The Betrayal

He leaped over the fallen tree and followed his elder brother as they ran swiftly through the forestland in the moonlight. He smiled as he ran. They carried good news back to their besieged camp.

Their town had been peaceful till the enemy attacked. The battle had been raging strong for weeks, with neither side accepting defeat. All able men from his town were sent to battle armed. The brothers had been eager to join. But they were disallowed as they were still young.  

Upon their insistence they were assigned reconnaissance duties. They were ideally suited for this mission anyway. They had grown up in these woods and knew it better than anyone in the town. Their efforts had paid off today. They had discovered the enemy’s storage supplies and routes which was vital information.

The enemy appeared out of nowhere. There were thirty heavily armed people. Within seconds the brothers were captured and tied up. His brother was roughly pulled to their leader who demanded they lead them to their hidden base. Otherwise they both were promised a slow and painful death.

He knew his brother very well. He also knew his end had come, thus. There was no way his brother would divulge anything to the enemy. This realization strangely did not affect him. Instead a strange calm descended. He awaited his inevitable death.

But what followed completely shattered this. His brother instantly agreed to lead the enemy voluntarily, if they were both let go after. A deep rage rose in him and for the first time he truly hated his brother. He was aware his brother knew the enemy would not keep their promise. But in his current state, there was nothing he could do.

The enemy realizing that he had no intention to co-operate tied him to the horse which carried additional weaponry. He burrowed his face in the horse’s mane, to hide his tears of his brother’s cowardice and betrayal.

The elder brother led the group through the forest. They were traveling faster than before now. The horse was almost at a full gallop. He vowed to strike down his brother the first chance he got.

It was then he smelled it faintly. It was only the years of exploring this place that he could detect it. He was thankful of his gag for the first time.

He knew that the smell could only be the toxic gas that hung low above the deep marsh.

The enemy was thundering through a poisonous marshland without their knowledge. The horse which was at the end, realized it too late; started thrashing in vain.

He could not hold his breath in any longer. His head was spinning and his sight unfocussed.

Next thing he knew, he was pulled off the horse and hefted onto a very familiar back. He blearily watched his brother also pull a flame thrower from the horse.

The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness were flames.

Flames burning purple.

He smiled again.

The Tunnel

The man awoke. He could not remember falling asleep. The only vague memories he had were of a fight, a flight of steps, a ledge and drowsiness. Everything else was fuzzy.

He looked around. It was late night. He was on a high ledge in a long, dark tunnel. A naked yellow lamp shed a dim glow of light in the distance.

Somehow he felt different. Good different. Except for a slight numbness in his throat, a few bruises on his limbs, he had never before felt more alive or alert.

He sensed her before she even came into his sight. Her delicate perfume and the smell of her hair filled his nostrils with a heady aroma. He could hear the soft musical sound of her footsteps and quite surely, the rustle of the wind through the folds of her dress.

He was suddenly acutely aware of his own heartbeat.

The light from the lamp caught her. He inhaled sharply. She was exquisite. Her hair softly rose and fell onto her shoulders with her every step. The sight was so mesmerizing that he stared transfixed.

It was only then that he became aware of the other man behind the pillar. The discovery had taken this long as all his senses had been captivated by the vision in front of him. Just as the other man started to move, the light of the lamp caught the hilt of the dagger in his hand.

The glint of light spurred his enthralled body into action. Without any conscious thought, he leapt from the ledge; landed on the ground cat-like and rushed between them before either had moved two feet.

The swiftness of these actions took all of them completely by surprise. The mugger was the first to recover and within the blink of an eye, arched and threw his dagger.

The man, still operating on auto-pilot, ducked instinctively. He closed the distance between them and struck out once. And just like that, the fight was over.

He slowly turned around. On its way past him, the dodged dagger had made a slight graze on the girl’s cheek. They were suffused with a dark pink color now. She stood there motionless, wide-eyed with trembling lips.

His senses went into overdrive. His heart threatened to burst a hole through his chest. He felt a deep heat rise to his head. He eyes saw red. He could no longer breathe. The only thing he knew for sure was that remaining there any longer would make his rescue completely meaningless.

He turned and bolted blindly. A seedy bar was the closest building. He stumbled into the nearest stool. The bartender, dexterously wiping glasses, didn’t even look up when he asked:

‘Blood or wine?’

The man did not reply. He did not need to.

The bartender took one look at the bite marks on the man’s throat, reached for the nearest bottle of blood, and pushed it across.

The label read on the bottle read – ‘For Vampires Only’.