It was one of those dewy mornings. The kind where you could smell the fresh water in the air and hear the wildlife slowly rising from a deep slumber. Everything was still and calm. Everything was at peace.
Except for Azler, of course.
He was on his second cigarette already and his heel had bounced a solid hole in the earth beneath his feet. It was barely even daylight and half of his daily smoke limit had been blown.
Technically, there was no benefit to him smoking at all. Vampires lacked the brain chemistry to suffer addiction or for tobacco to have any effects on his mood, but it was a gentle reminder of the normal human life he had lived, of a time when he wasn’t always looking over his shoulder.
Immortality had to come with a few downfalls, after all.
It was six AM sharp when the black car pulled up. Azler rose from the bench, dropping his cigarette onto the gravel and stomping it out. This was it. Right?
Even after the car pulled to a halt, the man in the driver's seat didn’t look his way. His head and eyes stared straight forward, both hands clasping the steering wheel with a respectfully tight grip.
“Are you here for me?” Azler asked as he approached the vehicle.
The driver responded with a single, firm nod.
“Alright…okay…” he opened the back door and slid into the seat behind the driver.
The car jerked into motion the moment the door closed, pressing Azler back against the seat.
“So…where are we going?”
The driver said nothing.
Realizing that starting a conversation would go nowhere with this man, Azler reserved himself to staring out the window, trying his best to memorize the route. If he had to bolt, knowing his general location would be a lot of help.
The rumble of the car beneath him combined with the lack of conversation was almost hypnotic, steady, lulling him into a calm state.
Wait…
Was that normal?
“We’re here.” The driver stated flatly.
“Already?” It had only felt like a few minutes. Azler looked down at his watch.
Somehow, they had been driving for an hour.
The car door opened and he stepped out, looking around. They were in some kind of compound, one that he didn’t remember pulling into.
Something was up.
“This way.” Another man, this one identical to the driver in dress and posture, had opened the door and was now gesturing away from it stiffly. Azler thought it efficient to follow his instructions without a word, more curious about where he was than who was leading him there.
The car had stopped outside a tall building, surrounded by stone walls, too tall for him to see over. The walls were topped with spirals of barbed wire, sharp and menacing, staring down at him as if daring him to try and cross.
As Azler crossed the cobblestone, he only heard the crunch of his boots, not wind, not even the breath of the mysterious man leading him to the heavy, wooden door. Something was strange about this place, about these people, but Azler refrained from showing any reaction to his environment. He couldn’t let anybody see his hesitance about this place, not if he wanted any chance of escaping if trouble came his way.