Dead Souls
Disclaimer: And here is my sequel to Darklight! The title, as probably suspected, was inspired by Nine Inch Nails "Dead Souls". I heard the song and somehow, the inspiration for this fic sprang into my head. Well, like most of my fics, I have a certain...free speech within this one.
"And I knew my vision of the garden of savage beauty had been a true vision. There was meaning in the world, yes, and laws, and inevitability, but they had only to do with the aesthetic and in this Savage Garden, these innocent ones belonged in the vampire's arms. A thousand other things can be said about the world, but only aesthetic principles can be verified, and these things alone remain the same."
-Anne Rice
"Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows."
-Pope Paul VI
By: VampireQueenAkasha
"You have to ask...? Really...? Well, It's...It's because I am your friend..."
-Abel Nightroad
Chapter One: Bloody Reunion
Earth
Rome, Italy
The next morning, a large mob of devout religious people had gathered around the church, crying and praying in Latin. Many were carrying candles to mourn the dying cultist. Despite what he was in to, he was still so young. When someone so young died, all mourned. It was such a shame.
In the crowd, Abel Nightroad and William Wordsworth pushed their way through the mass of swarming and distressed bodies. William was holding a camera tightly in hand, fingering with the lens and shutter. Several people around them tugged at their robes, begging and pleading in delirious tones and dialects. Some religious prayers and some angry curses. Abel watched them with pity, but followed William into the church.
Inside the church, William and Abel froze with horror. Strewn all around them were bloody bodies of priests and choir boys. Their throats had been slashed and their bodies pale like ghosts. Abel squinted down at the gruesome scene with shock.
"My God ... " he gasped.
William glanced over at two surviving priests, features grim and shaken. This was just far too horrible for him to even imagine in his mind. "Do you have any idea who could of done such a thing?" he asked.
The two priests turned to the scattered corpses, hesitant and fearful. "It had to of been a vampire." one of the priests replied, in a shaken, yet attempted strong voice. "And yet, no one saw a thing. The Vatican has made every attempt to track this creature. The corpses are bled dry, so there is no chance of them turning."
Abel walked through the writhing bodies and grimaced at the dead rotted smell. He paused at the sight of a bloody smear of the cross splashed in blood on the left center of the wall. It was a mocking image of the cross. Whoever had done this was evil beyond compare. Such blasphemous acts were not uncommon in dark alleyways and corners, but here, in a church of the Lord ... It was just too horrible for him.
William flashed a few pictures with surprise at such atrocious acts against the house of God. Abel noticed something at the base of the altar and cocked his head curiously, moving over to it. He bent down and picked up a small piece of something in both hands. Closer inspection revealed it to be an odd claw-like nail. It was possibly from the being responsible for this. Just a mere claw left by something clearly not human. He glanced back at William.
"William! Come here!" he said.
William came without hesitation, bending at Abel's side. "You find something?" he asked. He studied the nail with a gasp of amazement. Abel did not have to say a word for him to understand what that was. The remnants of the killer.
"I'll get this back to my laboratory." William told him, taking the nail and placing it into a small container. "This should give us positive identification."
Abel glanced up at several burned crosses scattered across the floor. Obviously, the priests and choir boys might of attempted to cast out whatever attacked them, but to no avail. Closer inspection displayed scratches and claw marks all down the walls and pillars. Who could of done this?
Late that night, a hideous screeching sound filled the air; a mixture of animal howls and human cries. A chorus of only death and pain. Through the darkened street, a blackened shape bolted wildly on all fours, panting wildly and inhumanly, hungry and searching. The shape was fueled by only a ravenous blood lust that came with its sick desires.
Meanwhile, back at the church of the Vatican, William was sliding the small nail underneath his microscope. He turned the dial to get a better view and gasped softly. He could not believe what he was seeing in the scope.
"It's ... it's dead!" he gasped.
Vaclav Havel was sitting at another desk, observing evidence when he heard the shocked words escape his friend's lips. He turned around, wide-eyed. "It's what?" he exclaimed.
"I - I know how crazy this sounds, Father Havel," William said, gesturing for the priest to sneak a peek into the lens. "But according to this, the cells in this discarded nail have been dead. Long dead for who knows how long."
Vaclav stared at him harshly. His worse fears were slowly becoming recognized. "Do you mean to tell me a walking corpse killed all of those in that church?" he said, in a skeptical tone.
"I am simply not going to rule out any possibilities." William told him, voice hard. "We have to somehow find this ... dead thing and ... " He didn't even know how to finish. The whole idea was insane to begin with. "We'll just have to - "
An ear piercing feminine scream echoed through the night air. William and Vaclav jumped to their feet and rushed out to the patio. They peered into the night toward the source of the scream. Whatever it was, it was a woman, and a woman in great pain and distress.
"Get Father Nightroad!" William cried, "Tell him what's happened!"
You know I can't believe you
All the things you say they're not true whoooo
But I fear I can't just leave you
All I feel is that I need you my love
O
A woman's lifeless eye stared into eternity. Tears of pain and death had poured from her eyes and they dripped into a vast pool of crimson tide. Every so often, the body trembled and shuddered. The very same woman from the cemetery was hunched over the corpse, teeth latched greedily onto its mutilated throat. Hissing snarls and gulping sounds were all the vampiric woman muttered in the midst of this feast of death and carnage. Red powerful eyes gazed out into nothing.
Abel and Vaclav were rushing up toward the gruesome massacre and they froze. More or less, Abel was horrified. He could not believe it. It was ... HER! Her ... Nyssa. It was Nyssa. His Nyssa. He recognized the all black attire and the streaks of red in her hair. It was her.
"Nyssa ... ?" he gasped.
The vampire - Nyssa jerked her predatory gaze up at the priest, baring a dripping bloody set of fangs with a sharp hiss. A deep inhale rolled from the creature's throat and she rose, back hunched and movements robotic and nearly weak.
Abel was shocked and horrified. No. This was wrong. ALL WRONG.
This is all my spirit can take
Any more and I will surely meet decay
Won't you reach out and touch my heart ache
Feel it beating please don't throw it away
"Nyssa, Nyssa, it's me it's - " He was forcefully halted by William and glared down at the priest. "William! What are you doing? That's Nyssa! She's - "
William pushed Abel's chest slightly to keep him from advancing and making a terrible mistake. Only he knew what was going on. "Abel! No! That was Nyssa, but she's not anymore!" he cried. "That's not your Nyssa in there. Okay? It looks like her but there is nothing of the woman you loved in that thing!"
Abel could not believe his words. He gave William a harsh shove. "What are you talking about?" he snapped, "That is her!"
"No!" William argued, "Listen!"
I can't believe your careless lies
Your burning eyes pass through me
I never thought our love would die
But how could I, I could not see
A dry and empty laugh echoed through the air, interrupting the frantic priest. The two looked back at Nyssa, and she had her head thrown back, bits of blood flying through the air, chest heaving as she continued to laugh.
"Fa - da, come here!" she suddenly spoke; her voice was the same as he remembered, but filled with a deeper tone, one of thirst and wickedness. She beckoned to Abel with a single clawed, bleeding finger, gnarled and bent like an animal's claw.
Abel trembled with delight. The idea if being reunited with his Nyssa sent shivers of anticipation down his entire body. His need for her again and the long months of being without her blocked all forms of common sense from his thoughts. But the idea was not to bring him to her for comfort, but to rend and drink his blood.
Baby girl you know I need you
Can't believe that you would leave me this way
If my pain will not appease you so it please you
I've got nothing to say
I now begin to realize
You're not the girl I once knew
But deep beneath those eyes resides that dying part of you (of you)
I will cry, cry for you (for you)
I will cry, cry for you
William acted fast. He quickly reached into his robes and pulled out a Holy Water grenade-like object he had been working on. He tossed it right into Nyssa's face and she suddenly screamed horribly, hands going to her smoking features. Abel snapped out of his trance and glanced back at William in shock.
"William!" he cried, "What the - ?"
Nyssa snarled and thrashed, hands clawing at her smoking face. She glowered at William, hands abandoning her features. The left part of her face was melted clean off, revealing a feral batch of sinew and tendons, fangs clicking in slight pain. A lidless eyeball wandered around in her fleshy, exposed skull.
"Fuck ... that hurt, you piece of human shit!" she snarled.
William paled slightly, but he was determined not to show fear in the least. Abel slowly started to see. He started to realize the worse in the situation. A cold pit enveloped the bottom of his insides. The truth hurt him far more than anything right now.
Nyssa did not know who he was.
She did not know him.
Nyssa bared her fangs and her face healed; new skin stretching to cover the damaged tissue. With a hiss, she advanced toward William, but instead, Abel rushed up and waved both of his arms at her and whooped.
"Leave him alone. It's me you want." he said.
Nyssa's eyes narrowed to slits and a wicked grin spread across her face. She licked her lips of the blood and took a menacing step forward. Abel bit his lip with pain and reached in for a cross dangling around his waist. He dabbed it quickly with holy water and felt his heart sinking.
"Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. God, Father in heaven, have mercy on us. God, the Son, redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us." His words were nearly incomprehensible, filled with pain.
Nyssa's grin widened with mocking delight at his prayer. "God is not here today, priest." she hissed, "Watch your little friends rot stinking in the earth. Fail them as you have done so many others before them. Watch them scream like the pigs they are."
"God is here, Nyssa." Abel said, tears filled in his eyes. "God is ... here ... "
Nyssa hissed at him, arching her back with menace. Something stretched and popped within her. Abel watched in amazement and horror as she shifted her form, shedding it like a second skin. Ankles snapped back, fingers stretched into talons. Nyssa was gone and in her place stood a massive black wolf-like form. Its teeth were massive and jutting from horrid salivating jaws. Red, gleaming, near-human eyes watched the priest with hateful menace. Long, spike-like black fur covered the wolf creature's form.
Abel backed up with terror and pain. "Nyssa, please!" he begged, "Don't! I'm your friend! Don't you know me?"
The wolf snarled, revealing its teeth in a menacing show of hatred and wickedness. It pawed the ground once in a display of challenge. Just as the wolf rushed and jumped up high, something exploded through the air and Abel looked back with a cry of shock. The wolf cried out and hit the ground, body smoking.
"Father! Get out of the way!"
Abel noticed a man standing there with a shotgun in hand, barrel smoking from the fire. Obviously, he had toppled Nyssa long enough for them to make their escape. But the simple round was not enough to kill a powerful being like her.
Abel glanced over where the wolf had fallen and noticed it was gone. The creature must have fled no sooner had he turned his head. He climbed to his feet and his eyes trembled.
"N - Nyssa ... " he moaned.
Later
Abel could not bear the events of what had transpired this day. He sat alone in his room, lit barely by flickering candlelight. His face was set in a grim and sorrowful mask, eyes gazing down at the street where God only knows Nyssa resided. It wasn't fair. When he prayed for her return, this was not the kind of return he wanted. It just hurt him now. Everything hurt him. His heart was in so much pain and grief.
"Nyssa ... why did you ... " he started. He bit his lip and tears began to pour from his pained blue eyes. He covered them and horrible sobs escaped his lips. His sobbing sounds echoed throughout the entire church halls.
Caterina could hear his crying in her room. She shut her eyes with pity.
O
Note-I used part of the song "Cry for You" by Tool. Don't worry, Nyssa's not gone and out yet!