Part VI: The Spell
The black sky covered the forest while silence took the screaming’s place. Out there, in the deepest place of the forest, a long battle had finished while the smell of blood was still up in the air. All the grass was painted with black-red blood, the smell of death was everywhere and the only miracle that happened was the cold rain when it finally started falling. The bloody corpses began to be washed up by the rain and it was like a new beginning was attending for the survivors, but it seemed that surviving creatures were nowhere to be found
After a moment of total silence, silence covered by the black rain, in the middle of all those bodies, a boy was still breathing. He sat on a rock and with his light violet eyes, he began to watch the dark clouds. He’s face was all stained with blood. He slowly rose up his hand off his knee. He never wanted this to happen, he never wanted to kill creatures which weren't vampires, but he could not allow to himself to get killed, at least not yet.
“Well! Congratulations! I Hope you had fun killing us! Because now it's your turn!” said another creature while he was rising up too: his green phosphorescent eyes were staring to Zero, the only hunter who survived of the latest horrible war between hunters and their new enemies: the lycans.
“Yea, I really enjoyed killing your brothers!... I think you guys became my new favorite hobby.”
“YOU... BASTARD!!' now the lycan began to run with his fangs out straight to Zero. The boy tried to point his gun in the lycan’s direction, but he wasn't able to see anything through the dark rain. Anyway, he shot, and after he fired twice there was only silence. The lycan seemed to have disappeared or died.
Zero took a long breath.
“Finally, silence.' said to himself when he began to search for a shelter. While he was walking his vampire senses detected the lycan, again.”
“Oh, boy...WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU SO I CAN DEFINITELLY KILL YOU THIS TIME !” but the only one who had answered was the wind. A storm was coming, so he began to run, faster than before .Only the blue electric lights were lighting his way. Suddenly a big tree caught his attention.
“Nice shelter...” he went under the tree. He closed his eyes, trying to relax a bit, but his vampire senses suddenly awoke because of a drop of blood which had fallen on his right shoulder. Without thinking twice about it, he immediately shot up, and this time luck was at his side; from the tree fell the lycan.
“They’re… coming to kill you… half VAMPIRE!”. Those were the lycan’s last words.
Zero got all pissed up and with blazing eyes; he fired with an silver bullet right into the lycan’s heart. Now the last lycan has also died.
“I'm the one who's coming after them...” answered the boy in the end.
The battle seemed to come to an end, but not also the storm.
“Damn it… I think it’s time for me to search for a real shelter this time.”
So as the rain didn’t end it’s fury against the earth, Zero didn’t end his against the lycans either.
Unlike vampires, the lycans killed most of the hunters, so Zero began searching for them for revenge.
He calmed himself, eating some bloody tablets with total disgust.
“ … Better be half vampire instead of a son of a... lycan, or however those stupid creatures are called.”
Instead of having a break after the war, Zero began to run against the rain and the darkness, alone.
Time was passing by, and while the rain has stopped falling, the boy didn’t stop running. Something was not right, because he began to hear not only screams, but also gun shots; another war was held, just a couple of meters in front of the boy: there were other hunters, but this time they weren’t fighting against lycans, and neither vampires.
“What the… !!!”
Zero was stunned; in front of him were his old friends, fighting against some weird birds, but the funny thing was that there weren’t normal birds; the hunters were fighting against green phosphorescent rooks, and when the guard of one of them was going down, two rooks were just behind them.
Suddenly one of the hunters began to slow down his attacks while two rooks were ready to attack him from behind.
“NO! YOU IDIOT! YOU MUST CONTINUE ATTACKING!”
Just in that second Zero ran to help that hunter, but it was too late. The rooks were flying very fast, so in just a second they attacked the poor hunter.
No, they didn’t attack him, they went… in him.
The hunter screamed desperately when a fire-like sensation began burning inside his body.
“It can’t be!” said Zero blocking himself as the others.
“What in the world is ...happening?!” said one of the guys, because in the end the rooks disappeared while a strange green cloud were covering everything.
“Guys, I think we should run away! I really had enough for today!’ said another hunter.
“Yea… but what is with this… I think…”
“I think I’m not feeling very well…”
“Now let’s run away while we’re still alive! Because I’m getting… dizzy…” said Zero in the end.
“Oh… you won’t go anywhere my dears!” said a new voice; it was a female voice, and it was getting closer and closer to the group. All of them began not only to have poor eyesight because of the fog, but they were also loosing their senses because of the strange smell.
The last thing Zero saw was a strange shape just in front of him. After that, nothing else but darkness.
(…)
It was very hard, in the morning, to argue with the part of him that was sure that last night has all been a dream. The only thing which brought him to reality was a female voice, but not the same one he heard the day before.
When Zero opened his light violet eyes, he didn’t see the sky. He was in a prison, just like all the other hunters he met the night before. All of them were already awake now, and some of them were already squabbling, like always.
“Oh… c’mon my dear! I ain’t gonna hurt you!” said one of the guys.
“Let me go you idiot! And don’t try touching me either!”. A soft female voice answered.
“Hey Zero! Wanna help us with this li’ll chick?”
Zero stared at them. The scene was ridiculous. Instead of thinking of a way to escape, they were trying to ‘seduce’ the only girl of the cell.
“Let her go.” Said Zero while he waking up after his long sleep.
“WHAT? Are you kidding?!”. The hunters began to laugh.
“I SAID let – her - go.” This time Zero tried to glare at them, but strangely he was still feeling dizzy.
“Or else… what!?”
Now the hunters began to laugh hardly.
“Oh, well… if you would really like to know…” This time it was the girl who answered, with an evil smile on her face. The hunters began to stare at her, when her eyes became bloody red ones.
“You’re a vam…”
“Yes, I am. Any problems?” said the girl.
“Ehi, Zero! Should we hunt her immediately?”
“Yes, if she’s a vampire.”
“NO!” shouted the girl.
“And why’s that?”
“Because I’m a… pureblood. And everybody should respect us!”
Everybody was shocked.
“Are you sure you are a pureblood?” asked a guy as curios as the others.
“Yes, I am”
“Then you can kill her.” Said Zero in the end.
“WHY?!” asked the girl, as shocked as the others.
“Because you’re not only a vampire, but also a pureblood, and I hate purebloods.” answered Zero.
“NO! HOLD ON A SEC!” objected immediately the vampire girl. Then she continued:
“If you guys would help me escape from this place, I would give you some information about the enemy: I know lots of things!”
“The only enemies you vampires have are us: hunters.” Zero remembered to the entire group. After all, vampires were still his worst enemies too.
“NO NO NO! Not anymore! Don’t you guys remember? The Vampire Council made a peace treaty with you guys, so we should work as a team instead of being enemies!”
“Welllll…………” Now the hunters got confused, but when they saw the girl, who turned normal and seductive as always, with big green-blue puppy eyes, no one objected anymore.
They began to look at Zero. His answer could decide the destiny of the girl.
But instead of answering, Zero took a long breath.
“What do you know about the enemy?” Zero asked the girl.
“LOTS of things.”
“Impress us a little.” said Zero. Now the hunters began to stare at the beautiful girl. What if she was lying?
"Well, this isn’t the first time I’ve been captured by them. I think she’s a witch because I saw that she was dazzling you using one of her curses until she transformed you in lycans.”
The hunters began to laugh, while Zero remained shocked. The girl tried to continue:
“But it’s true! All of you fell into her trap yesterday. Oh… and once I’ve been one of her experiments: she also wanted to transform vampires into lycans, but I saw that her curse works only on normal humans, so I guess that you guys became her new favorite toys...” this time the girl tried to be more serious than before, and it worked: the hunters began to believe her a little.
No one knew what to think about it. They were still feeling like normal humans. They didn’t have strange instinct like barking or loosing control of themselves. Everything was still normal.
Was she really telling them the truth? Did they become an experiment too?
After a couple of minutes full of silence, while everybody was thinking about their own destiny, the vampire girl went behind Zero, breaking the silence between them too.
“Lydia”’
“What?” said Zero while for the first time he looked into her eyes.
“My name is Lydia. What’s your name?”
“This is none of your business.” He answered while changing sight.
“Oh… I’m sorry… it’s just that, well, you don’t smell like them: are you the half vampire that everybody is talking about?”
“You’re curious, aren’t you?”
“Ehi! Why do you hate me so much?”
“Because you’re a vampire!”
“Well, you are a vampire too after all!!!”
Zero glared at her, and without realizing his eyes were burning fire, turned on because he still didn’t want to admit the truth.
The girl smiled: after all, their eyes were the only thing the two of them had in common.
So she continued, still smiling:
“Look: I may tell you that for your friends it’s too late. They won’t be able to remain themselves until the end of the next battle, but if you’ll defend me during it, I promise I’ll show you an escape and we’ll be free together. I’m sure you won’t get hypnotized by the witch, because your vampire part will defend your human one.’
“How do I know you are going to keep your promise?”
“You know the answer as much as I know that you’ll defend me. So, are you with me?”
“Tzsh. I don’t need help from a vampire.”
This time the one who glared was the girl.
Everything was ‘calm’, until something changed and everybody rose up their guard.
The darkness became denser and the small sunrises slowly began to fall back from the floor, until they dwindled to nothing.
“Zero, get ready.” whispered the girl.
The boy tried to look at the girl’s face, trying to understand what she meant.
A door seemed to be opening just in front of them.
“Oh, no…” said Zero. Something not good was awaiting them.
In the next room, hell was slowly disappearing, leaving behind it garish colors.
The boys seemed to get hypnotized by them so they began walking into the room, leaving total darkness behind them.
When the last person walked into the room, the door behind them disappeared immediately, and in the same second the boys woke up.
“Well, well, well: look what we’ve got here!”
“I know this voice…”
“Could be the witch?”
“Yes, she could be her!” a strange irregular shape which wasn’t there before answered to the entire group.
Then it all changed, again.
“She’s trying to confuse us, isn’t she?” Zero asked Lydia. Nobody knew who to attack, and who to defend themselves from.
“Here you have to attack and defend yourself from everything and anyone.” Answered the girl with her big green-blue eyes pointed to the shape.
“…Great…”
Their eyes began to study every move and changes made by the colorful room.
In the end the beautiful colors began to be swallowed by the strange irregular shape.
It was like the shape was eating all the garish colors and the entire beautiful illusion was vanishing.
“NOOO! They’re disappearing!” said one of the guys, with sadness on his face.
“Are you stupid or idiot?! Are you becoming sad because these stupid colors are vanishing?!” Zero got all pissed off, but in the end he and the girl were the only ones still sane and on guard.
The hunters became sad and strangely tired, disappointed in the same time.
When the girl saw Zero’s interrogative face she began whispering some words:
“Now you should turn on your vampire side. Everything is just an illusion: the witch isn’t stealing the room’s colors, but the hunter’s willpower.” Her eyes were already turned into the vampire’s ones, and so Zero’s ones.
The boy wanted to do something, at least try attacking the shape, but the girl already knew of his intentions.
“Just… don’t move or you may fall into another illusion: when I’ll say run, you’ll have to follow me.”
Zero glared at her. How could he do nothing to save his partners? And how could he take orders from a girl, especially a vampire?
Without thinking twice, Zero grabbed one of his partners from the ground.
“Am I in heaven already?”
“NO! But I’ll make you go there if you won’t wake up already!”
“Wow... I already see a light! And some forms! They’re… waiting for me!’
This was too much for Zero: he ended up slapping the guy’s face, but nothing changed.
“C’mon, wake up! WAKE! UP!”
“Zero!!! Are you crazy?!” Lydia stopped him immediately.
In that moment the strange shape took a regular form with a pair of dark green eyes.
Now the entire group of hunters woke up, as the guy in Zero’s hands.
“So… did you reached Heaven?” asked the girl to the hunter, but the only answer she received has been:
“DIE” with an icy voice, which hurt as much as a blade.
“This is not good.”
In fact Zero was right. It was too late to save anybody except themselves, so when they tried to escape, a long snake escaped from the new body’s shape, going right at Lydia.
The vampire girl screamed, thinking of the pain she’s going to fell.
But the pain didn’t come.
Instead of it, two shoots from Zero’s gun flied right at the snake.
Even if the boy didn’t miss it, nothing changed. The snake was just another illusion, a mad illusion which changed direction, this time at Zero.
The boy avoided the snake faster than anyone else, but he didn’t avoid the long metallic tongue, which hurt his right arm. The boy’s scream made all the other ones stand up.
“AAAAAAAAAAARRRGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!”
That was the shape’s voice, or better said the witch’s voice now.
She strangely copied Zero’s scream, until her voice began something impossible to be heard.
Then, from her long grey coat came out a light: a showy green light.
Everything was changing again, but the snake didn’t stop attacking them. This time it tried to attack Lydia again, but without any success.
Zero defended her, getting a burned arm in the end.
He screamed again, while boiling tears began to go down from his bloody mad eyes.
“I must fight!” he told himself, trying to take some courage from that sentence.
Lydia began to look at the boy’s eyes, searching in that hell his lightly violet eyes to find the same determination that the guy has found by himself. And so she did.
The metallic tongue began to attack the girl from all sides, but Zero was still fast enough to be in front of the beast in every second of the battle, thanks to his vampire powers.
“You can’t do anything!” said a voice in Zero’s head, made by the strange bad shape.
“YES, I CAN! I CAN FIGHT!!!” immediately replied the boy.
The witch’s voice began incontrollable again, so Zero covered his ears. When the snake was in front of him he closed his eyes. He wasn’t able to defend himself anymore so the snake’s tongue flied straight at the boy’s heart.
In total confusion, the witch began to do one of her rites.
About thirty rooks took the lightly green place of the coat and they began to fly in the entire room.
The hunters were too weakened to defend themselves so the end was awaiting all of them.
Two rooks began going in every body they’ve found in the room, except into Zero and Lydia’s one.
So while the hunters were loosing themselves, it seemed that for Zero wasn’t any escape.
When the tongue was ready to attack the boy, something happened: from out of nowhere Lydia jumped in front of Zero and she slashed the snake’s tongue using one of the hunter’s sword.
“ZERO! RUN!”. When he heard the sentence, he immediately rose up by himself and followed the girl to get at the end of the room.
“The door disappeared! How are we going to escape from this damn room?!”
“Don’t worry, Zero. I already told you that this is all an illusion!” So in a second the girl, using the sword, tore off the wall, as if it was made of paper.
When they finally found the door the enemies were already ready to fight: new lycans were forming while others were ready attack the two survivors.
When the two of them finally opened the door, the witch ordered the attack, so it took a second until the lycans were already a few meters from Zero and Lydia, but when they finally reached the outdoor, no one could catch them anymore as they immediately hid in the depths place of the forest.
Author: Cristina Veritotti
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