Rated M for violence and mature language.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Bloodborne. All rights go to their respective owners.
It's dark... It's cold... It's damp... Wherever I am, I fucking hate it.
I seem to be lying down, still fully clothed thankfully. This world has gone to shit honestly, can't trust anyone these days but I don't care. All I care about is the continued survival of the Vilebloods. But... why? Come to think of it, who am I? Where am I?
Oh... wait... What silly questions. I am Eliza Rouge, Noble Scion of Castle Cainhurst. Loyal knight and one of Her Highness' most trusted body guards. The Queen herself had bestowed upon me the title 'Prideful Crow' for my unwavering loyalty to her and only her. I had been away from the castle for quite a while at the behest of Her Royal Highness, Queen Annalise, Ruler of the Vilebloods.
I had been sent to investigate a place said to contain powerful artifacts, Lordbrand? Lorand? Lord... something. I can't remember. When I got to the supposed location of the Kingdom though, I found that it had long since fallen to decrepit decay. I suspect that the place had been like this for a very long time, likely before the thought of Yharnam had even been conceived. That place was ancient, far more so than anything I could ever comprehend. It must have been thriving during the time when The Great Ones still walked among man. It was also dangerous. I felt eyes on me the entire time I traversed its ruins, through its winding streets and even up the steps leading to what had once surely been a truly magnificent palace. I was sure no one was here though, maybe The Great Ones were keeping watch over me. I did not care, be they man,monster or Great One, nothing would impede my progress to fulfill my Lady's quest. I would see it through to the end.
Though I would never say it out loud the sheer magnitude of the palace alone was truly awe inspiring. It easily put Cainhurst Castle to shame even in its sorry and decrepit state. The tapestries that had once hung along the mighty pillars had all but rotted away at this point, their colors faded to white by time. Holes littered the roof of the palace, letting in rays of sunlight to aid me in my search for anything that might be of use. The ceilings were so high I was sure giants could easily stand up tall under them. It took me a few months alone to search the entire palace, and even more time to search the entire city below. I had made use of the surrounding overgrown plants and animals to feed me while I stayed in crumbled houses during the nights.
The silence that encompassed the entire Kingdom nearly drew me into madness. With no one around for miles to interact with every noise, every caw of a crow, every rustle of a bush, every bump in the night sent me to full alert. My paranoia grew day by day, slowly chipping away at my sanity. I think at one point I had even begun to hallucinate. I could have sworn the few statues that were still left standing all leering and glaring at me as I passed by them, angry with me for daring to trespass upon their sacred, hallowed ground. I saw people I recognized and people I didn't. I saw ghostly apparitions of the previous denizens of this once great Kingdom. One time, I even saw phantasms of chrome armored knights with wings on their helmets marching down the main street towards the palace, some hefting weapons of immense sizes while others carried long sticks with banners hanging off of them.
With every night that passed I grew to hate that place more and more. Only the thought of failing my Queen kept me going. I had never failed the Queen and I certainly wasn't about to star then, so I pushed through and upturned every twice damned stone in that thrice damned city. I had searched all throughout those ruins for month, maybe years, and yet still I came up with absolutely nothing! Nothing but dusty tomes in a language lost to time, rusty old swords and armor, ghosts, and a whole lot of nothing!
My hatred for those ruins grew to exponential heights. By the time I had been forced to admit defeat and make my way home there was no place on this plane of existence that I hated the most. What was I going to say to Her Majesty when I came back to Cainhurst defeated and empty handed? On my journey home I had decided that once I reported what I found to Her Majesty I was going to commit ritual suicide in order to atone for my sin of failing her.
My Queen is everything to me. She plucked me off the dirty, grime ridden streets of Hemwick Charnel Lane. She saw my potential among the filth that permeated that sorry excuse for a village. She made me into what I was today, a proud and respected noble of the Vilebloods. Through years of rigorous training I earned my right to stand beside Her Majesty and then some. I hacked and slashed my way through any opposition I encountered, I completed any task Her Majesty gave me assigned of me with extreme prejudice. With extreme efficiency I had erased any doubt that I deserved to have both the Chikage and the Evelyn hanging on my hip. My loyalty, though, lay only with Queen Annalise and no one else. Not the snobbish nobles, not the Royal Retainers and certainly not that sham of a King, Robert!
My infamy and quick rise from a mere street urchin to becoming a Royal Guard had garnered a lot of attention. Many a times I had received marriage proposals or dinner invitations from the lesser nobles hoping to gain favor with Her Majesty's loyal lap crow. All of which were promptly and politely denied. That is to say their courier was often sent back my with my reply while missing one or both hands. The higher nobles didn't deem it worth their time to cohort with me. They still viewed me as a lowly street rat who had no noble blood within me despite being named a noble by Her Majesty herself. Of course, they would never say that to me directly. Great Ones only knew what I would have done to them if they had.
On the night that I had reached the gates of the city of "great" Yharnam I was attacked by two Scourge Beasts. They were large and quadrupedal in nature with long black fur hanging off its body. They had the facial features of a wolf, complete with a long snout lined with razor sharp teeth. They were very skinny too, as if they had not fed in weeks. Each of their limbs ended in grotesquely long digits and at the end of those digits were sharp claws that bent in awkward angles. Bits of cloth still hung from their torsos suggesting that they had once been men but had now transformed into this ugly abomination of nature. Despite their skinny frame and hunched posture they were still nearly as tall as me. I'm sure that if they stood on their hind legs at their full height that they would tower over me like one of those spotted long necked creatures towered over those shorter black and white striped ones. Their ugly and deformed muzzles dripped drool onto the paved floor as their white shining eyes glared at me with hate and hunger.
I was caught unawares when both of them lunged at me from the rook of two buildings nearby. Years of training paid off and I was able to identify the threat just in time to dodge a bite aimed to tear my throat out. I unsheathed my Chikage, holding it in my right hand, and drew my Evelyn, holding it in my left hand. The foul, fetid beasts circled me, looking for an opening to strike. The beast in front of me lunged once more but I sidestepped its attack and brought up my sword to lop its head off. Before I could execute the first beast though, the other beast tackled from the side to the ground. My Chikage was knocked from my grasp so I was forced to use the sheath of the sword to keep the beat from biting my head off.
Its crooked claws raked against my flesh, drawing blood ans it desperately tried to get a chunk of me. The other creature let out a powerful howl, as if to tell its companion to hurry up and kill me already. "Get... the fuck... off me!" I yelled as I threw fist after fist at its head. I got a straight shot at the beast's temple causing it to falter in its assault for but a moment. That moment was all I needed though to quickly push the barrel of my Evelyn under its chin and blow its ugly brains out. Blood and gray matter splashed all over the the streets and all over my face. The beast slumped dead on top of me, its heavy weight nearly taking the breath out of my lungs.
I pushed the beast's dead body off me before quickly rolling to the side to avoid the claw coming down to squish my head like a grape. I got back to my feet and make a break for my sword, unfortunately the beast knew what my goal was. I used its long limbs to cut me off, getting in between me and my Chikage. The beast let loose a shaky growl as the corner of its snarling mouth upturned a little. The fucking nerves on that ugly creature. That did it for me, I was royally pissed. "Why you..." I mumbled underneath my breath as I raised my Evelyn and aimed it right between its disgusting beady eyes. "Time to teach you some right proper manners," I said through clenched teeth.
I pulled the trigger and shot off a quicksilver bullet, hoping to end this fight as soon as possible. Her Majesty was expecting me and it would bring shame upon me to keep her waiting any longer. My hopes were dashed though as the the beast ducked its head under the bullet and truck a claw at me. I would have dodged but a jolt of sudden pain in my left side prevented me from doing so, it seems the first beast's claws had dug in deeper than I had expected. The second beast's claw dug into my chest and drew three anger red lines across it, staining my uniform with my own blood. It prepared another strike with its other claw but I shot it in the chest as it swung.
That seemed to stun the Scourge Beast allowing me to step in to its safe zone and repeat what I did to its brethren. That is to say, I stuck the stuck the barrel of my Evelyn under its chin and turned its head inside out. I panted heavily, holding my left side to try to stifle any more blood loss, as the beast joined its partner in whatever hellhole beasts go to when they die. Yharnam was really starting to go to shit.
The Hunters of the Workshop had been established to fight off the beastly scourge when I left Yharnam. It seems it just got worse and worse in my absence. All throughout the city wails of agony and despair could be heard along with the occasional sickening crunch of something being killed. The city was tearing itself apart from the inside out, neighbors were killing neighbors, brothers killed fathers, sisters murdered mothers. Not my problem. As long as My Queen survived, that was all that mattered to me.
I limped over to my Chikage, flinching from the pain as I bent over to picked it up. There was a ring of steel against steel as I put the sword back into its sheath. I took two steps forward and I remember thinking to myself, 'Great, now I'm going to have to get a new uniform,' as I collapsed face first onto the cold cobblestone floor. I heard footsteps coming towards me and I made a futile attempt to rise once more to meet whoever it was. It was no use though, my energy was already drained from my long and arduous journey back to Yharnam and I had lost too much blood to those two deformed dogs. Tears threatened to fall from my eyes, was this really how the Prideful Crow ended? Alone on the cold streets of the city she hated most, second only to that Empty Kingdom.
"Gods Damn it..." I muttered before blacking out from blood loss. I momentarily came back to my senses as I felt my body being dragged somewhere. I forced my body to feebly struggle against the grip under my arms but it didn't seem like the person even noticed. I faded back into blackness after a few short struggles.
Author's Notes
(Please Read)
Firstly, this chapter was completed on 1:19 pm November 1st, 2018. I've had this idea in my mind for a while now. This is basically going to be a retelling of one of my character's journey through Yharnam. This story looks through the eyes of Eliza Rouge or, as I named her, Madame Rouge. An arrogant, prideful and fierce member of the Vilebloods. Devoted to serving Queen Annalise to a fanatical level, watch as she spreads fear of the Vilebloods all throughought the great city of yharnam. I hope you like it.
Secondly, I have limited experience writing in first person. I figured this would be a good time to practice.
Thirdly, reviews are greatly appreciated. PM me if you want to discuss something or if you see any mistakes. I'll try to correct it as soon as possible.
Lastly, enjoy!