You had trained for this your whole life. You were at the top of your class at the vampire hunter’s academy and after weeks of smaller assignments and raids, you were being given your very first quest to assassinate a full-fledged vampire queen!
 
 The target had proven to be a bit reclusive, even for her kind, but it wasn’t hard to find their lair in an isolated castle in the middle of a defiled graveyard guarded by undead minions. You relished the chance to cut your way through the zombie horde with your mighty blade. If only your old teacher could see you now. 
 
 You cleaved your way through all manner of walking corpses and ghouls, the fantasy of yourself driving a stake through the vampire’s heart motivating you as you ventured inside the castle and down into the deepest crypt. At some point though you stopped encountering any monsters. 
 
 It was a bit odd, your old mentor told you countless stories of vampire dungeons with increasingly arduous demons the deeper she went into any given lair, but here the monsters seemed to be stationed exclusively outside and on the first floor. Your train of thought was interrupted when you started hearing some soft whispers coming from a long hallway. 
 
 It was too dark to see anything so you pulled out an electric lantern you had purchased and peered down said hallway. It was lined with unique statues of random people and extended far past the light of the lantern’s reach. There was nowhere else to go so you figured the vampire queen’s coffin was probably at the end of this oddly decorated hallway. 
 
 The statues had a bit of an odd feeling about them. Most sculpture art you’ve seen have people depicted with a stoic or serious expression on their face but these all had such happy and dreamlike expressions like they were having a good night’s sleep. Weirder still you noticed that they all had jewels embedded in their pupils that reflected in the lantern’s light. 
 
 You tried to wonder how this vampire queen could afford to commission such eclectic art in such an abundance but your thoughts kept getting interrupted by some almost inaudible whispering. Hundreds of soft voices whispering in unison coming from all directions. You could faintly hear put a chant of “join us” which sent a chill down your spine. 
 
 You realized these statues were probably enchanted fairly quickly. You held your light up to one of them and you noticed the way the jewels were glistening. Somehow staring into it seemed to make the voices louder... and the voices getting louder made it harder to look away...
 
 You gathered your faculties long enough to snap yourself out of it and look away from the statue. You kept your eyes glued to the floor and tried to think of literally anything else other than the chanting that was so omnipresent in this long dark hallway. 
 
 You tried to recall the image of you standing triumphantly over the vampire as she crumbled to dust. You certainly did not think of the pretty sapphire jewels of a handsome statue person that were so lovely and shiny and- uhg this was difficult you wish you could hear yourself think. 
 
 In your moment of distraction, you tripped over a bend in the rug on the floor and fell over. You reached for your lantern but it rolled over to another one of those statues. You made the mistake of looking up at where the light shone and saw... your old mentor?!
 
 You hadn’t seen her since you graduated from the academy. You didn’t even know she was missing. But that was unmistakably her armor, her hair, her smile, her... piercing emerald eyes that you suddenly couldn’t look away from. 
 
 It was like she was looking down at you when you had tripped and fallen during training. You remembered she would offer you comfort and encouragement. You remembered so many nice moments you shared with her as you lost yourself in her calm serene stare. 
 
 You could hear her among the chanting. Her voice suddenly became the loudest in your head. You could hear her telling you to stand up and join them. You could hear her praising you for making it so far and that you deserved a peaceful slumber as a reward.
 
 You could hardly find the strength to disagree. You lifted yourself up just to get a better look into her eyes. You heard her praise you for being so strong and brave and you felt a smile form on your lips. You felt so happy and peaceful, you didn’t want to move you wanted this feeling to last forever. 
 
 Your mentor reassured you that it would. You were so elated by that statement it erased any fear you might’ve felt from your limbs slowly turning to stone. As your whole body became so heavy your last thought before you became fully statuesque was “I wonder what color my eyes are going to be?”
 
 Hours seemed to pass as you stood perfectly still. Or maybe it was days, you no longer could tell nor did you care to. You never felt so serene. You did hear someone coming down the hallway complaining rather noisily. 
 
 “... swear this is why I keep the undead outside, that stench is horrendous!” A deep powerful female voice lamented. You could feel a collective excitement from the other statues, their queen had returned! Their queen... your queen!
 
 As you heard her heels stomping down the carpeted hallway you hoped she noticed you among the many other happy smiling statues in her collection. It was hard for her not to when you were standing in the middle of the hallway. “Oh, another adventurer?” She said somewhat annoyed.
 
 She walked in front of your view and examined you. You couldn’t help but be awestruck by her apparent beauty with her pale blue skin and ruby red lips with crimson eyes to match... not that you had much of a choice but you were grateful she had allowed you to gaze upon her magnificence as she appraised you. 
 
 “Hmm... cuter than the others of late.” She remarked filling your hazy stone brain with pride and glee, “and such gorgeous eyes, I’ve never seen that color before... you also made it more than 20 rows into the hallway, that’s a new record!”
 
 You felt so honored to be given such attention. Your queen traced her fingers on your stone armor. “Such a fascinating little piece of art you are.” She said seductively, “I might just have to add you to my personal collection in my bedroom.” You couldn’t think of anything you wanted more at that moment...