Briar Rose - Taekook

Chapter 15

This chapter is inspired by an event that happened in this book I'm reading. It's called "ember in the ashes" if you want to check it out!

XV: Taehyung 

The dunes seemed to go on for miles on end, their sand covered slopes shining as if struck by starlight. The moon peeked out from behind the angry gray clouds, the only light in this whole uninhabited desert. The salt-white flatness stretched on for hundreds of miles, marked by nothing but black cracks and the occasional gnarled Jack tree.

The Atacama desert.

Why I was here I didn't know. Deserts are a rare thing in the vampire world, and the eerie stillness of this place sent shivers down my spine. A breeze curls around me, and for a second, I think I smell smoke and death. Then the smell fades, but it still leaves me uneasy. Was this all a dream?

Then I heard it. A voice.

A voice carried by the wind, soft at first, but gets closer, clearer. It doesn't come from any particular direction, just swirls around me like an unrelenting chorus. A chorus of elements: sand, air, earth, and darkness. Lots of darkness.

"Taehyung."

I practically leap out of my skin, the stillness around me shattered by just this one word. My dagger is at the throat of the speaker before I can think, but I nearly drop it in surprise.

The little revenant.

She stares at me through her one eye, almost as if challenging me to make the decision. As if daring me to swipe that knife across her neck. But that can't be right. She's dead. She shouldn't be here. But then, where was here?

I drop my arm and back away. Impossible. This must be a dream. It has to be. I pinch myself hard, wanting to wake up from this nightmare. Nothing. The revenant tilts her head. I take my dagger and cut it deep into my palm. Blood drips to the ground, the only sound in the otherwise still air.

I can't wake up.

"This―this isn't right. You're dead." I say in a hushed whisper. She looks at me, eye flashing. "Yes. But you're not. Not yet." I don't know what to say, so I simply nod.

"Come." She beckons me with her hand, climbing a low hill which rises before us. When she realizes I'm not following, she looks back. "Starlight is fading. We must move." I hurriedly climb after her, my large feet having considerably more trouble in the soft sand. The revenant walks to the top of the sliding sand, not even leaving any footprints behind. She waits for me, moonlight glinting off her hair and turning it into a silver waterfall.

When I reach the top, the night air seems to curdle, bringing with it the unmistakable stench of war. A battlefield stretches out below me, countless bodies lying motionless in the sand. There's no moaning, no groaning, no one yelling in pain. Nobody moves a muscle. Everyone's dead. I'm not a stranger to death, but this type of still carnage I have never seen before. There are always at least a few survivors holding on to the fleeting hope of life. And yet... Why would two armies have a fight in a desert? What could there possibly be to gain?

The revenant starts to walk down the hill towards the dead, but I stay where I am. I don't want to go. I've seen enough slaughter in my life. There's no need to see more. But she turns back and clamps a surprisingly chill hand on my arm, dragging me towards the battlefield with force I never knew she had.

As we wind our way through the first of the bodies, I look down. A sick feeling of recognition seeps through me at their faces.

I would know these people anywhere. I killed every one of these men.