Scarlet Prison

Chapter 7

            Why did I feel so stiff?  I extended my limbs to stretch out the kinks, but I still felt terribly uncomfortable.  I wondered if I had fallen out of bed during the night because I definitely wasn't in it. Was today a school day?  I couldn't remember.  My thoughts drifted through my jumbled memories, trying to decipher the date.

            I shivered.  Why did I feel cold? 

            My eyes flew open, as reality hit.  The cement beneath me and the night sky above me sent a rush of memories to intrude my head.  Had I seriously left the safety of my home?  Did I really willingly enter a town of vampires?!  My mind reeled with the insanity of my plan.  It was bad enough that Novashi had been taken, but to give myself up as well was pointless.  I had only made matters worse by leaving.  People at home needed me.  I couldn't help Novashi.  Who was I kidding?

            I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.  I couldn't waste my time with regrets and reflections on my actions.  I had to face what was in front of me.

            I crawled to the edge of the building and nervously peered over the ledge. I immediately ducked back down.  The idea of facing that did not seem particularly appealing.  The streets were filled with vampires, a sight that was confirmed by the instinctual fear clenching my gut. 

            "Hey!  What do you think you're doing?"  The man's voice made me jump.  I glanced around, but no one was insight. The voices were coming from the street.

            "I'm only talking to my friend," another man responded. Curious about how vampires behaved in their natural habitat, I peered over the roof again. 

            "Yeah, to my girl!"  The first man who had spoken clenched his fists and locked his jaw with anger. 

            The second man stood next to a tall, beautiful woman.  She had long brown hair and hazel eyes.  She appeared amused by the tense situation.  A light smile played on her lips.

            "You got a problem with that?"  The second man challenged.  He took a step toward the first man.  His back was facing me, but something about him seemed familiar.

            "Yeah, actually, I do."  With that, the first man was on the second.  They became a blur of swinging fists and biting teeth.  Their movements were too quick for my eyes to make out, even under the bright city lights.  The vampire woman simply stepped to the side and looked on with amusement.  Other vampires that were passing by didn't do so much as look at them.  Blood smeared the pavement beneath the battle.  It was blacker than human blood, like it had fermented.  I turned away in disgust.

            Now was a good a time as any to slip into the streets and begin my search for Novashi.

            I easily slipped from the alley unnoticed.  The hard part was getting motivated enough to step from my safe dark haven.  The street and shop lights lit up the city like it was a massive light bulb.  Everything looked abnormally dim, though.  Only the thought of walking visibly among vampires cast exposing light on the situation. 

            I had myself so worked up that when I stepped into the light, I felt a jolt of surprise that no one attacked me. Relieved and trying to ignore my instinctive fear of vampires, I began to walk down the street. I wondered if this had ever been a human city, before the war. I wondered if there were humans here, now. There had to be. Veins were tucked away in this city, somewhere, and Novashi had to be one of them.

Caught up in my thoughts, I hadn't realized that I was walking past the fighting vampires.  I stopped in horror at the sight of so much blood up close.  It may have come from the vampires, but it belonged to humans.  The black liquid looked like mutilated stolen property.