by D. N. Hoxa
“That’s right. You’re Mohg’s little vampire, too. Just like the rest of them. You can’t talk to me unless he’s here.” I stood up. “Take me to the goddamn cell until he comes. I don’t want to see any of your faces.” Especially Bugz’s.
She stood up and pushed me back by the shoulders so fast, I barely saw it.
“Sit down, Hammer. Don’t make me hurt you,” she hissed.
“Whatever makes you think you can?”
She could. Probably. But she didn’t respond. Instead, she smiled, and sat down again.
“I know you’re stressed out right now, but everything will be fine. You’ll see,” she said, and took the glass of now cold blood from Ignis’s hand, and gave it to me.
“Keep it. I’m full,” I hissed. I couldn’t even look at Bugz. My only friend, and she betrayed me. It was worse that the signs had all been there, and I hadn’t seen it. I’d trusted her blindly.
“Suit yourself,” Chandra said, but she wasn’t smiling anymore. She handed the glass back to Ignis, who drank it the next second. “Tell me what you remember.”
This time, I smiled.
“No,” I said. “And before you say it, it doesn’t matter how much you’ll torture me. You’re not getting anything out of me.”
“Don’t be so sure about that,” she hissed. “I might not enjoy it, but I will do whatever I have to do to make you tell me everything you know about her.”
“Her?” I knew the answer before she spoke.
“Morta Fox,” she said, flinching. I’d yet to find another woman who didn’t flinch at the mentioning of Morta’s name.
“Well, tough luck. I don’t remember anything about her.” Maybe she could tell I was lying, but it didn’t matter.
“But you will. Soon, you’ll remember everything.”
“What the hell do you want me here for, then? Why not just go after her yourselves?”
“Don’t you think we’ve tried?” Chandra said.
I almost smiled. They couldn’t find her.
“What do you want from her?”
“Something that belongs to us,” Chandra said. “Something she stole.”
“She stole something from you?” I said, chuckling.
“It’s not funny,” Ignis hissed.
“Actually, it is,” Chandra said in wonder. “She came here, took our things right under our noses.” She smiled, but it wasn’t pretty. Her teeth were half square, half sharp. “And she has a heart that fucking beats.”
“So what exactly are you trying to get out of me?” I said as I tried to stop smiling. Morta had gone there and stole something from them, while they were there. Chandra was right, it was funny.
“You’re going to help us find her.”
“Forget it,” I hissed.
“I see you’ve already started without me.”
The voice came from our side, and we saw a vampire coming out a door I hadn’t noticed, all the way to the other side of the room. Chandra and Ignis stood up, and I did the same.
I knew who it was, though I barely believed my own eyes.
It was Mohg, and he was just a kid in appearance. Barely fifteen years old, if I’d had to guess, but the look in his eyes couldn’t be mistaken. They showed exactly how old he was.
“Doyen,” the three of them said while he approached. His eyes were on mine the whole time. He didn’t come to sit with us. He went for one of the huge chairs instead.
The others followed, and Ignis grabbed me by the arm and dragged me over. Chandra took her seat with her head high right next to Mohg, while Bugz and Ignis stayed by my side.
“It’s good to see you’ve made it out alive, Hammer,” Mohg said.
“It’s Mask now.”
“So I’ve been told,” he said, then turned to Chandra. “Any news, my dear?”
“Not yet, Doyen,” Chandra said, and Mohg turned to me again.
“I’m sure Chandra has already told you what we need from you.”
“Not exactly. I was hoping you could explain some of it since she wouldn’t dare,” I said, just to spite her. She showed me her sharp teeth and hissed. I ignored her completely.
“There’s no need to be rude, boy. I’ll explain everything to you now. But tell me first, do you remember anything from your former life?”
“Maybe.” Ignis hit me hard on the base of my neck, and my legs shook.
“Such talk will not get you anywhere you want to be, boy,” Mohg said, and for a second, his eyes changed. They became darker somehow. Older.
“I want to be out of here,” I said.
“And you will. In time,” he said, nodding.
“There isn’t anything I can tell you that’ll be news to you. Ignis was there when I first woke up, so she can probably tell you how I even got here in the first place. And Bugz can tell you everything else,” I hissed.
“Yes, Ignis told me. I must admit, I was rather hoping she’d find someone else to take out of the Red Dimension when I showed her the way out,” Mohg said reluctantly.
“You showed her the way out?” What the hell did that mean?
“I did.” Mohg nodded.
“He was one of the few who knew Morse, Doyen. And he showed up at the last minute. Took the other guy down and spoke the last part of the spell,” Ignis said.
She kept her head down at all times. I wanted to ask her to tell me everything. How I’d gotten out. Where I’d been. But I couldn’t.
“Nevertheless, you’re here now, and you will be of use to us.” The more he spoke, the more I saw why so many vampires feared him. The way he spoke was like making fucking laws. He said a sentence, and you were compelled to believe in it, like it was an absolute truth. “You were…involved with Morta Fox before you died.”
“How involved?” And what did he know about it?
“You confessed to me that you loved her,” he said.
Chandra looked the other way. I felt like my stomach should’ve turned. It was nothing new to me, I’d already felt that way. But to hear that I’d confessed it with my own lips, that Hammer had, was kind of exciting.
“You used to love me, once,” Chandra whispered.
“Nope. Not really,” I said.
The memory I’d had of her hadn’t been long, but the way Hammer had felt for her could not compare to what he’d felt for Morta. For what I felt for Morta. And I, Matias, did not feel anything at all for Chandra now.
She bared her sharp teeth to me again and hissed. Mohg rose his hand.
“Stop the childish behavior, Chandra. I don’t have the patience.”
Chandra didn’t say anything, just continued to look at me like she wanted my head off as soon as was possible.
“Morta Fox has stolen something from us,” Mohg continued. “I’m ashamed to say my men aren’t as skilled in finding, as she is in hiding.”
“Can’t you find her yourself? I mean, if you can return my memories to me, how can you not find a vampire?”
Not that I wasn’t glad he couldn’t, but I was curious.
“Your memories are tied to the Red Dimension, boy. I can connect to it differently than to the land of the living. I wasn’t sure that it would work, but I see now that it does.”
“You said you—” Bugz started, but he cut her off the next second.
“I have never retrieved memories before. I had my suspicions. I have delivered, haven’t I?” Mohg said.
“And she delivered, too,” I hissed. She’d delivered me to him.
“Yes, she has. I’m sure now that you’ve had a few of your memories back, you want them all?” he said.
I wasn’t so sure. I did want to know who I’d been. I didn’t want to spend another century learning what I apparently once knew. But…
“At what cost?”
“You will find Morta Fox for me.”
“No,” I said without missing a beat.
“I’m afraid you will have no choice, boy,” he said.
“You can do whatever you want to me, but I w
ill not bring you anything,” I hissed. Didn’t he just say that I’d confessed my loved for her to him?
“You’ve got this all wrong,” Chandra said, grinning. “We won’t touch a hair on your head. But there’s plenty of others here we can play around with. Lance, Tif, Penny, Bugz…”
“That was not the deal, Doyen!” Bugz hissed. “You promised me you’d get his memories back, if I brought him to you.”
“The deal was for you to bring Hammer to me and for me to return his memories. I never specified how many of them,” Mohg said. Just great. “I will make Hammer, or Mask, a new deal. Bring me Morta Fox, and I will return every memory you’ve ever had back to you.”
“And if I say no?” I already knew the answer.
“Then your friends will die. Starting with Bugz.”
“You can go ahead and kill her right now,” I hissed. “She’d no friend of mine.”
She was a traitor.
Chandra began to laugh. “You know we can tell you’re lying, right? You’ve always had a soft spot for Bugz here. I never did understand why, though. She’s black,” she said and flinched.
“Fuck you, Chandra,” Bugz said, and before the words had even left her lips, she flew all the way to the other side of the room. Chandra’s eyes were filled with madness as she watched Bugz land on her face.
“Take her downstairs,” she hissed at the guards, and they immediately grabbed Bugz by the arms.
She tried to free herself, but it was no use. I wanted to help her, so much, but I couldn’t. Not only because she’d betrayed me, but because I knew that if I moved, they could kill me before I could blink.
“So, dear boy,” Mohg said and cleared his throat. “How will we proceed?”
***
Chandra had changed the orange dress for a black one. She said it was more occasion-appropriate.
The occasion? My torture.
They put me in a different room this time and chained my neck, wrists, and ankles to all four sides of the wall. Ignis walked right behind Chandra with a gray cauldron above a set of small wheels.
“Molten silver,” Chandra said, and Ignis lit a fire below the cauldron. I smelled the silver. It had been somewhere very hot just minutes ago, because it was still a beautiful, silver liquid.
“Careful,” I said. “Some could fall on your hands.”
Chandra grinned, and so did Ignis. She then gave a large ladle to Chandra and gave me a wink.
“Mohg lets you play dolls with me now?” I asked as she stirred the silver like she was cooking a fucking meal.
“I can play dolls with whoever I want to,” Chandra hissed. “And I’ve brought this to you so you can see what I’m capable of.”
“You wanted to show me that you’re capable of melting silver?”
The fear didn’t show in my voice, or so I hoped. But having all that silver just a few inches away from me made me want to throw up.
“Ha, ha, Hammer. A real fucking comedian,” Chandra said, and the next second, she directed the ladle at me. She didn’t even have to move. The handle was really long.
She brought it to my shoulder, and let the silver drip right on in. It took all I had not to scream from the pain. The silver was hot. It cut right through my skin and went deep into my flesh.
“I don’t like to hurt you, Hammer. But I’ll bathe you in silver if I have to,” Chandra whispered.
I laughed, because I had to let the pain out somehow. “Is this how you treat all the men that you love?”
“I will do whatever it takes,” she hissed.
“For what? You already have power. You have a goddamn army for all I know. What more do you want?”
“I’m not your average girl, Hammer. I don’t want just everything. I want the whole damn world,” she said and showed me her sharp teeth.
“You know you were human once, too, right?”
“So what? We don’t need them anymore. We have more than enough,” she said, shrugging.
“More than enough?”
“It is our time to take over the world. It has been far too long. We just never really got around to taking it, until now.”
“You’re a fucking psycho, you know,” I said, smiling to hide the pain. I felt the silver traveling deeper and deeper in me, and there was nothing I could do. I’d tried to break the chains already, right after they tied me to them. They were buried deep in the walls of the building, and there was no way they were going to give.
“Thank you,” Chandra said.
“It wasn’t a compliment.” As if that needed to be said.
“Depends on how you perceive it,” she said and grinned. “I, for one, would rather be called a psycho. Where’s the fun in a normal vampire?”
“You’re not going to get anything out of me.”
“I’m going to hurt you, Hammer. A lot,” she said.
“And I’m going to scream and cry out loud. Maybe even beg you to stop. I’ll still not do it.”
She slapped me so hard, my jaw cracked. “You’re going to bring her to me.”
“You already know that I won’t.”
“Leave us,” Chandra said to Ignis. She disappeared out the door the next second. “Tell me, my love, would you have fought this hard for me, too?”
This time, I laughed.
“Not in a million years.”
It earned me another slap from her, but it was worth it. There was fire in her eyes, and maybe I would’ve been scared of her if I hadn’t remembered the way she used to be. Just a girl who used to stay curled in my arms for hours.
“Every word you say now is a knife in her body when I find her.”
“I don’t think you ever will.”
I very much hoped so.
“I will,” she said, smiling. “You’re going to find her, and you’re going to bring her to me.”
***
She left me chained, and when I woke up the next night, I was still the same.
It wasn’t long before the screaming started. I recognized Penny’s voice.
“Chandra!” I shouted. What the hell was she doing to her?
My pain was forgotten while Penny screamed in pain. I yanked at the chains over and over again, but they never gave. Not even a little bit.
I called Chandra’s name, once every second, for long enough to try and drown half of Penny’s screams.
Finally, she came into the room I was chained to.
“You fucking bitch,” I hissed when I saw her smile. She appeared in front of me and dug her nails deep into the skin around my neck.
“Missed me already?” she said, and kissed me.
“Stop this, Chandra. She doesn’t know anything.”
“I was surprised when Bugz told me about them. You never mentioned that you’d made vampires.” She grinned. “But then again, I never told you about mine, either.”
“Chandra, just let them go.”
I was going to beg her if that was what it took. They were there because of me.
“It’s fascinating, isn’t it? No one is who they seem to be.”
“They can’t help you,” I said. “Please, just let them go.”
“I know they can’t. But you can, and you will.”
“I won’t!” I hissed.
“Yes, you will. It’s only a matter of time until their screams break you.” She grinned. “You know what you once said to me? You said that you were afraid you’d lost your humanity,” she said, laughing. “I told you then, and I’ll tell you again. You haven’t. And that was always your biggest weakness.”
The screams continued, all night long. Penny stopped, and Tif started after a while. It was torture, much worse than any silver. I screamed together with them, hoping to ease my guilt. It didn’t work.
When I woke up the next night, still chained, the screams were already there…
…they hadn’t stopped for four nights now. I wanted to go ask Doyen who he was torturing and why, so badly, but the last time I had, he told me to never ask him again. I n
ever would be able to.
I ran in circles around Manchester City. Doyen didn’t need me, and I didn’t need to hear the screams. He’d never done this before. Not since he turned me. He never made us follow or kidnap any vampire before. Not in a century. But he had this time.
Not me personally, just some of the others. Three out of twelve vampires he’d made, myself included.
When the sun was half an hour away from showing on the sky, I returned to the building where we were staying. It was a motel, far away from other buildings, and Doyen had paid for all its rooms so no one else wandered around there but us.
The screaming had stopped.
“His name was Jericho,” Doyen was saying. He was in Dash’s room, and I heard the others, too. I went straight there. Doyen didn’t even look up when I walked in and closed the door behind me. “I stole something with him a couple of centuries back, and we hid it. Diamonds.” Doyen grinned. “I went looking for them a few years ago, and they weren’t there.” I knew then why we’d traveled all the way to England. We’d never even stopped there before. “He took them without my permission.”
“Did he tell you where he took them, Doyen?” Zuke said.
“Of course he did. It took a while, but he had no other choice,” Doyen said and laughed. He had no other choice because he knew that Doyen would continue to torture him until he spoke.
“Is he dead?” I asked.
“You bet your ass he is,” Doyen said with his chin raised. So. No more screaming. “And now, my boys, we’re going to find the diamonds.”
“Where are they?” Zuke said.
“He separated them, that bastard. Most are in Switzerland. They’re in a bank, so we’re going to have to steal those. The others are close, and hidden in less guarded places.”
“Yes, Doyen,” we said, almost all at the same time.
“We leave in a week. Now get the hell out. All of you, except M.” I looked up at him in confusion. What did he want with me?
The others disappeared out the door, and left us alone. Like always, my head was low, and my eyes stuck to my feet. Doyen didn’t want us looking straight at him.
“Where’ve you been boy?” he said.
“Around the city,” I said. It was impossible to lie to him, even if I wanted to.
“Next time, don’t run away like a pussy. You need to learn how to inflict pain in others, and how to use it. Your ears need to get used to hearing it.”
