She could sense it. An infestation strewing across her body, tingling her limbs and striking at her joints, as she, and the frightened crowd, were snappishly steered into an inner room, soon to be funnelled downstairs. She wondered if it was fear that she could feel spreading across her body, like a sickly disease, but a spark of irritation and wrath was still wedged in her mind. The heat radiating from her body had not ceased, and still her jaw clenched together, so that she gritted and grinded her teeth, glaring at the floor with petulant narrowing eyes. She didn't like this. Not one bit. She did not like this part of the castle. It was awful! The walls were clammy and dripping with an ice fluid that would make you cringe and shiver, if you was to misfortunately whack your body into it, and that smell! The red-haired nord shuddered – the fine hairs on her arms suddenly standing straight and stern – and she snapped her head to the side, scrunching up her nose as she gaged. A thick repulsive musky aroma, that carried a similar smell to the nauseating green slime you find on rocks and dank withered tree bark, lingered by her nostrils as she was forced deeper into the foul depths of the castle. The smell sickened her. She didn't know why it bothered her so much, perhaps it was the staleness of it. It's a smell that can make you feel trapped; keep you enclosed; blocking out all your other senses – everything she despised and loathed. As she travelled deeper the smell seemed to worsen, but only due to a different additional stifling scent that unpleasantly merged with the other horrid smell that she couldn't stand. She knew that smell, and retched when her nose detected it. Shivers scuttled up her spine as her stomach flipped, with bile almost rushing up her throat. It was an intoxicating sickly smell that was heavy and intense. Each inhale triggered a ghastly whiff of the stench to flush up her nostrils, making it tempting for the nord girl to snatch one of the black bags from the fiendish vampire swine and tug it over her head, just to rid herself from the smell that plagued her nose. The smell of blood.
The whimpering moans and stifled cries from the abducted "cattle", as one vampire had labelled them, quivered through the air, moaning like the hissing of a wave, or the blustering groans of the wind. Eyes widened, and jaws dropped, as they fretfully scanned around them. Splashes of blood had coated the dark damp stone walls, with pieces of bones scattered on the floor. Eruptions of terrified shrieks crackled through the dank air after one or two nords crashed their feet onto a human skull, or a leg bone that crumbled into power. Bodies became stiff and began to shudder as the ecstatic nords were roughly shoved into cages. Women and men were separated, each brusquely lobbed into a pen like cage. Any who refused, were beaten into submission.
The red-haired girl watched with terror, shuddering, glancing away as the feral blood-sucking leeches hammered one blubbering nord again, again and again with their cat-like fists, for trying to run the other way. The explosion of his cries were horrific – almost too much to bear. She could feel the prick of tears stabbing at her pupils as she was lobbed into a cage, where two other women stood crying and shaking. Another two sat motionless in black, hugging their knees to their chest, covered in blood stained rags with several bite wounds speckled across their flesh. They had no light in their eyes, as if any hope or fight within them had been sucked out of them. They looked close to death.
Still the dreadful ring of wails echoed through the cage bars. The malice creatures were still at him! The girl rushed over to the bars, clutching onto them tightly, whipping her copper hair from her shoulders and pressing her face against the toothed steel that was colder than Skyrim's ice air. A pool of blood had begun to flow from his body, seeping into the cracks in the stone floor, as his squeals worsened. Monsters! They didn't have to this! Why were they doing this?
"Stop!" the girl shrieked, unwilling to prevent the screams that erupted from her lips, "stop! Stop! You're killing him! Stop this! Stop it! Stop it you spineless bastards!"
The two vampires craned their necks, looking up at the girl with their pale lips viciously curling up into a sinful sneer that was soon followed by a hissing chuckle, causing the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She exhaled through her nose, clenching her teeth together as one vampire chuckled again, walking over to the bars were she was standing, slowly shoving his bloody thumb into his mouth, mockingly licking the blood from his fingertips and knuckles.
She ignored the shivers that were trying to grasp her attention. Tried her best to overlook the drastic pulsation of her heart. More importantly, she kept her eyes locked securely on his, refusing to even move as his face came closer to the bars. Everyone grew silent, as if it was only her and the vicious leech standing in that dark dungeon, the nord and many others had been tossed in – and not even the whispers of breath could be heard.
The vampire was heavily built, with thick robust arms and a wide chest. His wide square shaped jaw was neatly shaven, his eyebrows thick and stern. His eyes were like the rest of blood-suckers - shallow, dark, and cold, yet the colour burned like a flame, with an un-nerving bright yellow glow around the black pupil – it was unsettling to look upon. His hair was a dark brunette, and grew long and straight, falling to his shoulders, and flowing down the acutely shaped borders of his face, like a cascading curtain. He was a nord once, like the girl that stood opposite him, but he had a sinister look to him. His presence and his nature, was disquieting - a personality that you ought to be wary of. One feature that caught the girl's eye, was the long pink, vertical scar carved into his pale cheek. She pondered with the thought of how the vampire managed to obtain such a thing.
"Was you speaking to me red?" he goaded with a sinister grin.
The girl furrowed her eyebrow at his words. Red? How dare he! Again she felt the sickly sweet sensation of ire simmer her blood. She smiled back, replying to his tease with a tease, "Well initially I was. But then I thought… what good will it do, to converse with a leech?"
"A leech?" he chuckled, resting one calloused hand on the bars above his head, his fingers nearly knocking against her red hair, "you know its unwise to provoke a vampire, red, you'll be dead in seconds."
"I do not fear death. And I do not fear you. Leech!"
A playful sneer stretched across his lips, and the girl caught sight of the vampire's pointed teeth. She couldn't help but shudder. It was wrong, unnatural; immoral… to possess such a thing! He exhaled loudly, raising his severely shaped eyebrows and slipping his hand through the bars to grasp a clump of her hair. A soft grunt burst from her lips as he jerked her head upwards. She winced, gritting her teeth, but still glaring into his eyes as he tugged on the strands of her copper hair. "Such things," he sighed, sardonically stretching out his words with a callous grin, "were not said tonight, at the inn."
"The inn?"
"Oh, shame, shame, tut tut, my dear, do you not remember me? Why, you couldn't keep your pretty little eyes off me last time we met. It's such a shame, isn't it? Such a pitiful shame that I had to bring you here, otherwise we could have got to know each other a lot better."
"Why would I ever want to do that?"
"Like I said, you were pretty much begging for it at the inn. Your unique bright eyes were casting over me every second. Why, it was cruel of me, to ignore such a desperate request."
"Go back to Oblivion scum!"
"Are you really going to continue to antagonise me, red?"
"Perhaps if you stop calling me red, I will go lighter on my aggravations. Leech!"
"You better stop calling me that red, or things will turn ugly. I'll paint the walls with your sweet smelling blood."
"You don't scare me. You're a blood-sucker, and most blood-suckers are old, and who's afraid of an old man? Old Leech!"
The chiming ring of the rusty steel door caught everyone's attention. The red-haired nord backed away from the cage door, where the sadistic vampire stood. She drew her hands into fists, but she was unable to stop her arm from trembling. That annoyed her. She didn't want to appear afraid, and she wasn't afraid! Why would she be frightened of a leech?
"What are you doing?" the vampire from behind asked fretfully, stepping towards him. He had the appearance of an elf – long pointed ears, a small and thin frame, with ash blond brittle hair.
The vampire from before raised his arm behind him, not taking his glance away from the girl who still glared back into his cold eyes. "Getting a drink," he hissed, curling his finger and waving it at her. "Come on out red."
She hesitated for a short second, but with a puff of breath, exited the cage. One or two gasps of breath fell from the mouths of watching prisoners as she freed herself from the ensnaring bars with assertion and strict confidence. She tried her best not to get too close to him as she shuffled out of the cage door. To her surprise he didn't try to seize her, in which she then stood opposite him, still studying the depths of his burning eyes.
"I see that your obedient." He chuckled, slamming the cage door shut, "good. It will make you a submissive and decent pet."
"A pet I am not. Obedient I never will be!" she yapped back.
"We'll see about that."
A startling hiss broke from him as he curled his lip and exposed his fangs, so that they sparked like white lights in the dark. Now! The nord girl quickly spiralled her body around, and the vampire snarled, rushing towards her at a frightening speed. His hiss crackled through the air, and made observing captives quiver and squeal. Though the next squeal was louder still. Brash and thunderous as it echoed through the halls of the castle, bouncing off walls and jerking the floorboards and stone. The splashes of blood echoed onto the chilled stone floor with a shrill chime. The blood was dark, almost black - unlike the stains of bright red fluid on the stone walls she had seen earlier.
It almost looked like a soaring flickering flame as the nord girl swiftly rushed up the stairs, panting and wheezing, sick with fear as her feet quickly scampered up the hard stone steps. An air-splitting roar trailed her footsteps, and was the cause for the warm clammy fluid that began to fall from her brow. Her heart raced in her ribcage faster than it had ever done before, and she was fretful that the whole castle would hear its brisk rhythm. It was in her throat. She could feel the thumping of her heart, knocking against her throat as she continued to run. She didn't even acknowledge the roars and shouts that were thrown at her as she hurried away. Her vision was hazy, like the fog of grey smoke. She couldn't even see where she was running to. She didn't even see the swarm of vampires that charged towards her when she scuttled into the main hall.
"Get her!" one voice screeched.
"She's escaped!" another bellowed.
She suddenly became aware of what she had ran into, stopping for a short second beside the spiralling stairs in the grand hall, to peer behind her shoulder. Her eyes widened at the sight of several ravenous vampires swiftly soaring her way. This was worse than she initially thought. Was this it for her now? Was this the end? The last thing she would see would be the dark eyes of the feral beasts, as they ripped her apart. It was hopeless, and it was a stupid plan – if you could even call it a plan. No it was hardly planned. It was improvised. Flung to her in the heat of the moment. She was only focusing on the aim, not how she would carry it out. How could she be this reckless?
A spark of glimmering silver caught her eye, as she glared at the ravenous stampede that hurdled towards her. It was there, stuffed into a stone vase of some sort, glimmering in the white light, and calling out to her. It was her hope; her only chance of getting out of here alive. She knew what had to be done, what only could be done – it was clear to her now. The grey fog that had clouded her vision and clogged her panicked mind melted away. She had to act now!
Clenching her teeth together, and shaking her head up and down to rouse herself from her flustered trance, she quickly vaulted her body towards the vase, reaching out her hand to snatch the shining steel sword that was stuffed inside. A low grunt left her lips as she yanked the steel out. It almost hissed as it scratched away from the stone, and purred as it whipped through the air. The blade seemed to sing as it slashed her opponents. She swung her body around, swaying the sword in her arms and swiping it across one vampire's chest, so that a pool of dark blood spurted out onto the floor, cascading down the vampire's body like a gushing waterfall. Nonetheless, she was only one person. How was she going to fight all of these vampires? The thought crossed her mind for a moment - the contemplation of her possible death. Though she could think nothing of it, too engrossed in the thirst of battle. If she was to die, she would die gladly, happily sending as many blood-sucking leeches as she could, back to the dark, cruel depths of Oblivion. The divines would be smiling down at her efforts. She would not submit to these parasites!
A stifled groan of pain and indignation broke from the girl's lips. Her body rocketed and thrashed in the air, as two vampires snatched her arms, squeezing her flesh so tightly that they nearly cut off the circulation in her veins. She cast her eyes over three limp bodies lashed on the floor, crumpled into a pile of decaying mess. Her lip curled into a victorious grin. She had managed to take down not one, not two, but three vampires! Three leeches! What happened to vampires possessing an otherworldly super-strength, which could crush bones into powder, or turn flesh into a puddle of mush? This nord couldn't do any of those things, and still she had trampled three of them into submission… wait, no… death…
Yet, even after accepting that her journey to Sovngarde would draw closer than she had initially hoped, before becoming ensnared in the horrid depths of this ghastly castle, her thirst for existence grasped onto life, in a locked embraced that would refuse to let go. She would not curb her will to fight, or her will to survive. She growled through her gritted teeth, gruffly squirming her body in the callous grasp of the horrid vampires that had hold of her, snickering and hissing – pitching her vicious words sparked from abhorrence or aversion, dripping with a cruel poison in a hostile fretful tone. Yet their words only fed her animosity towards them. The boiling of her hot blood was triggering a nauseating feeling to tremor through her body. She really despised the blood-sucking swine! Even feeling the cold sensation of their lifeless touch gave her ghastly shivers. She hated to have them so near!
"Get off me!" she grunted, swinging back her head, thrashing her body and kicking her legs in the air like a disobedient child. Damn it! Why did they have to be so strong? It wasn't fair!
"Hold her still!" an enraged hissing voice barked, ferocity and venom shaking in his stifled voice. An infuriated vampire hobbled over to her, thick dark blood dripping from his gut. His lip curled into a snarl as he marched over to the girl, hissing like a snake, and flinging his calloused hand towards the girl's neck. "This bitch," the vampire savagely hissed, throttling her head in his grasp, "stuck me like a pig! She thought it was clever to sneak in a dagger, infected with a minor poison which has now weakened me! Then she thought she was cunning enough to slip away. How wrong was you red?"
The nord girl chocked as the vampire's fingers buried into her flesh, crushing her windpipe and blocking out her air. His face was more sinfully sadistic than ever, plagued with a terrifying anger. It was the vampire before. The vampire who she toyed with. The monster who she ran away from. Her eyes wandered to his face, a cold face shrivelled with irritation and ire, and then they met with his eyes - his dark, squinting sinister eyes. They pierced into her flesh as he opened his lips to hiss at her, "You die now mortal!" His voice was shaking with animosity and wrath as he stretched his head towards her exposed neck, where her blood flushed furiously in her red hot veins.
"Stop." one calm, influential, deepened voice shook in the air. The irked vampire scowled at the girl for a moment, squeezing her flesh with his fingers before ripping his claws away from her, muttering soundlessly under his breath as he stepped away. A quiet dry cough spurted from her lips, jumping in her throat as she bit her lips together in an attempt to cease the wheezing.
Every vampire ceased what they were doing, snapping their necks to the side to glare up at the balcony, where a dark authoritative figure stood, motionless and almost illusory. It was if it was phantom standing up there. Not a man, nor creature, but a mysterious shadow, a shadow that stole your breath when wondering eyes cast over it. Even the flustered nord girl, who had been seized by the cold clutches of livid vampires, became still. Her breath was louder than most, spitting out from her lips in short sharp gasps, with her chest rising and falling heavily. She shook her limps in aggravation, but still the fiends had hold of her arms and legs, elevating her petite body in the air. More hypnotic words glided from the unseen lips of the delectably mysterious phantom who still remained in the shadows, mounted above everyone in the hall, on that untouchable balcony, triggering an odd, unearthly sensation to come over the listening nord girl. Her body became still, her lips drew shut; her breath calmed and quietened.
"I want the girl alive," the phantom calmly stated. Yet, a chilling hiss was chucked at the end of his command, making the air uneasy and stifling. The girl? He didn't he mean the red-haired nord girl ensnared in the tight frozen grapples of the enraged vampires, who sought to paint the hall with her piping blood? Of course he didn't mean the girl who had just butchered not one, nor two but three vampires? "And," the mystery man started, a more severe growl to his tone of voice, "unspoiled."
"But my lord," one vampire protested. It was the one who clasped roughly onto the girl's arm, digging his bony fingers into her flesh and probably turning her skin purple from the heavy pressure of his touch. He was of the Dunmer race, an ancient lanky elf, with dark grey skin, thick brittle ginger hair snatched in a high pony on the top of his skull, with a neatly trimmed ginger beard around his mouth, and glowing piercing eyes that glared up to the balcony. His attire was a dull grey, blending with the drab shade of his lifeless skin. He continued, "She killed one of…"
"Silence! I can see what the mortal has done."
"So therefore my lord you can…"
"I hope you are not challenging me Garan Marethi, it is a pitiful, injudicious, reckless move to make. One that can make your life hang on the balance of fate."
"No, no my lord, I would never challenge you. I was simply pointing out…"
"Why do you persist on quarrelling with me? Is my word not the law in this court? I encourage you to seal your trap Garan Marethi and simply obey by my commands. Bring the girl to my chambers. Immediately."
"And if she resists my lord?"
"Consume approaches which ensures that she cannot…resist."
Bring the girl to his chambers? Bring her…to him! Rage boiled in her sizzling skin, but another emotion dwelt within her also. Crawling inside of her, spreading its deadly infectious disease across every inch of her. Fear. She shuddered to the thought of feeling such a toxic douse of it. She had lived her life fighting against fear. Learning to battle with the torments it can inflict. There was one point in her life where fear devoured her, scratching out the passion in her eyes and ripping away her spirit. Her life was sickly, and suffocating when it invaded her mind, and ever since she first laid eyes on one of these foul creatures, fear begin to sprout inside of her - feeding of her sanity and fight, gradually becoming stronger. Soon it would be bubbling chaotically inside of her, polluting her limbs, her speech and her mind with its poison. She could not let it happen! She could not let fear consume her! If it did. It would be the death of her.
The hushed vampires began to move again, moving their pale lips and oozing out their rattle of words. A hissing chuckle swept, like a gush of wind, through the vampires surrounding the ensnared girl, as they sneered and clicked their tongues, exchanging glances and corrupt smirks. They began to disperse away from her, scattering away from the bewildered nord like smoke in the night air, except the four that had hold of her limbs. The two vampires seizing her legs hissed and chuckled, tossing her backwards and walking off with the flick of their heel. The vampire from before, the vampire who she got away from - with the long brunette hair and the scar engraved in his cheek - snarled as he swept passed her, locking his cold eyes on her as he sank into the darkness.
The nord girl gritted her teeth, grunting as she thrashed her body, still pinned by the two vampires who had hold of her arms. Garan Marethi was it, clutching onto her right arm? Then on her left, a vampire woman with dull black hair, dressed in that same grey gothic attire. Her cheeks were awfully hollow and grey, with the cheekbones high and defined. Her darkened pursed lips were small and thin. Her nose short, curving at the tip like the nose of a bat. Had she been an imperial before the horrid transformation had plagued her?
She hissed as the red-haired nord girl squirmed and growled, "Just you wait mortal! We will get our vengeance on you!"
"Vengeance Salonia?" Garan Marethi teased from the other side, "There is no need to pursue that. This mortal is sure to suffer. Lord Harkon likes to play with his food."
Before anymore struggling could be made, the girl fell to the floor, crashing onto her stomach with a string of her warm red blood trickling from her forehead, dribbling onto the ice floor. The lancing sting at the back of her head triggered a black fog to sweep over her eyes. A long shrill buzz shuddered in her eardrums as her body sank into the floor. As much as she tried, she could not keep her eyelids open, and soon enough her state of consciousness slipped away. She felt like she was falling, collapsing into an eternal dark abyss, with a blanket of ebony shrouding her mind.