Death Betrays

by J. C. Diem

  Grinning triumphantly, the Second pinned one of my wrists down with his foot and hacked off my hand. He repeated the act with my other hand. My body was still trying to writhe in agony despite the pain being localized to my head. Most of the flesh on the left side of my face had been eaten away. My tongue slipped out through the hole where my cheek had been and lolled on the filthy stone floor.

  Observing his handiwork, the Second kicked one of my hands away. It hit the far wall and landed on its back like a crippled crab. Resting his ooze stained machete over his shoulder, the Second pulled off the balaclava that had kept him safe from the sun. Almost fully restored to health now, his skin held only a hint of grey. His features were strong and proud but an arrogant expression spoiled his handsomeness. Utter contempt for me poured off him in waves. “The sheer audacity that you believe you have the right to end my life is almost beyond my ability to comprehend,” he said quietly. “Did you really believe that a being as insignificant as you would be able to kill me?”

  It was difficult to gather my wits when I was in so much pain but I managed a response. “That’s pretty much what your master said right before I killed him.” Thanks to my tongue not being inside my mouth where it belonged, my speech came out slurred and mushy but he understood me well enough.

  “It was you who killed my master?” Shock made him back away a few steps. Checking that my hands were still detached, he shook off his fear and barked out what I surmised was supposed to be a laugh. “The First had always been inferior to me. You might have managed to kill him yet look how easily I bested you.”

  Tired of waiting for me to figure out how to conquer the pain, my subconscious gave me a mental shake. Stop screwing around and possess your hands already! Grateful for its suggestion, I split my consciousness and sent it into Lefty and Righty. The pain in my face immediately faded and became just a distant annoyance. Flipping over onto its palm, Righty gave the Second the finger behind his back then scuttled closer to him. I came close to sniggering then went cold when I realized I hadn’t made my hand make the gesture. Lefty remained where it was, waiting for the command to strike.

  Closing the distance between us again, the Second nudged my body with his toe. Hunkering down beside me, he squeezed one of my breasts and smiled at the disgust that swept across my face. “While you seemingly cannot die, your body is utterly helpless without your head,” he mused. I suddenly remembered his plan to turn me into one of his concubines. Reading the knowledge on my disfigured face, he smiled and turned my body over so he could reach the laces of my suit. “I am going to use you in every way possible while you watch, helpless to stop me.”

  While he’d been baiting me, Lefty had roused itself and crept into position. Both hands were poised to obey my mental command. Coldly watching the Second undressing my unresisting body, I decided to show him just how helpless I wasn’t rather than going straight in for the kill. This must be what a cat feels like when it is toying with a mouse. A cruel anticipation crept over me at the thought of making the Second pay for his crimes against humanity.

  Moving stealthily, my hands worked their way over to the Second’s feet and grasped his ankles. Stiffening at the contact, he tried to whirl around but it was already too late. I unleashed the power of the holy marks and my hands sank through his flesh and bone until they were holding nothing but melted ooze.

  Screaming shrilly, the Second scrambled backward. His eyes shifted from his severed feet still sitting in their shoes, to the stumps his shins now ended in. He screamed even louder when Lefty and Righty scuttled towards him. He made a lunge for his machete but Righty beat him to it and tossed the weapon to the far side of the room.

  A wintry smile curved one side of my mouth upwards. The other side had been eaten completely away by the sun and was in no condition to obey me. Working in tandem, my hands settled around the Second’s wrists. His hands thumped to the ground and the newest master of the cursed castle flopped over onto his stomach. With surprising speed, he wormed his way towards the stairs. “Oh no you don’t,” I muttered and my hands went on the chase.

  Lefty grabbed hold of the Second’s leg and stopped his forward momentum. Rolling over, my adversary tried to beat Righty away with a stump but my hand was far too nimble for any of his clumsy blows to land. Lefty joined its twin and they danced up to sit on either side of the ancient vampire’s skull.

  “Don’t kill me!” he begged, holding out his stumps in appeal. “If you allow me to live, you can rule at my side as an equal.” His eyes slid to the left, which was a sure sign he was lying if what I had learned from watching documentaries on TV were true. He gave a final plea that did nothing to help his cause. “Together, we can turn this planet into a paradise for our kind.”

  “No thanks. The last thing this planet needs is for monsters to be in charge of it,” I said and released my holy marks on him for the third and final time.

  His head imploded in a gush of black ooze and his body quickly followed. My hands leaped clear of the mess and scurried back to me. Working together, they rolled my head over to my body then scuttled down to the stumps of my arms. With triple flashes of pain, I became whole again, except for the damage that had been created due to my brief exposure to the sun. That was going to take a lot longer to heal. Lifting one of my swords, I checked my reflection and winced at the sight. It would be nightfall at least before I would cease to look like something had just escaped from a graveyard. If I were to lose my memory and awaken looking like this, I’d think I was a zombie for sure.

  With the Second now dead, I was left with the job of eradicating his caches of servants. I could have called for the soldiers to join me but didn’t. Battle lust was calling me and orange light from my good eye bathed the stairs as I made my way back down to the ground floor. My strange new lust didn’t give me the usual thrill as I stabbed the first insensate fledgling through the chest. I guessed my victims had to be able to fight back for the experience to be enjoyable.

  Methodically moving from one body to the next, I made precise thrusts through hearts and worked my way through the unmoving mass of inert hobos. Not all were reduced to watery stains. The humans that had only been fed blood recently apparently hadn’t finished their transformation to the undead yet. Their corpses would rot just like any normal person’s. I would have to warn Sanderson to burn their bodies just in case. You could never be too careful when it came to vampires.

  Locating every cache that had been stashed inside the castle, I finally finished off the last fledgling. As a precaution, I sent out my senses and checked the castle and surrounding area. It was a relief to find it was vampire free. Without any enemies to combat, the battle lust began to ebb. My feelings of doom had all been for nothing. I felt idiotic for letting the old wino’s superstition get to me.

  “Sanderson!” I yelled loudly enough through the door for the soldiers to hear me even if they were still hiding in the forest. “The Second and his fledglings are dead and I’m all done in here!”

  “Well done!” he called back from much closer than I’d expected. “We’ll be there in a minute! Will we be able to get in through the door?” His voice was growing in volume as he came closer.

  Inspecting the door, I found a key sticking out of the brand new lock. “Well that’s handy,” I murmured to myself. It turned easily and the lock clicked open. “It’s unlocked!” I called out then hurried over to retrieve my coat and the blanket that I’d dropped earlier. The sunlight pouring in through the broken boards had moved halfway up the wall during my killing spree. I had to duck beneath it to avoid further injury.

  Using the blanket, I cleaned my swords as the men entered the castle. I was startled when the soldiers broke into a run and turned to see what had spooked them. Blinded by the sunlight at the far end of the hallway, I turned away, blinking away bright spots of light from my good eye. Feet rushed towards me and hands grabbed my arms. “What’s going on?” I asked, wondering if another threat had risen while I’d been killing
the fledglings. In the middle of battle lust, everything else tended to fade into insignificance. I sent my senses out again but they found no threats in the form of the undead. My confusion increased and my feeling of doom was suddenly back but much worse this time.

  “I’m sorry, Natalie,” Colonel Sanderson said with what sounded like genuine regret. “This isn’t my choice but I have to follow my orders.” Someone tore the blanket and coat from my hands and someone else grabbed my swords. Then I was being lifted off the ground and turned towards the door.

  Bewildered and still blinded by the bright sunlight, I didn’t grasp what was happening until I was propelled through the door and flung to the ground. Exposed to the unrelenting rays of the sun, my exposed skin immediately began to dissolve. My body began to boil inside the protective covering of the suit. This time I wasn’t just melting from the waist down like I had in the Japanese pit of death. I was being destroyed from my head to my toes.

  Shrieking in agony unequalled by anything else I’d ever felt before, I managed to roll over onto my stomach and crawl a few inches towards the protective covering of the forest. A boot in the middle of my back halted my progress and pinned me to the ground. Bubbling inside the suit, my flesh sluiced away and my bones burst from the heat. Scrabbling at the ground, I felt my hands break apart but I was beyond being able to see them. Both of my eyes were now gone, as was most of my face. Exposed skin, meat and fat sizzled, liquefied and ran off my degenerating skeleton like water.

  “Jesus, can’t we put her out of her misery?” The plaintive question was voiced by one of the colonel’s soldiers. His words were muted due to my ears having melted away and my ability to hear quickly being rendered nearly inoperable.

  Now I understood my feelings of doom and paranoia. I’d already been double crossed by both Anna-Eve and Nicholas but this betrayal was by far the worst. With my rapidly decreasing hearing, I heard their weapons being readied.

  “Let’s end this,” Sanderson said. “On my count. One. Two. Three.”

  As the countdown ended, they opened fire and blew what was left of my body apart. The sensation of being caught inside a nuclear blast only lasted for a second or two before it was suddenly cut off.

  Chapter Fifteen

  My consciousness fled just after the first bullet thumped home and exploded. It was a profound relief to be freed from the agony. Without any type of physical senses, I couldn’t see or hear what was happening to me and that was probably just as well. I’d seen the aftermath of what just one of the prototypes had done to me. Seeing the ruin that would have been left after several bullets had hit me would have been far from pleasant.

  Hovering over my remains, I had no way of knowing how much time had passed before I was suddenly on the move. Still connected to what had to be just gobbets of meat and splinters of bone by now, I floated along helplessly as what was left of me was shifted. Just like when Anna-Eve’s servant had blasted me apart, my body would have to be scooped up before it could be transported.

  All attempts to possess my body failed. I could sense it but it remained stubbornly resistant to being taken over. It was hard to tell how long we travelled before we eventually came to a stop. Still hovering powerlessly, I was confused when the direction changed and I suddenly seemed to be descending in an elevator. The sensation lasted for far too long before I finally came to a stop.

  Disembodied, I hung in limbo, vainly trying to force myself back into my body. Wherever I was, I could no longer sense the sun. Away from the killing rays of light, I should have immediately begun to heal. I began to think that I had finally been damaged beyond repair when I remained inert. The most likely possibility was that Sanderson had found a way to reduce me to a state that I couldn’t come back from.

  More time passed and there was no change in either myself or my location. Remaining calm was easier to do when I was just pure thought. I reasoned that my body had always been able to heal itself before so there was no reason why it shouldn’t be able to this time.

  Flinging out my senses, I searched for my friends and allies. No matter how far I sent my consciousness, I couldn’t locate any of my kind. They had either moved out of my range or, a far worse thought to contemplate, they were dead.

  All alone, floating in a void of nothingness, even my subconscious seemed to have abandoned me. I’d been betrayed and left to exist in a never changing stasis.

  It could have been either weeks or months later when my persistent prodding at my remains finally paid off. Hope suddenly flared when I felt an answering twitch in my ruined flesh. Whichever part of me was responding to my mental command, it seemed to be infinitesimally small. A few more particles obeyed my order to move and they massed together into a shapeless clump. Even combined, they were so miniscule they would probably have been all but invisible to the naked eye.

  Feeling around with the tiny cluster of particles, I discovered why my body had refused to respond to my attempts to possess it. I didn’t really have a body at all anymore. My flesh had been reduced to the consistency of ash. There were no limbs or appendages for my consciousness to inhabit. Only sheer stubborn persistence had allowed me to infiltrate the tiny particles at all.

  Worming its way over my ashes until it met resistance, the clump traversed an area that turned out to be square. I’m in a box again, I concluded in despair. My remains might be small enough to fit into a shoebox but at least they were together. This time my enemies had only used one box to imprison me in instead of splitting me up into several containers. I’d escaped from my underground coffins once and I hoped I could do it again.

  A painfully slow and careful inspection of all four sides as well as the top and bottom of the box told me that there were no hinges or locks to exploit this time. The box had been sealed tight but that didn’t mean it was completely impenetrable.

  Slowly and methodically, not that I had much choice about that, I felt for flaws in the design. I couldn’t tell what material the box was made from but figured it was probably metal. Sanderson would have made sure my prison was as secure as humanly possible. Then again, I was no longer human so maybe his precautions would fall short of his expectations. It was the only hope I had as I persisted with my inspection.

  Focussing my attention on the corners since they would probably be the weakest areas, I was finally rewarded when I stumbled across an irregularity. Exploring it carefully, I found the tiniest of holes and manoeuvred the clump inside. They squirmed through the hole and were suddenly floating.

  Puzzled at finding the cluster now immersed in water, I prevented it from being washed away by squishing the bits together and anchoring one end inside the tiny hole. Ok, I’ve been imprisoned inside a metal box and the box has been put in water. At first I thought it might be holy water but the fluid shifted constantly. As far as I knew, holy water didn’t usually have a current.

  The reason why and how I’d ended up where I was finally dawned on me as I remembered the last thing the colonel had said to me. I now understood why Sanderson had been acting so strangely. Aware that I couldn’t die, he’d come up with a plan on how to incapacitate me. He might have been ordered to turn on me by his superiors but that didn’t make his treachery any less painful to bear.

  After tossing me out into the sun then blowing me apart with their guns, he and his men had probably broken what was left of my skeleton down into small pieces. The sun had finished off the job by reducing me to ash. They’d sealed me in a box and then driven to the closest sea or deep lake and tossed me into the depths. That explained the sensation I’d had of descending down a never ending elevator before I’d finally come to a stop.

  Emotion was difficult to feel when I was disembodied but a spark of rage flared within my consciousness. Putting my anger aside for now, I shifted the clump of particles underneath the box. A sandy surface met my touch but at least it was stable and safe from the current. Leaving the particles in a small hollow, I shifted my consciousness back to the rest of me.

&
nbsp; It had taken me several days to reassemble all of my parts after I’d been beheaded by Luc then hacked into eleven pieces by the Comtesse’s guards. All I’d really had to do was gather them together and the dark magic that made me Mortis had put me back together again. It was going to be different this time. The damage was so extensive that I didn’t know if it would even be possible for me to be able to reform.

  Bit by bit, piece by piece, I freed my remains from the box. I had some hope that my dark magic would work when my molecules automatically clumped together instead of breaking down into single cells again.

  At last, the entirety of my remains was nestled in the now far larger hollow beneath my metal prison. Hovering over the waterlogged ashes, I was at a loss of what to do next. Possessing one of my hands had been simple once I’d gotten the hang of it but they were easily identifiable when they were whole. Right now I couldn’t tell what part belonged where. I was currently just a hodgepodge of unrecognizable molecules.

  As if in response to the thought, the ashes began to move. Tentatively touching the mass with my disembodied consciousness, I found it to be a writhing, teeming confusion of cells attempting to realign themselves into some kind of order. Recoiling from the sensation, I was caught and couldn’t pull free. My consciousness was sucked inside the mass only to be torn apart before being reassembled once more.

  When I could think again, I was amazed to find that my body had already begun to reform. The process was so slow it was barely noticeable but my cells were fleshing out again. The healing began in the centre of my body and worked its way outwards. Nestled on the bottom of whatever body of water I’d been interred in beside the dislodged box that had been my tomb, I slowly began to gain substance.

  When my eyes regenerated and my eyesight returned, I inspected my condition. My flesh was still more or less raw meat that had yet to be covered by skin but I was relatively whole again.