owl-excerpts

[owl-excerpts]

Vampire

Trigger Warning: This story contains depictions of knife violence!

It's a piece I'll never expand on, so why not post it to Tumblr for shits and giggles.

I scrambled as a searing fear burned through me, my eyes fixed on the fiend before. It looked down at me as calmly as a parent would watch their child play. My hand found its mark and I brandished the hunting knife Arthur had given me and pointed its glistening tip upwards towards the fiend. It sighed, and finally spoke, softly, “I remember you from the village. The brother of that girl.” Its eyes focused on me and those cold, dead words froze my mind in its tracks. “Don't you dare try and dissuade me from carrying this task out, fiend! You know why I'm here, you shall pay for your crimes against humanity with your extermination!!” I barked in a rage-filled tone meant to moreso to instill myself with confidence, I can't imagine that monster felt anything related to fear. The searing sensation in my chest spun itself tight over my heart, tighter than I'd ever known. “I had no such intention to do such a thing, would I even be a studious host if I turned away a guest?” It paused for a brief moment, almost looking like it needed to compose itself, “Especially one with a cause so noble such as you.” It continued with a dead hum, looking over me as if it were assessing me like a passing art piece. I could read the drab mockery in its eyes, it derived some kind of joy in watching my toil against it. The fact such an entity could experience such a lively emotion as mirth unnerved me. My stomach and lungs shifted in tension as I stood my ground. “Your attempts to demean my mission mean nothing, you shall still die.” Its brows raised subtly, it perhaps could not remember the last time it had met such a steadfast soul.

“A bold declaration to make, should you truly understand what it is you are threatening.” It spoke in earnest, the closest its voice has sounded to human up until now. By now, the moon emerged from the clouds and beamed its pale light through the stained glass window at the head of the foyer. The fiend was cast in a soft array of dreary colors. Red, purple, hints of blue & green. They illuminated the fiend's black obelisk form and cast its shadow over me like that of the very arrival of the deathly night the village so dreaded. I wanted to move, but I found myself only able to muster a small growl. I could only appear to this devil as a scared animal, and nothing more. Bravado perhaps might have made this exchange easier, however, I forced myself to cast aside my need for it. I grazed my breaking point and forced myself to move closer to the fiend; however fearful I felt, it mattered not when I considered my sister- no, the entire village and all it had suffered through because of this dark reign opposed by the devil before me!

I closed my eyes and thrust my knife forward, all the while I prayed my knife find its mark. Looking back, I perhaps looked closer to a scared child than a hero. But none of that matters. I felt my knife impact something quite hard, not akin to stone but something closer to damp wood. I hesitantly opened my eyes and looked on with horror. I hadn't even made it halfway to the devil's heart before it placed its hand between my blade and itself. A normal man would crumble with a knife stuck through their palm, but this fiend hadn't even budged beyond its god-forsaken defense. I tried to pull my knife back and out from its palm, but the fiend tightened its hand focusing enough pressure around its palm. And it all turned to a blur as my knife snapped like a dry twig. My breath caught in my throat as I stumbled back in shock. Such a display was impossible, a shock too much for my senses.

My foot failed to catch the stair behind me and I recall not so much stumbling. I don't recall much of what happened after that, in fact. The fiend watched plainly, it needn't say a thing to me as its actions had articulated what words could not. The difference between me and it was unfathomable, and as I fell down those stairs I as if I were hurdling away from hell's most wicked precipice.