Forcing my self forward wasn’t all too easy, until, the image of Ava flashed forward to the forefront of my consciousness. If nothing else could motivate me and put my nerves at ease, then nothing else will. The love and devotion that I have for that woman, aches all the way down to my inner soul. If escape from the very essence of this evil place is ever manageable, then I can at least say it’ll be damn worth it.
The foul smell of pain, anger and desire that swirled around me, causing me to lose my balance for mere seconds, had brought me back to the here and now.
I stepped down two narrowed steps and paused to allow my eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness. I can feel evil lurking around in the shadows, but, what could possibly be the cause of it, has my mind circling for an answer, an answer that I’ve yet to find.
The steps to this passageway haven’t been used for sometime. There are mounds of debris in areas that could be dangerous to someone other than the unnatural. The fact that if the debris didn’t kill them, the narrowed, steep steps would.
There are no light illuminating the way, just darkness, fear, and a coldness that has me aching from my skin down to my bones. I rub my arms up and down, trying to force warmness upon them, but given the fact that it wasn’t actually coldness that caused this sensation, but something more, the rubbing had little effect.
My grandfather warned me about other things that exist here, that I’ve yet to learn about. A part of me was just hoping he was trying to scare me, but the deeper I walk into the depths of this darkness; the more prone I’m becoming to believe his words ring of truth.
The walkway itself is narrowed, barely enough room for one person to walk through. I’m very thankful right now, that I’m not claustrophobic. If I were there’s no way I’d make it. The tunnel stretched on and on for what seemed like forever. I don’t think it was, more than half of a mile, but given the current state of my nerves, the walk had seemed longer.
I now faced a brown, heavy metal door. I’d thought that with my luck the door more than likely would be locked. So, I cautiously turned the metal door handle to the right, and with that a loud clicking sound echoed throughout the silent and empty passageway. Well what do you know; luck actually threw me a curve ball for once.
I slowly crept the metal door open. Once the door was opened, I was blinded by a set of bright lights. I jerked with impulse, and cursed myself mentally for letting little things such as that get to me. After my eyes had adjusted to the fluorescent lights that hang high above me, my body was hit hard by the aroma that fills the air.
The foulness of pain, anger and desire ride the air with a thickness that sped my breathing up an octave. Determined to find out what exactly is behind this, I push myself forward. I slowly pushed the door closed, carefully not allowing the door to actually latch shut. I may have been able to open it from the other side, but if my nerves are telling me anything, whoever they have held down here, they want to keep it that way. With that thought my body shivered and mentally cursed at my curiosity. I remember the saying all too well, curiosity killed the cat; let’s just hope that saying doesn’t come true today. I may not be a cat and am capable of many things, but even I can come across some deep shit every once in a while.
I call to the shadows of darkness and cloak my self from view. I even call to the Alchemy powers within and make my self invisible to the naked eye. Even though, they may not be able to see me, but they’ll sure be able to smell me, if my prickled skin has anything to say about it.
I can feel the evil power behind whatever is going on down here, and know that it’s nothing I have ever encountered before. Whether my grandfather shields his power or not- he doesn’t feel like this at all. I continue to walk down the empty hallway before me, keeping my senses open, my ears in-tuned and my mental shields guarded. The feel of the evil spirits presence is enough to take in at the moment, I don’t want it anywhere near my thoughts, there’s no telling what will happen.
The noise of rattling chains in the distance catches my attention and I begin to focus on the direction its coming from. I continue to walk down the bright long hallway, only to find another hallway to the right hidden with darkness. The rattling of chains become louder, and the moans of anguish comes to follow.
Once I got to the end of the darken hall I turned left and felt my stomach flip and bile rose up my throat, burning all the while with what I now see and smell.
Lining both sides of the halls are enclosed jail cells filled with scientifically made creatures. On the right side of the hall- the cells aren’t made like any ordinary jail cell that’s seen. These cells are made out of wood that are cemented at the top, middle and bottom, giving the means of escape, nearly to be impossible. That’s if the creature even manages to escape the chains that have them stretched so taunt, their muscles ache. The cells on the left side were made out of silver, and are designed and made like the others. The creatures that are tied up have been beaten brutally. I could see where wounds have been slashed open with a whip. These creatures have scars upon scars from torture gadgets, and from the looks of it, they’ll have many more.
The smell of dried blood, along with the fresh scent of it has my jaws aching with hunger. I can even feel my fangs start to slip out with hunger, but I force my self to stay in control. I’ve decided that I needed to get out of here and breathe in some fresh air.
I make my way back out the way I came, surprisingly without any trouble. I would have thought that if someone were going to go through so much trouble to create such creatures below, they’d be better protected from anyone finding out about them. As we know it nothing here in this town is as one would expect, that and the fact that everyone here lives in fear, and should be if those creatures are any speculation to go by.
I start to climb the stairs that I had walked down earlier, when I caught a scent of someone waiting on the other side. I’ve never encountered this scent before, so I know it’s not family. I pause just long enough to grab a wooden stake and some holy water, and with vampire speed I leaped out of the passageway to greet and meet my attacker, or attacker’s.
Before my feet had even touched the ground, I saw three vampires waiting. I threw a stake and hit the middle vamp, right in the chest. His body decomposed quickly, and he fell to the ground, turning into a pile of ash. Now, what to do with the other two? I thought to my self- this isn’t going to be easy. I can smell their power and feel it swarm all around me, tickling my skin where it touched.
Moving quickly I splashed the man, to my right, in the face with a bottle of holy water. He bent over retching and screaming in agony. Even that move had my stomach doing flip-flops, trying to force my last meal back down to where it belonged. Right now just isn’t the time to be tossing my cookies.
I may have gotten rid of two of the vampires, but the remaining one isn’t going to be so easy. I can feel the anger and pain seeping from her body. She looks extremely pissed, and who’s to say I don’t blame her. She isn’t any normal vampire I’ve ever met. Granted, I haven’t met many, but had thought they were all alike. She possesses a power so strong I can even feel its presence from where I’m standing. With no doubt I can tell she plans on using that power to shred me into pieces. I swallowed hard, and thought it best to get this over with, now matter what the out come might be.
I stood a few feet from my enemy and crouched over, ready to launch at her when the time came. Fighting one on one combat isn’t so hard for me, but I haven’t ever had to fight a woman before, and don’t like it now. She sneered at me, letting a small growl escape her throat, a vicious response and a threat all the same.
“What kind of game do you think your playing little boy?”
“I don’t know who you’re talking to, because there’s no little boy here.”
I stretched my mind out, searching for hers. Once the tentacles of my mind touched hers, she slapped down a shield so thick I couldn’t even get it to budge.
“Don’t think you can play those types of ga
mes with me child. I’m much older and wiser than that. If you seek to defeat me, then you’re going to have to work for it.”
“That’s fine by me.”
I called to the power within my body and held my hands out towards her and a thick power of energy escaped by body, hitting hers with full force. The force of my power sent her flying backwards a few feet, but didn’t hold her down for too long. She jumped back up quickly and roared with anger. Before I was able to hit her again, I smelt an essence so strong it made me nauseous and then my body was tingling with pain. I tried not to let her know what she was doing to me, but a small groan of pain escaped my lips and I could see the amusements flash upon her features. I could tell she was enjoying the pain she was inflicting on me.
I clinched my fists; let the anger within take over my body. I know if I’m going to defeat her, then I need every emotion within my body to pull it off. I could feel my anger boil to the surface of my skin, and beads of sweat began to trickle down the small of my back. I forced the energy to rise to the surface of my being and hit her with as much energy as possible. The woman fell down to the ground and I rushed to her, promising to keep her there. I grabbed a stake from my holster and was about to ram it through her chest, but was stopped by the force of her hands.
We both fought with the stake, me trying to kill her with it, and she was trying to take it from me. I zapped her hands with the touch of my energy and she let go of the stake, shaking like a leaf. I could see the anger within the depths of her eyes and knew without a doubt that this wasn’t going to go down easily. She raised her hand and clawed the side of my face with her long sharp fingernails, and I sank the stake deep into her heart, pinning her to the ground underneath her body. A small gasp of air was released from her lips once the stake had penetrated her skin, and then she decomposed and turned to ash like the other.
I could smell and feel the pool of blood that had formed on my face from the marks she left. The stinging sensation had soon disappeared with the quick healing of my body. I pulled my self off of her and collected my self. I’ve never signed up for this, hadn’t thought that I’d have to fight a powerful woman vampire, but if that’s what it takes, then I’ll just have to get use to it. I could feel the burnt parts of my body still repairing, from where she had seared my skin with her power. If I ever make it through this and back to my grandfather, I’ll most defiantly have to ask him about this. I glance around the area, to make sure others hadn’t come to join the fight, and found no sign of anyone standing in the shadows. I dusted the dirt and debris from my clothes and decide to get moving before anything else happens in this creepy area.
5
I climbed the steps to my home and crossed over the threshold of what is mine and inhaled with delight and the scent of hominess. There aren’t as many guards looking over the place as they’re normally is, but given the brief encounter with my mother, I could care less. It would be nice knowing that she listened to me for once, but hell would freeze over before that happened.
I looked around the house and didn’t see anything out of place, but could tell that I had company. My father the one and only was here, I could pick his scent out of a mass army of people.
“Dad, I know you’re here, you don’t have to hide.”
“I wasn’t hiding, just merely freshening up. So how did your day go?”
“Well since your asking that question, I’m assuming you hadn’t had the chance to talk to my mother.”
He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, “No I haven’t. Just because we’ve been married for centuries doesn’t mean I have to know every little detail about her day. That would make for a short and miserable life you know. Why what happened? Is it something you think I should know about?”
“Well that depends, do you want to know?”
“I’ve always cared about you Ava. If you want to tell me what’s weighing you down, then I’m more than happy to listen.”
“Well I was at the college today doing my daily lessons as usual, and I wanted the witches and warlords to teach me something different. Well they had to go and ask the mistress, which happened to be mom. Well once I found out that it was her, and she was telling them what to teach me I got a little furious.”
“What do you mean by a little furious.”
“Well she came into the room and told me it was her that was giving orders, and I was to follow them.”
He shook his head and rubbed his eyes with his hands, “And?”
“Well I got really, really angry and shocked her with my powers. She got up and pinned me up against the wall with her hands and told me how it was going to go. She said that she really couldn’t explain why things were going the way they are, and she also mentioned that I would one day make a great guardian, but didn’t care to elaborate on that either. So, is there any information that you could benefit me with?”
“Not really. Look Ava, your mother is right, in due time you’ll know everything about this town, and why you are so important to it. For now, I do believe it is best to be patient.”
“You of all people know that, that isn’t fair father. I should have a right to decide on what path it is I want to take. I think its bad enough that my child hood years were ripped away from me, and I don’t want that for my adult life either.”
“None of us wanted this for you Ava. It is what it is; you’ll just have to live with it my dear. I wish that I could be more comforting, but like your mother, my tongue is tied. Neither one of us is allowed to give you any detailed explanations, in fear that it will go badly.”
“Well you got the jiff of my day then. It sucked and still does. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a little alone time or as close to it as possible.”
“I’ll let you have your peace of quite then. If you need me, you know where to find me.”
“No, actually I don’t. You and mom haven’t showed me your home, nor have asked if I wanted to see it. Now, why exactly is that?”
“Because, in this town and with our reputations we do not stay in one location for a long period of time, and we wouldn’t want your life to be in danger with knowing where and when we go to such places.”
“I guess I can understand that. Then how do I know where to find you.”
“You can always call us with your psychic abilities; you should know that by now.”
“I haven’t given my skills all that much thought, and can you really blame me otherwise.”
“No, I’m guessing with your lessons everyday, you have been dealing with them enough, but at least now you know what abilities are possible, if you haven’t reached them yet.”
“We’re way passed those lessons.”
“Good, well I’m going to go now, you go and get some rest. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Alright, dad I love you.”
Dad stood up, then leaned over and kissed the top of my head “I love you too Ava.” Then he walked out of my home, leaving a small sense of loneliness behind.
I decided now was a good time to go and get something to eat. I had a plate of steak, potatoes and broccoli left over from the night before, so I decided to reheat it in the microwave. Once the beeping sound of delight and the sweet aroma of food lingered in the room, I sat down and enjoyed the flavors that burst in my mouth, consuming my taste buds and body. When I had finished my meal, and quenched my thirst with A positive, I went to the bathroom for some one-on-one time.
The bathroom smelled so clean and had a flowery aroma that just made my head swirl with delight. I turned the tubs hot water on and waited for the water to become searing hot, then turned the cold water on to somewhat even it out. I plugged the drain hole and poured some lavender beads in the water and waited for them to create bubbles, once the tub was ready and the bathroom all steamy, I eased my self in and enjoyed its relaxation qualities.
I soaked in the tub for an hour then decided I needed to wash my hair and rinse off and go to bed. Today was a long day for me, and I was still left
without answers that I solely seek. I wrapped my hair up in a towel and dried my body off and tied a towel around by body and padded my way to the bedroom to get dressed. Normally, I would have got my clothes before bathing, but tonight I was in such a hurry to relax, it didn’t even cross my mind.
I opened my bedroom door and nearly jumped out of my skin, when I realized I had company. The man was facing the window, golden blonde hair, muscular features, and quite a sight to see if you were to ask me. I gasped, once I realized who it was.
“Jess is that you? Is it really you?”
The man had turned around to face me and tears ran down my face with relief and happiness.
“Yes Ava it’s me, I just couldn’t wait any longer to see you. I thought for sure that you were in danger, but now I can see your not. I’ll just leave you alone and hope to see you around.”
“No wait Jess, why would you leave, when you’ve only gotten here?”
“Well unlike you, I’m not wanted, and apparently you didn’t care to come and find me.”
“Take a good look around Jess, it’s not like I have any choice now do I?”
“This isn’t the way I had planned this Ava. I thought to come for you because you were in danger. I love you and don’t want to be without you, but you can’t expect me to stay here.”
“Oh Jess, I love you too. I’ve missed you so much, I’ve been worried about you, and I only found out today that my mother is the one keeping you away from me. Come here and give me a hug.”
Jess crossed the room and gave me a big hug and a kiss on my lips that created a wave of satisfaction sweep throughout my body. My body began to tremble with delight and before I knew it we found our way to the bed.
The Night Life: Exodus of Evil Page 20