The small group laughed loudly without saying a single word. Then separated running in different directions. The attack had begun and others of their species would join the battle they had won a long, long time ago.
Meryl walked for an hour, and every minute she remembered things. Things about the world after the vampires took over. She watched as increasingly more vampires arrived and listened to some distant screams. Unable to defend themselves or fight, people fell without any effort, and no country was willing to send help because the whole world was suffering from the same attack.
“They are clever,” whispered Meryl watching the horrible place where several bodies lay lifeless. “There is no doubt that they prepared this long ago. It’s amazing that vampires from around the globe have united to do this abomination ... it’s terrible.”
It hurt to see children trying to escape from certain death. Parents unable to protect their family and people screaming in despair. She knew that this was the past, and she couldn’t do anything to change it, but what was certain was that the consequences would be nightmares for a good season.
Sometimes she would see a group of people who were led to a truck by vampires. Obviously, they couldn’t kill them all. They needed them, but they would reduce their numbers to take complete control and create a new era that they would own. Meryl kept remembering things. She knew that there was still the final blow to come. The humans would launch a monstrous biological weapon hoping to kill the vampires. Knowing that the humans would also suffer the consequences of their actions. On the one hand, Meryl understood, because they had already lost the battle, it was a last desperate act that would only enrage the beasts.
“It won’t be much longer…”
The broadcasts had already been completely cut off. On the television, she could only see a gray color that bothered her sight. Meryl kept walking. The noise started to fade with the passage of time. Surely people would have already surrendered.
It was midafternoon when she heard a roar. She stared at the clear sky and saw something in the distance. At first, it seemed like a plane, but Meryl knew immediately that it was not.
“They didn’t just release one,” Meryl murmured thoughtfully. “There were more.”
Her deductions led her to believe that all governments and global organizations knew the danger had always been there. They never said a word, never alerted the population, and now the consequences brought the fall of an old empire and the rise of a new one.
Those strange biological warheads, detonated throughout the area, with a blinding white explosion. It left a sepia tone, not only in the sky but also on the earth and with it all hope vanished. Seeing another small group of prisoners Meryl knew what the consequences would be for both sides. A horribly slow and painful death. That was the destiny for those who were not savvy enough or fast enough to flee. The underground caves and sewers were a good choice to hide for a couple of hours, but not everyone could. Some had been struck down by the virus immediately, and Meryl didn’t realize that the virus used, which killed many. Had come from her own body.
Meryl approached the group that she had seen in the distance. The skin of both species suffered tremendous rashes and large cracks appeared on their skin letting out blood. The screams alone would have left you deaf. For a moment, she thought with a calm that froze her bones. On who really were the bad guys in this cruel story. The vampires had lived hidden and supposedly in the not so distant past, they were hunted and killed, here is the beginning of what became a popular legend. Humans had always caused misfortunes, the wrenching fear of the unknown encouraged them to act impulsively, and the consequences were always destructive. Meryl knew that this time, they had gone too far because now they were not only condemned to live under the iron fist of the vampires. They had also caused a natural disaster that exceeded reality, and with it, condemned all to a ravenous hunger and an endless night.
After walking for a few minutes around the city observing corpses disfigured by the radiation. She believed that there was nothing more to see. Unconsciously she could not help thanking fate for the experiment. Having to live during those early years between hunger and being devoured by one of those beings wasn’t exactly what she would have wished. There was also the concern for her brother George. With the images of the base she now understood that he had been kidnapped and placed into one of the cryogenics chambers. Meryl couldn’t stop the hope that swelled in her heart and made her eyes misty. Her little brother that she loved so much could still be alive. Perhaps he had been as lucky as her and found someone like Caleb.
“Caleb!” She was surprised and suddenly raised her hands to her mouth.
Meryl hadn’t thought of him after recalling some fragments of memory and things still weren’t entirely clear, but her memories were something personal, something private. Were they dating? Married? She didn’t even know why she thought that, but the way her heart beat at the memory of him and how her entire body would stiffen only showed one thing. How crazy in love she was with him and how much she missed him. Before her mind could continue making inferences about their relationship. The strange phenomenon that had brought her there began to disintegrate everything around her. Tall buildings slowly disappeared, in a sinister and beautiful manner, at the same time and the same as before. A new landscape appeared before her eyes. It was another city that was not familiar. She saw people walking down the street as if nothing had occurred and the sky was a clear blue color indicating that they had not yet detonated the biological weapons.
Meryl watched the people who seemed to be waiting for something to happen. Suddenly the sky began to darken. It was the eclipse that started it all and this time, people would not have a chance to escape. Meryl had never seen an actual eclipse, only one transmitted on television, so she couldn’t help raising her head to set eyes on the golden point before it slowly disappeared before the expressions of astonishment of the people. It had been a few minutes when everything was in complete darkness. It was then in the distance that some shouting was heard. The people around Meryl started thinking that an accident had occurred. Suddenly, a lot of people started running. The people who did not know what was happening followed them instinctively, but there was no escape. A large group of vampires had surrounded the center of the place and the slaughter seemed inevitable.
“What is happening?” A man shouted. “Marie, take the kids!”
The woman lunged at the two little twins that were just seven years old and tried to run between the people without any result. There was no way to escape because the pressure exerted by the bodies began to overwhelm them and decrease oxygen.
After a while of listening only to murmurs suddenly a smattering of desperate cries was heard. The people standing near Meryl understood absolutely nothing, because they were not able to see beyond their heads, and listening to people shouting made the rest panic. They pushed and trampled each other. When humans entered into that panicked state they couldn’t see beyond their own nose.
A woman with a bruised face managed to sneak out among the people like a little rat. Huge tears fell down her cheeks and blood had splashed all over her light colored silk shirt.
“What’s going on?” The father of the twin girls shouted, and grabbed the arm of the woman.
“They’re killing everyone! They’re monsters, monsters!”
“What?”
“They ... my god. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. They can rip your head off!” The screaming woman continued, drawing stares from all around. “If we don’t flee they’ll also kill us. Let me go, let me go!”
The man released his grip while still staring at the woman. At first, he thought she was crazy, but her bright blue eyes did not lie to him. There was some sort of massacre going on and the police wasn’t there, nobody would help them. He could not help but look at his wife and two young children. Was this what awaited them?
“We have
to get out of here, Marie,” The man whispered in his wife’s ear, “If she’s telling the truth. Good God, I don’t want to think about what is going to happen to us.”
In just a minute everything became complete chaos. Vampires ran through the crowd killing people indiscriminately. Meryl looked at the family again. The mother held the twins and the father stood before them with a pale face and arms extended in a ridiculous attempt to protect them. A woman stood before him smiling and watching them in amusement as she licked her upper lip. Excited by the family, she gave a little leap forward hitting the man, who fell leaving the woman and children unprotected.
“Please, don’t. I’ll do what you want, but not my children. I beg you.” The kneeling woman pleaded as she held two small children, who looked around curiously.
“Stupid. Your children will be more useful than you.”
Meryl was frightened by the coldness of that strange young woman with black hair with purple streaks, because without a second’s hesitation. She backhanded the woman and almost killed her instantly with her hand.
The woman grabbed the children carrying them like sacks of flour and took them to a van. Where other scared children and women with newborns were waiting. There was no reason to dwell on the reasons that they were taking them. It was simply easier to educate children as slaves than the adults, not to mention, of course, that their blood was more appetizing.
“Cruel. Horrible, it can’t be true,” Meryl whispered, “It’s impossible.”
Meryl knew that humans, her own race, were also cruel. She only had to wake up one morning like any other and watch the news of the events that occurred. Rape, murder, beatings, robberies. However, not everyone was like this. There were also the innocent children who at the moment were crying. Desperate and full of a fear that they had never experienced until now.
Meryl couldn’t see more, didn’t want to see more, enough was enough. She closed her eyes tightly hoping that it would end. She preferred to be at the dilapidated lab seeing more boring tapes. Instead of listening to the cries, and the prayers of those who took hours to bleed to death.
Suddenly she felt another earthquake at her feet. She was the only one who felt it and tried to cling to something. Her heart almost froze when she observed her own legs began to fade. The same as she had seen the buildings do.
“I’m going to die. To disappear,” she wailed in terror, “What the hell is this?”
Absorbed by the darkness, she couldn’t see or feel, but she was fine. As if she’d entered a strange trance of a dream in which nothing matters, nothing exists and nothing hurts. It was like being carried by a gentle stream, which cradled you, towards a strange journey to who knows where.
While she made the trip. Caleb was watching over her.
She’s calm, he watched her steady breathing. The fever was gone, but he had seen on the last day, how she was sweating. A cold sweat of terror, as if trying to escape from a nightmare. He almost cursed himself for having made the covenant, but he had no choice. Otherwise, the problems would have been huge. However, that morning in late October, he felt it would all end soon. Meryl would return to him. To the place where she belonged.
Traveling on that dark current. The memories that had not yet returned to Meryl arose from some distant place to come back to their owner.
Meryl opened her eyes wearily and saw Caleb’s worried face. He was as beautiful as an angel. Staring at her with those bright red eyes. It finally felt like she was at home with the only person she wished to be with.
Melody no.9
Rebellion
Meryl raised her hands wearily and covered her face while letting out a gasp before crying. Caleb looked at her completely confused but respected her silence and just put a hand on her tousled hair hoping she felt his support. It was several minutes until she had cried everything out. She had bloodshot eyes and a puffy face.
“Are you better?”
“It was horrible.”
“What happened?”
Meryl bit her lower lip before starting to tell him everything. She had risen from her bed at home surrounded by her entire family without being aware of the fact that it was all an illusion. He did not seem surprised, so Meryl thought she wasn’t the only one to go through all that. However, he surely saw what had happened, because he had belonged to that terrible past in which humanity was almost wiped out.
“It’s strange that you’ve seen all that,” Caleb murmured staring into space.
“That does not matter. It’s the past, but Caleb, my brother might still be alive.”
“Don’t give too much importance to what you saw. It’s better that you don’t get your hopes up,” Caleb told her, “Keep in mind that if he awakened some time ago. He could be dead. If you keep your hopes up the blow will be much harder for you.”
“I know, but I can’t help it. Something tells me that I can find him. He is the only thing I have left, God,” Meryl sobbed.
Remembering what it had been like for those who she saw in the streets of the city was unthinkable. Thinness, hunger, the situation itself for someone who had lived in a normal world was terrible. Caleb forced her to lie down. She needed rest. Alexander was preparing something for her to eat and Pein was out of the house, away from the city, and would soon return with information that would bring more problems.
“George,” Meryl called out for him while staring into the darkness. “He has to be alright, somewhere. Otherwise, why the hell did I see everything?”
In a way, Caleb thought she was right, seeing images on her brother. That must have a hidden meaning, but he had a bad feeling. Something wasn’t right with the story she told him because she should not have seen that. Given that the only thing humans who made a blood pact could dream of were fragments of memories lived by their masters.
“You’ve been thoughtful all day.”
“Alexander.” Caleb snapped out of his thoughts. “Yes, there are too many things that do not make sense.”
“You can’t do anything right now and it’s not good to think so much about something you don’t know. Relax, because right now Meryl needs you.”
“I guess you’re right. Do you know anything about Pein?” Caleb asked suddenly, changing the expression on the face of his best friend.
“No, he has been gone for more than a week, and I begin to think it was a mistake to let him go alone.”
“He’s stronger than you think. But if he can find out if the rumors are true, we will have more than just worries.”
“Unfortunately, you’re right.”
In that place, the brightness of the moon was more intense. As if, the thick layer surrounding the planet was weaker. Pein was balanced on the branch of a tree. Looking like a predator waiting for the right moment to pounce on its prey. What he saw wasn’t good. His expression became unpleasant the moment he saw the huge fire of a large camp. He could hear the noise of people talking, but with the enormous distance that separated them. He couldn’t understand much. Pein knew that if he tried to get closer he would be detected. He listened to the dozens of footsteps from around the tents.
“If I’m caught they’ll kill me,” Pein muttered to himself, “but more proof than this is not necessary. The rebellion has begun.”
It was something that they had taken years to plan. Humans had begun to gather gradually. Starting with a dozen and now they were a small army. Those who had managed to escape, those who got freedom and even those who killed their masters and fled, but not only them. Over the year’s free children were born in that secluded place. Children who had already become adults willing to fight for their future.
Pein sighed and turned ready to go home and tell them the news. He was about two days walk from home. He had plenty of time. At the human’s speed, they would take several weeks to reach the city, especially considering the large group.
“They could have
chosen another city,” Pein sighed. “Caleb is going to be pissed off.”
Taking a leap into another tree he began his way back home. Where they were already waiting anxiously.
One day after Meryl woke up. Her mood appeared to improve thanks to the encouraging words of Caleb. Words that although were discrete. Had made it clear that this was not to torment her. They were events of the distant past that should be forgotten, but what weighed in the heart of the young woman were not the images she had seen, but the thought that George might be in some place scared or even suffering.
“Do you have the strength to get up?”
“I think so. I’m sorry to be so much trouble, Alexander,” Meryl said.
“Don’t worry, it’s logical.” He smiled. “Let me see the mark.”
He pulled back the sleeve that covered her wrist. It appeared to be healing well, but the red color was too bright. It was something that made him lose sleep for several nights because it was not a common occurrence. What most upset him was that he had seen something similar in another person. A similar color in a different tattoo. He had never told Caleb because he did not think it was something important, but now things seemed different to that of a few years ago.
While Meryl slept the night before Pein’s return. Caleb rested sitting in a chair in the girl’s room facing the window and watching the moonlight. He felt tired and weaker than in all of his life as a vampire. He had hardly fed since he marked Meryl and it was beginning to take a toll. He looked to the dark forest outside while resting his cheek on his fist. It was already a habit to get in that position when he thought about a topic or worried about something in particular. There were too many things that didn’t fit: events, information, and Meryl, his Meryl, his weak spot. Caleb couldn’t help but smile thinking about that. Once he believed that all humans were insignificant insects. Although he hadn’t agreed on the suffering that had been inflicted on humanity. People, humans, and vampires ... in a very distant past full of pain that he couldn’t forget. To Caleb, they stopped being important.
Melodies of Blood I Page 13
