The village of Vâlcea lay hidden in the mist-shrouded Carpathians, a place where the old ways still clung like cobwebs. The locals whispered of Strigoi—the restless dead who thirsted for blood. But young Andrei, a skeptic from Bucharest, laughed at their superstitions. That was until the Blood Moon rose. Andrei had come to Vâlcea to settle his late grandfather’s estate—a crumbling manor on the edge of the Hoia Baciu Forest, Romania’s own "Bermuda Triangle." The villagers warned him: "Do not stay after dark. The forest listens." He dismissed them, but as night fell, an unnatural silence swallowed the woods. Andrei was sorting through dusty relics when a chill slithered down his spine. The grandfather clock, untouched for decades, suddenly struck thirteen. The air thickened with the scent of wet earth and iron.
A shadow flickered in the hallway.
"Who's there?" he called. No answer.
Then—a whisper right behind his ear: "Sânge..." (Blood.)
He spun around—nothing. But the mirror reflected a gaunt figure with hollow eyes and elongated fangs, grinning before vanishing.
Andrei bolted outside, but the village was deserted. Doors were barred, windows black. The Blood Moon cast an eerie crimson glow, painting the streets in gore-like hues.
A child’s laughter echoed. He followed it to the abandoned church, where the ground was littered with fresh graves dug from the inside out.
Scratching. Breathing.
Something moved beneath a coffin lid.
BOOM! The lid flew off—a pale hand shot out, gripping his ankle. Andrei screamed, kicking free as a skeletal woman with blood-streaked teeth lunged. He barely escaped, sprinting into the forest.
Deep in the woods, he found a hidden crypt engraved with his family crest. Inside, a sarcophagus dripped blood. The lid slid open—a vampire with his grandfather’s face rose, smiling.
"You should have listened to the warnings, Andrei," it hissed. "The Blood Moon awakens the Strigoi... and you are the last of our bloodline."
Andrei’s scream was cut short as fangs pierced his throat.
The next morning, villagers found the manor empty. But when the next Blood Moon rises, two figures will emerge from the crypt—hungry.
