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Sorrow for Mars (in the processing of editing) |
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I pulled a small knife from my dirty jeans pocket, pressing it to my palm. I didn't like this part, but I could not attract the monsters I was hunting without it. I began to chew on my bottom lip as I cut part of my hand with the knife. The blood was slow to bubble out of the wound, which was surprising considering my anemia, and I had to squeeze the tender flesh around it to get the blood to roll down to the back of my hand where it hung, then dropped to the ground. I waited a minute or two until I had maybe four or five drops of blood of the ground near my feet. I pulled out a cotton pad and some gauze tape, wrapping my hand up with my makeshift bandage. I retreated from the trap a few steps remaining hidden in the darkness of the absent moon. Tonight was perfect. A new moon, though it meant I couldn't see, it meant that the enemy, the creatures who took my parents and my brother from me, would be able to see less perfectly than normal as well. I checked to make sure there was a flashlight still wound to my belt loops, then I let my weapon of choice, a long piece of metal piping, rest on the tip of my right boot. I tucked the knife back into my pocket, and waited. My body shivered slightly, and I regretted not bringing the coat Dizz had offered me. I loved my makeshift family; the group of kids I lived with, one my age, two four years older, and three that were various years younger than I.
Dizz and Strats, twins who looked identical but had varying personalities, were eighteen. Strats stayed home with me while the other, Dizz, went and worked with Riot, our other fourteen-year-old. They worked for what little luxuries we had: electricity, running water, and a scant income we had to feed ourselves. Dizz did all the hard work that he traded the factory they worked for the two utilities, and Riot worked strictly for money. The world was low on both, almost. Darnis was twelve, and her sister, Charm, was eleven. They both volunteered at the cramped shelters that the few remaining adults built to house the kids who didn't want to live as independantly as we were. Strats took care of the youngest while I slept, and everyone was out. The youngest being a two-year-old we named Kurz. We had found Kurz in a town between here and the next one that had life, living in an abondoned building with his torn apart, decaying parents and a few of the creatures I was hunting: The Impure. He had been terribly weak, and we hadn't thought he would actually make it, but all of us took care of him the best a few scraggling teenagers could. He eventually recovered, and had no memory of his real parents. He thought Strats was his dad and I was his mom. We didn't bother to teach him otherwise. Isn't a kid supposed to rely on his parents for learning and such? We never pretended to be together, Strats and I, for the kid's sake, we didn't feel the need too.
Whenever I think back to the disaster that tore this world apart, I laugh lightly at how immature all of us were. The oldests at the time were my age, fourteen, and we all had raided the stores that were ripped open for all the items we had always wanted, not thinking that this would have lasted four years. Though we later, after we had filled boxes upon boxes of all the things our greed made up pick up, went back and collected what we needed. Food and such, though there was hardly and left that wouldn't go bad by the time we carried it passed the debris and junk that covered the ground all the way to the little cottage on the outskirts of the walled in town. We hadn't known one another when we all met the four bedroom cottage, we had just seen that place as one of the few little houses that had survived, barely, and tried to claim it as our own. We fought mercilessly with each other, arguing about everything until Riot and I convinced the twins that we could live together in peace. After that we hadn't over little things, only the things that truly needed discussion.
Our world has been dead for four years now. a giant storm, one like no other we had ever experienced, one with frightening abilities, had taken my happy life away. It had covered the whole planet of Xigria, and for three days wreaked havoc upon humanity. Humans were changed into strange things, and those strange things were whipped into the air and swept away to be joined with other things made from animals, or sometimes inanimate objects, creating creatures almost straight out of a child's nightmare. Those people that had survived, though barely, had fallen prey to these... things that had been created, those we called Impure, except those that had stayed where light had surrounded them. It was the most devastating thing in the history of mankind. Earth's disasters had nothing on our new planet. It was strange how the night everyone would have thought to be the happiest, most precious time of year would be turned into something we struggled remembering. It was hard to deal with, since the storm had struck during Christmas Eve. A time we would never forget as long as we lived. Which might not be long if the beasts on the outskirts of the lights had their way. We tried not to think of it, all of it: the beasts, the storm, our long gone families. We had even given ourselves new names, mine being Mars, after the planet that was predicted to explode centuries ago, causing my ancestors to flee to this strangely Earth-like planet.
A raspy, harsh snarl ripped through the silence, pulling me out of my reverie. It sounded so close to me, and I smiled wickedly. Good, it was close, and it had taken the bait. Now I had to just wait for it to look at me with it's unnaturally gleaming eyes that glowed even in the darkest of nights such as this. I knew almost four generic (if they could even be classified as such) Impure: A dog, a rat, a wolf, and even a cat. I could tell what they were by the color of their eyes. A dog Impure had strange green eyes that reminded me of the inside of limes. A rat Impure had eyes the color of almost ripened oranges. Cat Impure had just plain yellow eyes, but the scariest of them all were the wolf eyes. They were so unnatural looking with they're light shade of violet, and these were so eerie because the wolf, so far, were the strongest out of the four I had faced. I had only faced one before, and I had barely made it home. My body had been almost ripped to shreds, gashes so deep they bled for long periods of time covered my body. I was sure to bleed to death, but Strats, Dizz and Riot had successfully stopped the bleeding in time, and the town doctor had sewn me back together with what supplies he had. I shivered as I recalled that experience.
Unfortunately for me, the eyes that snapped up at my shiver were indeed that lavendar color that nearly killed me.
I took a step back, hoping that the town I stood in front of was close enough that I could make a break for it if I needed. The dreaded creature stepped closer as well, the eyes growing bigger. I could only see the gleaming eyes, but by the way it wasn't very close, yet its eyes were even with mine, I knew that I was up against one big monster. Probably, as I wished against, it was bigger than the one I faced before. the second thing about this creature that made my blood run cold, was that it was human enough to not only look like the old movie versions of Werewolves, but it possessed speech, as limited as the vocabulary was. I said a silent prayer in my head, hoping that I could make it through or die quickly.
The thing closed some distance faster than I was comfortable with, its eyes almost over my head. I could almost hear it panting lightly, which was when it spoke to me.
"Human smell so good. Make good feast, yes?" it said, swaying lightly from side to side.
"No, no I wouldn't." I replied in the most confident voice I could muster. Though as I said this, my confidence seemed to be draining quickly. I swallowed at the thick, scared lump forming in my throat that was bent on choking me.
"I think yes." It said again, "I think little human taste good with pure blood, yes. Poor thing. Human seem so frightened, might make taste go a little bitter."
I swallowed again, trying to clear my throat enough to speak. My voice came out a bit squeaky at first, "Sorry to hear that."
"No, it fine." It chirped happily. "No talk now, just be eaten."
"Oh crap." I breathed out unconsciously, dodging it as it crouched and launched itself at me. I barely moved out of the way, its giant, jaggedly sharp claws catching my left pant leg and shredding it like it were wet paper. I took three frantic steps back to put some space between it and I. It just laughed, a rusty, bitter sound. Like nails on a chalkboard, almost. The eyes were focused so intently on me when it turned back around. I shrank back a few more steps.
I finally had enough thought to swing the pipe sideways in the air as it leaped, eyes ascending, and catching it in the skull. That brought it painfully back to the ground, where it lay in a large dazed heap for a second, long enough for me to swing down again and bash at its head. With an angered snarl it rose to its feet. It's rage made me retreat a few more steps. The earsplitting roar filled the night, deafening me for more than I wanted. I had jumped backwards again as it tried to bash me with it's paw-hand-thing. I wasn't as fast as I should have been. It's claws caught more than my pants, ripping straight through my flesh on the side of my right leg. My knee tried to buckle on me, throwing me off balance.I had to push myself backwards once more to fall out of its reach again. I scrambled back to my feet, my leg bled quickly, soaking as much of my pants as hurriedly as it could.
I cursed under my breath again, turning and running for the desolate town that I had spaced my self from in the beginning. I struggled to dash as my leg screamed in pain, a sound only I could hear, I fell down once, but had immediately pushed myself back up, pipe in hand. I was already having a bad day, and being hunted for my pureness was not a good way to turn that frown upside-down.
The Impure wasn't as far behind as I would have foolishly hoped. It liked the chase, feeling the exhilerated as it followed me closely. In the town, there was some light, strangely, but not enough to hurt the creature that pursued me. Impure were sensitive to the light, pained by any light stronger than the faint glow of the moon. They even hid on full moons, unable to withstand it.
I hadn't seen the wall in time to stop, running straight into it. I flipped around, facing the Impure as it leapt toward me, and ducked rolling to the side and pushing myself off the ground quickly. It's claws screeched at they slid down the wall slightly. I turned to see it growl and push off from the wall, landing merely feet behind me. I looked forward again, turning to the right, and running straight into a dead end alleyway. I cursed and spun around. It was too late though, for me to escape. As it turned too quickly and ran into the wall, unleashing a loud howl of pain, it had still cut off my exit. It would be too slow to climb the fire-escape ladder that hung off of the still standing building. I collapsed onto the ground involuntarily, staring at my demise as it approached, savoring this moment. Suddenly it looked up to the sky, the building tops and shreiked in frustration at whatever wasup there. I took the time it was distracted to unwind the flahslight from my belt loop, flicking it on. The stream of yellow light beamed directly onto the Impure lighting up its hideous man-beast body covered in mangy, brown fur. The eyes seemed to hollow out in the sockets while it was in the light.
It screamed in unbearable agony, right as something silver flashed in front of me. A man, made of what seemed like ivory, with silver hair tipped in pitch black and clothed in black garments including a trench coat, had launced himself down ontop of the impure writhing in pain on the ground. His hands looked as if they were extending into sharp claws from his fingernails. He shoved his claws into the beasts thick skin, ripping shreds out from it skull. He had pinned down the beast well, though not effortlessly since they struggled. Regardless of the light beam, the Impure lumbered to its paw-feet still crying out its suffering, lifting the man off the ground. It's paw-hands rose and tried to jerk the man off of it. One gnarled hand successfully slipped between them and threw the ivory man off of the Impure. The man landed like a cat on the wall in a crouched position. He was baring a wicked smile, white teeth showing, uncovering two long canines on both the top and the bottom jaw. His bright green eyes narrowed and almost covered by the black-tipped white hair that flopped into his face. He looked truly menacing, even though part of me felt as though it had been rescued. My brain tried to inform me that he was just another Impure, a more powerful one, come to finish me off. But I didn't think that Impure were sane enough to wear clothes.
The man sprang from the wall, clinging back onto the Impure who was still the center of my flashlight. A sick smell filled the air, like the smell of decay; of flesh rotting. The man's hand sunk deeply into the Impure's neck, as he ripped out more than just skin this time. Blood flung everywhere, covering everything it splattered on, sticking itself on my face, body, and in my hair. The Impure's roar was cut off suddenly, a gurgling sound was now emmiting from its hollowed out neck. The beast collapsed on the ground, eyes staring straight at me as the light flicked out. I tensed, more than I was already, and clutched the lightless flashlight closer to my chest.
Finally, the gurgling stopped. The Impure was dead. The man flipped his hair out of his face with a blood covered hand, smearing the crimson on his forhead. He looked at me, his green eyes glowing lightly in the darkness, but nothing like the glowing of Impure eyes. Somehow this deemed him "safe" in my mind.
His eyes closed and he slumped heavily against the wall. His claws retracted, like a cat's almost, returning to normal, his fingernails short. He pressed one thumb to his top canine teeth, and it appeared to make his teeth not as long or sharp looking. He turned and gazed at me confusedly, then looked at the Impure dead on the ground.
"Was that.. your doing?"
CHAPTER 2
Artemis
When the black began to fade from my vision, I realized I was covered in blood, standing out in the darkness. In front of me lay the destroyed body of an Impure, and a scared looking girl sat to my left, staring straight at me, clutching a flashlight to her chest. My head hurt as the black still slowly faded completely.
"Was that... your doing?" I asked her, still confused as to how I got here and where "here" was.
She looked at me bewildered, and a bit angry, "No." She replied slowly, "That was you. You killed it here, right in front of me."
I looked back towards the dead beast in disbelief. I didn't even remember how I got here, there was no way I could have killed an Impure without letting the girl live. I couldn't remember anything and my head was still throbbing, though not as intense as before. I pressed my hand to my forehead. I felt the sticky sensation of blood on my head. I jerked my hand back, realizing it was covered in the thick, foul smelling blood that leaked from the corpse on the ground.
"Don't you remember?" She asked, still a little mad for some reason.
I was going to shake my head, but it was still pounding dully, so I simply replied "No."
She tried to pull herself from the floor. The smell of a sweeter blood mixed with the decay of the Impure instantly. I pressed my thumb to my fangs, keeping them from growing... again. She didn't make it up, like she apparently had hoped. The scent became stronger and I could hear the tantalizing dripping resonate off the concrete. I pressed harder on my fangs as I felt them try to extend again, and my breathing became uneven. A worried look passed across her face, she successfully pulled herself from the pavement this time, taking a step towards me. The smell filled my nostrils, making me shiver. I backed up quickly away from her.
I stuck my hand up to stop her from approaching, still keeping on thumb on my fang, "J-just stay... there for a minute." I struggled to say. It wasn't proper etiquette to dine on the one you save.
She stopped, confused look mirroring the one I was sure was plastered on my face when I woke up. The headache had eased away finally, and I was able to straighten up. I looked at her face, taking in her young features. Her hair was long, black and wild, reddish blonde tips. Her face was a bit tanned, probably from being in the sun. She had brown eyes that ran into green. She was, over all, very ordinary looking. I voiced this out of habit.
"What?" She asked, more angered now.
"I said, you are very plain." I replied.
Her lips turned into a scowl, "Your point being?"
I stopped, pausing. Did I have a point? She took my silence as a guess that I wasn't going to answer.
"Thank you, sir, for stating the obvious." She said sarcastically. She limped forward, but I was in her way unconsciously. She glared at me, "Since you can't remember what happened, I suppose I won't need to thank you." she leaned heavily on the metal piping in her hand. She flipped the hair out of her face with a toss of her head. She seemed to sway after that, leaning forward and back to catch her balance. I chuckled at her, since it was funny how defiant a little could act even though she had stared danger in the face and was scared.
She went to walk away, but she stopped and looked at me.
"Do you need something, miss..." I trailed off appropriately.
"Mars. Call me Mars." She said, taking the hint, "And I was wondering if you would come with me." she looked sheepish as she spoke, embarrassed by having to ask for help, "It would be nice to make it home, knowingthat I didn't have to risk my life again."
"Why?" I asked, only taunting her a bit.
She scowled again, "Because it seems that since I'm bleeding to death, I am sure that there are more Impure out there catching this scent."
"I know that much." I answered back.
"Then why'd you bother asking?" She snapped, glaring at me, still swaying slightly.
I shrugged, "Don't know." I replied. "I suppose I could go with you. Where are you going?"
Mars smiled lightly now, encouraged. "Well, I live in the small town of..." She trailed off, swaying more than her slightly bobbing. Her eyes started to close and she fell forward. I scrambled to catch her, losing a bit of my balance in exchange. We wobbled for a second before I could steady myself.
"Mars." I called her name, but I already knew she was unconscious. Blood loss.
I resisted the urge that gripped me, frantically pressing my thumb back to my fangs, turning my head away from her, and tried to control my breathing. I knew of a town that was close. It was underground, and the blood smell would not reach the Impure. I willed myself to relax, since running would a trail for Impure to follow. I calmed considerably, holding Mars close to me. I closed my eyes, feeling that the black around the edges would worsen and make my head ache again. I could my body lose feeling, starting from my feet and working its way up. I opened my eyes when my fingers began to lose feeling, seeing that Mars and I were indeed disappearing. The loss of sensitivity was quickly replaced with a burning feeling, an intense fiery pain that shot through me and Mars, who groaned and tried to squirm. I whispered quiet words of encouragement to myself. I felt as though I were falling through the fire now, sinking lower into the imaginary flames. Suddenly my feet were on the ground again, and I wasn't in pain, though my breathing was uneven and shakey. I took a stumbling step out into the light the street lamps cast on the stony floor and almost the incredibly high ceiling. Bats inched closer in curiousity, calling out to me in the way that their words rung through my head directly.
"Artemis, who is this?" some wanted to know.
"How bad are her wounds?" others asked me.
A bigger, black bat dropped down to hang the overhang of the little house I dragged myself and Mars to. "It's human smell shall lead them here." He purred to me in a bit of disgust as his beady eyes took in my companion.
"The scent cannot reach above ground, they will not find her." I replied. I didn't like this bat, he was arrogant and obnoxious, bullying the others and even banishing from the abondoned city.
He mentally frowned, showing me that he was not pleased that "the human" was here, but I ignored him. I had more important things to do.
I grabbed a scarf from the dresser in the closest room, and tied it around her leg, above her wound. After that, I was at a loss as to what to do.
"Turn her." someone whispered, the rest of the bats fluttered their wings uncomfortably at the thought.
I pondered this for a moment. I was sure I could do it, and it would save her. She, like the other, might not appreciate my efforts though, and that scared me. I took a deep breath, "No." I replied aloud to them.
"Artemis." the black bat said warningly.
"No, dammit." I snapped, "Someone get me thread, I don't care how you do it. Someone else get me a needle. There has to be one here somewhere." Some of the bats flew off in search of the items. I looked around the house for a first aid kit, or something like it. I found one full of bandage-things that I needed. I was breathing harshly still, nervous about this. I had no medical skill, I was surprised I even remembered that she needed stitches. I tried to think back into the huge hole in my memories trying to grasp anything that came out. I wasn't as successful as I wanted to be. A pile of string being dropped in front of me made me jump out of my thoughts. A needle clattered to the ground beside it. Ugh, I thought, this was going to be hard. I tied some string together to make it thicker, hoping I knew how to do this, which I was sure I didn't.
I tried to stick the thread through the needle-eye but I was having problems with my shaking hands. Finally I succeeded, and pierced the exposed skin of her leg quickly around the wound. I began to stitch unsure, frankenstein-like stitches across the gash, pulling it closed. I went back over it with more unattractive stitching just to be sure it stayed. I repeated this process with the last three gaping gashes in her leg, being watched intently and childishly by the bats up above me. Then I was done, shakey handed I put severed the thread with my teeth as I had done the last three times and tied the ends into a small knot, and then knotted it again. I slumped back, sighing in relief while the bats fluttered in a cheerful dance overhead. The black bat conveyed his disgust to my thoughts, and I looked up at him with a glare. He dropped from the ceiling and glided out the door. After a few more minutes of fluttering, the other bats followed the big one.
I let my head fall into my open palms, running my short fingernails down my face. Mars laid still on the floor, breathing shallow and stuttering. I left the small main room and crossed through the even smaller kitchen in three long strides, reaching up above the counter to the cabinets. I pulled out a big ceramic bowl that was the color of the reddish dirt that made up the walls of the city. I filled the bowl with the stagnent water from the overly large fountain that lay in the city's main square, washing my bloodied skin off with the water from the bowl, quickly turning the water an almost black color. That was poured out, and the bowl was refilled for water to wash out my hair. After cleaning up I made my way back to the house I occupied, feeling the black bat's arrogant eyes following me. I shut the door as soon I was inside, drawing the curtains to cover the windows that faced out to the square.
With a sigh I walked into the room I had gone into before for the scarf, and pulled out a new change of clothes. I changed into a pair of slightly baggy, dark blue jeans that had a hole in the small hole in the right knee and another in the back of the left calf part, and a dark grey shirt with skulls on it. I ended up carrying Mars back and putting her on the bed in the other bedroom, which looked like it used to belong to a child.
I returned to the other room, casting blankets back over the windows in there, and grabbed another blanket, going back to Mars' side. I sat near the bed, bringing my knees up to my chest and letting my head rest on my knees. The blanket was left over Mars' body. After curling upright, I fell asleep as the dawn begin to rise over the underground city.
I woke up after I sensed the sun had set. I rose to my feet and checked on Mars, but she wasn't even awake yet. I was nervous again. Nervous that what I did was not enough. I remembered, suddenly, that I should clean the wound. I made another trip to the fountain, filling a smaller bowl with water and carrying it back. I dabbed at the wounds with a stale smelling sponge I found in the kitchen and soap I found in the small bathroom. She stirred as the soapy water spread over her skin, but she did not awaken.
I sighed, unable to remember anything more. It was frustrating how losing one's memory really did nothing to aid someone in need, whether it be myself or Mars. I wished that I could remember what I forced me away from everything I was familiar with, whatever had made me go into hiding in the first place. There was nothing but a big gaping hole painted in black, and it did nothing to easy my apprehension. What had I been like before I was a vampire? I couldn't even remember how I got this way. Just swarming among bats in the dusty attic of an unheired mansion somewhere in the pre-wrecked world above. I was the only pale bat, the only one who was considered an 'outsider' no matter how many generations of bats I watched come and go. I was content in that life, though, somehow feeling satisfied in the knowledge that I lead the simplest life ever known. It became so much, that I couldn't even remember being anything else, human or otherwise. Until the mansion suddenly became inhabited be a girl, no, a woman seeking solitude from a clingy family. She liked to come up and draw portraits of us, huddled together in curiosity and fear of the strange creature below us. Her question of my albino body was shot down when she realized that I had green eyes instead of red ones.
Everyone, all of the little furry bodies huddled with mine, passed the image of a creature much like one staring at us through my head. But that creature was so incredibly pallid, with curious green eyes, blood-shot from strain and something else, and long white hair that snaked around the floor as the creature curled in the corner shaking. It was then that I realized, once again, what I was. I unclamped from the rafters and fell, my fur growing longer around my body, and I hit the floor as a human-like thing instead of the bat I had hidden as. That was when I noticed, everytime the girl named Tearinny asked me, that I had no idea about anything but being a bat. I knew I was in hiding, but I couldn't fathom what.
Sadly, Tearinny was killed in the storm, probably turned into an Impure. I wouldn't know. I went back into hiding when the bats disappeared from the attic, only to find them clustered in an underground cave so very far from their mansion home. That was the only thing that saved me.
Breaking from my thoughts, I left the room, then the house altogether. The bats above me stirred restlessly, fluttering around the ceiling. They looked at me anxiously, questions flitting through my mind. Questions of Mars, and questions of being released from the city to go and hunt the little insects they enjoyed so much, and I once did too. One shot through my head, making me frown at it's teasing purr that annoyed me so much.
"May we go, or must we die of starvation waiting for that wretched girl to become unattractive?" the big black bat wondered.
"No." I replied aloud, "She doesn't reek of blood anymore, or atleast strongly smell of it. I'll go open the doors for you." I turned and cast a glare at the bat. His beady black eyes met mine and his frown reached out to me, which I took a few seconds to ignore easily. "Go gather everyone from the city down below. I'll make my way up to the first floor and let you out." I called to all the bats. They whizzed around excitedly, loudly flapping their leather black wings, and made their way to the open doors opposite of where I was going. I headed across the large, earthy place as quickly as my vampiric legs would take me (rather quickly) and opened the huge wooden doors that lead to the upper cathedral-like level above this one. Three flights of stairs lead me straight to the farside of what looked to be a city captured into a giant, old stone building with big stained-glass windows displaying scenes of digging to the city below.
In a flash of blinding white, I was to the other side minutes before the bats would whirl up here. I stayed by the thick, heavy wooden doors I had put up to keep things out, waiting. When the rustle of little bat wings hit my ears I began to push the doors open. They were heavy, even for me, and I pushed as hard as I could. They towered so high above me that I looked like a small, pale ant compared to the doors I put up. I stopped when it was open a foot, leaving with enough room for my friends to leave, but things not to get in that were unwanted. The last bat twirled out, circling to get higher as he made it out into the open air. Air that was not by any means fresh. Instead it smelled of rotting flesh, and then the faint scent of Impure; the smell of fruit and old meat left to rot in a large compst heap. I pulled the door closed until the space it was the width of a bat and I stepped back. If I could smell Impure, then they wouldn't be too far away from me, maybe a mile if I were lucky.
I waited until the sun was almost up, waiting by the doors for the bats to return. They flew in quickly, clinging to some of the houses near the entrance. I noticed the black one had not returned, but everyone else hounded me to shut the doors as quickly as possible. I pulled the heavy slabs of wood closed and followed the bats back down to the second level of the city.
I checked on Mars first, while the bats rustled in a disturbed pattern outside of the little house. She was still unconscious, but moving a bit more, like there was nightmare flashing through her mind. her eyebrows pulled together and I could her the soft grind of her teeth behind her peach-colored lips. Her fingers would curl slightly, then straighten back out only to clench again.
"Mars." I called her name softly, leaning close to her ear, "Mars, come back to us." I leaned my forehead slowly onto her's. A scene flashed through my head. An angel garbed in drenching white, dark black hair cascaded down her shoulders. Her blue, porcelain like eyes flickered to me like I was an unwanted guest, at her feet were three unfamiliar people who were smiling to Mars. Mars had been walking towards them, beckoned by the people, when I should up. Then her brown eyes looked at me, turning partially to stare.
"Mars." I called. The angel frowned.
"Do not disturb us, demon." She commanded me in a velvety voice that sounded almost three octaves higher than mine, like the voice of a little girl. It was unfitting.
Mars looked back to the angel, then back at me, torn between who to go to now.
I frowned at the white thing in front of Mars, "No. There is a place for her already." I said. "Mars." I called again, focusing on the girl. I extended one of my hands out to her. "Come back. You are needed here."
"Where is here?" she questioned me quietly in a sad voice.
I took a step forward, making the angel move closer as well, "Here is where your friends are waiting. You have someone you need to look after, don't you?"
"Kurz." She murmured softly.
"Then come with me." I took another step towards her.
"Do not go with him, Mars." the angel called, the three people frowning with her. "Your place is with me now."
Mars' gaze flickered back to the white angel, "but what about my other family?"
"Mars." I interrupted the angel, "Your other family is waiting for you. They need you."
"Demon!" The angel hissed, "Leave the girl with me." The three people disappeared, leaving the angel to stand there.
Mars looked back and forth between me, covered in black, to the angel, covered in white.She gazed for a long time at my outstretched palm. The angel beckoned her back, but she didn't pay any attention to the angel.
"What happens if I go with him?" She asked the angel, "What will happen to me?"
The angel did not answer, she just glared at me.
Mars finally turned to the angel again, "Tell me what will happen."
"I cannot." the angel replied after a moment, "it is forbidden for me to tell you that. But you'll be at risk. You'll know hunger, pain, sorrow, but that is all I know."
"And if I go with you..?" She looked questioningly at the brunette.
It was then that the angel smiled brilliantly, "You will know only peace, and happiness with your parents and your brother."
Mars smiled lightly, "Thank you, but I'll have to take a raincheck. I want to be with my new family for now." she said. She turned abruptly and placed her little hand in mine. The angel frowned deeply, bringing her wings up as Mars shoved herself closer to me.
"Fine." She said harshly. She pulled her wings back, then flapped them at me.
I sat up suddenly, gasping, falling backward to the floor as I was thrown out of Mars' head. I was back in the little house underground. Mars stirred lightly but no longer seemed in pain.
I stood up and left her side for a moment. I gathered the bats who rustled impatiently above me, wanting to chatter at me. Speaking words so fast in their excitement. I calmed them the best I could before letting them talk.
"We lost big black one!" Someone said, "We lost him to Impure things with human hands sticking out of their backs. They were scary. One looked like a horse with pointy bat-like teeth! He ate big black one!" Everyone gasped and murmured in agreement with the one speaking. his little beady eyes stared at me. It was all very dramatic.
"He didn't bother to escape? Fly away, or something?" I asked. The batty crowd grew silent. A bat somewhere in the back squeaked and whirled off to the door leading a level down and slowly everyone else scattered too. They knew I was uninterested in the fate of the annoying black bat that constantly belittled me and gave out his pointless opinions on how I lived in the darkness of the underground city. Everyone else mattered, but I did not favor him.
"Kara." I called lightly. One of the little female bats flew back to me, hooking herself on the ceiling above me. She cocked her little head, smooshed face curious.
"Keep an eye on the girl will you, please?" I asked. She sent a smile through my mind, letting me know she would. "Thank you." I replied. I went out for while to find little things to nibble on.
There usually wasn't much to eat outside. Mostly corpses of Impure who starved to death. They were freaky things. One I hovered above for a second had a cascade of several human arms as a tail. It's canine-like paws were gnarled and its beaked cat face was horned and gruesome. I flew away in my bat body that I was so at ease in. My white fur couldn't stand out in the lack of moonlight.
I watched some Impure fight, and swooped in when the other killed its opponent and fled uninterested. I ate anything that looked appeasing, which wasn't much, and then returned to my home.
It had been another day where Mars was struggling with that dumb angel in her dreams. I gave her the same choice, but was forced out of her mind before she could make the same one as last time.
Her eyes even flitted open, blinking rapidly like she was trying to keep them open. She struggled to look around, taking everything in.
"This is going to sound very... repetitive," she said hoarsly, her voice faint and scratchy, "but where am I?"
I laughed, excited that instead of killing I had managed to save something, and I sat up, "You're in Carlithelis." I replied, and smirked at her shocked expression, pleased that some knowledge of the place passed through her face.
"The underground city?" She asked, dazed when I nodded, "How in the world did I get there?"
"Technically, we're still here." I said flippantly.
"Don't correct my sentences." She snapped at me.
I shrugged, still smiling, "Sorry, force of habit. Someone has to teach the little ones to talk intelligently enough to understand."
"Little ones?" She looked around again hesistantly.
"The bats." I pointed out.
Mars let her mouth fall open, then closed it. She looked like she was about to say something, but stopped. After a few minutes of staring at me she finally spoke, "What kind of demon are you if you look so human?"
This time I stopped smiling, tilting my head to the side out of habit when I got curious, "You don't know?" I asked.
She shook her head, then stopped after groaning and pressing her fingers to her forehead, "Not really."
"Can't you guess?" I inquired.
She looked at me again with her bright brown eyes, "I have an active imagination, but that doesn't mean its accurate." She said.
"Oh." I chirped, "Well, if you want to know, I'm a vampire." I expected her to freak out, or claim this to be a dream (which I would have), but she didn't. Mars just scoffed lightly.
"That's boring. Not original in the least." She remarked.
CHAPTER 3
Mars
He seemed to frown at my statement. He called my plain, so I figured I get some revenge on that. Though, it seemed like he caught on to my plan, stating it aloud with a laugh.
"So your getting me back for calling you ordinary." He asked, amused.
I still didn't find anything funny in the way he said it, "Yes." I said, with a scowl.
"But you, my dear, are ordinary." He said.
"No I'm not!" I protested.
"You're very vain for someone your age." he muttered.
"Because I know I'm not plain!" I said, poking him in the chest, "I, for your information, am very stubborn, a bit vain, and I have a sense of humor! I find that my sense of humor, as sardonic as it is, is very uncommon amongst people these days. I also know that vampire are the epitome of unoriginal!" I barked at him. His smile grew bigger.
"And this defies what I said how..?" He asked me, standing up and pulling me with him. When I arose from the bed I laid against I grew a bit dizzy, and it threw me off.
"Because plain wouldn't be like that." I said, rubbing at my temple to try and soothe the dull throbbing that spread through my head.
"Your point is not proven." he said happily, bracing me against his side.
"Where are we going?" I demanded when we left the small house. The air had an earthy smell to it when we stepped out into the wide open plaza. I looked around at all the other small, box-like houses that gathered in a neat cluster around the main square that lay a few streets to my left.
He looked down at me, his green eyes piercing but kind and full of amusment, "To the lower level. I stored all the food that wouldn't expire quickly down there." He looked a head as we started walking farther into the darkness, "Sorry, but your stomach growled while you were talking." He seemed very entertained by this thought.
Oh, I'd give him something to be entertained about, I just had to plot my revenge correctly.
Not many houses were near the doors that opened to reveal a wide stairway down into the darkness. And not everything was well lit like it was near the place this man had taken me rest my weariness away. He pulled a lighter out of his pocket to light any torch-like thing that stuck out of the ground as we passed it. There were fewer houses down here, maybe three or four on every immaculately laid out street. Everything was so clean and earthy looking down here that it seemed as if it was meant for just one person to live here instead of giving off the feel of an abandoned place.
"I never got your name." I pointed out as he sat me on the edge of a fountain smaller than the one I glimpsed upstairs. He brushed some of his hair from his face, looking sheepishly at me.
"Its Artemis." He said, sitting beside me.
I laughed, suddenly seeing the humor in something, "How'd you come by that name?" I asked. He looked at me confused.
"I've always had this name." He replied.
"Oh. I changed mine when I lost my parents. Can't remember my real name anymore, anyways. I think its better this way though." I said with a content sigh. He shrugged, and got up to leave, "Though if you think about it, I named myself after a planet that was named after an ancient Roman god. You were named after an ancient Greek goddess." I said, laughing a bit.
"Mythology at its finest." He muttered, "Though I'm going to try to ignore the 'goddess' part."
I laughed again, and he left, disappearing into the darkness for a moment or two. I ran my fingers through the stangent water that sat motionlessly in the fountain I sat. Aside from the smell of dirt, there was a stale smell in the air probably from the water and wood down here.
I never liked the smell of old things. New was always something that excited me, so anything that smelled anything but ancient was interesting, but somehow I found comfort in the staleness of everything down here. I liked knowing that down here is something that will stay the same, something untouched by the physical effects of the storm. Though the people down here couldn't stand being down here, feeling so trapped, and eventually just got up and left as quickly as they could. I guessed that Artemis had also done some raiding of his own if he had food down here. He was probably one of the first things to raid, being a fast nocturnal creature that could go in and out of cities and not be noticed.
He returned, though, to my side quickly. In his hands was a can of green beans, a can opener, and a bag of nacho flavored chips.
He watched me intently as I twisted the handle on the opener, cranking it all the way around. I took off the flat piece of round metal, prying it out of the can it fell into with my fingernails, and placed it beside me. I set the can down next to the lid, and then opened the bag of chips, once again setting them on the edge of the fountain. Artemis still stared at me.
"Would you not do that!" I said after a minute.
He blinked, blessedly confused by my outburst, "What am I doing?"
"Staring! Do not stare at me!" I replied trying to turn his head to the side with one hand.
"Why?" He asked.
I stopped and turned away from him, sitting cross-legged on the edge with my back to him, "...It makes me nervous."
"Awwwww." He cooed, but stayed where he was, doing as I asked. I picked up the bag of chips and began to eat them slowly, self-conscious of my loud crunching that disturbed the silence around us. I had a hard time with eating near him, which was just a habit of mine. I did not eat in front of people, I don't knowwhy it bugged me though. They already stared at me, because I was leading a pack of kids around the city like their person queen or something to that extent.
 euya · Fri Jan 09, 2009 @ 06:09pm · 0 Comments |
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