A pair of black shoes with a feather-like cape came into Ethan's view. “Odd. Truly odd”

  Ethan’s bloodthirsty eyes darted up towards the man. He wore a long black coat and feathered cape with a red shirt and tie underneath. His face was obscured by a black plague doctor mask, with the only feature sticking out being his ash colored hair. The man had no visible skin, as even his hands were covered by blood-red gloves.

  The man reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small glass tube filled with red and viscous liquid, with a large needle shooting out from the bottom and a circular handle on the top. A syringe. He pulled the handle up. Put the needle up to Ethan’s neck. And pushed in the handle. The red liquid slowly drained from the vial as Ethan’s body absorbed it.

  The chains enveloping him slowly retreated back into his arms. The gnawing hunger that was devouring him vanished as if it was never there, and his mind was able to think freely again.

  “The hell was that?” Ethan screamed at the mysterious figure.

  “ I saved your life, and you're shouting at me?” The man calmly said.

  The two stood in silence. Ethan’s expressions shifted and changed repeatedly.

  “You don't have a clue, do you? What you were going through or what I just injected into you?”

  Who the hell is this guy and what the fuck is going on. He paused and took a sharp deep breath. This creepy fuck probabley knows. I should play into his sympathies, get some info out of him without mentioning my actual life.

  “I do not remember who I am, where I am, or what is going on. Could you enlighten me, sir?” Ethan calmed his demeanor and softened his voice.

  “Don't wanna mention you rose from a grave?”

  Has he been watching me? How does he know that?

  “Well, I did, sir, but I still don't know anything.”

  “Hugh Johnson. I wouldn't recommend using the name of a dead man, so let's give you a different name. Victor Hale”

  Why the fuck is he naming me? “And who might you be, sir?”

  “You may address me as The Crow. You were transforming. I gave you Nightmare blood to satiate that beastly hunger a Tainted such as yourself would have.”

  What the hell is he talking about? “I don't know about any of those things. Could you give me an explanation, Mr Crow?”

  “Here.” Suddenly, a piece of paper appeared in Ethan’s hand with black ink smeared over it.

  “The answer to your questions is there. I shall be taking my leave. But don't worry, we will meet again.” A dark pillar of light appeared around the man, seemingly burning him to ash. As the pillar disappeared, he was gone; only the black feather of a crow remained.

  I would rather never see him again. The lying bastard clearly is up to something. Not much I can do about it, though.

  He sighed as he opened the book and read the letters written in black ink. “ The basics of being a tainted. If you are someone new or you have a mild case of not remembering things, then this book will allow you to learn the things any Tainted should know.”

  “Around 200 years ago, creatures called nightmares appeared and killed many humans. But before we would all be wiped out, the gods saved us and gave us the method to fight back by replacing our normal human hearts with the hearts of these nightmares, allowing us to access powers a human could only dream of. These individuals are called the Tainted.”

  I have the heart of a monster? Ethan placed his hand on his heart. Energy and power pulsed through it with every heartbeat, the same feeling he had with the monster's heart. Seems like I do. If it gives me power, then who cares what type of heart it is. I wonder if I can get stronger than this. Maybe I can use that purple heart I have.

  Wait, where is that monster's heart?

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Ethan looked around him. No heart in sight, only trees, dirt, and grass. Did the Crow take it? Bastard. Oh well, let's continue. As he went to continue, he noticed a blue rune glowing on the back of his hand. A simple three-line symbol, one vertical line in the middle with two lines shooting out in opposite directions, one at each end. What? The rune disappeared as he tried to examine it.

  “The powers of a tainted depends on what species their nightmare heart is from. Tainted’s all start at grade one of their power, with the maximum grade being nine. To go up a grade, many steps are required. For example, if a Tainted within the Chained Domain wishes to advance to grade two. They would first have to kill a grade two Nightmare. Then, gain and devour the heart of a grade two Chained. Doing this would give them new powers and strengthen their existing ones.” Below the passage is a note written in red: “You are a grade 1.”

  If I'm just a grade 1, how powerful are the higher grades? Ethan's body shivers with a mix of excitement and fear. Strength like that. I can't think of anything better.

  “The first requirement is static for all the species while the second is the grade 2 of whatever species the tainted is.”

  Why would he give me all of this info for nothing in return?

  “The power of a Tainted does not come without drawbacks, however. All Tainted have beastly urges they must resist, and they need a constant supply of Nightmare blood to keep sane. If they don't resist or satiate their hunger, they will transform into a Nightmare.”

  Sounds like what I was going through. Having some controllable urges doesn't seem like that big of a drawback for power.

  “All Tainted are provisioned by the gods, and any Tainted that doesn't belong to a house is seen as a criminal and will be hunted down.” The black ink ends. At the bottom of the page, there was a note written in red.

  “Don't join any of the houses unless you wish to live in service of those undeserving. And hide your powers from them. We shall meet again. The Crow,” Ethan stashed the page in his pocket and continued on the path. He braced for pain as he stepped, but it never came.

  My legs healed? Probably the blood, huh.

  As he stepped forward. A harrowing scream pierced the silence. He’d heard this sound frequently, the sound a man makes when he knows he’s about to die. He ran towards the sound. If its a normal person and not some mysterious fuck i can get directions out of him.

  A red and gold brass carriage stood tall on the road. A man in medieval knight's armor had dropped to the floor. Multiple puncture wounds through his armor. Two knights stood next to the carriage, fighting a small, low-to-the-ground brown creature with spiky thorns sticking out of its body. The knights slashed at the Nightmare with their steel swords in a downward motion. But the creature was too fast for them; it kept moving around on all fours and dodging the blows.

  A vision flashed past Ethan’s eyes. “Arthur, why do you always insist on helping these idiots? If they want help, they should earn it.”

  “I don't need a reason to help people. It's just something I think everybody should do.”

  I'm not like you, brother. Besides, whoever's in the carriage must be rich; they wouldn't mind giving me a reward for saving them, right?

  Ethan slowly walked through the shadows, looking for a chance to kill the beast. The Nightmare pounced onto one of the knights, getting onto his head and stabbing him with his thorns again and again, turning his face into bloody mush. As the Knight started falling, the Nightmare jumped off his head, looking towards his next prey.

  Ethan took his chance as the beast was distracted. Summoning the chains, he spun them vertically, gathering momentum and then striking downwards at the Nightmare. The chain hit the monster with immense force as the sound of bones and flesh crunching reverberated through the forest. Yet the Beast stood there, half his face smushed together “Why are you standing around fucking kill him then” He screamed at the knight. The shout broke the Knight out of his confused daze as he brought down the sword onto the creature's head.

  Ethan walked up to the Nightmare's body. He stood above it, feeling the same energy he felt before. He put his hand up to the source and pierced through the creature's body, tearing out the heart. Blood splattered onto his hand as he pulled the scarlet red heart out. I don't have a way of extracting the blood, but this heart should still be useful.