Lunar Flare Book 2: Midnight Eclipse

Chapter 5

The guards roughly threw Thedrick into the dungeon cell, causing him to stumble and nearly fall over. Catching his footing, Thedrick turned around to watch as the guards locked the cell door, barely even looking at his pitiful expression as they walked away, leaving him alone in the stone room, which was only slightly illuminated by the torches in the corridor outside. Not that it was any issue for Thedrick, as he could see perfectly in the dark.

What was a problem for Thedrick was how chilly the room was. The dungeons were sunk into the ground under the castle and were made of cold stone without much thought for comfort. Thedrick's jester outfit was rather on the light side, to allow him to move easily when performing acrobatics, but offering next to no protection against the cold. It also didn't help that the vampire was a bit cold blooded, and extremely thin, making him very sensitive to colder temperatures.

Thedrick wrapped his thin arms around his small frame as the cold already started to penetrate through the silk of his outfit. He wandered over to the small cot style bed that was the only piece of furniture in the cell and took a seat on it. It wasn't too long before he started to shiver, while he desperately looked around the cell to try and find something to distract him from the cold, but found nothing.

The vampire ended up lying curled up on the bed, cursing himself for landing in this situation, whole body trembling from the cold. He knew he was thin enough to slip out between the bars, but if he was caught, he might only worsen his punishment. Plus, there was probably someone guarding the entrance to the dungeons anyway, so his chances of a full successful escape were rather slim.

Shivering alone in a cold dungeon was a familiar experience to Thedrick, and his mind was taken back to when it first happened to him, many years in the past.

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It hadn't been difficult for Thedrick to sneak out of the castle and slip into the smithy unnoticed. It helped that he could naturally see in the dark, so he required no light of a torch that might give him away. He was also small and easily able to fit through small windows. He had quickly found what he needed and then fled back to his room as fast as he could.

Now Thedrick sat on the floor of his room, staring at the pair of pliers he had pilfered. It felt like there was a heavy stone sitting in his stomach, making him feel more nauseous than usual. He knew what he had to do, he just wasn't sure if he had the strength or resolve to do it.

He didn't want to be a vampire anymore. Well, he had never wanted that, but now he hated that part of himself more than ever. He had been filled with self-loathing ever since he had tried to feed on his innocent sleeping brother in the middle of the night. Finn had kept trying to offer him more blood after that. Thedrick tried to refuse as much as he could, but sometimes he was too weak, and gave in. Afterwards he would always feel so terribly guilty.

Thedrick wanted to put an end to it, wanted to make sure he wouldn't hurt his brother anymore. He knew this wasn't going to prevent his bloodlust, but there was nothing else he could think to do. Thedrick reached out and picked up the metal pliers, feeling their heavy weight in his small hand.

Then he opened his mouth and brought the pliers up to it, clamping them around his top left fang which he had unsheathed. He paused in place for a moment, breathing heavily, hands trembling slightly as they gripped the pliers. Then he started pulling as hard as he could.

The pain was instant and intense, but Thedrick didn't stop until he ripped the fang out, dropping the pliers as soon as it came free. The little prince started crying while blood poured out of his mouth, dripping onto the rug he sat on. He quickly raised his hands to cover his mouth while he sobbed, smearing blood all over them in the process.