The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, casting a sterile glow across the lab. Kael, 19, hunched over a microscope, his intern badge dangling precariously from his wrinkled lab coat. His fingers trembled—not from nerves, but from the third energy drink he'd chugged to survive the night shift. One more sample, he thought, and I might actually impress Dr. Varen enough to get a real spot here.
"Intern! You're not paid to daydream!" Dr. Varen's voice sliced through the hum of machinery. Kael's head snapped up, his dark eyes meeting the senior scientist's glare. He muttered an apology, adjusting the slide under the lens. The internship was his ticket out of a dead-end life, but the grind was relentless. No sleep, no friends, no time to dream of anything beyond pipettes and data logs.
As the clock ticked past 2 a.m., a strange hum filled the lab—not the usual equipment drone, but something deeper, almost alive. Kael's vision blurred. His hand slipped, knocking a vial of crimson liquid to the floor. It shattered, the scent of iron flooding his senses. Blood? His knees buckled, and the world spun into darkness.
When he opened his eyes, he wasn't in the lab. A sprawling city of glass spires stretched before him, glowing under a violet sky. His lab coat was gone, replaced by a sleek, unfamiliar uniform. A tablet hummed in his hand, displaying equations he somehow understood. I'm… a scientist? His heart raced, but not with fear—with exhilaration. This world felt like it was made for him.
And then he saw it: a book on his desk, its title etched in silver. The Alchemy of Eternity. The word "vampire" gleamed in the text, promising secrets of power beyond mortality. Kael's lips curled into a smile. For the first time, he felt alive.