Crimson Nightmare

by Zoey Rivera

  “I will have you KNOW that I have fought many a beast in my time in Eden. It’s not as if I just sit around my shop all day waiting to collect loot. How do you think I earned the money to make the shop what it is or what it was trying to be without you and your monsters crashing through it monthly,” Johnny tsked the younger warrior.

  Johnny allows himself a little smile and a quiet laugh at Aidan’s expense. It was true though, a lot of his fights in town did find their way to Johnny’s shop. It wasn’t an intentional thing at all but it was true that more often than not, Aidan would be apologizing to the enraged ginger shopkeeper. Johnny was a lot more understanding than other shopkeepers would be about the situation, but that was only because he knew that Aidan was fighting for more than just the city. He was fighting to make up for not being able to protect his sister when she needed him most.

  Johnny rambled on and on about his ventures into the Mir and the beasts he supposedly fought back when he lived up in Sorin. Some of the tales seemed to be a bit more exaggerated than others. While others still seemed like oddly familiar folk tales retold with Johnny editing himself into them.

  “Oh really,” Aidan challenged, “fifteen? Fifteen blacksalt crabs. All on your own. With only what, again?”

  “With only a mace at the end of its durability,” Johnny insisted. “It could only take about one or two more hits before it shattered to pieces but it was all I needed.”

  “Okay, buddy. Okay,” Aidan shook his head at the wild tales of Johnny’s delusional past.

  They finally approached the beginning of the Mir. Both of them fell quiet as they entered the woods. Daylight was still strong in the sky but it withered into practically nothing as the thick brush of the forest blocked it out. The temperate weather of Gwintin replaced with the murky humidity of the Mir.

  If there was one thing that Eden did well, it was the atmosphere of each area you entered. There was no mistaking if you were in one location or the other—with the distinct change in scenery. Johnny felt his arms moisten as the humidity of the forest air encompassed him. He looked over to Aidan who was focused straight ahead.

  His eyes pierced through the tree lines and his whole being was alert. Johnny looked up into the heights of the trees. They felt a lot taller than they actually were. Realistically, Johnny knew that the trees approximate scale was about eighty five meters tall by eight meters wide, as was standard of this type of tree in the design of Eden. He looked around the mossy forest floors and looked down to Aidan still anxiously strategizing.

  “Shall we hunt while we’re out here?” Johnny hopped down from the horse as he spoke.

  “Hunt?” Aidan stopped and glanced over toward Johnny.

  “Seems like a waste to wander through a monster infested forest and not do some looting while we’re out here. After all, we’re headed into a new town, might as well make a few sales. Get our names known around Hallifax, socialize,” Johnny shrugged and summoned a sword from his inventory.

  He removed the thin metallic blade from its sheathing and held it out in front of him, gripping the hilt like a mannequin with textbook form. It was at moments like these that Aidan wondered how long Johnny would have lasted in Eden without him, or even before him, how his sister would babysit his every step. He smiled softly to the warm memory.

  “We shouldn’t be looking for fights right now. We should be preserving our resources for if we need them,” Aiden spoke as he watched Johnny slice at the air, wandering off in the wrong direction deeper into the forest.

  Aidan closed his eyes, huffed, and followed after the ditzy man-child. Once he realized Aidan was following behind him, his walk became more of a stride. He looked back and winked to him. Aidan realized his eyes could roll a lot harder than he thought they could.

  “One monster and then we get back on the trail, alright? And don’t wander off too far, I don’t want to lose sight of the horse.”

  “Oh calm down, you worry wart. She’s not going anywhere. I tied her up as soon as I dismounted,” Johnny said matter-of-factly.

  Aidan mockingly retorted, “I’m not saying she’d run, you twit. I’m saying she’d get eaten.” He shook his head at the older boy. Johnny scoffed at the idea but still took a glance over to the old girl to make sure she was still there. Aidan walked past Johnny to hide his smug grin.

  He pushed forward through the brush, calmly brushing away the branches that stood in his way. A shriek came from behind him in a register that was almost inaudible to the human ear. Aidan whipped around and rushed back to his companion.

  “JOHNNY! What’s wrong?”

  Pale faced and speechless, Johnny’s fingers quivered up to the hulking mass of a spider. Its leg-span alone could cover the area of Aidan’s old room back in Gwintin. His real worry though, was the massive body of the beast. It was hanging only a few feet away from them and had spotted them. A shiver ran up Aidan’s back.

  There was going to be no time to think, he had to act now. The whole space around them seemed to shrink, as if new trees had materialized around them, pushing them closer to the beast. Aidan looked over to the horse off in the distance. All he had to do was clear a path for them and it would be fine. His whole body illuminated with a blue aura. He knew that the best way to handle this beast would be as far as possible and as quickly as possible.

  “Johnny, when I say you run, you make your way to the horse and start riding,” as he said this, Johnny gave him a look of protest but knew better than to fight with Aidan at a time like this.

  “Alright but you better catch up,” Johnny frowned. Aidan nodded and winked over to him. He didn’t know if he could actually make it but he might as well stay positive for Johnny’s sake. The spider was growing impatient as it slowly lowered itself closer to the floor. Aidan moved his hands downward and began conjuring a fire spell to attack the spider.

  Blue fireballs materialized in his palms. He thrust his fists at the creature, riddling its body with blue fire. The spider didn't appear to be taking any serious damage and seemed irked as he assaulted it with the flames. Aidan’s throat dried up in fear. He glanced over at Johnny, then focused his fire's energy into a beam and torched the monster with a solid stream of flame. He knew this move would exhaust a large portion of his mana reserves but he knew this would push the beast back just enough to clear a path for Johnny to run.

  “JOHNNY. NOW,” Aidan screamed and Johnny took off running on pure adrenalin. His body seemed to propel forward faster than his feet were making contact with the ground. His focus was straight forward. Aidan’s focus was so intense on Johnny that he missed the spider lifting its leg. He only caught sight of it right before impact as it slammed him into a tree. His limp body slid down the trunk.

  The spider pounded its massive limb into Aidan, cracking his ribs. He coughed up blood as he helplessly laid limp to the enormous beast. It screeched an ear-piercingly high pitched wail right into his face. His vision blurred as the pain overcame him. He heard another loud shriek. His vision wavered in and out as a shadow stood over him with a long slender blade. He passed out.

  As his eyes shut, the shadow jumped the giant spider, scratching and biting into its meaty flesh. The beast cried out in agony and hurdled itself against a tree to try and remove the parasite which latched her fangs into it.

  She slid down its ten foot tall body, grabbed its legs, and flung it away from them. The force she chucked the arachnid propelled it deeper into the forest than she could see. She picked the unconscious boy up and raced him over to Johnny and the horse. Johnny stared awestruck at her as she placed him down.

  “I won’t always be -”

  “I know”

  “I just can’t -”

  “I know”

  “Please, keep him safe,” Cheyenne’s eyes watered up as she gently stroked her brother’s face. Her chest felt heavy with tenderness and an urge to just stay holding him like this forever. She didn’t care if he stabbed her the second he awoke, as long as she could stay like this. Johnn
y gave her a knowing look. She took a breath and stood back, knowing that it could never be like that with them again. She started to walk away as Johnny caught her limp.

  “Shy! You’re hurting!” Johnny flicked his wrist to pull up his inventory and pulled out some expensive looking health potions.

  “Save those for Aidan, I’ll be fine,” Cheyenne rejected the offer and pushed away at the vials. Johnny’s face hardened.

  “You Wei’s are too proud. Just take it for goodness sake,” Johnny seemed legitimately angry at Cheyenne. She couldn’t help but smile as she thanked him.

  Johnny focused his attention back on Aidan and nursing him back to health as Cheyenne disappeared back into the forest. There was no way that they would get that lucky with her being able to save the day like that again.

  He can’t be seen like the weakling of the team, as true as it may be. Aidan’s eyes hurt as he tried to blink. He was revived but not yet healed. Johnny stood above him with potions and wraps for his wounds. Aidan opened his mouth to attempt to speak but was quickly interrupted by Johnny.

  “Hush, I told you I’d save you,” Johnny smiled. Aidan’s face was momentarily overcome with shock and awe before he weakly smiled back.

  “So, when I get to Hallifax, I'm thinking of changing the shop name,” Johnny struggled for a normal conversation to ease his nerves. They had been traveling in silence for the last couple of miles. Aidan had made him get back on the horse and so he stared helplessly down at his friend, mildly limping along trying to put on a brave face. Aidan was startled by the sudden noise of Johnny speaking but tried to play it off as they pressed forward.

  “Not liking The Goods of Gwintin? I mean, sure you’d probably have to change it to something like The Goods of Hallifax, but I think it worked out alright as far as a name goes,” Aidan felt a little strange making small talk in this situation but he knew it was comforting for Johnny.

  “Yeah, I just think I could come up with a better name, you know? Plus, there is inevitably already some sort of 'Goods of Hallifax' there. I’m thinking something more home feeling,” Johnny fell silent to a rustling in the trees. They scanned the perimeter and looked up into the tree tops. Aidan couldn’t see anything shifting in the shadows. His body relaxed as he dropped his guard.

  “I guess it was nothing,” Aidan looked back up to Johnny. There was a brutish looking man with olive hair and the intimidating red eyes of all vampire kin sat behind Johnny on the horse. He smiled welcomingly to Aidan as he held Johnny between his massive arms.

  Aidan whipped around and jumped back to create some space between them. His sword and shield materialized from his inventory. Kayden stared blankly into Aidan’s eyes as Aidan rushed him. As the sword pierced the vampire’s arm, Johnny suddenly cried out in pain. Kayden didn’t so much as flinch. Aidan jumped back once more and swore into the wind. He hadn’t expected that level of magic proficiency.

  As a passive ability for water type mystics to learn, one could have the ability to share pain or even transfer pain to another. Most of the time this involved the user touching or holding onto the person as the pain was transferred. If Aidan could just get Johnny away from him, he could attack without worrying about Johnny’s safety.

  His eyes shot around the perimeter as he tried to strategize a way to release Johnny but every plan was falling short. It was at times like these that he quietly wished there was a way in Eden to see your opponent’s statuses. You could plan better and strategize. Right now all he had to go off of were guesses. Luckily though, that’s all his opponent would have to go off of as well.

  Aidan pulled up his inventory and tapped the monitor to equip his lightning staff. Now he was in his element. He allowed himself a smug grin. Kaydan grinned at him in return. Pulling up his inventory, he produced a water staff, as Aidan had expected him to do. Then, he did something that Aidan had not expected. The vampire dismounted the stallion and stepped away from Johnny. Aidan looked from him to Johnny then back to him. He was confused at the man’s choice.

  “I want a fair fight, I haven’t seen a lightning rod in these parts. It’ll be fun,” Kayden’s voice sounded so cheery and light-hearted, despite his intimidating demeanor. The atmosphere around him seemed to suggest that this was a friendly spar instead of an actual fight. Aidan’s fingers turned pale as they gripped the staff tighter.

  He inhaled deeply and released a steady breath. Kayden stood with his head tilted to one side as he arrogantly observed him. Aidan dashed up to him and stabbed lightning bolts toward the stationary player but right before contact there was a slight flicker of movement, barely perceivable by Aidan’s exhausted eyes. The bolt crackled and exploded against the forest floor.

  Kayden frowned, “What’s your proficiency in lightning spells? That seemed slower than it should have been.”

  Aidan’s body heated up with rage at the insult. He assaulted Kayden with barbaric-like force. His charges struck wildly as his unfocused vision refused him the ability to aim. Kayden seemed to effortlessly evade every attack.

  His face scrunched in perplexed confusion. His eyebrows raised in understanding as he noticed Aidan’s ankle slightly tense as he launched himself off a tree. Kayden made a circular motion with his arms and the vapors in the air twisted and conformed to his will, entrapping Aidan.

  “Are you trying to fight me injured, peasant?” The unevenness in his voice made him seem genuinely put out by this situation. He chided the young warrior and sighed. “Richard always giving me the easy ones, just for once I’d like a fair fight.”

  As he said this, Johnny came from behind him and seized the opportunity to catch the vampire off guard. He pierced his sword through the blood-sucker’s back, thrusting it in with both hands, and twisted it in.

  Kayden cried out from the sudden attack. He had forgotten that there were two of them because the red-headed one had been so weak and quiet. Aidan was released from his aquatic prison and limped over to the vampire.

  “Richard sent you to kill me?” Aidan smiled, finally a clue. Some lead for his hunt for vengeance.

  “Yes, and I presume he isn’t that far behind. He was given reason to move his hunt up to Hallifax, so he’s coming for you, little brother,” Kayden’s lips twisted at those final words.

  Hearing that name that Richard had called him for so long from another vampire’s lips chilled his bones. He had figured that Richard was hunting him, but it was something different hearing this familiarity from the vampire kin. He stabbed the vampire numbly and robotically. Johnny stood horrified, staring as Aidan soullessly drained the life out of the player.

  “Parchment,” Aidan said the single word and reached his arm toward Johnny. It took him a moment to process the word into an actual object. He scampered over to his bags and removed a parchment and a pen. Aidan thanked him and wrote on the paper. He then secured the note onto Kayden’s lifeless form with a blade. “Let’s go.”

  Johnny pointed to the loot screen, “You don’t want to check what he has?”

  “Let’s go,” Aidan repeated firmly. Johnny felt a chill down his back from the tone of his voice. Even the most repulsive of creatures had some sort of loot screen to gain bounty from. Johnny had never seen Aidan just pass up a reward like that. He could tell that this was something different though.

  This was a vampire.

  Something less than dirt to Aidan. Nothing on him would be worth looting, no matter the value, purely because of this one fact.

  “Maybe Cheyenne was right to stay in the shadows,” he mumbled under his breath as he trailed after Aidan.

  Minutes passed and Richard approached his lifeless pawn. He sighed at the ineptness of his servant and a loot screen appeared above the corpse.

  He swiped away the screen and picked up the note that was stabbed onto his blood soaked chest. A bemused smirk formed on Richard’s face from the three words scratched into it.

  “Keep up, scrub.”

  Chapter 6

  Aidan and Johnny arrived in Hall
ifax. One of the five of the city’s guardsmen came to greet them at the gates. The guard towered over the two, clearly built for the daunting task of being a warrior. He was dawned with full steel armor plating. Aidan was relieved to see an established army as opposed to the makeshift defense he had assembled back in Gwintin.

  With the amount of attacks constantly harassing his city, it was difficult to find time to train a true military to defend the town against assailants. Most people fled the city or accepted their inevitable demise. Maybe he would attempt to convince a small group to accompany him back to Gwintin before he left. The guard removed his helmet to reveal nearly shoulder length, wavy blond locks and stormy blue eyes. He smiled welcomingly through a thick beard to the weary travelers.

  “Welcome to Hallifax, lads. Where you traveling from? Don’t think you’re one of our registered monster hunters,” the man’s voice was almost melodic with its light-hearted questioning.

  “We’re from Gwintin. I’m escorting my friend here, Johnny. He is a shopkeeper from our city. With the recent attacks on the town, he is seeking refuge up here in hopes to set up a new shop,” Aidan explained, motioning over to Johnny stumbling to dismount the horse.

  “A shopkeeper, aye? Any experience running a pub?” A groan could be heard from the group of other guardsmen. He let out a gaunty laugh at his fellow troops. One of them called out to him.

  “Just let it go, Lorcan!” The group laughed at a joke the boys seemed to be excluded from. Johnny stood next to Aidan and shot him a confused glance.

  “I have some experience from a bar I used to run up in Sorin,” Johnny answered hesitantly. Lorcan’s voice boomed with excitement.

  “HA HA! There’s hope for the Pale Pixel yet!”

  Aidan smiled and shrugged over to Johnny as they were ushered to the abandoned establishment. The building itself was much nicer than anything they had down in Gwintin. The grey cobblestone walls were laced with flowering vines offering a warming comfort between the sad colored rock.