Red Glass

24.

Another wave of freezing water crashes against shivering Miya as she screams in pain. Faris stands up reaching out the cage against a laughing bandit. His red eyes encircled by darkness and exhaustion still have enough fight in him to spout violent imprecations, but that fight has been worn down over many nights and merciless cold.

Thoughts of revenge for the cruel torture, worry over the whereabouts of Axil, worry of Schenade and what she must be feeling, afraid for Veryth and her unborn child, missing Tamara, feeling trapped and angry.

"Oh God, make them pay!"

-

Rohain throws another log on the glowing fire.

"Yesterday, you never told me what happened when you climbed back up the stairs."
Daniella says as she finishes setting the beds.

"I'm tired, we covered a lot of ground today."

"Please, it's not fair to end a story half way through."

"It's not a story!
It's my life. Everyday I can hear it, I see it when I close my eyes.
I wasn't born this way."
Rohain says clenching his silver plated fist.

"Maybe it would help to talk about it. I know what it is like to have nobody to talk too, nobody to share with. We all need a friend, even you."

"What would you know?"

"I know that if you hold onto pain it will always hurt. My whole life I've always needed somebody to listen, maybe you have too?"

"Maybe you're right.
I am not used to other people, I haven't spent this long around anybody since...
A long time. Sorry."

"I understand."

"So, as I came back up the stairs, the visitor was sitting upon my fathers lap, laughing as my mother stood helpless .
The visitor's eyes had a mild golden glow, her teeth had grown long, sharp like knives. Far smaller than my father but his face expressed he was helpless against her.
She told me to sit at the table but I did not want to. Mother subtly shook her head while father mouthed for me to run, but still I came as asked. The wound in my head was still fresh and she could smell it. Rubbing her finger against it, she licked the blood and told me I tasted just like my brother. My father could not tolerate the threat a moment longer and threw her off, grabbing the carving knife off the table. She said she had come hoping to surprise my uncle and pay him back for the many of her kind he had hunted. My parents did not seem surprised. She told them that she had already committed vengeance by killing his nephew: my brother, and that the rest of us would also serve as a message.

I had to just stand there and watch as my father had his throat torn out by her teeth. Blood sprayed everywhere.
I froze. I, I just froze. I still remember the sound father made as he drowned in his own blood.
Mother screamed but the visitor thrust her clawed hand into my mother's chest with a force that shattered her ribs. She ripped out my mother's heart as I stood there helpless.
She stood there, just, laughing in the pool of my parents' blood.
I knew I was next."

-

Through the bars outside voices can be heard panicking. Boots can be seen running past and screams. Between the fast talking and strange accents only one word can be made out:
"Demons."

-

"What was she?"

"She is something not of this world."

"How do you mean?"

"A shadow vampire. They call themselves that because they are able to survive indirect sunlight. They possess the abilities of shadow magic and illusion."

"Illusion? Do you mean have people hallucinate ?"

"They can commit large spells for people to see smoke or darkness within a particular radius. Have the glow from their eyes invisible, they can make people hear things. I also heard about it being used to hide sound and create invisibility."

"How do you know so much about vampires?"

"I am one!"

"What!"

"Why do you think I never remove my helmet in daylight? I wear it to block out the sun and to help me to resist the urge to bite when I feel the overpowering urge."

Daniella's eyes widen in fear, she stops moving, her eyes water up.
The silver knights reasuring stature darkens into a threatening terror. The dark eye holes of his helmet hide a soulless void which could strike at any moment.

"I'm jesting kid, lighten up!"

Daniella lets out a nervous laugh, not really fond of a macabre sense of humour.
"How did you escape?"

"Just after she killed my parents and turned towards me, a torch was thrown through the window and filled the room with heavy black smoke. A voice outside called my name, it was uncle Amatun.
With my brother Ayhan disappearing I had not realised my father wanted the meat to feed an extra guest. My uncle used to come by now and then to tell us about the monsters he hunted.
My parents would talk about how crazy my uncle was for disappearing for moons at a time, for hoarding silver and always returning with new scars. He was a bounty hunter so me and Ayhaan would just assume his stories of how he got them from monsters was just his way of trying to amuse us, we loved him dearly.

My uncle came through the front door in his silver plated knight armour and sword like a guardian angel. The vampire saw him and faded into a red mist and disappeared along with the fog.
My uncle and I buried my parents but we were never able to find Ayhaan's body.
Uncle took me in, clothed me, fed me, taught me how to ride. As I got older he taught me how to track, how to survive on the road. He trained me in combat skills and tactics. Uncle taught me about the different kinds of creatures there are and how to kill them.
Miya will pay. For my Mother, for my Father, for my brother, if it's the last thing I do and I will stop at nothing until my mission is complete.
So, what about you, how did you end up all the way out here?"

"Oh, I just wanted some fresh air."

Phantom whinnies as they both laugh.

-

From the short screams and howling above a pair of ember eyes appears from the darkness.
Footsteps thunder into the basement of a bandit splattered in blood, wide eyed and shaking.
Darkness floods the basement while sounds of terror and death bury the silence of night.
The gang member stands weapon drawn but the darkness continues slowly forward.
The veil sheds from a wide silhouette of a tall man. Scar across the pointed left brow, a beard around a square full jaw neither long nor too short, a black coat midway down the shins over expensive clothing and a spiked up hairstyle of the distant west.
The thug panics as he approaches, going for a swing the man appears behind him, places his fingertips across the throat and slashes through, flowing blood everywhere.

Crouching next to the water bucket, the man washes his hands and face.
Miya and Faris just sit with their eyes wide open, silent and still. The man looks in the cell where Miya sits, Faris hears her squeal as he looks at her. The man picks up the woollen blanket the guard dropped and throws it into the cage.

Turning and taking a step forward he speaks .
"Faris, it's an honour to meet you. I do apologise for having taken so long to attend your release but word across the ice travels slow."

"Do I know you?"

"No, not yet..."