Part One: Dark One
Chapter One: Pain
March 22nd, 2011
The sun beat down on Adrienne's back and head, making her orange shirt the color of a sunrise. She only saw a few people as she walked across campus to the parking lot. Over half the students had left yesterday for Spring Break, but Adrienne had to work then and couldn't leave until today.
Heer phone rang - a cheerfully generic acoustic guitar riff. She answered it without checking who it was as she swung the door of her small white car open. "Hello?"
"Hey Adrienne." She grimaced as she heard Adam's voice out of the speaker. Adrienne hated speaking over phone, the way it made people's voices sound, if she could hear them at all.
"What do you want, Adam?"
"Jeesh. I don't see you in one day, and already you hate me. Is there someone else?"
"Just answer the question," She replied, rolling my eyes.
"Just wanted to see if you'd left yet."
"I'm turning on the car now." The engine roared to life as she spoke, phone wedged in between her ear and shoulder.
"I'll let you go then. Drive safe, love you."
"Love you too. See you in a few days." She hung up before he could respond.
Vetis watched from under the shade of a tree as Adrienne pulled out. He smiled at the car as it sped away, marbled red eyes hungry with anticipation. He waved at the fading dot.
"Bye Adrienne!" I'll see you soon.
Across the courtyard, someone with dark brown hair and eyes looked at the strange man standing under the tree. He looked down at his phone, then back up. When he did, the man was gone.
"Weird," Adam muttered to himself.
The drive from school to Adrienne's parent's house was only two hours. Still, her bones ached and her legs were stiff as she walked up to the door.
The house wasn't huge by any means, but it was nice. Two stories with three bedrooms, a parlor, and two baths. Rather plain, to be honest. No outside decoration except for a few bushes at either side of the door. The paint was a plain white with black shutters. Adrienne rang the doorbell and knocked a couple of times. When a minute passed and no one answered, she repeated the action. Still no answer.
Adrienne sighed and dug through my purse for a spare set of keys, muttering under her breathe. The lock made a satisfying click, and she stepped inside.
The entryway and living room, both painted in a soothing blue with pale floral prints hung on the walls, were empty. She took her shoes off and put them next to the door, figuring she could put them in her room later. "Mom? Dad?" No one answered. Their cars were in the driveway, so she knew they were home. And Zac should've been home for break.
Adrienne started to panic, her naturally pessimistic nature making her think of all the horrible things that could have happened since she'd visited last time. Trying to keep calm, she assured herself it was probably nothing. Zac was at a friend's house and her parents were probably with their friends somewhere. It was nothing to worry about. It wasn't exactly normal - they had always greeted her as soon as she arrived - but it wasn't necessarily bad . She was just… overthinking it.
Adrienne's stomach growled, and she decided to get a snack, although she would have to be careful not to fill up on dinner. Her parents always made ham and potato soup the first night she was back, and she was not willing to miss it. She walked to the kitchen, nose wrinkling almost as soon as she stepped through the door. "God, what is that smell?" It was a sharp metallic scent with a soft overlay of burnt, rotten meat. If death had a smell, then this was probably it.
Adrienne tripped walking around the island in the middle of the room. "Ow! What the hell!" She looked over my shoulder and immediately wished she hadn't.
Zac was an eight year old boy, short for his age. He was energetic and loving, with hazel eyes that seemed to change color every minute. He had a missing front tooth, and liked to stick his tongue through the hole. He didn't have a best friend, simply because he couldn't choose one from amongst the multitude of third-graders he knew and played with. When he hugged his sister, as he did often, he only came up to her waist and wrapped his arms completely around her legs and pressed his face into her abdomen. Adrienne had to bend down to speak with him face to face. He was probably the sweetest, most innocent child she had ever known.
He lay dead by his sister's feet.
His happy hazel eyes were no more. In their place were rotten red and black pits. His hands reached out on either side of him, almost like he'd been making a snow angel. There was a faint smell of burnt meat coming from him. One of Adrienne's bare feet was touching his cold, clammy hand.
Adrienne rolled away from the sight, hands clawing at the floor to get away, but couldn't help the vomit that forced its way up her esophagus and out of her mouth. She puked for half a minute before shoving herself away from the small puddle she had left. Her senses stung and her throat burned. Tears slipped past my eyes and down her face.
Adrienne crawled over to her baby brother, foot pulled through the puke. If she noticed, she didn't care. All she felt was her brother's face as she cradled it tenderly in her hands, fingers brushing over the marled skin around his eye sockets, a sharp contrast to his soft cheeks and nose.
It was hard to tell what his expression was. Adrienne didn't know what he'd felt in his last moments. Was he scared? Sad? Confused? Did he even know what was happening? What did happen?
The tears kept flowing, pouring onto his face. They burned grooves into his skin, as though they were acidic.
The ground and house shook. Crystal glasses and porcelain dishes fell from cabinets and shattered on the floor, millions of tiny pieces falling around Adrienne and Zac. A metal pan fell from the rack over the island, making a sound like a gong when it connected with the floor.
Adrienne didn't know how long the earthquake lasted, or how long she sat there as the world fell apart around her. She looked out the window, expecting the sky to be gray and blood to color the ground. But the sun still shined, though several small trees had fallen.
Adrienne hear a voice. In the deepest recesses of her mind, she heard someone talking to her. It didn't sound like a man or woman, it just… was. Go. Run. Hide. Before they find you .
But she couldn't. Not yet.
Adrienne carefully picked up Zac and carried him upstairs with his head and legs hanging over each of her arms. She tucked him into his bed and pulled his Spiderman blanket over his little body. Adrienne carefully turned his head so that she wouldn't have to see the space where his eyes had been. He looked like he had just gone to sleep, but there were little things to hint otherwise. His body was too stiff, his hands simply lying there instead of curled around his blanket like they usually were.
Adrienne sat down next to him and slowly ran a few of her fingers through his curled hair. She tried to sing him a lullaby that her parents used to sing to them before bed, but the words stuck in her throat. So instead, she hummed it as well as she could with one arm wrapped around his little body. When her throat hurt from humming, and she had run out of tears, she kissed her brother's forehead and left.
April 4th, 2011
Adrienne staggered into the abandoned farmhouse and collapsed on the floor as soon as she was inside, only moving two feet away from the doorway. Not stopping to catch her breath, she tore off her worn-through sneakers, ignoring the holes, and winced as she looked at the blisters forming on the bottom of her feet. She pressed a finger to one of them in an attempt to assess the damage, and hissed when a feeling like fire flooded her foot. Adrienne let her leg rest on the (mostly) dry wooden floor, careful not to let the sole of her foot touch the ground the dirty ground.
It was at times like this that Adrienne wished bathtubs and proper bandages were not a distant memory. But the last time she had stopped to eat at a restaurant instead of stealing food (a week ago now), her car had been stolen, and with it, her clothes, shoes, and money. Her feet felt like they would rather be cut off than go on, and her clothes were covered in a layer of dust and grime. Adrienne couldn't even hitchhike or guilt someone into letting her stay in their house for the night, because she couldn't trust anyone, too scared that everyone she saw was surely her family's killer.
To make matters worse, the mosquitos had decided to make an early appearance. And the wasps. Adrienne was lucky she wasn't allergic, else she would probably be dead by now. Still, they itched and left angry red bumps on her arms and legs that were infinitely more annoying than the feet, which could at least be soothed by sitting down. They were even worse in a few places where they coincided with where Adrienne had cut her arm to get blood for the sigil and runes she drew on the walls of her nightly shelters (although there had been two terrifying nights when she had to sleep outside, once under a bridge and another time in a tree). The weird symbols appeared in her mind the day she left - ancient protection to be written in blood. She didn't know what they meant, who was sending them, or even what all they were protecting her from. But once they appeared in her mind, she never once forgot them.
Adrienne rested her feet on the bag she'd stolen and pulled out a half-full bottle of water, chugging what was left. She yawned, her entire body aching and tired, and reluctantly decided to rest a few minutes before putting up the warding. She closed her eyes, and her thoughts grew hazy…
Light surrounded the farmhouse, pulsing as though alive and looking in through the spaces in between the boarded up windows. They saw Adrienne sleeping, and rammed through the boards, blowing them to the ground. Adrienne jolted awake, fear in every movement. She stood up, flinching when her bare feet connected with the hard floor. She pressed her back as close to the wall as she could, hands flat against the rough surface. The lights filled the room, flowing around, burning as hot as stars. Her eyes burned just from looking at them, and she shut them and huddled closer to the wall with her arms around her knees and her head down.
She opened her eyes when she realized that one of them was right in front of her. It started shaping itself into a body. The light turned into a mostly-bald man with a black suit and a creepy grin. "Don't worry," he told her, smile never faltering. "This won't hurt a bit." He reached one hand towards my forehead, and I closed my eyes, waiting for whatever would happen next…
Thick black smoke filled the room, whirling above and around the lights. One of them slammed into the old man, knocking him onto the floor. He tried to stand up, but several of them surrounded him.
While the rest of the smoke fought the lights, another light stopped in front of Adrienne. This one was different, with dark spots marring the light like bruises. Adrienne stared with wide eyes as the light took the form of a handsome young man with marbled red eyes in place of of pupils.
He crouched down in front of her and tentatively reached out a hand. Fear and worry were alight in his beautiful eyes. "Take my hand."
Adrienne was frozen. She had no idea what was going on or who this man was. But if he was one of the ones who helped her…
Without hesitating any further, Adrienne took his hand. He pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her. Adrienne felt her stomach lurche, and they were gone.
April 5th, 2011
Adrienne didn't know how long she slept.
Whenever she started to drift back into reality, she hung onto the edges of her dreams. It was the first times in weeks that she'd had a dream that wasn't a nightmare. In it, she was levitating in oblivion. Blood pulsed under her skin, like lightning. Darkness and black smoke surrounded her, filling her senses and curling around her body. It was comforting, like a lover's embrace, and made her feel safe and cared for whereas the lights had been harsh and angry.
But one can't live in dreams.
Adrienne's dreams drifted away as she slowly came back to reality. She was laying on a king sized bed with black silk sheets and a matching goose feather duvet, her arms and torso wrapped around a pillow. She had on a black plain t-shirt and matching yoga pants. Her feet and arms had been disinfected and wrapped in bandages.
Adrienne slowly sat up in the bed, keeping hold of the pillow. The room had blood red walls with an inky damask pattern and black bamboo wainscoting. The floors were made of black marble with silver glyphs and runes carved into them. An armoire stood to one side of her bed, a door the other. Another, taller door stood opposite her. There were windows behind the carved headboard. Thick brocade curtains covered the window. When she pulled them back, she realized that they were just for decoration. They didn't let her see outside. There was only more of the wall.
There were two wrought iron sconces with ivory candles lines along each of the walls to her sides. There was a mahogany table with a black stain and two matching chairs in between the bed and the armoire with a table in between the. On her left was a nightstand with a pitcher of water, a crystal goblet, and a porcelain bowl with an unused washcloth. Adrienne didn't touch them.
Adrienne stood up, wincing when her feet touched the ground, but they didn't hurt as much as they had. She walked around slowly, careful not to make too much noise, trailing a finger over the polished wood of the bed posts and armoire. She thought about opening a door, but decided against it. She thought of arming herself. There were no real weapons, but she could injure someone well enough with the pitcher, or maybe the bowl. The goblet was too small to be used up close, but maybe she could throw it at someone.
Adrienne heard the door opening and picked up the goblet. She threw it at the first person she saw - a tall man with bleached blond hair and black clothes with silver embroidery. Eyes wide in surprise, he caught the goblet in one hand and looked at her. "Really?" Adrienne took a step back when she recognized his red eyes.
The man stared at her, handing the goblet to the woman behind him, who was a woman about the same age as Adrienne with black hair (that was clearly dyed, but still looked nice) and green eyes. She was wearing a plain black dress and flats. She took the glass and went to set it back down on the nightstand. Adrienne leaned back when she got close.
When she had finished, the woman folded her hands behind her back. She wore a polite smile that was clearly rehearsed, and a bit creepy.
The man acted as though nothing had happened, smiling warmly at her, like they shared a secret no one else was in on. "Hello Adrienne." He was careful not to get too close, lest he make her uncomfortable. When he realized that was what the woman was doing, he made an annoyed face and made a hand motion to get her to move back a few steps. Adrienne let out a little breath of relief when she obeyed.
Adrienne kept one hand on the bed post to ground her. When she finally found her voice, all she could say was, "You saved me." Her voice was breathless, barely above a whisper.
The man's smile was softer then, more realistic. Proud, even. He nodded once. "Yes I did."
A beat passed before Adrienne asked, "Who are you?"
He looked at her curiously as he answered, "My name is Vetis." He stepped closer to her and reached a hand out, resting it carefully on her arm. She tensed under his touch. He used what was left of his warped grace to comfort her. "Don't worry. You're safe here." He pulled her over to one of the cushiony chairs and helped her to sit. "Dakota, get Adrienne some water."
Dakota used the pitcher to fill the glass with water and quickly brought it over to Adrienne, moving back into position behind Vetis.
Having not had anything to drink since the night before, Adrienne downed the cup. Vetis waited patiently, something he had a lot of practice at. After all, he'd been waiting thousands of years for the girl in front of him.
Adrienne breathed heavily when she was done drinking. Dakota moved to fill the cup again, but Adrienne raised a hand to stop her. "It's ok. I'm good."
"Are you hungry?" Vetis asked her.
Adrienne's stomach growled at the mention of food, having not eaten properly in several days. "God yes."
There was a flash of something in Vetis's eyes; anger, hatred, pain. It was gone before Adrienne could ever see it. He smiled to cover it up. "What would you like?"
She thought about it for a moment before asking, "What can I have?"
He chuckled at the answer. Adrienne blushed, feeling stupid without knowing why. "Whatever you want," he said.
She contemplated her answer. "Can I have shrimp alfredo?"
"Of course."
"And cake?"
"Oh, definitely. What kind do you want?"
"Chocolate. The kind with whipped cream in between the layers. I had that once when I went to Busch Gardens, but I couldn't finish it because it was so big." Adrienne's gaze dropped to her lap as she wondered why she felt the need to add that last part.
Vetis put a hand on her upper arm. "Don't worry. You can have whatever you want." He turned to Dakota, smile replaced with a stern, commanding look. "Get Adrienne what she asked for, and bring me a bottle of wine." Dakota scurried off with nothing but a nod in response. Vetis turned back to Adrienne.
Adrienne shifted in her seat as she began to grow uncomfortable under Vetis's worshipful gaze. Eventually, she asked him, "What's going on? Why am I here?"
"I'll explain everything to you… after you eat."
