Danse Macabre (A Sekh Vampire Short Story) Urban FXF

"Dormi/Réveillé"

Oni felt like she was falling, rising, and falling on an endless loop. Am I dying, or falling in love? She wondered but could not find the answer. The song's final notes faded as she breathed, out. Am I dying, or falling in love? She wondered but could not find the answer. The song's final notes faded as she breathed, out. Out. Like a candle blown upon. Out. Am I dying, or falling in love? She wondered but could not find the answer. The song's final notes faded as she breathed, out. Out. She looked around and only saw darkness. Darkness so complete, she couldn't even see herself to know if she was in it. Darkness so complete she couldn't be perceived. She didn't know if she was or still is or even will be. She begged for the darkness not to reset...

"I can't believe someone had survived from that village." Amadi? She was still falling, but her moon goddess' voice made it more bearable. If she could hear her....maybe she can hear me? Oni opened her mouth and screamed as loud as she could. AMADIIII! AMADI, PLEASE HELP! She couldn't hear her own voice. Why can I hear myself speaking but not? Then, she began to realize with growing horror. She couldn't hear anything. Except Amadi's voice, which kept coming through crystal clear.

"I suppose you were sent here and adopted, but even if there are more...they can't escape me." How does she know I was adopted? Who can't escape? Why are people escaping from her..? "You truly tasted exquisite, young one. Ravishing, even in death." DEATH? Had Amadi killed her? Is that why she was falling and falling and falling... "You were never meant to exist," Amadi's voice continued. She had to know why Amadi would say these things, she had to try and focus, but her mind and body were in a million places at once. It was getting harder to hear Amadi's voice. "...it was a devilish fate that kept you safe all these years just to deliver you to me," was the last she heard.

Then came the hissing. Oni's body was on fire. She couldn't think, she couldn't breathe, all around was flames. Her ears filled with an incessant waterfall, a chorus of serpents hissing. She coughed without sound or reprieve, her lungs spasming as if they were full of smoke. Amadi....why? Why would you do this to me? I...I... She wasn't sure how to finish that sentence. She wasn't sure what she had felt. Like two magnets that made no sense but needed to be put together. Anything else in between the force would be crushed. Yet, she was the one crushed. It wasn't fair, yet there it was.

"Yes, Amadi is quite the expert fisherwoman isn't she?" I spoke everywhere yet nowhere, because that is what I am. That is what I've been reduced to. Oni was experiencing a taste of what I lived. Poor lil Oni's body froze up, although mentally she still writhed in agony. Her thoughts were finally beginning to bob along the surface of the pain.

Who..are...you? Her thoughts were still coming to me in fragments.

"My name is Samael," I decided to stick to the basics to keep her coherent.

Where..am I? She responded more fully this time, that was good.

"You are in the Inferno."

Infe..where is that? Clever girl. Don't worry about silly titles.

"Deep, deep underground, yet outside space at the same time," I tried my best to keep the answer simple. The Inferno was an impossible thing to describe. My little one was only experiencing a slice of what was my existence. Could she imagine that? Oni was silent for some time. She was trying to give up, give in, but that wouldn't do. I decided to help her a bit, even if it would cost me some of my precious energy. I sighed to myself because, kids, what can you do?

And just like that, Oni could feel again. She had given in to the burning and closed her eyes, resigned, but it had stopped. She opened her eyes and actually saw. Her eyes took in everything around the room in minute details, the biggest of which were the blue-hazel eyes that stared back. Amadi's blue-hazel eyes. The blonde brows above her furrowed. Oni then heard a serpent-like voice in her head. It sounded both like Samael, but not. "Ssshe wassgoing to eat you..." She couldn't see it, but Oni's eyes blazed red. Before she could really comprehend it, her body had risen up from whatever she had been laying on and pinned Amadi to the floor.

She tried to talk and found her incisors were longer than normal. "...Why?" Oni managed to get out to the other woman. Amadi, for her credit, looked alarmed and confused. If she were in her cheetah form her hackles would be up. Oni's hands tightened around the woman as she yelled again, "Why?!" Sudden tears fell onto Amadi's cheeks. Amadi opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, there was the sound of the door above them nearly falling off its hinges as it was thrown open with great force. 7 strangers burst into the room and Amadi spoke in some foreign tongue Oni didn't recognize, but somehow understood. She told them to stay back, but how do I know that? The strangers stood in a tight circle around the two of them, but Oni ignored them. All she cared about was the stupidly cruel and beautiful woman in her hands that she wanted to both kiss then tear out throat of. Why do I feel like this? She asked herself the same question she was implying to Amadi, whose eyes had now zeroed in on her own throat. Probably to eat me again. But Amadi made no movements, only speaking.

"I should have known this would happen," Amadi sighed.