Finally got my lazy self to write this…

Chapter VI: Aftermath

By Kia

When Kurin looked back at this day later, in his memory it would mark the point where things really started to go wrong. But right now it simply seemed to him like a never ending nightmare, even after the last of the vampires was killed or chased away.

As far as they knew it had been six of them – six vampires, and they had killed all together four people from their village: An old man, two woman and a little girl.

Kurin would never forget the moment they found Analie, sweet little Analie who had just turned eight yesterday, lying motionless between the rocks, and her brother, bloodied and blind with rage, stabbing the already unmoving corpse that looked painfully like his father again and again with a stone… It had taken Kurin a surprisingly large amount of strength to clam the boy down and take the weapon from his hands, and after that Raziel has simply passed out, without even realising what was going on.

He would never forget the way Meriah had screamed when he told her of her daughter's death – her voice was still ringing in his ears, a tone of pain and despair it seemed only a mother could understand who had lost her child to the cruel forces of fate. But, somehow, the look she'd given him before had hurt even more – there had been something in her eyes that told him that she already knew what he was about to tell her and just begged him not to do it. He had not been able to meet her eyes when the last pieces of her hope were shattered by his words.

Years ago Kurin had heard somewhere that a mother would feel it when something happened to her children and maybe, he though now, it was true.

At this moment Meriah was at Tar's house where Tar's wife Hanna tired to clam her – Kurin was more than grateful for that, especially because he knew that the woman had also lost her sister this day. Tar himself was standing beside him now, and together they were staring at the corpses of this day's victims.

Runaris' head was twisted in an odd angle – his neck had been broken before his body was drained of blood. Kurin had known the old man for all his life, and though they weren't friends or anything like that he was used to seeing him around. Beside him lay his daughter Elyssa, not a young woman, anymore, but not yet old either. The two of them didn't leave any other relatives and for that Kurin was glad.

Reni, Hanna's younger sister, Kurin had known pretty well. They had basically grown up together and though they were never really close and used to argue a lot he felt a sharp, yet distant pain when he saw her lying there. It didn't seem right that she should lie here, among the others. It didn't seem right.

It didn't seem right that Analie should lie there, a girl that wasn't only painfully young but the daughter of a friend, someone he had known for all her life, for all those pathetically few years.

Kurin had to suppress his tears as he turned away and walked over to the corpses of the killed vampires.

***

There were three of them, all male. One had been killed by a garden fork, one by fire, and one by a stone. Tar watched silently as Kurin kneeled down beside the last one and couldn't help but wonder how small, thin Raziel had been able to do this.

Poor boy…

"It really is him…", he heard Kurin mumble, the first words he had spoken for a while. Tar looked closer – it was Grum's face under all that blood, no doubt, though the barman still could not believe it.

"How is that possible?", he  asked quietly, helpless. "He's been dead for years…"

Kurin shook his head without looking at him. "That's the point, isn't it? As far as I know," He took a deep breath. "the vampires somehow pull the deceased back from death and make them their kind, somehow."

"But… why did he do this, then? His own daughter…"

"Don't you get it?" For the first time Kurin looked at him, his voice shaking. "He didn't remember them. How many vampires, do you think, would happily run around killing people if they remembered who they were before?" He looked away again. "That's what I heard, at least."

Tar frowned. "You heard?", he repeated. "Does that mean you don't know for sure? With all your encounters with vampires?" Suddenly Kurin looked at him, angry.

"How was I supposed to know?", he snapped. "I've never met any vampire that once was my friend before!"

Silence. Then Tar sighed. "All right", he said. "I'm sorry." He knew that Kurin's anger wasn't directed towards him – it had been a long night and the younger man was just as emotionally stressed as everyone else and… Grum had been his friend, after all...

His eyes wandered over to Analie's small form and Tar wondered what she might have thought and felt in those last moment's of her life. In the weak light of the new-born day her face showed no hint of pain, or fear, only mild surprise and wonder. She was a child, barely old enough the understand the concept of 'death'. How was she supposed to understand that her father wasn't her father anymore when he came back after five years of absence?

He wondered what Raziel must have thought. Whatever happened there, they really couldn't blame the boy for not acting sooner – he was only eleven after all. Did he even understand what was going on then?

"What are we going to do with those?" A new voice asked. Tar turned around and saw Hane, the village's only teacher, a small old man with barely any hair left on his head.

It took him a few seconds to realise that he'd been referring to the vampires.

"We're going to bury them, with the others", Tar said quietly. "They where also humans, once."

The old man apparently wanted to protest but before he could say a single word Kurin stood up.

"We are going to burn them", he said. "All of them."

Tar could only look at him in surprise. Hane gasped. "Are you out of your mind?", he hissed. "We can't burn them!"

"And why not?", Kurin snapped back.

"You know why! Their souls can't get to the next life if the body is destroyed!"

"Don't give my that religious shit!" Now Tar was really surprised, even worried. He had never, ever seen Kurin get angry like this. Hane's face turned red but again Kurin was faster. "If we leave them like this their souls might get somewhere, namely back to those corpses. Do you want that?" His eyes threw daggers at the other man. "There isn't much difference between getting burned to ashes or getting eaten by the worms and bugs in the earth. The main difference is the probability of coming back!"

The old teacher seemed to search for an answer but Tar decided to stop him before he could find one. He was tired, worn out. He couldn't take a fight now.

"Let's talk about this later", he said, dragging both Kurin and Hane back to the other men standing around. "Now, we should take the… the corpses inside and go to sleep. We could take Raunris' house for them – nobody's living there anymore."

He sighed in relieve when neither of them protested. He didn't have the energy to deal with them anymore. And he wanted to go home. After all he had a wife to comfort as well.

***

Meriah was already asleep when they arrived at Tar's house, but his wife was still awake, and though she apparently had stopped crying some time ago the tears started to flow again once she came to embrace her husband. Kurin left them alone and went to the small living room instead, where Raziel was sleeping on a couch.

He didn't look like someone who would kill a vampire without a real weapon, Kurin thought. He just looked like a little boy. Someone had threatened his wounds and covered him with a blanked. Kurin knew, as he sat down beside him, that the boy was not to blame for his sister's death. Little boys weren't supposed to attack and kill a much stronger vampire all alone. They weren't even supposed to survive meeting one. Raziel did survive it, instead of his sister he always tried to protect. Now he would have to life with it.

Grum's son didn't stir when Kurin reach out to gently brush some hair out of his face, and the man only sighed and closed his eyes, feeling tired.

-tbc-

January 03, 2004