The dark room was sticky as if someone had recently doused it with fresh blood. The walls echoed with glimpses of straying moonlight that illuminated everything, making the moist dungeon appear gloomy and broken down. Its structure was foreign and strange but also familiar like home. A girl, no more than 10 years old stepped forward, dressed in black with bright auburn hair falling in her face. Her petite form cowering as she cautiously stepped forward. In the straying moonlight, she caught glimpses of the scattered petrified corpses on the dungeon floor. She stifled a cry from the sight of them and quickened her cautious pace to the end of the dungeon. She could feel the bones crushing beneath her bare pale feet as she walked around the skulls rooted on the ground. Their red eyes glowing as if they were trying to grab her attention, while watching her every move. She jerked her head forward, trying to avoid their gazes as her feet pressed against dirt and bone fragments on the ground. They were trying to pull her in, trying to take the essence of her life. But she couldn't let them do that, she had to get to her friend who could protect her.
She jumped up startled as a high pitch whispered echoed softly against the hollows of the dungeon walls.
"Miaes, follow the sound of my voice, Miaes."
Miaes immediately looked up, recognizing the voice.
"Lupita, Lupita is that you?!" she yelled, running to the end of the dungeon. She could finally see a pure streak of light within the dungeon. Somehow her path had become clear. But the further she ran, the colder she became. She shivered as she quickly looked around the dungeon, trying to find the stream of light that she had just seen. She had a bad feeling something was going to happen and she didn't want to be in this place anymore.
"Where are you?!" Miaes called, as another stream of light suddenly appeared and disappeared making the dungeon even darker than before.
She heard a loud chuckle and shifting chains from behind her, she spun around to see Lupita waving her arm in front of her.
"See, Miaes I'm right here."
"Lupita!" she exclaimed as she drew closer to her.
"Why must we always meet up here?" Miaes looked down at Lupita, who was chained up against the wall. With a chuckle Lupita ignored the question and placed a cool slender finger on Miaes' lips.
"Tell you what, if you must know, then look for the key to these cuffs, it is over there in that skull" Lupita said, pointing to the darkest area in the dungeon.
Miaes nodded then ran over to the skull. She could see the skull's red glowing eyes. It was odd, this was the first time she had seen Lupita chained here in this dark place. The other times she had been free. All she knew was that she had to help Lupita escape from this gloomy place. Miaes walked towards the skull in the darkness. It was cracked but didn't look like it was welded into the ground like the others surrounding it. She reached down and gave it a tug, expecting it to come off of the ground but it didn't. It was rooted to the spot.
"It's stuck!" she called.
"You know what to do."
Lupita encouraged her with a nod. It was a test. Lupita had already known that it was stuck. Miaes remembered what Lupita had shown her before. She stood there concentrating for her fangs to come out. They weren't real unless she thought about blood. Closing her eyes she focused on the memory of blood, its thick crimson red and metallic taste filling her mouth. Immediately she felt the fangs protrude. When they finally did, she bit hard into the cracked skull until she made an even bigger crack. Removing the broken piece, she wedged her small hand inside of it and searched for the key. She was immediately greeted by the smell of rotten flesh. It filled the air as a thick liquid oozed between her fingers. The air was now replaced with the smell of ash and she somehow knew that the person had been killed not more than a year ago in a fire. She wedged her fingers further inside the liquid, finally feeling the key brush against her hand. She caught on to it and began to pulling it out until a stinging pain shot up her hand.
"Ah!" She cried, dropping the key back inside the skull. She quickly pulled out her hand out shaking it and what looked like a black widow fell off her. The bite turned from red to bluish-purple in an instant as her eyesight blurred.
"What happened, dear?"
"It…a black widow bit me!" Panicking, Miaes stumbled over to Lupita, holding out her wounded hand.
"Ghastly little creatures, aren't they? Let me see the wound…Oh, the poison's already taken hold," Lupita said while examining Miaes' hand.
"What about the key?" Miaes asked shivering. She'd just noticed that the temperature in the dungeon had dropped even lower than before.
"Don't worry, I'll just be returning a favor to you. Hold still, this might hurt a bit." Lupita answered as she leaned in and bit into Miaes' pale skin. As Lupita drew out the poison, Miaes jolted as a sharp pain, which can only be described to the near dead, went through her body. But oddly enough, she slowly to felt stronger and healthier than before. As her eyesight started to clear and her cheeks flushed from the warmth of her body.
"That's odd" Lupita said as she retracted her fangs. Lupita started to shiver and now was the one who was cold. "That wasn't a spider's bite at. Gaah!" Lupita screamed, clasping her hands to the sides of her head.
Miaes could feel her heart start to race in fear. She didn't know what was going on or what was happening to Lupita.
"Miaes, listen to me," Lupita's bright gray eyes suddenly turned glasslike as she gripped Miaes' hand. Miaes tried not to grimace in pain. "Your…your life is in danger and you need to get out of here before it's too late," Lupita whispered harshly.
"But…"
"Go now before it is too"
The sound of heavy paws pounded against the outside of the dungeon wall.
"Werewolves," Lupita said quickly, "there has to be forty, no, sixty of them out there. Take the tunnel underneath these corpses, you should be able to find your way out." Lupita hurriedly kicked at the pile of skulls next to her feet, revealing a small manmade tunnel underneath. Miaes looked down into the dark hole. It was so dark that she couldn't see where the tunnel ended. She swallowed audibly. She was afraid of crawling inside the small dark hole. She glanced at Lupita, suddenly remembering that she had to unchain her.
"What about you, Lupita?"
"Do not worry about me, just go!" Lupita said as she listened to the amount of force the werewolves placed on the wall.
"No, I am not leaving you, I'm not leaving you!"
Miaes called as the dungeon walls collapsed and the sound of howls drowned out her protest. Werewolves began pushing their way inside. As they grew closer, the sound of loud growls filled the tunnels and she felt herself freeze in fear. It was then that Lupita grabbed her arm and urged her to go inside the tunnel. But she refused to go and clung on to the side of the hole as the edges of dirt filled her nails. She tried to stall as much as she could to help Lupita. Miaes looked into Lupita's glass-like eyes silently pleading for her to come with her, but Lupita refused.
"Go now!" Lupita yelled as she kicked her into the tunnel.
"Mama, Mama!" Miaes shouted in a large gasp as she woke up in a cold sweat, her limbs shaky.
"You don't have to shout I'm right here," her mom called from back seat of the truck. Miaes stood up and rested her hand against the seat as the trembling stopped.
"Oh, I had another nightmare."
"Another? I don't know, maybe we shouldn't have joined the Resistance and just turned ourselves in," her mom muttered pulling Andreas' blanket out of her face. "Are you and Sonia all right down there?" Miaes pressed against the backseat to look up into the trunk. From where she was laying, she could see her mother holding her baby brother Andreas.
"If only I could see what's happening out there, how long we will be able to reach our destination, maybe….." her mother muttered.
"Sonia's asleep, can I come up? I'm old and strong enough to keep watch."
"Absolutely not, there's no telling who might stop us on this road"
"But, Mom, dad let Sonia do it yesterday!" she whined.
"Quiet, Miaes," her mother hushed her as everything fell silent, listening. Minutes had passed before her mother spoke again, her eyes widening.
"That's odd, the other car isn't on the road anymore. Greg! Did you just hear that?"
"Yes, we're about to check it out right now," her dad called from the front of the truck. The engine stopped as they pulled over to the side of the road. Miaes could hear raised voices and then complete silence. The front doors opened as everyone got out and her dad opened the door for her mother.
"Maria, I think that you need to come out here."
Wind blew against the truck and the road was quiet. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of Andreas and Sonia's light snoring. Miaes faintly heard her mother call her to take Andreas to sleep in the truck with Sonia. Miaes lowered Andreas inside through the window so that she could place him beside Sonia, her five year old sister. It seemed like a thousand minutes since her mother had called her to take Andreas inside. It was as if they were waiting for something or somebody.
She could hear her mother and father speaking in hushed whispers, while the other Resistance workers armed themselves. From all directions of the highway a piercing scream filled the air as the pounded ground beneath them shook. Panicking, Miaes quickly laid Andreas down in the truck, opened the door, and ran out to her mother. Miaes threw her arms around her mother's waist.
"Why are you out here? Go back to the truck!" her father shouted as he clutched the gun at his side.
"They're coming and a lot of them too…" Miaes whispered, she could barely speak as she pressed herself closer to her mother. In that moment five men stepped out of the shadows of the woods, their eyes shining from the light of the moon.
"Go back into the truck Miaes, it's not safe out here," her mother called as she blocked her view of the empty highway, trying to hide her. Her mothered shivered and in that moment Miaes knew that she was tense with fear.
"Come on, don't be like that vinivies, we're just trying to take you back to where you belong," the man in the middle called out as he approached them. The other vinivies quickly went into a fighting stance around the truck.
"You stay away from them or I'll shoot" Greg called fiercely, aiming his silver bullet gun at the leader's head.
"Go ahead, do as you wish." The leader chuckled as he looked to Miaes, her father, and then at her mother. More and more werewolves came out of the shadows into the light. It was then that the vinivies realized that they had been set up. The car in front of them had lead them here on purpose.
"Greg, whoever gave us this mission knew that this was a set up, knew that it would be a full moon tonight when the werewolves are at their strongest," called one of the vinivies.
"That's impossible why… they-y couldn't have betrayed us…would …how did they know we were on our way, when we've switched routes more than four times?"
Inaudible mumbles came amongst them as they argued amongst themselves.
Miaes looked up at the sky. Behind the clearing thick fog was the moon. The group of werewolves started to change, their cracking spines and shifting bones and ribs shuddered, forming the moon children.
"Last chance to surrender, vinivies," the leader called in a gruff voice, as he struggled to keep from shifting. Many of the shifted werewolves awaited the command of their leader. Their hungry gazes stared upon at them. Her father, Greg finally spoke as he looked at the odds. They outnumbered us by twenty.
"We will not surrender even if we're outnumbered."
The leader looked up into the sky as the final fog cleared away from the moon. "So be it," he called. His bones gave a crackling shudder and his body completed his shift into his werewolf form. His thick black coat shimmered and his green eyes grew intense with hunger against the moonlight.
The fighting started in a blink of an eye as her father's gun fired at the leader. During the distraction, her mother scooped her in Miaes arms and raced to the truck.
"Take care of Sonia and Andreas no matter what," her mother said as she gave a quick kiss on Miaes' forehead and opened the truck door all the while pressing a small red button inside the door. Her mother tried to push Miaes inside the truck, but she was too late, a werewolf appeared behind her and dragged her away from the truck with its teeth. Her mother struggled to fight back as the werewolf climbed on top of her and tore into her throat. Shots were fired at it from a distance. Yelping, the werewolf attacking her mother, turned its attention to the people shooting at it. Miaes ran out of the truck to her mother's motionless body near the highway's trees.
She could see the whole battle before her. The vinivies dead, her father lay among them, the murdered. As the last vinivy struggled to fight with his silver sword, a large explosion came from the background. The truck blew to bits of metal and rubber. Her brother and sister would have never survived the explosion inside. They were dead, all of them, she thought, as tears ran down her cheeks. Through her blurred vision, she saw the last vinivy fall as a group of werewolves gained upon him. In that brief moment, they exchanged one meaningful word.
"Run."
She didn't hesitate to run into the woods as fast as she could and with all her might. Werewolves chased after her. The sound of them running strummed through her ears as they gained on her, coming closer and closer. She could only see the outline of where she was headed and the woods seemed to never end. Their pounding footsteps seemed to have suddenly stopped behind her as she approached a fence. She was confused. It was in the middle of nowhere but she was trapped. There was no way to climb up in the short amount of time she had.
The moon started to fade in the distance. The werewolves who were following her stepped out of the woods and cornered her. Among them a brown furred werewolf stepped forward, changed into a half human form. Following her lead, the others shuddered into a half human form too. This was it, there was nowhere to run. Miaes stood paralyzed against the fence.
The female started to speak English in a thick Italian accent. "You gave us quite a run, child, but what is a human girl like you doing with vinivies?"
Stepping closer, the female eyed and then sniffed Miaes, recognizing her as a vampire as she lifted her head and exclaimed, "Ah…not human but a vinivy child. Don't worry, we won't hurt you, little girl, your family would want us to take care of you," the lady's voice cooed into a soothing voice.
She felt tempted to go to her. Her legs hurt so much they could give out at any time. She was exhausted and ready to give in already. If only she could just give in already. The female's voice started to sound like a hunter beckoning its prey. And what of her family, they would want her to live on, surely. With a grin spread across her face, the woman moved closer to her. This made Miaes snap out of her trance-like state. She was suddenly alert and focused as she looked for a clearing amongst the group of werewolves. And like miracle there was one, probably left open because of their sureness to capture her, but not today, she thought as she bolted for it, not even once looking back.
"What do we do, do we go after her?" a werewolf asked as he looked at the figure of the girl running away.
"No, there are Monarchs on the hunt on the grounds right now. They can't know that we're here. I'll see what I can do about the explaining all of this. But I would rather you give an anonymous tip and say that the hostage vinivy girl is headed their way."
Miaes kept running even though she was sure the werewolves weren't following her anymore. All she had to do was find a way out of these woods and from there on she didn't know. She was just a child and she had no idea where she was. She came up to fence that was taller than the wall before. How was she to find a way out if she couldn't find a way around the fence either? She thought as she heard a twig snap from the other side of the wall and prepared herself to bolt into the woods again. A shiver went down her back as she felt someone close in behind her. Taking a peek back, she was knocked unconscious by a human hand.