Confidance

a chapter written by kent.

Darius

The whip lashes on my back again, sending hot pain through my entire

body. “Let this be an example to you all.” Rashomen says to the group of

gathered vampires. “Those who betray me must be punished, even their

spawn. Treachery, sometimes is hereditary, it must be cleansed through

pain.” He strikes the whip down hard on my back for the fiftieth time. It’s

worth it , I think, because I’ll make him pay for it. “Now that that’s taken

care of,” he says in a tone that a parent would use when disciplining a

child, “GET BACK TO WORK!”  Two black cloaked demons undo the binding

on my wrists and drag me towards the stairs of the gallows. When they

reach the door they open it and throw me into the crowd of fellow

vampires below. I expect to meet the cold, hard ground but two arms

catch me and lower me gently to the ground. “It’s okay little one,” a soft

Russian voice says calmly, “It’s all done now, you are safe.” I look up to see

Vicktor leaning over me with gentle concern. He offers me his  hand and I

struggle to get to my feet. My back lights up with nearly unbearable pain

and I’m nearly sent back to my knees, only to have Vicktor catch me again.

“Easy Malo Dracula, you are still healing”. “I don’t need to be treated like

an infant Vicktor!” I snap. “It’s not an accusation of being infantile. I am

merely helping a strong, young, vampire after such suffering. Is that such a

bad thing Malo Dracula?” I am silent, which was good enough to an

agreement as he would get, and with that he gently helps me back to my

cell.

 

  I open my eyes and my hands instinctively travel to my back. Sure

enough, the scars are still there. The constant reminder that almost all of

us bear of what we suffered. The endless torment we endured at the

hands of Rashomen, the pain we escaped. I begin to stretch when I notice

another person in the room with me. “Good morning Vicktor, ” I mumble.

He rises from his seat, his ageing, blonde hair a mess as he draws his sword

to clean it before the first shift. From the looks of him he hasn’t slept a

wink. Ever the paternal one. “How are you Darius?” he asks. “I’d be better

if all my vampires were rested,” I say, indicating him. He only chuckles. “I’ll

sleep when I’m dead,” he replies. “A little late for that,” I reply jokingly.

“We’ve been here for two days Malo Dracula, and all that has happened is

pesky human drama, we are safe,” he assures me. “One can never be too

sure Vicktor,” I reply then turn to face him directly so he could see my

scarred face. “I should know that better than anyone. Now, you are

dismissed from first watch. Get some rest, that is an order.” “You are very

stubborn Malo Dracula, I am confident in your leading skills.” With that, he

walks out of the small side room and into the main one. I watch him go

across the floor quietly, as not to wake some of the still sleeping vampires.

Suddenly a small vampire child tugs on the leg of my pants. He is trembling

and his tiny fangs are exposed. “Hey little guy,” I say grabbing a small

nearby blanket and draping it around him. “What’s wrong?” “I’m

h-hungry,” comes his shy, frail reply. “Mamma fell asleep before she could

feed me.” An anger rises within me but I keep it contained. What kind of

parent goes without feeding their child? Then I remember that this was

the son of a turned vampire woman, whose lover had died in the escape.

Turned vampires were much weaker than the rest of us. They don’t have

the stamina of purebloods. “C’mon,” I say, extending my hand as he  takes

it, his little hand barely reaching the full length across mine. “Let’s go get

you fed.” Minutes later, I’m running a patrol after feeding the little

vampire. It does my heart good to do things like that. It reminds me that all

of them need me and that I’m capable of taking care of them even if I am

younger than some and that despite my face, I’m not a complete monster.

Once I have looked over almost all of the area I slow my steps when I

realize that I’m near the shop where Sonya lives and works. My heart

tightens and my stomach flips, but weirdly in a good way. Why was I

feeling like this. I had only spoken to her a few times and she still had the

potential of being a threat to us. Why do I feel so pulled towards her?

What was causing me to always think of her? Before I can ponder anymore

on the subject, I hear a raised voice coming from inside. I don’t recognize it

so it screams threat. I quickly check the gun inside the holster in my jacket

to make sure it’s loaded, return it, and enter the shop through the back

door. When I enter the main, room, it falls dead silent and all eyes are on

me. Now there were TWO colorful abominations here. I fix the new one

with a similar look that I had given the other, then turn to Sonya. “Is there

a problem here ladies?” I ask, my eyes fixed on Sonya. The other two

quiver internally, but not Sonya, for some reason, her confidence grows. 

It’s as if something is awakened as I entered. I find myself smiling inwardly.

She wasn’t the only one going through an awakening. “Not at all,” Sonya

says confidently. She turns to the blonde creature that smelled human

despite an overdose of perfume.  “Brittany, if you are not going to buy

anything then I’ll have to ask you to leave. You are disturbing the peace

here. She picks up a bubble gum back and slams it on the counter in front

of Sonya. Sonya rings it up and reaches to grab a bag. The girl then notices

my eyes on Sonya. As she hands Sonya the change for the gum, she fixes

her with a confidant glare. “Well, seems like you’ve got a pet of your own

Sonya.” Sonya rolls her eyes and hands the girl the bag. “He’s just a

customer Brittany.” “Don’t most customers use the front entrance?” the

girl replies. She’s got a point, I think to myself. “He is here to pick up an

order. I told him to go to the back and pick it up,” Sonya lies for me,  “now

if you are done trying to intrude, I’ve got work to do.” “I’m sure you do,”

the girl named Brittany smirks, “but this isn’t over Sonya.” After that she

parades out of the shop and I couldn’t help but hope she’d get run over by

a car, but even in the middle of the town, this place was not that busy. It

was somewhere in Virginia, from what I figured out so far. I’m pulled from

my thoughts when I hear Sonya address the other one, Meredith. “Watch

the Shop for a minute, I’ll be back.” She starts heading out the back door

and I follow her. I can’t help but note the way she moves. Her beautiful,

graceful, and purposeful stride is mesmerizing. I shake myself out of it

remembering what I am and what I look like. She suddenly reels around on

me as we exit the shop. “What the hell are you doing?” she asks, her voice

brimming somewhere between outrage and concern. “I heard trouble

starting in the shop.” I say honestly, “Figured you might need help.” Sonya

chuckles slightly, “with Brittany? Please, I could squash her with her own

heels.”  “Then why did your confidence drastically increase when I entered

the shop?” I retort. “Yeah right,” she says, brushing it off. “You just want

praise for scaring some preps, one who happens to be my sister.” I

chuckle. “I can’t believe that, thing is your sister.” “Another inhabitant of

the lipstick jungle,” Sonya says jokingly. For the first time in a long time, a

full hearted laugh escapes my lungs. “That’s a good one,” I say. “Yeah, well

I guess it comes with being an artist,’ she replies, a little coyly. “What

made you want to intervene anyways? You could get yourself into

trouble.” “You worried?” I smirk, realizing it was true. “No, but you should

be,” she says with a confidant smile. She was in the middle of her own

drama and the most she worried about was me? “Threats don’t scare me,”

I tell her. It was true, I wasn’t even scared when Rashomen and Garrow

were tearing my face off. She look directly at me and a million things run

through my mind. She seemed to completely avoid starring at my scars,

but right into my eyes. “I have to get back,” she says, “we’ll finish this

conversation later.”  “Looking forward to it.” I call behind her. I found

myself watching her leave, realizing it was true. Every step she took away

from me drove my thoughts crazy and my low confidence was like a

demon whip to my heart. I start heading back to the old barn behind the

shop when I hear something rustling in the woods behind it. In seconds,

my gun is in my hands. I aim for the woods, finger on the trigger as I get

closer. At first, I see nothing out of the ordinary, but then I see several

shadows moving all on their own! They had found us.

Author's Note

A chapter written by kent. It took a while for me to type it up because its been a busy year but here it is, enjoy.

Reviews

[writ rajat]

sorry i read only this next time i read it completely but infact this is very grate
The whip lashes on my back again, sending hot pain through my entire

body. “Let this be an example to you all.” Rashomen says to the group of

gathered vampires. “Those who betray me must be punished, even their

spawn. Treachery, sometimes is hereditary, it must be cleansed through

pain.” He strikes the whip down hard on my back for the fiftieth time