The silence that followed made Joseph look around for other voices, but there was none. He shook his head and opened his eyes. He looked at the hybrid, and nodded to spare his family. Aleksander confirmed that he would not touch them. He had enough fuel to awaken the creature that kept hidden, dormant. It was his weapon and asset. Lucifer's men whom he hunted every time they stepped on his territory. That's why they were there then. They could feed a hybrid for several weeks.

           The hybrid lets a glimpse of a  smile  to show on his lips, looking at Joseph who was terrified at the time. Alexander knew that the young man in front of him was not strong enough to face him. Nobody was.

           "Run, Joseph!" he told her in a harsh, even nervous tone.

            His shoulders sagged, but his gaze remained focused on the place where a black smoke was being blown away by the wind. Alek opened his mouth to say something more, but Joseph stopped him, looking at him like he'd ripped his heart out of his chest with his bare hands. A sentence that said a thousand words.

          "You don't stay either!"

           He heard him whisper as a gust of wind enveloped them both, knocking them to the ground. They stood awkwardly holding each other.

           Those piercing eyes in the distance were digging into their minds. They were like a deep pit full of ink and agony. They made his cheek quiver, and the corner of his lip twitched. Long, ghostly fingers touched Joseph's shoulder, making him flinch. In a flash he turned, and before him he saw a black sea. It was like an abyss into which he stepped, and his mind was shattered by the voices that penetrated his brain, followed by a pain that shot through his head.

           Kill, was all he heard combined with a gasp. With difficulty, Joseph also managed to dig his nails into the arm of the one holding him tightly by the shoulder. Then, in a moment of inattention, his feet slipped, and both of them fell to the ground, rolling in the mud that had formed from the day's storm. But his hand remained clamped around his neck. He dominated him.

             He squirmed to escape, to breathe, but the grip was like pliers pulling out a nail. His chest was about to explode so hard his heart was pounding in his rib cage. He felt a pressure as if someone had placed their knee on top of him and pressed hard, stopping his breathing. His pulse was like a furious symphony at the end, ready to bring a hall to its feet, and saliva oozed down his chin. A grimace appeared on his face, through the mist that descended before his eyes, trying one last cry for help. He hissed instead and barely between his lips:

           "I'm..."

            The words stuck in his throat, as if a knot wouldn't let them out, realizing what the hybrid next to him was trying to tell him. He closed his eyes to calm down, feeling a wave of heat take over his body. It was like a hug. " I'm fine!"

             It was a beautifully packaged lie, and he knew it, because he could read his mind.

             Weakened, he fell on the last attempt to fight the monster ahead of him, holding his hand to his throat. A few sobs came from the house as his breathing became labored and his shoulders heaved, feeling all the energy he had left in his struggle to oxygenate himself. He was panting heavily, and a gust of wind created a barrier between the two.

           He could hear the voices of the two, shouting desperately, but slowly, slowly he slipped into oblivion. Only Aleksandre's voice accompanied him constantly, to open his eyes.

          "It's not time to sleep, Joseph! Control it like I taught you, you listen to me!?"

            At that moment, Joseph nodded, opening his eyes. The hybrid's claws pierced him, making him scream in agony. With a bit of effort he managed to bend his leg and push him away from him as much as possible. In a flash, Alexander leaped onto the man's back, penetrating his shoulder with his fangs. The latter lets out an angry snarl, throwing the young hybrid down the manor stairs. Chandra screamed loudly, shunning him. At the same time, the terrified William dragged her after him, among the fleeing people, bumping into each other to get in and hide.

           Breathing heavily, Alek stood up, but fell back a moment later. Out of the corner of his eye, he looked towards the entrance, and, putting his hand to his hair, he took out a needle that was in the shape of a key and threw it at the feet of the young woman, who stood frozen in the fierce fight.

           "Enter the cellar. We will come too," he told her tiredly.

            She nodded, disappearing from the door frame.

            In the end, they were all just ghosts, wandering lost among the ruins of a dark sunset. The funereal atmosphere enveloped them. The young man glanced up at the sky when he heard the melodious sound of thunder. Entwined with that of the crimson electrical discharge, it created an enchanting picture against the onyx sky. Looking at the play of lights, for a moment he forgot the pain shooting through his whole body and the fatigue he felt, but he was entrusted with a mission.

            He had to go on...

            "I hate these storms!" he thought, walking slowly and muddy towards the two, who were wallowing in the swamp.

            "Life is a series of strange events!" he heard Joseph whispering to him telepathically in a mocking tone.

            With the last of his strength, holding his fighting partner by the throat, he finally managed to throw him a few meters away. Gasping, he stood up, catching his breath for a second. He motioned for Aleksandre to stop. He was quite fast and they had the strength to run to the entrance. The young man nodded and turned, quickening his pace, Joseph running after him. Behind them, a loud growl pierced through them like an arrow. It made them trip over their feet.

             Once inside, the hybrid slammed the massive door behind them, knowing full well that those left outside would become food for the creature who was beyond angry at the time. Joseph was barely breathing, holding on to his right side with one hand and a wall with the other.

              However, to irritate him, the hybrid whose silver hair was covered in mud and blood, began to laugh. For him everything that had happened up to that moment was like a simple show.

              "Don't be a child," Aleksandre told him, beckoning him to come to the cellar. You've fought our fellows before.

              "Not with one of the first!  Annoyed to the core, Joseph yelled, straightening up.

                He made his hand into a fist and cursed him mentally as he passed him.

               "Child, be good!" he answered, nodding his head.

               Joseph hated being called that, by someone who looked younger than him. Suddenly, they both stopped and before them Chandra was waiting for them. He was shaking but trying to control his emotions. Looking at Joseph, he motioned to his right eye. The man looked at the hybrid next to him, seeing through his eyes. One lens was missing, and his real ones appeared. They were black, with the iris in the shape of a bleeding star, a few curling strands of washed-out gray sticking out of it.

              "Spectacular!" the hybrid shouted. "I did a good job then, didn't I?"

              He knew how to put gas on the fire with simple words and gestures. Joseph growled at him as William sighed. The two of them were the only ones who knew he was a hybrid too. Chandra knew that Aleksandre transformed him to save him.

             William came closer to Joseph as Chandra felt her legs go soft. The young man started working for them, because he himself was a victim of a hybrid.

           "This is something new," he said and turned towards the stairs leading to the cellars, but both men could feel his emotions welling up.

            Chandra waved to them, following him as the other two followed.

            "Considering the love he has for us now, I don't think what he'll find there will appease him," Aleksandre finished, playing with his matted, muddy tail.

            "I don't really care for you at the moment either, snake!"

             "Do not lie! You love your brother... "Finally after a pause he continued in a joking tone. "Your father, uncle, creator?"

              "Don't stretch the rope!" Joseph whispered to him, pushing him forward.

              The door creaked shut behind the two, but not before they both heard a symphony of death from outside. There were screams and howls of agony. On the time-worn stairs, darkness took over the four. Everyone was lost in their thoughts.

               In the end, they were just ghosts wandering lost among the ruins of a house that was about to fall apart, as they advanced with each step in silence. The funereal atmosphere enveloped them. Joseph was looking intently at the image that was revealed to him once they reached the cellar.

              Nothing exactly, dark and just a treacherous smell of rot and mold. He looked at the man who shrugged, unable to read him. The mystery of that basement was just a fantasy he had created for himself for years. Disappointment showed on his face, while a smirk formed on Alek's lips. However, something caught everyone by surprise. 

              At that moment, William, annoyed, hit the fragile floor and suddenly began to collapse under them, like a domino. In the blink of an eye, with no time to react, they felt themselves being swallowed by a hungry howl. The floor buckled with them, sending them sliding into a rut. Their fall was cushioned by a texture that resembled human skin. It was a kind of translucent cocoon, but it was full of dust and mold, making them cough and unable to see what was inside.

             William who was next to Joseph tried to move and get off of it, but under his weight, the cocoon broke, causing them to roll in it. Suddenly, the room started to have a horrible smell of rotting flesh, making them feel sick. Looking terrified after the rifles, he saw William, falling to the metal floor, sliding off the cocoon.

             "Help!" he tried to scream but was suffocated by the treacherous smell.

             "Joseph, wait a minute, we'll get you out of there boy!" he heard the hybrid's voice, but his eyes fell on William, who was throwing up and shaking all over. After a few seconds, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, rushing towards Joseph with a troubled look. His face turned white as a water lily.

            "Give me your hand, quickly!" He screamed, making him startle, feeling the slime all over his body, burning his skin.

             Trying to grab onto William's hand, his palm slipped, causing him to fall again. Suddenly, he noticed a body full of maggots inside, and he fell over, dismembering it. The maggots began to scatter, feeling them gnaw at him. Under his clothes he started to feel something crawling and he struggled to get out, but the liquid was something like honey.

           "Get me out," he cried in terror.

            But, to his horror, he felt something grab his arm. There was another person in the cocoon. Horrified, he froze as he looked down at the body half eaten alive by maggots, the flesh of which was beginning to disintegrate, large chunks falling directly onto him. Blood stained the polluted water.

            He tried to say something to him, but William hit him, cracking his head, from where more worms started to come out. Joseph jumped up in disgust and giddy at the whole sickening scenario. Once outside, he began to throw up, feeling all of his body odor of a rotten odor and trembling.

           All his clothes were full of maggots, and a panicked Chandra came to him, running away, as she took down her long pale pink cardigan. His whole body trembled, feeling the slime in his mouth, in his nose, and under his skin, as worms crawled.

           "Undress!" the young woman shouted as she tugged hard on his clothes to get them off him as quickly as possible.

           "Damn it!" William shouted angrily. "How many of these monsters are there?"

            Amused by everything that was happening, Aleksandre replied dryly.

            "Ten."

             He motioned William to the rusted sarcophagus in the back that was attached to the massive cocoon. In it was a creature that fed on blood through several tubes and by which the beast was kept alive. Then, he raised his finger to the ceiling. They all looked up, realizing he was talking about the one outside. Finally, he motioned between himself and Joseph. The rest were known to be scattered around the District.

           "Fuck!" William snapped.

            "It's a creature of the night." With sunrise he will retreat to the cave from whence he came, Alek added.

            "How do you know this?" Chandra asked him worriedly, but then stopped.

            She knew from Joseph about the capabilities of a hybrid and from the moment he woke up. In time, although afraid of him, she managed to accept him. He wasn't a monster, he was a being fighting on two fronts. Not to kill, to protect.

           The pact made between the two brothers was made in blood as she let him bite her so he could survive. Even a drop of the reddish plasma kept the creature under control. Chandra knew what was in that alcohol. The venom of a hybrid and human blood.

         "Stop thinking so much, dear sister!"

          "And you, stop reading my thoughts, Joseph!"

          "Then I shouldn't either, right?"

            Instead, William stared at them open-mouthed, lost in the river of worms.

           "You're all crazy," he finally concluded, defeated, looking at everything that was happening around him.

           "Now you realize?" Joseph replied, trying to get rid of the maggots that were clinging to him.

            The young man just mumbled something, but the two men heard him clearly. Meanwhile, shaking himself, Joseph noticed something in one of the cocoons. A tattoo. Chandra watched his facial expression, which suddenly changed. She also approached in disgust, treading slowly so as not to slip. But as if on cue, they turned to Alek, who was leaning back against a wall where it was cleaner to walk. The hybrid rolled his eyes and shrugged.

           "Lucifer owed me!" he slammed it to them.

           "No wonder his men were here today."

            "I'd rather say they were, because I'm sure there's a carnage upstairs," Chandra continued, as she began to wipe Joseph's body with a rag she found on the floor, a reddish hue to her cheeks and trying to avoid as much eye contact with him.

           "You mean I killed Lucifer?" William suddenly shouted nervously.

           "His brother," Alek finished, waving his hand, revealing his long, thin fingers.

           "I'm a dead man, that's for sure!"

             William sighed deeply, trying to breathe, but he could feel everything spinning around him. Dizzy, he sat down in a corner, thinking.

              "Don't worry about it. He has no way of knowing that he died because of you," Alek continued, unperturbed.

             At that moment, Joseph aimed at him, who kept making a sign for him to shut up. After a moment and without any result, exasperated that the hybrid still wanted to deepen the wound, he snapped at him:

            "Shut up, just for a second!" It's the first time he's killed someone...

            He intended to make it right, but he knew full well that it wasn't true.

            William managed to kill a hybrid who was also his friend. Something that Joseph later took care of to make him forget, poisoning his memory.

          Aleksandre lifted the corner of his lip with a smile and just threw his arms up as if he understood. He winked at Joseph at the same time.

         "You look good in pink!"

          Hearing this, Chandra chuckled, realizing that the tension had dissipated with a few words.

           "Doesn't he?" She continued, looking at William worriedly.

             She bit her lip as her eyes were fixed on the young man lost in dark thoughts.

              "Surely!" Joseph finished quickly, watching his sister.

              "Joseph..., "the young woman wanted to say something, but Alek quickly cut her off.

             The hybrid clapped, catching everyone's attention. They were tired, hungry, sick, and the horrible miasma in the room wasn't helping at all.

            "It's time!"

             "Time for what?" William asked, lifting his head which was resting in his hands.

              "Let's wake him up, and we'll get rid of him as quickly as possible."

              "Isn't he an ally?" Chandra interjected, feeling a cold shiver.

              "I think anyone after a long sleep is grumpy. Especially when you sleep for decades and are suddenly awakened.

              "In short, we're targets until the veil in his mind lifts," Joseph continued.

              "Superb! " Was all William could say, getting up from the cold cement. "How do we get out of here?"

             Casually, Alek turned to a wooden door.

            In fact, that door led to another basement, and from it to a labyrinth of grottoes. Only one led directly into the forest.

           Suddenly, the silence that fell was shattered by the lines of a poem that Alek decided at that critical moment to share with them.

On the ground, the cold of the night settles down

And when the sun goes down, life will be extinguished;

The winter that has come will be everyone's grave.