When Darkness calls, You shouldn't Answer

Chapter 1: Awakening

Whispering and the sound of heavy machinery is what awoke me from my slumber. My body and bones hurting from resting in my wooden bed. The darkness in my coffin, pierced by rays of strange light, something I hadn’t seen before. Voices moving closer, muffled by the walls of my prison. Intrigued I started pushing, leaning against the lid keeping me from doing more than wiggling my toes.

The room I went to sleep in, changed. Lit by a miraculous light, not by fire and flame but by something I would learn to be electricity. Shrieks echoed through the empty cave, fearful and primal. Whoever these humans were, they did not know whom they disturbed. New smells and more shouting overloaded my brain. I shot up, confused, looked at one of the visitors, and smiled. They ran like the wind. Stumbling and falling. Slowly I stretched and asked where I was. It was directed to myself but I must have spoken out loud. Suffice to say, I did not get an answer. At least not in the way I expected. One of them, a man in his late forties, frozen. The panic written on his face delighted me. Maybe they did know who I was. I swiftly swung my legs over the wooden railing surrounding my bed. My every move was followed by fearful gazes and more screams. Then I lifted myself, jumped, and landed on cold stone. The soles broke away from my shoes. The thread must have been eaten by time, I figured. I arched my back, presenting my frail body in a theatrical manner to my guests. It must have been quite a spectacle, nothing more than skin and bones. Blue veins shone through translucent skin. My weak movements redirecting their flow. Raising my hand playfully, swinging it left and right. Like a marionette strung only by the wrist. I could not lift my fingers. My hair, unkempt and uncut floated behind me like a robe eaten by moths. Spiders jumping ship, cobwebs forming white strands a sea of black. Weakly I took a step towards them, readying my voice. In a raspy tone: “Who do we have here?”

They were all like stalactites, the ones who hadn’t fled. A mix of fear and curiosity clouded their eyes. I counted 3. Steps of two were still echoing throughout. Me being completely naked, apart from remains of cloth slowly gliding off me. Their panic still kept them still. One wrong move and they might faint. Another playful step in their direction, and I repeated myself: “What are you sweet things doing in here?” A quick glance towards the way they came, and he tried to bolt. He didn’t make it far, by the time his foot touched the ground, my hand reached his shoulder already. “No no no, where do you think you are going?” I grasped onto him, he writhed in pain as my nails were digging into him. Through layers of clothes, blood soaking in. Forcefully I redirected his struggling body against the cold wall. I tried again: “Now now, there is no need for that.” Still in shock, unable to speak with trembling lips. He still tried to muster, though it sounded like nothing more than a hiss, a plea for help, for me to stop.

I never liked being told what to do. I shot a quick look at the other two. If it were possible they seemed to move even less. The only thing to be heard, the loud beating of their hearts. Their own bodies betraying their efforts to stay quiet.

I dug deeper, till my fingers felt the comfortable touch of bone. His body trembling, then limp. I let go a moment later. He fell to the floor, not any different than a sack of potatoes.

I shifted my focus back to the ones still cowering. I wondered where they might have come from, and what they might have wanted to achieve here, but I quickly came to the conclusion I didn’t care.

“Little ones, come now. Why won’t you answer me?”, my throat still rusty from decades of sleep, came across as a primal growl. The girl, wearing a red jacket, terrible sense of fashion, with khaki pants. She kept opening her mouth, gasping like a fish stolen from water. The young man next to her mimicked her efforts. More successfully he stammered, “Who, what”. By the second word I already stood next to him. His statue towering over me. If I were to touch him, he would crumble to dust. “What d-d-do”, again, with even less confidence. “I do I want? What am I doing here?”, I helpfully tried to finish his sentence. He swallowed heavily but nodded with all the strength he could muster. “I am preparing breakfast of course, and for what I am doing here. I live here of course!” I tried my best to not sound threatening but my body betrayed me again. “B-b-breakfast?!”

And lay into them. Slit his throat with a swift gesture, and before the girl could even inhale to scream, I had her skull between my hands. I snatched her jaw, forcing her to face my gaze. With one speedy jerk, I liberated her shoulders from their burden. I threw the head somewhere, it didn’t matter. I was now standing in a fountain of blood, tilting my head back, opened my dry lips, and felt the warm crimson rain breathe back strength into me. I took my time, after all, they did deserve it, they gifted me a feast. Tore through skin and flesh, licking their remains off the moist floor. Lakes and streams, forming as I continued my labor. I do not know how long their bodies managed to entertain me, I felt like it were mere seconds but it must have been hours. I gathered the clothing that looked stained the least. They didn’t fit. I would have to get new ones. As I went to find my way out of the cave that was my home for the past century, I forced myself into a grey shirt that had belonged to the young one and a pair of black jeans I borrowed from the corpse of the lovely lady. Sadly her lingerie was not even close to my taste, suffice to say, the pants started to annoy me rather soon. Once I had reached the exit, soft moonlight greeted me and a gentle drizzle cooled my steaming flesh. The forest still seemed familiar, the trees were taller and a dirt road now led to the cave’s entrance. The two that had fled, nowhere to be seen. Tracks were paved into the mud, puddles, and little rivers, trying their hardest to cover their tracks. One deep breath of fresh air, one final look at the looming clouds.

I exhaled excitement for the chase to come. Wrapped in darkness, silent as an owl soaring the skies, I started my hunt.

Chapter 2: Late Night Adventures

Every step elevated my high further. Nocturnal howls and woodland smells stimulated excited spirits. Notes of rubber, leaking oil, leaving a trail too easy to miss. It was Child’s play like their bodies longed to be reunited with their tasty friends.

God’s tears now crashing down, the weeping turned to ugly cries. Winds wrestling the slumbering trees. They won a favor, from a god most merciful. I would have to deal with them later. If they knew whom they were running from. No one would dare.

Moved past trees so fast that concrete walls with fresh graffiti, blend into one. The city’s lights were new and bright. Blinding me, distracting my gaze. The perpetual noise of passing cars, instilling vertigo. Their trail by now just barely discernible, mingled with dirt and mud. Maybe I should have played a little more with my food, promised to let them live if they surrendered their companions.

Picking up the pace, speeding past vehicles dwarfing anything I’d seen before, I sprinted, over paved fields and plazas that used to be meadows. Coming to a stop, in front of an abandoned truck loaded with machinery. Ammonia crawling up my sensitive nose. This must be it, the fear is still lingering in the driver’s seat. Buildings rising towards the heaves, one, two, three. Guided by hunter’s instinct, I tracked their frantic moves, through trash-filled alleys, lit by neon signs, and ended up on a dead-end road, only one way forward. Steel door failing at the hinge, as I lunged, kicked with boiling rage. How dared they run, who dared they ask for shelter?

Incense and candlelight rushed out as I accompanied my shadow inside. Shocked faces welcomed me inside. Oaken table littered with maps, red circles, and crosses marking grottos. I grinned as understood their quest, stupid mortals. The room had been stuffed to the brink with parchment and crystals. A man veiled in scarlet robes dared to challenge my gaze, his aura had something familiar about it. Nah, it couldn’t be him. Why would he want to find me? This train of thought though, wouldn’t let me disembark. Pupils jet black, as the irises surrounding them, an invisible force trying to take hold of me. I lifted my hand and drew a quick symbol in the air. The pressure subsided as quickly as it arose.

“What do you want from me, “god”? Calling you that already makes me sick.” Letting humans do his dirty work, lazy as always. Weakling. “Now now, is that your way to greet your old pal?” Pal, you he was going to make laugh, that bitch couldn’t keep a friend if his life depended on it. “Shut up! What do you want? You only call on me when you screwed up.” “I would never dare. I was just longing for some company.” I didn’t believe a single word he uttered. The last time I had the misfortune of encountering him, he had been fleeing from a demon he cheated out of a deal. He had to learn the hard way, that this demon served someone who had the power to challenge him. “If this is anything like last time, I will kill you.” The humans were desperately trying to piece together the context. Amusing, but I paid them no mind. “I swear, this is strictly personal, nothing to do with work.” I doubt his shady practices have changed one bit. I raised my finger and pointed it at one of the bystanders. “You, why are you here?”, my sing-song tone encouraging. His demeanor shifted as I addressed one of his slaves. I didn’t need to wait long to get an answer. “Me, oh, ah, we, ah” Not that I was expecting an answer. “Leave them out of this, they are just pawns.” Pawns in a game they don’t even know is being played. “You dragged them into this. Deal with it.” The mortals, if possible, comprehended even less.

A beeping interrupted our hostile conversation. My instinct trying to warn me of the fight to unfold. With a loud bang, a van crashed into the door still hanging awkwardly in its frame. A creature and man covered in tribal tattoos, emerged from the metal cage trapping us inside. So much for just wanting to say hi. Mr. Tattoos drew a silver sword, strapped to his waist. The monster next to him started to unfold a tongue about a spear’s length and tasted the stale air. Walking on all fours, eyes eight in total two focused on each of us. Claws ripped through the concrete with every step, like it were pudding. “Eris, please, just one more time” It’s not like he offered me a choice. This was going to be fun.

More coming soon