A day after they visited Michael, Daniel and Jeffers were at Daniel's house watching TV. "Fuck, dude, I hate cable," Jeffers said. The way he was slumped in his chair, his belly was protruding upwards. "Well, what do you want me to do? My aunt doesn't want to get streaming services. Why don't we go to your house? Didn't you get a new Switch 2?" Daniel asked. "Nah, bro, they've been weird as hell lately," Jeffers replied. "How so?" Daniel asked. "I don't know, man, just up my ass, I guess," Jeffers answered. "Maybe it's because you smashed their plant vases." Daniel joked. "You know that was a vampire!" Jeffers angrily spat out, "which you had lured over." Daniel flipped through the channels at one point, hitting the local news, and before he flipped to another channel, he saw something on the news that caught his interest. The reporter was at a scene covered in caution tape in a back alley. The walls of the buildings in the back alley were covered in blood. The scene was swarmed with cops blocking it off and detectives. The reporter seemed noticeably uncomfortable, but she still began speaking, "This is yet another in a shocking pattern of murders in Jefferson. And yet again the body is essentially unidentifiable." She continued, "The police say they don't have any footage of the suspect or any idea what he looks like, and if you have any information, please contact them at…" Then Jeffers interrupted, "Holy shit, this is ass and depressing, turn it on ESPN, I wanna see the highlights of the Knicks losing again." Daniel thought for a second, then said, "You know this might be a vampire, we should investigate." Jeffers then made an exasperated face, "We?" Jeffers asked, "Who is we? You know that I don't have any superpowers, right?" Daniel sighed, "well I'm not doing this shit alone. Plus, I need someone to carry my bag." Jeffers tilted his head, "bag?" Daniel then went to his room, brought out a backpack, and opened it. It was filled with wooden stakes, holy water vials, and crosses. "This is my gear. It's just really the stuff my parents left me, but in a bag. But I've been thinking. From what's happened so far I'm physically superior to most of these vampires so I really only keep one wooden stake on me." Daniel said. Daniel then pulled a wooden stake out of his pocket to show Jeffers. Jeffers huffed, "well if your that desperate I guess I can help, but if you ever get famous you have to say I get fifty-percent credit." Daniel chuckled, "whatever dude."
Daniel and Jeffers did a little bit of digging around and found that a large majority of the killings were done on Friday nights, almost like this vampire was getting off of work, and that they were all near apartment complexes. Which made sense, as these apartments would house an abundance of humans to feed on. One perplexing thing was why so brutal and inconsistent in the damage. The body was almost always unrecognizable, but in different ways, though Daniel remained confident it was a vampire because, no matter what, he found that the side of the neck was always one of the missing parts of the body. They also figured out that in town, all of the apartment buildings had been hit exactly one time, except for the Weston home, live apartment building c. So Daniel and Jeffers waited at that exact apartment building a few days later, on a Friday night.
They waited and waited until they heard the sound of a scream. When Daniel ran around with Jeffers trailing behind him, he saw an unconscious girl on the ground with a man standing over her. The man had a raincoat on and slicked-back hair. When they arrived, the man saw them, but he didn't have the look of someone who had just been caught in the act of a crime, but more so annoyed as if they were interrupting him. "I don't have the taste for teenage boys, leave, and you'll live," the vampire said as he hissed. Daniel's demeanor hardened. Daniel then told Jeffers, "Leave." Daniel immediately ran at the vampire and punched it, but his punch didn't even move the vampire. The vampire stood in the same position he was in before. Daniel then attempted to drag a wooden stake out of his pocket, but as soon as the vampire noticed, he grabbed Daniel by the head and kneed him in the stomach. As Daniel keeled over on the ground, trying to catch his breath, the vampire looked down on him. "So you're a vampire hunter? I can tell you're no regular human, but you're not quite on my caliber yet." The vampire then elbowed Daniel on the back of the head, knocking him to the ground. He then pulled out Daniel's wallet. He opened the wallet and pulled out Daniels learners permit. "Daniel dire?" the vampire said. He began thinking for a moment before remarking, "I feel like I've heard that last name somewhere before." Daniel spat blood out of his mouth before attempting to stand up, but the vampire placed his foot on the back of Daniel's head, holding him to the ground. The vampire cackled, and Daniel was in shock. He had never felt this helpless in his life. A great darkness began to fill in Daniel; it festered and swelled. It wasn't rage or any emotion for that matter; it was something different. Suddenly, the vampire dodged back, and when Daniel looked back, he saw Michael standing over him, and the vampire holding his jaw as if slightly nervous. The vampire examined Daniel and Michael, then said, "This is interesting, you almost hit me, but I'd rather not deal with this right now." he then leaped high so high he was on top of the apartment building and escaped. Michael helped Daniel up and brushed off his shoulder. "How'd you find me?" Daniel asked. "Well, I watch the news pretty much 24/7, and this seemed to be the most obvious vampire case, so I thought either I'd find you or a vampire, but that vampire was much stronger than I anticipated. I could tell. It was strange, though, because he's that strong, but he seems to make almost no effort to cover it up whatsoever." Michael sighed, "Look, come over to my house tomorrow, and we'll begin your training, alright?" Daniel looked down, "I have one more thing to ask you." Daniel exhaled, "Can you tell me what happened to my parents?" Michael shook his head, "No, I can't. That wound," Michael looked off into the distance, "It still cuts too deep."
When Daniel got home and walked through the front door and was exhausted. Jeffers was also angry at him because he told him to go away, so Jeffers missed the action. Of course Daniels rebuttal to that would be that he could've stayed; no one forced him to leave, but it was whatever. As Daniel began making his way through the house, he heard his aunt's voice, "Oh, Daniel, Its your lucky day loom who stopped by." When Daniel walked into the living room, his face went white when he saw it. The vampire he had just had an altercation with was sitting on his couch across from his aunt, drinking tea. His aunt was smiling; she clearly didn't know who this was. The vampire was smiling as well, but to Daniel it seemed far more sinister a grin than his mom's smile. The vampire chuckled, "Hey buddy, I'm Hudson. Did you notice you lost your permit there, Daniel?" His grin widened, and he stood up, taking the permit out of his pocket and handing it to Daniel as a cold sweat grew on his face. "You'd better be more careful there, sport, you wouldn't want to lose something really valuable," Hudson said with that same smirk. Daniel knew that to his aunt, this seemed innocent, more so kind, but Daniel knew. This vampire, this vile, flesh-eating, blood-sucking monster was threatening him. Hudson then began to walk past Daniel and wave his hand in the air, "Well i just came here to return that, I really ought to be going." He said. "Thank you, sir. You're so kind, most people wouldn't do that." Hudson chuckled, "Thank you for your hospitality. I hope Daniel doesn't lose you next." Daniel's aunt began laughing, but Daniel only felt fear with that statement, and then just like that, Hudson had left.