Disclaimer: See chapter one.
A/N: Long time again, but don't let it stop you reviewing, please.
Kitisho
Fear
There is the fight, but it will be brief. There is the beast, but it will be dust. So was my life, for as many days as I could count and beyond. I learned to hunt for myself, catching my meals and eating them, crouched, feral, always alert, always watchful. Always waiting. My hands grew hard, like my heart.
The world was my enemy, and it was all I could do to stay alive.
I became as primitive as the beasts I fought, and I began to love it. I lusted after the night. The cool, calm darkness, bringing with it fire and ice, life and death. I won, I savoured the win. To lose was to die, and I would not go like Kito, like the others. My friends, my cherished friends, they were like stories now, whispers on the wind. They were so far from me. I was a warrior.
I was the Slayer.
XXXXX
I ran faster than the sloping, sneaky desert animals I shared my beautiful Sahara with. I ran for days at a time, marvelling at my speed, my grace, the way my feet hardly seemed to touch the ground. I so rarely looked at my surroundings.
I stopped to find something to eat before the darkness fell. It seemed like lifetimes since my transformation. My eyes, trained to spot the slightest movement, spied a creature moving towards me in the distance. The Sun was setting, casting long shadows over his face, but before long, I had seen all I needed to.
'Rahidi,' I growled. My voice was hoarse through lack of use. I reached up to check that my mask was still in place. It was, hard and white, disguising me even from myself.
The man, the elder, the evil bastard who violated me made his way towards me slowly. His gait was lopsided, as if he had been hurt, and I felt a savage joy to think of it.
'Sineya,' he croaked as he neared me.
'No,' I said, my voice harsh and rough. 'I am the primitive.'
'Sineya, please,' Rahidi's voice is pleading. 'Help us.'
'Sineya is no more,' I hiss. 'I am the slayer. The one girl.'
'Chosen,' Rahidi continued, 'to protect us all.'
He fell to his knees. I looked down at his feeble frame, and see the blood seeping from beneath his robes. My own body is clad in thin white rags. They cling to my frame and allow me to move freely in combat.
'You are foolishly dressed,' I spat, and followed his footprints back to the tribe.
XXXXX
The village no longer looked like home. I walked through the familiar paths and saw nothing of my youth here. I passed through the deserted communal garden and saw a shrine to my friends who had foolishly fought the vampires. The shrine was spattered with something dark. I reached over to touch it, it was sticky. I brought it up to my nose, and despite my new resilience, I recoil. It's blood. Fresh blood. I made my way to my parent's hut, despite it all, I was worried for them. When I reached the front door, it was slightly ajar and the place was deserted.
Anxiety began to build in the pits of my stomach. I knew there was only one more place to check, and so I headed to the Elder's Hut.
When I pushed the door open, there were yelps of terror. It seemed almost everyone from the town was gathered inside this one hut as the sun dipped lower in the sky.
'Begone, beast!' a man I'd known my whole life yelled.
'Sudi,' I croaked.
'It knows us!' Sudi screamed. 'Demon!'
'It is Sineya,' I said quietly.
'Sineya left us,' I hear my mother's voice whisper.
'Mother, it is I,' I said.
Her face was hard. 'You are not my daughter.'
I reached once more for my mask. 'This is my guise. It is Sineya inside.'
I walked further into the hut. 'Where are the Elders?'
'Here,' said a deep and authoritative voice.
'Asili,' I snarled. 'You speak freely to me?'
'Why should I not?' Asili said fiercely. 'We gave you everything, strength, power, skills, everything you needed to fight the coming darkness and save your people, and you deserted them. You are nothing to me but failure.'
'You gave me everything?' I said, surprised. 'You took my life from me! My humanity! You put blackness inside and it's filling me up!' Tears began to well in my eyes and my voice dropped. 'You gave me the heart of the coming darkness. I cannot fight fire with fire forever.'
'You cannot fight it at all,' Asili growled. 'You are worthless to our cause.'
I could feel my tears mingling with the hardened ash on my face and I fled the hut, hating the accusatory stares burned into my eyes from my fellows. I ran to the garden and sat opposite the shrine, staring at the gaudy flowers and offerings that represented the town's sadness and respect for the horrific event. I realised it had barely been a season since I had left this place, but still, my life had changed immeasurably. My heart was as still as those I turned to dust. I looked at the beautiful shrine and I formulated a plan. If I protected the town for this night, they would accept me once more into their arms and I would no longer be the primitive. It was a mantle I no longer wanted. The elder's could imbue another girl with my strength and I could again be Sineya.
Oh, how I missed Sineya.
I sat in front of the shrine until the sun had disappeared totally from the sky, and then I stationed myself by the river, as was my custom, and readied myself for the inevitable fight, and the resulting dust with which I would bathe in.
XXXXX
'She is unremarkable,' Asili said sharply.
'On the contrary, she is powerful. She has lasted this long without instruction or direction. She may rid us of the beasts forever,' Enzi nodded slowly. 'And if not, we kill her, and the next vessel will.'
XXXXX
I crouched low, missing the vampire's kick by inches and throwing her off balance. I responded with a swift jab at her throat and I quickly staked her while she was distracted. Her friend wailed in anger and flew at me, kicking me to the ground and baring her fanged face as she leaned down to drink. As she inched closer to me, I thrust another stake upwards and she dusted on top of me. Coughing, I turned to face at least three other emerging from the blackness.
Unknown to me, the tribe watched from a distance, peering round the side of the Elder's hut, their faces painted with horror like mine was with dust.
'She's not right,' one whispered to another.
'She's gone mad with heat,' another said. 'It happens, when you're out in the desert alone.'
'The Gods have seen fit to take her from us,' my mother whispered. 'And have left us with this evil shell.'
I flipped upright, and staked one with the end of a long branch from the banks of the river, and tripped another with the other end. I rolled to meet him on the ground, and twisted his neck before he could attack. He falls backwards, an explosion of dust at my feet, but I was already concentrating on the one who had caught me from behind and had my neck. I headbutted the demon, and they, falling backwards, impaled themselves on a low hanging branch from a nearby tree.
I have a second to gather myself before the next one is upon me.
'She is greater than all of them,' a tribesman whispered, narrowing his eyes at me, fighting in the distance. 'She is dangerous.'
'Greater and more terrible,' someone else agreed. 'She has killed them all.'
It was true, the last one was dust, and I was exhausted. I had never taken on so many at once. Time had passed quickly, and the sun was once more hazing the horizon. I turned to where the tribe stood, watching me, I had not noticed them before.
My face was sticky with dust and water and heat, so I washed it quickly in the river, before, without thinking, applying my usual face paint of ashes. I entered the village, expecting to hear applause, or at least, the gracious thanks of my fellow man.
Instead, I was met with their stares. Their eyes glazed over with fear as I passed, and by the time I had reached the elder hut, almost everyone had absconded.
I did not have to knock. The Elders were waiting. Rahidi and Enzi stood, watching me.
'You let Asili die,' they said. Their countenance was terrible.
'I saved the whole tribe!' I croaked. My voice did not sound like I would ever be able to speak normally again.
'You inspire nothing but fear. Never return to this place, Slayer,' Rahidi spat.
'You are a disgusting failure,' Enzi hissed. 'When you die, we will see that there will be no more like you.'
I stood, shaken. 'I did what you asked me,' I stated hoarsely.
'And you will do it again or we will kill you,' Enzi pointed to the horizon. 'Leave.'
Numbly, I walked the familiar path to the edge of the village. I turned back once, near the boundary. All I saw was fear. I could smell it. Taste it on my tongue. Feel it, constricting me like the ashes on my face. There was nothing for me here now.
I was alone. All the emotions that had returned to me since I had revisited my home fled from me as I walked away for the last time. I was hard, and cold. I was destruction. Absolute. Alone.
I would never be Sineya again.
Review, please!
