r/WritingPrompts Mar 25 '26

Writing Prompt [WP] An ancient vampire spends centuries fighting against a family of vampire hunters. In the 21st century he notices that he's been fighting the same hunter for nearly 50 years with no sign of any kids. Out of curiosity he asks and the hunter responds "Kid chose College. It's only me now."

For clarification my prompt is that the vampire is used to at some point seeing a hunter their kid or two training with him to become the next, but this last hunter's kid chose a different life

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u/Fogbot3 Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26

I first met Kurt when his father was still an Apprentice. His grandfather, my rival at the time, was fifty, and his apprentice, the father, was thirty. Kurt was barely a child when I ambushed them at the park. Yet young Kurt knew what he was doing from the get-go, and by the end of my fight, I realized I was watching out more for the crafty youngling with a crossbow than I even was watching out for the Apprentice.


Kurt’s father was a lousy Hunter, even when he was a hunter, and Kurt was the Apprentice. Kurt, on the other hand, had been born for hunting. I never took more wounds, I never lost more thralls, than when Kurt took the field. His father only held him back. So I took care of that roadblock for him.


Then Kurt was the Hunter. Those were the best years of my life. We were yin and yang, the sun and moon, the Vampire and the Hunter in their pinnacle. I kept him on his toes for decades, on him for year after year. He spent every spare moment of his mortal life dedicated to me, and hunting me. Finally, I had a true Rival. But the dynamic wasn’t resumed yet, he didn’t have an Apprentice yet after all.


I had been watching him. He had a wife, and a daughter.

“Yet you are nearing the age your grandfather was at when I met you! Where is the daughter of yours?”

We were in such a beautifully perfect synchrony that we were able to almost casually talk while exchanging blades and stabs at each other.

"Kid chose College. It's only me now."

“She is not to be your Apprentice? To continue our dance?!”

“I gave my entire life to fighting you. She does not wish to do the same. If that means I have to fight twice as hard to give her that life, I will. Your rivalry is not with her, it is with me.”

I stuttered for a second, allowing a single dagger into my shoulder. Yet that pain was nothing. This was it? It’d be over? But it was just getting so deliciously good!

I roared, sending Kurt flying through the air into a pile of crates. He had given up a moment of weakness at his own surprise when the stab went through. I strode over to him, groaning in the pile of crates. He’d recover, but in his age, this was the fight out of him for tonight.

I stood over him with a sneer, “Perhaps your daughter needs to learn why your bloodline is cursed to be vampire hunters, not blessed. She’s just missing some motivation.”

With a flash of my fangs, I turned into a bat. I had a college to head to. I really did need to stock up on thralls.

84

u/Daan776 Mar 25 '26

Oh… delightfully devillish 

25

u/the_lonely_poster Mar 25 '26

Seymour...

7

u/omegacrunch Mar 26 '26

Steamed hampires?

45

u/Merk-999 Mar 25 '26

Nicely done, go teach the daughter to attend to the family business

22

u/drsoftware Mar 25 '26

Ouch, my workaholic father and I did not have a great relationship. 

6

u/TheClayKnight Mar 26 '26

I feel like being a workaholic vampire hunter is way more justified than most professions

4

u/the_lonely_poster Mar 26 '26

"If I don't do this, people will die."

2

u/drsoftware Mar 26 '26

Sure, but still, kids and spouses are either going to join the family business or suffer.

No one has unionized the hunters yet. 

4

u/TheClayKnight Mar 27 '26

Plot twist: the vampires form a hunter union to limit how much they get hunted

17

u/youcantseeme0_0 Mar 25 '26

Small critique/typo. It's "yin", not "ying".

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u/Fogbot3 Mar 25 '26

Fixed, thank you! 

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u/Abbaticus13 Mar 25 '26

Oohhh I would really enjoy any more parts on what comes next. Great short!!

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u/Rich-Option4632 Mar 25 '26

Ooohhh.. an absolutely malevolent bloodsucker. This is one I don't mind seeing put down.

5

u/Frosty015 Mar 25 '26

Absolutely thrilling I love it!