King of Darkness

Awakening

I smelled something. It was a mix of daisies and tea. It reminded me of a distant memory, but I couldn't place where it brought me to. The rooms were all unfamiliar, yet I couldn’t shake the feeling of deja vu. 

Next was a sound. The sound of voices. It had been so long since any of us had talked. No one had been able to move, let alone waste energy on that. I opened my eyes and saw moving figures behind the boulder.

It was too late, this wasn't our leader coming back for us. If it was he would be killed, though I didn't feel too bad about that. I looked into the room, more people were waking up. How odd, I thought to myself. We hadn't been able to move in what felt like centuries, why were we waking up now?

Someone opened their mouth to speak, but I shushed them by lifting my arm. Whoever was outside, we couldn't let them know we were in here. They were calling to us, not with their voices but with their souls. We needed them. We all knew we needed them.

"Verstecken wir uns hier." A female voice said. They were getting closer to us, my heart was pounding in my throat, my blood pulsing through my veins. I got to my feet and pressed myself against the wall, ready to attack.

More people followed my lead and positioned themselves closer to the exit and against the one wall that wasn't immediately visible when you came in. Amelia was right next to me, shaking with excitement. She had a dangerous glitter in her eye, one that showed me that this time she was ready to kill.

For a moment I thought they wouldn't get past the boulder, but to my surprise they moved it right aside. What felt like a thousand kilos to us was maybe one to them. They walked straight down the stairs and into the room.

All I saw were her neat blond curls before I jumped her. I finally felt the familiar feeling again of something else taking over my limbs. I did not need to think about what I was going to do, my body did everything for me. My vision was blurred as I finally, after years, got what I most desired.

Her blood tasted sweet on my tongue before I really realised that it was blood on my tongue. It had been so long since my last meal that I did not remember anything to compare it to. It felt like my life began and ended here. With this random German girl in a stinky basement.

It was only after her cries and those of her two companions had completely died out that my brain seemed to work again. No longer was I angry, no longer was that part of me occupying my brain. I felt hungry, I felt thirst and I felt dirty. I felt normal again.

I let her body go and stepped back. My companions were still feasting away. I had drawn first blood, literally. Sweet Amelia who wouldn't fight before was now growling at the boy next to her, tugging away the dead boy's arm.

I pressed myself against the wall once more and took a deep breath. My brain was awake again, but it was hardly a good thing. I remembered now. I remembered running away from home to prove a silly point, I remember being chased and bitten. I remember killing men as easily as pressing the keys of the piano. The only thing I couldn't remember were the last few weeks, or months or years. How long had we been sleeping underground?

When the bodies were completely drained, everyone needed a few moments of silence. Not to remember the three teenagers who had just given their lives to save ours, but to remember who they once were themselves. Amelia and I were the only two girls, the rest were all boys. That didn't stop them from being upset however.

I couldn't stay any longer, not now that our way out had been cleared. I stepped over the girl's arm and headed up the stairs, into the sunlight. It felt weird on my skin, but I couldn't imagine a better feeling. It felt like I could feel every ray dance over my exposed skin. I closed my eyes and allowed it to waltz all over me.

I opened my eyes for the last few steps and looked around. There were no more crops around the house, but rather a nice grass field with the occasional tree. I could see a road in the distance, though there was no one on it.

Amelia was the second person out, closely followed by the rest of our little group. The silence was prolonged a little longer by people enjoying the sun for the first time in weeks, but it couldn't be continued much longer.

"Where are we?" It was the youngest boy who spoke first, Edwin. He was only fifteen but looked to be much younger. How he had survived on the battlefield was beyond me.

"Germany, I suppose." I said. "The girl spoke german."

I had never been to Germany with my family, so I wouldn't really know what it looks like. Just thinking of my family caused a painful twitch in my heart, but I couldn't let it control me again. I needed to get back to them.

When I looked back at the group, I noticed quite an odd thing. They were all looking at me. I suppose I didn't look my best after sleeping for so long, but neither did they. Besides, they weren't looking at me like I had something weird on my face. They were looking at me like I would be able to tell them what we would do next.

"We need to find out what we are." Was the best thing I could come up with. "If... What we just did is a permanent thing or that we are now satisfied and are back to normal."

"I feel normal." Someone budded it, followed by some agreeing noises from the others. I suppose I felt more like myself again, but not entirely. I wanted to go down and check their bodies for more blood, even though I knew we had drained it all. I could almost hear my grandmother's voice in my head calling us all demons and condemning us to hell.

And then I heard something, a distant scream that was cut short. It reminded me of the battlefield, people's screams were cut short when I killed them or when others got to them first. I could feel more and more eyes poking into the back of my head as I gazed into the direction the scream had come from.

"We need to know more about ourselves, we can't find out on our own." I decided. "Chances are there are more of us out here. It's just a matter of finding out on which side they fought and on which side we want to fight." I let out a short laugh. "Personally, I say that our so-called leader can drop dead."

People seemed to agree with me and before I knew it, we were discussing plans. A boy, or more like a man, named Michael quickly stepped forward and helped greatly to brainstorm ideas. He was a little bit older than me, with soft black hair and vibrantly blue eyes. He was rather handsome, but for the first time in my life I didn't have the time to care about such things. We needed to find out where we were and how long we had been in that basement.

We decided to walk towards the sound as a group, but try to be as quiet as we can when we find the source. I had elected to learn french and latin when I was still studying, a decision I sincerely regret now. No one spoke german, so we could only hope that someone around here could converse in English.

When we reached the treeline we fanned out a little. Once again we moved like one group, all linked to one mind. I just couldn't really figure out whose it was. I suppose we were all thinking for ourselves now, but the plan Michael made nudged us in the right direction.

I heard a click and looked over just in time to see a man dressed in green hold a revolver to the back of Michael's head.