Chapter Nine
Rabbit Hole
I looked up to see only darkness. Wherever I was, I had been thrown down a rabbit hole and the top was now cut off from the world. For a minute, I only looked up at the very wide circular well that I had been tossed down. It fell down an amazing distance of a drop as if I was well over 50 feet into the ground, and then at some point, the walls of the well disappeared out into rooms that I was now confined to. One glance around showed me a mass of vampires hanging around the ground, some in cells, and some just lying on the ground. There were corpses as well of starved vampires. Not many looked like they were here fresh besides me.
After a moment, I decided to test out a bit of my vampire strength. First, I ripped the clasps around my neck, wrists, legs, and waist away with ease. And then I moved towards where the edge of the well wall folded to become the ceiling of the holed dungeon I was now in. I looked at it, at the slick slime coating the wall that had no indentions, areas to grip, or anything on it. It was just a solid slick steel well that was molded with grease to make it impossible to climb. I had to try though.
I looked at my hands, bending them into hooks nearly, wanting them to be sharp and solid. And then when I pinpointed my position I wanted to start with, I jumped high into the air. It was amazing to feel like I could fly. I watched the wall appear closer and closer with ease until finally I swung my right hand back and then forward as I reached the wall. My fingers drove into the metal, indenting it to wrap around the shape of my fingers due to the force of my strength, but also my skin was ripped from my fingers, peeling back so that only the solid muscle remained. It didn't hurt like I thought it would, and within seconds the skin was healed in its place in the metal.
I bent my left hand back and slammed it into the wall as well, my feet scrambling against the very slick wall and finally being left to dangle. They were quite useless. I was glad that my strength made my ability to carry my body with just my fingertips possible without too much strain. I could hear movement below me and when I glanced down, vampires that had probably tried themselves to escape but couldn't touch the silver of these walls were staring in awe. They all looked so… pitiful. I never remembered seeing a pitiful vampire as a human. Even D.J., starved in his cage, was something frightful when he was trying to lure me into his arms to feed upon me.
I shook myself out of my thoughts though, feeling the slick of the wall starting to make my grip loosen. I couldn't just hang here if I wanted to climb this slick smooth wall over 50 feet up. So I pulled my right hand back and as fast as I could I slammed it further up into the wall, gripping a death grip so that I could repeat the process with my left hand. Then I began making my way up oddly, loudly, with my feet only becoming useful when they could somewhat lodge into where I had left an indention with my fingers.
The problem came with the slime. It kept building and building on my hand, between my fingers, and each time I moved one hand out of the wall to move it up, the other was slipping out as a result. So I was continuously slipping and struggling to hang out. I got maybe five feet… and then when I pulled my left hand out of the wall to swing another hole a bit up, my right hand slick with slime slipped out just as easily, leaving me falling towards the ground again. Fuck gravity.
I landed in the middle of all the vampires, unharmed, and wiped the slime on my clothing before looking up some more. One vampire touched my arm, sending a shock of psychic thoughts through me that were very unpleasant. I pulled my arm away sharply, but the others began to touch my humanlike skin, drawn by the false pretense my appearance gave them. I didn't look like a vampire to them. I looked like a practically flawless human. There was even a flush in my cheeks from the exercise I had just put myself in.
Still, their touches brought waves of minds into mine, and I wasn't enjoying it at all. With super vampire strength, I shoved them all back and sped to a different side of the room. It was obvious I had vampire abilities, so it was stupid of them to think I was something of a human. Still, they were starved.
"Stay back," I yelled at them, baring my fangs threateningly. "I have no problem with ending a vampire's life." Amazingly, this rung very true in my heart before I even knew it. There was something less guilty about killing a supernatural being that was already dead.
"You seem human," One vampire said in a daze, the others still trailing towards me hungrily.
"I am no human," I snarled, fangs still clear both as a threat and as proof of my lack of humanity, "You have eyes and you can see that. Anyone who dares to touch me will die." My blood was pumping, and the smell of their blood was… well it was enticing. Not so much as that of humans but really I could survive on vampire blood easily. There was something of a thrill in being surrounded by these vampires. I remembered being human at Evanen's house, being led by Drewdon into a room full of vampires just as The Rising started. He had offered me to all the vampires to be killed. I had been surrounded and frankly scared to death.
Now I felt… a rush. I wasn't scared at all. If anything, I kind of wanted them to attack me. I was curious as to how I could fight them off. And I was hungry. So when the first vampire, delirious from starvation, lunged at me, I was almost startled by the speed in which I grabbed his head, leaping over and behind him before snapping his right arm behind him to where the bone was showing, and then biting into his throat hungrily. I only fed for a couple of seconds before thrusting my hand into his back and ripping out the heart in his chest. He shriveled to a decomposed corpse on the ground.
And then they all attacked me. I ripped through them; ignoring their minds even though some of them didn't have unpleasant bonds… most of their thoughts were just blind hunger. I ended that pain for all those who attacked me. I did it without much effort but rather with much blood thirst and enjoyment. I became a completely different person. And yet when they all were dead, I didn't feel a deep guilt. I felt… empty. I think that was what scared me most. It made me pause, looking up at the rabbit hole.
I was empty. I was lost. I was a killer…
I didn't deserve to escape this hole. Perhaps it would be best for everyone if I just stayed here forever, feeding off of vampires who fed off of the humans of this world. I'd be the monster at the bottom of the well, carrying out the sentence of humankind. And it didn't seem like a bad idea to me.
That is… until I felt Jove through our psychic bond. He wouldn't leave me here even if I wanted him to. Already he was closing in on my location and it wouldn't be long before he would rip his way through the hunters and find me. And if I didn't help him help me, I'd just get him stuck down here with me.
With that thought, I wiped off the blood of the dead vampires on my clothes and rubbed my hands together, bending my knees. I leapt through the air, slamming my hands into the very same indentions I started with, only making the dent deeper so that it was easier to hold on to, and followed the first path I started on. I focused on making each of my previous indentions deeper, wiping away what slime I could, and when I reached where I had left off, I began making more holes in the silver wall above the five feet marker.
Though I got further up, it would begin to become more difficult to not slip away, and I found myself falling again and again. But each time, I made it further and further up the wall. By the time Jove found me, I'd be able to make it to where the well was closed off, and he'd be able to help me through it. At least, that's what the message he was sending in my head was saying. I trusted him, not wanting to let him down, and so I peeled back the skin on my fingers over and over, falling onto my feet and hands repeatedly, and spending supernatural energy to fight my way to the top of this rabbit hole… not for myself, but for Jove.
