Midnight’s Embrace: The Curse of the Crimson Moon

I held the torn page in trembling hands.

The ink had faded in some places, smudged by time — or maybe blood. My name was written at the top, not printed, but scrawled in hurried strokes. Whoever wrote it… knew me.

**"Takeru Vahn."**

The way it was written… it wasn't just calling me. It was warning me.

The wind howled through the broken stained glass of the chapel, as if the building itself didn't want me there. But I didn't move. I just stood there, frozen, reading the words I didn't remember ever writing.

> *"He who is kissed by the crimson moon shall carry the burden of two fates: the hunter… and the hunted."*

I read it again.

Two fates?

**"What does that mean…?"** I whispered.

The page burned slightly in my hand. Not hot like fire, but warm — like a memory long buried was trying to crawl back.

And then… I saw her.

Not in front of me.

Not beside me.

But *through* me.

A vision, like a flash of a dream. A girl in a dark cloak running through blood-soaked snow. Her breaths were short, desperate. Her eyes were glowing red… but not with rage.

With regret.

It was Yuria.

And she was being hunted — not by humans, but something *older*, something I couldn't see. The sky above her wasn't blue or black — it was **crimson**, like the moon itself had turned into an open wound.

She turned for a moment.

> *"If you follow me, you'll suffer."*

I heard her voice inside my mind. Not like before — this was deeper, like it had come from my soul. But I wasn't afraid anymore.

I touched the torn page again. The writing had changed.

Now it said:

> *"To find her, bleed under the same moon."*

Suddenly, the mirror shards on the floor began to glow — each one showing a memory.

Our first meeting.

The alley when she saved me.

Her soft smile before vanishing.

I reached toward one, and the instant my finger touched the shard—

—I was no longer in the chapel.

---

The world twisted.

It was cold. So cold, I couldn't breathe.

I stood in a field of black roses under a sky with no stars. Just that blood-red moon, watching me like an eye that never blinked.

Then I heard her scream.

Distant, muffled… but definitely **her**.

"YURIA!"

I ran. My legs burned. The thorns of the roses cut my arms, my legs, but I didn't stop. I kept running, chasing the sound of her voice.

And then I saw her.

She was on her knees, chained, surrounded by dark figures wearing ceremonial masks — no faces, just voids. They chanted something I didn't understand, and with every word they spoke, her body trembled.

"No!" I shouted. "STOP!"

I tried to reach her, but my feet sank into the ground like quicksand.

Yuria looked up — her eyes met mine. No anger. No fear. Just one silent whisper on her lips:

> *"Don't forget me."*

---

I woke up on the chapel floor, gasping for air. My hands were bleeding — real blood this time. The torn page had turned to ash.

But I understood now.

This wasn't just about curses or vampires.

It was about a bond.

A promise.

Even if the whole world called her a monster… **I wouldn't.**

I'd find her.

Break the curse.

And bring her back — no matter what it took.

Even if I had to bleed under the crimson moon again.