Gathering her things, the vampyre exited the house that she had rented, staring at the old wooden door for a moment before locking it up and shoving the keys into her pocket. She had brought her gun with her, it was her most precious possession now. The vampyre was once again visiting the doctor for another one of his freaky jobs. She was not told what she was going to be doing today, and she did not think too much about it. Her mind had been a mess for the past few days, the voice inside it growing more prominent to her as time passed. She had come to appreciate it at this point, since she felt sane with it. It used to be just a whisper in the back of her mind, well a cacophony of a number of voices, actually. But now, it was just a single voice, her own voice but a bit deeper. She had befriended the voice, speaking to it. And it responded. Of course she was not walking around speaking to herself out loud like an idiot. She communicated with the voice in her head, and the voice acted like her guide. It encouraged her to do things she normally would be afraid or hesitant to. It supported her immoral decisions. But most of all, it was herself. Just a darker side to her mind.

Bianca had named this darker side ‘Gloria’. It was her favorite name, and she felt that it very much suited the voice in her mind. Gloria was silent, and the vampyre imagined she was in her dormant state for the time being. She walked down the sidewalk, ignoring the people she bumped into as she walked. Some of them even bothered to ask her who she thought she was and Bianca did not feel like spending her time or energy explaining to them who she was and so she continued walking. She did not even bother getting coffee because she was more energetic than ever. This was all a result of Gloria. It was all her doing, and Bianca did not have a problem with any of this. In fact, she was enjoying it. Her slender fingers brushed over the revolver that was strapped to her waist, her inner demons tempting her to use it, but she had control over herself and this was not the time to use it yet. The vampyre weaved through the crowd at a junction, hurriedly stepping onto the hard concrete pavement, the heel of her boots creating muted thuds as she traveled in strides. Soon she would arrive in front of the doctor’s shop where she could see her own reflection in the glass door. Her eyes switched focus to see through the glass and saw that the doctor was standing right in front of her, but on the other side of the door inside the shop. It appeared he had been expecting her eagerly. He pulled the door to let Bianca enter.

The vampyre entered with her head lowered, the door squeaking behind her as the doctor released his hold on it. She assumed the doctor would tell her now, what he wanted her to do this time, but he gestured her to continue walking, in front of him. Bianca stepped further into the shop, taking hesitant steps while she turned back several times to check if the doctor wanted her to stop or keep going. This was pretty weird, to say the least. The doctor had not spoken a word since she entered the shop and all he did was give her hand motions, just telling her to keep walking. He had a funny expression on his face as well, one that belonged to a lunatic who had done something very mischievous. The nightstalker stood erect as the doctor weaved his way around her to the back of his desk. He pulled open a drawer and fished through it with one hand while the other was placed on the table. Bianca observed that his index and middle fingers were twitching wildly, as if a result of drug usage. Her gaze returned to see the doctor’s face, that was still painted in a crazy look. Could this be some kind of excitement she was sensing from him? After moments of searching through his drawer, he brought out a flashlight. This made Bianca even more puzzled about the whole situation. What was it this time? She could not help but expect the worst.

With a manic laugh, the doctor tossed the flashlight at Bianca who caught it with both hands. She stared at the flashlight, then looked at the doctor with a very confused expression. “What’s this for?” she could not help but be curious. The doctor made another motion with his hand that meant for her to wait. He then gestured her to enter the back room of the shop, and her heart sank. Not again, she thought. She felt as if she was just recovering from the after effects of the previous experiment with white claudia. She did not know if she was ready for a third time. How long was he going to keep testing it anyways? What results did he expect from the mixture? Was the previous session not enough for him to either be satisfied with its results or know what’s left to be fixed? The vampyre stared at the doctor, a questioning look about her features. The doctor grinned in an excited manner and told her that he would give her more money if he liked the results this time. He also told her that this was probably the final experiment with white claudia and even if it turned out otherwise, he would find someone else to test it on. Taking a deep breath, the vampyre followed him into the back room once more. The final time. The thought of earning more money was the sole reason she allowed him to test white claudia on her again.

Bianca’s fingers returned to the cold steel, reminding herself that even if she was in danger, she would know how to get out of it. She had magic and a gun. The doctor followed her into the back room, leaving the door open behind him. This could only mean that he was going to be watching her again from outside through the same window he was watching through last time. At least that was what she assumed. But sure enough, the doctor handed her the syringe so now her hands were both occupied, since she also still held the flashlight. He then explained that magic was amplified under the use of the refined white claudia, suggesting that she would be needing it. Bianca had already prepared her mind for what she expected was going to happen - and she expected the worst. The doctor left with a grin, shutting the door. Bianca had perfect vision in the dark, so the flashlight was not necessary. Hesitating for just a moment, she plunged the needle into the flesh of her arm, her jaws clenching as she did. Immediately afterwards, the world around her turned pitch black, even though she could see perfectly through the darkness. She dropped both the syringe and the flashlight and her hands reached down for her gun, ready to use it when necessary. The vampyre stood in a position in which she would be able to react to anything that came to her from any direction. All sorts of mechanical and industrial noises rang in her ears, but her focus never faltered.

As a virtual clock ticked away the seconds in her head, she began to hear noises growing louder as time elapsed. That meant that the sources of these monstrous sounds were getting closer to her position, and from different angles. Swiftly turning on her heels to face the sounds one by one, she caught sight of three monsters moving towards her. As they opened their mouths to release a black substance, Bianca leapt away to dodge each attack, bringing out her gun as she did so. She aimed at one of them and pulled the trigger, the bullet travelling towards and through the monster. It dropped to the ground and began shaking for a bit but stopped after a while. Her eyes never left the other two monsters that were making their way towards her. She backed up a bit to create distance between herself and the monsters. The only reason she did not continue shooting was because the world started to distort again, and this time it turned into a circus like the one she had seen in Worth Woodsea, but it was very dark, and nothing about it was inviting to her. It did not look fun at all and the only thing she felt like was leaving this place. As she backed up, she watched the two remaining monsters from the corner of her eyes. She kept herself alert in case more monsters appeared.

As the world continued to shift, she averted her focus back to the monsters and fired another bullet at one of the two remaining monsters. Again, just like the previous monster, it dropped to the ground and shook violently before going completely still. This was when Bianca’s noticed how much the monsters’ faces resembled those of clowns and that was when she took the last shot at the third monster. Her surroundings began to warp very quickly this time. She assumed it was supposed change every time each monster was killed, and since she killed two at the same time, it began to shift rapidly and the illusions of her parents materialized in a distance. They walked closer towards her, each step painfully slow as Bianca croaked hateful words at them. Her grip on the revolver tightened as she took backward steps and came to a wall. Slowly their faces distorted into those of clowns, and this terrified her so much it forced tears to stream down her cheeks like a pathetic child. The illusions of her parents then walked closer towards each other, merging into a single person, a single clown and the face warping into another very familiar one and Bianca screamed.

Gloria was awake.

One last time, the face warped back into that of a clown wearing a nefarious grin and the body moved as if it was glitching, towards her. The vampyre planted her feet on the ground underneath her and held her weapon with both hands, aiming directly at the figure coming to her. Her jaw was tightened, just as her grip on the gun was as she began shooting nonstop. The body kept moving forward, it was unkillable. But the anger that was fueled by Gloria’s presence would not allow her to cease shooting. Magic bullets shot through the illusionary being, but it did not do anything close to hurting it. A harsh slap on her left cheek caused her head to turn towards the right as her hands lowered, the gun remaining in her left hand. She was dazed for a moment until she came back to her senses, when she realised that she was back in the doctor’s shop, the back room of it to be precise. The slap probably came from the doctor to wake her up, and when she looked in front of her, still in a dreamy state, she saw that the bodies of the monsters she had killed were the only things that remained from her trip to the world of nightmares, and a number of bullet holes in the wall that she was facing. The doctor placed a sum of jewels in her hands and said, “Well done, Bianca.” She would have been surprised that the doctor remembered her name. But it was not her name.

“My name is Gloria,” she muttered, the name sinking into her mind and feeling easy on her lips. The doctor looked at her funny as she pushed past him to leave.