Saints Of Satan Chapter Eleven

Sleep did not come easy. I lay awake for hours, unable to find the dream world amidst the chaos of the life fate had thrown me into. My mind was clouded, not with thoughts or feelings, but with a terrifying nothingness that seemed to be devouring me from behind my strong fronts and in the deepest depths of my mind.
I shook my head vigorously, fear for my well being would have to be buried deep if I were to survive the ordeal ahead, or live long enough to witness its end.
Swinging my legs out over the edge of the bedding, I looked to the shadows splattered over the walls from the cracks of sunlight shining through numerous gaps in the fabric covering the entrance. I put the time to be around mid-afternoon, just hours before the ‘Hort Kal’ was to begin.
Oddly the king’s warning did not unnerve me, and I saw out the last few sleepless hours in a foreboding silence.
“John Woodchuck?” inquired a young voice from the doorway. I made no sound, and for a moment I thought the vampire had left, however the flap was brought back and my eyes met a night sky and before it a young boy.
“Your trials begin, follow me,” he said simply, his voice high and unbroken, but sure headed. I was mildly surprised, it was a rarity among vampires to blood one so young, and with their unfertile nature the child was not born of vampire. Shrugging aside the thought, I stepped boldly to my feet, marching to the flaps and throwing them aside as I stepped out of the cave.
“Now!” a voice bellowed, and in an instant they were upon me. A group of five vampires clad only in leather briefs and smothered in blood came down on me like a wave bombarding a cliff. Fists flew from every direction, and I was down before I could even blink. Defence was no option, and unable to curl into a foetal position to protect my gut, I gritted my teeth and took the beating as best I could.
After a moment the onslaught ended abruptly, and I felt heavy hands haul me up, then begin dragging my limp body along the cold rock. I tried to stand so as to end the pain my bare feet were bearing being scraped along rough stone, but I was given a powerful blow to the gut for my trouble.
After what seemed like hours, and it could well have been for all I knew, I was hastily stripped bare of all clothes, and then dropped a fair few metres into absolute darkness.
Wiping the blood from my face, I managed to force myself up to my knees, expecting another surprise attack. Thankfully, after a tense few moments I realised I was alone, and I allowed myself to collapse and become immersed in pain.
As I lay there I began to realised how weak I must seem, falling at the first hurdle, and once again, hauled myself to my knees. Steadying my breathing, I closed my eyes and began to feel around me, not only physically but with smell and sound. The pit, of what I could assume it was, seemed reasonably big.
The floor around was dank and wet to the touch, unfortunately it felt extremely slippery, and along with the beating I had received, the two factors had rendered my fighting capabilities to a minimum. An overpowering stench assaulted my nose, a mixture of rotting flesh and faeces causing me to gag and my eyes to water. Amidst the silence, I heard distant laughter, and suddenly a loud grating sound somewhere to my left. Opening my eyes, I saw a dim glow emanating from some gap in the rough stone, and then a brief flash of movement. The grating sound came once more, and the glow smothered by blackness once more.
There was company. I rose steadily to my feet, flinching momentarily from the pain but blanking it as best I could. I closed my eyes once more, it was best to rely on my other heightened senses rather than strain my eyes to see light where there was none. Taking a cautious step forward, I listened as carefully as I could for movement.
Unfortunately I had not delved on how slippery the surface really was, and my foot shot forward and threw me off balance. This was all my opponent needed, and with a tremendous roar it was upon me, smooth fur mixed with tooth and claw. I hit the ground hard, and felt razor sharp claws sinking into my chest, and if I had not been a vampire the beast would have torn my throat apart with strong teeth.
However, in a flash I brought my hands up with all my might, sending the animal flying through the air and landing with a thud somewhere to my right. Bringing myself steadily to my hands and feet for more balance, I held my breath and listened for any sound, and sign of movement.
After a moment, I heard steady breathing, and a soft padding sound, circling round behind me. A slight smile met my lips, and I faked panic, emanating fear as best I could, keeping my back to the creature and breathing heavily so it knew my whereabouts.
The padding increased in speed, and I counted a few seconds away in my head, before spinning round and grasping the creature by the throat. It yelped, and with a sharp squeeze I ended its life.
I exhaled, steadying my breath once more, making myself numb to the pain. Opening my eyes, I looked about for any sign of what to do next. Luckily, I managed to glimpse a brief spark as I did a three-sixty turn behind me, and I immediately headed for that direction, careful not to slip once more, but fairly steady on my hands and feet.
Again a spark flared, closer this time, and I managed a brief glimpse of the hand causing it before it died down. I sped up, unsure of what was intended by this, a distraction perhaps. Or just more to kill.
A ragged grunt emanated from the same direction, and suddenly a flame leapt to life in the hands of a slim vampire with thin grey hair.
“Ahh,” he murmured, ignoring me as I cautiously approached. He dropped the burning match onto a wooden torch, and after a moment the torch was brought to life, emanating a steady flickering glow about it.
Finally, at the last moment, the vampire looked to me and winked, his crooked finger pointing me to the left. Instinctively, I looked to where he pointed, and with a cackle he slipped into a side entrance of the wall, and I turned just in time to see it slam shut.
Silence took hold once more. The flame sputtered, and I winced at the brightness after dark. I had been lead into a slim corridor, the walls and ceiling cramped together to form a passageway barely wider than my shoulders width. I had been unlucky not to notice it, having focused my attention on the light.
Cursing myself and hoping I would not fall for such simple trickery again, I took a hold of the torch and lifted it from its brace. As I did however, I heard again the sound of distant laughter, and behind me again a grating sound, like stone on stone.
Spinning furiously, I looked back the way I had come, expecting some other beast to come pounding towards me. Instead, there was another grunt, and the hallway began to become slimmer. For a moment I was puzzled, but realisation that the way back was being sealed soon dawned on me and I darted back towards it, only to fall flat again on the slippery ground.
With a resounding boom, the entrance was sealed and I was trapped, the only way to go forwards. I groaned, rising to my feet and rubbing the slimy residue from my body. It seemed the Hort Kal was not going to be as easy as I had first presumed. It didn’t help either the fact that the clan seemed to be enjoying making it all the worse for me.
Grasping the torch form the floor, I made my way down the corridor, careful not to fall once more. My vision was cut short a few metres before me, and I took each step with care, prepared for whatever may come into sight.
After a while, having encountered nothing along the tunnel, a new sound began to reach my ears. For a few moments I could not make out what it was or meant, even with my acute hearing, but shortly on, as it became more distinct, I realised. Water. Running water.
Soon it became accompanied by a dank smell, and a dim light began to emanate from further up the tunnel.
As I walked on I wondered why I had allowed myself to fall into this situation, and for a moment I wondered whether I would make it out. But I immediately forced them aside, a brief flash of Maria in my mind sending me into a mode of sheer determination.
Storming on, I burst out of the tunnel, finding myself a few metres above the bank of a furious underground river. The water lashed the steep banks to either side, the uneven cavern I found myself in beholding an assortment of needle like stalactites and stag mites.
The river flowed from and into two pitch dark slim holes, the cavern lit by some ominous glowing fungi smothered over the walls and floor.
For a moment I was perplexed, there seemed no way of crossing the river, for it was too wide and violent to even think of leaping or venturing across, especially with the slippery surface. But then I spotted, again, the slim vampire, standing by an open archway on the opposite side of the raging water. He smiled, then behind him filed out a dozen or so vampires, clad the same as those that had attacked me, smothered in blood and bearing only a leather brief.
“I hear the waters lovely!” they jeered, traversing the surface with ease. The vampires snickered and continued to yell insults and bare their fangs. I stood still, watching them with contempt and showing no sign of fear.
After a moment, I caught sight of two armed and fully clothed vampires, entering via the archway. Behind them strolled the king Walkar, who looked at me curiously, like one would a new specimen under a microscope. He paused, then nodded at the water, cracking an amused smile as I looked down at the gushing water.
Marching to the water’s edge, I held the torch high into the air, and then dropped it into the river. The knotted piece of wood was immediately submerged, and I could not see where it was taken.
“Jump, jump, jump, jump!” chanted the blood smothered vampires, beating their chests and howling with delight.
Without a moment’s thought, I looked dead into the eyes of the king, and leapt into the violent depths of the river.

♦

Water gushed into my mouth. I was unable to move, subject to the rivers will and entirely defenceless. Darkness enveloped me entirely, along with a freezing cold so intense I vomited furiously, the shock of the icy water sending me into an underwater spasm.
The journey the river took was not a simple cut through the mountain, and before long I found myself bruised and battered, rocks soaring up to meet me as the river threw me to and thro.
A few minutes passed, the lack of oxygen beginning to affect me. Thankfully, I was forced up to the ceiling on a few occasions, narrowly missing the few sturdy remaining stalactites that had remained and taking in sweet oxygen. I was thrown in and out of consciousness, the world blanking in and out of existence as I was thrown in a vicious cycle of blacking out and awaking from the severe cold.
As the nightmare began to seem not to end, I wondered if the clan did this to every vampire that sought help, and if I were to join the ranks of the dead after a few minutes of torment in complete darkness.
The icy cold began to become numb to me, and I feared I didn’t have much longer. I was flung round in circles, faster and faster, until I my face met cold stone and the world ended about me.

♦

A blur of noise, unimaginable pain. My eyes blinked open. A commotion of light and sound danced about my senses, throbbing through my head making me nauseous. After what seemed like a lifetime in torment I began to hear past the roaring sound that pounded my ear drums.
“Get... John, now!” the voice sounded a mile away, but as I watched I managed a glimpse of a blurred face above me.
For a moment I managed to ignore the pain, and blinking against the harsh light, I made out a face I had longed to see once more.
“Maria?” I croaked, though I was sure it must have come out as some unintelligible moan. It had to be, I could never mistake her beautiful face, but how?
Unfortunately, I was hit hard with reality as a beefy hand slapped hard against my cheek and the world flooded into focus.
Walkar loomed over me, a horrible grin on his face, as though he were watching an ant before a magnifying glass. I spluttered, a small torrent of chilling water brimming over my lips and melting through the snow about me.
Coughing fitfully, I rolled over, attempting to escape Walkar and whatever new foe I would soon be faced with.
For a moment I was filled with nausea, my eyes glazing over once more, but after a moment of violent retching, the pain resided enough for me to take in my surroundings. I was on the edge of the river that had swallowed me whole, the snow clearly showing I had been dragged out through no means of my own. The short trail form the river to me was laced with blood, and even then, as I looked down, a steady trickle of blood seeped from numerous wounds I had encumbered during the ride in the river. However, the worry for health soon seemed insignificant, as I turned to the milling crowd forming a large circle about me at Walkars command.
A demented cry shot through the air, and before I could think I was diving to one side, a blood ravaged vampire slashing arched nails through the air where I had just been laying. Blinking aside surprise, I clenched my teeth against the pain and exploded to my feet. A vampire to my left called my name, tossing a thick, wooden staff before me.
“I suppose it’s time to show you bloodthirsty lot what I’m made of,” I growled, kicking the weapon up and expertly catching it mid air. My opponent seemed frustrated by the fact I had moved, and clearly showed it, pushing his hands into his face and moaning loudly.
My stomach lurched. The vampire had been over loaded with human blood, to the extent where he had become a crazed, violent wreck, intent on nothing other than bloodshed.
Senses in disarray, pain wracking my nerves and mind clotted with an icy chill so intense I would have vomited uncontrollably, had I anything left in my gut to expel, I glared into the vampires eyes, daring him to move.
Catching sight of my once more, he immediately let loose a blood curdling howl of rage, charging towards me with adrenaline fuelled energy and his fangs bared.
Swiftly darting to one side, I brought the staff around in a short arc, cracking it against his skull as he roared pass and sending him sprawling to the ground.
Unfortunately, this simply enraged the vampire all the more, and with a menacing glare, he leapt to his feet, facing me off a few metres apart.
A tense few seconds passed, as we each stared hard into the others eyes, blocking out everything other than him and I. For a moment, all was silent.
However, my head suddenly erupted in a new wave of pain, the numbing chill of the ice beginning to wear off, letting loose unimaginable suffering upon my body.
My opponent did not hesitate to take advantage, and before I knew it, I had been dragged to the floor, fists pounding my bruised chest and face in a moment of pure fury.
So this was how it was to end.
My body slipped into a motionless state, muscles unresponsive and leaving me defenceless to onslaught of pain that seemed to be moving ever farther away as I felt myself reside ever deeper into myself, escaping the pain, the sorrow, all of life’s suffering.
As though a separate being, I watched as the vampire above smothered himself in my depleting supply of blood, silently howling to the sky as silence over whelmed me.
But amidst the state of disregard, I heard a whisper.
“Maria,” it said, ever so softly, but louder than ever in the silence that enveloped my mind.
“Maria,”, again, louder this time. Life began to return to my body, slowly at first, but becoming faster. The vampire sat atop me looked down in disbelief, droplets of blood, my blood, dripping from his face.
“Maria!” the voice roared, louder still. Memories of my lovers face flooded into my mind, filling my every being with thoughts of her
It would not end like this.
“Maria!” the voice yelled, and as I soared back into reality, I realised the voice was my own.
With one last surge of unstoppable energy, I grasped the vampires throat, squeezing sharply with all my might. The body feel loose in my hand, and I cast it aside, breathing heavily, dazed, but very much alive.
For a moment there was stunned silence, but then a cheer went up, and the last thing I remembered was king Walkar stood above me, his war-hammer raised high above me, roaring with approval.