by Hunter Blain
“Then we will,” Ulric said patiently. “But first, it is time to sleep.”
“No!” I shouted at him. “Now!” A chunk of the wall crumbled away from the hole and tumbled on the ground, attempting to escape my wrath.
Ulric didn’t even flinch at my verbal onslaught, even as dust rose from his clothing like a beaten rug. He just stared at me with understanding in his eyes. Behind that was annoyance at the spoiled brat who wanted his way or he’d throw a tantrum.
He took in a long, contemplative breath and said, “Dawn approaches,” then pointed to the distance. A scowl creasing my face, I followed his hand and had my frustration melt into awe as flames drifted up from the horizon to a quarter of the way into the early morning sky. The flaming tendrils wavered erratically in a beautiful and horrifying dance. They crisscrossed in front of each other, competing for dominance on who would be the biggest and the brightest. The longer I looked, the higher the flames reached into the sky, threatening to envelope the heavens like some sort of tentacled world-eating monster. I had to squint after a minute of taking in the fearsome beauty, as the light began to burn my eyes. I noticed my skin was growing uncomfortably warmer as well, like waking in the middle of a hot summer’s night and throwing the blanket off before you cooked to death.
Birds woke up and flew from their branches into the growing inferno of the morning sky. Winged black dots were swallowed by the brightness that only Ulric and I were privy to. Our own private sun-pocalypse.
“That’s long enough, John. Time to find a place to sleep. Oblivion will always return to humbly remind us of our place in the universe,” Ulric said as he started walking into the woods at a swift pace.
After a few minutes, when the flames were blazing across half of the sky and I had to squint to see, we stopped at a clearing. Ulric said, “This will suffice.” He put his hand out in front of him, palm outstretched, and a string of blood left his body. It snaked in the air then divided into two ropes which divided yet again and pierced the ground at four different points. The ropes—bloodropes I guess you would call them— started moving in a rectangle pattern, leaving lines in the earth. After the shape was complete, the blood congealed into one wide line and shoved into the bottom of the rectangle like a shovel, then moved forward, lifting the dirt. The blood raised a large section of earth ten feet into the air, creating a large hole that was three or four feet deep. Ulric stepped in, lay down comfortably, and said, “You better get started.” The earth started slowly descending on him. “Otherwise, the sun will burn your immortal essence away.” Just as he finished, the dirt was upon him, sealing him off with only a slight mound to indicate his presence.
I stood looking at the mound and repeated out loud what he had said, “Burn your immortal essence.” At that, the sun crested the horizon, and I could feel its power stinging my skin. The direct light was still in the sky, not even touching the treetops yet, but the fierce power threatened to ignite every cell in my body.
Dropping to my knees, I started frantically digging into the earth beside Ulric. I was growing weaker as the seconds ticked by. My eyes were growing heavy, and my arms were filling with sand, becoming less agile and ignoring my direct commands. I got about halfway through when I saw the light hit the top of the trees next to where I was.
Staring at them, I could see with my new eyes that the air was wavering with heat where the light touched. Panic could be an amazing motivator, but the closer the light came, the harder it was to move my muscles. At some point, I lifted my head in exhaustion, the light slamming into the back of my skull. A white sheet of pain spread down my head and through my body, stunning me. I fell forward, incapacitated. My slack-jawed face lay on the ground, staring as the light approached, inch by inch.
I weakly pulled my limp body as far as I could into the incredibly small hole I had made. Grabbing a mound of dirt with my clawed, numb hands, I pulled as much earth over my head, neck, and upper back as I could. As I reached up again to try and shovel more dirt, the sun struck my hands and incinerated them. I could tell by the sound that they had fallen to the ground, useless.
The burning was immeasurable and impossible to describe with words. I could only sob in agony as the light moved up my arms and down the rest of my uncovered back. I could feel the skin start to bubble and liquid ooze down my sides. I inhaled a mouthful of dirt and tried to scream, but nothing came out except a squeak. The dirt underneath my face soaked with a flood of tears.
I could feel my body contort as the muscles dried out and shrunk, threatening to pull my head free. I flexed my neck and abdomen to the point of snapping to try and keep my head submerged. My back muscles withered and crumbled to ash. The sun violated my internal organs next, causing blood to bubble up and seep through my mouth. I had to focus on the fact that I wasn’t choking because I didn’t need to breathe anymore.
I couldn’t feel my legs any longer, and the skin on my stomach was starting to smolder. I gritted my teeth and felt a tooth shatter.
After minutes of immense suffering, my nerve endings finally shriveled and became worthless. Once the pain subsided and the damage was done, I plummeted into unconsciousness and my first preternatural dreams.
Chapter 9
Present day
Dreams for a vampire were in a league of their own. The preternatural mind could weave such vivid horrors that even H.R. Giger would curl into a fetal position and weep in terror. It could also construct the purest, most blissful dreams that made you never want to wake up. This night’s was particularly terrifying.
Winged men sheathed in blindingly reflective golden armor and wielding gladius swords coated in fierce white-blue flames battled grotesque monstrosities adorned with black armor and brandishing crude weapons—both made from obsidian originating from the immense lava pits in Hell.
Scattered over the seared ground were beautiful cadavers intermixed with deformed beasts, all of which had varying degrees of mutilation and carnage. An extinguished gladius lay nearby with a coat of black, viscous demon blood. Not far was a severed hellion’s hand with a sheet of pristine flesh pierced on its claws. On closer inspection, it was a face sagging in a perpetual frown, like the Tragedy mask associated with the theater. My eyes continued to take in the disastrous scene.
The skyline appeared to be a decimated downtown Houston, as if a meteor had hit a bull’s-eye on the city’s center. Skyscrapers had crumbled. Everything in sight was bathed in flames. The sky swirled angrily with black clouds and crimson linings. Balls of fire dropped from the heavens and course corrected to the heat of the battle, crashing in an explosion of white flames. Savage angels rose stoically from the points of impact and joined the fray.
Colossal craters spouting red-and-green hellfire littered the ground as far as the eye could see. Clawed, nightmarish limbs grasped the dead earth and hauled truly horrifying behemoths onto this plane. Thunderous bellows shook the ground, sending shock waves that would liquify a mortal’s organs.
I stood in the middle of the chaos. The pure dread and terror of what I knew was happening froze me in place, paralyzed by what I had done. This was my fault…I had done this. The entire plane would be engulfed in heavenflame and hellfire and burned to a cinder. The forces would battle until the last man stood. With the gates to both above and below open, mortal souls would be collateral damage. All the humans to have ever existed throughout history would pay for my mistakes. Demons would destroy the souls of the righteous in Heaven out of envious anger, while the angels would extinguish the souls of sinners in Hell.
The clashing of weapons against armor ceased all at once, creating a deafening silence where only fire cracked and the wind whispered its ghostly lullaby through blackened ribcages.
My eyes widened at the realization that both the angels and demons were staring directly at me. I peed a little. The biggest of the hellion monsters lumbered toward me, both factions moving out of the way to allow this house-sized beast better access to my tender, succulent body.
He stood at least twenty feet tall and was just as wide, with bulging arms running the length of his body and knuckles dragging the ground. Black scales ran over his entire frame, with curving red bone spikes emerging at his joints and along his spine. His eyes were made of hatred and fire, like looking into a black hole with a crimson event horizon, and seemed further back in his head than they should have been. Stopping once he reached my trembling self, the monster house opened his enormous jaws to reveal a salivating mouth encrusted with row after row of serrated shark’s teeth. Black fumes escaped his throat and billowed up either side of his face.
Looking down at me, he smiled. Row after row of flesh shredders lined together like a morbid puzzle. I peed a lot. There was a blur of teeth that clamped around my entire body, and I screamed like a girl.
Chapter 10
Ireland, 1480
I drifted in a familiar ocean of absolute nothingness for what felt like days, and then weeks. The expectation of seeing either of the dots appear at polar opposites of existence became my every thought. It hadn’t taken this long last time, and I was positive that I was more dead on this go-around. I’d felt my entire body smolder into John ash. There was a distant thought among my growing panic; what had happened to my bones? Had they burned up and turned to dust? Or had they just bleached in the sun?
There was no need for sleep here, which meant I couldn’t. There was only the constant hope for either doorway to eternity to open. Anything was better than this. Hell was a more desirable eternity than this…nothingness. A lake of fire forever seemed like a warm, relaxing bath right now. Wait, what if Hell was custom-made per its denizen’s worst fears, and this was mine? Was this Hell?
Madness started to creep into my mind, until something grabbed my heart and pulled me through the vast expanse of oblivion.
With a hand on my exposed ribcage, Ulric held me down as my soul slammed into my ashen body.
Pain welcomed me as Ulric leaned over me with an exposed, bleeding palm dripping precious blood into my mouth. The blood brought vigorous, supernaturally powered healing properties that gave life back to my barren body. As the nerves cultivated and grew, so too did the agony.
It started down my spine and expanded down my boney legs. My instinct was to gasp as the brand-new exposed nerves came alive, but I didn’t have any lungs to suck in the air. My head rocked back and forth as I flirted with unconsciousness, black dots swirling in my vision like a swarm. Ulric grabbed my mud-caked forehead with his other hand and forcefully held it in place, allowing the blood to reach its target.
Once the length of my body had been reached, the nerves multiplied like lightning bolts forking over my ribcage. The black dots in my vision grew until there was a single blackness where I no longer felt the pain.
My head was knocked to the side with a deafening thud. The swarm diminished, and I saw Ulric as he reared back again and slapped me, hard. I could hear him speaking to me, but I might as well have had cotton balls in my ears. Another head smack and my ears opened up. I caught the end of what he was saying, “…learn a lesson.”
My eyes focused and I raised my neck—which I was vaguely surprised I could even do—and saw that my entire body was comprised of raw, unprotected meat. Patches of skin started growing sporadically and connected over the exposed muscles, organs, and bones.
Ulric licked his palm and let the wound close. He stood and watched as my skin grew. I noticed his skin was pale and his eyes were sunken.
“How clever you are, John, to have covered your head,” Ulric said weakly.
“What…what happened?” I managed to ask as my body finished the repair process by growing hair. I instinctively reached down and felt my Little John. I closed my eyes and sighed in relief.
“You learned a lesson, by dying,” Ulric stated flatly. “The sun burns our essence,” he said while looking me up and down, admiring his handiwork. “Luckily, you were not too far gone and were able to return to this life.”
“You said we were immortal!” I exclaimed, realizing I was now naked.
“I did, indeed. However, there are rules and limitations that one must adhere to in order to survive the centuries. Rule one, find a resting place before the sun rises. The ground is the most viable, but deep caves also work; and I do mean deep. You would not enjoy getting caught in a shallow cave where the light bounces off the walls and burns you from every direction.”
“What about houses?” I asked.
“Think about your home. Is there anywhere, even in the cellar, where light cannot find?” he asked.
Looking down, I remembered how I had watched the commander attack my father through a crack in the stone. I shook my head once.
“I thought not. We are vulnerable in the light. Day saps us of our strength and reduces us to helpless sheep,” Ulric said with a touch of disgust.
I lifted myself up on my elbows and examined my body. After a moment, I looked up at him and asked, “What happened to me? It felt like I was burned alive.”
“You were, in a manner of speaking,” Ulric said. “The sun cleanses the world of most magic, which is now infused within you. You only survived because you protected what cannot be replaced.”
“My…head?” I asked.
“You are more than your head, John. It is what is inside that makes you who you are. If only your head had been burned and I brought you back, you wouldn’t be you anymore. You’d be a newborn child in a dangerous body.”
“So, I’d be dead?” I asked.
“Well, undead, actually,” Ulric informed, glancing at his fingernails and cleaning out the dirt underneath one by one. “But yes, who you are now would no longer exist. Now then,” he continued, “it’s time for both of us to feed. If I remember correctly, and I always do, there is a small farm nearby.” He started walking due north.
“A farm? What are we going to feed on?” I asked, fearing the answer.
“Oh, John,” he said, stopping to turn and look at me. “You cannot afford to be so naïve. The sooner you leave your mortality behind, the easier things will become.”
“But they are innocent!” I protested getting to my feet.
“They are food. Plus, you are naked,” Ulric said flatly.
I looked in his eyes for any semblance of weakness in his resolve. There wasn’t any that I could see, and it frightened me. I threw out exactly what I was feeling in hopes that he would relent.
Breathing heavily, I tilted my head downward while my eyes remained locked on his and said, “My family was innocent, Ulric. I will not harm the weak.”
“You will do as I command, boy!” Ulric strode over to me, voice booming and eyes blazing. His eyes were a shade of purple that was shifting to a crimson red. It was mesmerizing.
With no leverage, I threw out the first thing that came to mind. “You want a companion, right? Someone to share your time with that understands how today’s world works?” I reached.
At this, the intensity in his eyes diminished a tad. Though he didn’t respond, his demeanor suggested his willingness to listen.
“Let’s make a deal. I’ll do whatever you ask and be your companion. All I ask in return is that we feed on those who have earned our attention,” I pleaded.
His eyes slowly returned to their original color as he pondered.
I continued, feeling more confident. “You have nothing to lose with this, and everything to gain.”
His gaze shifted to the scenery around us, and he put one hand on his chin in deep contemplation.
“I am not used to opposition, John. But your bargain is acceptable. You will do whatever I ask and be by my side, teaching me as I teach you. In return, we will feed on…bad men.” He took a breath between the last words and put emphasis on bad.
He continued before I could ask him why. “Now then, let us find something around the camp indicating other locales.” With that, he strode back in the opposite direction of the farm.
I took a deep breath and exhaled, relieved to have sav
ed an innocent family from a fate they didn’t deserve. I ran to catch up to him, praying we would find any information—and pants. I was hungry, and naked.
Chapter 11
Present day
I screamed and jerked my body awake, slamming headfirst into the top of my coffin. The darkness of my sleeping chamber was then illuminated by floating stars from the impact. I felt like a Looney Toons character.
“Lilith damn it!” I exclaimed as I rubbed my forehead. With my free hand, I flipped the switch to open the coffin and turn on the lights. I was aware of a warm liquid dripping down my face. It had apparently already reached my crotch and soaked through.
Still holding my forehead, I pulled my hand away to see that I indeed would be adding my sheets and shirt to the dry-cleaning bill. Looking down I saw that there was no red on my pants.
Asking no one, I said in my best Keanu impression, “If you pee in the matrix, do you pee here?”
Da floated into the room and asked in alarm, “What is all the screaming about?! Why are you bloody bleeding?”
“I told you to knock, Mom! I could have been…you know…watching My Little Pony or something.”
“I’m sure. However, the question still warrants an answer. Why were you screaming, and why are you bleeding?” he asked with narrowing eyes.
“I had a daymare and slammed my noggin on the feckin’ iron lid,” I explained, wincing in pain. An Irish expletive snuck into my phrasing as I temporarily lost focus on my accent.
“That won’t heal for some time, then. That is the double-edged sword you swing when creating a sleeping chamber made from a material that cancels all magic. I’ll get the superglue,” he said as he floated off to wherever we kept the glue, duct tape, and spare batteries.
