I looked up in the sky to picture my dissolved heart handing from a disoriented tread. I thought I was free from my past but I never knew it have been haunting me behind my back. I walked through the shadows leaning my head beneath my shoulders, hiding my soul from the truth.
It has been a week since I took my delicacy. I turned into a savage all because of a red looking disgusting substance. I could have killed an innocent man during the Akmoon. I waitso relieved when i grabbed the scent of an animal blood just few merters behind me.
Just to make sure it was real, my line of sight was pointing towards the direction of a barn next to an unknown farm.I knew the precautions for killed or stealing an owned property but I have no choice. I was either my lust killed me or I killed the cattle.
I tore up the poor cattle like a kid condemning a piece of paper.
My tongue danced through the cattle's blood, while the rest of the substance stream down my checks. I knew this wouldn't be enough in any way as the more I ingested that juicy substance, the more I became hungry as hell.
Through my years exprience on this curse of mine, I have the major basic ideology of my new self. Human blood was quite different from animal blood.the taste were particularly distinct as the energy gained is tripled. There were still more to it.
As it seems, the rules of my survival are simple. No human killings but naturally, there are some restrictions following it. Without the ingestion of human blood, it makes me weak but I knew destroying innocent lives wouldn't be fair to save one soul.
I would'nt risk it so I created my personal code: no human blood. This have been my lifestyle for years and I wouldn't break the code, not today. ,I can't kill a human, not anymore.
Over my years of existence, I should have encountered a great deal of experiences, greed, betrayals, death, commitments. Now a living curse, I do have all the powers of the universe. Speed, agility, heightened sense and the rest but truly, I don't do what real humans engage in.
I am like a soul left out in the dark. These so called inabilities are three in number. I don't enter mortuaries. I don't enter a house a dead soul inhabited in and lastly, which is the most important, I dont drink the blood of the emotionally challenged such as those whom may be facing sorrow, pain, sadness.
I such remembered the first day I tried to drink the blood of a sorrowful woman whom lost her husband. I held her in my arms. I just only dipped my teeth in her neck taking a sip of her blood and that was it. Just that one sip nearly killed me.
It was like a burning sensation in my body, so hot that I ran out of the scene like a deranged buffoon. It took me two years to realise this phenomenon. Unfortunately, the remedy for this was for me to eat the heart of a happy soul.
I then realised that blood was my only source of my survival. That was why I created my code. I had to put my feet on the ground to this. Enough souls have died on my behalf.
I have been running away from so many people, not to talk about the strange group that have been chasing me for ages.
Ever since I became this savage being that I have not the slightest idea of, I have been a runner for ages but through my race, It was until now i encountered a rare item:
Love
It's been half a year i have spent in Sandroville. Normally, every two months, I usually leave a town, kinda like a ghost or a spirit but I guess it was the sight of Natalia that extended my stay in Sandroville. We have gone a long way together that we have even started dating.
She is the most beautiful girl I have ever since in my entire stay in this world. She was a rare gem with a sinful soul. Very unfortunate that she could fall in love with me, a cursed being but that was the least of my problems as the worst had happened…
Natalia was pregnant!
Can I ever believe it when she came to my house on a stormy day sober in front of my doorstep:
"Natalia,what's the matter?why the long face?", I asked as she rushed to my doorstep. She began to wail furiously.
"Edward, we have an issue", answered Natalia in a sober voice.
"Oh, just a problem? what is there in a problem that need heavy tears for?", I asked more confused ever.
"This isn't an issue that can be resolved by mere conversations", she responded. Her words, action and reaction didn't seem like it was an easy task to perform. Curious and at the same time confused, I stood up, trying to find out the true form of the query: "Ok,I see. It seems this is more serious than I thought. what's really wrong, Natalia?".
"Edward, I am having a baby", she cried out in agony. Teardrops rolls down her cheeks like waterfalls. I could hear her heart beat pounding violently. Maybe, as i thought was her father's farm animals as usual in which I remembered the last time where she cried more than the mother of a pig I helped to deliver a swine right in front of her.
I laughed immediately as I recalled that incident: "What baby? You mean your cattle right? Pregnancy or moreover, your pigs, the last time I saw them, they were close to Labour. You are here to take me to them right?"
"No Edward!. I mean me. Myself", said Natalia angrily. I was so shocked by her words.
I felt like the world drained all my energy away. I just stood there dumbstruck by her words while she repeated those words again.
"Yes, me. I am pregnant", said Natalia.
At that moment, I was completely held to the ground. I could sense my spine shaking vigorously after that response.
The word "I AM PREGNANT" kept buzzing in my ear.I was shocked at the outcome of my actions. We only made love once, and it was just once, nothing more. How was i going to be able to tell her father, Mr ransbottom that I got her daughter pregnant? for an outsider for that matter.
Finally, I was in a huge mess than my curse. That was exactly two weeks ago when I got the nerve-craking news from Natalia. Since then, I haven't had a sight of Natalia since then but soon, I realised that was just the beginning of my troubles.
Every night for the past three weeks now, I would hear some unfamiliar words whistling in my ear in the middle of the night....
Akcan dan fin si da kapa dan rissso apla!
I couldn't make out what it meant but I remembered a particular phase, "...dan rissso". That was a phase I have seen before. It was written at the top of artifact I found in the forest. The same box!.
I had issues in the past with different set of people desperate for my head because of my past behaviour but this was really different.
Anytime I sleep, weird visions appears in my dream with a scary, shady symbol. Sometimes, I dream that an unknown force are on their way to get hold of me for my past event but today, my psychological chemistry changed...
I got home tonight quite late under the dark cloud after work in the mines. Coal dust filled my boots and clothing. As I walked, so the little fragment fell to the floor. I was so much exhausted due to the fact that I was a newbie and I got to do all the heavy-duty work required by the mine officer.
I lay on the bed with my clothes off. I dozed off into wonderland. That was when the unknown hit me.
This time, my visions were more than just a mere dream. It was extremely realistic and specific. It was a pure vision.
An autonomous sects with a strange symbol on their forehead were racing through the forest. They were more than fitfy, maybe sixty at least. They were all moving toward a direction. It was like I had a front row seat in the trance. I moved my head and I saw the signboard on my left which reads: "SANDROVILLE TOWN ,60 MILES WEST".
As i kept watching, the pack headed west with the words flying out of their leader's mouth as he sniffed the air "The Wanderer" then I faded back to reality.
I woke up sweaty from that weird dream. I knew what they wanted. I was lost in thought.
I was already feeling that burning sensation in my bloodstream. I knew my lust for blood had began. I tried to control it but it ended taking over me. My eyeballs turned white and my hair turned white as well. I stood up and rushed to the door with such great strength and speed that broke it into a thousand pieces.
I looked up in the sky and then up, I saw it – the blood moon, Akmoon.
I sped up into the city without total control of myself. This was the worst thing to ever happen to me. I wasn't myself in any way. It was like something was drawing me to a place.
I wasn't in centrol of myself anymore.I went to the mines. I saw the mine officer right in front of me, guarding the gate. I could feel my heart beat racing the moment I set my eyes on the human. At an unknown rate, my chest began to elevate .
I could feel my teeth extenting to an enormous size.
My jaws enlarged, my sense more heightened than ever and my grasp for control? Not that much as i presumed. I could not resist the urge no more. my body chemistry was at its peak stage. I Pounced on the officer like a hyena.
His blood gusted down my throat. Indeed, sweet and savouring..I thought. I didn't pity the poor soul laying down on the ground crying in agony but just to make there was any more fuss from him, I tore out his vocal cords for him to remain in my subjection.
I took another swallow of his blood driping down his body. It was so delicious. I didn't want to stop. I fed on him again and again. I couldn't care more about what was going to happen about this or about the dying officer lying helplessly on the ground. I fed till my satisfaction.
I did'nt even care more about my surroundings. All I want to do was to fed, stop and fee again on the blood of the fallen. I was so engrossed with my ego that I never knew when a lady passed by. On the sight of the unknown ,she screamed, wailing through the town about what she saw.
With the flash of a light, the townsmen took out their guns, following the woman to the mine:
"Woman, are you sure about what you saw?", asked a fellow citizen.
"Yes, I am. He killed Gerard and he.. he drank his blood", the woman explained as she continued to wept.
"Oh Goodness. Barbaric!. Take us to the mine let's see for ourselves", said the town leader.
They got there only to find Gerard on the floor, lying helplessly and lifeless with his gusts outside.
"Where is the culprit? You said he was with the corpse, woman! Where is he? The bastard is not here", said the townsmen leader as he looks at the woman who was now speechless.
"Maybe he.... mayhe he heard me crying out in the dark and ran away", replied ithe woman instantly.
"He is gone", said another town member whom proceeded from the inner section of the mine in search of the killer. The town leader spits on the ground while his fellow mates covers the dead body with a sackcloth.
"This is an unholy incident, not in our town this will continue. We need to find and execute the being or man responsible for this uncouth act. There will be a widespread curfew round the town. Send news to the founding fathers about this.
Message everyone family in the town about the curfew. I believe the culprit is still in our very soil and we must get him before he slips from our jaws. Gather the men. Sound the alarm", said the town leader as he left the mine premises.
Meanwhile, when the townsmen were talking, I was busy hearing their conversation through the bushes. I was in a big mess. I couldn't go back home. The town was in a state of uproar and besides that, the leaders of Sandroville has proclaimed a total curfew.
I wasnt at any level thinking or believing that I will go home. In the mist of all this, I still manage to hear a rusty noise in the bushes. I began hear voices coming towards me, with lanterns and stickes. I knew something was coming for me.
I quickly jumped to a tree next to me, thanks to my quick reflexes.
I made sure the branches made me not to be on the line of sight. I watched closely and silently as the townmen move slowly through the bushes, moving passed me, trying to find their criminal.
I was scared to come down from the tree. I got to a moment when i started thinking about my life. I stood watch for a long time before sleep finally got to me. I eventually slept off on a very comfortable tree branch and dozed off but still, I was ashamed of myself for I had broken my promise to mankind.
It was already morning. The swift north breeze woke me up from my slumber. I jumped down from the tree. I tried to go back to the town but right there on the spot, I had encountered a problem A hunter came at my back aiming at my head.
He knew there wasn't no need for him to realise that I was the animal his fellow mate were searching for. He kept shouting at the top of his voice to the townsmen that he has caught the culprit. I looked at him and rushed him up. Soon than later, I dipped my teeth into his flesh.
He kept pleading but I kept drinking. I left the hunter on the ground and ran away on the sight of the townsmen racing towards me with guns but i heard a wind shot through the breezes.
"Did you see his face? who is he?, said the town leader.
In agony, the bleeding hunter replied: "It... it was Edward. Edward Carnon, the novice in the mines", the hunter responded. The town leader helps the hunter up his feet. Knowing that he need severe attention, he delivers him to his fellow comrades.
"Slowly… breathe. Tell me, where did he go?", asked the town leader curiously.
"I saw him heading east. He went to town. I think he wants to do something. Are we safe, my dear boy?", asked the hunter to the town leader in shock. The town leader gets to his knees next to the hunter. He holds his hand as his crew treats the wounded man whom began to shout excessively.
"I don't know, sure but what I do know is that i will get to the end of this. I will put own the man that caused you, us so much pain today and you will be there when I lay his head on a spike. Boys, take pops to the healer..the rest, Let's Go get that animal and unclean beast!!", shouted the town leader as he stood up while the half of his crew followed him into the town.
There I was, standing at the edge of the city still with my urge to gain more blood. The hunger didn't stop. The mood didn't slow down as well. It was at that moment that I realized I was beyond saving.
My savage chemistry was back, active and more quicker to the core. I looked by my left, a road leading to the entrance of Sandroville. My heartbeat sped up, my pace quickened as my mind was sworen on a new mission – the quest for more blood but truly, I was not myself or maybe, I wasn't made myself after all.