the culprit

When Cyril woke up, he was warm all over, the fire in the fireplace was roaring, and the candles illuminated the room like daylight, and he couldn't tell where he was for a moment.The memory stops at the second before the coma in the snow, and I don't remember anything that happened afterwards.After moving his body, he realized that he was wrapped in a blanket and leaning against the chair by the fireplace. He couldn't help but look around. The familiar furnishings told him that he had returned to the manor.

This is his room.

The interrupted memory seemed to be intentional. He jumped off the chair and was about to open the door to go out, but was startled by a voice suddenly coming from behind him.Felix came over and touched his forehead and face, and asked him calmly if he was hungry.

The vampire's courteousness puzzled the young man, but he still doubted him more.He looked at Felix in a black cloak vigilantly, thinking about how to answer, and lowered his head to realize that the clothes on his body had been changed at some point.

He never forgot what his uncle said many years ago. Every time he came back from vacation, he tried his best to avoid Felix, for fear that the monster would really do something disgusting and disgusting to him.

After tugging at the overly long hem, he pulled up the sleeves that almost covered his hands, and his body froze suddenly after realizing that it might be Felix's shirt.He sneaked a glance at the vampire not far behind him, swallowed, and his breathing became short due to tension.

"No, I'm not hungry." He lied, but his stomach growled inappropriately.

He heard Felix chuckle.

Covering his face with one hand in frustration, his brain was spinning rapidly, trying to think of an excuse to make Felix leave quickly, but Felix walked towards him.The black shadow was getting closer and closer, and the sound of footsteps became clearer and clearer. The boy's small heart seemed to be hoisted by a rope, and stuck in his throat, making it difficult to breathe.

The vampire reached out to him, and he bit his lip and tried to wave it away, but Felix just grabbed the doorknob and opened it.

"Don't lock the door," Felix said before leaving.

And the boy closed the door and locked it immediately after he went out.

How did he get back?

Cyril couldn't think of anything, only the obscene words that his uncle said to him back then were left in his mind.He even clearly remembered the way his uncle looked at him and touched him back then. The chill and disgust climbed up his spine. Even though his stomach was empty, he still had an uncontrollable urge to vomit.He rubbed his arm with goosebumps, ran to the fireplace and wrapped himself in a blanket, sat there with his knees bent for a while, and then his body gradually relaxed in the warmth of the fire.

At this moment, an idea suddenly crashed into his tense brain.

scandal.

The half-naked boy who was found with the priest.

What he wanted was to dispel the illusion, if it wasn't the teacher or priest who had been having an affair with him but a vampire living in this manor... maybe his father would take him home right away.

The reason why his father can still turn a blind eye to what happened to him is because nothing has actually happened.

Cyril suddenly grasped his calves with both hands, rested his chin on his knees, stared blankly at the flames in the heart of the furnace for a long time, and finally summoned up the courage to unlock the door.

He was waiting for Felix.

Since I said don't lock the door, I will definitely come back.

Only when he pulled up his sleeves again did Cyril realize that his hands were shaking—not just his hands, but his knees were also shaking, and his feet on the chair were unbearably cold.He wrapped them in a blanket and rubbed his toes and insteps with his hands, but no matter how hard he tried, they wouldn't warm.

Reason and planning are the same thing, but when it comes time to implement, you will still be afraid.

He waited, closing his eyes, hoping that Felix would not come, and wishing that he would come soon.

Time passed silently in the gap between contradictions. He heard the sound of the door being pushed open, opened his eyes and turned his head, and saw Felix, who had taken off his cloak, holding steaming hot broth in his hand. The scene was weird and funny , He couldn't help frowning.

Felix handed him the broth, saw that his hands were trembling, raised one eyebrow, turned around without saying a word, and was about to leave.

The scalding heat in his hand slightly calmed his nervous and restless heart. Seeing that Felix was about to leave, Cyril spoke hastily, stammered for a long time, and finally managed to say, "Is Uncle Heken there?"

"Not here, probably come back tomorrow." Felix held the doorknob with one hand, turned around and urged the boy to drink the broth first.

Not daring to disobey, Cyril hurriedly scooped up the soup with a spoon and put it in his mouth. The taste was different from the one he remembered, not as good as he imagined.He wrinkled his nose and looked at the bowl of broth, and took another sip as if confirming it.It really didn't taste good.It must not have been done by the cook.

He looked back at Felix suspiciously, and asked tentatively, "Did...you do this?"

"The servants are all asleep." Felix answered irrelevantly, but the boy still heard the answer he wanted.The tentative expression gradually turned to surprise, and then back to confusion.He frowned again as if he had encountered some unsolvable problem, holding the bowl in both hands, but never took his eyes off Felix.

What puzzled him was not that Felix could make broth, but that Felix could make it for him.Countless conjectures formed in his mind, and he didn't know which one could correctly solve his doubts.But the problem is the problem, and the taste is the taste. Once a person is hungry, he can't care too much. He drank the broth in one gulp while holding the bowl, sweating profusely.

And Felix didn't seem to have any plans to leave for the time being, so he stood by the door and watched him finish the bowl of soup.The spoon scraped against the bottom of the bowl and made a harsh scratching sound, licking the corners of his mouth, the teenager peeked at the vampire shyly, scratched his hair, jumped off the chair and put the empty bowl on the table beside him.

"Uncle Heken isn't here... are you okay?" Cyril remembered the questions he hadn't finished asking not long ago when his stomach was full. There is no way to keep him—but Uncle Heken is not here tonight, and the servants are all asleep. Even if something happened between him and Felix, there are no witnesses, so naturally he lost the way to let his father know.

He bit his lip, his heart wobbled left and right.

"It doesn't matter for now." Felix said and walked towards Cyril.The young man took a deep breath, his back seemed to be pierced by two strands along the spine, and as Felix approached, the two strands became tighter and tighter, and he even felt a tight pain.

"Go to sleep. It's almost dawn." Felix picked up the empty bowl, neither limbs nor eyes fell on Cyril.

Seeing that Felix was about to leave, the boy gritted his teeth, chased after him and grabbed his sleeve.

"You can drink my blood." He thought he was calm, but when he made his voice, he realized that he was trembling again.He swallowed hard, panting and added, "My...is it okay too?"

Felix turned his head and gave him a deep look, brushed his hand away, answered "No" in a flat tone, and left the room.He took the bowl and spoon back to the kitchen, and when he returned to the house, he suddenly stopped in the snow.

A long, long time ago, a boy of that age also said that to him when he was dying.

I give you all my blood.

The boy had discovered his secret while still clutching a drained rat in his hand, the cold dead blood still lingering on his lips.Standing in the ice and snow, the boy stared at him with wide eyes, grabbed the clothes on his body and asked him what kind of monster it was in a trembling voice.

He was 20 years old that year and couldn't answer the question that was too difficult for him.

The mutation happened at the age of 15, and the food he was used to could no longer relieve the ghostly hunger that haunted him every day. He stared at the protruding blood vessels on his master's neck, and he could hear the sound of blood rushing in it when he closed his eyes.The fangs pierced his lips, and his wife asked him what happened to the wound on his mouth, but his eyes flickered and he couldn't answer.

The first time he drank raw blood was on a summer rainy night with lightning and thunder. He slipped out of the shop amidst the roar of thunder, stole a chicken from a neighbor’s house, and wrung out its neck before it could croak. neck.He tore off the feathers on his neck, and impatiently bit them, blood with a fishy smell poured into his mouth, and the senses that had been dead for many days finally revived in the torrential rain.He saw the light at night, heard the sound of rainwater hitting the ground, felt the dampness and coolness on his skin, and his heart throbbed endlessly in his chest.

That rainy night, he realized that he was different.

He is a monster.

The next day, the heavy rain stopped, and the exposed skin was burned by the fierce sun.Green smoke rose from the wound, Master yawned and walked out the door, he hurriedly hid his bleeding hand behind his back, and hid in the shade of a tree tremblingly.

He only knew that he was a monster, but he didn't know what he was.Facing his younger brother's question, he was embarrassed and ashamed, it was too late to hide the dead mouse now, his bloody lips touched and parted, he couldn't make a sound, turned around and wanted to run away.

But the boy came and hugged his leg.The boy sniffed and begged him not to go, saying that he would not tell anyone, including his sister.He begged him not to leave them, to take them to their parents and brother.

He stayed, still caring for his sister and youngest brother as well as ever, still rummaging in the snow for dead animals while they were asleep.The enemy raided more and more villages, more and more refugees fled, and the weather became colder and colder.His younger sister contracted a serious illness while in exile, and he would carry her on his back wherever he went, feeding her the best food and drinking the cleanest water, but he still couldn't stop her from getting weaker and weaker.He was carrying her like he was carrying a light leaf, and the sense of fear was strangling his neck all the time. He never dared to think about such terrible things.But she died on his back in the end.They buried her under a tree.That night, the younger brother who fell asleep in his arms woke up crying in his arms, calling his sister's name inarticulately all the time.He hugged him, not knowing how to comfort him, and when he opened his mouth, there was only whimpering.

Among the fleeing crowd, people continued to die, some were captured by the enemy, some died of illness, and some froze to death in the snowy night.He kept praying that something as horrible as death would never happen to them again, but his brother was still sick.He kept screaming cold, his teeth chattered, and his body couldn't help shaking.Within two days, he fell into a coma and couldn't wake up.He wore the shoes his brother stole and ran with his brother in the snow. When he saw someone, he asked if he could save his brother.During the escape, no one could protect themselves. When those people saw the pale boy, they hid far away, and no one was willing to approach them.

On a snowy night, my younger brother woke up suddenly and rubbed his face against his chest.Surprised and delighted, he hugged his younger brother tightly, but the boy remained silent after a while.Resisting his fear, he put his fingers under the boy's nose, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that there was still a faint breath.When it was close to dawn, the boy woke up again. He seemed to be extremely sleepy, and his eyelids could barely open a gap.He called his brother's name, dying and said that he seemed to be dying.

"I'm going to die anyway... I'll give you all my blood..." He leaned on his brother, and as he spoke, his voice fell silent.

Felix stopped in the snow, looking at the eastern sky.

The morning star hangs high and twinkles, and the red light breaks through the night.

Its daybreak.