Crimson Nightmare

by Zoey Rivera

  “Here,” she handed Johnny the gold, ”and the credits should be arriving at your hab module soon, so -”

  “I know, Shy,” Johnny interrupted, “I’ll redirect them to Aidan from the city.” He added air quotes at the end of his sentence.

  “I know you have, it’s just -”

  Johnny cut her off again, “I’ve been doing this for three years already, Shy. I know what I’m doing, I promise.” Johnny smiled comfortingly at her.

  She knew she shouldn’t be so worried at this point. After all, he was right, this was a monthly settlement that they have had for the past three years. From the moment Cheyenne was assumed dead, she began caring after her brother better than she ever could while she was alive. The first part of that was transferring a steady flow of income, gold and silver, in-game and whatever credits she could spare in the real world.

  When a person dies in Eden, the only thing their body maintains is their credits. It is the only known non-lootable item a player has. Once the player is removed from the game, their credits are transferred to whomever they passed it to in their will.

  For Cheyenne, that person was, of course, Aidan. However, being that she was alive, Cheyenne needed to physically pass her money to Aidan. This would mean going through Johnny and routing the payments through him. Johnny would take the gold and hand it over to Aidan when he came to see him.

  “I guess I will need to inform Aidan about moving towns as well. At the very least, you will know that once a month he is going to be out of town visiting me over in Hallifax to pick up his rent money. And who knows, maybe while he visits he will grow fond of the town and stay there as well,” Johnny mused at the thought for a moment but they both knew that it was never going to happen.

  “Will you be able to get word out to him fast enough before you’re off? How long do you estimate you’ll take to reach Hallifax?” Cheyenne asked.

  “I can’t imagine very long, my family does have a horse. She is being held up at the farm. I don’t know where we would be without her, honestly. So it shouldn’t be more than a day’s ride, maybe two? It is tough to know with the Mir blocking the way, but it really is only about fifty miles.”

  It worried Cheyenne how casually he spoke about horseback riding through the Mir Forest. With him being a shopkeeper, she worried that sometimes he lost perspective on how dangerous everything outside of Gwintin was.

  Sometimes, he would even try to venture a visit to the tree Cheyenne was living in at the edge of the Mir Forest. He knew that the treehouse she had built for herself was not technically that deep into the woods. However, that would not stop her from scolding him every time he attempted this. She would have to constantly remind him that the Mir was more than just her and a couple of trees. There were an innumerable amount of threats that lived there. She knew that no matter how much he trained, he could never be ready to take on the creatures of the Mir alone.

  On top of all that, about forty miles into the forest, there was the city of Malus. Malus was the territory that was claimed in the name of the clan back when the game first started pushing the attention on the existence of vampires to a more serious degree.

  Back then, the Lon Clan was still just starting out and growing in numbers. Before Richard took over the guild, the town used to be named Lamia. Cheyenne used to visit there every so often with Richard, before they separated, but she hasn’t stepped foot in the city ever since. However, she did purposely choose the location of her tree to be between Malus and Gwintin, just in case. Once Richard was in charge, he renamed the city Malus, meaning villain, for the entertainment of the upper-educated Elite. He always was one for theatrics.

  “But I do need to set up a new shop and such, so I would imagine being able to contact Aidan again within a week or two after arrival,” Johnny’s face scrunched as he gave his estimate.

  Cheyenne let out a steady sigh of relief. A nice and short transition period. Her hand instinctively moved to the base of her throat, feeling for an object that didn’t carry over to this world. Johnny noticed this and gazed sorrowly at Cheyenne in silence.

  “He’ll be okay,” Johnny managed to force a half-hearted smile for her. It didn’t help much and she didn’t bother attempting to return his efforts.

  “I know, he’s a big, bad, strong vampire hunter now. He doesn’t really need me to watch after him anymore, but it helps me sleep knowing that he’s alright and I’ve done everything I can to protect him,” she said. Cheyenne made her way to the back door of the shop.

  “Hey, Shy,” Johnny called out to her. She turned to face him in the middle of the doorway, “be safe.” The hollowness in Johnny’s voice as he said this made them both silent once more. It was hard to hear a phrase like that in a place like Eden.

  As she left The Goods of Gwintin, Cheyenne lurked back into the shadows of the marketplace, making her way back through town. She had taken longer than she had pleased in Johnny’s shop. Of course, she always enjoyed his company but it was hard for her to justify spending elongated amounts of time out and wasting time socializing, when she should be focusing on her own survival.

  Being out in the daylight wasn’t something that she could take so lightly anymore. Her statuses were already dropping from what they used to be and there was only so much of a buff that she could get with her gear or even the old sponsored gear Richard had given her. She should spend some time building up her strength again, while she still can, and find something to feast on. She didn’t need to have a reflection to know that she was getting more ghostly. She could practically feel her cheeks sinking into her jaw.

  Since living in the forest, Cheyenne had found that she could last exactly a hundred hours without feeding. Much like with water for the human body, blood is what kept her functioning. Without it, she would begin to wither away. Her body slowly decaying, as it should have when she ‘died’ the first time, before she was reborn again as… this.

  Toward the far end of town, sunlight began peeking over the horizon. She realized that she should already be deep in the Mir by now. More oculi appeared around town, scanning the city limits for events or drama. She nearly crashed into a young boy that she recognized as a farmhand that was exiting the blacksmith’s shop on her way rushing to beat the sunlight.

  These past couple of years in the Mir had been a struggle of will power. Although there were plenty of beasts to feed on, there was also a town in the heart of the Mir which Cheyenne frequented from time to time. It was still not a vampire friendly place, none of the cities around Malus were, although most were not nearly as hostile as Gwintin. Unfortunately, this meant that there were also a lot of players around that area. Lost, innocent, drunken, blood-filled players.

  From time to time, she would muse at how easy it would be to tempt one of the men into the shadows. A mere whistle or wave at a passerby, and if he were drunk enough, she would be able to reel in a meal to quench her thirst for a full month without issue. She shook her head viciously, clearing her thoughts of these horrifics.

  The very thought of her draining a human being dry. Literally sucking the life force out of them. Reliving that feeling of their bodies going limp in her arms as her own was replenished was a terrifying concept.

  Before the sun fully rose over the city, she wanted to see Aidan. It was a risk that she took every time she came out to Gwintin. Every few weeks, from a distance, she would come and see him. Most of the time, he would be training or staying up late doing paperwork. She was slightly shocked to find him sleeping as she arrived at his window. She sighed and gazed at her kid brother.

  “You really should know better than to sleep with the window open as a vampire hunter in a vampire infested city,” she whispered to him, knowing he couldn’t hear her.

  She shook her head at him. He had always been picky with the temperature of the room when he was trying to sleep. She allowed herself a little quiet laugh at the memories of the many nights she had spent fussing with him about which doors would stay open, which windows
he would want closed, etc. Constantly insisting that the arrangements wouldn’t matter if he would just logout and sleep in his hab module. She found herself smiling remembering the somewhat normal life they had together in Eden before all of this had changed their worlds forever. It was hard to have them only as memories.

  She looked over to the resting figure of her baby brother and watched him fuss about with his covers and move to the left side of the bed, curling up against the wall.

  Cold.

  Her lips curled up slightly into a loving, sisterly grin as she gently shook her head at him. She reached out to close the window more, leaving just a sliver open for him, and made her leave. If Richard was back, it wasn’t a matter of if Aidan was staying, it was a matter of if he would survive. It was always hard to gauge Aidan’s proficiencies, especially since he would never attack with his full strength.

  Since he was constantly wearing through the low durability of the weapons he used specifically for training, he would constantly be changing up his fighting style, never using the same sort of attack twice. He never liked the idea of someone being able to mentally assign you a skill level based on the feel they got from getting comfortable with your attacks.

  Despite Eden not having a mechanic for ‘leveling or ranking up’ in game, you could still tell that separation between someone who is just starting out and learning, and those who had been in Eden and surviving for years. Unfortunately, Aidan never settled for being a beginner at anything. He didn’t like learning from others, he liked knowing and doing things for himself. It was that mentality that aided in his loathing for Richard. It was also that mentality that made Cheyenne worry that he was going to get himself killed, if she didn’t stop him.

  “But,” she spoke softly to the wind, “how do I stop him?”

  And then, she thought back to what Johnny had said. Was it time to tell him she was here, a vampire and alive? Would he forgive her? Would he accept her or would he try and kill her? Cheyenne’s mind swirled with these paranoid anxieties to the point she began actually physically feeling nauseous.

  She hated that she couldn’t get into his mindset. She wanted to convince herself to think that he would see her and know that it was still her in here, but she couldn’t know for sure. For most of Aidan’s thoughts, she could empathize. She felt like she understood him and he understood her.

  For this, there was nothing she could attach it to. She let out an exhausted sigh just thinking about it. If it hurt her this much to just think about it, she couldn’t imagine what Aidan was experiencing.

  No, she could never know Aidan the way she once had, and that is why things are the way they are now. She had convinced herself of this a long time ago, but every now and again she needed the reminder. She would have to remain in the shadows because it was the only way the two of them could safely coexist. The only way she could assure his survival and her own. She couldn’t let years of hard work and protecting him go to waste just because of a silly non-beating chest muscle and some stupid chemicals in her brain.

  No amount of magic or money could change who she was to him or what had happened to her or her character back then. All she could do was continue to work towards what false humanity she had left and aid him along as long as she was still alive. No matter what that meant.

  She kicked a rock as she continued her trek towards the forest. The outer edge wasn’t that far from town but it was still a decent hike. Unfortunately, this meant a lot of time for her thoughts to toy with her mind in the silence.

  Why did Richard have to choose Gwintin, why couldn’t he have gone to any other village? Surely, Hallifax was a reasonable town to expand to or really make the journey and travel to a high priority town like Sorin. Considering the distance between Gwintin and Malus, Cheyenne saw no point in the journey down to Gwintin. Unless, of course, if he had some other reason that she just wasn’t seeing. Just then it had struck her.

  “Maybe, it’s me,” her eyes widened in horror as she came to the realization.

  She was beginning to feel that nausea rise up in her stomach again. With relentless abandon, every town slaughter, every lost family member, every townsperson in Gwintin living in perpetual fear that each breath would be their last…swept over Cheyenne like a tsunami of guilt.

  Her legs buckled beneath her and gave into the weight of this realization. Her breathing became harsh and air scathed like sandpaper against the inside of her throat. Yet, she gasped for air, regardless. Her entire body began to quake with an unexplained pain. It felt as though she was being targeted from all sides and crushed.

  Her hands quivered as she motioned to check her health points, but she had taken no physical damage. There was no unseen attacker, she was alone. The scarring in her throat was suddenly replaced with a lump of saliva, she coughed it up and continued gasping for air. Still paralyzed by what was happening to her. She laid on the floor for a long while, contemplating on allowing the sun to rise against her skin. She knew that it wouldn’t kill her immediately, after all. It would grant her the slow and painful death she believed she deserved. Gradually taking hits at her stats and health as it withers her away into the escape she was meant to have had three years earlier. Where Aidan thinks she has already gone.

  She felt her body stop shaking at the thought of Aidan. For a moment, once again, she was able to really rationally consider what that would mean. Would she be able to leave Aidan alone in Eden? What help was she really to him at this point anyway?

  It hurt her heart to even consider abandoning him, especially when he thinks she already had, through death. What if he did, for some reason, believe Richard? Or if Richard was able to show Aidan she was still around? He was always for his theatrics and had many connections and fans within the Elite. Any oculi could give her away to him. She looked back at the town as she approached the edge of the Mir Forest. She knew what the right choice would be, she just didn’t know if she could do it.

  Chapter 2

  Outside of Eden, Cheyenne had never done anything bad. In fact, she had never really done anything at all. She grew up leading an unexceptional life. She went to school until she was eighteen, as a good non-elite should. She didn't excel in any particular subject above the others. She graduated, went into stasis, and came to be as her character in Eden.

  Cheyenne had only considered herself to be good at two things, being an older sister and a good girlfriend. For a year, Eden was almost normal for the three of them: Aidan, Richard, and Cheyenne. They were all living together in a small inn in Gwintin. Long before either of the siblings had spawned into Eden, Aidan and Cheyenne had agreed that wherever he came to be, he would stay there until she found him. She had purchased a map and saved money on the side to never spend until she needed to use it to purchase a scrying spell.

  It was during that year alone that she had spent in Gwintin, learning the mechanics of Eden and waiting for Aidan, that she had met Richard. He was this imposingly confident being, and everything about him was otherworldly, from his flowing silver locks to his bewitching persona. There was no mistaking him for just another player.

  Even when she finally found the opportunity to meet him the the habitation modules, he was just as gorgeous of a human being, just with neatly trimmed short golden locks and a groomed beard that was just above stubble.

  Cheyenne quickly learned of his status in the vampire clan of the Lon’s. Richard’s older brother, Thomas, was leader of the clan but Richard was due to take it over soon. While most guilds are controlled by whoever is the decided leader or by whoever dominates the clan, this one was different. Because of the unwavering loyalty of the clan, and almost godlike status of the head of the Lon’s, no one ever questioned their authority. Thus, leaving them open to picking an heir for whenever they so choose to retire. Thomas chose Richard.

  During that period, Richard and Cheyenne had become inseparable. Being the next chosen heir, Richard naturally spent a lot of time with the clan. So, as a result, Cheyenne ended up learni
ng a lot about vampires and their place in Eden. She gradually became comfortable around the clan and spent a lot of time in Lamia with them.

  In Lamia, Richard lived in a giant mansion, suited for a god. She looked around the marbled floors of a living that was comparable to an Elite estate. She walked over to Richard and grabbed his hand.

  “This place looks amazing, but with this money… I feel like this room alone could buy a whole town out of stasis or at least afford you a better living beyond the hab modules. Why do you stay?” she asked him.

  “You can't buy your way out of Eden. Besides, do you think that I could live like this out there? Eden is a safe haven for my family. We have more than enough Elite sponsors to last for centuries living more comfortably than the rest of Eden. Why would I want to leave that?”

  Cheyenne hadn’t considered someone liking living this life. Eden had always seemed like this torture hole bent on the sicken society that they were raised, but what if this was just giving them their best chance at life? She considered this for a moment. On one hand, he was right, as far as being able to build up an empire like this. It was much easier to get an Elite sponsor and inherit a guild than it was to survive out in the real world.

  “I guess not…” she responded and he tightened his grip on her hand and was led to the upper rooms.

  They had very relaxing days for the most part; it was almost surreal to think of. The two of them would do training together in the morning and hunt together in the forest. He had the gold to buy food but he took personal enjoyment in helping Cheyenne hunt for her food. Especially considering that she wasn’t able to provide for herself in the way that he did. She wanted to be able to give Aidan someone to lean on once he arrived.