do this to you?
Infected Soldier: Yes ...
He gasps, then smiles strangely.
Infected Soldier: It's too late.
Corvus: What? Speak up.
Rubuska: Ah ...
A cry rises in the distance.
It is long, ecstatic, weary, like a bird to its nest, a ship finding shore.
Aima: It's Rubuska! That sound—Is she ...
Infected Soldier: Argh. It's too late. Soon ...
Infected Soldier: Your friend will be a vampire! Hahahahaha ...
He laughs until bloody tears streak his face. In his throat, he releases a stream of broken whispers, another voice takes over.
Infected Soldier: Gushing, seething, a torrent red. We, the cattle, a plague we spread.
Infected Soldier: We are the spawn, the vampire's aide, to turn this earth a crimson shade.
Infected Soldier: The "Storm" forms as it did before.
Infected Soldier: No wars, no conflict—nevermore!
A gunshot. Blood sprays.
Corvus lowers her weapon, her stitched face grave.
Arbuthnot: Ah. He's even turned his own army. It's no wonder these Infected are crawlin' all over the place.
Semmelweis: "The 'Storm' forms ..."
She crouches, inspecting the corpse with an investigator's eye.
Semmelweis: Something's been off since the beginning. The symptoms have taken hold too rapidly. There has never been a recorded instance of the infection spreading so fast.
Semmelweis: Look here. Burst veins, pupils so dilated they almost cover the entire iris. The infection's been accelerated.
Semmelweis: In other words, these are no regular Infected. They're the failed product of a different kind of transformation.
Corvus: One task at a time.
Corvus: Come. We need to find Rubuska.
Moments earlier ...
Pyrrhos: Well? What do you say?
Rubuska: Yes.
Pyrrhos: Very good. I knew you'd come to your senses.
Satisfied with the answer, he offers a sharp, beastly smile.
Pyrrhos: Come child. It's time to leave the ugly trappings of mortality behind you.
Pyrrhos: Once we have the same blood pulsing through our veins ...
Pyrrhos: We will build a new world, united in death.
This is the "bloodline" she has longed for.
Rubuska: Мама, Dad, Kolyo.
An echo of her childhood.
Rubuska: I'll protect you.
Tugging at the shreds of her surviving faith.
Rubuska: Till the end of time.
The next second, shadows surge like a black tide.
Pyrrhos: Hm? A shadow?
Pyrrhos: Uggh!
Pyrrhos: You ... Why?
Rubuska: I want to be a vampire more than anything I've ever wanted.
Rubuska: To have the power to save the people I love from death.
Rubuska: To be the one to protect and provide.
Rubuska: But I never want to be like you! I may have red eyes and fangs, but I don't want to lie and manipulate to get what I want!
Pyrrhos: Ugh!
Rubuska: Heh. Did you really think I'd just surrender? That I'd take the easy way out? My family wants me to live.
Rubuska: So, I'll live, damn it! Live until the smoke clears and the sky turns blue again, till the rain puts out the fires and the primroses bloom in the forests of Strandzha!
Rubuska: I'll live till my friends grow old and gray and wrinkly, till my family comes back!
Rubuska: I'll live! We'll all live!
Rubuska: And you—you will rot in your grave!
Rubuska: You wretched bastard!
The true vampire convulses on the floor, his chest heaving like an old bellows.
Rubuska: I did it. I killed him.
Rubuska: It's over.
Rubuska settles on the floor, feeling her heart pounding louder and louder.
Rubuska: Have to get back to the train. Have to tell them.
She scrambles back up and staggers toward the door. She knows her friends are still waiting.
*sound of attacking*
Before she can cry out, her body is flung through the air and slams to the ground.
Pyrrhos: Heh. Don't tell me you believe those bedtime stories?
Pyrrhos stands, his face twisted into a grotesque look of sinister joy.
Rubuska: How? You-You should've ...
Pyrrhos: Died? tut Don't be absurd. Listening to that silly little speech was more painful than any stake to the chest.
Pyrrhos: Let me guess, you brought holy water and garlic, too?
He looms over the girl, dismissing her attempt with a wave of his hand. An unseen shadow coils around her throat, tightening, then tightening again.
Pyrrhos: Those legends were merely that—naught but childish forgeries, just like you, little "vampire."
Rubuska: No ...
Pyrrhos: Oh, what a waste of time you turned out to be. I truly believed you might share my vision.
Pyrrhos: But, alas, you're just as narrow-minded as the rest of them.
Pyrrhos: I suppose it's time you found your place in the dirt. If you're lucky, someone might bring you back someday, then you can act out your little "noble-hearted vampire" charade once more.
Her vision blurs.
The moon, streaks of blood, the cemetery ... everything that once made up her childhood crumbles to ruin.
And with it, her dreams of becoming a vampire.
Look! Her shadow—it's moving!
You're a real vampire, right, Rubuska?
Rubuska: It's not a lie.
She closes her eyes, arms slack at her sides, bloodlike tears trailing down her face.
The door bursts open from a weighty kick.
Footsteps ring out, steady, strong, then faster, faster.
A hail of bullets tears through the vampire's shoulder.
Pyrrhos: Ugh!
Pyrrhos releases her before melting into shadow.
Air floods back into her lungs. A familiar tall figure comes into focus.
Corvus: Rubuska.
She crouches to reach the girl; glimpses of relief and concern pass over her patchwork face.
Corvus: Finally. We've found you.