Josiah trampled through the dreich conditions of the forest ground, a head torch lighting her way. She was nervous, sure, but she knew she was alone apart from Mirena, who she had an advantage over. She had her gun, all Mirena had was two sharp fangs that threatened to bite her neck and drain every drop of blood from her body as she felt herself slowly fade out of consciousness and into the deep, endless slumber of...

Yeah. She was not scared.

A small thud caught her attention and she turned to see that her bug spray had fallen out of her backpack. She bent down to pick it up, brushing it off until her hand was met with a wet substance. A glance with her headtorch told her that it was blood, and she masked her disgust, simply brushing it off on her already red uniform. She glanced around, unsure of what direction she was going in. It was pitch black this deep into the forest. Upon turning around, a trail caught her eyes. The same blood that coveted her can had dripped along the ground, so she did the only logical thing of following the path, hoping it would lead her to Mirena. Had she been more careful, she would have noticed the other seven paths, all twisting out from the exact spot she had been stopped.

She took a few more steps and in the distance she made out the shape of a dark cottage. It's wood was old and rotting with the rest of the forest but something compelled her towards it. Mirena was a vampire, she probably lived in a disgusting state doing disgusting vampire things. Violently mauling innocent humans and stuff.

As she moved closer, a branch trangled around her feet, making her fall to the floor. Bugs and spiders scattered as she landed on them, making her squeal and break the silent air around her.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Josiah looked up to see a swarm of white, running around her in circles before coming to a stop in front of her. "Smells like a human."

Her heart raced in my throat and she tried to scramble to her feet, but rough hands pulled her towards the figure in front of her. A man stood tall, dressed completely in white with horns sticking out above his head. As she almost let out another scream, he clicked his fingers, and a rag was placed over her mouth. She didn't dare to breathe.

"Go on, honey. Take a nice, deep breath." The soft voice spoke again from behind her, coming from the pale head of a woman with icy blue eyes and pale pink lips. Josiah gasped, immediately cursing herself as she inhaled a large amount of whatever the cloth had been smothered in. She passed out almost immediately.

When she woke up she was tangled in rope-like vines that were wrapped tightly around her arms, clamping her wrists together and making it impossible to escape. Beneath her was a painting, in blood, of the same 8-fold path from earlier. She had clearly chosen the wrong one to travel down. Unless they all lead to the same base of Doven. "What is all the commotion about?" a gruff voice spoke. Josiah looked up to see an older man, named Arran, who marched with importance towards her. His complexion was different from theirs - his skin was not quite as pale and he looked less lethargic and sickly than the rest of them. He wore a different colour. Instead of white, it was silver. The rest of the group seemed to respect him, and cleared a path, bowing down as he moved through them.

"We captured a human, Sir." the young woman from earlier declared, spinning Josiah around as she dangled by her arms. "Quite a pretty one at that." Josiah rolled her eyes.

"Let the poor lass down, why have you got her dangling up there like that?" Arran spoke, a hint of humour in his tone. He thanked the man from earlier who carefully lowered Josiah down right into the arms of the woman who squeezed her tight, clearly in awe of her.

"Get off!" Josiah demanded, shoving her away. The surrounding guards pulled out small daggers, pointing them at her as she pushed away one of their own.

"Alright. Give the poor girl a break she's probably terrified. I'm Arran." he reached out a slender hand towards her own. "Introduce yourselves Doves don't be rude."

The woman nodded, introducing herself as Tinsley and introducing the man beside her. "This is Poseidon. I call him Posie but he don't like that. Prob'ly just call him Poseidon. He don't talk." she relayed, speaking at a speed that even Arran struggled to comprehend despite having spent the past few years with Tinsley. "Ooh or Donny. I bet he'd like that. Wait! No. Call him-"

"Hush, Tinsley." Arran demanded, smiling as she shrunk back into herself. "You know we like to treat our guests with respect."

"Forgive me, Sir, I don't feel like much of a guest. It was more forced." Josiah spoke, timidly smiling at Tinsley who was grinning wildly at her.

"Guest as in you won't be here for long." he corrected himself. Josiah raised an eyebrow.

"You're letting me go?" she asked with surprise.

"No, human." Tinsley giggled, her grin turning wicked. A glance at Poseidon confirmed the same.
"We're going to eat you."

Josiah gasped, curling over slightly as if she had been punched in the stomach. She wasn't ready to die, but her line of work had forced her into this position where she would inevitably be eaten alive by vampires, who she already considered her mortal enemy.

"Wait!" a mysterious man moved forward. "Please don't hurt her." he begged, fighting his way out of the crowd that had formed to kneel infront of Arran.

"Humour me." Arran spoke. "We're Doven, this is what we do."

The man wiped his face, smudging the pale facepaint he had applied that morning and every morning since joining Doven. "She's my daughter."

Josiah felt her stomach flip again, and she broke free of the vines completely to pull the man who had claimed to be her missing father into her arms, salty tears of relief landing on his shoulder. "It's okay, Siah. I'm here." he reassured her, kissing her head gently.

"What's this, you snuck in?" Arran boomed, his tone full of spite that replaced his lax demeanour. "Pretended to be one of us? You reek of human."

Josiah's dad nodded, pleading with Arran once more. "Spare her, you can have me."

"Traitor blood. Even better." Tinsley giggled, wrapping vines around the neck of Josiah's dad.

"Dad no-" Josiah begged. "He'll just eat you." He nodded. He had already made up his mind. He didn't care about himself, he just needed Josiah to escape with her life.

"I'll let your precious daughter go." Arran bargained. "I'm impressed that you've managed to hide for so long. And skeptical."

Arran glared at Poseidon, who blushed slightly under the pressure. Poseidon viewed Josiah's father as his own father figure. He couldn't speak to anyone, but work with this man had led to a small amount of verbal communication. He knew that he was human and helped him hide to repay him for the lessons. With a forced blink, he shoved down his guilt, bringing back his matching grin to Tinsleys.

"Don't fret, son. You just won't get a share of this one." Arran spoke, smacking the starving boy on the shoulder. He nodded, not really wanting a share of the man he considered a friend. "Alright, Josiah. You have 3 seconds to run. Tinsley, do the honours."

"3..." she started to giggle uncontrollably, which delayed the time enough for Josiah to say goodbye to her dad.

"I love you, Siah. You're all I've thought about since I left. It's time to be brave." he spoke, holding Josiah close to him before releasing her. She shook her head firmly, trying to hug him again.

"2... clock's tickin' Josie." Tinsley chuckled. "That rhymes with Posie."

Josiah stood. "I love you too, dad." She finished, before sprinting out through the thickest part of the forest where Doven lived. As she ran, she didn't dare look back. Behind her, her father hung above the swirled pattern of blood on the ground, and as Arran took the first bite of his flesh, a great cry broke out. Part of it was Josiah's fathers cries of pain, and part of it was an enthusiastic roar from the crowd. Josiah didn't stop or flinch at the noise. She ran and she ran and she ran until she keeled over, throwing up from exhaustion and grief. Now he really was gone, and it was definitely at the hands of a vampire.