The boys bolted upright with shrieks and pressed their backs against the large tree for protection. The thin burlap of their shirts provided no barrier to the rough bark that scraped their skins.
Across the clearing, a figure glided across the forest floor silently. Its gait was so smooth and precise that Negative 2 couldn’t tell if it was walking or floating a few inches above the rock and soil. It would have been able to sneak up on them easily if it had desired, for it made no noise that he was able to pick up with his ears. He couldn’t make out the body of the figure in the predawn gloom, but he didn’t need to for him to be able to identify it.
Fluorescent red eyes floated in the darkness, almost as if they weren’t attached to the body that he knew they must have belonged to. A vampire. They were dead. He let out a defeated sigh as all thoughts of fight or flight were immediately squashed. There was no point. They would die and nothing they did could change that fact. Humans just didn’t have the strength or speed to fight a master vampire, and no matter how much they struggled, the outcome was inevitable. He heard a cackle coming from the direction of the bright red eyes and shivered. The fine hair on his neck and arms stood up in some kind of instinctive human warning of danger.
“Tell me. What are two young livestock not quite at breeding age doing so far away from the caverns?” The vampire’s voice was soft and drawled lazily. It did not need to rush or raise its voice to get its point across.
“If escape was your aim, you should have taken more care to keep your blood in your bodies. Especially with such a rare vintage as AB Negative. The scent seduced and guided me from miles away.”
The vampire emerged from the cover of darkness and gave Negative 2 his first clear view of the monster. There were multiple master vampires in the caverns, and he didn’t know them all. They also fed in the darkness of the caverns, so he never identified who it was that fed upon him. Only the glowing red eyes sparked familiarity in him.
It didn’t look like the demon that it was. It wore the camouflage that its kind had used to hunt humans for thousands of years. Humans had no defenses against the seduction of the beautiful.
It was the most handsome human-like figure that Negative 2 had ever seen. It was wearing a ruffled white buttoned-up blouse that was rolled up to its elbows. The top two buttons were undone and gave a glimpse of the hairless marbled chest. A chest straining with barely contained sleek muscles that enraptured human men and women alike. Covering the blouse was a black frock coat that hung to the monster’s knees. Its black trousers reached down to its ankles, where they bloomed outward in a loose fit over its leather boots. The vampire silently prowled closer to them, somehow not disturbing any of the loose rocks or vegetation in its path. Tap. Tap. Tap. The vampire lightly tapped the ground with its cane and pushed up the narrow-rimmed top hat on its head to clear its view of the boys.
Negative 2 desperately glanced at 125 to see if the genius strategist had a plan to save their lives. 125 was frozen ramrod straight with such hopelessness and resignation upon his face that Negative 2 truly gave up. His friend, who had been plagued with dreams and wild fancies his whole life, couldn’t even imagine a scenario where they would escape.
“Full names!” the vampire demanded as it closed the distance to twenty feet. Negative 2 jumped as the vampire slammed its cane against a branch, cracking it in half with a loud snap.
“Now!”
125 took a deep breath and looked over at Negative 2, whispering out of the corner of his mouth, “It will kill our entire cell for helping us escape. Don’t tell it anything.”
125 smiled down at him and patted the top of his head in comfort. “Take solace Negative 2. Our last breath will be that of fresh air and as free men. We will die on our feet with the gentle embrace of the moonlight as our companion instead of a living death on our knees in the smother of darkness.
Negative 2 stood straight and stared the creature down with his shoulders thrown back. They had reached the furthest anyone in the caverns had gotten in centuries. One day, a young slave would hear about their legend, and it would inspire them to attempt their own escape. And one day, one of those kids would truly make it to freedom. He and 125 would become the stepping stones for the next generation that dared to dream of more. He could hold his head up high and die proud of what he had accomplished in his short life.
They remained silent in the face of a monster that could kill dozens of full-grown humans with little effort. Their silence mocked the creature who could not get two weak beings to cower at its strength. It slammed its cane against a boulder, chipping off a chunk of the hard stone. “I won’t ask you again, livestock. What are your full names? Who is your master?”
125 and Negative 2 stood strong against this force of nature until 125 began to chuckle. With each passing moment, the chuckle grew in intensity and volume, eventually morphing into a full-blown, howling laugh. The laughter echoed off the trees, making it sound like the forest was joining in on the humiliation of the vampire. The vampire and Negative 2 stared at 125 with unabashed shock and confusion.
He elbowed 125 in the ribs. “125, why are you laughing?”
But 125 continued his tear-dripping laughter in the face of death. He finally composed himself and wiped the corner of his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Look at this Negative 2. Did you ever think you’d see the day? A vampire on its knees, begging two humans for answers that are etched upon our necks. Be careful monster, or you will put holes in the knees of your trousers.”
Negative two caught on to the plan and started to laugh himself, pointing his finger at the vampire in abject mockery. “It must be a newly created fledgling to be so weak as to beg for answers from two human children. What say you, friend? Should we be merciful and allow the feeble creature to live?”
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The vampire narrowed its glowing red eyes and ground its cane into the boulder, drilling a hole into the solid rock. It released a snarl that revealed its razor-sharp canines that could easily bite through stone, let alone their necks. It began stalking closer to them, one slow step at a time.
“You dare besmudge a master?” it yelled out with ferocious fury, echoing throughout the forest. It stopped its slow pace, released the breath it didn’t need, and eased the tension from its body.
“No, I know what this is. You want me to kill you in a rage so that I won’t torture you or your coconspirators in your cell. Do not worry livestock. I will take you back to the caverns, and we will have an eternity for us to get acquainted with one another. No matter how pathetic and unimportant your short lives may be, we can’t have our food source running away from us, can we?”
Its lips spread in a condescending smile that only a being superior in every way would feel justified in using. Its claw-like fingernails clinked against the metal cane as the boys stood their ground with their chins lifted in futile defiance.
“Although, I only need one of you for the details of your escape, and I’m parched from my journey into the Wilds. If only we were able to stomach shifter and fae blood, I’d recommend the extinction of the human race. But, alas, nature is a fickle mistress that strives to keep the balance of the races for some arbitrary reason.” The vampire’s pupils reshaped into long vertical slits and its eyes glowed brighter until it was almost a blinding red. It was on the hunt now.
125 placed a gentle hand on Negative 2’s shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze of reassurance. “Run toward the roar of the bear and let it carry you to salvation.” He looked at Negative 2 with a toothy smile as the vampire pounced.
All Negative 2 could hear was a whoosh and all he could see was a blur as the vampire used its supernatural speed to pounce on the boys. 125 pulled him back by his shoulder and stepped in front of him. The vampire was on him in a split second and his body went rigid as the vampire sunk its fangs deep into his neck.
Negative 2 stumbled back in shock and stared wild-eyed at the fangs tearing into his friend’s neck. He could hear the suction sounds of the vampire, stealing the gurgling blood that gave his friend life. The vampire, intoxicated by the feed, paid no mind to the human children who wouldn’t be able to pierce its hardened skin with an iron or even silver sword. 125’s dark brown eyes found his green ones and gave him a feeble smile.
“Run!” 125 yelled at the same time he slammed his hands toward the vampire. One hand held the bone, and the other held the wooden stick. He jammed the weapons with as much force as he could muster into the eyes of the vampire. The once-living bone shard and makeshift stake penetrated the eyeballs with a squish.
The vampire disengaged its fangs from the boy’s neck with a yell of pure agony and rage. It tossed 125 in a blur of speed across the forest, where a loud thud sounded out. A cracking sound rang out as a tree began to splinter and finally fell loudly onto the forest floor.
Negative 2 ignored the inhuman shrieks of the vampire whose hands were covering its ruined eyes and rushed over to where 125 had landed. He followed the fallen tree and found the small bundle at the base of the trunk. He rushed over to render aid, but the boy’s spirit was already gone. His body lay in a broken heap, laying on his back. His eyes were still open, staring up at the stars and moon with a small delicate smile on his face, frozen in death. 125’s last sight was that of the night sky he had risked his life to see, and judging by his smile, the risk had been well worth it.
Negative 2 reached out to the vacant eyes that impressed upon him that the empty husk in front of him no longer held his friend’s essence and gently closed the eyelids. He turned his attention to the thrashing vampire, who was yelling in pain and chopping trees down with its metal cane. Its eyes would heal eventually, but it would take time.
“You think I can’t find you? You think you can escape me?” the vampire snarled as spit flew out of its mouth, making it look more monstrous than human. “I can follow your scent. I can hear your heart beating. This changes nothing.”
All fear fled Negative 2 and only numbness remained behind. He didn’t raise his voice because he didn’t have to for the monster to hear him.
He whispered, “You can chase me, but the sun is rising. Can you find your way back to the caverns blind as you are before the sun burns you alive? One wrong turn, and you won’t make it in time. I’d stop wasting time with a single insignificant livestock and save your life instead.”
He cracked a stick over his knee. “Besides, you may be able to locate me, but you’ve created a lot of deadly weapons that you won’t be able to see.”
The vampire stopped its thrashing and turned toward the horizon, which was getting lighter and lighter. It seemed to have an innate ability to detect the sun. It slowly turned its head straight toward Negative 2.
“I am Coven Master Augustus. Master of all humans, thralls, and vampires in this territory. Remember the name, boy. You are not free. Your escape has just been extended a little longer. I will find you no matter where you go or how many years it takes.”
The vampire wiped its bleeding eyes and hurled the bone pick toward Negative 2. The shard of bone blurred in the early morning light and the thrumming sound in the wind was the only cue for him to attempt a dodge. He leaned slightly to the side and the very edge of the tip removed a layer of skin across his cheek before continuing and piercing a large tree behind him. The bone shard was thrown with such force that it penetrated straight through the tree and eventually was stuck wobbling in another tree behind it.
The vampire smirked at him, with rivers of blood flowing down its face from its eyes. “How weak and vulnerable your race is. A blinded throw based on smell and sound is enough to kill ten of your kind. Although, I am impressed by your luck livestock. “
It started to back away toward the vampire territory as the sun was rising higher and higher now. “It pains me to think that you didn’t share some of that luck with your friend. But forget about the dead. You at least made it out alive, right?” The vampire turned to run. It was out of time.
Negative 2 allowed his own smirk to spread across his face. “My full name is Master Augustus 2320 AB Negative 2, and I am your property no longer monster.” He started his backpedal toward the sound of the river. Follow the bear’s roar and let it lead you to salvation. He would follow the last advice of his friend.
The vampire’s smirk froze as it realized that its own livestock had escaped and injured it. It tilted its head toward the horizon and took off in a blur of speed, in a race for its life against the rising sun.
Negative 2 took one last look at his liberator’s broken body, still facing the stars. He stopped briefly to pull the bone shard out of the tree trunk and tucked it into his trousers. He turned on his heel and sprinted toward the sound of the river, not looking back. The warmth of the rising sun baked his back as he ran, and he vowed to the sun, the forest, and the gods that he would live a life worthy of 125’s sacrifice.