Nocturnal

by David Paul

  I walked over to the iron wheel that controlled the gates and turned it effortlessly this time. The gates rose up, and we were one step closer to freedom. My new-found strength was amazing. Manual labor had been my chosen profession in my human life, and over the years I had developed a very strong, fit body. This new strength and agility was of supernatural proportions. I didn’t feel this way prior to my first kill, and this was a tremendous improvement.

  Chloe just looked at me in amazement. My wounds from his fierce bite stopped bleeding, and actually closed up before our eyes. I checked my body, and the wound from Svetlana’s dagger had healed with no signs of ever being there.

  “You might want to wipe your face,” she said.

  I didn’t realize how much blood had dripped down my chin and onto my chest.

  “Thanks,” I said. “That man was a monster.”

  “I can’t believe that you killed Damien.”

  “I had to,” I said, “because he would have never let us go.”

  “I’m not upset with your actions. Damien was a freak of nature that could pick up boulders. He was practically unstoppable. I don’t even know if he was a man.”

  “I didn’t think that I would have actually had to fight him,” I said. I wiped my face on my shirt. “I figured we would have found a way to trick him somehow.”

  “To hell with him,” she said. “Let us leave this place.”

  She seemed somewhat calm considering that I was a vampire. Hoping that my uncontrollable craving for her blood was because I needed to complete the curse, I did not tell her about craving for her blood. I didn’t want her to look at me differently even though I was different.

  Not waiting any longer, we both walked through the courtyard cautiously to the castle walls and the drawbridge. The night air was fresh, and the moon sat like a sliver in the star-filled sky. The courtyard was massive, but empty. An impressive stone statue of an unknown person sat grandly in the middle of the courtyard.

  We entered the bridge guardhouse and found it messy with an ungodly amount of rotting food particles and tons of flies buzzing around. Apparently, Damien wasn’t the most domesticated person, and that didn’t shock me based on his hygiene. Another iron wheel and primitive gear system controlled the bridge. This iron wheel required quite a bit more effort to turn, but I slowly lowered the drawbridge over the moat. Just as the drawbridge dropped onto solid ground on the other side, we heard an explosion.

  “Look over there!” Chloe pointed towards Ravenwood Castle’s main tower. I looked up to see the winged demon flying straight into the nighttime. The wild demon flew straight through the castle roof and sent giant stones and bricks in all directions. The winged demon was gone, but the damage he inflicted on the castle and Regina’s cronies was already done.

  We both crossed the drawbridge onto the other side and finally tasted freedom. The night was still relatively young, and we had a journey ahead of us. I never really looked past getting out of here alive, so I wasn’t sure what my next move should have been. Technically, I didn’t get out of Ravenwood Castle alive because I was one of the undead.

  “Where should we go now that we are free?” She asked.

  “Well, I wouldn’t get too happy just yet,” I said. “If Regina comes looking for us, then we will have to deal with her.”

  “We should head to France to seek out my parents.”

  “That might be a decent idea, but I’m not sure if Regina would come looking for us there,” I said. I just wanted to get far away. “I’ll feel better about things when we are further away from her castle.”

  The landscape around the castle was rough, but a road leading to the castle was made of packed gravel, and several trails led off the main road in different directions. We needed to travel west to get to France and then north to get near Paris. The North Star was our guide as we pressed on to put distance between Regina and us. The demon had bought us some time because it would take awhile for Regina to search the castle to make heads or tails of the survivors.

  After several hours of walking through seemingly endless trails in the forest, Chloe stopped.

  “Do you want to bed down here?” She asked. Chloe was tired and she needed rest. “I am totally exhausted.”

  “Let me take you the rest of the way,” I said.

  Wanting to use my curse as an advantage, I picked up Chloe with ease and carried her. Chloe being a human slowed me down severely because it seemed like I could run endlessly without any signs of fatigue. I ran at ridiculous speed with Chloe in my arms for miles on end until the sun began to peek from the sky. The rays of sunlight were very painful to me. It felt like I was nursing a major hangover while being trapped inside of an oven.

  It didn’t occur to me that the sunlight would be such an issue. I had actually welcomed the thought of sunlight until my skin boiled painfully and my eyes teared up. The sunlight didn’t actually damage me, but it was very uncomfortable to the point of understanding why most vampires hated and avoided it. After being human for almost twenty-seven years, the transition from human to vampire brought some challenges. I was so used to being a human, and I had to start thinking differently. Shortly, the strong sun had risen fully to start the new day. Chloe had fallen asleep in my arms while I ran all night.

  I nudged her softly. “Chloe, wake up.”

  “Where are we?” She asked.

  “I’m not quite sure. I think we may have crossed the border into the French region.” That was my best estimation.

  “Holy lord, you covered so much ground last night.” I couldn’t respond because a more urgent issue was pressing on me.

  “I have to get out of this sunlight, it is killing me.”

  “There is a stream right there.” She pointed to it. The fresh water stream beckoned her. A slight current rippled against the bordering stones on the grassy shore. “I’m going to grab a drink, and then we can seek cover under the trees until nightfall.”

  “That sounds good to me. Please hurry,” I said.

  I found it funny how I wasn’t thirsty or hungry from last night. She drank from the stream, and the sunlight in her hair made her appear even more beautiful. That was the first time that we saw each other in natural daylight. I watched her wade in the water. Chloe washed the fresh water over her face like a baptism.

  “This feels great,” she said.

  When she came out of the stream, I noticed how she glided. She walked like a runway model would. I tried to put those thoughts out of my mind as I remembered my fallen Katerina.

  For the first time, I had time to think about what had happened last night. I wondered if the demon spawn was actually a child of my blood or if it was a bastardization of pure evil. That part was a mystery to me. After we relocated her parents, I wanted to see Capello again for some more insight. His powers truly exceeded my expectations, and I owed him a debt of gratitude for helping me save Tomassino’s soul.

  “My poor David,” Fiona said, “I still cannot believe what you have been through.”

  Fiona is still in tears, and she interrupted the story. The grim realities of David’s world were finally starting to paint over Fiona’s sensationalized view of his life. That was David’s plan all along. Being a creature of integrity, he did not want to go back on his word, yet he did not want to damn his lover. There are still many things that she does not know about, but time would reveal more truths.

  “My love, my story is that of a tragedy,” the vampire said. “Many years I’ve spent with time to think about it over and over.”

  “I just didn’t realize the reach of evil in our world.”

  “Fiona, I’m almost at the part that relates to our relationship the most.”

  “I will listen to you,” she said. Fiona gave David an apologetic look. “I’m truly sorry for interrupting you again,” she said. The vampire wasn’t offended. “Will you please continue?”

  “The story of Chloe and I is the one that will help you make your fateful decision.”

>   David had not spoken of his past in quite some time. Out of everyone throughout the centuries, Fiona was the woman that captivated him the most, and she was the one that he felt could help save his tortured soul. She represented the last glimmer of hope for salvation. In his mind, Fiona is the angel that would carry him out of the hellfire.

  They have been together for several years now, and this is the crossroads in their relationship. The fact that Fiona could choose to be a vampire has had David depressed for months leading up to this night. David had lost so much to his curse, and he didn’t want to lose Fiona as well. In many ways, Fiona reminded him of Katerina. It wasn’t so much her looks, but her soul, and this connection and familiarity kept his love strong for her. In some ways, Katerina lives on through Fiona in his mind. Fiona doesn’t know this, and David will never tell her.

  The memory of his first true and pure love has been a silent ghost for many centuries. Just the mention of her name has brought emotion out of David that he didn’t think was even possible. Even though a black heart sits in his chest, David feels the pain that he had buried so deep inside of his soul for years. The absence of a beating heart did not provide him with any comfort.

  Even with all of his past demons haunting him, David will never shed a tear. Vampires are incapable of tears. All of their anguish is turned inward with no visible physical signs of weakness. As Fiona cries for David, he somehow vicariously weeps through her human eyes, and this makes him feel minutely cleansed.

  “If you forget everything else that I have told you,” the vampire said, “I would not be angry.” Fiona listens. “Simply telling you about Chloe and I would not have given you the entire scope of what I am attempting to teach you. Just listen carefully to what happened with Chloe because this is directly related to our present situation.”

  Under the cool shade of the trees, I spent the remainder of that day hiding from the Sun with Chloe asleep using my body like a pillow. The area near the stream was very peaceful, but a feeling of danger was still in the air. At any given time, something tragic could have happened. Most of my fear was gone, but I had so much to think about.

  Chloe’s soft skin against my body provided some small amount of comfort to me. She was still wet from her dip in the stream. Even though I wasn’t truly tired, I closed my eyes. At sundown, I awoke to Chloe alerting me of the time. I really can’t say I slept because it was more of a state of dormancy than an actual sleep.

  As I rested, I was able to hear everything and remained somewhat conscious. This sensation was truly different from my sleeping habits as a human. Even if Chloe hadn’t awoken me, I would have known of the sunset instinctively. The hunger inside me stirred up in the cooler breezy evening, and the desire for fresh blood started to drive me mad once again. The feeling wasn’t as strong as before, but I could feel it brewing inside. I remembered seeing in Vermeir’s work that I would be able to control this hunger more adeptly as I gained more experience as a vampire. A weakness began to come on. Chloe noticed this immediately.

  “Something looks like it is wrong with you.”

  “I feel weak,” I said, “and this thirst will not go away.”

  “Davide, drink from me.” She offered me her slender wrist. I looked at her wrist, and I could actually hear the blood pumping through her veins. My fangs slowly grew uncontrollably, and she could see them. Chloe seemed unafraid of me for some reason. She treated me as the same person I was when we met.

  “I cannot drink your blood.” I let go of her arm.

  “But you must,” she insisted.

  “I am scared that I will not be able to control my hunger, and kill you like I did Damien.”

  “Just take a little at a time,” she said. Chloe pressed the issue. “We need to do this, or you will be most likely too weak to travel.” I knew that she was correct, but I was still reluctant to do it. My other fear was attacking a stranger in our nighttime travels or completely turning on Chloe. I didn’t trust myself because of the hunger. My curse was far too new to have a full grasp on or even have some control over. The fangs were growing inside of my dry mouth.

  Without further hesitation, I took her wrist in my mouth and bit down as easily as I could. Chloe grimaced slightly and then casually allowed me to feed on her warm fresh blood. I fed until the feeling of weakness subsided and then quickly stopped for fear of harming her. The same feeling of euphoria and total satisfaction came over me. Chloe still did not look at me like the monster I had become.

  “That was not that bad,” she said. Chloe looked a bit lightheaded. It was a selfless act on her part that earned more of my trust. “Do you feel better?”

  “Yes, I do feel better,” I said. The awful longing feeling went away. I knew it wouldn’t last that long though. “I bet you must be starting to get hungry by now.”

  “I’m actually quite famished to be honest with you,” she said.

  “I’ll get you something to eat.” Chloe stayed put where we had rested all day, and I went off to get her some food. “I’ll be right back,” I said.

  After several minutes in the woods, I heard something rustling around in the brush. A small wild boar hid frightened in the darkness. I could literally smell the boar and its fear on the faint wind. Every so gently, I approached it, and in one quick motion, it had fallen to my dagger. Hunting had never been as easy as a human being. I brought the boar over to our resting place and started on a fire. I gathered some wood to burn and rocks to create a makeshift barbeque pit. Quickly, I rubbed two sticks together at blinding speed to create an effortless fire.

  It seemed as if she was relieved to be eating soon. “Gee, that was pretty quick,” Chloe said.

  “I didn’t expect to have found you a suitable dinner so soon either.” In minutes, I had the boar ready for the fire pit. The smell of roasted pork filled our makeshift campsite. We watched it cook over the fire in silence. The roaring fire had a calming effect on both of us. Chloe was very grateful for her fireside roast, and she ate like she hadn’t eaten in months. I actually tried a piece of the pork, and it didn’t do anything for me. The blood from preparing the hog was more suited to my new taste. “If I had some herbs to season the pork with, I could have done much better,” I said.

  “Believe me, I am not complaining,” she said. “This is very good.” Having proper utensils would have been better, but she didn’t complain. Chloe was very gracious.

  “Well, I’m glad that you are fond of it.” I sat there for a moment of uninterrupted enjoyment. I hadn’t had too many enjoyable moments in the past few weeks, and this was a much-needed departure. Chloe looked beautiful by the fire and that temporarily occupied my mind. When Chloe had finished her meal, I suggested that we head towards her parents abode. I wanted to get there before someone else did, and that overtook my thoughts.

  Rather than have Chloe walk, which would slow me down, I had her jump on my back. We raced with great speed to the town of her parents. After about two hours of furious sprinting, we finally made it to her hometown. It was a quaint and quiet little village with small chateaus built sporadically throughout the countryside. She never spoke of the town’s name, and there was no sign announcing it. The town square was pretty empty at that time of night. A small but expensive chateau stood ahead of us after a bit more of walking.

  “That is the house I grew up in,” she said. She pointed to the chateau happily. Her mood was noticeably better. We came upon her parents’ house only to find it empty with no signs of life or inhabitants. The chateau seemed totally deserted, but there was a letter with a crested seal of wax on the outer lip that was addressed to Chloe. Chloe cried as she read it and translated it for me. In so many words, both of her parents had passed away from natural causes, and the chateau was now her property per the province.

  Her parent’s will explicitly stated that they wanted their house maintained and kept for their daughter in the event that she returned. They never gave up on Chloe even after six years of being missing. It seemed odd that
the parents had passed away so young, yet I had my parents die young. I suspected that Regina may have had something to do with their passing at one point, but I didn’t share that theory with Chloe.

  “I have no one, now.” She gripped me tightly.

  “That is not true,” I said. I squeezed her. “You have me, and I’ll never let anyone or anything ever harm you again.” She wept loudly. Chloe hugged me with a strong loving embrace as I comforted her.

  “You promise?” she asked.

  “Of course, I promise,” I said. She smiled upon hearing that. “I only speak in truths, and you can count on my words remaining true.”

  The initial bond that we had formed as prisoners of Ravenwood Castle had been deepening all along and was evolving into something more complex. She looked into my eyes, and then Chloe kissed my lips passionately. Maybe the two of us could make sense of all of this chaos we had just experienced. I told her of how my mother died giving birth to me and how I lost my father at a young age.