The fire crackled as it sent tiny sparks to linger in the air like fireflies in a summer evening. Its bright light was big enough to show the man splayed on the ground, not even moving. Blood dripped from his head and into the dark soil of the earth beneath him, the rest of the people who had joined him a while ago surrounded him and tried to give him aid. I stood in front of them completely frozen. Ezekiel threw the rock towards the man and I don’t even know if he is still alive. I hope he is not dead. I brought my hands to cover my mouth as I started to cry for everyone, for everything, for the mess that we are in, and for every pain that there is. I wanted to disappear.
The servant held my hand tightly.
“Go,” Matthias unshackled the hands of Ezekiel, “Go kill him…that’s what you want right?” he yelled as he grabbed the collar of Ezekiel’s shirt and pushed him towards the man on the ground, “Finish him.”
Ezekiel walked towards the man with his head down and
The moon cast its light upon us which was dispersed into small rays of moonlight because of the thick foliage of the Dark Woods. The howls of wolves echoed like distant cries of our own who longed for someone out there, someone to come and rescue us. The old lady sat down the soil in front of the children as we all helped ourselves with the meat that was given to us. It made me wonder if the intentions of these foul creatures. The way they would treat us harshly and almost break and bend us to our ends but still have the decency to feed us. Everyone was silent and were focused on their meals except for Ezekiel. He seemed to be still distraught from the harm he had inflicted on the man a while ago. “You need to eat,” the man beside me barely said, as if it was a whisper that lulled in the air between us, “you need strength,” he added towards Ezekiel. “You can talk?” the young girl asked and was immediately shushed by the old woman. “Evangeline,” the woman blur
I opened my eyes to a dark and starless night sky, even the moon did not dare to show up as she pulled the blanket of clouds over her. My head seared in pain due to the concussion after being thrown down the hill. I looked to the side and I saw the parts of the carriage, pulled apart and laid haphazardly all over the rocky ground. Despite the pain and the inability to feel my feet, I stood up and stumbled my way towards the rubbles of the carriage. I limped to the remnants of it and began to search for my mother but she was not there, I began to panic. The fog started to thicken and it had made the twisted trees transform to looked like ghastly beings. The horses were gone and what’s left was the dead body of the man behind the reins, it laid coldly on his pool of blood. I backed away from it and I felt my stomach churned as I smelled the metallic scent of blood. Everything inside me rose and I fell to the ground on my knees as I vomited. I heaved out all that was in
I woke up drenched in sweat with the servant beside me. I breathed air as if I was suffocated. It was those dreams again, the same kind that I have dreamt of the last time. It was always about something that chased me and my mother. But in those dreams I was younger, it was almost like I was a child. Those dreams felt so real that it felt like I have been through them and those dreams made me relived them. “Are you okay, your Highness?” the servant asked me as she brushed the stray locks of hair that were glued to my skin because of the sweat. I nodded to her as I tried to catch my breath. She held my hand tight and tried to calm me down. It was morning already and I saw the slivers of the sky as it cut through the leaves of the trees. Others were awake but most of the captives were still on the ground, they were asleep including the old woman and the children. Ezekiel was nowhere to be found. I scanned through the people in the clearing but he wasn’t there. The vamp
The water hugged my body and it lulled the bruises and wounds that I have endured yesterday from being beaten up by Matthias. The coldness of the river felt like medication, it was far from the baths that I have taken in the castle but it was enough. The servant and I went to the far side of the river under the shade of a tree; its branches hanged below, the leaves nearly touched the water. It had created a decent cover for us to hide our bodies. Ezekiel went a bit far from us, he took his own time and bathed alone— it was more of a way to give us some private space, after all, we were naked. We washed our bodies and I saw how the filth was carried by the calm river currents. It was my first time to expose myself to people I didn’t know. William already saw me naked but it was different with him, I trusted him. It was my first time to take a bath with my servant and it made me realized how far my current life was from the one that I once lived. I watched the two children as
We walked back to the campsite after we have dried and went back to our clothes. Sophie was beside me as we trudged down the trail back to the clearing. All that I thought of were the cruelties that Sebastien faced under the hands of that defiler and the pain that Ezekiel must have endured as he knew what happened to Sebastien every night. I am so caught up with my thoughts and the personal problems that these people experienced. I cared for them. It may be a short period to even make it plausible for me to have such regard towards them, but I do. The same way that these people never treated me harshly and aided me when I needed help. At times like these, the power came from the strength in numbers. As long as we have each other and looked after one another, there will be the strength to push us forward.“What are you thinking?” Sophie asked me as we lined up outside the prison wagon. She noticed how I was swimming deep in my thoughts.“Nothing.&rdquo
There was only silence.The one that is not only deafening. You could feel it eating you away and everything seems to slow down. Before you know it you are already rummaging through a box of words, trying to connect words to sentences that would be able to alleviate the situation. But every time you try it just doesn’t work. Nothing seems to be a good way to address the situation and you are at loss for words. You are just there, staring at the trees that moved past the prison wagon as you allow the silence to eat you up, flesh to the bone.I guess I know that whatever it is that I say it would only be pointless. There is no point in trying to console a soul that is grieving, sometimes you have to let them grieve. The more you struggle to get out of it, the more it pulls you deeper. Sometimes the way out of grief is grief itself. It is something that I wished I have learned when my mother died. You could not skip grieving and mourning. You have to go through it a
The woods grew darker and darker as the sun settled down the skyline. The torches were lit up and it gave off an incandescent glow that ignited the woods in ghastly silhouettes. The prison wagon treaded forward as it became colder the closer we are to the heart of the Dark Forest. You could hear the howls of wolves and the screeches of bats in the dreary atmosphere. Sophie woke up and quickly hugged her knees to herself and scooted beside me. Ezekiel is still fast asleep with his body pressed against the cold iron bars and his face turned away from me.He had opened up to me a while ago and I could have wanted him to say more about my mother but I know there is not much to tell. It was his mother that knew the Queen best, he was just a mere observer of the business that these two women in our lives had shared. As far as I wanted to solve the things that are happening, to unravel the connections between our kingdom with the vampires, it seemed like a shout to the void without
The old lady was on the ground with a blood-soaked head. It was as if she was watering the ground with her blood and yearning for flowers to bloom out of her pain. Rufus and Cordelia stood beside her with the boots of the female vampire pressed down her back. She was cursing the old lady while she continued to stomp on her, each force sending the old lady to cripple in pain. Celeste rushed forward as she tried to push Cordelia far from her grandmother. The vampire stumbled backward as Desmond ushered down to comfort her grandmother that cried in pain. Rufus lifted Celeste by the throat as he waved her in the air. The child clawed at his hand while screams were unable to escape her throat. “Let her go,” I yelled at Rufus but he just gave off an amused smirk and tightened his grip. Ezekiel and Sophie stood beside me as we were all nothing compared to these vampires. “I said let her go,” I screamed at him to which Ezekiel only grabbed my arm as if trying to warn
It was a sudden turn of events. Something that we may have thought but never really expected to happen. It was something that we have doubted could happen but we never expected that she would do it. She betrayed us. Sophie made us believe that she was with us and we could trust her again but she decided in the end that she will be the one to hinder us from our escape. I couldn’t even feel my legs when we decided to stop for a bit. My thighs shook from running so fast and far too long. Petra was heaving so hard as well as Ezekiel, they ran to keep up with us whilst carrying the children. I pressed my back against the trunk of the tree as I tried to catch my breath. I am mad and hurt by the betrayal and the way Sophie jeopardized our silent escape. The least that she could do if she treated us as friends were to let us leave but she didn’t. She sabotaged it and now the small time that we have was getting smaller and smaller as the blood drinkers were coming after us as fast as
I wasn’t able to fall asleep after Petra read my palms. Her words echoed inside my head for hours, they were relentless and pervasive. They were drilled inside my head and no matter how much I tried to silence them they just become louder and louder. The light of the sun started to fade and the sky puked its bright oranges and yellows all over the horizon. Nighttime is coming, our escape is at hand’s reach. Petra and her children were fast asleep, huddled together beside Sebastien. I felt bad for Celeste, she was apologetic and got scared at how I got mad at what happened. She kept glancing at me during the first few minutes after the palm reading and I could see the shame in her eyes. She would immediately look away every time our eyes meet until she fell asleep beside her grandmother. Ezekiel was still silent as well as Sebastien. There seemed to be an awkward atmosphere and an air of tension that sat in the middle of our group. Everyone seemed too fragile th
Ezekiel had stopped crying. He was just silent beside me as the water covered us from the chest down. The children were busy playing near us as they splashed water against each other. Their innocence made them see the fun in such cruel conditions. Petra would gently scold them whenever they would make too much noise, wary of how the blood drinkers might react. I couldn’t see any trace of Sebastien, he might have waded far from us. Sophie was in a group of women far from us but I could still see the way they talked to each other. She might have told them about our plans to escape tonight, I wish she wouldn’t. I hope she would understand us before it’s too late and change her mind. I still don’t want to leave her behind. I have thought about talking to Sebastien in trying to wait for one or two days before leaving. Make some time to try to persuade and convince Sophie to join our escape. But with what happened a while ago, with the plans of Rufus towards Ezekiel that loomed li
I woke up drenched in my sweat. It was as if I took a bath on a river, my clothes were soaked. My heart thumped against my chest, it felt like it wanted to break free from the cages of my ribs. I felt the dryness of my throat as I heaved for air, tried to calm myself down from the dream I just had. I slumped my back against the tree stump near me and caressed my chest as it painfully ached for my mother and the thought of drowning. The sun still wasn’t up and I could see the sliver of the dawning sky through the branches of the trees that crisscrossed above us. The wood fire became nothing but blocks of charcoal and cinder, it was a bit cold without its warmth. A lot of the captives were still fast asleep on the ground. Some of them were huddled together to stay warm and some preferred to sleep alone just like Sophie who laid alone near one of the trees. My eyes scanned the surroundings as my breathing finally went back to its normal state. My throat yearned
The sky was grey and cloudless and I could see how the branches of the dead trees reached out to the heavens as if they were trying to touch it, begged for a drop of life. I could hear the gentle sound of water as it gushed down and the distant calls of the birds in the far distance. With every step that I took, the woods grew thicker and thicker and the trail that I have been following seemed to get lost on the large roots of trees that entangled themselves together. “Victoria,” a voice whispered right behind me. I looked back, startled. There was no one. I looked around hoping to catch a sight of anyone, anything. But there’s nothing, only the barren trees that thirsted for life. I walked faster, forward towards an unknown direction. It was as if I was here before but I couldn’t remember. Only my feet to lead the way towards somewhere I hope I know. I dragged on my long dress that constantly gets stuck on the roots of the trees and the prickly bushes that had adorn
The night stretched longer as things became heavier around us. It was filled with tension from the consecutive conflicts that rose around us. The air felt constricted as if everything was started to fall apart. The bonds we had started to severe and were barely holding together. Sophie left us and joined the rest of the captives that were huddled together. She had made her decision, the same way that we had made ours. “I hope she tells no one about our plan,” Sebastien said as she stared at Sophie from our place. “I think she won’t…I trust her.” I looked at her tiny body slumped against the tall tree. She had her back turned away from us. I wonder if she was crying, maybe she is. But maybe not because of us leaving but because of our selfish decision. “Do you think that is still important right now?” He turned to me with a concerned look, “whether you trust her or not?” I stayed quiet because I know it doesn’t change a thing. “You trust her bu
Sebastien further discussed the escape plan with us. He had expounded on how futile it is that we keep track of time and not waste any of it. Just like what he said, every second counts. We rely on it. We cling to the hope that we are midway to Fardojar when Matthias comes back with a dozen or more blood-drinkers tagged behind him. Sophie seemed to still be hesitant as she continued to go over and over each question. Meanwhile, Petra already placed the children on their makeshift bed, making sure that there weren’t any bugs to wake them from their slumber. “What about the others?” Sophie asked as she turned her gaze towards the other captives that were already asleep. I bit the insides of my cheek knowing that there’s only one way to escape, it is to leave them behind. Bringing them along would lessen our chance for survival, the blood drinkers could easily track us down. With these many captives to tag along, we surely cant hide. It hurts me to leave them, to abando
It was as if the puzzle pieces finally linked up and I could see their pieces slowly organizing together, making silhouettes out of a hazy picture. Ezekiel’s eyes just stared at me, the same way I stared at him— shocked but has a sense of clarity. His mother was the witch and whatever the thing that she had made under those 12 full moons, it is linked to my mother. I opened my mouth to talk to Ezekiel but before I could, Sebastien already started talking over us. “We have to escape,” he said his voice barely a whisper. I could see his eyes scan the surrounding, careful for watchful eyes and heedful ears. “We need to go.” Ezekiel shook his head from left to right and mouthed later as we both went back to face the rest of us in the circle. “We’ll be dead if they find out,” Sophie interjected. “We’ll be dead once we arrived at The Yonder,” Sebastien bit back, “It’s either we die trying to escape or just wait for our deaths.” “Besides...” Sebastie
The moon beamed against the starless sky, it had illuminated everyone in the clearing. The rest of the captives were fast asleep but there was us on the farther part of the clearing, huddled in a circle, eager to hear what Petra was going to tell us. The children were giddy to hear their grandma’s story, something that would tuck them in a makeshift bed out of things they had foraged. “Grandma,” Celeste impatiently said, beckoning her grandmother to start telling the story. Petra smiled at the little girl and looked around to see if we were already in our places. “Sit down first, Celeste, so we can start.” She took the child’s hand as she guided her to sit down beside her. Celeste carefully placed her head on the lap of his grandmother while Desmond huddled closely on Petra’s side. “I have lived a life long enough to know things that you children didn’t know,” Petra said calmly with a voice of a storyteller. “This wasn’t their first,” she added.