After the Fall

by Martinez, A. J.

  “Sure. Speak.” There was no more affability or generosity. The kind deed I had done for him was now erased by his son’s disappearance, and the town’s very existence hung on by a thread.

  “I’d like to speak to you outside, if that’s okay with you.”

  He frowned and let out another grumble. I took that as an affirmative answer and walked out to the hallway.

  “What do you want now?” he said as he shut the door. His voice had the undertones of a warning—or a threat.

  “I know what is wrong with Rhiannon, if you’ll hear me out—”

  “Why didn’t you speak up before?” he interrupted.

  “I wasn’t sure at first, but I needed to tell you alone. It’s your decision, after all.”

  “What decision?”

  It was my turn to sigh. “Rhiannon is dying. Frankly, I’m surprised she’s made it this long. Your doctor is amazing, but I’m afraid she doesn’t have more than a few days at this rate.”

  “You’re lying,” he growled.

  “It’s the truth.” I paused for a second while he twitched with impatience. “That is why I offer you a decision. It isn’t one I came to easily.”

  “So what’s this decision?”

  “I have the power to save her, to keep her from dying forever.”

  “By all means, do it!” His eyes lit up with desperate hope.

  “Before you say yes, I have to warn you. This gift comes with a price. She will not be the same. She will become like me, a creature of the night. Sunlight will be her mortal enemy and blood will be the only thing that will quench her thirst. Think about this very carefully.”

  His eyes opened wide, bulging out of their sockets. He breathed in and out quickly, his nostrils flaring like a bull preparing to charge.

  “You’re a liar! You defile my wife and now you want to kill her!” He took a swing at me. The whole thing happened in slow motion for me. His shoulder muscles twitched and contracted, telegraphing his next move. The arm pulled back and his face contorted in rage, no doubt the last thing his enemies saw before dying at his hand. I watched the giant fist come at me. Four knuckles, patches of reddish hair in the middle of his fingers. The hair on his arm rippled through the air.

  It felt like getting hit by a bear, and I know by firsthand experience. The full force of his punch connected, but I did not move an inch. The shock bounced back through his arm and he clutched his hand. Unfortunately (for him), his rage wasn’t quenched yet. He swung out with his other hand and I got to watch the same process unfold on the opposite side. His hand came at me like a cannonball.

  I deserved it the first time, but he wouldn’t get a second. My hand snapped up and blocked his fist. I wrapped my fingers around it and squeezed hard. It was satisfying to see this hulk of a man at my mercy. He tried to remain defiant, but the sight of a much smaller man overpowering him with one hand was enough to break his resolve. I released him before I broke his hand. He nursed the two bear claws that were turning bright red from the effort. The smell of blood and adrenaline awakened my appetite.

  “Get out of my house,” he whispered. Even in his reduced state, he was still giving out orders. I didn’t have to listen to him. There was no master over me except myself. For a second, I considered it. I had the power to bring this whole town to heel, to repel the undead threat and rule with an iron fist. Some of my peers would have done it. This was about survival, not honor. Too bad I wasn’t like them. My sense of honor was too deeply entrenched. It was a flaw in my armor that went all the way to the core. All I did was nod and walk away from him.

  After getting my belongings, I walked out the front door and breathed in the night air. It was tinged with the smell of putrescence. My sensitive hearing picked up the clamors of the undead at the gates. They scratched, banged, and even tried to bite at the wall. I went to the wall to look one more time. The horde had spread beyond the wood line. I couldn’t guess how many were beyond it, consuming everything in their path, threatening to devour the entire forest. They shook the trees , trying to get at the creatures above. The mighty elder trees held, but the younger ones snapped and fell over. They even tried to eat the leaves, or whatever organic matter that fell within their reach. At this rate, they would render the land barren.

  I looked at the expanse of terrain and exclaimed, “We are lost.” The young guard nearby heard this and dropped his hands in despair. All his training and discipline went over the walls, along with the crossbow that he threw at the horde before abandoning his post.

  A church bell rang in the distance. I saw the bulk of the population heading to the temples to heed the call to prayer. I thought it indeed our darkest hour. How sadly I was mistaken.

  The pangs of hunger began to sink their teeth on me. Now that I had outlived my usefulness, not too many of the townspeople would be rushing out to me to open their veins in thanks. There was one possible victim/donor that crossed my mind. I tracked down the deserter through the emptying streets until we reached a dark place.

  The boy didn’t know what hit him. I bit down into his jugular vein and guzzled his life away. He went limp within seconds, leaving me to drain the rest out of him. My time was short and hiding places were few in these streets, so I hid him in plain sight, covering him up with the trash that went unseen in this small forgotten nook.

  The emergency service went on for the better part of an hour. During this time, I chose to wander and reflect on what I had done. The town had become deserted in such a short time. I wondered if they had already hunkered down in preparation for the next stage. No one wanted to talk about it, but it was in their minds every minute of the day. It would even follow them to their dreams, poisoning them into nightmares.

  Sometime in the last quarter hour, the denizens surfaced and started a procession. My guess was that they were going to Alaric’s house. I was correct. I did my best to stay out of their view, but one person spotted me and it spread through the crowd. Now I had hundreds of people chasing me, waiting for an answer to their prayers or a solution to their problems, neither of which I could provide.

  Every part of me cried out that I should run, leave this place behind. Why didn’t I do it before? Why did I stay even now? Simply put, fear and greed. Those were the two emotions that anchored me here. It all seemed so simple in hindsight. The only thing wrong with that plan was that I lacked the guts to carry it out.

  As fast as I ran, it wasn’t enough. They were emerging from every crevice, coming so close they tugged at my coattails. I arrived at the door, with the crowd threatening to crush me into it. The door cracked and Evelyn appeared, pulling me through the small opening. When she and Magda could not close the door, I pushed against the weight of the crowd and shut it. The living dead did not scare me as much as the living. Those zombies out there ignored me as if I were one of them, but these folks accosted me at every turn. I had met the dark side of fame.

  Boom

  Evelyn stood by the door with her arms crossed, giving me the evil eye. Magda looked around nervously, not sure whether to follow her example. I would have expected her to join Evelyn in the hate fest, but she turned around and went to the kitchen.

  “What’s on your mind, Evelyn? Just come out and say it.”

  She looked at me as if to say “you know,” served up with a bitter smirk. For a second it looked as if she might tell him the answer, but all she said was, “The master would like to see you upstairs.”

  I really wished he’d chosen to spare me this moment. My feet never felt heavier than the moment I walked up those steps. I could already hear the cold shivers of Rhiannon’s “fever.” By now, she would have begun to grow cold as her body shut down. This is one time I wished I had been wrong, that it would have been something else. There was no such mercy in store for me. Such is my fate as a blighted creature of the night.

  It cut me to the core to see her like this. She was having the cold shivers. Her jaws threatened to rattle off her skull. That sweet voice that was once my s
iren call moaned softly in pain. Her eyes had closed for the final time. I cursed myself for having left, because now I would never get to say goodbye to a living Rhiannon, no matter what Alaric’s decision came to be. It would be his decision alone to make now.

  “Come in,” said Alaric. It was just the three of us there. The doctor must have sensed the end was near and gone home. I was so concerned about her that I went straight to her side. It surprised me that he let me get so close, much less hold her hand and feel her forehead. Her body temperature was just barely above ambient and still dropping. I had seen this too many times, caused more than my fair share of them. It was terrible enough to see them, but this was too much. Not her, please not her, I would beg the heavens over and over, all in vain, for her essence was evaporating out of her body with every strained breath.

  “Have you decided?” I asked Alaric. This was no time to mince words. Whether it was yes or no, I had to have the answer now. Soon the decision would be made whether he wanted it or not.

  Alaric paced the room, pausing at the window to look at the gathering crowd. They were chanting and praying—to their god, and to me. Some had learned about Rhiannon’s condition and were desperate for a miracle. Others had become doubtful of my divine nature and demanded an explanation. All of them cried out for a solution to the enemy at our gates.

  His indecision was killing me. All I wanted was for him to tell me which way to go, but he refused to do it. I started to make the choice for him to force his hand.

  “Wait,” he said as I peeled back my sleeve and got ready to sink my nail into my wrist. He looked at my wrist, then his dying wife. Still he could not make a decision. It was pure torture. Surely he wanted me to stand by idly and watch her die. It would be his punishment to the both of us. Rhiannon was the lucky one out of the two of us. Her pain would end while mine endured for who knew how many centuries.

  “Tell me,” I said. “Does she live or die? I must know soon.”

  He held up his hand to stay my actions, but I knew our time was growing short until the point of no return. I took my hand off my wrist and let my arms fall at my sides. Perhaps this was for the best. Just like humans hesitated about bringing a baby to this world of brutality, I felt reluctant to bring yet another bloodthirsty mouth to a world that was drying up by the day. I could almost hear the death knell that would lead to our extinction. This was the right decision. Let her die in peace.

  “I accept.” He finally decided. After all this time, it was as if he could read my thoughts and tried to find the one that would cause me the most pain. Now it was I who was undecided.

  “Are you going to do it?” he asked me.

  “Yes, yes…just give me a moment.” I did not mean to, but I moved at painfully slow speed, hoping to cause Alaric some anguish in return.

  “Do it already, for God’s sake!” he yelled.

  I nodded and pressed the sharp nail into my wrist. It hurt, but in the way it hurts to do something necessary, where it almost felt like pleasure. The blood began to drain out and fall into Rhiannon’s open mouth. She started to choke on it, but her body decided to drink down the cup of poison that would soon cause her death. When I thought she’d had enough, I put pressure on the wrist to stop the flow. It healed instantly, much to Alaric’s amazement. Rhiannon’s shivers calmed down and she looked to be settling into a peaceful sleep.

  “What happens now?”

  “Now we wait,” I replied. “You might not want to be here for the rest of this.”

  “I will stay. She’s my wife.”

  He can’t say I didn’t warn him. It happened sooner than I thought. She started to break into convulsions and thrust her chest toward the ceiling like a woman possessed. When the seizure ended, she went limp on the bed, and I knew she was dead.

  Alaric gasped and rushed over to his wife. He started to check her vitals. I calmly stood in the background, shaking my head.

  “Alaric,” I called out. He ignored me and continued to feel for a pulse. His head lay on her chest as he listened for the faintest sign of a heartbeat.

  “You killed her!” he accused.

  “It will take some time. She has to die before she comes back.”

  “You’re a liar! You killed her, just like you killed my son!”

  “Father,” called out the voice at the door. I couldn’t have a better sense of timing myself. He must have snuck in the house and waited for the right time to appear. With him came a pungent smell of ammonia, like he’d coated himself in animal urine to disguise his own scent.

  “Matthias!” The big hulking man rushed over and enveloped his son in his arms. He bore it with the expression of a dutiful son. “Thank God, I thought you were dead. I couldn’t bear to lose you, too.”

  “What happened, father?” he asked, like he didn’t know what had just gone on.

  “Rhiannon…my wife…she’s dead.” The big man broke into sobs and hugged his son. He must have thought I couldn’t notice that self-satisfied look on his face. It was probably wise of him to stay away until now, because I would have torn him to shreds if we had been alone.

  I had enough with the theatrics and decided to leave. The way was clear to the door, but when I came close to Matthias, he flinched away from me with an expression of horror.

  “Don’t kill me!” he screamed. Alaric did the fatherly thing and clutched his son.

  “I’m not going to do anything to you,” I replied.

  “But you tried to kill me in the woods. That’s why I had to shoot you!”

  He sounded so convincing. If I wasn’t able to see right through his act, I would believe him myself.

  “You tried to kill my son?” Alaric asked. “I took you in, we fed you, gave you protection, and that is how you chose to repay me, by trying to kill my family?”

  He should have known better by now, but rage got the better of him. He rushed out at me and I pushed him back on to the wall. I looked to the bed, but Rhiannon continued to lie still. It was taking too long and now I wondered if she’d been too far gone. Maybe if Alaric had decided sooner, maybe…

  The raging bull rushed out at me again. I shoved him into the far wall this time. His body left an imprint of cracks on the wall. That’s when I saw the gun in Matthias’ hand. With my quick eyes, I saw that he had planned to use it on his father. His hand was already squeezing the trigger when I shoved Alaric out of the way. I had just enough time to predict where the bullet would go and get out of its way. The blast rocked the chamber, but it was nothing compared to the blast that came next.

  Matthias fell to the floor and I nearly went with him as the very foundation of the house shook. The blast was so large it felt like an earthquake. The bell outside began to peal out in panic. It might as well have been our death knell. I was the first to hear the people’s screams as the horde rushed in to invade the town.

  Even now, Matthias was still trying to kill me. He raised his gun and tried to shoot me again. I ripped it out of his hand before he had a chance to pull the trigger. The gun felt nice and balanced in my hand. I squeezed the handgrip and gave Matthias a look that sent him scurrying out to the hallway. That was when I heard the thunder of the other blasts.

  They went out in unison, and I knew the gates were being blown away, inviting the undead to share in a feast unlike they’d ever had, at least since the Fall.

  The people in the streets ran and screamed. The impenetrable walls had been breached; their safe haven was no longer. I hoped they would be able to reach their underground shelters, but I knew many would die in the streets. Matthias was the first up. Alaric remained stunned from the initial blast.

  “Let’s go!” I said. “We need to get underground!” I tried to lift him, but he was dead weight, and I simply could not drag him and Rhiannon at the same time.

  “It’s no use. She’s dead. I might as well die with her. Just leave me here.”

  “She’s not dead. Stop saying that.”

  “I’m staying here with her. Let that b
e my last request.”

  “Very well.” I got up and went to the bed. “You want to be with her? Fine.” I picked up Rhiannon’s still body in my arms. Long strands of copper hair cascaded down my arms. She no longer smelled of death. It was a clean smell, a preserved version of her living scent. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy basking in her fragrance. You can call me depraved or twisted, but I knew that she was alive. Never mind that she lacked the usual requisites of heartbeat, breathing, or lividity. It was sleep, the deepest sleep she might have had since the womb. From now on, she would sleep like this every night, sleeping the sleep of the dead from dawn until dusk.

  Alaric got up and followed me. He might have been resigned to die, but part of him wanted to believe me. I took the both of them to the basement entrance downstairs, where Magda and Evelyn had already taken up residence. Some devoted servants they were. We pounded on the locked door.

  “Who is there?” asked Evelyn.

  “It’s Alaric…and the missus,” he shouted. He then whispered through clenched teeth, “and one ungrateful guest.”

  “I heard that,” I muttered in return.

  “I don’t care what you heard,” he replied.

  “It’s the truth. I deserved that.”

  “Yet you show no remorse. You vile, repugnant—”

  “All right, that’s enough. I guess I’m not welcome here. I’ll just go on back up there and wait out this storm.”

  “No!” he shouted. Little did they know that these creatures wanted nothing to do with us. They would not attack unless provoked, and sometimes not even then.

  “Are you inviting me?” I asked. Never mind the old superstition. This was more of a courtesy. I tried to remember who started that silly tradition. It might have been the Arab Vampires, with their hospitality customs. Once admitted to the house, they were guests and the hosts were obliged to serve them. Few of them actually knew that they were on the menu until it was too late.

  “Yes, come in, please. Don’t leave my wife out there to be eaten by those aberrations.”