Arcturus awoke to the silver light of The Moon shining through his window. [i]He was alive![/i] His body flooded with a sense of joyous relief as he came to his senses, shaking off the groggy veil of sleep. The treatment, the blood, had worked!

Or had it?

As he scanned the dark room around him, his eyes beginning to focus, he felt his heart sink with a deep disappointment. The sight he was met with was nothing more than his very own room. The familiar wooden walls and flowered wallpaper he had known since he was a child. Had it all been a dream? Traveling to Yharnam, meeting that minister. It was difficult to believe. Yet there was the proof before him, the Moon staring down through his window as if to reprimand him for being so naive.

Of course it hadn't been real. Such rumors of panacea could never hold weight. Had he truly traveled to that city he most certainly would have died there. Perhaps, more likely, he might have even died along the way. Dejected, Arcturus let his eyes fall from the window, his attention shifting to the young woman sitting across from his bed.

[i]Violet.[/i]

His sister looked worse than ever, her once bright and pretty visage marred by dark circles. The signs of stress showing clear on her face. She looked to have fallen asleep there, slumped over onto her arm. The fool girl. It seemed the only precaution she had taken against contracting his ailment was the scarce few feet of distance between them. Hardly enough, he thought, even if he appreciated the gesture.

Suddenly a noise disturbed his quiet thoughts, a noise that didn't come from Violet. From behind him, Arcturus heard the faint sound of knocking, like someone was banging on the front door. He faintly heard demands for entry from a hoarse, labored voice. The speaker's words colored by a thick foreign accent. Lacking the strength to lift himself from his bed, he felt a cold terror run down his spine, looking hurriedly to the door of his room before shifting his focus back to where Violet slept. If he could only summon the voice to wake her, to warn her of what was coming.

Arcturus drew in a sharp breath, only to freeze as his gaze fell upon a bone chilling sight. An open window. Curtains billowing in the oddly stuffy smelling breeze. A beast, more robust and fearsome than even the one which had given him his scar, stood hunched over the chair where his sister sat. It cast a dark shadow over her, concealing her form from sight. However its jagged maw dripped with a thick scarlet liquid...

****

The young man awoke again to a dark room, the chill of a cold sweat aiding his groggy mind as he took a few moments to come to terms with reality. [i]He was alive.[/i] The treatment, the blood, really had worked! Relief flooded through his body, though he was denied the opportunity to revel in it.

Hearing that hoarse, foreign voice again, Arcturus slowly pushed himself up into an upright position. His icy blue eyes sweeping cautiously over his surroundings. There were already a few other people up and about in the massive room. Up, about, and armed. It seemed he was not the only one who perceived the strange voice as a threat.

It wasn't until he'd pushed himself up and began studying the room around him that he noticed those [i]things.[/i] Small, glowing, almost skeletal looking creatures. The sight of them caused him to recoil, swiftly backing up against his bedpost and bracing to defend himself. However as his heart rate slowed and his thoughts caught up to what he was seeing, he gradually realized that they were anything but hostile. Not that it made their ghastly appearance any less unsettling. Was he hallucinating the things? Truly, he needed to read fine print more closely next time he signed a critical medical contract.

Now Arcturus knew very little about the situation he had woken up to, and less about the men he shared it with. What he did know, however, was that he had to make a decision on what to do. He had to make a decision and he had to make it quickly. So that's exactly what he did. Once he'd identified where the others got their weapons, his piercing gaze watching one of them return to the door with a spear, he gently pushed himself out of his cot.

With brief glances towards the other three men he wordlessly strode across the room, his posture confident, and set his eyes upon the barrels of weapons. Arcturus was appreciative of the supply, no doubt, but it was an odd juxtaposition against the clinical room he stood in. Who in their right mind stored weapons of such quantity in a medical ward? Not that he could complain, as he picked out both a saber and a spear before heading back towards the unnervingly fortified door. Again, what kind of doctors would barricade their patients in like that?

Stopping in front of the door and behind the other three men, Arcturus set his new saber down against the nearest cot before glancing down at the spear in his hands. Not a weapon he was familiar with, but it felt oddly comfortable in his grip. Perhaps the muscle memory of bayonet drills also aided in the handling of spears? Regardless he was satisfied with his own equipment, at least as satisfied as he could be given the selection, and so turned his piercing gaze to the other three. All men whom he'd had yet to address. He made a point of silently making eye contact with each of them in turn before leveling the point of his spear towards the door.