A/N: This bonus chapter was brought to you guys by TypinToddler.
[Blood Diary Entry]
After dealing with the ghoul at the convenience store, we began searching for more stragglers.
We zoomed through the city, leaving behind only after-images and our blurry outline.
It was an exhilarating feeling, I must admit. To run so fast, the world around you slows to a crawl. If I wasn't careful, I could very well become addicted to it and just run everywhere like a maniac.
Not the most unhealthy of vices, but I would rather avoid looking like a deranged lunatic. So, I'll just do it when I need to do it.
Or when I really feel like doing it.
Yeah, that is going to be a bother…
I think I now understand why comic speedsters seem to enjoy their powers so much.
Anyhow, we actually didn't have too much trouble finding the rest of the ghouls that didn't manage to retreat and became stranded in the city.
There were 14 of them—including the one from the convenience store.
Also, they all created a sort of pattern, which clearly pointed towards the forest, giving away the general direction of their nest.
Most of the stragglers hid in abandoned stores or shops, though there were a few who hid in some unoccupied houses—and one who actually stumbled upon a house that was still inhabited by an old man… poor bastard.
Every time we found a ghoul, Rebekah would let me practice my Dominate discipline, even giving me some pointers or ideas in the meantime.
She watched the whole process with curiosity. Like a kid with a new toy, or a mad scientist with a new experiment.
It was both cute and a bit unsettling.
If the first ghoul was the result of what happened if I put my all into my command, the second was for me to see what would happen if I barely put in any effort.
The result was that the ghoul became dazed for a split second, but the command didn't actually manage to take hold.
Then I applied more intent, bit by bit I increased the effort put into the suggestion, until I finally managed for it to take hold.
Then I ordered the thing to kill itself—and I should add it followed the order without hesitation.
This is a scary power…
After the thing died, I opened its head and poked around its brain, and surely enough, a few of its neural pathways were completely fried.
If I did this to a human, they would turn into a mumbling fool afterwards.
Also, I had to consider that while the ghoul's mind was underdeveloped when compared to a human's, the brain was actually much more resistant than a normal person's brain would have been.
I'll have to keep in mind that not every individual, and not every species, will take the same command with the same intensity. This is all a very big headache.
I feel like I am approaching this the wrong way…
So, for the third ghoul, I try to take a different approach.
Instead of brute forcing the whole process, I try to let myself go and not put conscious effort into it, just issue the command and acknowledge the intention behind the command.
This seems to do the trick, as the order takes hold much more easily and naturally, while also requiring less effort.
Though some neurons were still crispy afterwards…
I do this several more times, and by the eleventh, I am able to basically puppeteer the ghoul around, but the longer I do it, the more I risk melting its brain.
Orders are now simple to convey, but intricate puppetry is not so much.
Though when I tried to talk about this with Rebekah, she seemed to want to hit me.
Because dominating another living being so thoroughly was nigh unheard of, and she herself couldn't do it the way I could.
She could make someone her thrall, and for that someone to be completely obedient and devoted to her. But for that to happen, there needed to be a certain level of intelligence. Which wasn't quite my case.
The fourteenth ghoul was a special situation.
It was the one who stumbled upon the old man.
And I admit this wasn't my proudest moment, as I completely lost control over my anger here.
Because when we arrived, the ghoul was feasting upon the man's innards.
Gruesome though it may be, it wasn't this that caused my outburst. No, the reason I became furious was that this wretched creature didn't even have the decency to kill the man before it started eating him.
The old man—who had one of the kindest complexions I had ever come across—looked towards me in utter horror. His gaze conveyed the extreme pain he was feeling. Tears streaked down his face; snot came out of his nose. He couldn't even scream anymore, because he had already destroyed his own vocal cords in previous screams.
He mouthed a plea that almost broke my heart.
'Please… kill me…'
Rebekah bit her lips and clenched her fists. She, too, was seething in rage.
In that moment, I completely lost it.
The air heated up, mimicking my own feelings. The shadows in the room grew darker and deeper.
I decided to see just how cruel I could be, to see if I could make vermin such as this one feel fear and despair.
I compelled the ghoul to step away.
Then I walked in steady steps towards the pitiful man.
I knelt by his side and spoke to him what I would have wanted to hear in this situation. "I'll find the rest of them… and I will make them suffer. I promise you."
He nodded weakly and smiled in satisfaction.
I exhaled.
And as I was about to place my hand over his neck, Rebekah suddenly stopped me.
"Darian, let me do this." She said gently.
Her eyes held empathy towards the man, but mostly it was a wish for my wellbeing.
I tried to convey through my gaze my gratitude, and I could see a weak smile coming from her, but then I shook my head, confusing her. "It has to be me…" I said in almost a whisper.
Then I wrapped my hand around his neck and squeezed with just the right amount of strength.
His neck snapped, and he was no more.
I called my flames again, and they wrapped around the old man in their gentle embrace.
Only his ashes were left, and they too were swept away by a breeze not long after.
I turned my crimson eyes towards the ghoul with vengeance in my gaze.
Grinning evilly, I gave a command that could perhaps serve as retribution for what it did to that old man.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, blood for blood!
"Eat yourself," I ordered.
And it did as I asked. Member by member. Starting from its legs, then its own intestines, and finally its hands and arms—until the thing bled to death.
I paid attention to every second of it. Every bone crunches. Every time it munched on its own flesh. The silent cries of pain. Until it moved no more.
Rebekah didn't even flinch, also seemingly satisfied by this display of cruelty.
I got up, my movements slow and heavy.
"It's time to end this," I said in rage.
Now I wanted to kill these things, not because of a deal with Nico, but simply because I was angry.
Even if I didn't know that old man, even if I had never spoken to him. The look he gave me was reason enough.