Enid, Wednesday, and Selene stood outside the diner while the wind howled through the street. The diner windows rattled violently, the glass shaking like it might shatter any second.
Above them the sky looked wrong.
The clouds had turned dark red, spreading across the horizon like spilled blood. Jagged cracks stretched through the sky, splitting the clouds apart while red lightning flashed between them.
Something moved inside those fractures.
Shapes pressed against the cracks as if something on the other side was trying to force its way through.
Enid stared upward, completely stunned.
"This looks like one of those end-of-the-world movies," she said quietly.
Wednesday watched the sky for a moment before answering.
"Our situation is worse than that."
Another streak of red lightning ripped across the clouds.
"In those movies you can predict the outcome," Wednesday continued. "No matter how hopeless things appear, the story usually ends with the heroes saving the world."
She looked back toward the diner where the ritual was happening.
"We are not protected by that kind of narrative certainty."
"Our ending," Wednesday added calmly, "might be far less optimistic."
A moment later something small flew out of the diner.
The crimson bat.
It cut through the wind and landed back on Wednesday's shoulder.
Then Wednesday's head snapped back.
Her eyes went unfocused.
The world around her vanished.
***
Everything had turned into ruins.
Broken buildings smoldered around her while the sky above burned red with endless cracks. The air smelled of ash and blood.
Bodies lay scattered across the ground.
Enid was nearby.
She was lying motionless on the pavement, her body soaked in blood.
Further ahead Selene had been pinned to the ground. A thick wooden log had pierced straight through her stomach, nailing her body to the dirt while blood pooled beneath her.
She was on the ground.
Crawling.
The Book of the Dead lay open in front of her.
The wind tore through the ruins, flipping the pages violently.
Wednesday dragged herself forward across the broken ground, reaching toward the book as the red sky cracked wider above her.
"Wednesday… did you have a vision?" Ethan asked, tilting his head from her shoulder.
Wednesday blinked once.
"Nothing," she said.
If the future she had just seen was real, then the ending waiting for them was a bad one. But retreating wasn't an option either. Going back now would only lead to the same result.
Selene had already drawn her guns.
"Then let's deal with this before it gets worse," she said, checking the chamber.
Enid let out a breath and stepped forward.
Her hands trembled for a moment before her fingers curled into claws.
Fur began spreading along her arms as her body shifted. It wasn't a full transformation— although there was no full moon—but something about the cracks in the sky seemed to be triggering it anyway.
A partial werewolf form.
She flexed her claws, testing the strength.
Wednesday pulled the chainsaw cord.
The engine roared to life.
She looked toward the diner.
"Hey, Ethan," she said calmly. "Can you bring someone back if they're on the verge of dying?"
The bat shifted slightly.
"I should be able to," Ethan replied. "As long as they're still alive."
Then he paused.
His eyes narrowed as he processed what she had asked.
A second later his eyes widened.
"Wait," Ethan said slowly.
"Don't tell me the three of you will be in danger," he continued, his voice tightening. "Is that what you saw in the vision?"
"If that's the case, this plan should be scrapped. I'm not letting you walk into something that gets you killed."
Wednesday didn't look at him.
"I don't even listen to my parents," she said calmly. "Do you really think I would listen to you?"
"And we need that book to bring you back."
"I also learned something from you—that you can put your life at risk for the people you love."
Without waiting for another word, she walked forward.
Selene followed with her guns raised. Enid stepped beside them, claws forming as her partial transformation sharpened her senses.
The three of them entered the diner.
The bat on Wednesday's shoulder dropped to the floor.
The connection snapped.
—
In the graveyard dimension Ethan suddenly staggered.
The link vanished so abruptly that the silence felt like a physical blow.
"Ahhhhh—fuck!"
His voice thundered across the cemetery, and the entire dimension trembled in response. Gravestones rattled violently while cracks spread through the ground like fractures in glass.
Wednesday would never speak like that unless the situation was already dire.
Anger surged through him.
His eyes burned a deep crimson as the power inside his blood awakened.
His body began to change.
Muscles expanded beneath his skin while his bones shifted with a heavy cracking sound. His fingers lengthened, nails hardening into curved claws that looked capable of tearing through steel. Dark veins spread across his body like living markings.
Then his back split open.
Two massive wings erupted outward, stretching wide across the graveyard. They resembled the wings of a monstrous bat, supported by long skeletal structures with dark membranes pulled tight between them. The thin skin carried faint veins of flowing blood that pulsed slowly like a living network.
When the wings fully spread, their shadow swallowed half the cemetery.
His head changed as well.
His ears sharpened into tall pointed shapes while his jaw widened slightly, revealing rows of long predatory fangs designed to tear flesh apart rather than simply pierce it. His eyes glowed like burning embers beneath the dark sky of the prison dimension.
This was not the elegant image most people imagined when they heard the word vampire.
This was the original predator.
The form of a progenitor.
A creature powerful enough to terrify ancient civilizations into creating legends.
Blood began to rise from the ground.
Thin streams first appeared between the cracks in the earth before turning into violent surges. The liquid lifted into the air and gathered around Ethan like a storm forming around its center.
He looked up at the shattered sky of the dimension.
"I will tear this dimension apart."
The ground split open with a violent roar.
Massive fractures spread across the graveyard as rivers of blood burst upward from beneath the earth, destroying graves and tearing apart the landscape. The crimson torrents surged across the dimension like a tidal wave, devouring everything in their path.
The prison world was beginning to collapse under the fury of a vampire progenitor.
*****
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