Outside Hell

by Milo Spires

  It was weird because he’d expected the snow to be his enemy and to slow him down significantly but instead, it was melting faster than he could run into it.

  Leaping over boulders, and diving down the sides of ravines, the bowman knew Satan wouldn’t be far behind.

  Turning to look up into the night sky at the top of the mountain, now instead of just seeing white as it had been, now it was black. The sky was black with demons hunting him.

  Prince Dracus, the Changalk hunter and bowman from Eldor, in the realm of Valstrath five thousand light passes away from this galaxy, and used to hunting Biodorph monsters and Cryotierck’s at extreme speed, took the next thousand feet in his stride.

  To look at him as he’d navigated himself down the dangerous precipices, you’d have thought that he was falling because of the speed that he was going.

  Then as he’d seen the first street coming into view that was leading down into the village, he’d sent a message using his telepathic skills to communicate with the only person left in this dimension that he’d known he could trust.

  A friend of Kaine and Regina’s, a vampire called Laouse who lives out in Austria. He has a secret lab there where he studies Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, hoping to invent super-strong fibers for battle clothing.

  Chapter 22 – Kaine

  As the clouds of confusion from the drugs in his mind finally lifted, Kaine was in a cell under the German base in Hungary.

  He was with another prisoner and because he hadn’t even turned his head to look around him, so far he’d no idea that he was really in a cell, or that anyone was with him. He certainly didn’t know that the prisoner he was with had a connection to him, and because the other prisoner was struggling to come around from the MX1 drug too, he didn’t know that there was another prisoner with him either.

  Only a strange blue light that was nearby knew they were together, and it was watching them.

  Kaine and his cell mate were both naked from the waist up and their arms were painfully outstretched behind them, held in that position by two steel shackles around their wrists that were laced with silver, to prevent them from breaking free.

  Ever since Kaine’s beautiful wife Regina had been executed in front of him, his whole world had been destroyed. She was everything to him and they’d gone everywhere together, laughed together, ate together, slept together, and then because of one bullet she was gone.

  He’d never see her smile again, look into her eyes and be blown away by the magic that was shining back at him, be able to run his fingers through her soft hair, she was gone.

  To him she’d the most magical eyes that he’d ever seen and even though she was a vampire, every time he’d looked into them, he could see her deliciously kind soul smiling back at him.

  The pain that he was experiencing in the shack from witnessing her execution was tremendous. Then even though he was gunning the fucker down who’d so blatantly executed her, the effect upon his soul seeing her killed in such a brutal way was devastating. It was like a huge rock being slammed down into a crystal chandelier, his soul was literally shattered into a million pieces.

  Kaine had known then that he would never get to hold her hand again or go for romantic walks with her, ride their Ducati motorbikes together, drink fine wines, or sit with the cows outside their top entrance hand in hand watching the power of the sea in the horizon as it eternally lashed against the coast, or anything else.

  They’d planned to get two German shepherd dogs in the future, and had even named them too. When they’d picked up the two tiny warm bundles of fur, they were going to call them Solomon and Bruce. All that though and the fun that they were going to have watching them grow was gone, his world that had been filled with love beforehand, and after witnessing her brains sprayed against the back wall of the shack, was violently destroyed.

  To him life even though he couldn’t walk in the murderously oppressive sun for the simple fact that it would de-atomise him, and reduce his massive frame within seconds to nothing more than a pile of smouldering black ash, his life with Regina if you could describe it like the weather had been sunny.

  Now without her everything was meaningless and if you could describe his feelings and build a world from them, it would be full of dark thunderous skies, vicious bolts of lightening, savage winds, and torrential rain. He’d never look about him and see the world as he had before for its beauty, all he’d see without her would be doom.

  As Kaine had awoken in the German cell slumped by his chains, he didn’t need a second to come around and remember that his life partner was gone, it was engrained into his mind the whole tragic affair. Even though his eyes were shut, he’d been thinking about her for hours and his inner being was now lost, trapped heinously within the walls of vampirism, suffering the deepest torment.

  Kaine had absolutely no care that he was in a cell and probably awaiting execution, he was just hanging there with his mind disconnected from his eyes that were transfixed on the floor. In his thoughts, the zone where he was in, Regina was alive again and smiling back at him.

  The deep pain that was going through him had his whole muscular body shivering, and in his shattered soul, he’d felt completely destroyed by her death. He’d absolutely adored her and in the hundreds of years that they’d been together as husband and wife, he’d never once had a cross word with her. They were meant to be together, and for all that time he couldn’t believe how lucky he was to be spending an eternity with the most beautiful woman in the world.

  Only in truth, and one day with lots of love from his best friend Laouse who’d quit his scientific studies to care for him, maybe he’d come to terms with the fact that she was gone.

  Kaine’s cellmate had also been drugged some days previously, only as he was much smaller than him, the effects had lasted much longer. He was still flicking in and out of consciousness like he’d the flu because of it. One minute he’d be awake and then suddenly he’d pass out again.

  Only one time when he’d struggled to open his eyes, he’d faintly heard the sound of human voices outside his cell. He could just hear them but it was difficult because constantly in the background, he could hear the demonic sounds of his own species screaming.

  The language they’d been talking in wasn’t in his own tongue, and even though his villagers didn’t understand it themselves, when he was a child his father had sent him to the next village to learn a foreign language. The language that he’d learnt was German, and from it as he was strapped in the same posture as his cell mate, he’d been able to understand some of what the humans in the shallow distance had been talking about.

  They’d sounded scared and mentioned that they’d dissected two Godly sized vampire security guards, and that they’d known as they were hacking off their limbs with a rusty saw, that the answers to immortality wouldn’t be found. They’d argued and said that their boss, someone called Adolf was expecting results.

  The humans had said that they’d lied to him some time before, and told him that they’d needed godly sized vampires for testing, as all the other vampires from Romania and Bavaria were too malnourished to get any positive tests from. They were saying that if they didn’t lie again and then create some drug and say to Adolf that it was immortality, that soon he’d realise that they’d lied to him about the godly sized vampires, and then execute them all because of it.

  They’d also agreed that they wouldn’t tell their boss anything yet, and that they’d delay him when he’d asked for the results from the two security guards that they’d cut up with rusty saws. They’d tell him that it was too early to read them positively and to make sense of the findings. They’d tell him that before they could truly understand them too, that they’d need the results back from the other two godly sized vampires that they hadn’t dissected yet.

  Kaine’s cell mate had also heard one of them in a whispering tone say that because they hadn’t even kidnapped the fourth vampire yet, that they’d plenty of time too. He’d t
old the other human that Adolf soldiers would have to find him first, and that the human had done something that morning to make it so difficult that it would be almost impossible for their boss Adolf to find the fourth vampire.

  Then he’d heard the other human who was also keeping his voice down saying that he’d disagree’d. He reckoned that it wouldn’t take long to track the fourth vampire down because Adolf had the vampire Heir Volkerdauphine looking for him. The vampire was telling Adolf their whereabouts, to save his own mother that Adolf had on death row in the cells.

  The other human had then laughed and even though it had seemed like he didn’t want to tell him, he’d then said not to worry about it because he’d said that he’d thought the same thing and taken care of that little problem himself. He’d said that he’d already gone into Heir Volkerdauphine’s mother’s cell that morning and ended her immortality with a lethal dose of MX1. He’d then added that he’d only done it because he’d heard that Heir Volkerdauphine wouldn’t track anymore vampires until Adolf had kept his part of the deal. Heir Volkerdauphine had told him that he’d been counting the vampires that he’d given Adolf, and realized that he’d supplied the two hundred vampires that Adolf and him had agreed many years before would get his mother released from the cells. He’d told Adolf that unless his mother was free’d straight away, then he wouldn’t find him any more. So now that the mothers dead finding the godly sized vampire will mean that Adolf will have to try finding the beast himself, giving them at least a few months to escape.

  When the other human had heard this, his scared voice had suddenly picked up a few beats and he’d laughed. Only the other human had shushed him quickly suggesting that they were obviously meeting to discuss this news in secret.

  Only they’d still sounded concerned though and what he’d heard them say next, made Kaine’s cell mate also laugh too. They were pathetic these humans and he’d hoped they did get killed by the third vampire.

  The humans had said though that they’d expected Adolf to be furious with the recent list of things that had happened, and had to be careful else something might go wrong with their plans.

  They’d said that since Adolf had lost another chopper and a cargo of vampires, plus his only friend Heinrich, their leader had been a changed man. They’d said he’d turned so evil that they were sure he’d execute people daily, and for the foreseeable future too, hoping it would calm him and placate his rage.

  The humans had also said that they believed that when Adolf hears that Heir Volkerdauphine’s mother is also dead, and then through his sick mind realises what that alone will mean to his future chances of finding vampires, he’ll go absolutely crazy. Only even though he’ll be like a time bomb waiting to explode, both the humans then agreed that killing the mother was necessary to delay him, and because of the delay, soon they’ll escape the evil fucker and be free.

  Only they’d also said that Adolf would probably then demand that the testing on third vampire be carried out immediately. The humans voices had changed at this point to utter fear just talking about the third vampire, and said that they had to delay his execution at all costs, because of the immense risk to their safety.

  Kaine’s cell mate at that point, and still not looking around himself to realise that he’d a cell mate, was wondering who was the third vampire was. He’d thought that the third vampire must be in another cell somewhere, and that the German fuckers might even be keeping him deep underground, until such times as they were ready.

  The humans had said that apart from the third vampire being massive, and also much bigger than they’d ever seen before, they’d a deep sinister feeling that his mind had somehow resisted the MX1 drug that he’d been given. They’d said that they’d been watching him through the flap in the cell door, and where all the other vampires under the in house developed drug MX1 were always out cold, the third vampire clearly wasn’t. They’d seen his eyelids twitching, and felt sure that because of this, it meant his mind was still active. They’d believed that if his mind could resist the drug where all the other vampires couldn’t, then he might not be asleep either, he might be there to infiltrate them and just waiting to pounce.

  They’d said that if that was the case, then when he was awake for the dissection as all the vampires in the past few years had to be to yield readable findings, he might break the restraints and then kill them all.

  Then just before the humans had stopped talking, he’d heard them say that they’d give the third vampire another blast of MX1 right now. Only as they’d said it, then suddenly he’d heard footsteps outside his cell door and his flap was opened.

  Then as a second had past a long black funnel shaped thing was pointed in. The cell mate of Kaine through his groggy state had then looked in horror as his cell was instantly consumed with deep white gas that blasted out from it, and another second later as he’d breathed it in, he’d past out from the gas too.

  Only as the scientists had then peered through the flap and saw the clouds of noxious white gas vanishing before them, they were horrified. The third vampire that they were petrified of was Kaine, and his eyelids even after another heavy blast of MX1 were still twitching.

  Chapter 23 – The White Stallion

  Unsure of safety yet Dracus steamed down into the village of Fagarus, a thousand feet below the shack where Regina had died. It was the early hours of the morning and as expected the lights were all off in the main street except one.

  The building at the end of the short street in front of him, with its old timber beams that were barely showing through its mostly white façade, and that dominated the others in size, was staring back down the cobbled street at him. This building even though it was boarded up, he could tell from the cracks in the timber that it had its lights on.

  Then as the bowman slowed to a walking pace, he’d reached behind himself and took his bow off his back and slipped his fingers down into the quiver on his side, pulling out a cursed arrow.

  In his mind and through the magic that was flowing within him, something about this village gave him a strange feeling, and with it he wasn’t sure if the demons weren’t already in it, waiting for him.

  The street was tiny like that of what you’d find in London through the period when the great fire had ravaged itself through it, and the side alleys were even tinier. The narrow buildings were also leaning in various positions, and the windows had heavy external timber shuttering across them.

  Apart from the snow that hadn’t fully melted yet from the waters that were now gushing down in to the village from Satan’s wrath melting the snow drifts at the peak of the mountain, there was still mud and slush underfoot. Then as he’d cautiously walked forwards, and with every sloshing step in the slippery stuff that he’d taken, his eyes were scanning the shadows for the slightest bit of movement.

  A creaking sound from behind and to the left that suddenly reverberated through the still night air sent him spinning, and as he’d swung around with his bow string taught pointing the deathly sharp arrow at what had made the sound, he’d seen a creature and then sharpened his aim even tighter. A stray or mangy old farm cat had stepped out from the shadows and started approaching him with his tail up in some sort of mesmerizing dance. Then as it had stepped to the side like a horse in a dressage competition with its feet almost walking side wards, and purring so loud that it threatened by its volume to give him away, he’d fired. The arrow blasted down through the cat’s forehead and pinned the creature to the floor with its legs splayed out in all directions, and instantly parted its skull with a bone cracking sound that was not to dissimilar to that of a branch snapping underfoot in the forest. Then as he’d expected, and as the thick crimson coppery blood welled out from the body and seeped through the mud into the street all about it, suddenly a deeply ominous black cloud roared out from the body and took the three dimensional shape of a demon. Spinning around, Dracus knew that the chase was far from over, and that the village wasn’t safe for him to stay another moment in. />
  Dracus charged forwards taking meters in his stride as he’d traversed up the cobbled street, keeping his head down low and daring not to look behind. Then as the demon flew after him and started screaming in its high pitched deafening tone to alert more demons, Dracus looked all about him for a way to escape.