The Creed

Everyone talks of how unexpected the end was, how the brutality and the suddenness of it all took their breath away. For me it was all the worse because I knew it was coming. I’m not saying I’m special or different but I knew what was going to happen that morning and I was powerless to prevent it. My name is Alexei Stewart, I am eighteen years old and even now, a year later, I can still hear their screams…I can still feel her skin beneath my hands… I can still feel that empty ache when your whole world is gone.

 

ONE YEAR EARLIER

 

Turning away from the heat of the fire behind me, fighting my way to the edge of the crowd around the bonfire my eyes searched the flickering shadows of the evening until I found her. Ruth. Long, auburn hair drifting away like smoke, fitted black jacket and laughing eyes…her eyes swept over mine and then she was gone again, swallowed up in the ever-shifting crowds. I made as if to follow but before I could strong hands caught at my shoulders, turning me round to face my father. His eyes were dancing in the fire light, his broad shoulders straining at his coat to be free.

“Alexei…” There was a warning in his voice and I knew then he’d seen. He’d seen me watching her, tracking her, following the faint scent of jasmine that always lead back to her. I shrugged out from his hands easily; grinning at him to reassure him nothing was wrong. He still looked unsure but before he could speak again a small burst of people surged between us and then I was gone, twisting away like a fish into the midst of the shoal. My black hair, my black coat, my pale skin...i was one of them, I fit in. I kept my head bowed low to avoid conversation; flashing a smile at those I knew well, not even bothering to hide. The excitement of the night had my blood singing in my veins.

And she was out there somewhere. Ruth, the girl I’d watched for over a year now. The girl who haunted my dreams.

I caught sight of her again, alone by the edge of the light. Unconsciously I moved closer, drifting to the edge of the nearest fire. The scent of jasmine was stronger now, twisting past on the soft evening breeze. The same breeze that lifted the ends of her hair, caught at the edges of her coat. Above the sky was dark bruised purple fading to lilac and mauve and then indigo, blossoming out like spilt ink. Her hair was the brightest thing in the shadows but even as I watched something out there moved.

Fear caught at me unexpectedly, I didn’t understand why until I saw the man. The light just caught his outline as he appeared beside her. A red hood and cloak over a loose white shirt and dark trousers, knee high riding boots and the curved daggers at his waist…Creed, here…shocked and disbelieving I watched as he bent to murmur in her ear and Ruth replied easily. Her face was shadowed by the light but she didn’t seem alarmed at all. In fact she was talking to him almost as if she knew him…I felt sick at the thought. Pushing my way back through the crowd, unable to stop my face twisting with a mixture of pain and fear I fought to find my father. But for once I could not, the one time I needed him I could not find him at all.

“Father please…” I was almost begging, murmuring the words below my breath as though he might magically hear. Of course he didn’t, and I was lost in the confusion and noise. I knew these people, trusted them, but who here could I tell? No one. Only my father would know what to do. But I couldn’t find him, no one seemed to hear when I asked where he was, growing more and more desperate as the night deepened and coats were discarded, faces lifted to the night with pride. I alone carried on as I was, searching but not finding, until I was forced to stop. The night’s true entertainment had arrived and I, for once, had no stomach for it. All I wanted was to see my father and to speak to him. Like a child I wanted his reassurance and the sight of those innocent mortals walking in confused to the eager faces…the screams as the blood-letting began…I fled to the house, running from the mount to the village spread out below. It was of course deserted, the whole town was above, silhouettes distorted by the flames and the pale glow of the half-moon.