No Want, No Hunger, No Shame
A/N: Okay, I've got it all figured out now! Since you all seem to like this fic so much and demand that I update more than once a week, I will. From now on, you'll only have to wait five days to read the next chapter, okay?
dialogue – thoughts
"dialogue" – speaking
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Chapter 4:
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Curious was an understatement. She wasn't just curious; she was scared, intrigued and repelled at the same time. This vampire was strange; he was out in broad daylight, unaware of the people around him, blending in perfectly.
Well, perfectly besides the height. He was tall, very tall. So tall his head was above the crowd most of the time.
Meryl let her feet guide her through the crowds; she ignored the rain pelting her. She willingly followed behind at a safe distance. She needed no persuasion to pursue this vampire.
He was strange, different. She could tell…
And his mysteriousness drew her in. And she needed to know more.
Meryl dodged behind a group of ruffled people as the vampire turned and looked behind him. The movement was so sudden; she barely had time to hide herself from his probing eyes.
Waiting for a few moments, she listened to the crowds around her. Gathering up her courage, she peeked out from behind the group of people and caught sight of a head of blonde hair that seemed to stick straight up. It was blurred through the rain, and he was moving quickly away from her.
The vampire.
She scrambled out from behind her cover and followed the head of hair. He was getting farther away, putting more distance between Meryl and himself. It was almost as if he knew someone was following him.
The short woman suddenly had to wonder if he knew someone was following him. What if he did know? What would he do? What if he confronted her? She was as good as dead if he thought he was being threatened.
Shaking the thoughts from her mind, she hurried after him, intent on meeting him even if he was a major threat to her life. Meryl flew past people and pushed through tight knit groups that blocked her way. She wiped furiously at the rain blocking her vision and wetting her hair. It was beginning to pour!
Yes, she was gaining on him. He was once again within her sights. All she had to do was keep up with him...!
BANG
Meryl collided with another body and was sent hop skipping with her arms flailing oddly off to the side. Struggling to regain her composure and frantic, afraid she had lost the vampire, she almost ignored the person she had run into.
"Hey! Watch where yer goin', little girl!" A grizzled old man with yellow teeth sneered at her as she regained her footing.
Meryl glared at the man, "Watch yourself, old man! Have some respect for those you bump into!" she retorted angrily and stretched onto her tiptoes to see around the crowd.
"Hey, little lady! Yew better have some respect for yer elders!" the man sneered, "Nobody wants no enemies these days."
Meryl ignored the man and cut off any further conversation by darting off into the crowd, rain pelting her like hail.
"Yew come back here and apologize! Girl, git back here!" the man's protests were quickly lost in the din of the mass and furious downpour as Meryl once again set off pushing her way through the people.
But the vampire was nowhere in sight. He was gone, lost in the accumulation of morning shoppers and strollers.
Meryl turned around in circles frantically. How had she lost him? He had been right there! How could she have been so clumsy to lose him? She was a part time vampire hunter and she lost one!
The people continued on around her, indifferent to her strange behaviour. She was not quite right in the head, or she had lost something. There was no point in dwelling on it.
Either way, nobody was willing to help a stranger. Not in these time, not these days. There was too much was at risk by meeting someone new. If you didn't know their middle names, it was best to steer clear of them. No, you could never be too careful around people.
So, Meryl was left to her angered thoughts. She had lost the vampire; it was as simple as that. She stopped her crazy turning and stood still midst the array of people.
Darn, I was so close, too… Meryl wrinkled her nose and sighed in displeasure
Pulling her cloak further around her body, Meryl's hand strayed to the back of her neck. She touched the skin gingerly, afraid of what she might find. But it was no longer bleeding. A dry crust had formed over her wound, which seemed unaffected by the rain.
She fingered it uneasily. It felt strange, as though it wasn't a bug bite, but some sort of long, thin gash. Yes, it was. It felt like some sort of pattern…
The thought sent shivers up her spine. This was no bug bite. It was something else. Meryl's eyes narrowed as an unexpected thought occurred to her. It had something to do with that vampire. It had to be!
Abruptly, the thought of heading home seemed better than ever. She no longer wanted to be outside, vulnerable in the crowds, vulnerable in the shadows, vulnerable in the light. The damp air seemed cold, clammy. It was wet from the rain but it seemed to be choking her. It penetrated her cloak; so, she pulled it tighter around herself, up ho her neck to cover the bloody flesh.
Attacks of shivers were sent up her spine, and the hairs on her neck stood on end. Her back tingled strangely, not unlike when she had felt the vampire near her. But this time it was different. It felt more hostile, the feeling almost hurt. It was almost painful.
She became aware of the clip-clop of horses' hooves on the cobblestone street. The sound was mingled with the rain, which had started to let off and settling into a light drizzle again. Turning slightly, she saw the crowds of people parting lazily to let through a carriage pulled by two large, black horses.
Quickly, to avoid attention and a possible confrontation with potentially hostile horses, Meryl pulled back to the side of the cobblestone street and watched with some interest at the carriage approached her, rolling through the path made by the people.
It was black, the same as the horses. Today, black was a shade not all too uncommon. Lords and Ladies preferred the subdued darkness of it. It was something associated with power, money, and riches. The carriage had a trim of silver along the edges, another symbol of wealth.
It was sleek, shiny in the gloomy fog and wet in the rain.
Meryl watched silently as it approached with the driver sitting like a petrified stump at the reins. He wore black, and a hat shaded his face from curious eyes. His skin was rather pale, and he did not move with the sway of the carriage, but instead sat unfazed by the bumpy ride and the rain saturating his suit.
It neared, and Meryl's eyes narrowed slightly as one black drape was pulled slightly back to reveal a pale hand. She stared curiously, although with some hostility with light shivers running in tremors around her body, from her toes up to the crown of her head.
The hand pulled the curtain back more to reveal a face swathed in shadows, the outline only visible.
The face was too dark to see, but the eyes shone with a deadly hate. They glared out and searched the parted crowd mulling around the carriage. They swept over every person and finally settled on Meryl. They pierced her, fixing her with a glare worst than death itself. Ice Blue, chips of ice. It was pure hate.
Death.
A small voice in her head seemed to itch at her, growing louder and finally breaking through to speak harshly. Meryl listened unwillingly as incoherent sentences lined with hate invaded her mind.
Death, hate… I hate you…
…You will die… Ice, cold, cold, cold, cold ice…blue, be afraid.
Fear me… die…
Hate, death, you will die a horrible death… You will die… Die by my hands.
See my eyes…see? Death is in my eyes. I will kill you
You will die… See my eyes, they are ice, cold ice…
Remember the ice when you die… ice, so cold. You see, cold, freeze…
Death! Death, death, death, death, death is upon you!
You are next, you will die …I hate you… See my eyes? See my eyes? …They are cold ice… Ice…cold ice…
…freezing ice…so cold…death…
Meryl shivered, the words running repeatedly in her head. They were cold. Whispers invading her mind, speaking to her. She gulped the damp air and broke free from the chants of death and ice.
The carriage was past; it was far down the cobblestone streets now. Gone in the thick downpour. The people around her were back to milling around, trying to evade the storm. The murmur of the street was back, mixed with the pitter-patter of the rain. She was the only one standing still, the only one frozen with strange thoughts running through her head.
Yes, suddenly home sounded the best. Away from the events of the day, away from harm, away from the water that soaked her to the bone, chilling her soul.
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It was dark outside, cold and wet. Rain still fell, albeit more lightly than that afternoon. It pattered against Meryl's bedroom window, ran in rivers down the shutters. At this time of night the streets were deserted, people were safe inside, hiding with the lights on.
Afraid.
They were all afraid of the night. Fear came with night, dread, and despair. Death came with darkness, darkness more than any other time of day.
Vampires were out prowling at this time of night. Stalking their prey, waiting and toying with anyone unfortunate to be caught up in the dark.
The demons fed more at night than any other time of day. The demons killed at night, took away life for a meal, a snack. Demons they were.
Meryl however, was not facing demons outside. The rain fell upon deaf ears, for she was asleep in her bed. Instead, she was dreaming of demons…
It was dark, very dark. How had she gotten here?
She couldn't remember. One minute she was…where had she been? She didn't know. All she knew was that she was here now.
Here…
It was dark and she was running, her cloak flapping frantically behind her. Running from what? To where?
There was no moon, but still she could make out where she was going.
There were trees in the darkness; she knew they were there. It was just so dark. Silence engulfed her, but her heavy breathing warded it off. Warning it not to come any closer.
Was there something behind her? Yes, she could sense it its presence, its feet moving quickly, lightly on the forest floor. It was following her…
A forest.
Trees whizzed quickly past her running form, or were they the ones really moving?
No, she was the one running. But running from what? To nowhere? In a place where there was no moon?
She couldn't remember…
The trees and bushes cleared, thinned into a field. It was so dark. How could she see in this darkness, though? This blackness all around her?
The field was neat; the grass was trimmed, short and tough. It hurt her bare feet, cut into her skin.
She looked back into the inky darkness. It jumped into the field. Cloaked in black, it was perhaps darker than the night.
What was it?
It was too dark to see, everything was so dark…wait, what was that?
Eyes.
Eyes in the dark, blue eyes. Blue eyes in the dark. The figure swathed with black had blue eyes.
Icy blue eyes. Horrible hating blue eyes that were so cold.
Cold, they made her feel as though she was suddenly plunged into ice. It was so cold, but she needed to run, to get away…!
She turned forward… it was too late.
The ground before her let away, leaving nothing but air. Nothingness before her, all around her.
She screamed as she fell, down into darkness. Blue eyes surrounded her, narrowed with hate and cruelty.
Death…death, pain and sorrow.
She shut her eyes tight…willing the sight to go away.
To leave her alone!
Meryl shot up in her bed, cold sweat trickling down her back, making her hair stick in matted clumps to her face. A silent scream was in her throat, her mouth open in horror.
She gasped, sucking air back into her strained lungs. Forcing her shaking hands to grip the sheets and wipe the cold sweat from her palms. The darkness around her seemed to press in on her. It was stifling.
It made Meryl aware of the dull ache at the back of her neck. She gulped in her dry throat and loosened one hand to finger the wound that should have been healing.
But it was doing anything but healing.
It bled freely.
She had not thought of it since earlier that day. It had slipped her mind completely when she had arrived back at her house, wet and freezing. She had been too intent on getting herself dry to think of the mark on her neck. She had been thinking about the vampire, the carriage and the cold eyes that had been fixed on her, speaking worlds without words.
Now, she regretted it.
And as Meryl pulled her wet fingers away, she gulped once in fear and quickly shot her other hand out to turn on her bedside lamp. The darkness around her made her uneasy. And ominous tension hung over her like a sword, ready to strike at any moment.
Light filtered the room, sending any unwanted guests out of her imagination. But it did nothing to quell the sickness in the pit of her stomach. Meryl swung her legs over the side of her bed and flew out of the warm covers. She threw open her bedroom door and—still in her nightshirt—ran to the washroom and flicked on the light switch.
Meryl—with one hand to the back of her neck—flung open a cabinet and drew out a hand mirror.
She faced herself in the larger mirror positioned in front of her and stared at her ruffled hair and sleepy expression. But her smoky-grey eyes were wide with something akin to fear, and she brought the mirror to the back of her head and focused on the image reflected in the larger mirror.
The back of her neck was smeared with blood, and she cringed at the running redness. It clotted thickly as if it had just been freshly cut, and now as she stared at it, she could make out a strange design.
Biting her lip, Meryl pulled out a cloth and ran it under the tap. With a growing illness inside of her, she gingerly wiped away the blood and held the smaller mirror up again to study the design.
But it wasn't a design, it was something much more simple. It was a letter, and it was clearly visible in red against her pale skin.
It was the letter 'K'
Outside, midst the rain and darkness, sat two figures. Shrouded in darkness, they were unseen to any human eye. Silently, they watched as the light flickered on in a window up above. The window was barely visible inside the shutters, but the darkness of the street allowed the light to brighten the ground below.
"Has she discovered your mark yet, master?" Golden eyes turned to look intently at the shadow beside them.
Cold, blue eyes turned to focus on the shutters, "Yes, she has had her warning." It smiled slightly, "I doubt the human will know it's meaning, though."
They watched as the light shut off and the cobblestone street was once again blanketed in darkness. Stepping out of the shadows, the two figures began to move away and down the road.
"I want her movements watched. Today was too close for my liking."
"Yes, my lord."
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A/N: Ooh, what do we have here? Antagonist's…maybe?
Anyhoo, review please! I love your wonderful info! You guys are so great!
Have a happy day
--Cayenne Pepper Powder