Tristan

If Tristan thought Frostwood was chaotic before, it was unrecognizable now.

A tremor still rippled across the square, filled with great booms as stands and buildings toppled over.

Except he could barely see where they were about to fall, only the fire and some nearby torches illuminating the village center.

Including the one still in the commander’s hand.

Screams echoed between the crowd as chunks of walls and roofs fell onto it, flattening the people unlucky enough to be standing in their path.

One man dashed for an alley only for a flying brick to strike him in the head, his blood splattering against the ground.

Another simply stood and looked at the black, empty sky.

No- not empty at all.

An approaching flock of bats began to shriek as they descended upon the square.

And once they hit the ground, their small, fuzzy bodies transformed into that of humans.

Pale humans with shining eyes, their ivory skin glistening beneath the light of the fire.

Vampires.

Now the village was unrecognizable.

They wore

Tristan scowled at the creatures as they moved in on the crowd, and his fury only grew as he realized that many were either smiling or wearing expressions of boredom.

He didn’t know which pissed him off more.

Everyone around him tried to run at once, each in a different direction. But there was one of them at every corner, surrounding the stragglers and trapping them inside the square.

A few were grabbing people by the neck instead, sinking their teeth into their flesh.

The two soldiers suddenly let go of him and withdrew their rifles. Tristan didn’t have time to cover his ears before they began shooting, a ringing forming in his ears from the blasts.

And yet, the cries of a little girl caught his attention and Tristan turned expecting to find her in the hands of a vampire, instead she was laying flat against the ground- trampled beneath the feet of those who tried to flee.

It was only when he tried to dash for her that he realized his wrists were still cuffed and his arms were still being held by the soldiers. “Take these off me!”

They either couldn’t hear or outright ignored him.

Tristan turned to his sister, his gaze landing on the fire behind her.

The fire.

In her eyes, he knew she was thinking the same thing.

But the back of a man blocked his view of both Mari and the fire before he could do anything about it.

He turned back to where the little girl was…

Laying still on the floor, unrecognizable beneath all the blood and shoes.

He only allowed himself a second of respite before looking back over his shoulder. “What the hell are you standing around for?! Shoot them-”

All it took was a single moment.

A single moment, and one of the soldiers who’d been holding him was on the ground, a red, shiny bullet lodged into his skull.

The ones thereafter were long and heavy.

Tristan didn’t know how long he’d been staring at the equally shiny blood flowing from the soldier's head until he snapped back into reality and tore his eyes away to the crowd around them.

There were more of them now, in those same fine, regal uniforms- although some had cloaks and were wearing more badges than others.

With a start, Tristan suddenly realized that he could see more of them now. In just a blink, the crowd had become far emptier, and there, just across the square, were groups of people being handcuffed and encircled by the vampires- some sitting against the shops in batches, others lifeless on the ground.

He could also now see all the vampires at the far ends of the street and the alleyways- blocking the exits.

They’re rounding us up. It hasn’t even been five minutes and they already have half the square.

He couldn’t spot who or what had shot at the soldier, he didn’t even know of a material that made ruby bullets.

But he did know he wouldn’t be next.

The other soldier had finally noticed the limp body of his colleague beside them, and he, too, only spared a few seconds to stare at him before he withdrew his own gun and finally let go of Tristan, shooting into the crowd.

Tristan went to make a run for it, but the gleam of something peeking out of the dead soldier’s waist caught his eye.

His gun.

He glanced at the other soldier who was still shooting at the vampires and paying no mind to Tristan.

Then he grabbed the gun and was gone in a flash, the metal heavy and cold against his palm.

They had a chance. If he had a weapon, he and Mari could escape whatever it was they were planning.

Tristan bolted towards the fire, shoving aside anyone in his way, not daring to look back and see if the soldier was chasing after him.

And when he could finally see through the mob, he noticed that the man who had blocked his view of Mari was joined by a second one.

“Are you sure it’s her?”

“It has to be, who else would they be trying to execute?”

Their words sent a wave of panic over Tristan and he pushed himself to run faster.

Even with their backs turned to him he could sense it- they were vampires.

“Get her out of the chains, then,” the first said, glancing over the crowd of screaming humans and waving with his hand. “And quickly.”

The second did as he asked, using the crimson sword in his hand to seamlessly cut through the metal. Only the cuffs on her wrists remained as he grabbed a frightened Mari and began to haul her away.

Not again, he thought. Don’t take her away from me again.

“Let her go!” Tristan roared, lifting his gun and aiming it at the vampire’s head.

They turned to him with startled expressions.

Tristan’s blood ran cold.

Both of their eyes were a bright, haunting blue that felt as though they pierced right through him. Just like the vampire from yesterday.

He already knew what they were, but seeing their eyes- no, he wouldn’t allow himself to hesitate.

He pushed through the fear rising in his chest, pushed through even as his heartbeat echoed in his ears, and took the shot.

A ringing pulsed in his ears as he watched the vampire holding Mari fall to the ground and blood poured out of his skull- just like the soldier.

A rush of adrenaline coursed through his veins. He’d actually hit him.

The other vampire looked between Tristan and the body. “You little…How in the world did you get that?”

Tristan ignored him, aiming the gun at his head as he yelled to Mari, “Run!”

She simply stared back at him in shock.

“And who might you be?”

He froze.

The voice had come from behind him, from another vampire.

And Tristan didn’t have to see him to know, as instinctually as he knew a stick he dropped would fall to the ground, as instinctually as he knew how to breathe, that there was very little in this world more dangerous than the creature that voice belonged to.

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He couldn’t explain why. It sounded completely ordinary.

Yet the vampire that came into view was anything but.

His uniform was the same as the others, but a thick, onyx coat was draped over his shoulders.

He was as pale as the others, but his eyes were a dull red.

And he was a vampire, just as the others, but his smooth, lazy stroll whispered of something far greater.

The other one had waved him over, Tristan realized.

The vampire stalked closer until he was just a breath away from Tristan, until his own head was in the pistol’s line of sight. “Hm? I’m sure humans have the capability of hearing?”

He gulped in an effort to get words out as his heart beat louder and louder. When had his mouth become so dry?

RUN, something deep inside him screamed. YOU HAVE TO RUN AWAY NOW.

His fingers curled around the trigger.

The vampire smiled as he leaned in closer- pressing his forehead against the barrel. The strands of his long, ivory hair fell around it. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

A tremor rippled through Tristan’s body. The gun shook in his hands, the cuffs still lashed around his wrists jingling with the movement.

Don’t give in to the fear.

Shoot him and there’s only one left, shoot him you can get out of here. You and Mari.

Tristan gritted his teeth. He’ll kill him. He’ll kill them all.

He pulled the trigger- nothing happened.

A muffled groan interrupted the silence that followed. “M-my lord.”

It was the other vampire, the one he shot. He was sitting up, taking in the sight of Tristan’s gun leveled at the white-haired vampire’s head…

Rubbing his perfectly normal temples.

The white-haired vampire sighed and leaned back. “Why even use one of those if you don’t know how it works?”

He glanced at the formerly dead one now rising and added, “Although I suppose you did rather well for someone who has never done so before. Now, are you going to answer my question or do I need to pry it out of you?”

Tristan opened his mouth to retort-

“Let go of the boy this instant, heathen.”

The vampire turned over his shoulder and Tristan got a glimpse of a middle-aged man in ivory robes with a sun sewn into the sleeves.

The priest from yesterday.

“Well, if it isn’t a Zoharist,” the vampire cood. “How wonderful to see they still exist after all these years.”

“Looks like I can say the same to you.”

He let out a laugh, a deep, haunting laugh that Tristan felt in his bones, one that would have made him cringe if he wasn’t currently incapacitated. “Ha! How amusing, at least this new batch will have a sense of humor!”

The words hit Tristan full force.

He couldn’t mean…were they going to be taken as slaves?

He suddenly thought back to the legends his mother used to tell him and Mari. Vampires: a race of beasts who lurk within the shadows, beasts who don’t need to sleep or eat, beasts who sustain themselves on human blood…

That’s why they weren’t killing anyone- they needed them alive.

“I would rather die than become a slave to a monster like you.”

Tristan was inclined to agree.

“That can be arranged.”

The priest looked up at the moon, one of his arms sliding inside his robes. “I never thought I’d live to see the day our greatest fears came true, but if you think for a second that humanity will bow down and serve you without a fight then you’re sorely mistaken. I only wish I could’ve lived a little longer, just enough to feel the warmth of the sun one last time. But there’s no need for that.”

He narrowed his eyes back at the vampire as he pulled out a sword, the flames coating it just as bright as the fire dancing within his eyes. “We can watch you burn from the heavens instead.”

Tristan looked on in shock as he jumped and was gone in a flash, appearing behind the formerly dead vampire and slashing at him from above.

He had no time to react before he was burning alive.

I don’t even think the priest pierced him with the blade, Tristan thought. The flames just caught onto the vampire in a single motion.

Indeed, Tristan spotted no wound or blood spilling from the vampire as he screamed and fell to the ground, rolling in an effort to put the flames out.

But as his skin turned a dark onyx, the vampire stilled.

The white-haired one merely stared at the priest with an irritated expression. “They let Zoharists have these now?”

“I do not seek permission to do what needs to be done,” the priest responded, pointing the sword at the vampire. “And I am willing to bear any punishment for the protection of my village.”

The vampire unsheathed a small dagger from within his own cloak. Tristan was surprised that it was seemingly ordinary, more so than the one of the priest still burning in his hand.

How in the hell is it flammable? Some kind of secret technology developed by the church?

The vampire raised the dagger and Tristan braced to see it thrown at the priest’s head-

Only to watch as he sliced his own palm instead.

Blood began to spill from his hand but just before it hit the ground, it solidified into a long, thin, crimson rapier.

“Very well, then,” the vampire said, letting the dagger drop to the ground. “I won’t turn down a fight.”

Then he launched himself towards the priest, moving at a truly inhuman speed.

The priest blocked his rapier with his own sword, the flames roaring with madness at the vampire. He stepped back to dodge another attack before dashing forwards for one of his own. The vampire just narrowly jumped out of range of the flames as they hurled towards him, almost as if they had a mind of their own.

Tristan looked back to his sister as they continued to fight, seemingly just as confused as he was.

He gestured for her to try and break free from the remaining vampire’s hold so they could make a run for it, but she seemed to have frozen from shock.

He was about to go help her when a scream stole his attention back to the fight.

The priest was once again in the air, his sword held high above his head as he dropped onto the vampire with a howl-

But the vampire pierced his chest before he had a chance to use it.

The priest fell to his knees with a gasp, coughing up blood as he doubled over.

The vampire’s rapier turned back into liquid blood of its own before it was sucked back inside the wound on his palm, closing shut as though it’d never been there. “I’m afraid the fun’s over.”

The priest lifted his eyes to him as he struggled to stand upright. “You won’t get away with this. Zohar…he will return and save us from you monsters once again.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

What happened next happened in the blink of an eye, and Tristan needed a moment to decipher it all.

First, the priest had lifted his arm- the one still holding the sword.

At the same time, the vampire appeared before the priest in a flash, his own arm sunk inside his chest.

But by then, once his dead body had hit the ground, his hand was empty.

And the square was burning.

Tristan could do nothing but watch as building after building was consumed by the fire, as many humans that had been grouped up against them were screaming as they burned alive- them and their vampire guards.

A single flame from a sword couldn’t be responsible for all this, he thought, and indeed saw the remaining vampires stop whatever they were doing and descend upon all the men and women in robes that had seemingly jumped out of hiding, some he faintly recognized as Zoharists from the day before.

A sigh stole his attention, and Tristan turned to the white haired vampire who was staring at his blood-soaked arm.

“How irritating, I just had this uniform fitted.”

“My lord!” the one still holding onto Mari said. “Are you alright?”

The arrogant one sent him a glare. “Well, you don’t see me burning, do you?”

Not a single wound or bead of blood even hinted at him having had his head penetrated with a bullet as he struggled to stand. “What-”

“Crowley, what in the hell happened?”

Two vampires in similar cloaks and uniforms had suddenly appeared before them, a man with cherry-red hair and a tan, dark-haired woman. Around them, the fire grew as vampires from all over the square reached into their own cloaks and pierced their own palms- releasing gushes of blood onto the raging flames.

They were putting them out.

“A Zoharist happened,” the white-haired vampire, Crowley, said.

“A Zoharist?” The girl questioned, not paying him any attention. “Has the target not been located?”

He looked at Mari, her honey eyes still full of fear. “She has.”

“You can’t take her!”

All eyes suddenly fell onto him. Around them, the smell of smoke filled the air.

A part of him knew he was being stupid, that he should just make a run for it while he still could, but he wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t leave Mari to the beasts.

“Who’s this?” the red-haired vampire asked.

“I was just about to find that out when the priest so rudely interrupted,” Crowley explained.

The girl, meanwhile, gave him an exasperated look. “You were distracted by a human?”

“I guess you could say- hey, what are you...”

In the blink of an eye, Tristan was being held high in the air by the girl, her olive fingers clasped tightly around his throat.

He thrashed about and tried to scratch at her irritated face but she was so, so strong.

“Half of my unit is gone because of this kid! Johannah, Arcus, Lottie…they’re all gone! When I’m through with him, he’ll-”

“Calm down, Vi,” the red-haired one said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You can’t hurt him, we barely have any of the humans left.”

Tristan tried to say something, anything, but he could barely breathe, let alone think.

“I don’t care! I’m going to kill him right here and now-”

“He’s my friend!”

Everyone turned to Mari, her eyes widened in horror.

Mari, why are you…

The red-haired male sighed. “Just put him with the rest of them, we have to extinguish the fire.”

The girl, Vi, simply stared at Tristan with hatred lacing her features.

“No.”

With a flick of a wrist, Tristan could barely make out the rest of the square as he was flung across it into a nearby building- a house, he faintly thought.

His back splattered against a wall and he fell to the floor, pain radiating throughout his entire body, just like when he’d been hurled by the first vampire- the one that began it all.

It only doubled as he tried to move. At least a few of his limbs had to be broken- far worse than when he’d been tossed by the first vampire he fought. .

Tristan opened his eyes and let out a groan as the ringing from earlier returned, drowning out the screams from outside.

If he squinted, he could ever so slightly see his sister through all the chaos.

I have to go, I have to save Mari…

As it began to dull, another sound faded into his consciousness- a growing creak.

Tristan looked above to where cracks were forming in the roof of the store, dust falling beside him.

And before he even had time to react, it shattered into a hundred pieces and swallowed him whole.