Heartless

There is a reason why I let people into the forest even if it will be more work for me in the future. It is for the simple fact that one of them may be the one who will end them all and set me free from my misery. Though I will warn them, that is all I will do.

As I stared at the police officer, I thought to myself that I should've been more careful. Perhaps make it so that the body I tossed into the river would be unidentifiable. But it's too late now, what's done is done.

"What should I think?" I asked him, willing him to leave this area.

He laughed and said, "we'll see." With that, he left and I went back to sitting on the bridge. Thankfully, none of the vampires took the chance to show up. Else, it wold be troublesome with so many eyewitnesses and I might end up going to jail. Then again, whether or not I go to jail at this point isn't impossible.

That night, as I taught my first period class, one of the students asked a peculiar question.

"Keeper," she called out, she was the first person to call my by that title and so captured my full attention immediately. "my father dreamt of a world where the trees covered every fertile soil, a place where the roads were upturned by the their roots and the buildings encased in vines."

"It's just a dream, why make a big deal of it?" Wyne mockingly said.

"Your father is a prophet?" I asked.

"Yes, and I've heard it in the wind."

"That's not wrong," I told her, "and it will start in Death's forest, I can tell you that."

"Isn't that where you live?" Hasna, the Almi'raj, asked.

"Yes."

"Aren't you in charge of making sure the world is safe?" Hasna asked, her eyes doubtful.

"I am in charge of keeping the vampires in check, not saving the world. I wouldn't save the world, especially if my life depended on it." I paused for a moment as the students eyed me oddly.

"Everyone here is going to participate in the yearly test and I am supposed to help you find a way out. However, you learn best through experience. So let me tell you this advice, even if you run away from your fears, it can still kill you and it might kill you slowly. Face it, and you might receive a quick death, run away and your death will be torturous."