Contains Highly Graphic, Bloody, Disturbing Material. Please Exit Now If You Do Not Wish To Read Such Content.
Brennenburg, Prussia
August 18, 1939
In the study of his Transcept, Alexander watched the young man before him. The sight disturbed him.
The creature before him did not resemble the nervous youth who'd come for his aid. Not in the slightest. On the floor he trembled bonelessly, causing the baron to shudder. Lank, unwashed locks of brown hair lay across Daniel's face, obscuring whatever visage he might have carried at that moment. This the baron was greatful for. He did not wish to see those haunted, very human eyes. Alexander looked to the boy's hands and immediately regretted it. Daniel's fingers were curled, reminiscent of a vulture's talons. They seemed sallow in tone. The elder man tried not to view his own hands in comparison.
This very morning, the two of them had returned from the Zimmermann's farm. With them, they had brought the nesscessary vessels needed for the remainder of their work. Alexander had used Herr Zimmerman, and he had proved sufficient for that role. His wife and child had not been needed after all. And yet, not this very night, Daniel had taken it upon himself to slay both of them.
He had discovered the young man there, over the child, with his hands and face painted with blood. Uttering a keening sound that was enough to make any sane man cringe. He recalled leading Daniel away from the scene, stuttering his explainations as he was led here.
"I've done well... Haven't I?"
Those hesitant words made Alexander freeze in his stance. With cautious eyes, he looked to the young man. Daniel had not moved in the slightest.
"What?" Alexander asked simply, his voice catching before he could recover.
Daniel lifted his face, and revealed eyes that should have belonged to a demon. Alexander took a step back, stunned, Red, ridged veins surrounding his irises served to make the lad's eyes bloodshot. Combined with the pale green of his natural eye colour, this served to give the man a most disturbing appearance.
Daniel rose to his feet, that ever present tremble showing itself to slow him down. "I... did what was needed. I. Have. Done. Well." There was a pause between each word, and it greatly unnerved the old man. Who did he seek to convince? Or was he expecting reassurances?
After the young man's behaviour at the Zimmerman household, Alexander found himself hard pressed to offer anything other than his profound shock. Yet his expression remained neutral. It would not do to reveal his misgivings now. Things had come to far, and he could not- Would not stop now.
The boy was wringing his hands madly, so much that Alexander thouroughly expected those nimble bones to snap. And, he would not look away. No, that terrifying gaze would not falter.
"What was necessary was done. It had to be. Have I not-" Daniel's voice cut off into a choking noise. Alexander stepped forward, his blank facade changing to that of concern. Daniel held up a hand, as if to ward him off. His shoulders seemed to shake, and the youth seemed to be on the verge of collapse. The veins in his hands bulged, not unlike the baron's aged digits.
After a moment, the fit ended, and Alexander's initial alarm faded to a bizarre relief. White faced, Daniel fell to his knees, swiftly ending the elder's relief.
He swiftly went to Daniel's side, and placed a hand on the boy's trembling shoulders. "Daniel, This cannot continue. I admit, this has been a most... strenuous night for you. You require rest." Gone was the neutral mask he'd worn before. Alexander's voice took on that of a caring host, his most common act around the boy, and the act that Daniel had seemed most convinced by.
In a moment, he had aided Daniel to his feet, and over to a single chair. "Stay here, and a servant will escort you to your room for the night."
"No." Came the blunt answer. Alexander paused on his way to the door. As he looked back, he saw Daniel running his hands through his hair, tugging more out than what was already loose.
"You have to... Have I done the right thing? Tell me." Daniel looked anguished beyond words as he spoke.
Alexander was again frozen to the spot. His hand was upon the doorknob. Regret, regret like he had not felt in years burned it's terrible way through him.
Yet, when he spoke, the words came freely and with ease.
"Daniel, you have done all you've needed to in order to be safe. That is all that matters for the moment. " He found himself continuing when the youth's expression did not change. "That is all you need think about. Your life is safe. You are safe. Remember that." A single note of compassion had found it's way into Alexander's voice, and it made his words seem less like an order and more of endearing advice.
Only on his way out, did Alexander recall that he had said something similar to Agrippa. It was a thought that he quickly tossed away.
"I will handle the rituals tonight. Goodnight, Daniel."
Before, I spoke of Daniel. He has now shown me that my initial appraisal of him was correct. He is no different from any other man in the lengths he will go to for his own survival. I cannot save him from the Shadow. In truth, I am no longer even sure he deserves to be saved. There really is no other alternative. I will have to leave him behind.
And I find that this does not bother me, not as it should. Have I lost so much in coming here, that such betrayal will not upset my conscience?
Yet, doing so will not be such an easy thing. Were it not for Daniel's efforts, I would still be grasping at straws, desperately trying to find a way back to you, but without the means to do so. It pains me that I cannot return the great favor he has done me, even if that favor was not intentional.
As the days pass, I find myself going from one extreme to the next. Hurrying to return to home, and you. And deciding the fate of one of the few honest friends I've made in my time here.
Many have betrayed me, Daniel has not. That I believe, is where my guilt stems from.
And yet, he must be destroyed, my love.
The violence he has shown tonight... he has become unpredictable. He has become a danger to himself, but moreso to me, and my machinations.
He will be dealt with.
The rituals have been finished. The necessary vitae has been collected. Tomorrow, I will be home with you.
Tomorrow. Alexander began kneading his forehead as he drew back from the memory capsule. It would all come to a head tomorrow.
Gradually, the elder man rose to his feet,and closed the cabinet. Shutting away the capsule and his thoughts of home. Perhaps it would be the last time he would have need of it. His gold eyes wandered the study around him.
For seemingly endless centuries, this study had been the one place in all of Brennenburg that he could concentrate. High above the Transcept, it had shielded him from everything. From the screams of the human vessels below, to the encroaching sense of hopelessness that had begun to smother him upon reaching this land. Yes, out of all of the castle, this was the only chamber he would regret leaving behind.
It was here that he would to attend to the final matter. What to do with Daniel...
Alexander knew his own remorse to be an honest matter. He would regret disposing of Daniel. But, the more he considered it, the more it seemed to be required for his plans to return. The boy had become an unneeded risk.
Yet, shall I be so cruel as to leave him to the Shadow? Imprisoned forever in it's hellish walls of reeking flesh?
Alexander thought over the matter carefully. On the desk before him, he caught notice of a silver letter opener. As he raised and freed the silver blade, the answer came to him.
And the solution was agreeable to him. Far better than leaving Daniel to be devoured. After all, Daniel had taken his usual dose of laudanum, and would be unsuspecting. Even numbed to the pain, perhaps.
It would be done tonight.
The teacups shattered as Daniel knocked over the ancient table. The children, before him stared at him with utter terror as he neared. He could hear the rough hewn pottery of the cups being crushed further as he made his way towards them. The little girl, standing out in a blue nightgown, gave a shrill shriek as he neared. Distantly, he could hear the echo of the farmhand's screams in the distance as Alexander tended to them with the soft thud of an axe. The little girl shook as his own hand outreached and closed upon her throat...
"NO!" A shriek of his own pierced the night, and Daniel flung the teacup away from him. It crashed to the floor in blue shards, blue like the little girl's dress, blue like her wide, wide eyes as he dragged her from the farm...
No...
Daniel sat upright in his bed, raising a hand to his pounding forehead. The hand itself was shaking, and he could see beads of sweat on the inner palm. Hurriedly, he got to his feet. He fled to the drawer nearest to him. He pulled out empty bottles, one after another. None of them carried the tonic he so desperately needed.
After the nights events, he'd allowed himself to fall straight into sleep and nightmares. He had utterly forgotten the laudanum. Now, as he desperately searched, Daniel realized it hadn't mattered. There was none left either way.
Daniel paused, his breathing harsh and frantic. He couldn't disturb the baron for some. Not after his actions. He'd seen the disgust and horror in Alexander's gaze tonight.
And yet, who is he to judge you? A small, foul voice uttered from within.
It mattered little. He could go without the laudanum tonight.
As it was, it always dulled his senses. Made him unable to feel anything, really. Though, he supposed that was what made it so utterly useful to him here.
He made his way back to his bed, and soon drifted off to one of the first blissful nights sleep he'd ever had in Brennenburg Castle.
Alexander's tread was slow and sonorous. Fitting, considering the circumstances. He'd hand picked the tool for tonight's work.
Soon, he reached the guest room. He opened the door delicately, not hearing the slightest creak issue forth. Satisfied, the baron continued to Daniel's personal chamber.
As he passed the window, his tool of choice flashed in the moonlight.
A butcher's knife. With a ivory handle and a blade that was black in the light, and gleamed all the same.
Daniel's door was opened with the same ease as the last. A cold sense of necessity had taken over the elder man. It was this same emotion that had allowed him to carry out the slaughter of every other man, woman, and child that had entered his halls. When his conscious had faltered, it had been this that had shoved him upright and forwards. And, now it would lead him to complete his final task.
Daniel laid upon his bed, oblivious to the world in his laudanum induced haze. His hair had fallen back from his face, and he seemed at utter peace.
Now, to begin. Alexander reached forwards and tugged forth on of the cushions from the bed. The younger man's head shifted slightly as it was removed, but he did not wake.
Nor will he, Alexander thought, an odd smirk touching his withered lips. Even the young man's addiction had proved useful in the end.
Laying the knife aside Daniel, Alexander got onto the bed. He clambered over the younger man, straddling him. Ignoring the howling pain in his aged joints, Alexander then shoved the pillow over the younger man's face, with his left hand. So tightly this was done, that he could almost feel the outline of the Englishman's face through the thick white cloth.
So caught up in his work, the old man did not notice the muffled gasp come forth from the swiftly woken Daniel.
Alexander raised the butcher's knife and thrust it downwards, forcing the edge through the youth's sinewy throat. The skin split with ease. As expected, Daniel's lifeblood fountained outwards, coating his thin fingers and shirt. He'd removed his coat for the very reason.
What Alexander did not expect however, were the screams.
No, it was a howl. To his utter shock, Alexander felt the younger man beneath him begin to twist, as hideous, gurgling shrieks began to pierce the air.
He is to be asleep! Is he not?! Lost in a drugged stupor, unknowing and ready to lead to the slaughter!
Chaos reigned. Those god-awful howls continued, and awake, Daniel began to fully struggle now. The baron felt the man under him thrash with a strength he would not have previously credited Daniel. Even in his work with the prisoners, he had never shown such vigor.
How has this happened?!
Alexander seized the man's bloodied throat and shoved him back onto the bed. With his remaining hand, he continued to hold the cushion about his face. The pressure he'd placed on the lad's neck caused another gout of blood to splash out of his already spewing artery. It hit the baron square in the face, drenching his face and peppering his hair.
He never took the dose. Alexander's shock was as insurmountable as his rising horror. This was Daniel, loyal to the very last. This was the man he'd called friend.
Daniel hurled his head forwards, seeking to free his vision. He only managed to slam Alexander's head into the canopy above. Alexander swore heavily, and in desperation tried to cling to Daniel. Pinning the lad as his struggles grew ever more frenzied.
More and more blood shot forth from the boy's rent gullet. It's quantity managed to shock the baron. Yes, Alexander, whom despite all his experience, was undone by the death of one single human. Guilt and disgust pierced the elderly man.
This cannot continue... and he was right. In a last act of might, Daniel heaved himself forth, and managed to toppled them both off the bed and to the floor. The boy rolled to the floor, his arm bouncing on the floor, to then lay outstretched on the ground.
The cushion fell to unknown reaches of the room.And thus, Daniel's eyes were free to see his murderer.
His eyes fell to Alexander, who was scrambling to reach his knees. And their respective gazes met.
The baron knew now that he'd been lost to this world's version of hell.
Before, Daniel's gaze had been ragged, and bloodshot. Now, all that was left was blood. Pure, viscous red surrounded his pale green irises. Their emotion mirrored Alexander's earlier shock. They shrieked a single word.
Alexander?
And now the lad seeked to test that word through his own lips. "Alggh...rr". Daniel reached forwards with one fluttering hand. It was as white as the corpse he was to become.
Alexander could only watch, his own gold eyes ragged, lit with unspeakable horror.
Daniel tried to speak again, with that damnable hand reaching forwards, as if still begging the baron for his aid.
"Alggh...r". The hand shook once, twice, then collapsed to the floor. Yet, Daniel looked at him still...
The man's finger's twitched. "Haaaa..." Daniel managed.
"Hush." It was softly spoken, and the baron did not recognize that it had come from him, at first.
A gurgled moan came from the young man, as one last spurt of blood exited his throat.
Alexander, on his knees still, lurched forwards and covered those pale lips with his blood slicked digits. It was cool to his touch. Daniel's gaze remained on Alexander, the eyes as terrified and pleading as ever.
"Hush. Now you sleep." Alexander watched as the last bit of life left the boy's eyes.
Daniel had died. At last, at last. Alexander removed his hand.
For several moments, Alexander sat there with the corpse. That gaze had him frozen to the spot.
Then, shaking, the old creature made his way to his feet. Looking away from the body, he turned his eyes to the bed to ascertain what sort of mess had been made. The green covers of the bed had been turned burgundy by the constant onslaught of fluid. Blood had smeared the floor where he and Daniel had tumbled to the ground. The cushion had been turned scarlet.
So had his shirt, by the look of matters.
Alexander gathered the damp coverlet from the bed. He laid it out by Daniel.
Don't you think he deserves a better burial shroud than that? This thought, most disturbingly, was spoken through the voice of his love. A voice he'd forgotten the tone of, and had struggled for centuries afterwards to recall.
Alexander's hands shook as he looked back to Daniel. That gaze pierced him again.
Always begging.
They stared on.
Always pleading.
Daniel continued to stare.
Forever whining.
In fury, Alexander seized the knife from the floor. He raised the blade in the same manner as before and tore it across Daniel's open, staring, judging eyes.
The awful squelching noise they made brought him to his senses. A cry of remorse filled the air and Alexander lifted his hands to his face. He tossed the knife aside.
Eventually, he calmed, and began wrapping Daniel's corpse in the blanket. He did so with a tender obsessive care. As a father would for his son.
And, after all, did he not at least partially make Daniel? The monster the youth became...
Alexander finished his work, and stood. This work, at least, was done. And he had the Traveller's Locket and the portal to prepare yet.
He left the boy's body on the ground, and exited the hall, covered in drying blood. That would have to be washed off before anything else. Before anything else.
As he reached the elevator he paused. The baron looked upwards for a moment, then continued onwards.
Alexander watched the portal open, alight with a happiness he had not felt in centuries. Truly, Daniel's sacrifice would never be forgotten. Alexander would see to it that he was hailed as a savior, a testament to mankind. The boy was living proof that they were not all vermin.
Idly, he listened to the Shadow roar in the distance. Undoubtedly, it would have devoured Daniel's corpse by now. But, he had assured that the man's soul was free. The Shadow was too far back to catch the baron now. Through his distraction,Daniel had saved him, in every way and purpose.
No, the boy would never be forgotten.
THE END
Happy Late Halloween, folks!