Things might get a bit gorey in this chapter, so if your'e squeemish, don't read it. However, I do think it will be acrucial point in the storey line, and things might be a bit disjointed if you skip it.
Chapter 4 – The truth unfolds
Rachel and the team sat happily around the campfire eating chunks of the cooked meat. Rachel nibbled at her piece, and admittedly, it was very nice. She had already eaten that evening, so she didn't have much of the meat. "It was very generous of that man to get some meat for us." Katrina commented. The team nodded in agreement, but Rachel stopped to think for a moment. Where could he have found such a large chunk of meat? Certainly not from Tesco's, that's for sure. As Rachel got up to go to her tent, she told the group that she was going to bed, and left them to their 'steak'.
Shortly afterwards, the team retired to their tents and went to sleep. Rachel lay in her sleeping bag, gazing at the roof of her tent, watching the condensation form on the waterproofed fabric. She couldn't go to sleep, only think about the chunk of meat they had been given earlier in the night. "He couldn't have bought it from anywhere, or it wouldv'e been wrapped in plastic. It was too big to have come from a rabbit, and there aren't any deer in the forest. It didn't taste ofbeef or lamb, but pork." Rachel's brow furrowed in confusion. "Pork? But there aren't any pigs of any kind around here... So what else tastes like pork?" She didn't like the conclusion she came to, so she pulled on her walking boots and coat, grabbed a torch and crept out of the campsite into the woods.
As Rachel walked amidst the towering dark conifers along the cycle path deep in the forest, the already feeble light of her torch began to fade. "Damn." Putting the torch into one of her coat pockets, her heart began to pound within her chest. Rachel was by no means scared of the dark, but some instinct told her that she was being watched by something.
Breathing deeply, she told herself to be calm, and continued carefully through the woods. The air in the forest was unsettlingly still and quiet. But then a slight breeze wafted through the trees. The darkness seemed to deepen. Rachel found herself unable to carry on.She forced herself to take several deep breaths, closed her eyes and said barely above a wisper, "God and Goddess hear my plea, change my eyes so I can see, in the darkness of the night, to chase away this awful fright."
Rachel opened her eyes, and for a moment, nothing happened. But then, with gradually increasing detail and sharpness, she began to see the forest around her with amazing accuracy. Looking between the tall slim trunks of the conifers, Rachel could see small bats flitting around after moths and other insects, the reflective eyes of a badger comming out of it's den, a fox hunting rodents in the undergrowth.
With new found courage, Rachel pushed on through the woods. Abruptly, she came upon a small clearing where the ruined remains of an old stone built farmhouse stood. She noticed that there was some kind of hut built up against one wall where a small fireplace and the chimney flue would have been. Some smoke drifted from the top of the chimney. A sudden sense of foreboding filled Rachel as she neared the place.
As Rachel entered the small shelter, a scene of utmost horror presented itself to her.
There lay a man on the floor, in his mid to late thirties, stripped to his waist. Stripped not only of his clothes.
He lay face down on the earth floor, with his head turned to one side, a look of utter terror etched upon his cold, grey features. All the flesh and muscle had been removed from his chest and back, so that the bone and sinue was clearly visible. This man had had his flesh removed from him as one might have removed the flesh from the bone of a rabbit or wild game.
Barely any blood had been spilt.
Two puncture wounds could be seen on the man's neck.
Rachel blinked in disbelief at theabsolute grotequeity of it all.
"Dear Gods! It- it can't be possible!" Rachel staggered backwards out of the hut, falling over a log outside. Pushing herself off the ground, she thought of the puncture wounds in the man's neck and the lack of blood; and put two and two together.
A vampire.
Dashing awkwardly through the dark forest, Rachel had difficulty comprehending the enormity of what happened. I told you so, said a voice in the back of her head. I told you there were vampires, but you wouldn't isten to me. Apathetic bloody human. You should listen to me more often, not those other silly humans. What do they know anyway? Rachel's mind was too numbed to even notice this.
Rachel ran wildly through the woods, back to her camp. Comming to an abrupt stop against a tree, she cast her eyes about frantically; she knew she had seen something when she had been running.
Just when she thought it was relitavely safe to carry on, she glanced over her shoulder. There stood a young man, with shortish hair, with a smug grin on his face. He then lunged toward Rachel, bareing his fangs. "Another vampire?" she thought, "How many of them are there? Is Turel one too? It would explain the strange vibes I was getting from these guys earlier." As soon as the vampire was in range, she took aim, and with all her might,kicked the vampire in the crotch.
This stopped him dead in his tracks, and for a short while, he was left writhing on the ground, shouting obsenities. Rachel took this chance to run as far as possible; but the vampire was soon hot on her heels again. She tripped over a log and fell to the ground with a sickening thud. The vampire was on her in an instant. Grabbing a nearby stinging nettle, Rachel pulled the plant out of the ground and thrust it into the eyesocket of her assailent. The vampire growled in pain and hurled the plant away and held the squirming girl down. "I must say, I haven't had a hunt this exhilarating in years."
"Get off me you fiend!"
"Hm...If I could have a penny for every time a mortal has said that to me, I'd be the richest vampire in all of Nosgoth."
For a little while, the vampire smiled smugly at his victim, savouring the moment. He seemed to examine her features with mild intrest, untill he paused to look upon her eyes. He stared unrestrained into her eyes, drawing nearer and nearer, seemingly perplexed.
"Your eyes...Theyr'e not human... Yet your'e human in every other way... The way you look, smell, behave... all typically human. But not your eyes." The vampire was so close now, Rachel could smell his vile breath. "What is wrong with your eyes, girl!"
"Wha- what do you mean?"
"Your eyes! Theyr'e like the eyes of some feline!"
Realisation dawned upon her then, what the vampire was talking about. "Speak girl!"
"It's- it's a spell I used, so I could see in the dark." He suddenly pulled back, looking rather bemused.
"But... Kain said that humans had no magick in this realm..."
"Well, I do."
"Apparently so." And with this, the vampire got to his feet, pulling Rachel up with him. "You had better come with me."
Oooh, Zephon's got Rachel! And yeah, I know this chapter was more horror than anything else... I was thinking about puttingthe storey in a different genre. Anyway, please review!