Wandering Moonlight: Writing Prompts & Short Stories

Lesser Evils Part Three

7– THE FRIEND

As we travelled in the direction the monster led us, she told me she had been asleep for millennia and was an ancient creature that predated even the vampires. She spoke of other creatures, and I was horrified to learn there was more that preyed on humans than the vampires.

She told me of the balance of the world, and her mission to right it by methodically destroying the vampire nests until they were forced back underground.

When I asked her name, she told me she had many.

"I am known by names unnumbered, broyjun. Every culture in human history has had another name for me, the vampír and drakán and fäer still more. You may call me what you like."

So I gave her a name that I hoped would be a good omen, if there was such a thing, a name that was gentle and feminine and pretty. Unlike the dark, hellish monster my every instinct screamed she was.

I called her Lily. My father told me it was my mother's favorite flower, and he had called her his lily. So I thought it was fitting to give her a name that had meant so much to the man we were going to save.

Lily snorted at the name, once she had deciphered what I was signing, and then shook her head with a bemused smile.

"I will definitely be staying awake for longer this time. You are fascinating."

As we travelled, Lily hunted for me, provided for me (and I continued to ignore where she gathered the supplies that she brought to me from), and confessed that she enjoyed my silence immensely.

"I hate the disorder of noisy creatures. But you are silent and watchful and soothing. It is relaxing to be with you, broyjun."

After more than a week of travel, following the directions I had gleaned from the many rumors I had eavesdropped on in the various human settlements I had passed through in the last year, we reached the Farm. And all of my fears were realized.

The Farm was a large building— what my father had always called a warehouse. It was on the edge of a lake that stretched out as far as I could see, and was surrounded by broken down, rusted vehicles.

But it wasn't the building itself that struck fear into me at the sight. It was the medical vehicles going to and from the front loading entrance of the building-- and the dozens upon dozens of vampires shuffling to and fro, loading containers into the medical vehicles.

A sharp sniff from Lily, and her eyes widened, her eyes seeming to darken as she flashed her sharp fangs.

"Blood, broyjun. Those containers are filled to the brim with human blood. Fresh. Warm. And there are hundreds of humans in that metal structure."

I shivered, wrapping my arms around myself as I stepped back into the trees that blocked us from view of the building below.

How can we possibly get in past that many— I began to ask, but Lily waved her hand as if brushing me off.

"I can get you in, broyjun. That is not a problem. I worry for your sire. If he is alive, the bite of a vampír—"

— I know. But he's alive, and he'll be fine. He has to be, I signed, trying not to let my desperation show.

Lily watched me for a moment, but I felt none of the pity, disbelief or frustration from her that I normally felt when I spoke to others of rescuing my father. She studied me with an almost clinical coldness before she smiled wickedly and nodded.

"I am very fond of you, little human. I will get you in to the humans, and if he be there, we will rescue your sire. Stay safe here until I call for you."