I smiled, twirling the locket in my fingers around and around as I tried to remember her face. Dark hair…blue eyes…No, that wasn’t right; her eyes were brown like mine. I pursed my lips together and whistled a light tune from my childhood, though I wasn’t entirely sure of its origin. Like my locket, it had always been there.
The tune ended against a rustle of wings and the clack and scrape of claws against bark. My eyes snapped upwards at two birds unlike anything I’d ever come across. Pointed as kestrels but the size of eagles, they looked at me with such immediate curiosity I didn’t know what to make of it. One wouldn’t be much of a problem, but two…I eyed their talons and their sharp beaks. No, this would not end well if it came to blows. Just as I shifted a foot to run, one of them opened up its wings and started singing its own gentle melody before the other joined in. Their wings shone in the moonlight like precious metals, their feathers glittering in silver and gold and I sat back down and watched them shimmer and bob their heads. What strange creatures they were.
The birdsong stopped abruptly as they took to the sky, their music breaking off like a strangled cry. I froze. Everything had grown silent. My ears pricked up, my mouth became dry and all of the hairs on my arms stood on end. I slid my hands across the floor and found part of a thick branch. Its wood was partly rotted but would still be strong enough to hurt someone badly.
From the thick mass of bushes something stirred ahead of me and I rose to my feet. In a break in the darkness a pair of red eyes stared back at me. A million pins prickled up my spine as an icy chill settled in my bones. The first thing that came to mind was the worst. Gabriel? Stephan? But then my head cleared and I noticed the distinct lack of black in them. They were not the same.
“I can sense your hesitance, child.” Whoever it was approached me further. “But there’s no need for you to fear.” The figure stalked out of the darkness, stopping just before the patch of moonlight shining between us. He appeared human, from what I could tell. His speech was something else though, like he spoke with a swollen lip.
“You’ll have to excuse me. I’ve had a strange day,” I hissed at him.
“I understand. I am a victim of fear myself so you’ve no need to fret on my regard.” A faint smile drew across his face.
“Then you can understand how I could be wary of strangers I meet in the woods.”
“But I can help you find your way home.” His voice was light and lyrical somehow. It buzzed in my ears.
“I can barely see you, let alone grant you my trust.” I tried shaking the feeling away.
The man considered me before stepping into the light. By the look of him alone I knew something was entirely wrong.
“I am but a man: two legs; two arms; one head; one midriff,” he said, the buzzing intensifying. My head started to pound and I tried to step back but he caught me with his deathly cold fingers. “You must trust me. These people are tricksters and they will hurt you.”
I yanked my hand out of his grip and stepped away, my fear wiping away any remaining buzz in my ears. “How do you know what I’m running from?”
“It’s always something,” he snarled, “always someone.”
His skin was whiter than snow and covered in thick patches of red and purple bruises. The sunken concaves around his eyes were black and blue like wasting sockets against his crimson-coloured irises. What I’d originally dismissed as plump seemed more bloated in the light, swollen like a drowned corpse, and his mouth curled into a crazed smile, exposing sharp, elongated canines.
“Stay away from me.” I gripped the branch tighter.
“I can’t say I’m looking my best but I’m somewhat…malnourished, you see.” His fingers traced the patches around his neck. “I have been waiting for a chance to meet you, Gnathian. Your veins have been singing to me ever since you were dragged here, battered and bleeding. Oh, your blood is so raw compared to the others in the town. How fortunate that you came to me in the end, and alone at that.” He clapped his hands together before holding them out to me. “Now come, your end is nothing to fear. It’ll be beautiful.”
Your death will be beautiful. I shuddered hearing Gabriel’s voice grate through me and the buzzing started again.
“What is that?” I shook my head again and took another step away. “I told you to stay away from me.”
The man looked at me curiously at first but irritation quickly settled in its place. “You will come here.”
It itched my ears and tickled my throat as the buzzing’s force grew. Mother told me tales of beasts like these. Red eyes, rotten skin, sharp teeth; Vampyr, my head screamed. But they were fictitious, nothing but stories passed around campfires and told between siblings to scare each other. The dead didn’t get up and walk around in the real world. I looked at his feet. No shadow beneath the moonlight. It wasn’t possible.
I subtly scanned our surroundings for an exit route. I could climb a tree – but he’d be right behind me. How fast did a Vampyr run? There’s no such thing. I scolded myself. They belonged in storybooks alongside Witches, Warlocks and Gnomes. But then, what in Gehn was standing in front of me?
“So you’re resistant to my voice? Pity, it usually makes it so much easier for prey. No matter; I’ll be quick.”
I heard him shift toward me before I saw it. My eyes were focussed on a gap in the trees to the side. The bark chafed my skin as my grip tightened on the branch and I waited for the right moment to swing. He lunged at me; I dodged to the side, and as he was in between strides I swung the club at his head and heard the collision of wood against bone. The blow should’ve knocked an average man unconscious but he was still standing. Before he had a chance to move I brought the branch down again, splintering it over his head, and I sprinted toward the trees. If he ran like a normal man it should have given me at least a moment’s advantage to get ahead. I heard him snarl as I blitzed across the forest, blinded by my own hysterical speed.
A part of me knew that as soon as I let the branch swing that it was folly. He was too fast and it wasn’t long before I heard the heavy beat of his footsteps behind me. The stale, icy breath on the back of my neck made my heart pound feverishly as adrenaline kicked in. What little trace of moonlight cut through the trees hardly lit my path as I jumped and ducked at the last second over roots, branches and bushes, but it wasn’t enough. My foot skidded on a blind embankment and sent me tumbling hard to the ground. I tried to scramble to my feet but the beast was upon me. The strange cold of his body radiated across my leg as he grabbed it and I turned – fists clenched – ready to fight for my life.