Revelations

The grate above slammed shut with a finality that killed my remaining hope. I had been pitched into the blackest of holes. The kind that swallowed sound and ate hope for breakfast. I crouched in the darkness, making myself as small as possible, imagining what sort of horrors lay in wait. It was so faint at first that I thought I had imagined it.

The breathing.

Shallow, raspy, and unwell.

Fear snaked like tendrils around me.

What if it were the creature they spoke of? If I acknowledged it, it would be on me.

I crept forward silently, looking for a wall. My bare feet scuffed stones, searching in unison, until my toes found something warm.

"Who's there?" The voice belonged to a man.

I answered because silence was far worse. "Um, hopefully not food."

The man chuckled and coughed.

I followed the sound to the back wall, unable to see his face until he opened his eyes. His orbs illuminated a pale face, that of a vampire. I fell backward, grasping my throat in a protective motion. When the attack didn't come, I cracked an eye and looked at him. A sheepish look appeared on my face. "A bit dramatic of me, sorry."

His eyes glowed with mirth, then sorrow. "Not entirely unwarranted, given what you've likely been through."

"They threw you in here, too?" I asked.

"Initially, then I stayed."

"What?" My voice rose in surprise.

"Better here than out there. Out there, you forget what you once were."

I shuffled to a position opposite him. "I didn't get a choice."

I remained quiet, thinking of whatever had sliced the vampire within an inch of its life. This man may not have attacked me, but the fact that he was a vampire immediately meant he wasn't a friend to me.

He looked at me as though he saw through skin and into my soul. "You did. You just haven't recalled yet."

I scraped my thoughts, trying to remember further than the last few hours. "If I have, it's not a thing I recall."

We sat in silence until he slept. I hadn't even learned his name when they came for me again.

No words. No explanation. Just yanked me up by the arms and dragged me through the corridors again.

I didn't struggle. Nor beg.

The undead would not reason.

They brought me this time to a grand hall. Full of vampires, all eyes and teeth. A showcase, or a feast. I came to understand that I was the main course.

They tied me to a carved stone altar. I stared at the ceiling, wishing the tears would not fall. "Don't break. Don't let them see you break."

The first vampire glided from a position outside my range of view. She was tall, elegant, and her visage was cruel.

She pulled a paring knife from her bosom and nicked me until a steady flow of blood streamed forth and took her first draught. And screamed.

Her veins lit from within and burned through her as she collapsed, twitching. The crowd gasped. Some recoiled, others leaned in, curious.

"Continue," the woman seated upon the throne ordered.

A second vampire approached, this time more hesitant. He had the decency to use a form of enthrallment. I became pliant in his hands as he drank deeply from just above my collarbone.

This time, the reaction was worse. The fanged menace howled and began to flail before combusting, burning before me like a sacrifice on an altar of flame.

Panic swept the entire room. The crowd surged backward.

Though still secured to the altar. I couldn't resist the taunt. "Still think I'm unfinished?"

The woman on the throne stood, yelling a quick command to her guard.

I struggled with the restraints, only succeeding in drawing them tighter across my chest. "Still think I'm yours to do with what you wish?"

The would-be queen pointed her office staff at me, spitting out clipped orders. "Kill her."

The vampire who had tested me with the needle lunged.

I kicked and screamed words I didn't know I knew.

Words that, upon closer inspection, split stone and shattered glass, halting him in his tracks, a look of sheer terror upon his face.

"Milady-" he cried out.

One of the guards sliced through him, silencing him forever. In a flash, the binding that held me dissolved.

Scared, I ran mindlessly, crashing inelegantly into a young vampire. One who held me for a fraction of a second, whispering words I would mull over, thinking I had imagined them. "You're not alone."

Soon they regrouped, their voices low in commiseration. I could hear them deciding whether I would live or die. They feared the retribution of another in their sect.

In the end, I ended up back in the hole. But it didn't feel like punishment. It felt like salvation.

"Are you there?" I called out to the man left behind.

He croaked from a nearby location. "Not dead, yet. And by the looks of things, you shook things up a bit. Heh."

I found him again, more certain as I traversed the darkness. "You might say that. I've learned something." I hesitated, afraid to trust.

"One faction desires your death. While the other threw you in here. You're wondering if you should share this information, lest I be an informant." He laughed. "I may be half dead, but I have eyes and ears everywhere. I know more here than ever when I roamed about there."

"I was about to say-" I paused, a quick mention of gratitude sent heavenward. "I am grateful."

"Yes, nothing like a bit of good fortune to brighten one's day."

I nodded, shielding my thoughts, and purposely drove them away from what I thought was the truth, but something in my demeanour seemed to enlighten him anyway.

"Ah, I understand now."

"Hmm?" I asked, genuinely curious if he could tease it out.

"You are favoured." He pushed himself to sit. This time, a look of curious disbelief etched his features.

"Not entirely sure I catch your meaning. I don't believe the vamps will afford me any favour."

"Not them, by someone else. A vessel, mortal skin. Flame and flight, one who could tear apart their clan with the purity of your very soul. One would die to possess such a thing." His eyes glowed earnestly in the darkness, the sallowness of his skin seeming to fill in with each gaze.

"You're mistaking me for someone else." I turned away, my thoughts deep on what he had said.

The presence I'd felt earlier stirred again. A soft breath against my ear. A whisper I couldn't quite hear.

"You're not alone," her cellmate said, causing hope to flare when it had no right to. "They believe you to be prey. But something guards you. Something they're unable to see." His voice rose with power now, as though he drew it directly from his words.

I smiled, shook my head, and closed my eyes, wishing his words were true. That's when I heard a chorus of distant but still very real voices.