Desperation is the key to our survival; it calls upon the very essence of an animal's fight to stay alive. Without it the human race would have died out long ago.
Eternity's ears rang with the sound of the cry. Male shouts echoed from various points in the pitch-blackness but as they all intermingled across the stale air they became indistinguishable. Her eyes strained to the outside where the scream had hailed from, but were only met but a sharp blinding light which shone heavily through the doorway.
Her ears recognised her name being repeatedly called into the darkened air and her answering hail back in the rough direction was one of caution. More shots sounded. Eternity rolled under the nearest work surface for cover just as the blinding light faded. The light had moved closer, evidently it had been a torch, with now the owner inside the warehouse.
From the distance Eternity could take in the vague view of the owner. It was male, tall and broad shouldered. His clothes comprised of a long thick jacket and loose trousers. Trainers adorned his feet showing his wealth in a prize make, though they were worn through on the souls. By the fact they held a stick caught to the lace Eternity took the guess that he had been a) in a wood recently b) been hunting in a wood recently c) he had been drinking in a wood recently.
From her belly down position lying down on the floor she could just see his head if she flattened herself within a millimetre of the floor. But what interested her was the bundle on his shoulder. It was like a big sausage. The sick little voice in the back of her mind sang away with corpse glorious corpse, blood bones and eyeballs, dead bodies for all of us, what next is the question.
She lay frozen to the floor as a the shots died down. Some other people had evidently found torches and began flicking them on. From Eternity's position she could see no one except the vampire. The winding twisting snake that coiled around the stomach and heart soaked it's poison of fear into her ebbing her of any bravery she thought she held.
Cold with fear and drenched in sweat she lay for what seemed like hours but in reality was sometime in the area of five minutes whilst various feet moved around outside in the open space of the warehouse. She felt like the rabbit hiding from the fox. The vampire earlier mentioned had moved off with his bundle, he was laughing and talking to a friend.
No trace among the many voices of any she knew. Her panic had subsided and the snake had stopped squeezing in her body. The voices seemed many as the echoed off the many walls and boxes and left her feeling very lonely under the surface. The lights had been switched on, but they were only dulled lights only providing enough light for her to pick out vague shapes in the moonlight.
Her breath stopped issuing from her lips as the sounds of walking neared her. The shoes were harsh against the surface and the bearer did not pick up his feet. He was alone and reeked of blood. No guesses were needed in the case of his species. She let in not a gasp but a soft barely plausible breath and out again so that he could not hear her.
She closed her eyes and let her body relax, fall into a peace of mind. She felt almost sleepy with her head resting gently against the concrete floor, eyes shut to the already dim world, body numb against the evening's turmoil. She stirred, only her eyes opening as her ears recognised the sound of a lighter catching a cigarette. The walker had stopped leaning on a surface not three down from hers. When she looked she saw the slow black drops of falling ash.
She let her body relax once more against the floor, breathing so that she became sedated with the lack of oxygen. So when the voice came it did not startle her. "Are you coming out or do I have to drag you?" It was a calm almost gentle voice, no hint or malice to destroy the natural tones that easily completed every word with confidence. Against her will her body stopped frozen in time and thought.
"I suppose that's dragging then, little lady." The tones quietly ensued after another slow and lasting drag on the cigarette. "Let me finish my cigarette then." He said in a careless quiet tone, which matched the now silent air. The last of the ash fell from the surface and the vampire carefully dropped the small remainder to the ground before turning nonchalantly back to her work surface.
He ducked down to the floor his face brushing the edge of it. It was a nice face. It was of a man, not over twenty-one with dark brown eyes and long lashes. His chocolate brown hair was straight and long touching his eyelashes and occasionally cloaking his eyes. He looked timeless with an elegant sense of grace and posture. He was beautiful but not sexually appealing. He was what he seemed, nothing more.
He held out his hand to her, palm up almost like a handshake. Her eyes darted to the floor before his easy voice spoke again. "All I can see of you, little girl, is two large brown eyes." He spoke the words as if they were a prayer and the name, little girl, as if he was speaking off a puppy. She sniffed slightly her control returning.
He pulled his head up so only the lower half of his body was visible and knelt back. Eternity sniffed once again before pulling herself on her hands and body forward out into the open of the warehouse. She had not realised how the surface had sheltered her from the sudden wind that whipped up and caused a shiver to pass down her spine. The biting wind caught her as soon as her head emerged from the darkened hole she had been in for the past hour. Her bones were stiff and she felt very feeble, caught as she was by the enemy who would certainly do bad things to her.
She shivered again before her eyes met that of her captor. She dropped them again waiting for him to make a move. Kinder to kill her instantly but she felt assured he had no sense of doing so. He was evidently studying her closely. This lasted but three minutes before he turned and walked calm and controlled, as were all his movements down the alleyway.
Standing slightly awkwardly she saw behind her reflected by the concrete the light of the breaking dawn. But she also felt, knew, that as soon as she moved to the open door a vampire would appear from no where to stop her. Looking back to the now disappearing figure she hurried along behind him shuffling slightly and holding onto herself. She was sniffling against, probably she had caught a cold.
He winded along the many stacks of crates until he reached a small office area. He entered switching a lamp on in the corner so a dim light illuminated the room. It was a dull room. Two desks kept up the dry, metallic feel of the whole building with a few sofas littered at the opposite end in a dowdy green and blue colour well stained. On one of these he indicated her to sit.
She stumbled forward, still clasping at herself for protection and reassurance. The seats were unforgiving but she pulled her legs up to her chest in an act of self defence against the creature that held her to this place. He merely moved from the light to the sofa opposite hers. He sat, one leg hanging over the edge the other resting over the thigh of the former leg, relaxed and calm.
"My name," he said in his unique soft tone, " is Michael Pope." She blinked and blushed wondering whether to tell her own name but deciding to remain in silence. "You're a daybreaker?" She sat silently looking at him opposite her with all hope and desperation caught in them swirling and dancing. He closed his eyes for that very second before pulling himself up.
A curious co-incidence of events happened that very second. A gun was fired in the warehouse behind just as Michael sat down next to her. She turned her body to level her eyes with his again, ignoring the jump of sudden veracity in the next room as it once again passed into silence. His eyes were dead. Old eyes. Very old eyes.
Sad. They were so very sad. She put her hand up to touch the cheek to touch the pain, but her remembrance withheld the hand from touching. Michael in his turn moved his arm around her, pulling her long black cloak over her body to stop the cold from touching her, even though in the little office the breeze had stopped. He left the arm there.
Eternity relaxed her head lulling back onto his shoulder where all the numbness ebbed away giving power to a rush of feeling. Pain pumped the blood in her body around a thousand times a minute, her mind went through stages of feeling like a rabbit caught in a trap before repressing back into a feeling of quiet ecstasy. Her body slowed as her breathing matched his in a symphony of silence.
It was almost as if he had let go the feeling that had wound up inside her all evening with every breath he let out of his body. Almost as if he were healing her by just breathing, by just being alive. His mind his soul his presence was enough to justify her very being.
Endless time passed, like eternity in his arms. A quiet piece of mind that let her be free from even thoughts of revenge and pain that had haunted her brain for the past six months. This was peace. This was freedom. This was everything.
-*-
When the endless time ended it was not a shock nor was it expected. And it was neither a disappointment nor blessing. Emotions she had let go of and in this time nothing was positive and nothing was negative. Everything was as it was and as it should be.
He was the first to move his body leaning forward tipping her from him so he could stand. His eyes looked slightly weary and tired. "Come." He said as if it were not an order but a regret. She stood slightly unsteady, but relaxed as she pulled her long sleeved black coat about her. "No, this way." He quietly commented as she turned towards the warehouse. He was pointing towards a wooden door which held unto the unknown.
She followed him as he opened it revealing a comfortable little office. It was no doubt part of the rest of the dowdy dry place, but it was partially different in a way Eternity could not distinguish. On the desk was a sheaf of papers headed with an untidy scrawl 'Hellfire'. She was in his office. She stopped for a second worried that any second the bogeyman of daybreakers bad dreams would spring out upon her. But all there was was Michael looking at her with his sad brown eyes.
She shook herself out of it and glancing once more at the papers she walked over to where he stood upon the far side of the room next to the second door. He held it open for her. The sight that met her eyes was not one she anticipated. She glanced at him with sudden horror and wonder but all he did was look back with those same beautiful eyes.
"Why-?" She asked breathing the words over speaking them. He still heard with ease his eyes never leaving hers.
"Because you're different." He said without a flicker of emotion. His voice was harder than it had been but Eternity sensed it was not because of what he was saying but because what he was doing. His hand reached out to her fluffy hair and ran his hand through a strand of it. He smiled almost with an almost daydreaming look which did not touch her eyes.
"Why don't-?" She started again stumbling over words, she had not spoken in many hours. But she had no need to speak, he already knew.
"to daybreak? No. My side is set. Now run and don't stop or look back."
"When?" She asked her breath coming to her in ragged chants. She clumsily buttoned her coat up before trying her feet against the concrete below. She was able to stand.
"As long as we are both free, now go." She ran. She did not look back and she did not stop. It took not a five hundred metres before her lungs began to burn and her throat dried to the point of doom. She slowed but did not stop. The threat of a vampire following her kept her pace fast and furious.
She realised she was smiling as she found herself alone in the centre of the town. It was quiet in the early bathed light of the morning. The town clock told her it was just passed six in the morning, and her thumping head told her it was time to run once again. She set her feet off in the direction she knew as home, but it was too be a long walk.
Quiet as the day the house was as she finally approached. It was nearly eight o'clock in the morning but nobody inside appeared to be stirring. She passed the wards the sight of home making her body shake and stumble for the first time weakness entered her adrenaline fed body. Clumsily she stumbled over to the doorbell, she had no key, rang and waited. And waited.... Nobody's home.....
-*-
Review and updates will come that bit faster..........
Redaura: Valerio..... He's so cool. The girl at the beginning was Eternity. Thank you so much.
Bex Drake: Thank you, darling. It's chipper to hear from you.
Practikal magik: If I told you that it would be no fun for me. The bad dude run along the lines of: Dover- human Midday Sun Leader. His second is Cathcarte. Hellfire- evil vampire dude who stabbed Valerio. Carthage- is a nasty pasty but with Daybreak. Better?
Anatia: All forgiven darling and I'm glad you like the story. To improve your reviewing skills I request next time you review you say something you don't like. Do it!
Review.....