5. Screams Of Horror

VAELORA

He drove the blade aiming for the bound boy's heart. It was halfway there, blood sipping out from the chest chamber and out of his mouth. He didn't take his eyes off Zane.

I could take no more. I stepped out from the pillar without thinking twice. "Stop!" I cried. "You... stop that right now!"

My tiny voice was so high, furled with fear, anger and other mixed feelings I don’t know how to describe. "You can't do that to him."

Zane turned around nonchalantly and his eyes met mine. I was almost swept off my feet by how piercing and out-worldly they looked.

"I was wondering when you were going to come out from your hiding place." Zane said, not looking startled or astonished. His expression was far different from the identical expressions Xyrelle and Nyxen wore. The blue haired boy hung in his bounds, coughing out blood.

"You knew she was here?" demanded Nyxen, looking from me to Zane and then to Xyrelle as if he was asking if she knew too.

The girl looked just as astonished as him and she shook her head.

"Of course, I knew that." Zane spoke calmly. He had paused his torture on the boy and was looking at me like I was some sort of an interesting piece of art. "I couldn't miss hearing her tiny, frightened heartbeats. It made this more fun."

"Who are you?" Nyxen spoke again but this time he was glaring at me.

"It's a girl, Nyx." Zane answered, drawing his blade out of the boy, his eyes never leaving mine. "Surely you've seen millions of girls before. Your sister, Xyrelle is one." He took a step closer to me, squinting as if he couldn't quite believe I was in front of him. Blood dropped from the knife he held onto the floor. "A mundane girl," he said, half to himself. "And she can can see us."

"Of course I can see you. I’ve always been able to see you." I managed. "I'm not blind, you know. What I need to know is why you’ve been stalking me for sometime now?”

I don't know where I got the nerves to talk boldly at people like them. People that wouldn't bat an eye to stab someone.

“Stalking?” Xyrelle and Nyxen turned to Zane. Apparently, they didn’t know about this.

"Interesting," He took another step towards me, not replying to their question. I watched him, his hand tightened on the hilt of his blade. I glared at him, standing my ground.

He stopped walking and watched me for a few seconds then he smiled. "Like I said, you're interesting."

"Answering your question, mundie girl," The voice came from the black haired boy—Nyxen. "You are blind. But the lots of you humans just don't know it."

"You'd better get out of here if you know what's good for you." Zane said.

"I'm not going anywhere," I raised my head up defiantly. "If I do, you will kill him." I pointed at the boy with the blue hair.

"True," admitted Zane, twirling the knife between his fingers. The sight of blood made me nauseous. "But what you should also know is that your presence and absence here doesn't prevent me from ending his life, little red. And what do you care if I kill him or not?"

"My.. my reason is that," I spluttered. "You can't just go around killing people."

"How did you—" Nyxen started.

"He mentioned that y'all capture people too. My guess is that you equally end up taking their life."

"You're right," said Zane. "We can't go around killing people." He pointed at the boy with the blue hair, whose pupils I don't see again. I only see the white balls of his eyes. It's as if his red pupils from earlier were rolled into the sockets. Was it the lack of lights in this room that made me to see just the white part of his eyes or what? Frankly, he looked terrifying.

"That's not a person, little girl. It may look like a person, talk like a person and maybe even bleed like a person, although, underworldly creatures blood has a different colour from ours. What I'm trying to say is that it's a monster. A demon."

"Zane," Xyrelle called with warnings laced in her voice. "That's enough, you've said too much bloody information to this ignorant creature already."

" You lots are crazy," I said, backing away from him now. "I've called the police and apparently, what suits you now more than sleeping in a cell is a psychic ward."

My eyes kept darting back to the bound boy he was shaking now. His eyes were twitching and it didn't look normal.

He must've lost a lot of blood.

"I need to take him to the hospital." I yelled, rushing towards the boy.

"Don't go near him—" Zane called out and swiftly held me from getting any close, obstructing me from rendering any form of help to the boy. How callous can they be?

"Are you mad?" I shouted at him. He was starting to piss me off. "I said he needs a hospital right now and you—"

I never got to finish my sentence. At that moment, behind Zane, the blue haired boy , with a high, howling cry, tore free of the restraints binding him to the pillar, and flung himself on Zane.

Before I could fathom what was going on, I was pushed by Zane out of the way. My back hit the wall.

I tried to steady myself, standing up to my feet and I watched as Zane and the blue haired boy fell to the ground and rolled together, the boy tore at Zane with his hands that glittered as if tipped with metal. What the hell!

I backed up, having the urge now to run as far away from here as possible. But my feet caught on a loop of wiring and I went down, knocking the breath out of my chest. I could hear Xyrelle screaming out orders.

Rolling over, I saw the blue haired boy sitting on Zane’s chest. Blood gleamed at the tips of his razor-like claws.

Oh God.

Xyrelle and Nyxen were running towards them, Xyrelle brandishing a snake-like whip in her hand. The blue haired boy slashed at Zane with his claws extended. He threw an arm up to protect himself, and the claws raked it, splattering blood.

I wanted to scream. Tears, as a result of fear, streaked down my cheeks.

The blue haired boy wasn't done yet. He lunged again but this time at Xyrelle and her whip came down across his back. He shrieked. It sounded nothing close to shrieks I was used to. Human shrieks.

Shit, shit, shit!!!

He fell to the side.

Swifter than a flick of Xyrelle's whip, Zane rolled over. There was a blade gleaming in his hand. It looked identical to the knife from earlier only this wasn't a knife , it was longer. A sword.

He sank it deep into the blue haired boys chest, straight to the heart. Blackish liquid exploded around the hilt. The boy arched off the floor, gurgling and twisting. With a grimace, Zane stood up.

His black cloak was darker now in some places, wet with blood. He looked down at the twitching form on his feet, reached down, and yanked out his knife. The hilt was slick with black fluid.

The blue haired boy's eyes flickered open. His eyes, fixed on Zane, seemed to burn. Clenching his teeth, he hissed. "Your ignorance will lead to your death. The Forsaken will end you all. One by one."

Zane snarled. The boy's eyes rolled back . His body began to jerk violently and twitch.

"Kill the bastard, Zane." Xyrelle said with disgust.

Zane raised the amber glowing sword, and without much ado, he brought it down and sliced the head of the boy clean and flung it farther away from his body.

The body and the head crumpled, folding in on itself, growing smaller and smaller until it vanished entirely.

My screams of horror tore through the entire building. How can I unsee what I have just seen?