Naraka - Ch.1

 I can hear the tearing, the roaring and the drinking. The last one is the worst. To actually hear them . . . sucking the blood from the bodies. The dead bodies. The bodies of people I knew. Not well, but still . . .
 I smell it. The suffocating and stomach turning aroma of warm blood. It overwhelms me. I can only just keep it together. I wish I could throw up so badly. But I have to be quiet. If I can just be quiet enough so they don't hear me move, if the smell of the blood is just prominent enough so they don't smell me – I can survive this.
 Maybe I can do it. But it's going to be a close one. As close as it's ever been.
 I stifle a gasp that's trying to escape at seeing the blood dripping through the cracks. I look up at the wood of the floorboards I'm hidden underneath, but it's too dark to see anything. Even if I move closer to one of the cracks and stare through it, I can hardly make out anything from the darkness.
 This is no more than logical of course: vampires don't need light. Their eyes can see just as well in the day as in the night – maybe even better.
 Suddenly it's silent. Except for the dripping of blood there's no sound at all anymore in the little cabin.
 Are they gone?
 I barely dare to breath: in this silence, they'll hear anything if they're still here. But I don't think they are.
 When would it be safe to check? I have no idea, so I decide to stay here the rest of night. I'll dare when it's day again.
 When I'm almost dozed off into a shallow sleep, I hear something. Footsteps. They're light, like someone's barely touching the ground with their feet. The person walks in my direction; I hear the footsteps slowly become slightly louder.
 I close my eyes in fright and clamp my teeth together in concentration. I try to make my breathing as quiet as possible. I also try to make my heart beat calmer, but quickly give up – it's a lost cause.
 The footsteps stop, just above me. Then the person moves a little back. What is the person doing? I realize it instantly: it is hearing the difference. Of course! The person's footsteps sound hallow, until it began walking over the little hideout underneath the floor. Over my hideout.
 I grab the gun I'm holding in my hands even tighter – a gun with silver bullets.
 The person kneels down, right where the handle of the door covering my hideout is. I open my eyes when I hear the person grabbing the mettle handle.
 'You'll wish you'd never found me!' I vow to myself.
 I move the gun. I point it in the direction of the rising door over my hideout.
 This time I'll be quick enough! I vow. This time I'll kill it! For I'm sure it's a vampire. No one else would've survived the journey to this cabin in the dead of night. The night that was now owned by monsters only.
 The wooden door squeaks in protest as the person opens it.
 This is it!
 I stand up and hold the gun right where I want it. In the same second I pull the trigger, I register the person has long, wavy hair; must be a woman.  
 I hit her, right in the heart.
 Yes! My eyes widen in unbelievable triumph.
 She gasps and moves backwards, like she's falling. But then she doesn't. She bows forward and wraps her arms around herself. She groans, clearly from pain. Like this she falls to her kneels.
 And I – I just stand there, frozen.
 She breathes heavily a few times, as if trying to get her strength back. It looks like she's – somehow – trying to regain control over her body.
 And then, to my absolute astounding disbelieve, she laughs. It's not a given-up kind of laugh, but more like a . . . giggle. Like she genuinely thinks this is funny.
 Slowly she raises her head. She looks me in the eye and smiles broadly. I raise the gun and point it at her heart again. ''Don't move!'' I shout at her, once I've found my voice.
 With more grace than before – is she actually healing? Getting better? – she holds up her arms, showing me she means no harm and is entirely at my mercy.
 Mercy is something I cannot effort, a voice in my head sounds. My finger itches to pull the trigger again, but in the moment of time it takes me to actually do it, the woman starts speaking.
 ''You're tougher than I'd thought,'' she states, her tone surprised. She smiles again. Almost like she's trying to soothe me.
 Is she crazy? I'm starting to think she must be.
 I suck in a quick breath before I pull the trigger again. I was hoping to catch her by surprise, but she's faster than me. I don't hit her. And before I know it she's in front of me. In one swift movement she takes hold of my gun, throws it to the floor and grabs my neck with her other hand.
 Her movements are so fast, I can hardly see them. Her entire image becomes a blur in my vision until she stands completely still, holding my neck. She grabs it just tight enough for my airways to become irritated, but not tight enough to cut them completely off. Very slowly, she raises me like that, by my neck. I'm not completely off the ground when she pauses, I can still reach it with the tips of my toes.
 My breathing starts to move in strange patterns. I can't inhale normally any more – not with getting enough oxygen in my lungs – so I suck at the air around me, frantically trying to keep myself alive.
 As I'm struggling I register her long reddish brown hair that falls down her shoulders in waves. I also see she has dark blue eyes. The skin of her fingers feel strange against my throat; kind of like very strong rubber. But then rubber that does not bent – at least not to my skin.
 Finally, when my body's turning numb, she let's me go. I fall to the ground, gasping for air. My lungs can't handle the quick changes from almost no air, to too much. So I start coughing, really hard and really loud.
 When she held my neck I felt almost like suffocating, but now the real thing is happening.
 I hear the woman walking away. She's back in two seconds, holding something in her hands. She drops to her knees. In the corner of my eye I see she's holding a glass of water. I can also see she's smiling, her face kind.
 I move away from her, frightened and disturbed by her behavior. I crawl deep into a corner of the hideout. I'm still gasping for air, but the coughing has stopped.
 ''I'm sorry,'' says the woman. ''I didn't mean to that.''
 Is she actually apologizing? To me?!
 I didn't know before that there existed mentally ill vampires before, but now I'm sure she's one of them.
 I swallow. Ah! My throat hurts so much! It's like I've been swallowing big gulps of salt and sand. I look longingly at the glass of water. I want it so badly. But I don't take it. I'd rather die than ever take any sort of kindness from a vampire – something I hadn't known they were capable of. Must be part of the crazy.
 She takes my hand, so fast again that I barely have the time to realize she's moving, let alone touching me. Just before I pull my arm away, she presses the glass in my hand. So when I move my hand back to my stomach, the glass is still in it.
 Well, I might as well drink from it now. So I down it in what seems to me to be no time at all.
 ''Do you want more?'' the woman asks, her face looking ridiculously compassionate.
 What's wrong with her? This goes beyond crazy!
 I transform from disturbed to suspicious in an instant: she wants something from me – I'm sure of it.
 ''I'm fine,'' I snap back at her.
 She smiles again. I stare at her and think of how much she resembles those over happy housewives from commercials in the nineteen-fifties. Not that I've ever seen a commercial; I've never had a TV, or seen one in real life. But I've seen pictures in history books.
 When it comes to me, every single aspect of life has completely changed in hundred years. But when it comes to this woman before me – this vampire – apparently not so much.
 It's the fifties again. Of the twenty-first century now. But this time there are no happy house wives any more. At least, not where I grew up. But maybe . . . in the cities . . .
 ''My name is Alexis,'' says the woman to me.
 I guess vampires need names, too . . .
 ''What's yours?''
 What? My name?
 I gulp. ''Uhm . . . Marianna.''
 The woman – Alexis – holds out a hand for me to shake. No chance in hell! ''It's nice to meet you,'' she says.
 I don't say anything in return.
 ''You're probably wondering why I'm here?''
 I shake my head.
 It's, technically, not even a lie; I'm not just wondering, I'm in desperate need to know why she's here. And who she is. And what she wants with me. Or from me.
 ''I'm here to recruit you.''
 I can safely say that was the very last thing I was expecting she would say.
 She begins explaining. ''Two days riding from here is a safe house for humans. I'll bring you there myself, and there others will tell you why exactly you've been recruited.''
 I narrow my eyes at her. Is she really expecting it to be that easy? That with a crazy story like this I'll just get up and come with her?
 I guess the answer to that is yes, because Alexis stands up and holds her hand out to me again.
 For a moment I stare at her with incredulous eyes. Then I stand up as well – slightly less graceful – and walk away from her, muttering under my breath. "I'm not going anywhere with you, you stupid leech.''
 Shamefully, I have to admit to myself I only dare to insult her now; now I've turned my back at her. She's too beautiful to insult when you're looking at her. Too kind to actively try and crush her spirit.
 ''Marianna!'' she calls after me.
 I halt and answer her out of surprise for calling after me. ''Yes?'' I don't turn around as I ask.
 ''You can avenge them,'' she says and approaches me slowly while she speaks.
 I turn around now. I look her in the eye; they are careful. ''Avenge who?''
 She takes a few steps closer, only halting when I flinch at her proximity. She stands a little over a yard away from me.
 ''Your family,'' she says. I flinch again, now from pain. ''They were all killed by vampires, weren't they?''
 I nod slowly and keep my eyes as cold and unreadable as I can. Though, in fact, I feel them burning at the edges.
 ''If you let me I can help you.'' No chance in hell! ''I can help you fight them.''
 This, finally, pulls my attention entirely, my curiosity getting the better of me. ''How?'' I ask, my voice thick with distrust.
 ''By telling you everything there is to know about vampires. And by gathering an army of humans who'll be experts on every weakness a vampire has. And by binding our strengths in making weapons that are the most lethal to vampires.''
 Well . . . at least that's clear.
 It doesn't explain one thing though. The thing I find most hard to believe. ''And why are you so eager to betray your own kind?''
 First she looks surprised; her eyes widening and her brow furrowing. But only a second later she's roaring with laughter.
 I'm completely lost now. I really don't get it, and guess there must be nothing to get; she's crazy. A mentally ill vampire indeed.
 ''You – '' she starts to say, but another roar of laughter interrupts her own words.
 Well at least someone thinks this is funny, I think at first. But after a long minute of this, I can't keep my irritation in any longer. I turn sharply on my heel, ready to leave.
 ''Wait!'' calls Alexis after me.
 But I don't. I keep heading for the backdoor, reaching for my backpack as I go.
 ''Wait, Marianna! I'm sorry!'' Again with the apologizing. But I'm intrigued, like before, and hold my pace. ''It's just so funny, that any one would think I am a vampire.''
 I turn around to face her, my eyebrow raised skeptically. ''You're not,'' I counter when she doesn't say anything, my voice coated with disbelieve.
 She let's out another giggle, a quick one. ''Definitely not,'' she answers my non-question.
 I feel uncomfortable in my lack of knowledge. And because of that my voice comes out a lot more irritated than before. ''Then what are you?'' I demand.
 At the same time I'm asking myself a question: Why am I still taking her seriously? For heaven's sake, she's crazy as hell!
 I respond to my own question with two facts. The first one is about how well I know I'm just bluffing by heading for the door: I would never leave a house in the dead of night – especially not this cabin in the middle of nowhere. If I'd do that I might as well open up a vein before I go on my way, for the vampires will find and slaughter me either way.
 The second fact is that Alexis hasn't killed me. She could have, easily – I'll never doubt her capability in that department after I've felt her hands around my neck. But even after I shot at her two times she made no move to end me, she only made sure I wouldn't shoot her again.
 So, I decide, even if she is crazy, she'll be a very valuable ally. And why wouldn't I at least give her the chance to let her prove she wants to be my ally.
 ''I'm an Immortal,'' she answers my spoken question.
 "Is there a difference?" I ask incredulous.
 She looks at me like I've offended her. "There most definitely is!"
 "And that is?" I'm getting impatient, and she can see it.
 "I don't drink blood; I'm not bound to night; and I don't kill people," she states. But then she backtracks, "Well, at least not humans," she corrects herself with a wicked grin.
 I can't help myself and gulp; she's really frightening actually, looking so wickedly. I stand frozen, not saying anything. Adrenaline isn't in main control of my body any more, so now I can feel the fear underneath surfacing. Fear that's very appropriate for my situation, but not at all useful.
 "You don't have to fear me," Alexis says – can she read minds or what? "In fact," she states as she raises a hand in my direction, "you can trust me."
 Is she joking? . . . Probably not.
 "Prove it," I say, humoring her. I don't even think I'd give her the slightest amount of trust if she had the best prove in the world.
 She takes a moment to mull this over. When she thinks she's found something – which is pretty quick, I find – she raises her eyes back to mine, full with pride. "You don't have to trust me right away, I'll prove you can when we arrive at the safe house. But at least, for now, give me the chance to help you get out of here. You're definitely smart enough to realize there's a big chance you won't live through the night here, on your own. Let me help you survive it, and get out of here at the same time."
 She has a point - I'll at least have to admit that. I don't stand a chance here alone. And I also have to admit that getting the hell out of here sounds pretty appealing, too. It will be hard to pass at the invite. So don't, a voice in my head sounds. No, please do, another one sounds. I'm torn.
 Alexis is still holding her hand in the air, "Just take it," she encourages me. "You know it's your best option."
 And I guess there she has me: running from a cabin in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night with a crazy vampire who claims to not be that, is my best option.
 I take her hand.