The old man knew Holly well. He had seen her grow and mature, fighting alongside the champion, always with conviction, never showing fear. But she wore a mask, crafted so well that even she thought it was real. On the inside there was still some of the old girl left. She had her own destiny yet to fulfill, but sadly, most of her choices would lead her to a dark end. Her road was a difficult one.

She was dressed in a manner that would have been scandalous and completely unacceptable during the old man’s mortal time on earth, but was normal now. She had left the other Hunters with excuses of “partying” or such mortal nonsense, but that had only been at first. It had been an excuse, to the others, but mostly to herself. Squandering her money and poisoning her body were distractions from what was really on her mind. She had done that for a time, but there was something far more important that she had to tend to that she’d been avoiding, and this was the first time she had returned home since she had discovered the real world.

So she had paid a cab driver to take her far to the outskirts of the city, to a rusting industrial area. It was the sort of place where only the most unsavory ruffians would be found, but Holly was not afraid of the human kind of monster. She was here to confront her memories of the other kind.

It had not been difficult to find, because a place where such evil and horror occurred was always visible to a spirit’s eyes. Even long after the evil had taken place, it would still glow like a hot coal. The ruin had once been a factory of some kind. The police had put a chain and a padlock on the door. So Holly had smashed out a window with an old board and crawled inside, ripping her dress in the process, but not caring.

The old man had found her deep inside, sitting at the edge of a hole in the ground. The hole was not so big, but big enough to hold many captives, and deep enough to keep them from crawling out. It was a horrible thing, this pit. Vampires were vile beasts, and the things they did to survive were terrifying to comprehend. The old man had survived much in his mortal life, but even he had a hard time understanding what it would be like to be kept as a prisoner and used as food. She had become strong to protect the others, and eventually herself. All of the other captives had broken and then died.

Yet, Holly had survived the pit. And that had made her strong.