THE WASHINGTON FAMILY

The crowd surrounded Mr. Nicole from every direction. So much questions on a matter that doesn't need explanation but warning. "Who are you?" "What happened to the Washington family?" "Where are the others?" "Why have you been hiding this from us?" Nicole could hear everything. He could hear their voices. He could hear their breathing. Most of all, he could hear their blood pumping inside their chests. Thump. Thump. Thump. To Nicole, the sound was unbearable. For a moment, he imagined tearing through the crowd like a lion playing with a cat. But he controlled himself. They want answers, he thought. But this isn't a matter that needs an explanation. It needs a warning. Nicole sat silently in the Prime Minister's chair inside the official residence in England. His face was calm, but his mind was somewhere else entirely, lost in thoughts like a man trying to escape the allure of darkness. For years, he had hidden the truth. But now, the world had come looking for him. And he had finally decided to tell them everything. The truth about the Washington family. The most powerful family to ever walk the Earth. A family blessed and cursed with unimaginable power. The crowd continued shouting. Nicole remained silent. Then, suddenly, everything changed. The crowd went quiet. Nicole slowly opened his mouth. No words came out. The silence became so deep that the whistling of birds could be heard. Nicole finally stood. He walked toward the crowd. His dark eyes moved slowly from one person's eyes to another. Then he raised his left hand toward the sky, leaving his palm wide open. The crowd stared at him in confusion. Nicole slowly closed his fingers. The moment his hand became a fist, an invisible force swept across the room. Everyone was made to sit down. People screamed as their bodies were forced toward the ground. Nicole lowered his hand. Instantly, hundreds of people were forced to sit on the floor. It was as if he had compelled them. He walked toward the microphone. He adjusted his jacket. Then, with his faint British accent, "I shall tell you a story that you have never heard before." The room remained silent. Nicole looked toward the cameras. "My name is Nicole Washington." He paused. "I am the third son of Esther Washington, one of four identical children born on the same night." His expression darkened. "My father was an obsessed scientist." "He was fascinated by supernatural creatures—especially werewolves and vampires." People started murmuring that creatures like that didn't exist. Nicole ignored them and continued. "But he was not a wealthy man." "At the time, my mother, Esther, had just given birth to a baby girl." "My father, Nicklaus Washington, eventually discovered where the creatures he had been searching for lived." "Ireland." "So he moved our family there." Nicole lowered his voice. "During a full moon, my father went into the forest to study the creatures." "He never came back." Nicole stared at the floor. "I suppose that was his last night in the world of the living." "My mother found his corpse the following morning." "She cried for days." "So much that she almost forgot she had a daughter." "One stormy night, while packing my father's belongings, she discovered something hidden among his possessions." "A book." "Not an ordinary book." "A mystical book." "It spoke of a powerful sage who could grant wishes." "At first, my mother ignored it." "But one morning, her daughter Rose returned from school and told her that the village head demanded their contribution to the community." "My mother was already exhausted from everything that had happened." "Then she remembered the book." "She opened it." "And she read every word." Nicole paused. "Then she left her daughter behind and began a journey to the city we now refer to as the City of Angels, Los Angeles." "She searched everywhere for the mysterious being described in the book." "But nothing happened." "Days became weeks." "Then, one night, on Sunset Boulevard, she finally found someone." "A sage who came in the form of a woman offering her bread." Nicole's eyes narrowed. "The sage told my mother that she could give her everything she wanted." "But there was a price." "My mother asked to meet the most powerful mystical being of all." "The sage smiled." "He told her that the being she was looking for was the Devil." A murmur passed through the crowd. Nicole continued. "The sage moved closer to my mother and told her..." "You don't want to make a deal with the Devil, do you?" "But the sage offered her another choice." "He said he could grant her wishes himself." "My mother didn't ask many questions." "She wanted wealth." "Power." "And she wanted not to ever be lonely again in her life." "The sage granted her wishes." "But there was one condition." "Ten years later, my mother would have to give her daughter to her." Nicole's voice became colder. "My mother agreed." "Ten years later, she kept her promise." "The four of us were born." "Four identical boys." "Our mother gave us names connected to the mystical world." "But people questioned the names so much that she eventually changed them." "The first was Damon." "The second was Lazarus." "The third..." Nicole looked directly into the camera. "...was me." "Nicole." "And the fourth was Nathan." The room remained frozen. Nicole continued. "We were born on a horrifying night." "A night people celebrate as Halloween." "October thirty-first." "Moving into November first." "But what the world doesn't know is that the night we were born wasn't a coincidence." "It was the beginning of a curse." Nicole suddenly stopped speaking. The clock on the wall moved closer to midnight. 11:59 PM. The crowd waited. Then—12:00 AM. Nicole disappeared. There was no explosion. No flash. No sound. One moment he was sitting in the Prime Minister's chair. The next—he was gone. The people inside the room screamed. But Nicole wasn't the only thing that had disappeared. Ten people were lying dead on the floor. England descended into chaos. The Prime Minister immediately ordered the country's finest rescue teams to evacuate civilians and investigate whatever had caused the m******e. Sirens filled the streets. Military vehicles rushed toward the scene. Rescue teams moved through the area, searching for survivors. Then a strange man appeared out of the blue. Nobody knew where he came from. His clothes looked like they belonged to a madman. His hair was wild. His face was pale. Yet strangely, he smelled nice. As he walked closer, the scent became stronger. The rescue team began coughing. Then one soldier fell. Another collapsed. Within seconds, the entire rescue team was dead. Even the civilians nearby began falling to the ground. The strange man didn't say a word. He simply walked over their bodies. And something terrifying happened. His body began to change. His torn clothes reshaped themselves into an elegant black suit. His pale skin became smooth. His face became younger. It was as if he were absorbing their life force. The corpses beneath his feet began to rot while his own body became stronger. He reached Nicole's chair. He bent down. He sniffed it like a wolf tracking prey. Then he smiled. He had found Nicole's scent. The man disappeared. Not through magic. Through speed. He moved so quickly that the world seemed to blur around him. As he ran through the streets, people collapsed behind him. Their blood seemed to vanish from their bodies. Their bodies became lifeless and rotten. Finally, the mysterious man stopped. He stood before an ancient building hidden deep inside a dark forest. It wasn't a normal house. It was a mansion. An enormous mansion surrounded by dead trees. Rotten bodies covered the ground outside. The man walked inside. He entered the living room. Five enormous chairs stood in a circle. Nicole sat in the third chair. He looked completely calm. The mysterious man stopped. Nicole smiled. Then he spoke. "Have a drink, brother." The man stared at him. Nicole continued. "You've been dead for centuries." He smiled. "It's not everyone who gets the chance to defeat death itself." The man finally laughed. "Damon." Nicole leaned backward. "We have a lot to catch up on."