Hobbling over the ground, uneven and lumpy from being dug into time and time again, the peasant man's vision was blurred, and washed in a blood red tone. His mind was out of his reach, he did not have the slightest idea of where he was headed, was, or wanted. Who he was, what he was, were not facts within his possession.
He knew one thing, as his slow, weak limbs carried him through the fog. He was hungry. Pierced with pain from every organ in his rotting body, the man groaned and mumbled to himself. The noises, to him, were reassuring in the deafening silence.
Through the pulsing read light he could make out broken down houses, and what appears to be trees. This place looked abandoned, long forgotten.
Suddenly, a bright light began shining in the distance. It was white against his shadowy gaze. The figure took the shape of a human male, it was tall, and perfect. In a flash, it had whipped around to face him. The eyes, oh the eyes, vivid purple and burning right through him.
What was this thing, fast as light, yet quite the opposite. It hissed, suddenly spreading to large, cloak-like limbs behind it's back. They glistened with white scales, but the brightest light of the figure was it's chest. It was a furious, scalding white.
With these cloak-like limbs spread, it shot into the air. The man's eyes followed, fascinated. Until, to his dismay, a searing sting shot through his insides. At the moment, this creature of night had gained another purpose in the dead man's far off mind.
Dinner, it was his much needed dinner. The man felt he hadn't eaten in hundreds of years. He waited patiently in the shadows of a nearby forest, and watched as this creature touched down a few feet away. Seizing the moment, the man leapt forward with unsteady bones.
He laced his arms around the creature's neck as he, propped on it's back, sunk his teeth into the creature's skull. It let out a cry that hung in the fog like death. It easily shook him down, zipping this way and that in frustration. The man had a fresh taste for flesh, mouth watering.
The creature of night was glowing even brighter against the pulsing red and gray. Pain's growing in power, the man pushed back up to follow the thing. Dragging himself along, he watched it shimmer. The gap in it's skull healed in a moment. It glared down, inspecting him, barring long white fangs.
"Fighter!" It shouted. "I see that." So it can talk? The man stopped, eyes full of confusion, half open and rolling back into his head. The creature spoke again. "You cannot catch me, you dead man. I am the swiftness of wind and the cleverness of shadows. I heal on the thought, and fly as I please. You hobble about on rotten bones, hungering for brain flesh you cannot reach."
Tilting his head to the side, the man listened. So he was dead, crumbling, old meat as he stood. Risen in a world of new and evolved beasts. He was a zombie... Just waiting to die again, to be risen again, a cycle. This creature of night, a vampire. Chiseled into a perfect form. No scars, stitches, or wounds in sight. Molded of white, pale white, and cloaked in black. Cold, the only blood or heat in it's body the dead victims in his chest and belly.
"I, I have an eternity to spend in this darkness. You will go back down to your grave when the sun comes up, I will take refuge in a fortress, joined by my many friends. I pity you, beast." The vampire spoke softly, spitting the last word like an acid. "You could share this shadowed life with me. You could join the clan, and live forever."
The night creature let out a long hiss, turning his gaze to the sinking moon.
"But at last, it is to late. On another day, the cards may have been played in a different sequence." His eyes seemed to purr to the stars, glazed with curiosity.
The dead man groaned, beat by the first rays of the aging sun. In mere moments, he shriveled by the flames, sinking to ashes on the ground, joining the bodies of his abandoned family from years ago. The creature of night, long gone on the wings bearing twilight flight.
*please let me know if this is long enough, I hope it's okay
edit: spelling errors |
