by Gloria Dark
“Abyss!” Demian panicked, holding his body in with trembling hands. His heartbeat increased, echoing through the walls. “He’s alive! He’s real! He’s coming for us…”
Suddenly, something clicked between the steel rails. A muted ticking sound tickled the cold steel.
Demian hid right behind the window so that he couldn’t be seen from outside.
A tiny hand with broken fingernails slid through the rails, waving into the air. Pale grey skin tried to shake the steel.
“Demian, are you there?” a familiar voice whispered from the other side of the window.
“Lucius?” Demian jumped up to ensure he wasn’t hallucinating again. His nose could clearly sense his brother, his blurry eyes could see him, yet Demian found it hard to believe his brother would be there.
“Don’t worry, brother! I’ll get you out of there!” Lucius whispered, “You just need to step back a little.”
Barely standing on his feet, Demian did as he was told.
Lucius placed his hands over the rails and closed his eyes, whispering something.
“It’s no use, no vampire can break the Heavenly steel!” Demian warned.
His eyes widened when he noticed the steel rails crumble in his brother’s fingers. The tiny pieces fell down like snow. Lucius reached for his brother to help him get out.
“H-how did y-you do it?” Demian watched his little brother with disbelief, then glanced at the steel crumbles.
Lucius was dressed in a long shirt only, his bare feet stood in the snow as if he were walking on warm marshmallows instead of freezing ground. The boy gleamed with energy and didn’t even shiver.
Demian, on the other hand, felt powerless. His hunger aches had swallowed his senses and fogged his mind. His body shuddered with anxiety and fatigue.
“I don’t know, I just let like I had to! I missed you so much, and the voices told me I could do it!” Lucius wrapped his cold arms around his brother, giving him a tight and loving embrace.
Demian inhaled his brother’s scent, recognising the difference. His body smelled of irresistible power.
“Your scent…” Demian whispered, hunger flooding his mind, “Red…”
“Red?” Lucius asked, but all of his questions faded when he felt hangs piercing through his neck like flaming needles.
Tears started sliding down his cheeks, but Lucius didn’t do anything to resist the bite.
“The voice…” Lucius whispered, “She said you’d betray me, but I refused to believe…”
Demian’s hunger took over. No matter how hard he tried to focus on Lucius and his voice, his sweet blood sent abstract images through the boy’s mind.
“She warned I’d be unable to fight back because I love you…” Lucius’ voice became weaker, his head spinning with dizziness.
Every drop of blood became sweeter, sending Demian deeper into the mind of his victim. His brother’s lonely memories started streaming through Demian’s consciousness, drowning him in memories of the pain Lucius experienced daily, the blood that made him sick and weak, the dark shadow that fed him water instead. Regardless of the nightmare, Demian was unable to stop, and his mind drowned deeper.
A glass garden full of white and red lilies, roses orchids blooming in harmony around a young female. Those were the images Lucius couldn’t stop talking about, but they made Demian feel sick. They pushed him away like a horrific nightmare.
Demian released his brother and stepped back, scared of himself more than anything.
“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry, Lucius!” Demian repeated, his lips and voice trembling with disbelief.
“Ermelinda told me you’d break my heart…” Lucius cried, his eyes pale.
Unable to swallow the guilt, Demian ran away without looking around. He continued running and running as if it could allow him to escape himself.
“I’m a monster!” Demian cried out, repeating the same words over and over again.
Demian stopped running when he reached the Punishment Circle. His mind froze in terror when the boy noticed a smashed Life Capsule in the centre. Purple liquid smeared over the ground like a paint, broken pieces of what seemed like glass floated over the blue flashes of lightning that moved over the fluid.
I am here to punish the sinners, was the only sentence written in blood that painted the stones around the Punishment Circle.
Demian’s suspicions were correct. Abyss was truly free.
Without any hesitation, the boy ran back to the castle to warn his family. He was no longer concerned about his family getting angry for Demian escaping the basement. He pushed gown his guilt too. The only thing on his mind was to protect the family from the enemy that had gotten free.
“He’s back, he’s back!” Demian ran into the castle, shouting his voice off, “Abyss is free from the Life Capsule!”
“What’s the meaning of all this? Have you lost your mind?” Dorian yelled back, angrily.
“What are you saying, Demian?” his father asked, his voice concerned.
“Demian, if this is a joke, we’ll have to punish you properly!” Scarlet warned.
“Did he mention Abyss?” aunt Angeline panicked.
“I swear! I saw the broken Life Capsule! I saw it!” Demian cried out, barely inhaling the air.
Although nobody truly believed the boy, Dorian ordered his servants to check if the boy spoke the truth. Luminor took the boy upstairs to the library, trying to find out what really happened. Demian decided to release the heavy burden and confess everything.
“Hos did you get out of the basement?” Luminor sat the boy in a chair across his.
“Father, I did terrible things!” Demian cried, “Lucius freed me from the basement, but I bit him. I was so hungry. I bit him!”
Luminor remained silent, allowing the boy to continue.
“I got so scared o myself, I ran without thinking until I reached the Punishment Circle. The darkest of the Life Capsules was broken!” Demian spoke so quickly, his voice sounded like chaos.
“How did Lucius free you? How did he free himself? His window was sealed properly, and nobody saw him leave his room.” Luminor explained unusually calmly. “Our servants found him crying in the garden, so they took him back to his room.”
“I don’t know, I didn’t ask.” Demian admitted, worried about his brother, “To be honest, I’m anxious about his mental health, but I’m no longer sure if any of his words were just his imagination!”
“What do you mean?” Luminor’s eyes narrowed on the boy.
“He said there was a shadow that gave him a notebook where he learned different spells, but when he showed it to me, it had nothing there. It was empty!” Demian explained, “Of course, I didn’t believe Lucius at first, but then he started talking about some weird garden in the middle of the Sleeping Woods, claiming it’s where Ermelinda would be!”
Luminor’s eyes widened.
“I thought it was impossible, but then Lucius escaped to the woods the other night, and he said Ermelinda’s voice was calling for him, asking for his help! I thought he was losing his mind, but…” Demian explained breathlessly, “But when I bit him, I either saw his imagination…”
“Or you saw what he could see.” Luminor finished the sentence.
“Yes… And after seeing the broken Life Capsule…” Demian thought of Abyss and the dead fon Vorigans. What if Abyss was free for quite a while?
Luminor clicked his fingers, and a servant ran into the room, dressed like a butler. Luminor requested him to come closer and whispered something into his ear.
“Certainly!” the servant bowed and ran out immediately.
“Demian, why don’t you go to see your brother? You should apologise to him, I can see you feel guilty.” Luminor suggested, smiling deviously. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Aren’t you going to punish me for what I’ve done?” Demian asked, “I broke so many rules! Elderly wouldn’t be happy about it!”
“Don’t be ridiculous, your
grandfather is the head of the Elderly!” Luminor laughed, dismissing the boy, “He wouldn’t embarrass our name with your mischief!”
Demian went to Lucius immediately. The room was dark as always, but some wooden planks were laying on the ground under the window. Somebody had ripped them off the window.
Lucius jumped out of the bed when he noticed Demian coming closer to him.
“No, don’t come near me!” he yelled.
His words daggered Demian’s heart with pain.
“Lucius, I’m so sorry for what I did to you!” Demian begged, “I came here to apologise!”
“No, please! Leave me alone!” Lucius cried.
“I know you’re upset and there’s nothing I can do about it but please… Please forgive me!” Demian begged.
“I don’t want to see you!” Lucius cried, “Do you know how much it hurt?”
“Lucius…” Demian lost the words, he didn’t know what to say to make things better. All he wished as to rewind time so he would have never bitten his frail brother.
“Please, leave me. I want to be alone, I can’t look at you now!” Lucius cried.
Silence surrounded the room as Demian said nothing more. After a sigh, he decided to leave Lucius alone for the rest of the day. If he wanted to apologise, he had to come up with a better plan.
The next night, Demian had to return to the school. He tried his best to focus on studies, but his mind was always around his brother. A strange feeling made him feel nauseous. His instincts warned the boy of imminent danger and made his limbs tingle with numbness.
Suddenly, Demian remembered Eden’s advice. If he wanted to make things right, he had to feed Lucius with his own blood. If Eden were right, it would also help Lucius to recover.
“It could be a cure…” Demian muttered while sitting in the classroom.
The classmates glanced at the pureblood, but nobody dared to say a word. Not even the teacher.
Suddenly, a silent melody in Demian’s head spoke to him in a voice of the enchanted violin. Morcie tried to communicate with the boy by playing a sad song inside his head. It awakened the adrenaline that shot through the boy’s blood, flooding it with fire. Demian stood up, not seeing anyone around him. The melody turned everything black for a second and made him leave the school.
A teacher tried to chase the boy, but Demian possessed incredible speed. The raging intuition made him twice as strong and forced the boy to run back home.
When he entered the Morteeze garden, his limbs froze. The servants carried a large sack outside the castle. Its scent reminded of wild lilies with a mix of kenzomoria.
“Lucius!” Demian’s eyes filled with tears, flooding his body with fear, “What happened? What happened to him?”
The servants didn’t reply. Instead, they carried the boy into the woods. Demian tried to follow them, hoping to dissolve his fears, but a firm hand stopped him.
“Let them go,” Scarlet said, her voice full of fake sadness.
“No!” Demian screamed, his eyes burning with tears, “NO!”
“The illness got him, there’s nothing we could do,” Scarlet whispered, holding the boy.
“No…” Demian refused to listen.
“He was ill for a very long time, and you know he would have died eventually,” Scarlet whispered.
“Where are they taking him?” Demian tried to free himself from the tight grasp.
“To the Sleeping Woods.” Scarlet replied, holding the boy tighter, “We cannot bury him with the rest of the family, you know it. You’ve always known it! He didn’t survive long enough to prove he was worth our name.”
“No, no, no!” Demian shouted as his heart shattered in painful pieces. “It’s my fault! It’s all my fault because I bit him when he was already so weak! I killed my brother!”
Suddenly, everything turned black again. Scarlet said something that hurt the boy too much, but he could no longer hear her voice. Her cruel words pierced his heart and injected something poisonous into his soul. Demian lost his sense of reality as the sad melody of the violin returned and became louder in his head.
“Abyss… He’s near!” Demian shouted, hoping his grandmother would hear him because he couldn’t see anything. His eyes showed only black colours everywhere. Drowning deeper into the darkness, Demian lost his consciousness.
When the boy opened his eyes again, he laid on the stairs in his castle. His head spun like a mad carousel when he tried to sit up.
Demian glanced down at his body, trying to understand what had happened. His memories were scattered, and all he could recall was the pitch-black space around him. His clothing was ripped and stained with blood. His long fingernails drenched in it as if he had tried to paint a wall. Everything felt surreal to be the truth.
Confused and terrified, the boy started calling out different names of his family members, but nobody replied. He followed the black feathers that laid on the stairs, leading him down. His blood froze cold when he noticed the pool of blood next to the familiar faces, ripped out hearts laying everywhere. Black feathers swimming in the red sea.
“Abyss…” Demian whispered, his voice broken, his eyes mortified with the sickening images his mind refused to accept as real. “When I become stronger, I will hunt you down, and you’ll become my prey!”
The boy shouted out the cursed name again before fainting on the floor.
Chapter 6: Fon Vorigans
Fon Vorigan
It was autumn, and bright purple leaves covered Olendalia streets. Since the beginning of the world, it had always been one of the prettiest cities. It bordered with the Sleeping Woods and the Punishment Circle, separating the city from the magnificent Morteezeana. Old-fashioned architecture mixed with highly advanced technologies and beautiful nature, making Olendalia a home for different races - elves, wizards, humans and many more. However, fon Vorigan purebloods were the superiors of the wealthy city.
The residents of Olendalia valued art of any kinds. Since the nights were longer than the days all year long, city streets were well lighted with colourful lanterns floating over the paintings, sculptures and many other masterpieces. Different musicians brought the streets to life by their symphonic melodies.
All plants in Olendalia were purple, gifting the city with a slightly mysterious atmosphere. The graceful trunks of all trees illuminated purple lights after the dawn, painting the parks and gardens with magic.
There were many impressive buildings in the city, but one of the most incredible ones was the home of fon Vorigans. It looked like a giant, antique birdcage made of opaque glass, reflecting the graceful city in all directions like a rounded mirror. Instead of the rails, purple glowing sticks swallowed the glass walls.
It was the time when Eden was still very young; only 7 years old. Standing at a window on one of the hundred floors, the boy was learning to play the violin. Knowing that nobody could see him from the outside, the boy got constantly distracted by the beautiful trees far away, ignoring the luxuries inside the perfectly designed room.
It was his fifth birthday, and he was dressed in a dark purple suit, made just for him. Eden held a matching colour violin, playing it endlessly with no passion.
“Focus!” a feminine voice demanded strictly.
The hypnotic sound made the boy jump. He glanced at the elegant lady walking around him, dressed in a snow-white dress and a white fur scarf around her shoulders. The woman’s slim body seemed delicate, but she was the oldest member of the family - Leticia. She was one of the very rare vampires who had lived before the world got recreated.
“Focus, Eden Gracious fon Vorigan!” Leticia repeated, fixing her perfect blonde hair that was styled as if she were a queen. Her purple eyes glimmered mysteriously as she glanced at the boy once more, “Start all over again! You can’t allow your violin to sound like a tortured animal. The melody bust be clean, emotional and full of passion!”
Eden wiped his bleeding fingers in his trousers and picked the bow again, trying his best to
please the head of the family, but the woman created sheer energy in a shape of a ribbon, swirling it around the boy’s head to cause him a headache.
“A real musician knows how to create art regardless of circumstances and pain.” Leticia showed no mercy, “Start all over again!”
Eden started playing the same melody again, but his eyes followed Leticia’s high heels that reminded him of lightning.
“Focus!” Leticia tightened the energy ribbons, straightening the boy’s posture.
“I don’t want to play any more!” Eden licked his fingers to heal his bruises with the venom.
“You will play until I tell you to stop, Eden Gracious!” Leticia moved her elegant fingers in the air to control the ribbons to tie around the boy’s hands, “And stop licking your fingers and wiping them in your clothing. It’s disgusting! Doesn’t Adrian and Loren feed you at all?”
Eden sighed, trying to play the violin again. The headache seemed like torture, but the little pureblood knew he wouldn’t get free unless he managed to lay the notes right.
Suddenly, it started raining, drops hitting against the glass wall. Together with the violin, they created a beautiful melody.
“No, not good enough.” Leticia explained, “You must play so well that it makes me want to dance!”
Eden’s eyes started to glow pinkish-purple, warning about his hunger.
Leticia glanced at the boy, sighing with disappointment. She released Eden from her magic, and he sat on the floor, exhausted.
“It’s my birthday! Why do I need to waste it studying music? I want to celebrate my day!” Eden muttered in a shy voice.
“I know, child, I know…” Leticia replied quietly, glancing outside the window with her gaze lost over the top of the trees of the Sleeping Woods. “However, soon, your memories will return, and music will be your only escape. You may not understand it now, but you will later.”
Her words made no sense to Eden, but he decided to stand up and try to play better, but a devious shadow slid into the room before he managed to pick up the violin.
A masculine man, dressed in a golden fur coat, approached Leticia. His eyes were darker than hers, full of vigour. His short hair dazzled like the sun.
