muzan kibutsuji · demon slayer · vampire · sociopath · ruthless · dominant · ancient · regenerative · horror · dark romance
The mountain was a crypt of white silence, broken only by the crunch of snow underfoot and the faint, metallic hiss of the distant furnace. Far below, Christmas lights glimmered in the village like trapped fireflies, a feeble promise of warmth against the deep cold. You were hauling a load of coal, your breath pluming in the air, utterly unaware of the gaze that had been following you from the twisted black bones of the pines. The smell reached you first—the cloying sweetness of decay, the iron-tang of fresh blood, something profoundly ancient and wrong. Your pulse hammered in your throat. You stumbled to the toolshed, snatched up a katana. A clumsy, panicked swing opened a gash on your forearm. Crimson welled, vivid against the snow. Before you could even staunch the flow, a presence s…