Julian’s POV

The usual glass vials overlooked me on their wooden shelves. Inside, liquids which set skin aflame waited to be exposed to fresh air and skin. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” My chains rattled. All I wanted to do was smash the table in two. “I don’t want to do experiments today,” I screamed out. “Master. I’m a failure. Please let me go!”

The door to the laboratory opened. In came Master. His monocle rested on his purple eye bag. His exposed eye glistened crimson red. The other shined pale brown. Sweat burned my eyes. Did everything in this room ascend from hell? I squirmed and jerked back and forth, desperate to at least wipe the sweat off my brow. I couldn’t, even though the cuffs were loose, the chains stretched tight prevented all movements. I closed my eyes, the chains cling-clanged, and the cuffs rattled against my wrist bones which shattered into tiny pieces. I wanted to scream, but my throat stung too much.

“Oh, stop squirming,” whispered Master.

“Please…” I managed to croak.

“Oh, there, there.” Master patted my head. “It’s for your own good. Not only am I going to grant you magic, I’ll also turn you into a beast.”

“How? That’s not…” I held my words. Thankfully, I hadn’t broken Master’s smile. “Will I be a powerful beast? One as powerful as you? How will you do that?”

Master chuckled. “How will I defy the rules of this world? How I’ll turn an immature animal into a beast?” He leaned in. “That’s my secret. A secret which cost me dearly.” He went away and came back with a silver mirror. “Now, you see this.”

I nodded. Please spare me, please let me live in the forest, I don’t need anything, I don’t want anything anymore. The others can have it all, just let me keep my life.

“Well, it’s called a mirror. It shows a reflection of yourself.” He pointed it towards me. My eyes were brown like shit, my skin was the colour of dried blood, my hair was gelled together into large clumps by grease. When he pointed the mirror towards himself, nothing appeared. “Do you want to guess what I am?”

“Master.” I replied.

“Wrong!” Master’s smile disappeared, he took a vial from the display and smashed it against my skull. “I’m a vampire. You will never. Never! Be my equal. You’ll be lucky to become a High-human.” His breaths were heavy and laboured. “You will be strong… but merely a strong tool to open tough locks.”

“Master, there’s activity at the edge of the forest,” said Gorgiev. His velvet eyes never showed emotions. Perhaps that’s why Master liked him so much.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The taste of iron tickled my tongue.

“Who is it?” asked Master.

“The knights.”

“The knights! What the hell do they want here?” Master’s voice grew distant and disappeared behind walls of deadly plants and macabre vials, but then the door creaked, and he returned. “Tighten his restraints and come with me.”

The metal which clattered against my wrists tightened and the chains stretched out my arms even further, tearing the skin below my shoulders. My bones cracked, my ligaments tore, and my mind squirmed. At least they had left. Still, even with those two gone, the room wasn’t quiet. Crickets chirped and frogs croaked. They were kept in a large aquarium next to the fly traps and poisonous vespas.

Blood poured down my skull. This must have been a new concoction. I flung my head side to side, hoping to get a few drops of the burning product off my skin. Something sizzled. I looked to my side. My metal chains had started to corrode. I continued to jerk my head side to side, sending more drops onto the metal. Finally, the chains which linked me to the table broke. I was free. I wiped my blood off my forehead and rubbed it onto other chains.

Under my shackles, pink flesh smoked. Bones were exposed to air. It burnt. It didn’t matter. I had to run. I spotted one red vile, vampire blood, Master’s blood. I reached up, my hands trembled. I couldn’t reach it. It was so close. With all my strength, I jumped and pulled it out of its stand. I pressed the cold glass to my lips and threw my head back. Some blood dripped down my chin, however, enough coated the inside lining of my throat for my skin and muscle regenerate. I didn’t like this warmth.

I dashed out of the house. Ebony trees rose high into the sky. Their leaves were bright green, birds croaked and crowed. I ran on the path Gorgiev and I took to hunt and harvest since I heard the distant shouts of knights coming from the other direction. But weren’t the knights here to save me? Could the knights beat Master? Could they kill him along with Gorgiev? No, they were too strong. They weren’t human, they were beasts. In the corner of my eyes, a black bird flew alongside me. Did it belong to Master? I screwed up. I screwed up. But it didn’t matter, I had to continue. The bird disappeared.

I tumbled into wet mud. A giant wolf…

#

Valravn’s POV

My eyes trembled. Tears flowed. In one eye Rose’s body shimmered black and in the other, the pain and suffering of a child tortured by a vampire raged. I looked around, the world jumped up and down, the trees swayed, and clouds drifted twice as fast. I looked down. It was the man with velvet eyes, Gorgiev. With each step his shoulder dug deeper into my chest. My heart quickened and my lungs froze. I couldn’t go to that house. I had seen its horrors through the eyes of another.

Gorgiev, whom I now knew by name, didn’t know I had woken up. He was running full speed ahead in the opposite direction of the house. Something must have happened to the crazy beast Julian called Master.

The man’s crossbow jumped up and down on Gorgiev’s back. Its bolts were stored in a quiver slung over his other shoulder. His strides covered grounds faster than wolves.

This was my chance to get revenge. I waited for his foot to land on a rock. A few bolts jumped out the quiver, I caught one, he didn’t notice so I repeated the action with his crossbow; he immediately stopped. I flew forward, dart and crossbow in hand, but he reached out and ripped the crossbow from my hands mid-air.

“Julian. What are you thinking?” He stared at me with that eerie smile all too similar to the vampire in that dream.

I was too weak. Me, a beast? What a joke; a worm had more strength.