The Break of Silence: Part II

Down swung the sword and all I could do was watch. I’d talked a big game, how these monsters should have saved the humans they slaughtered, and yet here I was unable to change a goddamn thing. I felt so useless, yet, I should have been used to it, I’d been disappointed in myself so much recently. I tried to save Myra, yet I almost killed her myself. I couldn’t even protect the one that made me this way, instead it was me being saved. Was this my life now? Would I ever be able to live up to my word?

I started to feel like it didn’t matter anymore, if I started to accept I’d fail before trying, I wouldn’t be let down, I wouldn’t feel this worthless. Did it even matter that I was here?

Her blade kissed skin and buried itself deep into the ground.

The woman was still alive. The long sword had left her untouched bar a small graze on her cheek. Both she and I were speechless.

She held the sword still. Shaking like before.

“What is one life worth? Are we lesser because we are different?” She asked.

“Aiyana?” I called out, still unsure what had happened. It seemed the survivor was as confused as I was, she hadn’t moved since Aiyana stood over her and looked as if she was trying to not burst out into tears.

Aiyana looked right back at her, peering deep into her soul. All sound quietened, all feeling dulled, the world lost its colour as she stared at her. In that moment, only Aiyana existed, and an aura formed around her, an aura that exuded extraordinary power. She spoke one word, with the power of a punch to the face. “Go.”

She cowered and quickly scrambled to her feet, rushing off without the nerve to look back. Aiyana lost her strength and dropped to her knees. She had pushed herself so hard she had to peel her fingers from the sword’s grip.

I was more than perplexed. I mean, I didn’t want Aiyana to kill the lady but she did have a point. She could’ve been killed by the sword or the wolves Yet we let her go, and not one word of thanks was uttered. Instead she just ran with terror in her heart. The chances of her getting back to her village and not alerting everyone she saw of us was so slim it wasn’t worth contemplating.

“Why did you let her go? Weren’t you scared of this happening?” I asked.

Aiyana held her head low as she replied. “We didn’t ask to be this way. Neither did they. I don’t want to kill, but I also don’t want to die.”

“It doesn’t matter if I’m scared. I’ve grown tired of people being sacrificed for me.” She murmured.

It was a touching sentiment, but it irritated me. After all, she had only just shown me the graveyard of their victims, how was that not sacrificing one for another? I tried to hide the anger in my voice, balling my fist. Even with that anger, my words came out jumbled. “You don’t get to say that. I haven’t forgotten about the bodies below that mansion and I know damn well you haven’t either. You don’t get to become a good person because you avoided adding another drop to your ocean of spilt blood.”

“Are humans any different?” She responded sharply. “You aren’t the first of our kind to try to live without blood, Aster, not by a long shot. Each of them died all the same, dying for nothing.”

She continued, “You call me monster because I am one of them, I’m an evil creature that killed your parents.”

My hand clutched at her collar. “I’d be very careful with your next words if I were you” I threatened. She had grown accustomed to my malice and had become completely dead behind the eyes.

“Exactly who do you think killed my family?” She asked. My grip loosened. She had gone from timid and afraid to this, it was almost like I was talking to a completely different being.

“We’ve existed for a long time. And humans have hunted us for most of our history. It doesn’t excuse the killing, nothing will. But if we are seen as monsters for not finding another way, then why did none of you try to help us?”

Truthfully, I hadn’t thought about it. But, then again, vampires were monsters. We grew up hearing horror stories of travellers going missing, creatures creeping into houses and taking the lives of the people inside. To us, they were heartless beings.

“We need to eat to survive. It’s not like we could just refuse it, you’ve done that for less than two days and you’re already dying. If you can’t kill, you starve. You try to find another way but nothing works. In the end you die. What would you have us do?” She asked.

“I…”

“I don’t know! Alright?! I don’t have all the answers.” Frustrated and confused, my mind was clouded, what was the right thing to think? It was like an internal war between the past me and my current self, trying to find the right words. The wounds were affecting me slightly all the while.

Aiyana stood again, slowly lifting the blade beside her and using it as a crutch. It was so heavy she was dragging it across the ground as she moved.

*-*-*

Irritated, sore, tired, and very conflicted, we made our way back to the estate. Both of us knew that there was no chance the woman we had let go had managed to get down the mountain, alert the guards and start marching toward us, not yet. But we were both sat on the staircase watching the door all the same, slowly drifting to sleep. “No good” I thought, we needed to keep a lookout, yet neither of us were particularly exuding energy.

Aiyana perked up ever so slightly, only enough to let her raise her arms and yawn loudly before returning to a half sleep state.

She looked so innocent like that. For a while I was blinded by my hatred for what she was but, she had saved me twice now, and there was the fact I was also a vampire now. I remembered the day we met, how I felt when I saw her. Taking away the anger and scorn I felt, she really was beautiful. Like a rose in a garden of thorns, a diamond in the rough. I may or may not have blushed a little just seeing her.

After my teenage brain got itself back together again. The argument earlier played again, along with the part that irritated me the most. “I don’t have all the answers.”

“Hey.” I awkwardly called. She responded with a sleepy look and the most basic noise ever.

“If there was another way, if we could find it, would you take it?” I asked. She took a little while to process it, I had put the extra delay down to the tired brain. “… I don’t want to hurt anyone. If there is a way to live without killing then I’d do it. But I don’t think there is anything else out there. We would have found it already, right?” She responded.

“Maybe, but, maybe not. Look if your father was spending most of his time on this stuff, there had to be something bigger than freezers and sundials on his mind.”

She seemed to agree with that.

I continued, “I’m not going to say it’ll be easy but we’ve got to try right? I’m not planning on being up here forever, I doubt you are either. And one way or another, we’re going to have to look through his records and try to find the solution on our own.”

“As embarrassing as it may sound, I need your help.” Pride was not something I was too worried about, but kneeling down and asking for help was killing me.

“I need to see them again. Aiyana! Please help me break the status quo!”

*-*-*

From what I was told, two weeks later our little survivor was face to face with a withered soul. A monster wearing human skin, willing to kill for a price. But he was no simple mercenary.

So began the countdown to our encounter with the end. With The Headhunter.