Until Dawn

Chapter Four

                                                                  Dawn

When I came to, I hurt all over. My shins felt like they were on fire, and just twitching a muscle in my legs made me want to hiss in protest. The headache I suffered from was intense, igniting pulsing red sparks behind my closed eyes, oddly in time with my heartbeat. But its steady beat didn’t last; something was wrong. The air smelled wrong, sickeningly sweet for my own liking, like it was a cover up for something terrible. And my wrists… they stung so bad it felt like multiple bees had come and stung me simultaneously, burning so much my skin might as well have been peeling away. When I tried to move them, I knew why.

My eyes snapped open when the panic began to set in.

My wrists were bound, resting on my stomach, and so were my ankles. I was lying on four poster bed, probably a king size, the red curtains pulled apart with silver silk-like rope. Light streamed in through the windows to my left, bright with the winter sun, but it was far from comforting. Kicking and thrashing, screaming as loud as I could manage, I toppled off the bed in a panic to get away. The rope around my wrists and ankles gnawed away further at my skin, blocking off the circulation, and I suddenly found myself crying with horror and pain.  

I managed to huddle myself in a corner of the room near the window when the door, grand and engraved with swirls that looked strangely familiar, flung open. Immediately I felt the blood drain from my cheeks, and when I went to scream nothing escaped my lips.

Every Darkling had one quality that highlighted them as inhuman. Every single one bore Marks similar to my own unfortunate one, ranging in colours and shapes, and even consisted of different coverage. If a Darkling was young or weak, they bore few Marks, which tended to be pale and covering only that of a hand or a foot. However, the more powerful they were, the more they wore, coating most of their bodies in lines or swirls.

Right now, I was faced with two very powerful Darklings, Marks twisting along their necks and creeping along their jaws, as well as forming sleeves of black coils riding up from their hands to their elbows. Monster’s disguised as men came rushing towards me, their hands outstretched, and all I could see was the horror behind the Marks and what they represented.

I screamed and curled into a ball, hoping they would kill me quickly.

“Enough!” barked a strong, awfully commanding voice. I waited for the hands to grope at me, to grab at my limbs and rip me apart. That’s what they were known for. People told horror stories regarding Darklings, where before they were discovered they mutilated bodies and fed on human souls, or simply killed for the fun of it. They were the vampires of our reality, and though they were tame for now thanks to the threat of their elimination, it would only be a matter of time until they slaughtered again.

“Get away from me!” I shrieked, even though the hands never came to grab me, and it was so loud it hurt my own ears. I didn’t dare open my eyes and remained curled in a tight ball, bound hands tucked tightly into my chest, knees below my chin. Tears burned the skin in their tracks on my cheeks, salt snaking through the corner of my lips, and before I knew it I was sobbing.

Suddenly someone was prying at my wrists, urging me to pull them away from my face. I resisted, yelling angrily and in fright, and suddenly I felt a harsh pain bite into my cheek, while at the same time I heard the hard connection of flesh connecting with flesh. I yelled out before my screams and sobs died in my throat with shock.

“Now listen to me!” a voice commanded, one I hadn’t apparently heard speaking before. It was female, light and sounding nothing like a monster’s voice, but I didn’t care. The bitch just slapped me! “Hey, look at me!”