Stone Cold

Chapter 5

Tears gathered around the corners of her eyes, overflowing, yet her eyes remained unblinking. Her mind refused to work, just like her body refused to move.

Her grip on her phone loosened and it fell to the floor with a loud thud. That seemed to wake her up from her trance.

"Ah." She looked around at the room she was currently in. The light rays from her phone were spreading in all directions giving a hazy appearance to her surroundings.

The room was huge. It looked like it could accommodate a whole village. It was fairly empty with no windows. The only entrance to the room was the door she was standing in front of. Two huge pillars were present on the both sides of that raised platform-altar. Silver chains were attached firmly to those pillars, hanging down till they reached the statue and held him in place from both sides of his limbs.

The statue..

She dropped down to pick up her phone. Its screen was cracked. She dusted it a bit and pointed the light towards the statue to get a better look at it.

It was the statue of a man. He was on his knees yet this did nothing to hide his tall imposing figure. His bluging muscles were showing through his ripped shirt. It could hardly be called a shirt. It was torn, barely hanging from his body. Flesh was burnt wherever those chains touched his skin. His neck was arched, mouth open. He was screaming with agony painted on his face. His fangs visible.

What struck her the most was his eyes. There was pain in them. Raw pain. A single tear rolled down his cheek. It glistened in the light coming from her phone. How could a statue made of stone look so real? She didn't realise she had started walking towards him, now standing just a mere inches away from him.

Looking closely, he looked like the man from the portrait. The lord of this lost manor. This was an altar room and he was the sacrifice. Her trembling hand reached to touch this burnt arm. It was stone cold.

"What did they do to you?" She asked to no one in particular.

She squeezed her eyes shut, fresh tears trickling down her face. "How could they? HOW COULD THEY?"

She was almost screaming now. There was this unnamed pain in her chest. Like she had lost something she didn't even know she had. She rubbed her shirt above her heart gasping for air.

Her mind was on overdrive. She kept questioning her actions, Why am I in so much pain?

She crouched down, holding her head in her hands. A headache could be felt coming on. She loosened her hairtie freeing the raven cascade to flow down her back. She remained in this position for some moments before looking up at the altar. Her heart clenched at the sight there. Did they do this to him in reality? They even left a statue there as a memorial. How cruel!

Her legs were getting numb. She stood up and sat on the altar placing her head on the statue's burnt arm. It was the closest thing to support her now throbbing head. She didn't care about the dust accumulating over centuries ruining her clothes, nor did she care about the darkness engulfing her from every corner of this underground room. She only wanted comfort and this stone cold statue was providing a fair share of warmth.

She laughed a bit at her stupidity. The loneliness is getting to my head, she thought.

She felt silly but she didn't want to leave him behind. No matter how much her brain tried to reason, her heart just wouldn't listen.

She got up to her feet now facing the man-statue. Despite being on his knees he almost came to her shoulders.

"How tall is he exactly?", She looked him up and down.

With her hands shaking uncontrollably, she tried to touch him again. This time, she touched his face. As soon as her hands made contact with the stone, a scene flashed before her eyes.

"Why did you betray me?"

The chained man roared with pain as blood dripped down his wounded body. Silver cutting through his burnt flesh. His emerald eyes reflected the flames surrounding him.

"Why...?"

A lone tear escaped his left eye.

She blinked her eyes. Stepping back almost falling down the edge of the altar.

'What was that? Is he trying to show me something?' Question after question came swarming in her mind.

Those dreams, That old lady, These visions...

"Is he still alive?", The words left her lips before she could even comprehend them.

She stared at his face for some seconds before closing her eyes and scolding herself internally.

"What is this? Twilight? I'm no Bella Swan", She laughed ironically.

She picked up her phone and turned around to leave. Each step felt heavier than the next. Her heart felt like it was being torn to pieces.

"Faith"

Did she just hear him call her name? Her lips moved on their own accord to form a single word.

"Ares"

She had no idea what came over her. Spinning around abruptly, she ran to the statue. Just as she reached him, she held his face between her small hands and placed her soft plump lips on his hard cold ones. Tears were threatening to spill from her eyes. She was too distracted by the hurricane of emotions she was facing to feel the prick of his fangs as their sharp end cut through her bottom lip. Fresh warm blood trickled down her lips inside his mouth.