The Dark Messenger

by Milo Spires

  Normally, if they were on a quest they would have flown the journey, but as they were going into battle they needed to be strong on arrival. Getting as much rest as possible was imperative. It would have been nice, they thought, if they were going for pleasure. They could have tasted different kinds of blood up north on their way, stopping in villages here and there for the night, but they needed to get there fast; with maximum energy, so travelling by train was the perfect way to go.

  The actual plan was that they were going as guests. Before Rex had left for the reservoir, he had called the Scottish leader, Angus, and told him that the covens down in the south of England were planning revenge against them for the TV broadcast, which Angus vehemently denied his covens’ involvement with. It had been the main topic of a huge meeting that he had just held, and he thought that he should inform Angus. He told him that the thousand years or so that their two covens had been at peace had been nice, and he thought it was pointless for them to break it now over something so trivial.

  Rex also said that if they were not responsible for the heinous act, which he believed they were innocent, then his warriors would find the true culprits and together their covens could deal with them.

  Angus had foolishly agreed, and together they had then made the final arrangements for when they would meet up. Rex had thanked Angus and said he might even come there personally.

  It was also planned that when they arrived, they would hide their weapons outside in the park, knowing that to carry weapons inside would be distasteful and might arouse suspicions of an attack. They would have to enter unarmed, giving the Scottish vampires the infected humans as a present and enjoying their company for a time. Rex’s “gifts” were all strong, athletic males and clean from most diseases--just not the werewolf curse. Mietioc would hand them over suggesting they were a peace offering, and a humble gift from the masterful Rex himself.

  Rex, and those who reported directly to him, believed that they would be greeted with open arms as soon as the Scots saw their gift. They felt that the highland coven would welcome their warriors and then store the humans down in their dungeons for later blood supplies. It was also assumed that because of how long their covens hadn’t seen each other, there would be a huge party thrown. There would be food and wine, there would be music, and with the ten uninfected females that they would also take with them, lots of blood to go round too.

  Rex had informed Angus that his warriors were needed to track down the true culprits and could only stay with them for five hours, after which they would have to leave. Once they had said their goodbyes, the plan was to go back immediately to the park to get their weapons, then wait for the infected to transform and for the howling to start. After hours of laughing and hearing the Scotts screaming as they were being torn to pieces, then in the early hours of the following morning, they would break back inside the coven with heavy fire power and wipe them all out, beasts and all.

  The guns that they would be taking with them were all AK-47 machine guns, the ammo silver-tipped. As a precaution they would take swords and a few short thrusting spears, which were laced with silver for maximum destruction. Standard swords worked, but only if they beheaded their enemy; once inside, though, they wouldn’t have time for that.

  Rex knew his plan was perfect, and as his Elite Warriors were completely ready for this mission, he knew it couldn’t fail either. One hundred heavily armed and deeply vicious vampires, with the element of surprise--it was foolproof!

  ----------

  The journey had taken sixteen hours to get up to Scotland. Just before the last stop, the doors were opened and then the prisoners were freed from the floor. With everyone ready and the train still moving, they leapt into the air, beating their wings as they headed for Edinburgh Castle.

  The first thing that they noticed as they got high into the sky, was that the wind was not as strong as in London, and the skies weren’t nearly as dark with pollution. They were grateful of this because they still had to get to the entrance of the Scots’ coven.

  The journey from the train took only a few minutes of flying, before they found themselves hovering over the top of Holyrood Park. Far below them, their spotter at the front made out a vampire sentry who was hiding in some bushes beneath them; quickly he messaged Mietioc and told him that they had arrived. The sentry looked up, and after a few moments, he flew up to greet them.

  Mietioc had moved up to the front of the group when he received the message, and when the sentry took to the air, he flew down to meet him halfway.

  ‘Greetings! Greetings!’ the sentry said. His smile was a little stiff as he glanced at Mietioc’s warriors. Fortunately for them, they had hidden their weapons out of sight beforehand.

  The sentry’s face relaxed. ‘We have a great party arranged for your arrival, sir,’ he said as he bowed his head in respect to Mietioc. Instinctively, he knew that he was in the presence of a superior vampire in the hierarchy.

  ‘Please don't bow,’ Mietioc said with a smile. ‘We are all vampires, and we come as brothers bearing gifts.’

  The sentry looked up at him directly and said, ‘Thank you. We are pleased you have come. Actually, we have special gifts for you too. Please follow me.’

  Turning, he shot back down like a missile, with his wings only slightly open, landing hard beside a small cliff. Mietioc then raised his hand and signaled for everyone to follow him. Waiting for his warriors to pass him in their descent before he took up the rear, he couldn’t help but laugh to himself at the thought that the sentry and his coven by tomorrow, would all be torn to pieces.

  The sentry uncovered a secret passage in the rock, and then disappeared inside it. Mietioc’s warriors at the front had passed their weapons back carefully so that they wouldn’t be seen, then they followed the sentry inside. Mietioc landed at the rear but pushed forwards through the ranks, going inside the tunnel and leaving half of his warriors following him.

  Turning to one of them just before he passed through the entry, he had instructed him, ‘Wait outside. Hide, and if none of us come back, get word to London.’

  The warrior was disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to join in on the festivities, but dared not show it. ‘Sir, I will, sir!’ he said, before running off to find a suitable hiding place. Mietioc then went inside, stashing his weapons in the same bushes as the others had.

  As he passed through the entrance, he couldn’t believe what he saw. The tunnel was so narrow but strangely about nine feet tall. It had water dripping down everywhere and the ground was ankle deep in mud too.

  How could this be their main entrance? he thought to himself. He became suspicious of it, because as a main entrance it was pathetic and made no sense at all. The width was no more than two feet wide, and he had to turn his upper body almost ninety degrees just to be able to pass through it. To make matters worse, it also went steeply downwards and twisted sharply back and forth into the darkness. In places, he had to bend his legs to avoid rocks that were jutting out from the walls. He looked at the mess around him and wondered how attacking the Scots later could even be possible.

  Surely it would take too long to get enough firepower inside to do damage before they retaliated! My warriors would have absolutely no element of surprise—with it like this we will probably lose? he told himself as he began to feel unsure about the missions success.

  He wondered if his leaders Rex and Hoidrious would have abandoned the attack if they had known it was like this.

  Suddenly he realized that there wasn’t any ceremonial torches burning either. Surely out of respect they would have lit a few torches, wouldn’t they? It definitely wasn’t that they wouldn’t burn in this extremely damp tunnel; he knew all vampire torches were still made the same way as in ancient Rome--branches dipped in sulfur and lime so that they wouldn’t diminish even if they were plunged into water.

  At the very least, the Scots should have lit the tunnel for us. Something here is not right. Maybe we should just turn and leave, f
orget everything and report back our failure and the reasons behind it, suggesting it had been badly planned.

  He dismissed that idea though as he remembered their last mission had failed too.

  Two failures back-to-back under Rex’s rule meant certain death. Would it be the same way with their new leader? He mused as he wondered if Hoidrious might step up into Rex’s role.

  Today was judgement day in their coven, and one of three potential evil candidates would be given the role of ruling till Rex returned. He wished he was there instead of here. Actually, he wished he was anywhere besides here.

  Suddenly he heard the sentry’s voice in the distance saying, ‘Follow the tunnel and I will see you later.’

  What? This was completely unacceptable! He messaged all his warriors as one: ‘Whichever of you is with the sentry, hold him and don't let him go.’

  ‘Sorry, sir. You were too late. A hidden doorway just opened and he vanished through it.’

  Mietioc had a very bad feeling now, and was just about to give the order to retreat when another message arrived from the warrior he had left outside.

  ‘Sir, I was surprised by them, they have me prisoner and…’

  Hearing this telepathic message without an ending, reminded him of when he had been messaging a warrior on the battlefield. He was halfway through the message when had seen an enemy creep up behind him and cut his head off. There could be no other reason for only receiving half a message, he thought, The warrior outside must have just had his head cut off.

  ‘RETREAT! EVERYONE RETREAT!’ he messaged. Too late though, because he heard from behind him the sound of rock sliding on rock.

  ‘Sir, they have blocked the exit! Come quick!’

  ‘I’m on my way, Kneel!’ he messaged as he charged back up the tunnel towards the entrance. Stepping on their shoulders because the tunnel was so narrow that it was impossible to pass any other way.

  How had this happened? he asked himself. All of his warriors were trapped in a tunnel, which was almost impossible to turn around in. The Scots must have had a main entrance after all, and this was somehow a planned execution.

  As he reached the last warrior, he could see that there was a huge rock wall that was blocking their exit. There were no gaps, and upon first inspection it seemed impenetrable. Both he and the warrior beside himself tried to wobble it, but it wouldn’t move, then they tried to slide it. Again, nothing--it wouldn’t budge.

  He sighed, then said to the warrior, ‘Keep trying whilst I go to the front.’

  As he turned around, a thought suddenly passed through his brain. ‘How could I have missed this rock wall earlier, when I first walked inside?’ He felt sure that if he had seen it, he would have questioned it being there.

  Something inside him, suggested that it was stupid now to even consider for a moment that they would be able to escape that way, but still he ordered ten of his men to keep trying to free it.

  Walking back again over the other warriors shoulders towards the front, and crouching a little to keep his head from hitting the ceiling. As he got halfway, another message arrived. ‘Sir I think there’s a trap up here waiting for us.’

  ‘I’m on my way,’ Mietioc replied as he then sent a whole-group message, telling everyone to brace for impact. When he had jumped down off the last warrior’s shoulders, he spun around to look at him for the report.

  ‘The room ahead sir, it looks like a slaughter house and the walls seem to go up more than fifty feet. I couldn’t see the ceiling without walking out there, sir.’

  Mietioc turned to see for himself, and noticed that there were in fact blood stains in places around the walls on the far side too. Yes, it had to be a trap, but what were his options? No warriors outside to send messages to, and no way out except walking forwards into that room and dealing with whatever came their way. Staying huddled in this tunnel was completely unacceptable.

  ‘Stay here,’ he messaged as he walked forwards into the room alone. Normally one of the others would have gladly gone in his place, only he had led them into this trap and felt like it was the honorable thing to do.

  The room was circular, about fifty meters in diameter with black and white tiles diagonally alternating in color across the floor.

  I have never seen anything like this before. Why would they have bothered to do this? He mused, as he began to scan the walls, which indeed seemed to be completely smooth, with no ledges at all, even up to the…

  He froze.

  There, about one hundred feet up or thereabouts, hordes of vampires stood, saying nothing, and simply staring back down at him. Still looking up, he slowly turned around full circle and could see they were completely surrounding him too. There must be at least a hundred or more, he thought to himself, aghast.

  ‘Hello brothers, we are here! It took a long time to come up from London, and it’s good to see you all. I am the leader, and my name is Mietioc. How do we get up there to you?’

  They said nothing and just continued to stare.

  He decided to open his wings with the intention that he would fly up there and hover at their same height to talk with them. Only as he did though, they immediately reacted. Guns were slung over the sides and pointed down at him.

  ‘What is the meaning of this?’ he screamed at them. We were invited to come here by Angus! Where is he? Our leader arranged this, and we have brought you fresh blood as a gift too.’

  He waited for the reply, and then after a few seconds he noticed that the weapons being pointed down at him, were actually their own weapons, the very same ones that they had hidden outside in the bushes earlier. He couldn’t believe it, he had come all this way laughing at the thought that he would be killing them, and now it looked very much like it was going to be them that were going to be killing him, and with their own weapons too.

  Suddenly a message was coming in: ‘Sir, we have weapons, there was no space left in the bushes outside, so we hid some inside too. Do you need them?’

  Mietioc smiled inwardly as his mind deciphered the coded telepathic message. Normally he may have reacted differently from this act of disobedience, and would have been angry, but here and now it was perfect. They might be able to fight back somehow; the Scots obviously thought that they were completely unarmed.

  How had they found our guns, though? he wondered. They must have had a scout watching us enter the tunnel.

  He felt so embarrassed that he hadn’t been as observant as he should have been. He figured that it must have been because he was so relieved to have finally arrived after that horrible journey in the train, and some how he must have switched off, letting his guard down. Normally he looked everywhere though, and was highly suspicious of everything. Vampires had to be that way to stay alive. One mistake and terrible situations like these could easily result from them.

  Now he had to think fast for everyone. He needed to react and to have a plan. Otherwise they would all die there, as the room’s design suggested it. He had to be honest with himself though, he and his party were prisoners of this coven, and he was obviously standing where thousands of others had been executed in the past too. If whoever died in this room couldn’t get out, then how could he even think for a moment, that they could either.

  It was obvious that there would be no chance to fight back, even if they did use their weapons. They were out-gunned, out-positioned and, by the way they would be killed from above, it seemed like it would be carried out completely execution-style too. At this moment, Mietioc really hoped that the story he’d heard in the past regarding Satan granting life again to those vampires who had killed many humans was true.