My Life in Wednesday With a Vampire System

"Hmmm. You people really are scum. Even a junkyard dog wouldn't cage its own and pull this shit."

Ethan stood inside the basement storage area looking toward Kimiko's cell. The woman sat silently behind the bars while three armed guards occupied a nearby table.

A deck of cards was spread across its surface alongside cash, beer bottles, and a few weapons they had carelessly left within reach.

The men had clearly grown comfortable. From their perspective, nobody should have known this place existed.

One of them threw down a card before finally noticing the stranger standing in the room. The smile disappeared from his face.

"Who the fuck let you in here?"

The other two looked up, chairs scraping against the floor as they jumped to their feet and grabbed their guns.

Ethan sighed. "Christ, every single time. You'd think one of you fuckers would come up with something new."

None of them found that amusing.

The first gun fired. Then the second. Then the third. The basement erupted with gunfire. Bullets struck Ethan's back, shoulders, and head before falling harmlessly onto the concrete floor.

The guards emptied their magazines. The result was absolutely nothing.

Smoke drifted from the barrels. Ethan remained standing exactly where he was. Nobody spoke. The confidence drained from their faces.

"He's a supe! Go, go, go!" One of them turned for the exit.

Ethan casually lifted a finger. A sharp crack echoed through the basement. The man's right leg twisted completely backward at the knee, bone punching through flesh. He collapsed screaming.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Blood spread across the floor as he grabbed the ruined limb.

The remaining two guards froze, panic in their eyes. One desperately raised his pistol again.

Ethan looked at the weapon. The metal folded inward, crushing around the man's hand. The sound of breaking fingers was followed by another scream.

"FUCK! FUCK! MY HAND, MY FUCKING HAND!"

The pistol fell apart along with several of his fingers.

The last guard abandoned any thought of fighting and sprinted for the door.

Ethan vanished. The guard almost made it three steps before a hand wrapped around his throat and slammed his entire body into the concrete wall, leaving a crater.

Silence returned to the basement, broken only by the screams of the injured guards and the rattling breaths of the man with the shattered leg.

"Please, man, please—"

"I got a family, I got kids—"

"We were just doing our job, we didn't—"

The three men looked at Ethan with pure fear in their eyes. One was clutching his mangled hand while another lay on the floor holding his shattered leg.

The third could barely stay upright after being slammed into the wall.

Ethan listened quietly, then tilted his head. "Begging already?" The word sounded almost curious.

"Funny thing — soon as a man thinks he's safe, it's all swagger and money and loyalty. Thirty seconds from dying and suddenly everybody's got a kid waiting at home."

The guards' faces turned pale.

"Please. We weren't the ones who decided any of this."

"Maybe not." Ethan shrugged. "Still a boring excuse."

The room fell silent. The men couldn't tell what he was thinking.

Then Ethan smiled. "Tell you what. Let's play a little game."

The three immediately looked at him. Hope appeared in their eyes — small, but there.

Ethan noticed instantly. "Now that's interesting. Mention one chance to live and all three of you light up like Christmas."

"What kind of game?" one asked cautiously.

"Simple one." He crouched down so they could all see him. "I'll let one of you walk."

The hope on their faces grew. "Just one." The expression froze.

"The three of you sort it out. Two of you take the fall so the third gets to go home, or you tear each other apart and whoever's still breathing at the end gets to leave."

For several seconds the basement stayed silent. The guards slowly turned toward one another. A moment ago they'd been three scared men. Now they were looking at each other like competition.

Ethan watched the change and found it amusing.

"Funny how fast that happened. Thirty seconds ago it was all 'I got a family.' Now you're trying to figure out who dies first."

None answered. They just stared, watching the hope curdle into something uglier.

Then the guard with the broken leg pointed at the man with the crushed fingers. "Him. Take him first, his hand's already done."

"You absolute piece of shit."

The third guard grabbed a chair. The moment he moved, the injured man on the floor lunged forward and grabbed his ankle.

"Get him! Hold him!"

The guard lost his balance and crashed face-first into the concrete. The man with the crushed fingers didn't hesitate.

He grabbed a broken beer bottle and drove it into the fallen guard's neck. Blood sprayed across the floor. The man tried pulling away but the glass tore deeper as he thrashed.

The crushed-fingers guy stabbed again. And again. The screaming turned into choking. A few seconds later the body went still.

The guard with the shattered leg started backing away. "No — no, wait, hold on—"

The survivor turned toward him, breathing hard.

"You wanted me dead thirty seconds ago."

"I panicked, man, I panicked—"

"You sold me out."

"Please, I'm sorry, please—"

The injured guard desperately searched the floor and found a pistol knocked beneath the table. The moment his fingers closed around it, the other man saw it. Both moved at once.

The shot fired wide and hit the ceiling. The second shot never came — the man with the crushed fingers slammed a metal pipe down across his wrist.

A crack echoed through the room. The gun dropped. He screamed. The pipe came down again, this time across his face. Blood splashed the concrete. He tried crawling away.

The pipe hit the back of his skull. Then again. Then again, until the movements stopped completely.

The basement went quiet. The last man standing, breathing hard, blood soaked into his clothes, the broken bottle still clenched in his good hand. He turned toward Ethan.

"I won." His voice cracked. "I did what you said. I won."

His face twisted somewhere between relief and tears, the look of a man who genuinely believed he'd made it out.

"Well done," Ethan said, clapping slowly. "As promised — you're free to go."

Relief flooded the man's face. Then it dropped the second he saw Ethan walk to the cell door and pull it open. Kimiko stepped out.

"But she might not let you."

The man's eyes went wide. He stumbled back a step. "Wait — you said — you promised—"

"I did." Ethan glanced toward Kimiko. "She didn't."

***

A/N: And on Patreon, The Boys arc started.

The Patreon version is already updated with 46 advanced chapters. If you'd like to read ahead of the public release schedule, you can join here:

👉 /JamesA211