"Adrian..." Mr. Miller said, his voice sounding like a low, dangerous growl as he quickly pulled the door shut behind him. Adrian felt frightened for some reason, sure this was the first time Mr Miller decided to call him directly by his name but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel like there was something different about the man in front of him all of a sudden.

"What have you done?" Mr Miller glared at him yet his voice was barely above a restrained whisper. " Why would you bring a supernatural into the heart of the village?"

Adrian stared, stunned by the venom in the doctor's tone and the strange word he used.

"A… a what?" Adrian asked, feeling confused since this was the first time he had heard such a term.

' Wait, how did he know that she isn't human?' Adrian thought to himself.

The doctor didn't answer. Instead, he made a sharp, silencing motion with his hand, his eyes darting up and down the empty hallway.

"You know what. Not a word..." He said before gesturing for him to come.

" Follow me. Now." He turned and led Adrian not to the patient room nor his office, but to a small, windowless storage closet at the back of the clinic. Brushing aside brooms and sacks of grain, he revealed a heavy, iron-ringed trap door set into the floor.

" URRGH..." Mr Miller grunted as he pulled it open, revealing a dark, steep staircase descending into the earth. The fact that Mr Miller who seemed like a jock in his own right, struggled so hard to pull the door open, showed that whatever was down there was something he definitely didn't want anyone else to see.

" Hurry up and get down there, already." However, Mr Miller was suddenly trying to get Adrian to come down with him. The very guy he supposedly disliked?

Confused but trusting the doctor's urgent tone, Adrian adjusted his grip on the unconscious girl and followed after him, carefully making his way down the narrow steps.

The air grew cooler the deeper he went and the scent in the air soon changed to something akin to damp air, dried herbs, and something else he couldn't quite put his finger on.

' It smells like... Metal?' Adrian thought to himself when he recalled where he'd smelt such a scent before. It wasn't like any metallic scent he was used to, this one seemed to belong to something far older than any he'd smelt.

When they reached the bottom and Mr. Miller lit a lantern, Adrian's jaw went slack jawed.

" W-What is this place?" He asked in disbelief, he was so dumbfounded that he almost tried on his own two feet, fortunately he was able to stabilize himself and not drop the grey haired girl.

Right now, they were standing in a spacious, hidden basement that was nothing like the clinic above. It was part laboratory, part armory, part museum of the bizarre... And by bizarre, one couldn't help but label it that because the room was definitely bizarre.

Gleaming weapons he didn't recognize hung on one wall, alongside staves of twisted, dark wood. Shelves were lined with jars containing preserved organs and floating, unidentifiable creatures.

Most chilling of all were the skeletons, some small and rodent-like with too many legs, others tall and gaunt with elongated skulls that were almost, but not quite, human.

"Over here," Mr. Miller snapped him out of his stupor, his voice echoing in the cavernous space.

He cleared a long, stone table of various strange instruments with his hand, the objects once placed on it, clinking loudly as they feel to the floor.

"Lay her here." He said, not bordered by the fallen objects, instead he seemed more concerned about the girl in Adrian's arms. Well one couldn't quite tell if his anxiousness steamed from concern or apprehension.

" Alright."

Adrian did as he was told, gently placing the grey-haired girl on the cold stone surface. The doctor then turned to him, his expression unreadable. "Give me your hand, Adrian."

" Huh? What's my hand got to do with this?" Adrian said, looking confused, but when he saw the man's gaze growing impatient. He decided to comply.

Of course Hesitantly, Adrian extended his right hand. he stiffened when he felt Mr Miller's big calloused palm clamp around it like metal pliers.

" Just what are you planning to do..."

Adrian was still skeptical, but before he could even process what was happening, the doctor's other hand flashed, and a small, sharp dagger made a quick, clean slice across his wrist.

" Arrrgh!!! That hurts. What did you do that for?!"

Blood sputtered outwards and Adrian winced, fortunately, his words were isolated by the walls of the basement and wasn't heard by Amy and the patient above.

"I said, hush. What are you kicking a fuss for. It's just a little cut." the doctor murmured in a disappointed tone, his eyes never leaving the patient on the table.

He produced a simple silver chalice and held it under Adrian's wrist, collecting the dark, red stream of his blood.

When the chalice was half-full, he released Adrian's hand and got a potion which he poured on the wound before wiping it with a clean cloth. The potion stung but Adrian suddenly felt a cooling sensation afterwards, at the same time the doctor made his press the cloth against the wound.

"Hold that there. The bleeding should stop on its own."

" Oh.. ok." Adrian nodded absentmindedly, still trying to process all the things that were currently happening.

Right now Mr Miller was becoming more and more mysterious than he expected. He tried searching through his memories but he didn't recall anything that could've tied the man to such a bizarre room.

While Adrian contemplated while he clutched his stinging wrist, Mr. Miller held the chalice in one hand.

He began to move his free hand through the air, his fingers tracing complex, shimmering symbols in the air.

" H-How are you doing that?!" Adrian almost feel on his backside at the sight of such a stunning display, right now Mr Miller looked even more mysterious than ever before.

Each hand symbol he made hang in air while releasing a dim light for a moment before fading.

With each new symbol he made, a strange magical sound would fill the room.

After making the symbols, Mr Miller approached the unconscious girl, touching his index and middle finger to the center of her forehead.

"What are you doing to her?" Adrian asked, his voice a mixture of fear and awe.

The doctor ignored him, his concentration complete. This was the key point of his actions so far, he didn't spare Adrian any attention as if he knew he couldn't afford to fail here.

He brought the silver chalice to the girl's lips, tilting it carefully. To Adrian's shock, she swallowed reflexively, drinking his blood until the chalice was empty.

The moment the last drop was gone, a soft, red glow emanated from each of the girl's wounds, illuminating the harsh lines of the cuts with a strange magical light.

Adrian watched in silence, he was completely mesmerized, but all of a sudden, his knees buckled the next moment.

"...?!"

" ARRRGHHH!!!!! IT HURT'S!!! IT HURTS!!!"

A nerve-searing, white-hot pain erupted from the cut on his own wrist and exploded through his entire body.

It was as if every wound he had dealt her were now being resent to him instead! The feeling was phantasmal yet surreal at the same time.

He couldn't help but wonder how she was able to hold this much pain in back then without uttering a single grieving cry.

"...?!" Adrian's eyes widened even more admisst the pain because.

In an instant, Mr. Miller was beside him, one strong, large hand clamping firmly over his mouth, muffling the agonized cries he was letting out.

He wanted to push him away but, The glow on the girl's body suddenly grew brighter, the wounds visibly knitting themselves together, the skin smoothing over as if the sickle had never touched her.

' It's getting worse?!!!' Adrian's mind trembled from pain and disbelief simultaneously.

With every pulse of light that healed her, the pain assaulting Adrian intensified, In one sentence, it was like a brutal, direct transfer of agony. What frightened him was that this much pain he felt didn't come from her sickle wounds alone but from her hunger as well.

' it hurt's!'

' Let go of me!!'

' it hurts!!!'

' it hurt's!!!'

' it hurts!!!'

' it hurt's!!!'

' it hurts!!!'

' it hurt's!!!'

' it hurts!!!'

' it hurt's!!!'

' it hurts!!!'

' it hurt's!!!'

' it hurts!!!'

' it hurt's!!!'

' it hurts!!!'

' it hurt's!!!'

' it hurts!!!'

' it hurt's!!!'

He struggled against the doctor's grip, his vision swimming as he continued to struggle, moreover, the doctors tight grip blocked off his airway, pushing him towards suffocation, his hold on reality seemed to warp as well, his perception began to shift and he suddenly felt as if the strange skeletons on the shelves were dancing to the tune of his suffering in the flickering lantern light.

The pain reached a searing, impossible peak, and then, as if the heavens themselves had decided he had suffered enough, everything suddenly went black as he slumped to the cold stone floor, unconscious.

****

" Urrgh..." Adrian groaned as he finally regained consciousness again.

A dull, throbbing ache was the first thing to register in Adrian's mind, similar to a deep-seated pain that seemed to pulse at the same time with his heartbeat.

Then came the cold, the chill of rough-hewn stone floor seeping through his clothes and into his bones. Adrian's eyes fluttered open, his vision swimming for a moment before focusing on the vaulted ceiling of the hidden basement, the lantern light casting long, dancing shadows that made the strange skeletons on the shelves look like they were moving. That was all the help he needed before his memory returned in a sickening rush, the silver chalice, his blood, the symbols in the air, and the soul-shattering agony that had followed.

" Just what did you do to me?!"

He scrambled backward, his boots scraping frantically against the stone floor, his hands pushing him away from the imposing figure of Mr. Miller who stood watching him with an unnerving calm.

In his panic, his shoulder bumped into a tall, rickety stand holding the skeleton of a small, bird-like creature with a long, serpentine neck. The bones clattered to the floor in a chaotic heap, the skull rolling to a stop near the doctor's feet.

" I thought you were supposed to be a doctor!" Adrian's emotions seemed to be growing unstable.

He knocked over a small table next, in his desperate retreat, sending a tray of delicate, unrecognizable metal instruments skittering across the room with a series of sharp, ringing sounds.

" Boy, calm down, you're causing a mess of my workshop!"

"C-Calm down? You want me to remain calm after the stunt you just pulled?!" Adrian's eyes glared at the doctor, this insufferably man had actually forced him to endure all that yet here he was telling him to calm down?

" And who says being a doctor means one can't be something else? For a while there I thought you were at least a bright one but right now I don't think you'd make for the brightest tool in the shed." Mr Miller shock his head with disappointment.

"..." Adrian's lips pressed tightly together, his palms clenched at his sides.

Against ones better judgement, He actually decided to lend the doctor an ear. At least till he understood why he had done all that to him.

Though his chest was heaving as he stared at the doctor with wide, apprehensive eyes. He clutched his wrist, where the cut had already sealed into nothing, not even leaving a scar in place which Adrian found even more bizarre but when he recalled his own bizarre ability, his disbelief lessened a lot.

" Fine, I'm calm now, can you please tell me why you almost killed me back then. Because I don't recall ever doing anything to warrant such treatment." He said, his gaze on the old man still not as laced as before. Well could you blame him after the scare he'd just received.

" Next time don't be so dramatic, boy." Mr Miller said with a sigh, looking disappointed. " All I did was conduct a ritual to save your friend there. If I hadn't completed the ritual in time, I might've added another supernatural corpse to my collection." He let out a short, humorless laugh.

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