AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I only hoped he would.
* * *
Night had fallen upon Tithe and with it a chill that sank into my bones. I woke beneath the trees freezing and stiff. At some point I had fallen asleep, giving into the peace of that rather than the punishment my waking brain put me under.
Stretching out my aching limbs, I made my way towards Tom’s house, sprinting through shadows. By the time I got there, I was relieved to see the glow of orange and red flames dancing within the windows.
He was home.
“Hello?” I called out, pushing the already ajar door to Tom’s home open. It screeched painfully; if they had not heard my call then the noise it made would surely alert them to my presence.
After several moments passed with no response, I called out again, stepping carefully through the threshold. “I would have knocked but the door was…”
My mouth clamped shut, silencing the horror from spilling out as I saw what waited before me.
Tom’s mother, Kate, was splayed out across the floor. In her hand she gripped the iron prongs that would be used to push wood about in the hearth. Beside her was a perfectly stacked pile of logs still waiting to be placed into the flames.
It looked as though she had fallen asleep before finishing her task. But Kate was not sleeping.No…
She was dead.
I knew that from the grey sheen of her skin, as though it had turned to stone, cracking in places and allowing blood to spread like a lake of scarlet beneath her. Her hair, once full of warmth and colour, was drained to tones of silver; strands like cobwebs, lying within her blood and staining it in wet clumps.
My stomach jolted. I rocked forward, hands on knees, as vomit erupted out of me; the wet splatter only made me sick again, over and over until my stomach cramped and a cold sweat broke out over my forehead.
I called Tom’s name, recognising the deafening silence more than I had before I found Kate’s dead body. It was close to impossible to wait for his response or hear it over the thundering of my heart. It echoed through my ears, synchronising with the thumping pain that filled my head.
Perhaps I should have left then, run back out the door and screamed Tithe down until someone came to help us. But my feet moved forward. I sidestepped around the outstretched legs of Kate as though I navigated a narrow path on the side of a sheer-face cliff.
My hand went to my belt and to the short knife that offered its comfort. I gripped the hilt, not pulling it free from the sheath just yet, but I was ready if I needed it.
I found Tom’s dad in the darkened kitchen. I almost passed him as I moved for the stairs but stopped when I saw the dark outline of his figure sitting upon a chair by the dining table.
“Are you okay, sir?” I asked, rushing in to help him. In the dark it looked as though he was simply sitting at the table waiting patiently for his supper to be put before him. I was wrong.
The stench of decay greeted me as I got closer to him. With the little light that spilled from the living room I finally saw the truth of what waited for me. Like his wife, he too was dead. His wide eyes were black, bulging from his skull as though the skin around them had retreated. His face was sunken and hollow; it was as though he had died weeks before. What was left of the grey skin still clinging to the bones of his face were melting off before my eyes. It dripped alongside his darkened blood, across the table before him where his hands rested. His mouth was open in a silent scream, the little amount of teeth he still had were yellow and brown; most laid among the dripping puddle of gore beneath him.
My mind raced for what had done this. Vampires? No. It couldn’t have been. The Watchers would have been alerted if a vampire had broken through the boundary. Or maybe they had. My disrespect at the Choosing had done what the Watchers had threatened for as long as I could remember. The magic that kept us hidden from sight of the undead creatures had been taken back by the elves and we were left, holed together in a pen like sheep, waiting for the wolves to come and pick us apart.
I unsheathed my pathetic knife, the bone handle worn from years of handling and the blade dull. It was better used to cut steak than an enemy, but it served me well against the vampires that I hunted when I needed their blood.
If there was one here, I would kill it. Take its blood for my own use and call upon the Watchers.
I would be a hero. They would see past my actions and acclaim me for…
No, Arlo. Focus.
Swallowing the urge to vomit again, I lifted the blade to Tom’s father’s neck. Even in the sagging, melting skin I could not discern teeth marks.I then looked at his arms—
There was movement above me, the familiar creak of floorboards beneath heavy feet. I could have died on the spot from the fear which crawled up from my feet and spread across my skull; the feeling was painful.
“Tom,” I forced out, trying to put as much confidence into my voice as I could muster. I had chased vampires into the darkest pits, far more frightening than this place. But it was different. I was normally the one hunting, but now it felt like I was being hunted. “Please, Tom… let it be you.”
I left the dead body in the kitchen and padded quietly towards the bottom of the stairs. My knuckles were white with tension as I gripped the knife and held it out before me.
If it was a vampire, I had to kill it, not because I was desperate to collect its blood this time, but because if it got out of this house and spread its disease around Tithe until it reached Auriol… The thought alone had me taking the steps up to next floor of the house.
I had to keep Auriol safe.
