Prologue

The re-written introduction to my first book. Cory explains the events of one particular night three years from now, when two strange men break into his house intending to steal the Ruby Dagger.

THUD! An enormous bang from downstairs woke me from what seemed to be an eternal sleep. The clattering of falling plates and silverware echoed through the house like a symphony of crockery ricocheting off every wall and reverberating through the floorboards. Two men shouting at each other in a low drone describing what they found with every smashing plate promised their expectations of the house being empty and abandoned. Little did they know that a thin layer of wooden floorboards separated them from certain death along with the item in which they are ransacking the house for.

My house wasn’t anything special, certainly not special enough to attract your average thieves; it had been empty for three years and was falling apart at the seams. The roof had falling in at one side, most of the windows were smashed; dust populated every surface, every wall, every square inch of floor; not to mention the infestation of termites that had eaten their way through most of the wooden beams holding the upstairs up. The only parts of the house that lay intact are the kitchen and my sister’s old bedroom directly above, and with only parts of the staircase being safe; it was an amazing feat that I got up here.

 

The noise continued downstairs as I managed to slowly move myself out of my make-shift bed, comprising of my long white coat and a couple of old pillows, and made my way over to the dressing table, like everything else in the house dust lay like fresh snow over the unpolished wood, hairbrushes and other objects, except one drawer. I opened the drawer slowly knowing that it creaks and was instantly blinded by a sharp red light of the late summer sun reflecting off a pristinely cut blood red ruby attached to a flawlessly polished small blade made purely from silver. The noise from downstairs suddenly stopped and silence fell as I pulled the perfect ruby dagger from its dark hideaway and brought it into the open. The men were aware of its presence moved slowly with a poor attempt of a tip-toe. As the footsteps drew nearer and nearer to the staircase I shoved the dagger into a holster on my leg, flung my jacket over my shoulders and braced myself to meet the two men.

 

Both men, dressed from head to toe in long black, moth-eaten cloaks, were made to last. Their broad shoulders, bald heads and thug-like appearances could’ve placed them on the door of a fancy nightclub. Their only striking feature was the predominant cheekbones, eyebrows and protruding nasal bridge which all looked like something had been implanted under their skin.

The bigger of the two men slowly made his way up the half destroyed staircase avoiding the missing steps and holes, following the footsteps I had made previously in the dust. He drew ever nearer to the room in which I was waiting. Two of my own silver daggers; one in each hand, were poised and thirsty for blood, as was I. I stood behind the door watching as the light from underneath disappeared, replaced by the shadow of heavy artillery boots. He carefully opened the rotting wooden door, cringing at the ear-piercing scream the hinges made as he did. After making a quick inspection from the door he quickly noticed the lack of dust on one particular drawer. He stepped forward and within a few seconds my heart was racing as a red mist descended upon my eyes, pain swiftly took over my entire mouth as my incisors grew dominant of my other teeth. The man turned on the spot as I leapt from behind the door and flew towards his neck with both blades headed in his direction. I impaled his neck as he fell to the floor with a thud. By now both of the daggers where touching tip-to-tip in his neck. He flung me back into the mirror on the dresser and fell to the floor twitching with me watching overhead. His already deformed face was twisting in pain, his blood was spilling from both blade edges stuck in his neck, through the floorboards into the kitchen.

The second of the men heard the commotion and stared deeply for a second at the deep red blood that was dripping onto a newly smashed dinner plate. He darted up the stairs barely missing the hole in the eighth step. He shot into the room but stopped suddenly and horrifically witnessed me piercing the slowly dying man in the heart with a shard of mirror, twisting it as it cut deeper and deeper through his body. The look of terror in the reflection of the other man in the newly formed weapon shone up into my eye as I quickly shot a disconcerting stare into his eyes. He pulled out a clear glass knife and ran towards me, hoping that I would stay still long enough for him to impale me.

The adrenaline rushed around my body faster than before as I leapt up into the air kicking his head on my descent. Again he tried to run towards me brandishing his beautiful but deadly weapon, I hastily pulled out the ruby dagger, dazzling the strange man with its eerie red glow. He stopped mid-run and shielded his eyes as I grappled with his stabbing arm, spun around and forcefully pushed the blade through his skin to his heart. Screeching in pain he stumbled back giving me time to observe both men disappear into a cloud of burning embers and falling to the ground weightlessly in a million pieces.

I stood there in the grey room under a glow of orange from the setting sun. Blood pooled around my feet and dripped effortlessly off of my long white coat. I held the ruby dagger up to the light catching a glimpse of myself in its reflection, my fangs had gone, and my eyes were back to normal. I calmly put away the ruby dagger and my own before heading out of the door, retrieving my bag from the eighth step, battling through the debris in the kitchen and headed across the golden corn fields back to where I belong.