A Shade of Vampire 84: A Memory of Time

by Forrest, Bella

  The tunnel.

  My eyes peeled open. I was in the tunnel. This wasn’t a dream at all. It was reality, and it was catching up with me so fast, I had a hard time coping. I’d been thrown over Kalon’s shoulder. He ran as fast as he could, his breathing shallow as he carried me away from… “Oh God,” I managed, with a clear view of what was coming for us.

  I couldn’t see Tristan or Valaine anymore. Phantom. Morning. Blackness had vanished them as well as it flooded the tunnel, spreading toward us, ravenous and itching to get us.

  “Kalon, you were sick,” I croaked. “The Black Fever…”

  “I still am,” he said, interrupted by a violent cough. It made me shudder. “But I came to, and here we are. How are you feeling?”

  “Kalon, wait!” I tried to get down, but his arm held me firmly in place, hoisted over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I wiggled and squirmed, but he refused to let go. “I can run on my own!”

  “No, right now you need to sit tight and pray it doesn’t catch up with us again,” he replied dryly, heaving as he struggled to reach the others.

  I couldn’t see very well behind me, but I could hear everyone running, their boots rumbling across the hard ground. Children screamed. Their mothers were too busy fleeing for their lives to even comfort them.

  “Kalon, is that… is that Valaine?” I asked, the view before me jiggling. The darkness was still coming, and it was horrifyingly fast.

  “Yeah, it’s Valaine,” he replied. “She’s out of control. Everything is dying around her. You were out cold, I could barely breathe, but the farther we’re getting from her, the better I’m feeling. You?”

  “The Black Fever. It’s coming out of her. Raw… untamed…”

  “Exactly.”

  “Tristan is still there with her, isn’t he?” I asked, though part of me already knew the answer. Tears stung my eyes as I narrowed them, struggling to see something through the gloom that was feverishly chasing us.

  “I’m sorry, Esme. We can’t get to him. He’s too close to her.”

  I remembered now. “Kalon, I think I can run on my own. You’re putting too much of a strain on yourself.”

  “I’m okay. I just need to—” Kalon grunted in pain. He stumbled, and we fell, rolling on the ground.

  He managed to pull himself back up, terror imprinted on his face as he looked at me. “It’s getting worse…” he managed.

  The sickness was seeping into my bones and making it harder for me to breathe. He was right, and I could feel it.

  “It’s not fair,” I whispered as my vision grew hazy. I didn’t want to give up. We could still make it, but my body was working against me. Sobbing, I looked back at the encroaching darkness. It showed no mercy, gobbling up everything in its path. Roots dropped from the tunnel’s ceiling, shriveled and black. Everything disappeared. Soon, so would we.

  My desire to save Tristan had already faded—much to my shame—as my survival instincts kicked back in. I looked at Kalon and realized he was the only one I could do something for, if only my legs would hold me. Black blood trickled from his nose, but he refused to leave me.

  “You know I love you, right?” I whispered. “We have to move, Kalon. Either we both leave, or we both die in this place. There’s no in-between.”.

  “It’s hard to move—” He doubled over with a violent cough, spraying more black blood onto the ground. He couldn’t get back up. His body gave out, and his knees buckled and bent. I lost him for a moment, but I pulled him into a standing position. His head lolled back and forth, his blue eyes rolling around with no ability to focus. It was definitely hitting him harder and more intensely than before.

  I gathered what was left of my strength and threw him over my shoulder. He’d taken great risks to protect me, and this was the least I could do for him. My only hope was that my brother might survive, after all.

  I looked back once more, unable to see anything except the dark energy that was hurtling toward us. It was death in its purest form, and it wouldn’t take any prisoners. I could feel it in my bones.

  My options became clear. Either Kalon and I died here, or we tried to survive this. My brother would want me to choose the latter. I knew that. I wasn’t sure if Tristan was still alive somehow—by the grace of whatever forces powered this universe—but I knew he would want me to fight, to keep going, to relish every single breath of air I had left. He would want me to leave him.

  And so I ran, once more. With my soulmate bearing down on my shoulder, I ran as though my heels were on fire. Mom and Dad came to mind, for some reason. Perhaps they’d be my last thought before dying… I could almost hear them cheering me on, telling me to keep going, to stop at nothing. I could almost see Grandpa Kyle and Grandma Anna smiling at us, though most of what I knew of them came from distant memories and pictures from family albums. Despite that, they felt closer to me than ever before.

  As my legs moved and my muscles ached, I saw The Shade open up ahead. With its redwood giants and evergreen canopy. With its night sky and pearly moon. With its narrow paths and the colorful Vale. My home. My haven. It had seemed so far until this moment, yet now it felt within my reach. Maybe this was all part of the process, just before the last breath—seeing everything I wanted, everything I’d been through, both good and bad. A selection of the greatest hits, the moments I’d cherish long after I’d be gone.

  But I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to anyone. Not yet. I wasn’t done living! I wasn’t done loving or fighting, either. The Shade dissolved like a tiny drop of ink in a sea of clear water, and the tunnel opened ahead instead. The Vision horses neighed frantically. I could see the others—Sofia, Thayen, Trev… the Visentis boys… Rudolph, Seeley—so I kept running.

  I kept running for our lives while the darkness chased us.

  Up until now, we’d been the ones to chase darkness. This time, the hunted was more powerful than anything we had to throw at it, so it hunted us back. If only one of us could reach out to Valaine. If only one of us could snap her out of her current state.

  Maybe then we wouldn’t all have to die in this wretched tunnel.

  Tristan

  I kept staring at them. All of Valaine’s past lives were on display from left to right, going on forever in both directions. They stood before me, smiling, dressed in white silk, the void at their feet and above their heads.

  “Why me?” I asked. “Why does it have to be me?”

  “Because you love with all your heart,” they said in unison. The strange voice of the Unending didn’t come from just one entity. It came from all of them at once, and I could barely keep myself together. I’d taken on this task for the sake of truth and righteousness, but she was right. I was doing it out of love, too. It was by far the most powerful of the feelings that had driven me.

  “How do I set you free?” I asked.

  “I can’t remember. Not yet, anyway,” Unending replied. “It’s in here, Tristan.”

  The vessels brought their hands up, pointing fingers at their temples with incredible synchronicity. I focused on Valaine in an attempt at concentration, to make sense of what I was seeing and hearing. I’d become so detached from myself while lingering in this nothingness that I could barely think. My synapses were faltering, and the last thing I needed was a slow mind.

  “You’re lashing out,” I said. “You’re out of control.”

  “I wish I could stop. I really do.”

  “You have to help me, Valaine.”

  “Say my name, Tristan.”

  “Valaine.”

  “No, say my real name,” they replied.

  I let out a deep sigh. I heard it, like a sullen whisper. “You have to help me, Unending.”

  Valaine smiled, as did the others. “It sounds so good rolling off your tongue like that.”

  “Can you help me?”

  “I don’t know. I can try, but like you said, I’m out of control. I want it all to stop.”

  My patience abandoned me. I cursed under my b
reath and reached out, pulling Valaine into my arms and hiding my face in her long, silky hair. “You have to help me,” I told her. “You have to wake up and put an end to all this. I will go with you to the end of the world, beyond all the realms, known or unknown. I will do whatever it takes to set you free, but please… please, Valaine, wake up.”

  Seconds passed in gloomy silence, but I felt her softening in my embrace. A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth as her heartbeats matched mine. We were one, and nothing else mattered. The other versions of the Unending vanished like mirages in a cooling desert. The night wrapped itself around us, the chill rushing through my limbs. I hoped she’d hear me.

  Upon opening my eyes again, I found that we were surrounded by a different kind of darkness. This one felt real and suffocating, like noxious gas filling my lungs and shutting down every organ in my body. My blood thickened, and a wave of pain crashed through me, making me whimper in agony. Still I refused to let go of Valaine.

  We were in the tunnel, in the heart of the very darkness she’d lost control of. It swirled and raged around us and beyond, spreading far and wide. Valaine was catatonic, kneeling only because I held her up. Her eyes remained fully black, her head tilted back slightly. Eons of suffering rippled out of her, feeding the frenzy, amplifying everything.

  “Tristan,” Morning said, making me turn my head.

  Phantom stood beside her. Soul, Widow, and Night had joined them. Kelara must’ve stayed ahead to teleport the Orvisians farther away—I figured she had better range, now. The Reapers’ brows were furrowed, and sadness lingered in their galaxy eyes as they looked at us. I didn’t need to hear their thoughts to know what they were thinking. I could smell the defeat from a mile away. But I wasn’t ready to give up.

  “She’s going to kill everything and everyone,” Phantom said quietly. “All our wards… nothing has helped. We’ve been trying.”

  “How are you still alive?” Soul asked, looking astonished.

  “She wants me to help her,” I replied. “She told me.”

  “Valaine is out of it,” Night muttered, a single tear escaping from the corner of his eye.

  “No, Unending. Unending wants me to help her,” I said. It got their attention. Night was the first to get closer, though he was clearly uncomfortable. Whatever this energy coming out of Valaine was, it had enough of an impact to affect the First Tenners. No wonder I’d seen Seeley run away. It probably would’ve been worse for him—not to mention Rudolph or Nethissis. Only I remained standing somehow, in the company of Death’s first Reapers.

  “You spoke to Unending?” Night asked, his head cocked to the side.

  I nodded. “In the nothingness. Where we usually go to look for memories. That’s where she is. I seem to have come back on my own this time.”

  “What did she say?” Morning asked, her eyes widening. Hope was a fickle and dangerous thing, but she couldn’t really help herself. They all wanted their sister back.

  “She needs my help to remember. We need to keep digging into her past,” I said.

  “How? She’s about to kill the whole planet right now.” Soul scoffed.

  “I’m not sure, but I know she wants to fight. She wants to be free.” Tears filled my eyes. Love and grief took over, along with an excruciating form of Black Fever. My skin burned, yet I refused to let go. I held Valaine closely as the curse worked its way through me.

  My insides liquefied. My heart slowed down.

  “Tristan, she will kill you,” Phantom cried. She looked like a little girl, a sister who was afraid to lose the people she cared about the most. The Reaper was reduced to tears as she watched me succumb to the Black Fever.

  “I will die if that’s what it takes,” I managed, resting my head on Valaine’s shoulder. “Though… to be fair, I’m not sure… how much longer… I can last…”

  My voice was breaking. Forming words had become a laborious process. As much as I’d tried to fight it, the darkness was finally taking me down, one cell at a time. Soon nothing would be left of me at all. Maybe then I’d return to the void where I’d met the Unending. Where it was quiet and peaceful. Maybe then I’d get to test my theory about how long it would take for one’s spirit to go mad in the absence of everything that made this life worth living.

  “Death…” I whispered. My last resort had finally come to me. Facing the end in the arms of my beloved had finally pushed me to do the one thing I hadn’t even thought of before. I opened my heart and mind in prayer as I sought Death beyond this realm. “Dear Death… Sacred Death, hear my prayer,” I said, my voice getting stronger.

  The wind howled around us. The darkness festered and ate away at me. I was hanging by a thread, images flashing through my mind—Esme… Mom… Dad… our childhood in The Shade… our numerous adventures in all of Earth’s most hidden places… sharing fruit with the natives of Amazonia… participating in the aboriginal rituals of southwestern Australia—oh, I’d had a lot of fun throughout my short life. There was so much I still wanted to do, but fate appeared to have other plans for me.

  “Death, hear my prayer unto you,” I continued, yearning for my soul to connect with the Lady of Reapers herself, wondering if she could hear me even though we didn’t share a telepathic connection. “I need your help. Your daughter, your beloved Unending needs your help. We’ve come far in our quest, but we cannot go any further. Darkness and suffering surround us. They eat away at us. I beg you, Death, to give me something, anything, so I can save Unending. So I can love her forever.”

  “What the hell is he doing?” Soul blurted.

  “Praying,” Morning said. “He’s praying to Death.”

  “Wow. When’s the last time that happened?” Widow asked. I heard the question, but I couldn’t see them anymore. My eyes were closed as I held Valaine tight and repeated my prayer over and over until my voice echoed beyond the confines of space and time—or so I hoped.

  “Billions of ages ago,” Night replied. “Back when the world was still young. Back when Death had just made us. Proto-humanoids worshipped her directly, remember? There were so many of them, too.”

  “Ah, right. The early planets from the In-Between. Before the other dimensions created their own life,” Morning said. “Millions prayed to Death every night. She could hear them.”

  “Sometimes she would answer a prayer or two, as well.” Night chuckled.

  “Do you think she can hear Tristan now?” Widow asked.

  “We can help him get the message across,” Soul said. A moment later, his voice joined mine in prayer. “Death, hear my prayer unto you. I need your help. Your daughter, your beloved Unending needs your help. We’ve come far in our quest, but we cannot go any further. Darkness and suffering surround us. They eat away at us. I beg you, Death, to give me something, anything, so I can save Unending.”

  Soon they were all chanting with me. Our prayers met in the ether, melding into one single voice, one powerful message that hopefully transcended the planes of existence.

  “Death, hear my prayer unto you…”

  “Your daughter…”

  “Your beloved Unending needs your help…”

  “Darkness and suffering…”

  “I beg you, Death,” I said. “To give me something, anything, so I can save Unending.”

  This was the closest we had ever gotten to the truth. The closest the Unending had gotten to finding her true self. Maybe the universe would help us this time around. Maybe the Word or other forces in this cosmic vastness would take pity on our suffering and help get our prayer across.

  We were wading into uncharted territory, and we knew little to nothing of what lay ahead. I didn’t know what to expect, except for my demise. My body was gradually caving in. Breathing became impossible. Hot and cold currents burst through me. Whatever was left of my heart was breaking, but I continued praying.

  I had come so far… I had come so close to touching her. The real her. The Unending. It felt surreal—so beautiful, so potentially wonderful
that not even death by Black Fever scared me. I was moments away from salvation or destruction. I prayed. We all prayed, raising our voices higher, hoping that she, the wielder of the end, might hear us. That she, the bringer of eternal night, might save us.

  Hope would perish last.

  Taeral

  Due to the difficulties our people had on Visio and the complexity of the Unending situation, I was compelled to visit Aledras again. Here, Death sulked as the Time Master, the Nightmare, and the Dream struggled to break another seal. Around five hundred remained, and each subsequent seal was proving harder to crack than the one before it.

  A chain linked Death’s ankle to the bottom of the frozen lake. Sheer whiteness spread as far as the eye could see, and snowy forests rose around the edges. To the north, merely a glimmer on the horizon, stood a city with white towers. The Aledrasians were likely still recovering from their Hermessi trauma, and the weather was often severe this time of year, so few had the courage to venture this far out.

  The wind howled, snow pricking my face as I made my way across the thick ice toward the center where Death sat, her long black hair half white with frost. She didn’t feel the cold on her skin, but she didn’t look comfortable, either. The Spirit Bender had mercilessly bound her to Aledras with a thousand seals. I would’ve been glum about it, too. The Time Master moved slowly around her, analyzing each of the black runes imprinted on her body. Some had vanished—broken already—but half remained and grew increasingly hard to break.

  Dream and Nightmare sat on the edge of the ice hole with their bare feet dipping in the water, while Death had her legs crossed, white silk dress rippling in the wind. Her face lit up when she saw me. “Taeral… what brings you here?”

  “You know very well why I’ve returned,” I said. “Our people need help. Your help.”

  “I heard about the Orvis situation,” Death replied. Time stopped, giving me a sideways glance. A muscle ticked in his jaw. He seemed tense. “Seeley told me through our telepathic connection. I asked him to keep me informed.”