My Most Precious Human

Instantly, the murmurs filled the audience hall. As the commotion increased, I could see the evil sparks in the eyes of those who were invited to the auction. Their gazes were filled with a horrifying desire to devour me. They made me uncontrollably shudder. The fear paralyzed me to the point I couldn't breathe, and I could barely hear the distorted sound of their laughter that sometimes overpowered the auctioneer's voice through the microphone.

The numbers they bid on grew fast. I could hear the auctioneer calling for one million dollars, two million, three… Those bidders were standing up, fighting each other, and I kept wondering why. I used to read once about rich, old people giving themselves blood transfusions of younger ones just to prolong their lives. Was that what it was about? Seriously, I couldn't let myself think of anything else, although my mind kept wandering around with strange thoughts, ones I was unable to come to terms with…

I learned about the existence of werewolves when I was a child. I grew up with that secret knowledge. Even though normal humans often treated shapeshifters as creatures appearing solely in books and movies, they were a part of a normal world for me. At the same time, I had never imagined that any other supernatural beings I read in fantasy books could have been real as well. Perhaps I should have been called ignorant, but still didn't want to face the possibility that there were other inhuman creatures out there. Certainly, there was only one type of creatures that I knew that longed for human blood, but I couldn't even force myself to pronounce that name in my thoughts.

"One hundred million dollars!" some bidder called.

The crowd went silent. I looked ahead and saw a brown-haired, masked man, standing in the royal theatre box with his auction plate raised high. I could hear the auctioneer gulp, then a soft commotion began.

"Is this the Duke's aid?! It cannot be!" a terrified voice whispered.

"He can't be a buyer! This must be a raid! Let's get out of here!" I heard other voices calling out in panic.

I heard the brown-haired man chuckle. Then suddenly all the lights went out. I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't see a single thing. I began to hear screams, groans, and gruesome moaning coming from every side. I knew there was some sort of fight going on. There were no bullet sounds; instead, I heard something like an attack by a pack of enraged animals. I curled up in the middle of my cage as if it could make me disappear, and prayed that the attackers wouldn't choose me as their next victim.

Suddenly, I felt a strong, man's hand with sharp claw-like nails reaching between the bars of my cage, and desperately trying to grasp any part of my body. I screamed, then grabbed that someone's writs and forcefully punched his forearm with a side of my palm. He wailed and moved his hand away. I stood up in a fighting stance, raising my guard. Suddenly, I heard someone running towards me. I clenched my fists ready to protect myself, but then… something splashed all over my face and body. I couldn't see its color, but I immediately recognized the smell of blood. It was the blood of the one who tried to run towards me…

trembled in fear, not knowing what kinds of danger could be lurking around me in the dark. While being locked in the cage, I could only wait for someone to approach me, praying that it wouldn't

I saw a dimmed light coming from one side of the stage, then I recognized the auctioneer running from that light towards my cage. I stepped back

cage, then opened it,

clenched the chain around his throat. He growled, grabbing the chain and trying to move it away from his neck, but my moves were quicker than his. I pushed him down to the ground, tightening the chain until the air deficiency made

out, and I could merely see the faint silhouettes of people, but I knew I was in the middle of a horrifying fight. I figured that those who attacked people at the auction must have had some night vision devices. At that moment, I wished I had something like that for myself since I couldn't even find my way out of this battle. I only knew

Judging by the cruelty of the attackers, this had nothing to do with the legal forces. Furthermore, I kept wondering who was that man with brown hair whom people called "the Duke's aid", and who the hell was this Duke?! I guessed that whoever he was, he must have been an incredibly

prayed that I could sneak out unnoticed or that those people chose to ignore me while fighting each other. I didn't know where to run, but I figured I had to get to a place where I could at least see something. I ran towards the backstage, where a weak light was. The light turned out to be a small, battery-operated LED lamp, but standing beside it was still far better than moving in absolute darkness. Fortunately, there was no one backstage. I sighed in relief, and looked around, hoping to find

wooden stairs. I ran down nervously, hoping that they would lead me where I wanted. I managed to escape from the bloody battle and got to a basement corridor. Luckily, despite the complete lack of power in the theatre hall, there was still an emergency light down there. All the lights were red. I had to adjust my sight before I

were my own footsteps. Perhaps I should find that fortunate, yet everything inside me was telling me that there was nothing good about that silence. I walked

a deep breath and cautiously walked through the room towards the big metal door. I kept strengthening my hearing, but there were no

guys escaped and took those girls and Carla with

door. I hoped that everyone was safe, and the reason I couldn't hear anything was that the door was soundproof, or that the girls were too scared to make a sound. Suddenly, I heard some voices and a lot of footsteps. The sounds were coming from the place where I came from. I

my feet. I slowly raised my head while trembling. What appeared in front of my eyes was the most horrifying

no… no!"

wide stream of tears covered my cheeks. That cry was suffocating. I stared inside the room as if I was hoping that the view wasn't real. I closed my eyes and opened them again, but

walked into that room filled with corpses and closed the door. I stood in the river of blood and shivered. All of the bodies were torn apart. Their flesh was shredded as if they were attacked by wild beasts. Then, I saw Carla lying in the corner of the room. I stepped closer while weeping. I knew she was dead. The skin on her neck was torn off as if she was savagely bitten. I crouched