Chapter 9: "Hate"

Mr Tiny had left without another word.
To be exact, he suddenly just disappeared. He had retreated backwards into the darkness of the cave, and his evil smile vanished along with his red-hot pocket watch in the shape of a heart.
Gillian had searched every corner of the whole cave with the torch in her hand.
But although the magician was gone, the tension would not let go of Gillian.
The heat exhausted her more and more, and she began to feel dizzy, but she could not say due to exhaustion or fear. She felt like being observed, and the thought that the creepy magician could disappear as quickly as he had suddenly appeared here, made her nearly hysterical. She wished to be far far away, somewhere safe.
And yet she had so much taken on to finally be here.
What for?
Gillian looked frantically and repeatedly in every corner of the stone chamber, but there was nothing else than the sarcophagus with the mummy, no murals, no grave goods, or inscriptions.
With trembling fingers Gillian went repeatedly over the inscription, which was cut into the base of the stone sarcophagus, and memorized the words whispering them repeatedly to herself.
She squatted next to the grave of the mummy and stared into the black leather face, into the empty holes where the eyes once had been.
A kind of fever had taken on the vampiress, her tormented body was shivering and cold sweat ran down on her as she rocked back and forth, mumbling the Latin words repeatedly without understanding their meaning.
Gillian did not understand what this was, what the mummy did there, or how it did it, what Mr Tiny did want from her, or how she could prevent, that he gets what he wanted.
How could she NOT choose for a side?
About which sites was he talking about?
Vampires and Vampaneze?
The vampires finally had outcasted her, THEY had decided against Gillian, not other way round.
But did that made her into a Vampaneze?
"I am already on a side, I'm on Larten Crepsleys side," Gillian whispered feverishly to herself. Is that what Mr Tiny wanted?

That she stood to Crepsley?

Then she had to do the opposite ...

No, she could never, she loved him, had sworn to him ... but maybe Mr Tiny wanted exactly the opposite, wanted her to leave Crepsley, had said so, because he knew she would always keep to him ...
Gillians head spun.
"Fuck Tiny," she cursed and wiped the sweat from her eyes.

She had come here for something else.
She stood up and swayed. She had to hold onto the edge of the coffin for not to fall down, her legs wouldn`t hold her.
"Who are you?", she whispered to the mummy and leaned closer over the corpse.
Thick black smoke poured out of the mouth of the mummy and filled the grave chamber in little rippling swirls.
Gillian brought her face closer to the gaping maw and watched, fascinated, how the darkness arouse from it.
This darkness seemed to spring from a never-ending source. The swath surrounded Gillian, flowed over her face, fingered her with cold hands and backed away from her. This shadow was different, strong and solid, and it seemed to want to escape from her influence, she could not command it, it was not hers.
Gillian was accustomed to that the darkness came to her, actually sought for her presence.
Inside Vampire Mountain the Shadows had almost forced themselves upon her, courted her, whispered to her, had wanted her company, like a long-lost friend.
But this darkness did not want her.
It already belonged to someone.
Gillian always had to call out for the shadows before they came to her, and did what she asked of it. At Vampire Mountain it had happened so fast, because there never had been any sunlight.
In the bunker of the Vampaneze it had took a bit until she had collected enough darkness.
This dead Shadowdancer was different.
He carries his own shadow at all times inside of him.
This was the last priest of the Queen of Air and Darkness.
And she was the first priestess in centuries.
She would take, what she came for.
She would take what she deserved.
Gillian leaned close over the rim of the coffin and brought her face close to the crumbling mouth of the mummy.
She pressed her lips to the open mouth of the corpse, her lips on the leathery and aged blackened face of the last of the Shadowdancers.
The smoke poured into her mouth and threatened to suffocate her.
Movement sprang up, the blackness twirled and clenched above the sarcophagus and to Gillian, but she did not let go.
She took a deep breath, took a sip, as if it was ink, felt how darkness drove into her and filled her up.
And then she sucked.
Sucked and sucked all out.
The body crunched under her when it was crushed by Gillians hands, and old yellow teeth tumbled out of the ancient mouth, but Gillian did not let go, grabbed the face of the mummy and sucked with all her might all the darkness into herself ...

When Gillian left the pyramid it was deep night.
With the torch in hand, she stepped out into the jungle and entered the camp that her companions had built up.
They were sitting around a campfire, and looked up as she stepped out of the pyramid.
Gillian saw in the faces of the men, that she had changed.
She saw the fear in their eyes.
She cleared her throat, and barely recognized her own voice as she commanded to decamp.
They would leave this place as soon as possible.
Only too glad the men came to this invitation, and half an hour later they were back on their way through the jungle.
Gillian stayed a little behind, and the men seemed to be happy to keep distance from her.
And leave this sinister place very quickly.
As dawn broke, Gillian wrapped up in her sleeping bag, and ordered to march for two more hours, even if the men were on the verge of exhaustion.
Gillian herself was on the verge of exhaustion.
But she wanted as soon as possible to be away from the pyramid.
She wanted to put as much distance as possible between herself and the grave.

The way back went a little faster than the journey before, but still it took several weeks until Gillian entered an airport.
She checked in and sat down in one of the uncomfortable plastic seats of a waiting hall.
Finally leaving the jungle.
But now she would have to go back to the Vampaneze and pay her debts.
She was scared of what Steve possibly would demand from her.
But there was something else she had to do before.
A promise that she had given, and it was time to redeem it.