"The Vampire's Game"

"THE VAMPIRE'S GAME " CHAPTER-3

Maria leaned closer, her voice low but steady.

“Justin, I know you’re hiding something from me. The pain in your eyes… it’s impossible to miss. You look like you’re about to cry. What is it? Do you have a problem? If you do, I’m here. We can face it together.”

Justin’s eyes glistened, and this time he didn’t try to hide it. A tear slid down his cheek as he looked at her with a tenderness that made her chest tighten. They stared at each other, unmoving, their gazes locked as if the world around them had vanished.

Maria swallowed hard, her own eyes burning. “Is everything okay? Why are you crying? Tell me… how are you, vampire?” She gave a small, shaky laugh, though her voice was filled with questions. “You look so much like us. Like a normal human being. Except—” she paused, her eyes flickering to his sharp fangs, “your teeth betray you. The rest… it’s the same. Exactly the same.”

Her tone softened again. “But you’re carrying something heavy. I can see it. You don’t have to keep it from me, Justin. You can tell me..

“You’re right,” Justin said, voice small and steady. “I am carrying heavy things. You can see it in my eyes — that means something. It means you can tell when I’m happy or when I’m hurting. I have so much to tell you… but will you believe me? Will you trust me? Some of this will sound impossible, like something out of a story. But it’s real.”

Maria’s breath caught. “How… how real?” she asked.

Justin looked at her with that old, tired smile. “I’m two hundred years old.”

Her face went blank for a second — shock pressed behind her calm — and she forced her voice to stay level. “Two hundred?”

“Yes.” He nodded once. “But I can’t explain everything here. We need to go somewhere private.”

“Go where?” Maria asked, an edge of disbelief threading her words. “Where would—”

He cut in, gentle but urgent. “We can teleport.”

The word landed between them like a thrown stone. Maria’s eyes widened. “Teleport? You can—”

“One power,” he said. “Only one. I can move from one place to another.” He paused, watching her digest it. “Come with me. I’ll show you my old home — the town I ruled. I used to be a king.”

“King?” The question was almost a laugh and almost a sob. “You were a king?”

“Yes.” His hand brushed hers, brief and grounding. “I’ll show you who I was, and what happened to me. I’ve been looking for you for a long time — about 170 years. And now I’ve finally found you.”

Maria stood very still, the world narrowing to his words. For the first time the terrible distance in his eyes made sense, like an ocean you could cross only if you believed in the other shore. She swallowed. “Okay,” she said, voice barely above a whisper. “Show me.”

They blinked out of Maria’s dim sitting room and into a cavern of dust and shadow. One breath later, they were standing in the heart of Justin’s old mansion — a once-grand royal hall that time had stripped to bones. Moonlight cut through broken windows, picking out a huge throne draped in cobwebs. The floorboards sighed. Cracked plaster hung like peeled skin. Everything smelled faintly of cold stone and old secrets.

Maria’s mouth fell open. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears. She took a step forward as if the sight might be a trick of the eyes. “This… this was your home?” she whispered.

Justin let out a small, almost embarrassed laugh. “It was my throne room. I ruled from that chair.” He nodded toward the massive seat, then watched her face carefully as the shock washed over her. “I know how it looks now. It used to be… different.”

“How did it become like this?” she asked, struggling to keep her voice steady. “You were a normal man once, right? Not… not like this.” Her hand hovered near her mouth, fingers trembling.

“For a long time I was,” Justin said. He folded his hands together, as if to keep them from telling stories on their own. “But things changed. My brother—” He stopped. The name hung unsaid in the cold air. Maria’s eyes widened; she waited.

Maria’s voice dropped, careful now. “So your whole family — your mother, father, your brother, your sister — they’re all vampires too, right?”

Justin shook his head. The motion was small, almost apologetic. “No. I’m the only one.”

“Why?” The question came out sharper than she meant.

He looked at the cracked throne as if it held the answer. “I’m stuck between life and death. Not human, not a ghost — a vampire. I died because of my brother. In the worst way possible. He betrayed me on my wedding day.”

Maria felt the room tilt a little. “So—wait. You’re two hundred years old, you’re the only vampire, and your older brother—he betrayed you?” Her words stumbled over themselves. “Did your family... did they come back as humans?”

“Yes.” He watched her closely. “They were reborn. My mother and father don’t remember me. But my brother does.”

“Do you know who he is? Where he is? What he does?” Maria asked, urgency threading her voice.

Justin’s mouth tightened. “I know where he lives, who he spends his life with. I know everything I need to know.”

“Who is he?” Maria pressed. “Does he remember you? Does he—”

“He remembers,” Justin said. There was a bitter curl to his smile. “He remembers, and he taunts me about it. He jokes that I didn’t even get the dignity of dying — he mocks me for being stuck like this.”

Maria’s breath hitched. “Can you tell me who he is? Please.” Her mind raced. She had only three close friends: Emma, John, and Rian. Emma couldn’t be his older brother — she’d always been a girl. That left only two possibilities.

Justin met her eyes, and something unreadable moved across his face. “I can tell you,” he said slowly. “But you should know—this changes everything.”

Maria swallowed. Her pulse thudded in her throat. “Who is he?” she whispered.

Justin let the silence sit for a heartbeat, then answered: “One of your friends betrayed me.”

The name hung there, heavy and terrible. Maria’s world narrowed to the three—Emma, John, Rian—until the truth felt like a live wire under her skin. It couldn’t be Emma. So it came down to John or Ryan.

JUSTIN SAID IT'S RYAN!!!!!!

HE'S THE ONE