by Bocco, Diana
Because once he did, her chances of escaping were gone.
Her steps rippled in maddening echoes, bouncing above her and clinging to invisible corners. After a few feet, the corridor turned once, then again, then back around. It was impossible to keep up with it and it didn’t take long before she was completely lost. The roar of the vampires in the distance was the only indication that she was still walking in the opposite direction, away from the bedroom.
It felt like she walked around for hours in the darkness, even though it couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes. Then she turned another corner and a chill rush of air hit her.
She froze, her heart pounding so wildly in her ears she couldn’t hear anything else.
The tunnels had always had a suffocating feel to them, so a breeze down there could only mean one thing: the door connecting the tunnel to the outside world was open. A knot built in her throat. There was no way of knowing what was waiting for her on the other end of the tunnel. Or who was winning the battle raging back in the bedroom.
She took another step forward and then she saw it. A slight flickering in the distance, maybe fifty feet away. Black and thick and deep—but still less dark than the darkness devouring her in the tunnels.
It was the pulsing energy of the night beaming through an open door. A slight movement of air and dust against the night sky. She had to make a choice: either find her way to the open door and hope there was nothing waiting for her there. Or walk back towards the bedroom and count on the right vampire winning the fight.
Both were terrifying choices.
Like tossing a coin in the air and knowing you were lost no matter what side turned up.
Maybe if she found one of the secret rooms along the tunnel, she could hide in there until things calmed down. Except she had been walking down the tunnels for a while and hadn’t come across any doors—or maybe she had but she hadn’t realized it.
A bang against the sliding door on the bedroom wall made her jump. Somebody was trying to open it.
She ran her palm over the wall, somewhat hoping there would be a sliding door right there where she was standing. The walls remained silent and obscure, the whispering of the night ticking along all around her.
Another bang. Louder and this time accompanied by raging wailing. Rabids. They were inside the compound and trying to fight their way into the tunnels.
That was when she decided to run towards the night. Whatever was out there, it was probably no worse than what was waiting for her inside the compound. And at least out there she had a chance to make a run for it.
She took a deep breath, tried to focus her eyes on the promise of light in the distance and took off. It was a half-hearted run, but only because she couldn’t see where she was going and the ground was too uneven to attempt a full run.
From forty feet away, the night was calling to her with open arms.
Thirty.
Twenty.
And then she tripped on something and fell forward.
She swallowed the scream rising in her throat as her hands reached forward and found a body. It was too dark to tell what it was. Probably not human, down there in the tunnels. That still left her with too many questions—the biggest one being “friend or foe?”
Because if this was a vampire who had died protecting the tunnels, it meant the enemy could be just steps ahead of her, crouched into the darkness waiting for her to walk right into it.
She got up, stepping over the body. The tunnels were so narrow in that area, she could touch both sides without completely stretching her arms.
The sound of bodies banging against metal reverberated along the tunnels. Any second now, the door would explode open and then the rabids would be on her, hungry and raging and ready for the kill. With her hands on the walls serving as guides, she tore down the rest of the tunnel, straight towards the night.
The second she stepped into the open air, the explosion of sounds assaulted her. The wind howled around the walls and into the barren landscape. She turned around to see the flames extending over the walls. Wailings of war, mixed with the sounds of humans screaming and doors being razed down, filled the night. She was alone outside the compound.
It was a ghastly sight and her first instinct was to try to run back in and find the people she knew.
Except that she wouldn’t last half a minute among the rows of fangs and claws tearing at everything human inside.
So instead she took a tentative step towards one of the corners of the compound. How big was the place? Her car stood somewhere outside the walls, waiting for her. She had no idea if the keys would be in it and for all she knew the compound was miles long and she was right on the opposite side of the gate.
Her only source of light was the tongues of fire lapping over the walls. She walked towards the closest bend in the walls and took a deep breath before peeking around the corner. Empty. The walls extended at least six hundred feet into the night before they curved again in the opposite direction.
She considered crouching down or crawling along the wall, but it would take too long to reach the next corner that way. She didn’t know how much time she had until the inside of the compound was gone and the vampires would step back into the night outside.
It’s now or never, her mind warned her. She took off sprinting, her left arm as close to the wall as possible to help the shadows hide her.
By the time she reached the next corner, she was out of breath. Not so much from the running but from the adrenaline rushing through her. Sounds around her seemed to swell and grow, echoing into her ears and down into her chest.
Eyes closed, breath uneven, she poked her head around the corner, praying her car would be there.
When she opened her eyes, her heart skipped a beat. Her car was sitting right near the gate, just a few feet away from where she had left it before walking into the compound. Before her legs gave out or she changed her mind, she began sprinting towards it. When she found the door open and was able to jump in without trouble, a small beat of hope flashed in front of her eyes.
The roaring of the fire was deafening, leaping and reaching over and under the gate. All she was hoping for at the moment was that the sound was loud enough to hide the engine of a car.
As she switched the engine on, she glanced into the rearview mirror. The world was crumbling. In a few hours, the entire inside of the compound would be consumed by the fire. If any of the humans inside made it past the night, they’d be left to starve in the middle of nowhere, at the mercy of the four-legged predators and any rabids sick enough to venture out in daylight.
The road ahead was dark and full of uncertainty. Stepping down on the gas as far as it would go, she tried to concentrate on the actual driving. But her mind kept flying back to the compound and the horror taking place there as she ran away from it all. As she once more turned her back on humanity.
Images of Marcus returning to a destroyed compound looped around her mind as she sped down the highway.
She looked in the rearview mirror again, the compound a bright beacon of fire in the night. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, her mind whispered.
“I love you too, Marcus,” she said aloud.
Even if that meant damning her soul to hell.
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About the Author
Diana Bocco spends a lot of time thinking about vampires, warlocks and other dark creatures. Some end up in her horror books, while others have sex
ier destinies waiting for them.
Diana also writes nonfiction books. She currently lives in Thailand with three awesome – but slightly crazy – dogs.
Learn more about her by visiting her website at www.dianaboccobooks.com
