Chapter 6: Grim Curiosity

Night fell over Belgrave, plunging the neat, clean streets into shadow. Vix followed noiselessly after Caine. She prided herself on her ability to be perfectly silent when she wanted to be. It was a skill that had saved her life on more than one occasion. So Caine did not catch wind of her, though he seemed on high alert, nothing like the last time she had seen him.

‘But how?’ The question reverberated through her mind. ‘How is he here? How is this possible?’ Vix had checked his pulse, put her hand in front of his mouth. There had not been a sound, nor a breath from the cold body.

Vix could hear her own teeth chattering in her head. She tried to lock her jaw, but the shivers just moved on to her arms, instead. Then her legs. It felt like she was gliding through a dream. Or perhaps a nightmare.

‘This is a mistake. What am I doing? I should be getting as far away from that...’ Man? Ghost? Monster? She did not know what Caine was, anymore.

Yet in spite of her rational mind placing reason after reason before her that told her to leave him be, she could not stop following him. It was even worse now than the first time she had seen him.

This was something beyond mere attraction. It was like he was a magnet, pulling Vix helplessly along in his wake.

Vix put away her fear, shoved it into a little part of herself far away. She focused on nothing but the pursuit, of remaining absolutely quiet as she ducked from cover to cover. The moon was beginning to creep above the buildings, peeking through a heavy bank of clouds. Caine had been walking a long time, already, looking as though he had no intention of slowing down.

He passed in and out of view through pools of moonlight, indistinct as a wraith. Whenever he met another person on the street, which was rare, he would suddenly change directions, going down the nearest side street or alleyway. Vix was forced to get closer as the night grew deeper so that she would not lose him down an unseen passage.

Her mind remained a numb blank, which was just as well. She was terrified out of her wits, but too gods-cursed stubborn and curious to turn back. Vix stayed just out of sight, wondering where in the world he could be making for. Even she, who knew every step of Belgrave south of the Lord’s manor, was soon completely lost.

Suddenly, she caught a whiff of something. The heady, stuffy smell of nearby water, mixing with the too-sweet stink of oozing garbage. They were near the Black River.

The regular dwellings and shops were replaced by squat warehouses. Their windows mostly gone or shattered, the toothless old goliaths leered unpleasantly down upon the streets below.

Vix wondered whether she ought to approach Caine. The idea had not occurred to her yet – or perhaps she had not allowed it to occur to herself.

She did not think he would hurt her. He had not seemed the type. ‘But that was before he came back to life right in front of my eyes! Or something like that, at any rate.’

Vix hesitated, thought hard, then decided against it. With no idea what was happening, she was not about to make any hasty decisions until she did. She continued to follow him from a distance.

Suddenly, Caine stopped. Vix scrambled back into cover moments before he turned around. She watched him from behind the half-collapsed wall where she had hidden herself. He was glancing all about him. Had he finally realized that he was being followed? Vix had done nothing to give herself away. Had he merely sensed her?

She pressed herself further back into her hiding place, keeping one eye on Caine as she did. He did not seem to have seen her. Yet the desperation of his searching only increased with each passing moment. He was not just looking around him, but up toward the sky and even at the ground beneath his feet.

Vix could not see his face, but the whipping of his head back and forth beneath his cloak showed the depth of his growing panic. ‘What is he doing?’ she wondered, unsettled. Everything was as it should be, dead quiet and still. No one else but Caine was on the deserted street.

If she had blinked she would have missed it. But she was watching with wide open eyes when the shadow appeared. It flitted over the roof of the nearest warehouse, then dropped like a plunging hawk. It fell directly atop Caine, crashing into him like a boulder. Without a sound, the young man dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut, his body slamming into the ground. Then, the shadow stepped lithely off him and onto the street.

The only sound that proved the encounter had been real was the dull thud of Caine’s body hitting the street.

Vix stifled a gasp that tried to fight its way out of her. Caine was lying face-down on the street with the shadow standing over him. Suddenly the moon fought its way free of the cloud bank. The shadow was thrown into view.

It was a man, Vix thought as she stared in horrified fascination, but it was hard to be sure. The figure’s body was nondescript, hidden beneath folds of heavy clothing, and their face was obscured by a wide-brimmed hat.

Even as she watched, the figure shifted, and Vix caught a flash of dusky light from beneath the brim of the hat, where their eyes ought to have been. It was so quick, she was sure she imagined it.

Vix trembled silently. She hoped she imagined it.

An odd noise floated through the air. It sounded like an old, decrepit church bell ringing, a discordant, harsh, metallic noise. She strained her ears to hear past it, cursing the timing of the weird noise. It sounded like the figure was speaking under the clanging din, but it was difficult to be sure.

The figure suddenly moved. Vix shrank back, fear squashing her lungs against the inside of her chest. But the shadowy man had not seen her.

He stooped down, seized Caine by one foot, and dragged him through the door of the nearby warehouse. The sound of Caine’s body slithering across the ground filled the quiet night air.

Then the door was closed with a bang.

Vix was left alone.