Ela: Forever (Waking Forever)

by Heather McVea

  Ela wiped the blood that ran down her chin and neck, gathering as much as she could into her mouth. Inspecting her blood soaked hands, she could see a marked improvement in her skin’s texture having consumed more blood. The skin was beginning to pale again and didn’t look as much like leather. Looking down at her abdomen, the hollowness between her pelvic bones began to fill in. She stepped over the dead man and made her way down the narrow passage.

  The energy from the last lycan was coursing through her as she reached a narrow wooden door. Still not fully trusting her hearing, she leaned her head toward the door and listened. She heard the muffled sound of running water through pipes and fluttering she interpreted to be birds.

  Placing both hands against the door, Ela pushed firmly and dislodged it from its hinges. Quietly lifting the door, she placed it on the ground behind her.

  Stepping through the doorway, she was in a large basement. The ceiling was planks of wood, and to Ela’s left, a set of ten steps led upward toward another wooden door. Her eyes focused, and the wood grain of the door came into sharp resolution. Ela could see beams of artificial light streaming through the small cracks in the door and ceiling. Cocking her head to the side, she listened intently. There was one rapid heartbeat, but no movement above her.

  I have to move quickly or once it catches my scent it will be on me. Ela closed her eyes, steeling herself before she bounded up the stairs and through the wooden door in a single breath. The lycan was sleeping in a tattered leather chair with its feet reclined on a small wooden produce crate. The shattering of the wooden door as Ela burst through it brought the man to his feet in a split second. His shoulders began to expand, the fabric of his cotton shirt ripping.

  Ela rushed the lycan and, grabbing him by the throat, lifted the animal up and then slammed him to the wooden floor. Though the transformation continued, the man was stunned. His face had already begun to take on the characteristics of a wolf. His jaw was elongated and his teeth had multiplied and extended.

  Ela plunged her fist into the rapidly expanding chest of the lycan and ripped the creature’s heart out. Holding the beating organ over her head, Ela poured the still living blood into her mouth. Once the heart was drained, she dropped it to the ground and walked toward the only door in the room.

  Placing her hands against the smooth wood of the door, she knew her salvation lay on the other side. The fluttering of birds that had been faint before now came to her ears clearly. She didn’t hear any heartbeats as she forced the door open. The intensity of the light struck her with such force that she stumbled backward several steps. Holding her hand in front of her eyes, she looked up at the sky. By the placement of the stars, Ela knew it was near dusk and sometime in mid-summer.

  Ela scanned her surroundings and realized she had emerged from a small work shed. She was nearly two hundred yards from a larger, two story stone and wood structure that must be the main house. It was an open field that offered her no cover; so she sprinted the distance in a few seconds and knelt near the south corner of the building.

  No less than five distinct heartbeats echoed through the house. Ela scaled the side of the structure and launched herself nearly ten feet to the left, coming to rest on a small wooden balcony. Standing in front of two glass French style doors, Ela saw her reflection for the first time.

  Bones protruded through thin skin, giving her the appearance of a skeleton. Her once lustrous and full blonde hair was thin and nearly brown. Her eye sockets were sunken and her blue eyes were dull and lifeless.

  Instead of anguish or humiliation, Ela felt an ember of rage begin to burn in the pit of her stomach. Within seconds, that ember had given spark to a fire which spread through Ela with such force that she shuddered. Shattering the glass in both doors as she burst through them, Ela moved through a bedroom and into a hallway.

  The sound of yelling, accompanied by the smell of burning leaves mixed with rotten foliage, permeated the house. Ela found the first lycan only a few steps down the hall. It was a massive black wolf whose head nearly reached Ela’s shoulders.

  Undeterred by its size, and emboldened with rage, she grabbed the animal by the throat as it lunged toward her and bit into the scruff of its neck. Blood flooded Ela’s mouth. Swallowing quickly, she heard the approach of two more lycans.

  Releasing the now dead lycan, Ela pivoted just as the two lycan struck her. Knocked onto her back, Ela hissed and began thrashing about as the two wolves bit and tore at her face, dislocating her neck. She grabbed each wolf by the scruff of its neck and slammed the two animals’ heads together. Staggering to either side of Ela, the animals struggled to stay on their feet.

  Ela sprang to her knees between the two wolves and brought her fists down on the backs of both animals. A sharp cracking sound tore through the air as the lycan’s spines were snapped. Ela acted quickly. She drained both lycans within seconds before continuing down the hall.

  Turning her head to the right, and then slowly back to the left, Ela heard a faint popping sound as her vertebrae realigned. A small wood framed mirror hung in the hall. Ela stopped and looked at herself again. A smile spread across her lips as she was beginning to see signs of her old self returning.

  Her hair was thicker and beginning to take a healthy blonde sheen again. Her skin was returning to its natural pale hue. It was when Ela saw her eyes though that she knew the tide was turning. In the shadows of the hall, her eyes shone an iridescent blue. Ela tied her long blonde hair back in a loose knot and continued down the hall.

  Ela walked into a dimly lit room. The floor and walls were bare. Scanning the near darkness, Ela’s eyes came to rest on Gilmar. He was as large as Ela remembered. He stood perfectly still in the corner opposite her.

  “You’ve murdered several of my pack.” Though he barely spoke above a whisper, his voice filled the room.

  Swallowing, Ela spoke for the first time in over ten years. “For what you’ve done to me, death is a kindness.”

  Gilmar took several casual steps toward Ela. He was shirtless and his pants clung to the bulging muscles of his thighs. Despite nearly a decade passing, the lycan looked exactly the same. “We got greedy. Your kind’s blood is like a drug for us. We should have ended you years ago.”

  Ela shook her head. “Would’ve, should’ve, could’ve. It’s too late for that now.”

  Gilmar smiled, his mouth beginning to fill with teeth as his jaw extended. The clearness of his eyes began to cloud over and the whites disappeared entirely, leaving obsidian orbs radiating from the red rimmed sockets. His voice was a low menacing growl. “You’re already dead.”

  Loud cracking and a low sizzling sound filled the room as Gilmar shifted into a massive gray wolf. He towered over Ela as he lunged at her. What Ela lacked in size she made up for in agility. She easily side stepped Gilmar’s advances and, grabbing the wolf’s tail, flung him against a wall.

  The large animal quickly righted himself and struck at Ela with massive claws. Leaning back, Ela dodged the brunt of the attack, but the wolf’s claw scraped along her chest, causing blood to run over Ela’s breasts and down her stomach.

  Spinning with incredible speed, Ela lowered her shoulder and charged Gilmar. With all her strength, she slammed him against the wall, showering them both in stucco and rock.

  The lycan sunk his jagged teeth into Ela’s shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain. With clenched fists, she beat the wolf’s head until a loud whimper was forced from the animal, and it released her.

  Grabbing the animal under its front legs, Ela lifted it up and off the ground, pinning it against the wall. Unable to get traction with only its back feet scraping the ground, the wolf flailed about, growling and snapping at Ela.

  Tightening her grip on Gilmar, Ela crushed his sternum and then savagely ripped and tore at his throat. Blood gushed from the wounds. Dropping the dying animal to the ground, Ela grabbed the wolf’s upper and lower jaw in her hands.

  Ignoring the lycan’s teeth as they punctured her skin, sh
e pulled the animal’s jaw apart until the lower one was severed completely from the rest of Gilmar’s head.

  Almost instantly the house filled with low, desolate wails as what remained of Gilmar’s pack mourned the death of their leader. Ela closed her eyes, letting the cries reverberate through her.

  She had been broken, chained, and tortured. Death had brushed near her. Now, as she walked toward the last of the lycan heartbeats, she clearly saw her path. She would not end Albert and Ana, but leave them to languish in an eternal darkness of emptiness and desperation.

  ***

  “You’re going to be nothing forever, Ana.” Ela purred the words next to Ana’s ear. She had moved through the compound undetected, finding Ana in her room having sex with a female vampire Ela did not recognize.

  Ana was strung up by her neck from an iron chandelier by a rope with silver braided through it that Ela had acquired before leaving the lycan compound. Her bound feet barely touched the dark hardwood floor and her hands were secured behind her back. Ela had dispatched her lover with a series of twists and a quick snap of the woman’s head from its neck.

  Ela whistled as she slowly walked around an immobilized Ana, her dead lover’s head still in her hands. “They just don’t make them like they used to, I guess.”

  Ela unceremoniously dropped the head to the floor. “This must seem strangely familiar to you.”

  Ana clenched her jaw. “You can’t imagine what horrors are in store for you when I—” Ela punched Ana in her stomach, cutting the last of her words off.

  “Just shut up,” Ela sighed. “Fuck, all you do is talk.”

  Ana grimaced and then opened her eyes. They burned a deep cobalt blue. “You’re dead. Dead!”

  Ela laughed. “Nearly, but you couldn’t close the deal.” Ela punched Ana in the stomach again. “Never leave a lycan to do a vampire’s job.”

  Ela turned and walked toward the bedroom door, leaving Ana to swing back and forth from the rope. “Now, if I were a queer piece of white trash from Texas, where would I be?”

  Walking into the hall, Ela lifted her head and took several deep breaths through her nose. Turning to her left, she followed the familiar vanilla and musk smell. Found you.

  Without a sound, Ela came to the door of Albert’s study. She heard the rustling of paper and knew Albert was reading. Ela knocked on the door.

  “Enter.” Ela evaluated that Albert’s slow drawl came from approximately ten feet beyond the door and to the right, providing her a very clear visual of where he was in the room and how she would need to move through the space to restrain him.

  Kicking the thick wooden door off its hinges, Ela was upon Albert in a second. She grabbed him by the back of the neck and slammed him to the floor. Using the remainder of the silver braided rope, she tied his hands and feet together behind his back.

  Hopping up on a large rectangular table cluttered with books and papers, Ela sat on her haunches looking down at a struggling Albert.

  “I think that’s what you folks from Texas call 'hogtied.'” Ela laughed.

  Albert craned his neck up and turned his head to see his assailant. “Ela. You escaped?”

  “Always the master of the obvious, Albert.” Ela jumped from the table and sat in the chair Albert had occupied only moments before. “Now, a few housekeeping items.”

  Ela held her hand up and began counting her fingers. “One, Ana is detained and her lover has been ended. Two, I’m not going to end you, Albert, so don’t piss yourself. Third—” Ela considered the elongated nail of her ring finger.

  “Third, when I’m done with you two, you’ll wish I had just ended you; so go ahead and piss yourself after all.”

  “Ela, you have to know Ana was the one who struck the deal with the lycans. I mean, she and Mateo wanted it. What was I going to do?” Albert pulled against the rope.

  Ela rushed toward Albert, knelt next to him, and grabbed a handful of his hair. Her eyes glowed blue. “Perfect. I want you to beg. I want you to have hope that if you say just the right thing, I’ll be merciful.”

  “Please.” Albert squirmed.

  Ela’s face was less than an inch from Albert’s. “We used to have a saying in the camps.” She nudged Albert’s cheek with her nose as she inhaled. “Hope is the last thing to die.”

  Ela shifted her head back and smiled. “Your begging will make the moment that hope dies so much more enjoyable.”

  She flung his head toward the floor and rose to her feet. Grabbing the rope, Ela hoisted Albert off the floor and began walking toward Ana’s bedroom. Entering the room, she dropped him at Ana’s feet. Ela stretched her arms over her head and faked a yawn.

  “Shall we begin?” Ela released Ana’s rope from the chandelier, allowing her to hit the floor with a loud thud. She put Ana and Albert back to back before tying them together. With the little length of rope she had left, Ela tied their heads together using the rope as a gag in both their mouths.

  She looked down at her body, realizing for the first time since leaving the lycan house that she was still naked. Ela walked casually over to the large wardrobe in the corner of Ana’s bedroom. Sifting through the many clothes, she pulled a pair of tan trousers and a button-up linen blouse from the cabinet.

  Looking at Ana, Ela got dressed. “You don’t mind if I borrow these, do you? After all, we’ve shared so much over the years.”

  Using the large ornate rug that covered most of the floor, Ela wrapped the two neutralized vampires up. Lifting them both, she distributed their weight across both her shoulders and made her way out of the compound.

  It was the middle of the night by this time and the streets were relatively empty. The few people who were out at that hour were drunk and paid little attention to Ela as she flung the rolled up rug into the trunk of one of the compound’s cars.

  “Hey beautiful, you want some help with that?” A tall, thin man in a pair of cutoff denim shorts and a tattered t-shirt sauntered up to Ela as she closed the car’s trunk.

  With her back to the man, Ela smiled. “I’ve got it, thanks.” Ela turned around and ran her tongue across her lower lip suggestively. “There is something you can help me with though.”

  The man’s eyes widened and he smiled broadly. His smile became a smirk as he took several steps toward Ela. “Yeah? What’s that?”

  He reached out to touch Ela’s shoulder, but she grabbed his wrist and twisted it until the man was forced to his knees. Wincing, he grunted in pain.

  Ela looked down at the writhing man. “Hold still. This will only hurt for a second.” Baring her teeth and reveling in the look of fear that washed over the man’s face, she bit into his shoulder.

  The rush of warm human blood after so many years caused a moan to escape Ela’s lips. The lycan blood had sufficed given the circumstances, but the sweetness of human blood accompanied with its floral undertones was truly delightful.

  Dropping the dead man to the ground, Ela walked around to the driver’s side of the car. Starting the engine, she drove toward the outskirts of the city. She felt a calm come over her with the knowledge of her betrayers' fate.

  ***

  The car had been stopped for nearly a half hour before Ela opened the trunk. She slung the rug and its occupants over her shoulders and walked for nearly a half mile into the rainforest.

  The night sky was completely hidden by the lush layering of the forest’s canopy nearly a hundred feet above Ela. She stepped over exposed tree trunks and walked around giant ant mounds taller than her. The ground was damp and soft under her bare feet. The smell of decomposing plants and animals permeated Ela’s senses.

  Unrolling the rug with a swift flip of her wrists, Ela smiled as Ana and Albert rolled across the muddy ground. “We’re here.” She knelt down and untied the rope from around their mouths.

  Ana spit at Ela. “You bitch! This isn’t over.”

  Ela nodded. “You’re right. It will never be over for the two of you.” Her eyes focused on the large, deep hole she
had dug while Albert and Ana lay helpless in the trunk.

  Albert’s eyes widened as he followed Ela’s gaze. “You can’t– you wouldn’t.”

  Ela shrugged. “I can–and I would.” She drug the two toward the edge of the hole and then, using her foot, shoved them into the seven foot deep blackness.

  “Ela. Listen to me. We can work this out,” Ana stammered, struggling to shift out from under Albert’s weight.

  Ela went perfectly still. Her face was expressionless. “You’re bargaining with me?”

  “Yes! Anything you want.” Ana turned her head so the two women’s eyes met. Her voice was several pitches higher than her normal speaking voice. “I know where Rachel is.”

  Ela’s eyebrow arched. “What did you just say?”

  Ana twisted so she was nearly lying on top of Albert. “Mateo has kept tabs on her. She never should have been made. He thought he might have to end her at some point.”

  “Where is she?” Ela struggled to maintain an indifferent tone.

  “Get us out of here and I’ll tell you everything.” Ana smiled.

  Ela stood and reached for the shovel wedged in the displaced earth to her left. “I’m all out of reasonable and fair. So you go first and then I’ll get you out.” Ela crouched next to the hole and leaned against the shovel’s handle.

  “For fuck’s sake, Ela, I’m not telling you anything until you get us the hell out of this hole.” Ana practically spat the words.

  “Don’t antagonize her, please.” Albert’s voice was muffled as his face was partially pushed into the dirt.

  “Shut up!” Ana looked back up at Ela. “I know exactly where she is.”

  Ela squinted. “Since we’re in the sharing mood, I’ll tell you the first year will be the hardest. Without the blood, the burning spreads through you until your entire body shakes from want. It damn near rips you apart.”

  Ela stood and scooped a shovel full of dirt. “After that, the cold sets in and the dark goes on forever. You are completely alone and oblivion seems preferable.” Ela tilted the shovel so the dirt slowly dropped on Ana and Albert. “In the end you pray for death.”