Arnold

            Tonight is a full moon and its shining brightly in the forest of Silkwood. While humans may feel amaze on how the moonlight illuminate the forest, other beings find it an obstacle just like Arnold. He is a recent human turned vampire and makes Silkwood his territory, for now. 

            Normally, a human turned vampire's instinct is to follow the vampire that turns them. But Arnold resisted due to his immense hatred for being turned into the undead. He was a good farmer and a bread winner for his family of 6 people. His father died a long time ago and his mother is always sick. Now, he has no choice but to abandon his family and let them work for themselves lest his vampire's instinct will take over to kill his family.

            "Are you really sure you don't want to come with me? A new vampire working alone is a death sentence you know?"

           A pale dark-haired woman with a dress fitted for a noble smile seductively to Arnold. Her name is Rebecca, the vampire that turned Arnold. She's now looking down at him as Arnold is crumpling in the ground resisting his urge to surrender himself to Rebecca.

          "I already died when you turned me. I would kill you if only my new body obeys me."

          "I see. Well, we both have time in our hand. As long as you survive, you can come to me anytime."

          Rebecca walks to Arnold and hold his chin to make him look straight at her.

          "Experience the world with your new self. How long would you last, I wonder?"

          It's been 1 month since Arnold saw Rebecca and his body is still yearning to go to her. Vampires always stay together but there is a ranking among them. Arnold knows that he will be in the bottom of their system and will be turn into a slave if he follows Rebecca. But in exchange for it is the security from humans that hunts vampires and the stable supply of human blood to survive. 

          "No. I won't join them. Even if I die."

          But Arnold's vampire's instinct is still forcing him to survive. He tried to drink animal's blood to quench his thirst for blood, but he knows that it wouldn't last for long. Arnold picked the Silkwood forest as he knows only a handful of travellers goes to that forest at night. Being away from humans gives Arnold hope that he wouldn't lose the remaining humanity inside him.

          Whenever human voices can be heard in the forest, Arnold immediately runs away and hide inside a cave. He is hoping that even he loses his mind, he won't harm any human. But not only hunger, Arnold isolating himself is also pushing his mind to the brink of insanity. With no one to talk to or share his suffering, Arnold feels the loneliness is also chipping away to his remaining sanity. He keeps on resisting himself to visit his family and fight his loneliness just by humming alone or talking to the animals he sees.

           Tonight, Arnold can hear human voices from far away. He quickly runs away from the voices. When he can't hear them anymore, Arnold hides inside a large hole inside a tree trunk. He then found out that a squirrel is hiding on it too.

           "I'm sorry little one. Let me share your home for tonight."

           The squirrel then leaves the tree and runs away.

           "I guess that is much better. You have to run away from me or I might kill you."

           Realizing that he himself can't have any companion even an animal, Arnold slowly succumbs to sadness and let tears flow to his eyes. He always cries and tonight is the same ordinary night for Arnold. To let his hunger and exhaustion from crying tires him out until he falls as sleep. 

           Arnold wishes that he won't wake up anymore, but he is an undead now. Unlike humans, he will still survive no matter how long he remains hungry and feel the pain in his body. Suddenly, Arnold hears a gun shot in the direction where the human is coming from. 

          Arnold checks behind the tree if the humans are searching for something. They are far from Arnold, but he can still see the light coming from their lanterns. It didn't take long for the light moves away until they can no longer be seen. Arnold breath in relief that the humans did not went to his direction. 

          "Nnnn.. nnnn.."

        Arnold then heard something from where the human came from. It sounds like an animal's cry. Now curious what happened there, Arnold went to that direction. The human's footprints are left in the ground, and Arnold saw a white dog resting under a tree. There are blood coming out from its back leg.

        "What happened to you? Did they shoot you?"

        But the dog response to seeing Arnold is fear and it tried to run away. But due to the injury it had in both of its leg, the dog couldn't even completely get up. At that moment, Arnold is thinking that the animal couldn't survive alone with that kind of injury.

         "You can't run with that condition. I'm sorry if I'm scary. I'm a vampire after all.

        The dog didn't attempt to stand anymore due to the pain and just look at Arnold. It lays its head in the ground while observing what Arnold will do.

        "The best I can do is to put you to rest and drink your blood."

        Arnold walked to the dog and went down to reach its neck to slice its throat. But as his finger is just an inch away, the dog turns to his finger and licks it. Arnold was surprised and quickly turn his hand away. The dog is now looking at him like it is a puppy and waving its tail.

       "Nnnn. Nnnn."

       The dog is whimpering but it is still looking straight to Arnold. Arnold sighs and reached to the dog again. This time, he let the dog welcome him with its tongue until he finally able to scratch its head. At that moment, a thought is running on his head. If he feed the dog with his blood, the dog will surely survive but it will become a monster. 

       "No. I can't turn you into a spawn of evil and become a human killer. Mom said that dogs go to heaven. I won't allow you to go to hell."

       Arnold picked up the dog and brings it to the small river in the forest to wash its wound. The dog tightly holds on to Arnold as he washes the back leg. If he met the dog during his early days as a vampire, he probably lost his mind immediately and drank its blood just from smelling its blood from its injury. Now, animal's blood smells foul to him like rotten meats. He knows it is a bad sign as his body is forcing him to drink human blood. 

       After washing its wound, Arnold uses his hair and sharp nails to stitch the wound. The dog yelp in pain but Arnold could only comfort the dog with hugs and gently soothing it.

       "Shh. Shh. I know it hurts. Don't move around too much and it will be finish in a flash."

        Once done, Arnold picked up some herbs he knows that can help in flesh wounds. He washes them first. He then tore up his clothes' sleeve for a makeshift bandage. Arnold applied the herb and covered the dog's wound with his sleeve. Once all done, he carried the dog towards the entrance of the forest.

      "Hopefully, none of those people who shot you is still there." 

      The dog rubs its head on Arnold's shoulder which honestly made Arnold happy. 

      "Geez. Stop it. I'm not your owner and I will never be. Let's just hope a travelling merchant finds you."

       Once they are out of the forest, Arnold placed the dog under a tree.

      "Stay here. I'll find us some food. You need energy for your recovery.'

      Arnold left the dog for a while until he spotted a deer from afar. He immediately climbs a tree using his strength as a vampire.  The deer heard the sound of Arnold's climb, but it didn't see anything. After being alert for a while and still haven't seen any predator, the deer continue eating the berries it found. As the deer is busy feeding, Arnold makes a long jump from his position and landed to the deer. He immediately sank his teeth on the deer while pinning it down in the ground. The deer dies later on, and Arnold picked up its dead body. 

       When Arnold returns back to the dog, he notices that it is no longer on its previous position. It is slowly hopping with its injured leg. 

      "You idiot! Are you making your wound open again?"

      The dog happily greeted Arnold while the vampire picked it up along with the dead deer. Arnold skinned the deer and sliced off its meat. He then started a small fire to cook the meat. Once cooked, he handed them to the dog which it gobbles up the food.

      "You sure are hungry. I wonder why they shoot you. You probably destroyed an expensive thing."

      Once the dog is full, Arnold saved the rest of the meat and stayed with the dog while watching the road heading to the forest.

       "I'll save you some food and water here. Pray to God that someone picks you up when daytime comes."

        True to his words, Arnold left water and remaining deer meat to the dog while returning back to his cave to hide from the sunlight and sleeps. Arnold always prays before he sleeps that his suffering as a vampire finally ends. But this time, he whole heartedly prays that a human finds the dog and take care of it.  

        For the first time after a long while, Arnold was able to sleep peacefully. He dreams that the dog is with him while he is planting crops. After getting tired, he sits on the rock watching the crops while the dog is beside him. The dog then starts licking his face which tickles Arnold.

         "Ahahaha. Stop it you! I'm all sweat! Let take a bath first!"

         But when the dog already stops licking him, Arnold can still feel the tongue of the dog licking him.

         "Hey! I already told you to stop! Stop it!"

         Arnold woke up from his dream and felt his face is wet. He then realizes that the dog is licking him. Arnold stands up and looks around. It is too dark in the cave which means it is already night. 

         "Don't tell me you followed my scent and found me here?"

         "Woof!!"

         Arnold sighs but then smiles at the dog. 

        "Fine. You can stay with me while no one picked you up."

        The dog wagged its tail and rubbed its head to Arnold's hand.

        "I'll call you Igor."