Monsters Read online

  I heard the footsteps of the owner of the second voice slowly fading away as he left. The first one stayed, crouching beside me.

  `What kind of cruel bastards could do this...' he asked of himself. Then he untied my hands. Then he untied the knot of my gag and took it out of my mouth.

  As he did this, his finger got stuck between my teeth, and as he pulled his hand out, he cut his finger.

  `Ouch...'

  Some if his blood spilled into my mouth, on my tongue, and it slipped down my throat.

  Moments later, I felt how my pulse was slowly, very slowly increasing...

  Then I felt his hand at my mouth. He was looking at my teeth.

  `My... You outlanders are crazy. Sharpening your teeth like that. Like some freaking vampire.'

  As he said that, he touched my fangs with his hand. Though I was barely even conscious, I instinctively bit on it.

  `Argh... What the Hell...' he said, and he tried to pull his hand out. By the time he did, I had spilled quite some blood from his hand. A few moments later, I felt getting stronger. I felt like I could possibly even sit up. I opened my eyes.

  *

  I saw him. He was a human, and had the appearance of a merchant. He was holding his bleeding hand away from me and letting the rain wash his blood off. He wasn't looking at me. Further away, there was a wagon, and I saw another figure sitting on it. He was looking into the other direction, like he was keeping watch for bandits.

  I slowly sat up, and leaned close to the merchant crouching next to me. He saw this from the corner of his eye, and he turned towards me. He looked shocked.

  `You... you live? Thank the fates! I thought you were done for...'

  He pulled me close to him.

  `Are you okay?' he asked. I didn't reply. I was driven by instinct. I leaned close to him, and as soon as I was close enough, I bit into his neck.

  `Argh... What... What...'

  He groaned in pain, but he didn't scream.

  `Let go...' he said, silently. But it was too late for him. I held fast. I was still very weak, but I was able to hold on to him. He could not break my hold, and I was slowly sucking him dry.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw that the man on the wagon was looking towards us.

  `What, did you know her? Is that why you want to bury her so much?' he said sarcastically. He must have thought that his friend was embracing me and weeping on my lifeless shoulder, mourning me. He did not see that I was biting his friend's neck.

  He shook his head and looked away, while I kept feeding. The poor man got weaker and weaker in my arms, while I got stronger and stronger. I could feel as the wounds that refused to heal while I was the thieves' prisoner were finally healing. I was slowly being filled with life, while the merchant in my arms was being drained of it. I had to hold him steady so that he wouldn't fall. He was barely conscious.

  The other merchant looked towards us again.

  `Stop that already! Get a shovel and start digging! You'll never finish up like this!'

  Not much later, his friend died in my arms from the loss of all the blood I sucked out of him. I released him, and he fell to the ground. I slowly stood up.

  The other man stared at the scene from atop the wagon. As I began to walk towards him, he jumped off.

  `What the Hell... You're not dead?'

  He seemed to have found my advancing on him as a threat. He drew his weapon, a short bladed sword.

  `Stay back!' he said. I opened my mouth, and he saw my fangs.

  He lowered his sword.

  `It can't be... You can't be a fucking vampire... You're an elf, dammit...'

  He shook his head in disbelief as I got ever closer. I was inches from him, but still he wasn't moving. I reached for him, and then he tried to move. He was too late. I grabbed him. I was strong again, so he didn't have a chance to escape. I sunk my teeth in his neck, and I slowly sucked out his blood, all of it. I was dying before he and his friend found me, so I needed more blood than normally. He screamed as I drained him dry. But only for a short while. In time he fell weak, and became silent. In the end, he died like his friend did. I let him go and he fell to the ground.

  I raised my head high and let the rain water drop down on my face and pour down my body. I relished the feeling of the rainwater washing some of the dried blood off my skin, the blood from the dozens of wounds that those cursed thieves had carved into me for their amusement as they had their way with me for three days... I enjoyed the moment after feeding. It felt unimaginably good! I felt alive again, I felt like I could lift that entire wagon above my head, I was so full of strength. But the feeling faded fast. My strength had returned, but the joy of it faded fast.

  I looked down at the bodies of the two merchants. The men who tried to help me. Well, at least one of them did.

  I just stared at them for many long minutes, and thought of what I had done. I felt ashamed. I was consumed by guilt, and it all made me feel much worse than what I felt like while I was the prisoner of those cursed thieves. As strange as it sounds, this feeling of shame was even worse than that...

  I stared at the dead merchants and I silently mourned their passing. I did not cry. I never cried in my life. Not once. Ever. Not even when my brother died. My father taught us that tears are a sign of weakness, and we lived in a brutal world where you just had to be strong. I didn't cry for my brother. Instead, I avenged his death. Likewise, I would not cry for those people who tried to help me. Instead, I would avenge their deaths.

  I would find those bastards who made me do this, and rip them apart...

  Retribution

  Somewhere in the world of Kh'Tal, five months ago (1 year, 8 months, and 19 days before Twilightfall)

  I stood in the rain beside the bodies of the two merchants for almost an hour. I took the cloak of the one who tried to help me and placed it around my shoulders. I couldn't bring myself to take more of their possessions, despite that they didn't need them any more.

  I stood there thinking what to do. I wanted to get back to those cursed thieves and kill them. To avenge the two men who tried to help me, to make the thieves pay for what they did to me and what they made me do. But I had no idea which way to go. Then I remembered Belwor's spell. I cast it, and looked around. I saw the glowing spot in the distance far to the west. So I knew which way to go.

  As for how to get there fast and unseen... that I didn't know. I could not take the horses of the wagon, they wouldn't let me ride them. They sensed what I was, and they instinctively feared vampires.

  Then I remembered Belwor's words, how he claimed I could turn into a bat. He said it was all about concentration. It didn't work when I tried in his crypt, but I thought I'd give it another try.

  I stood in the rain, looking up, letting the water fall on my face. I stretched out my arms and closed my eyes. I tried to imagine myself as a bat. I slowly moved my arms up and down, imitating the flapping of wings. Then I stopped, and just let the rain water keep falling on me. Many long minutes passed, and suddenly I felt the sound of the rain vanish, felt like the whole world vanished around me, and I vanished along with it. In the next moment, I was no longer standing there as the elf-turned-vampire that I was.

  It was a strange sensation, unlike anything I'd ever felt before. The world slowly came back, I could hear the rain again. But everything was somehow different. I saw the world around me, but it was so strange. It was nothing like the vision I was used to. I even had the inexplicable feeling that I was not seeing the world, but I was hearing it. As this thought slowly got to my mind, I understood that I must have been successful, I turned into a bat. I could not see myself, so of course I could not be sure that I was indeed a bat. I tried to move my arms and I realized that I was already moving them. Flapping them, like wings. Then I tried to move up, higher. It worked. I was flying!

  The transformation was indeed successful! It was time to seek out those wretched thieves, and make them suffer...

  *

  I was able to
travel fast in bat shape, and flying around felt strangely, inexplicably natural. I arrived at the shack in less than half an hour. I landed on a nearby tree and changed back into my normal form. All of those bastards were holed up inside, and all I had to decide was how I wanted to finish them off.

  Slowly, a vicious plan began to take shape in my mind. I jumped off the tree and put my strength to a test. I grabbed the tree by the trunk and tried to rip it out from the ground. The trunk wasn't very thick, and its roots where not so deep. I managed to rip it out after a while. I held that fifteen-foot high tree in my hands and I swung it against the shack with all my strength. It didn't collapse under the impact, but much of the roof caved in. I struck again, and most of the roof just collapsed. The shack was still standing.

  I heard the four thieves shouting from within.

  `What the Hell is going on?'

  `Sounds like the ground is shaking, we gotta get out of here, get away!'

  `It's just a tree fallen on our shack.'

  `Why do you think it fell? We gotta run for it!'

  They were about to run out the front door. I grabbed the tree and slammed it right against the door, trapping them inside. Now the only way out for them was through windows, or through the collapsed rooftop. The windows were too small to climb out, and the hole in the roof too high. They had nowhere to go.

  `Blast, what the Hell is going on?' asked one of them, whose voice sounded like that of the scarred leader.

  I jumped up to the edge of the roof and looked down at them. They did not yet notice me. They were visibly shaken, nervous about what was happening. I jumped down and landed right behind the scarred man. I forcefully pushed him against the one who carried me away earlier. The others then spotted me, and the nearest one drew his sword.

  Before he could attack, I grabbed his arm and pulled him towards me. He screamed in pain, and I heard a cracking sound from his shoulder. Even after all those months of vampiric existence, I was still learning how strong my vampire body truly is. I almost ripped his arm out with such a simple move.

  I pulled on him even stronger, and tossed him against one of the windows. His head crashed right through it, but he could not fit through any better. I then pulled on his arm once more, as forcefully as I could. This time, it was ripped out of its place.

  He screamed aloud in agony, terrified of what I had done to him. Yet he couldn't even see it in that position.

  The fourth man however saw it. As I turned towards him with the torn-off arm of his friend in my hand, I could see that he recognized me.

  `You... You are dead! You should be dead...'

  `I only died once, and it wasn't you who killed me.' I told him. Then I took the torn-off arm which was still holding on to the sword, and grabbed it by the fist of it. I raised it high and I thrust the sword right through the back of the screaming man stuck in the window. Then, I twisted the blade, and pulled on it. He screamed even louder than before.

  The fourth thief, having witnessed all this, drew his weapon and charged me. I sidestepped and he crashed into the wall. From the corner of my eye I saw that the other two were standing up and would soon be battle-ready. So I used the time I had to swiftly get rid of the fourth one. As he turned back towards me from the wall, I kicked him in the gut and he fell against the wall. Then I grabbed his sword wielding hand and twisted it forcefully. I twisted it such that the sword would point towards his chest. I broke his wrist as I did this, and he screamed in pain. Then, I pushed his sword wielding hand towards his chest, thus impaling him on his own sword and pinning him on the wall. His eyes went wide in disbelief, and he gasped silently. He knew he would die of that wound. I left him there, and turned back to the other two.

  `You...' said the scarred man. `You are not an elf, are you? How can you be alive?'

  `She's a fucking vampire, man! I told you...' said the other one.

  `Silence! I told you to get rid of the body. Just what did you do with her?!'

  `I left her in the middle of the road. Nothing could have happened. I swear her heart was not beating, I swear!'

  `Shut up! Go! Finish her off, or I'll kill you myself!'

  They were afraid, both of them. Only their leader had the composure to hide his fear. The other one, the man who left me for dead earlier, was visibly shaken. He drew his sword, but he could barely hold it straight. His face was full of horror. He glanced around, trying to spot a way out, but he had nowhere to run.

  Finally, he stepped forth and tried to attack me. I swiftly kicked his sword out of his hand.

  `You pathetic worm! You clumsy fool! Finish her off!' cried out the scarred man. His terrified friend, now unarmed, charged me with a battlecry which reeked of fear. I caught him as he charged forward, I lifted him off the ground and spun him around in mid air, such that his back was facing the ground. I dropped him down on my knee as forcefully as I could.

  His backbone snapped and broke in two. His body was literally bent in an unlikely angle. I let him fall to the ground. He was screaming. He couldn't move his limbs any more, but he still lived and was in great pain. I left him there, to suffer. I turned my attention towards the scarred man.

  `You shouldn't have come back.' he said. `I'm gonna kill you!'

  `Do you think you will die as easy as your friends?' I asked in return.

  `They were incompetent. They didn't have what it takes. But you won't beat me. I've killed vampires before.'

  `No, you haven't. And you will suffer more than they did.'

  `Die!' he screamed, and he attacked me.

  Indeed, he was more skillful than the rest. He managed to cut me with his first strike, but the wound wasn't severe, and I knew it would seal up fast, so I didn't let it slow me down. I pushed his blade aside with my left palm as he was about to strike me again. His sword cut into my hand as I did so, but it was nothing. I lunged forward and trapped his right arm under my left armpit. He was conscious of what he was doing though. He quickly tossed the sword from his right hand towards his left behind my back. By the time he caught it, I already sunk my teeth into his neck. He cut into my back with his sword as strong as he could, but it was nothing. His second strike was even weaker, and he dropped the sword before he could cut me a third time. He started to scream as he realized that he was going to die.

  I didn't drain him dry. I let him go as soon as he started to scream. I pushed him against the wall, and picked his sword up from the ground. I looked around. The thief whom I threw against the window was no longer screaming, or moving. The one whom I pinned onto the wall was still gasping, and conscious. He was in great pain. Just like the one whose back I broke.

  I looked back at their scarred leader. His scar gave me an idea.

  `Where did you get that?' I asked, pointing the sword towards his scar. `Did it hurt?'

  He didn't answer. I slashed the sword towards his scar, and cut deep into the flesh on his face. He screamed. It made me feel good...

  `You don't like pain much, do you?' I asked, and then I cut into the flesh on the other side of his face. He screamed even louder.

  `You look much better now.' I said. Then I raised his sword high and struck towards his crotch as forcefully as I could. I sunk the blade deep into him, all the way to the hilt, pinning him to the ground by his crotch. He screamed louder than all of the others combined.

  `I should let you live, you son of a bitch! Live like this. Yes. I should.' I told him. `But that would just be too sweet.'

  I stepped close to him, and grabbed his right arm. I broke his fingers one by one, then I broke his forearm, bending it in an impossible angle. Then I did the same with his left arm. He was slowly running out of air, and he stopped screaming. Instead, he just gasped like the one whom I impaled onto the wall.

  I looked outside, and saw that the rain had stopped. Night had fallen while we fought. An idea sprung into my mind.

  `I'll let you live. I'll let you all live. If you can walk away before I am finished here.' I told them. Then I proceeded to se
arch their little hideout.

  First, I went to the chest where I found Belwor's chain earlier. It was still there. I picked it up, and searched the chest better. There was only one more thing in there which mattered to me. The amulet Jason had given me. They took it from me when they captured me, and put it in their chest. I took it back, and placed it around my neck.

  I searched the rest of the shack until I found what I was looking for. Several pitchers filled with ale and wine. And some dry firewood.

  I went back into the room where we fought.

  `Are you still here?' I asked, as I poured the wine and ale on their bodies, on the floor, and on the walls. Everywhere I could.

  Then I took two pieces of firewood and jumped up to the edge of the roof through the hole which I used to enter earlier. I looked down at the scarred man. His eyes were now full of fear. He could not speak, he was in so much pain. I wonder if he would have begged for his life, if he could have. I will never know.

  I took the two pieces of firewood and rubbed them together as fast as I could. With the strength of a vampire, it was no surprise that the wood was lit on fire swiftly. I let the flame grow a little, and then I dropped the burning firewood into the shack, into one of the puddles of wine. Then I quickly jumped off and walked away from the shack.

  *

  I stayed and watched as it burnt down. I stayed and watched as those bastards died slowly in horrible agony. I watched it, and it filled me with satisfaction. They deserved their fate. They deserved it. If not for what they did to me, then for what they made me do when they left me for dead. Those two merchants died because of them. Those two deaths weighed on my conscience because of them. I was pleased as I watched the fire burning, consuming those filthy bastards. Only when the fire went out did I turn around and walk away. Even then, I felt satisfaction. Revenge is sweet, as the saying goes. Even if it fades away in time...

  *

  I turned into a bat again and flew back to Belwor's crypt. I found it easily. I changed back, pushed the loose brick on the wall which opens up the secret passageway leading down, and entered the lich's hideout. I found him alone in his dirty little throne room. He was waiting with great anticipation.