Melodies of Blood 2

by Maialen Alonso

  It’s not the end, Meryl thought, it’s not.

  Meryl asked herself if it had been her or that voice in her mind, that memory of that long ago past that was recorded in her blood. Was it Agatha encouraging her? Warning her?

  When Caleb fell to his knees Meryl held out an arm and tried to reach him but the majority of the attackers concentrated on cutting off the leader from the rest of the group and it was impossible to reach him. Meryl shouted in desperation and everything went black. She felt like she was drowning under the weight of so many people and after being shoved and hit Meryl felt dizzy. She also felt like she was dying inside because she knew that when she saw the dark sky once again Caleb would be dead.

  On death’s door, the group was barely able to defend itself. The pain from wounds and weakness from blood loss had them dropping onto the ground. When it seemed like everything was lost they heard screams. Some of them thought it was due to having received too many blows to the head. Suddenly the enemy that was on top of them, hitting them fiercely, were tossed through the air. Caleb opened his eyes but the blood barely let him see. He saw a large figure that he didn’t recognize but it transported his thoughts to the past. A past where his mother had killed him and a good man gave him a new life, a life where he would find his other half.

  “Almost.”

  Caleb recognized the voice. “Ajax?”

  “Fuck! Caleb,” A feminine voice laughed uncontrollably, “I’m going to remind you of this for the rest of your miserable life.”

  Caleb stood up and cleaned the blood off his face. He saw Elizabeth’s second in command, Dee, standing there enjoying the view. Of course, she would throw it back in his face for the rest of his life. It was going to be torture.

  “Why are you here?”

  “I know that you gave us some orders and I agreed so you would drop the subject but remember that I have been in all of the wars in this world. Did you really think that I would let a group of newbies attack by themselves? It would be suicide.”

  “Thank you for not paying attention to me.” Caleb stood up with difficulty and looked for Meryl, she was helping Johana.

  He needed a couple of seconds to gather himself. After so many blows his head felt shattered and his brain seemed to want to enter a kind of hibernation, but he finally managed to awaken his senses as he saw hundreds of people behind Ajax.

  “Surprised? Many of them came after you left. It was a gift from heaven because my plan counted on only a couple of dozen men. On the other side of the city, on the flank that Yong attacked, I sent another group with two of your toys.” Caleb frowned, he couldn’t understand. “A guy named Cristian came. He was followed by a handful of men wearing black suits.”

  “Alpha’s special police.” Caleb interrupted. “I never thought he would take that step.”

  “Well, he came with an old warship and brought two tanks in addition to heavy weapons.”

  Just at the moment, when Ajax was explaining a huge explosion sounded a couple of kilometers away.

  “Epsilon also has one,” They both turned their heads to see Meryl standing there. “I saw it a few days ago. He probably has something else, my brother liked those things.”

  “Enough talk!” Epsilon shouted already on his feet, watching with fury. He had been so close to victory that he could not stand the unexpected events that could ruin everything. “Attack! Attack!” He shouted again, looking at the few spawns at his side, and they didn’t hesitate to throw themselves forward.

  Caleb cursed, but Ajax pushed him aside and grabbed some huge syringes. Ajax yelled at his men, many of them had been with him for hundreds of years and had also participated in several wars. They were willing to inject the new solution into the monsters.

  “Don’t take risks Ajax. They’re very strong,” Jeoff said.

  “We already know that, but they are the priority. Come on!”

  “You!” Epsilon called the vampires who were surrounding the buildings and were waiting ever since they arrived with Edel. “Attack!”

  There was a doubt, great and visible to all, but before their fear of battle was their fear of Epsilon. They knew that if they deserted and he won their fate would be much worse than those who had their heads ripped off in a quick and painless way. Epsilon would prepare something worse, something that would last days, maybe weeks ...

  While the explosions in the distance followed one after the other, they revealed that Caleb’s tanks had met Epsilon’s. The men who had doubted launched themselves at the group, all together and at the same time. In a few seconds, madness reigned, the screams, the blows, the shoving ... Caleb yelled for Meryl and she yelled at him and held out slim fingers, but every time they were about to interlace their hands, something got in the way and it filled them with frustration. Soon they began to suffer a greater separation. The tide of people grew at that point.

  The loneliness of not recognizing any face around terrified Meryl. The blows that she received were painful and the inert bodies on the ground that she stepped on, made her fall on the blood. Meryl struggled not to breathe through her nose, not only because of the red river that flowed at her feet but because of the immense quantity of people around her. There were so many scents that Meryl thought she would faint. But something made her relax slightly, the screams of the spawn, which seemed out of a nightmare told her that the injections were effective. The blood mixture of those beings was turning against them.

  Caleb turned into a beast, he fought and knocked down every enemy that stood in the way of his search for Meryl, despair began to engulf him. Epsilon would no longer be seated. The battle would have led him to get involved and he might get to Meryl before Caleb could.

  “Pein!” Caleb shouted when he saw him. “Have you seen Meryl?”

  “No,” Pein said clearly, despite the fact that his face was full of blood. “I thought she was with you!”

  “Dammit! If you see her, bring her to me!”

  “I’ll look for her!” Pein said, throwing out a punch and disappeared from Caleb’s sight.

  Meryl recognized some of the faces of the people that lay on the ground. It had been a long time since she had seen them, but they were from the Alpha police. The anguish grew in her, thinking that soon she would see the lifeless face of someone that was important to her, or even worse ... of Caleb. In that dark moment, Meryl stood there in the midst of an unprecedented battle, surrounded by blood, covered with it and closed her eyes. She tried to hear inside the mysterious melodies of blood, of her blood. Agatha would tell her, whisper what to do. Meryl had a final backup plan and was ready to do it. It was almost as if the sounds began to pass through a filter, the sounds separated, moving away and disappearing until nothing came to her ears. Then Meryl heard a soft and unintelligible whisper, but she was achieving it. She just needed to concentrate a little more.

  “Walk.”

  “Agatha?”

  “He’s waiting for you.”

  Meryl knew instantly who he was. However, her heart reacted with some kind of surprise, because it began to beat between fears and weaknesses, for what was coming. Without opening her eyes, Meryl began to step between the people who fought, who killed, who died ... but inside, Meryl was alone, nothing around her disturbed her.

  “The blood at your feet soaks into you. Listen to me for the last time Meryl. Listen to your past to reach your future. Don’t harbor doubts, the world is cruel, kill and you will live, don’t and you will fall. Don’t make my mistakes.”

  After the words, the silence returned. Inside her mind, Meryl called her, but there was no response. Was she gone? No ... Agatha was in her blood, and she understood then that she had to do it alone. Meryl had to assert herself if she wanted to live and be with Caleb and reach a future for everyone. She had to take the silver and gold knife that she’d taken hours back and plunge it into her brother’s heart.

 
An invisible wall stopped Meryl, she opened her eyes and saw that she had moved away from the center of the battle. Now, on the edge of that precipice, she could see from the outside hundreds, or thousands of people and vampires fighting, spawn attacking both sides and weapons held high, firing almost desperately.

  “You’re late.”

  Looking straight ahead, Meryl saw George sitting quietly, eating what appeared to be a red apple. It was evident that he was enjoying the view in front of him. Many people were losing their lives because of him a few meters away. It inflated his ego and his happiness. It was in his opinion, a sight worth seeing.

  “Where is the old man? I thought he would come with you. You know ... a family reunion.”

  “I don’t know,” Meryl said dryly.

  “Hey, calm down. You’re bold. That’s strange. You were always a bit of a scaredy-cat.”

  “Really?” Meryl let herself be carried away. “It’s me who has always protected you, dwarf.”

  “Ha!” Epsilon let out a long laugh. “That brings back memories. Tell me, Meryl,” he continued. “What will happen now?”

  “Now everything must end, George. You know? I’m a little tired.” Meryl closed her eyes. “So many deaths, so much suffering, so much guilt ... my heart can’t take it anymore.”

  “Well, come with me and everything will be over.” He stretched out his hand while throwing the apple to the side. He became serious and Meryl could almost see in that macabre face her little brother.

  “Don’t lie to me, George. You know that you never were able to deceive me. I know your facial expressions better than mine. Nothing will change because it is impossible. I’ve made a decision.”

  “We can’t both live? It’s me or you? Seriously, are you telling me that nonsense? This is not a fucking movie, Meryl. I win, it’s my destiny.” Epsilon smiled again, he stood up with something strange in his hand, a small square-shaped device.

  “What is that, George?” Meryl asked, beginning to feel a strange and incomprehensible fear.

  “I’m disappointed sister. I thought that my spawn were the future, but they only obey me. They don’t think. They don’t follow me. The highest percentage of blood that we gave them is mine, that’s all, that’s why they’re faithful to me.”

  “What did you expect?”

  “I know that one day I’ll get you to see reason. It will be difficult and you will suffer until then, but the future will show that I had the truth on my side. You will love me as I love you. Our children will cover the world with their light, they will be gods made flesh.”

  Every word that Meryl heard returned her to that horrible day. Something in Meryl, in the deepest part of her being, had waited for her to get rid of the aberration in her head. Now to her disgrace, she found that it was the opposite, it was worse ...

  “Enough George!” Meryl lost a little of her self-control. “It will never happen! I love Caleb with all my heart, and nothing will take that away from me.”

  “Oh! There is something, his death.”

  “What?”

  Opening his hand, Epsilon showed the device he kept clinging to. Epsilon grimaced and pointed, without saying a word, to the crowd of people who continued to fight tirelessly for the sole purpose of survival.

  “George what ...?”

  “It would be better if you take cover. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  That awkward feeling returned to Meryl. Everything was moving in slow motion, even her blinking seemed to last seconds. Despite not being sure what it meant Meryl ran to Epsilon because it couldn’t be any good and soon she realized that it was even worse than she had imagined. Suddenly, the explosions that occurred when Epsilon pressed the large button stopped her movement. She turned her head again to see behind her. Bodies were thrown through the air and dozens ... became hundreds. One after the other, the explosions ended up leaving her deaf. At least the screams of pain and suffering would not haunt her the rest of her life ... although maybe the memory would.

  “Caleb ... Caleb!” Meryl yelled desperately, unable to hear her own voice.

  There were so many explosions and so much accumulated dust that in her eyes nothing stood out, but ... who could survive that? Nobody, no one would, and Meryl’s mind screamed with despair as she sensed how all the people she loved disappeared one after the other. Meryl fell to her knees while the still hot blood spattered her trembling body and the pieces of some of the bodies surrounded her creating a gloomy hell.

  “Your pain will be temporary,” Epsilon stood behind her to embrace her. “I will snuff it out, Meryl.”

  “You’ve killed them ... you’ve taken them away from me …”

  “There was nothing to take away. You didn’t belong to them, not even him. You’re mine, Meryl. I warned you ... Stop!”

  His scream showed a fear that she had not heard for a lifetime and when she raised her eyes she saw one of the monstrosities walking towards them with difficulty. Part of his body had been blown apart, clothes included, Meryl could see the belt of explosives that was still hanging from an arm that remained attached but lifeless.

  “Get away, you bastard!” Epsilon shouted again, stepping back and taking Meryl with him.

  “This is what you’ve done? You’re the only monster here, George!”

  “It’s about to explode, dammit! Do you want to die?”

  “Surely, Caleb is already dead,” Meryl murmured, she stopped pulling on her arm to get free. “If he’s gone I don’t care, dammit. I’ll go to hell with you, George.”

  Using her shoulder, Meryl hit him and pulled herself free of Epsilon’s arms. She left enough space for her to turn around, grasp the knife that she had hidden and stab it into the center of his chest. Her tears fell with an unstoppable force. So many negative feelings all at once plunged her into darkness. The explosions a few meters away were still heard and no one was fighting. The painful whispers of the survivors were like those of a ghost full of agony and she had just killed her brother. With Caleb surely dead and with all her friend’s dead and torn apart, there was no reason to go on because they had been her strength. They were the gear that set her in motion and now she stopped completely.

  “What have you done?” Epsilon whispered, falling on top of her. “I love you so much, Meryl ... Hug me.”

  In spite of all the bad things he’d done, she did it, she did it thinking about George, that sweet boy who followed her like a little duck to its mother. Now it was a certainty, that she had lost everything, and Caleb disappeared from her mind as the monster approached. It was time to say goodbye.

  They both went flying when the spawn that was trying to reach its father exploded. The pain in Meryl’s body mixed with the pain of the falling rubble of the building that landed on them and the suffering of her heart, which beat irregularly. They both realized that their end would not be fast, nor tranquil ...

  Epilogue

  a new morning

  The blood stretched across the field until it was lost to the sight of those who were there, splashing nearby buildings that were at the edge of the city and the stone-like trees. Meanwhile, the few survivors watched with weariness all the hell surrounding them. Caleb ran like a lost soul looking for Meryl who had disappeared long ago, fearing, suffering and imagining an unthinkable end. Johana was sitting next to a boulder and was resting. The wounds on her body were serious, but Legrant was trying to take care of even the slightest scratch. On the other hand, Jacob, Luxt, and Jeoff helped in the search for Meryl. They looked at the corpses and warned Ajax and Pein if they found any dying enemy to extinguish their life completely. There was no longer room for pity.

  After a few minutes of agony and feeling that his heart was breaking down completely Caleb glimpsed far from the center of the battle a jacket that he recognized instantly. It was the extravagant clothes that Epsilon wore. Caleb ran there. He jumped over the
bodies and as in his vision, he fell frequently because of the wounds of his body. It made him think that his damn vision was being fulfilled in an identical and terrifying way. His mind refused to believe that Meryl was dead. She had no right to leave him alone. When he finally managed to get within a couple of meters of Epsilon Caleb stopped short when he saw that the rubble fell due to the movements of the body. When it moved slightly Caleb couldn’t be sure ... Was Epsilon still alive? That indicated that Meryl was dead. No, it couldn’t be true. Every muscle in Caleb’s body tensed. He felt a panic that his body had never harbored before. It threw him into the depths of the greatest pain because he couldn’t go on living without Meryl. Nothing made sense if Meryl wasn’t next to him.

  Caleb was paralyzed. He saw how Epsilon’s back hunched in an attempt to rise. Caleb was willing to go through the flesh until he reached that dark heart with his hand to destroy it. Just as he was about to jump on Epsilon to tear him apart, a gasp stopped him.

  “Oh …” A soft and sweet voice revealed that it was a woman.

  “Meryl? Meryl!”

  Caleb pounced on Epsilon’s body, grabbed him, and tossed him so hard that he flew through the air. Caleb was stunned to see Meryl lying there bloodied. The rest of their closest friends arrived and were horrified.

  “I’m alive...? I’m ... fine.” Meryl tried to laugh but grimaced in pain.

  “How are you going to be fine? Dammit!” Caleb fell to his knees beside her, watching every cut and wound, every drop of blood and every tear.

  “I promised you ... that I wouldn’t die, Caleb.” Meryl smiled and reminded Caleb of that awful dream in which he helplessly watched her die. “I think I did it... I don’t know why I’m still alive. It’s all so weird ... It hurts.”

  “Let me see,” Jacob said, leaning forward and looked her over. “Thank heaven. It’s better than I thought at first glance, but it will take a couple of months to recover. Meryl ... I almost died of fright.”