Continuation.
After several days of mourning, he buried his mother's body and mass buried that of his villagers.
But he was confused. Anytime he stares at his bloody long fingernails, he questions his legitimacy.
Like how the hell had he transformed into this overnight? From a warrior who fights for his people to a killer. Like how?
The more he stays around his village, the more he's haunted by the mountain formed by the corpses of his tribesmen.
The change is too abrupt. The cause, the reason behind the change, he ruminated as he walked away from the now desolate village.
But when he seemed to be in too much darkness, a little light shed itself at the far end of the tunnel.
His mind flashed back to the creature he killed a week ago.
Everything was normal until he met the creature. Everything was...
Then he made a decision. He would go back to the creature's body. Maybe he might find an answer.
He had gone deep into the walnut woods but he turned back. He went around the village not wanting to pass through the village again. The pain it brings is immense.
Soon, the olive stared back at him.
But the creature is nowhere around the place. Its' body had disappeared. He searched the surroundings but he found nothing. Not even the dark red blood of the creature. He found nothing.
No clue or lead. No evidence of the creature. It's as if it was all wiped.
Left with nothing, he began his journey.
Things became even more difficult when he found that he could no longer walk in the sun. Anytime he does, his skin burns and tears apart like worn out cloth.
Then he resorted to resting in the day and continuing his journey in the night.
One night, the full moon was high above. He was trekking across the deserts, dusting all over. A caravan of Arab merchants was passing by.
All of a sudden, something happened.
His vision turned all red and he did things. He couldn't remember. But by the following morning, the testimonies of what he has done was all around him.
Mauled bodies, beheaded and clawed all over were all around the yellowish red dune, Its area covered in deep red.
He became scared, this isn't just something. It's something.
He got to a Mongolian town and met a man. Old and frail. He told him things.
Things like what Eleodore is.
A vampire. Creatures of the night that feed on blood to survive. They stay silent and discreet in their living so no one knows of their existence.
He told Eleodore that he was turned because the vampire bit his neck.
Then the old man mentioned something, that Eleodore had violated a law; he killed openly and risked the secrets of the nightwalkers.
And the price is death.
The old man's still talking when they arrived.
They looked like humans. But they had fangs and claws. Like that creature that turned him that day. And like him, presently.
They attacked and the old man was killed. But he fought. They were fast and many. But Eleodore was a survivor. And surprisingly more fiercer than they are.
He killed them all and escaped.
The vampire coven in the region was amazed. A vampire fought and killed over a dozen capable vampires. Awesome!
They called him Clawe.
He escaped from the region and travelled across kingdoms, looking for a place to stay and live peacefully.
He was going to find one when hunters appeared on his tail.
He escaped to the Himalayas.
The vampire-witch clan there harbored him.
They tried to heal him but hadn't made any move when the hunters arrived. The hunters weren't the problem. The witches could handle them. The problem was their leader.
Aro, the legendary hunter.
They couldn't defend themselves.
Their castle was destroyed and the clan was wiped out.
Eleodore, now Clawe escaped from there to the banks of Ganges river, into the colorful markets of the Oriental worlds.
He met several creatures and supernatural beings there, some tried to help but lost their lives to it.
Their blood only added to the ocean of deep red trailing behind Clawe.
He wandered. Death is always finding him and him always surviving in any way possible. The pattern was consistent.
He never had rest. Death never allowed it.
But finally he found someone. A king.
He struck a deal. The king would protect him and he would fight for the king in return.
He became a killing machine for the king and even for the king's associates.
He was nicknamed the 'Rexmaker' by the fellow soldiers of the kingdom, a Latin word meaning kingmaker. But he was known as 'the Elci' by the neighboring kingdoms, a Mongolian word meaning death's emissary.
The king prospered in every battle and stretched his empire wide.
But then the king decided to nip Clawe off the bud. It would be disastrous if this monster gets into the hands of his enemy.
He made his move, he would kill Clawe.
He's a vampire. He can heal from his wounds and he can live for a long time, but he's not totally immortal. A decapitation or a stab in the heart and everything ends.
But the plan didn't go well and it backfired. Clawe went out of his senses and half the kingdom was wiped out.
This attracted the hunters and the vampires as well. They resumed their pursuit.
He fought and fought. He never had a single day of rest for over four hundred straight years in which he escaped from place to place.
Southern China to Memphis in Egypt. Memphis to Malaga in Spain. And from Malaga to the Caribbean islands, Bahamas to be precise, where he joined Dan's vampire coven.
Things went well at first, at least for a couple of years until he went AWOL again and massacred almost a whole village.
Dan hunted him but only met his doom.
The standout with Dan's coven made him fall into the ocean.
Heald founded him and then his life as Kylian began.
…..End of flashback…..
Silence.
Silence descended into the room.
It was like a graveyard.
Sarai now had her butt on the table on which she studied scrolls and journals earlier. Her hands were folded below her little chest and eyes were staring at the empty air.
Behind her, on the seat after the wooden table was Benzo, his demeanor was quiet. His face had complicated emotions visible on it.
Heald had his back to the wall. His head hung down from his neck like a ripe fruit ready to fall off. His mind raced through a lot of thoughts.
In the middle of them was the bed. On it was Kylian. His eyes were closed. But he's conscious. He is silent but his mind is not.
The others were the same. They are silent but their minds aren't.
Kylian was rumaging the end while the others were reminiscing the story of the man on the bed, trying to engrave every bit of it in the deepest corner of their minds.
Kylian's lips twitched. "I guess you now understand when I say am a damned person."
No reply came.
Kylian continued. "I've lived enough. I just want to.... Let go. But the girl must live."
Heald raised his head, he was expressionless. "You're going nowhere, Ky. You. Shall. Live."
Kylian slowly opened his eyes. His lips pursed as he wanted to say something but he didn't.
"You have done things. But it all wasn't what you wished for."
Kylian's head turned to the direction of the voice. All he saw was Sarai sitting on the table. Her face was unreadable.
A frown appeared on his face. Sarai couldn't have said that, that was a masculine voice.
Just then Benzo appeared from behind her. Kylian's jaw dropped.
"You need to live. Even if you don't want to live, even if you don't wish to live anymore, I think you should at least know why your life was like that. You should wanna know why you're not like other vampires. You should wanna know why you're damned as a vampire."
Benzo's resolve was all Kylian could see. His mind was flickering through memories and images from the past as he reasoned what Benzo said.
Every massacre he had caused. His village people. The Arabian merchants. The Indian kingdom. And several others that he can't even remember.
The pain that assaults his dead soul. The pain that tore through his veins for centuries. The unending affliction he had faced till now.
Then he gritted. "I wish to know."
"Then brace up. You need to live. You need to." Benzo nodded reassuringly.
Heald just stared. He was waiting. It was like an anticipation. His eyes were on Kylian.
The witch too had her eyes on him.
But he didn't talk. He was singing deep into his thoughts.
All of the sudden, the wooden door that led into the room barged open.
A lady in black outfit rushed in. Two sabres were crossed on her back. She's an associate of Sarai's.
She had a black mask on her face that hid all her face except her eyes that were almond-shaped.
Sarai turned to her when she sensed the urgency in her steps.
"What is it, Mei Li?" Sarai asked.
"Adrian is here with an army of vampires." The lady announced.
"What?!" Sarai gawked. "How did they find here?"
She was gobsmacked. This building was cloaked with a illusion spell that it doesn't even exist to those around the area.
How the hell did they get here?
But she couldn't deny the fact that she felt it in her heart that they would find them.
It's inevitable.
**************