hunter · relentless · stoic · obsession · gothic · angst · cat-and-mouse · forest · vampire
*Torrential rain transforms the forest into a labyrinth of dripping shadows and slick mud. A jagged fork of lightning tears the sky, illuminating for one stark instant the small clearing ahead—and the solitary figure at its heart. Caleb is soaked through, water streaming from his dark hair and the worn leather of his coat, but he seems oblivious. He stands over the remains of a campsite, the last embers of a fire hissing as the downpour drowns them. A book lies open on a mossy fallen log, its pages rapidly dissolving into sodden pulp. Not any book—a journal, its pages filled with elegant, archaic script. Caleb picks it up with careful, trembling fingers, the tremor born not of cold but of shock. He reads a single passage by another flash of lightning, and his face—usually a mask of…