"The Vampire's Game"

"THE VAMPIRE'S GAME " CHAPTER-4

Justin’s face went quiet as if a weight had settled over him. “It was Ryan,” he said softly. “He’s the one who betrayed me. He’s the one who always mocks me for being stuck between life and death.”

Maria felt the room tilt. Her legs went slack and she froze where she stood, as if the floor had been pulled out from under her. Everything inside her buzzed — shock, disbelief, a sudden, bitter confusion. Who did she trust now? Her best friend, or the vampire she’d met only a day before?

She couldn’t find the words. Her mouth opened; no sound came. Justin watched her, the sadness in his eyes unreadable. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me at first,” he said, almost gently.

“No,” she managed at last, voice small and raw. “I don’t… I don’t believe you. Not about Rayan.” Her hand came up to her mouth. “I’m just—confused. Who do I trust?”

“Then hear me out,” Justin replied. “If you want the truth, I’ll tell you everything. How I became this. Why I’m stuck. How my brother betrayed me on my wedding day.” He took a breath, steadying himself. “It’s a long story. If you’re willing, we’ll start from the beginning.”

Maria swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded, even though she still felt unsteady. Somewhere beneath the shock, curiosity and a fierce need for answers flared up. “Start,” she said. “Tell me.”

Justin’s voice dropped, low and steady, as if dredging the past from a very dark place. “It all started in 1825. I was getting married to the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. Everything was perfect… or at least, I thought it was. But on the day of my wedding, I discovered something that changed everything. My elder brother… he liked her too.”

Maria’s eyes widened, her pulse quickening.

“I didn’t even hear it from him,” Justin continued, his voice tightening. “I found out because his friends were talking in front of me. They liked the same woman I was about to marry. And I… I couldn’t believe it. My own brother liked her. But what he did next…” He swallowed, and his hands curled into fists at his sides. “You won’t believe it.”

Maria leaned in instinctively, though a chill ran down her spine.

“He could have stepped back,” Justin said bitterly. “She didn’t love him. She loved me. And I loved her. We spent so much time together. We were happy. But he… he decided to destroy that. On my wedding day, he decided to kill me.”

Maria’s breath caught.

“He asked me to follow him,” Justin said, his eyes darkening. “I trusted him. He was my brother. I thought… maybe he just needed to talk. He said, ‘Come with me to the basement. I need to show you something.’ I went. And when I stepped down, he was there — smiling at me like a psycho. Nothing human in his eyes.”

Justin’s voice grew tighter, almost trembling. “I said, ‘Brother… what’s wrong? Why are you smiling like that? Is something wrong? Can I help?’ And he… he just looked at me and smiled even wider. Then he said… he said that I was stupid. That I was the fool for trusting him. That I had walked straight into his trap.”

He stopped for a moment, letting the silence sink into Maria. The air felt heavy, thick with history, betrayal, and unspeakable pain..

Justin’s eyes darkened, and his voice dropped to a whisper, though the words carried the weight of centuries. “He attacked me there, in the basement. My own brother… the person I trusted most… he tried to kill me. I didn’t even have a chance to fight back. Everything happened so fast — the betrayal, the pain, the shock.”

Maria shivered, stepping closer, though instinct told her to run.

“I thought I was going to die,” Justin continued, voice breaking just slightly. “And in that moment… something inside me changed. I felt myself slipping away from life… and then coming back, but not as the man I had been. I wasn’t alive in the way I used to be… and I wasn’t dead. I became something else — a vampire. Stuck between life and death. Trapped in this body for centuries, carrying the memory of that day like a wound that never heals.”

And in my kingdom I was declared DEAD

Maria’s hand went to her mouth. “But… how did you survive? How…?”

“I survived because I was made to survive,” Justin said, almost bitterly. “But nothing was the same. My family was reborn as humans. My mother and father forgot me. My brother… he remembered. He knows what he did. And for years, he mocked me, taunted me, reminding me that I didn’t even get the peace of dying. He… he made fun of me for being trapped like this.”

Maria’s mind spun. Two hundred years… a life stolen by betrayal… and yet here he was, standing in front of her, alive, but carrying the weight of everything that had happened. She took a slow breath. “I… I don’t even know what to say,” she whispered.

Justin stepped closer, the ghost of pain in his eyes softening when he looked at her. “I know it’s a lot to take in. But now you understand why I am like this. And why… I’ve been searching for you for so long. I needed you to know everything. To trust me… if you can.”

Maria’s tears fell freely as she listened to Justin’s heartbreaking story. Her chest heaved, and her fingers trembled.

“That’s… that’s everything,” Justin said softly, his voice almost a whisper.

Maria wiped her tears, her voice shaky but determined. “This… this is too much for anyone to handle. But I trust you, Justin. I trust you completely.”

He studied her for a long moment, a flicker of something unreadable in his eyes. Then he asked quietly, “Do you want to see… where it happened? Where I was killed?”

Maria’s eyes widened, a mix of fear and curiosity. “Yes,” she whispered. “I want to see.”

He took her hand gently, and together they moved toward the backyard of the mansion — the place where centuries ago his life had been stolen. The air grew heavier, the shadows deeper, as they stepped across the cracked stone floor.

Maria’s gaze swept across the ruins of the mansion, the broken walls, and the fallen pillars. A strange sensation prickled at the back of her mind. Memories? Or something like memories? A fragment, a whisper of another life? Her head spun lightly as fleeting visions, emotions, and sensations surged inside her. She had been here before… somehow. She felt it deep in her bones, like a thread connecting her to this ancient place.

“So…” she murmured, her voice barely audible, “this is where you were killed, right?”

Justin nodded, the shadows in his eyes deepening. “Yes,” he said simply.

Maria hesitated, then asked the question that had been burning in her mind. “Then… do you know me from your past life? Was I… a part of your past life?”

Justin went silent.