one: escape feels like a dream

13 0 0
                                    

*chapter contains violence*

CHAPTER ONE

ESCAPE FEELS LIKE A DREAM

| Zephyr Knight |

Death was easy. Death was a relief. I wouldn't matter what people said or did in their lives because at the end of it all death waits. Patiently. Quietly. Like a soldier of the shadows, a bringer of despair and grief. He looks down on us all with this twisted smile, that says he knows our ultimate fate. He taunts us with the knowledge of our deaths. When it'll happen, and how. Everything will die eventually — not even immortality can save you in the end.

Death would be my saviour. My peace and final point in this endless sea of torment. Only he knows that'll be too simple. He knows that I don't deserve it. No, because what I deserve is much, much worse.

Some nights I pray, beg, for death to take me away with those cold hands and that bone-chilling smile. He never answers my calls. Death doesn't want me, Hell doesn't want me. My own personal Hell is to live with the guilt of their deaths dragging me down into the depths of my agony. I deserve to live with this pain.

Until death in its worst form comes for me.

A death that I deserve. One that reminds me of all my mistakes, and all that I've lost.

Until that moment arrives all I can do is continue to fight my way through this existence. Alone. Without a purpose or people to fight for. I think at this point the only thing I am fighting for is death. For a fraction of the respect I still have for myself. Even though I know— I know that this life is what I deserve for my failure, I won't subject myself to captivity that comes with the risk of being used. It's not what they would have wanted for me.

I have to believe that. It's all there is left of the broken shards of my life for me to hold onto.

Which leads me to this:

Running.

My shoulder smashed painfully into the wall as I threw myself around yet another corner in the twisted maze of hallways that made up Lycarus's lair. More of his men were already waiting down this hall, armed to the teeth and ready to stop me.

The alarms warning everyone of my escape attempt rang loudly like the shrieks of a city on fire, giving me a skull-splitting headache on top of everything else. It made me think of who else might be trapped in this place, forced to listen to the piercing screams of the alarm.

I can't stop to see if there are others. Hesitation will ruin my chances to get out of this fortress.

I didn't let myself overthink my next move as I smashed through the group of vampire guards ahead of me. The five of them seemed surprised with the bold action, faltering for a moment which was enough time for me to dark past them. Unfortunately, it wasn't a heartbeat later when they got their wits about them and chased me down.

One of them swung his fist towards my head but I dodged the blow and shoved him into the wall. Another was barreling towards me while a third just behind him loaded a gun which most assuredly was filled with bullets designed to knock me out. I went for the second, attacking him head on with a hard blow to his face. Blood spurted from his nose and he stumbled back a few steps. I wasn't given the chance to land a second attack as another came at me from behind, attempting to wrench my arms behind me. I spun, kicking his knee. He let me go and fell to the floor just as the fifth guard slammed into me with jarring force.

My back hit the floor, knocking the breath from my lungs. The fifth guard was on top of me in a second, pinning me down. "Is that gun loaded already?!" He yelled, his voice strained with the effort it took to keep me down.

The Last Avian Soldier (The Nine Realms Universe)Where stories live. Discover now