Realm of the Rogues

Chapter LXXVIII

- - [POV: Dom] - -

I sit in complete darkness, my body aching from the restraints around me. My collarbone is throbbing with pain as it tries to heal, but judging by the way I'm sitting, it would heal all wrong, and then I would have to break it open again, which I would rather not. I try to take a deep breath, but that just makes the chain dig into my ribcage, so I make do with superficial breathing. Not that I need air anyway, I could live for probably a few hours without taking a single breath. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be uncomfortable, however.

I try to sleep, but it's really hard when I'm not tired, or in a comfortable enough position to do so. I resort to thinking instead, which I have already done my fair share of, ever since Slayer left me a couple of hours ago. I keep thinking about my mother and father, and back on that day they died.

I remember the panic on my father's face, as he had sprinted into the house. I had followed him and heard him talking with my mother about us needing to flee now, and that Wendigos had killed off an entire city not too far away. We had bundled up our few necessary belongings within a few minutes and headed off. I don't know why we didn't bring the horses - maybe because my father was too out of his mind to think about it, or maybe we feared that we couldn't feed them wherever we were heading.

It wasn't until we reached Wishaw that we could breathe a sigh of relief, as we were told, that vampires were on their way to kill the Wendigos. We all knew that vampires were stronger and faster, and even though they were feared, they weren't as scary and primal as Wendigos. At least vampires still had some humanity left in them.

We argued that we should find an inn to sleep in until we were sure that it was safe to return to Glasgow. The three of us had cramped together in a singular bed for the night, but I found it hard to sleep. Therefore I decided to sneak into the inn's wine cellar, just to get myself drunk enough to fall asleep with ease - I knew I couldn't stay awake all night, as we had a long walk ahead of us in the morning.

I pulled open the hatch to the cellar and snuck down the stairs, where I proceeded to spend some time drinking the different alcoholic beverages I could find. But as a huge crash sounded, followed by an onslaught of screaming and tearing flesh, I froze in terror, not knowing what to do. In my panic, I crept up the stairs and pulled the hatch shut, trapping me down in the cellar. It did little to drown out the sound of the Wendigo's massacre of the small village. All I could think about was my parents, and I hoped that they might have hidden themselves, just like me. 

I cringe as I remember how I had hidden in a far corner of the cellar and wet myself in fear. I stayed down there for far too long, curled up and clutching my ears to drown out the sounds while I wept silently, scared for my parents and my own life. 

I almost had a heart attack, when the hatch was pulled open slowly, as I was sure that that would be my end. I guess you could argue that would be, just not the one I anticipated. A vampire had ventured down and found me with ease. With a disturbing grin he had hauled me up, dragged me out of the cellar, and thrown me on the ground in front of another vampire, I now know to be Slayer.

He hadn't wasted any time as he lifted me to his eye level, and then burrowed his teeth into my small shoulder and filled me with his venom. Then he threw me back to the ground, leaving me to deal with this soul-crushing pain all on my own. All the while I didn't have any idea what was happening to me, where my parents were or what happened to the city and the Wendigos. No one uttered a single word to me for the duration of my transformation. They just dragged me along with them, even though I was unable to so much as stand due to the pain.

Now as I think back, I feel sick wondering, if Slayer ate my parents along with anyone else left alive, while I was there to witness it, but that I just don't remember or couldn't comprehend it at the time because of the state of pain I was left in. Once again I'm overtaken by a tsunami of rage, and I can't help but smile, as I then remember what I did when I had finally come to after days of agony.

Slayer was the first person I noticed when my eyes shot open for that first time. I never knew I could see so clearly, and quickly I saw clearly how I needed to murder Slayer for what he had done. I didn't feel the tiniest bit happy by any of the changes done to my body, on the contrary, every change only further fueled my hatred and abomination towards all of the vampires with Slayer at the centre of it all. 

The ensuing mass killing is like a haze to me. All I remember is seeing red, but if that was because of fury or actual blood splattered into my eyes, I don't know. I know I ripped through more bodies than I thought physically possible, and that when no one was left standing, I had looked around myself. There were bodies everywhere, and even though I now know I did it, something in me refused to believe, that a small fourteen-year-old was capable of that. To save my own sanity, I had convinced myself, that most of the bodies were the work of the vampires, and that I had saved countless humans by ridding the world of them.

It wasn't until then, that I had fallen in the middle of the pile of dead bodies created by me. I didn't even realize how many wounds I had sustained in my rampage, but at that moment I knew I would die. And to be honest, I was happy with that. I didn't want to go on living as a horrible monster without anyone left to care for or to care about me. 

I had come to accept my fate, so when Alasdair, Farlan and Harris pulled me out of that pile of death, determined to save me, I was mad. I refused to...

"Wake up, Sunshine!" a voice roars through the dark room, cutting off my train of thought, as the heavy sound of boots against stone approaches me. Slayer steps into my view, and once again my body enters that eternal fight between wanting to cower underneath his death stare and wanting to spring out of these chains and deliver a slow and painful end to his miserable existence.

"We're going to have some fun today," he then rumbles before his heavy boot connects with my cheekbone, sending me flying across the room.