[Darcia's Perspective]
I lay on my back beneath the bridge, staring up at the concrete above. The passing cars hummed in the distance, their rhythmic sounds blending with the wind's gentle whispers. Closing my eyes, I tried to push away the overwhelming hopelessness, holding onto a glimmer of hope.
"That just goes to show," Zachary droned, exhaling heavily. "Even if you do everything right — even if you plan it out years beforehand — things can still go wrong. All those schematics, all those nights staying up trying to hack into military bases' and corporations' systems…"
Isyra chimed in, "Please, we must keep in mind that it's been 2 years for Kaizer, and he just recently regained memory of us. I'm sure he'll come around… eventually."
A strange anger bubbled up in my chest, and my voice turned cold and bitter. "He's a coward," I said. "And he's a player."
Silence fell over the group, the unspoken understanding of my reference to Kira lingering in the air.
Iris shrugged. "The way I see it, if he wants to play pretend Human in the Overworld, that's his deal. But us? We're Vampires, and that's all we'll ever be. We tried everything we could. I guess… we just move on with our lives now."
"Move on with our lives?" I seethed. "What lives, Iris? Did you forget we're wanted criminals now?"
The weight of my words hung heavy, plunging us into a somber silence.
"Oh yeah, I actually did forget about that," Zachary whispered. "What are we gonna do?"
"Ugh…" I sighed. "I wish none of this stupid shit ever happened. I wish we were still back at the Academy, drinking blood shakes and laughing about literally everything. I just want… us back, you know? It seems like there's so much more beyond all of this that I'm not quite understanding right now, but I know it all has to do with Kaizer."
"Yeah… now that you're saying it," Zachary said, drawing circles in the air above him as he lie on the ramp. "What makes Kaizer so special anyway? Why are there people after him?"
I let out a big sigh, not too keen on the idea of reliving the whole thing again. "Zachary, it's a long story."
Zachary insisted, his voice overly-friendly. "I like long stories. We got time."
Iris groaned, "Zachary, please, just shut up for like two seconds… can't you read a room?"
"Well, we're not exactly in a room, Iris, but—
"Zachary, I'm giving you one more chance to shut up before I impale you with a blood javelin."
"…"
"Thank you."
I couldn't help it. I cracked a smile. Here I was, thinking it was the end of the world because Kaizer was gone, and my friends were being so amusing.
"At least I have you guys," I said, my words echoing beneath the bridge.
A homeless individual standing near a burning trashbin suddenly started coughing very loudly, startling the rest of us. We laughed it off, but then it just kept going on and on.
"Sir?" I called out, sitting up. "Sir, are you okay?"
The man continued coughing, and it became more violent and disgusting, nearing gags. I stood up, and so did Isyra and Iris.
"Get with the program, Vishblood!" Iris snapped at Zachary, kicking his head with a black heel.
"Ah! Seriously, Iris? What was that for?" He grumbled as he hobbled up.
"Oh, quit your yappin'."
I was the first to rush over to the man, and I was by his side in the blink of an eye. But I looked, and he was already taking his last breath. He had been coughing up blood, from the looks of it. I watched as he crumpled to the floor, and I heard his heartbeat stop dead.
"He's gone."
There was a brief moment of silence.
"Well, we're already criminals… should I search his pockets?" Zachary said.
We all looked at him with disbelief and scorn.
"Zach. Nn-nn," Isyra whispered.
"Just kidding, jeez." Zachary shrugged and gave an awkward smile.
"But look… there's something glowing in his pocket." Zachary said.
"What?" I asked, turning around to see that indeed, there was something glowing from his pocket, and it was vibrating a familiar rhythm.
"It's his phone, gotta be," Iris said. "Maybe someone's callin'? Shouldn't pick it up though, none of our business."
"Yeah. True." I agreed. Sure, we had just witnessed this man die, but that didn't mean we had to get any further involved. Sadly, we couldn't report it to the authorities because we were outlaws.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, Isyra stopped in her tracks and yelped in pain. She twisted and contorted and slithered about in agony, and then she lie motionless on the ground, as if also dead.
"I'm… dreaming, right?" Zachary said, his voice shaky. "She didn't just… die, right? How long are Serpentine's life spans?"
Suddenly, Iris's eyes snapped open, and her eyes glowed an ominous black. The voice that came from her was so powerful and terrifying, yet so soothing at the same time. It was not the voice of a Human.
"Listen to me, you four who walk the path of most resistance. It is I, Alessia, The Scorpion."
All of us gasped in shock and disbelief. I locked eyes with Isyra, but it wasn't Isyra speaking.
"What's going on?" I breathed in short, panicked breaths.
"You are all destined to die with me, with my Curse. Mark my words, I will rumble the ground beneath your feet and crumble the ceiling of which you live in the shadows of, and I will take all of your souls and we will be as one in the darkness of Achiron, and we will unleash our darkness into the two Realms above, and consume that which is life itself. The Barrier between timelines will shatter, and the Chaos Realm will be revealed. Mountains will fall, seas will rise, winds will frenzy, volcanoes will rupture, and the earth will shatter and crumble beneath your very feet. There will be a massacre of people, of all kinds, supernatural and Human — and an extinction of many species of beast or plant. It will be a Vampire extinction, however, many Humans and Underworlders will be spared death, if they survive the apocalypse — but be assured that when it comes to war with the Underworld, no blood will be spared or wasted. I, and my Achironian Army, and all the monsters and spirits of Achiron, intend to destroy all that is in our sight once we are free."
Zachary whispered, "Well, that's not good."
"Shh." I put my hand up to silence him.
"My power grows stronger and my child is yet to be returned to me… I have no patience for little children, only a few thousand years old, who can't even bring him to me when they have him right in their grasp. I have slept for over a thousand years here in this Realm…The ghouls couldn't find my child. But you have."
"Bring him to me. Put your lives on the line, if that's what it takes. Die for him, if that's what it takes. If you do not bring him to me within…"
Isyra's eyes blinked, and her eyes went to the back of her head, then came back down again, then she took in a deep breath. She let out a long sigh. "30 Days and 30 Nights…"
"Then all of these things I have said shall come to pass."
VOOM!
Again, another ripple of energy and wind surged through the area, catching us all off guard. It even pushed Zachary on his ass. The black in Isyra's eyes left and came out as black tears down her scaly face.
"Ohh…" Isyra said dreamily, holding the back of her head. "What happened?"
"After that man died, you suddenly passed out, and your eyes turned a creepy black color, and you said some pretty scary stuff," Zachary said. "Said you were gonna, like, end the world and all that jazz."
"Pretty metal, if you ask me." Iris smirked.
Isyra came back to her senses and snaked around to me, and gave me a hug.
"That was a possession…" Isyra said, her voice soft. "Or rather, more accurately, a prophecy. Alessia possessed me. The Serpentine people have always relied on Alessia for new prophecies, but only one had ever actually manifested in history — it was the Shaman who received it. But… the Shaman has been dead for millennia now… he passed with the rest of my people. I never thought it'd be me…"
"The Serpentines really do have a spiritual connection with Alessia. Wow, that's incredible," Zachary said, a goofy grin on his face. "I wanna be friends with Cratos, like Kaizer."
"Zachary… Shut up." Isyra finally said.
"So, if we don't get Kaizer to Alessia in a month, she's going to break free from her constraints and unleash a genocide against Sanguine and the Overworld?" I said to myself, going over the details as I paced. "That's fine, we should be able to get him to come to his senses within a month. We have to… the fate of the three Realms depends on it. Fuck, what are we going to do—
"Hey. Darcia, hun," Iris said, stepping into my view, taking me by surprise. "Uh, you okay? Your hands are shaking."
I looked down to see that indeed, my hands were shaking. I couldn't tell what emotion I was feeling though; It was a mixed jumble of fear, determination, confusion, and anger. On impulse, I conjured a blood sword and slammed it into the ground, lodging it in with a heavy grunt.
"Argh!"
"No, I'm not okay, Iris. I'm not okay. I can't get this fucking mask off and my one true love hates me."
"Sweetheart, he doesn't hate you," Iris said, rubbing my back. "I'm sure he… has his reasons for leaving. He said so himself, didn't he? Maybe you should give him a little credit, he's stayed pretty cool through all of this, and he saved us. Maybe… maybe Kaizer just grew up some, that's all. Maybe he's more calculated."
"That's so easy for you to say, someone who wasn't connected to his soul—
"Darcia, come on, look at me."
Iris placed a hand on my cheek and brought my face to face hers. I never noticed how full of kindness her cherry eyes were until this moment. She spoke softly,
"Kaizer said he wanted to play his cards right. He didn't say that for no reason, he seemed pretty serious to me. And after what just happened, I don't think our story ends here. We're meant to find Kaizer."
Zachary, eavesdropping, said, "Yeah, it's our destiny! Woooh, prophecy, yeahh!"
Iris gave Zachary a judgmental glare, then shook her head and looked back at me. "Nevermind him. The point is, I'm—
"Here for me, and you got my back until the end, got it." I interrupted teasingly, winking, and a shimmer of a teardrop sparkled in the air.
Iris smirked, and in that moment I felt like I had found someone I could be friends with for immortality. "Yeah, you get the point."
"So… what do we do, oh great leader?" Zachary said, approaching casually, his hands in his hood pockets.
I looked up at the ceiling of our underground home and took a deep breath, and spoke with the authority. What I liked about myself then was that I spoke like myself, and not like my Mother anymore.
Finally… Darcia, that little Vampire princess who just wanted to find and fulfill her place in the world, had a purpose. A purpose that meant something.
Even without Kaizer by my side, and with this Curse, I still stood tall.
"Kaizer Project, we're initiating a new operation. Operation 'Save the World.' Our first task: get Kaizer back and take him to Alessia, and break her Curse before she can break free and destroy our worlds."