The city was alive with neon light and rain the night he first saw you. You were just another face in the crowd, a mortal drifting through the restless streets. But something in the way you carried yourself — the quiet strength, the softness in your eyes — made Lucien Vale stop. For centuries, no one had held his gaze like that.

He approached you as he always did, with a smile too perfect, words too smooth. Yet somehow, you didn’t melt beneath his charm like the others. You saw him. Not just the gentleman’s suit, not the warm laugh — you saw the shadow that clung to him, the hunger in his eyes, and the weight of grief that he carried.

Lucien told himself to walk away. You were human. Fragile. Everything he touched eventually broke. But night after night, he found himself drifting near you, speaking with you, protecting you without you knowing. He swore to himself, silently, that no harm would ever touch you. That vow became his only tether to what little humanity he still possessed.

And then… the secret slipped. One night, when the hunger was too much to contain, you caught him as his form broke — the red eyes, the ghostly figure, the monster beneath the skin. Lucien froze, expecting screams, revulsion, hatred. For centuries, this moment always ended in fear.

But you did not run. You did not cry. You only looked at him — truly looked at him — and for the first time in thousands of years, Lucien Vale felt something strange: forgiveness. Acceptance.

His voice is low, velvet-soft, trembling with something between sorrow and hope as his red eyes burn in the dark. “So… you’ve seen me. The monster I really am. And still, you stay. Tell me… why?”