"Been working on the back story to this for a while now, but I've gathered it all together to flush out the first five. I would like feed back if you have time. Again rough draft, work-in-progress, blah blah blah"
The sun had not risen in three days. The few smiles came from those that held onto the memories of what the light caressing one’s skin felt like. The only light there was now was the distant glow of lava shooting out of the top and sides of the mountain. The only warmth there was now was that of the humid ash and pumice that caused the sun to be a memory; that caused the birds to fall from the sky and choked the life from the old, young, and weak. Krakatoa had started the process of erupting. The village elders had warned them that the arrival of these other men, unlike the British men, had somehow angered the spirit of the mountain. They had warned them days ago that the tremors were from spirit that lived in the mountain. They told them that the fish and everything living had been crying out because of these men, unlike the British men. These men were not to be trusted. The elders said that the animal spirits told them that these men, meant harm to all life, not just here but upon all of the Earth and carried death with them. The village elders warned that if these new men, unlike the British men, were not forced to go back to wherever they had come from the mountain spirit would not be pleased and they all would never know the sun again.
The old women said that the men were of magic men but evil magic. They said that they did not eat or drink but could captivate with their words, as if they cast a spell without any root or herb, without any honor to the gods or sacrifice to any devil. The strong young men and women still followed these men, some never returned, some seemed to change as if the light in their eyes faded as did the sun from the sky. The remaining recognizable fragments of their soul flowed away into the sea of memory held by the ones that knew them before they followed the men that were unlike British. The British were mesmerized by these men as well. They appeared with a small ship that had no crew, only the three of them. The villagers all assumed that they must have been British men come from the main lands but where was their crew? The immediate reaction of the British was also of astonishment and wonder just the same. They did not know these men; they wondered how they navigated without crew in such a small ship and without equipment.
This is when the rumors began to spread about them being truly evil, about them being devils from the British homeland. The women said that these men could command the British and they would obey so they must be angry spirits from their home. The old women would say that they saw the fire in the British’s eyes fade and their spirit slip away, just as they would eventually say the spirits of their strong youth did. The old men and women would tell their young to stay away but one by one they all succumbed to the men. The strength of the village was now in the hands of these new men, the power that the British once held now belonged to these new men. Some of the old men remembering the bravado and pride of their youth would challenge these men to fights, saying if they dueled and bested them in any game of sport or wit then they would release the hold they had over the youth. The old women would approach them the same but with tears and desperation in their eyes, pleading for them to go and release their young. These men did not bother to even entertain the old men, they laughed at their challenges. They would call the old women weak and say they had no use for any of them, they were not worth the effort of anger or consideration.
When they made their first trip to the island with some of the British men and some of the virginal village women is when the mountain erupted and the ash began to fall. A few of the British men returned but none of the virginal village women did. The wise men of the village that were left began to hide their daughters, the wiser ones sent them away. This was no use because they also began to take the strong men, the warriors and brave men from other villages as well. They would go to the island mountain and not return. As the days stretched on and the darkness became eternal; death spread from all directions with the mountain being the eye the storm of death and decay that grew in all directions.
She returned to her body. She was sure that this was the bad place, the realm of demons that her mother and grandmother had warned her about when she was a little girl. She wondered what she had done why were the Gods were upset with her to make her and the rest of these people be condemned to the realm of evil spirits and tortured souls; why where these demons in the form of men taking her to the mountain. Sometimes there would be silence and a nothingness like a dreamless sleep; then there were times when she woke from that sleep. She woke into a living nightmare where she would be trapped inside of her body. She had her senses but could not control them. She only spoke when the demon men released her voice to respond. She only moved when the demon men released her body to move. She wanted to scream but that was no longer hers to control.
Most of all, she wanted to cry, even if just one lone tear. She had just married the day the demon men came to her village. Her husband was not supposed to choose her. He could have had any woman from the three major villages, but he chose her. She did not even get to lay down with him to make the marriage official. She did not get to have a future with him and bear him many sons that were as strong and as brave as he; nor did she get to give him many beautiful daughters that would bring her many grandchildren. She wanted her tears to fall like the rain of a mighty storm into the ocean, like the ash falling from the sky, stealing the air from the lungs of the children and the old ones. What she had was seeing the back of her strong and handsome husband rowing the boat directly to the gate of the spirit world. He was one of the strong men rowing the boat to where the angry spirit of the mountain lay in wait for them. Where they were to be lead into the place were evil ancestors and demons lived. She wanted to be gone again. She wanted the nothingness of before she woke to being trapped in her body. She wanted to not see her proud and mighty husband be under the same control of these demons in the form of men helplessly take everyone to the place where their souls would suffer for all time. She wanted to know why. She wanted to know what she had done to displease the Gods in her short life that she must suffer.
“The witch’s spell is wearing off; this one’s consciousness keeps going in and out. Let me take her.” Said one of the men as he looked into her eyes, as if he could hear her thoughts.
“No.” Said the one that seemed to be in charge of them all. “Their blood must remain pure and untainted by any wickedness. The virginal blood must be blank with no imprint of experience no foundation of life.”
“I don’t get it how is this to work; a life without any experience has blood without any essence. It has no flavor, and the others say it is poison to those that are not strong.” another of the men said.
“If either of you want to join their fate, continue to question me.” The man that was now unquestionably, the leader of the men said. “Her essence is trapped within her, it means nothing if she knows it or not, she can do nothing. You two should be more worried about finding the rest that are working with the Akahreth. You two can be repurposed if the one I have given you is above your capabilities.” They became silent again.
She did not understand the words they were saying but she felt they were speaking of her, about her. The one that seemed most evil, most demonic only took his wicked gaze away from her after the one that never looked at any of them finished speaking. Their entire mood shifted as they drew closer to the mountain she could feel the heat upon her body but not as pain or pleasure more as if she had touched something that had been warmed. The sensation was not internally actualized but mentally perceived. She felt herself slipping away again, this time she was thankful. She did not want to know more. This time she welcomed the silence and the nothingness.
The boat docked on the shore of the mountain as it was sputtering lava from its sides while spewing the fowl smelling clouds that blocked the sun. The leader of the three men moved his hand and a great bolder moved to reveal a curtain of magma. He again moved his hand and the magma moved to reveal a cave. that was all dark and full of heat. If it had not been under the same enchantment it would have been too hot for anyone to enter. The man they were calling “The Akahreth” was bound high to the cave walls by some force from which he could not free himself. At the center of the cave lay a pit of magma that burned with a green flame. The village strongmen and virginal women stood around the pit falling in one by one, when one would be completely gone, the screaming stopped, and there were no remnants of the body, the person, that was before, another then sacrificed themselves to the pit.
“You must stop this.” Spoke the one they called “The Akahreth.”
The more fiendish and malicious yet childlike of the men swiftly levitated himself to the Akahreth so closely there was little space between the two. He exposed his fangs and licked the man’s neck,
“I should take you right now. The Akahreth, the legendary all knowing, all seeing true immortals. All I see is weakness. What is the point of living forever never being able to leave this mountain. Your all seeing third eye, “no truth can be hidden from it” why didn’t you see us coming huh? why cant you see into us?” Where is it huh.
The man raised his hand and pointed his finger at the Akahreth’s head. The fingernail of the man began to grow and shape into to a dagger like point. He shoved it into the top of the Akareth’s forehead, slowly but deeply and began to travel down.
The Akahreth began to quiver in pain as the blood began to drip down and seem as if he was shedding tears of blood “Ahh so you do feel pain. Why don’t you cry out, scream like they do and maybe I will stop.
“I will never give you any satisfaction. You are an agent of death, we protect life, and I shall be long after you are gone, leach.”
The man retracted his finger licking it. The wound made healed as the man slowly floated back down to the cave’s floor. The leader of the men reentered the cave seemingly frustrated.
“Where are records scribe.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
The leader of the men turned to the man and spoke with conviction in his voice.
“Do not mistake me for an idiot. I am the leader of my clan I know of what I speak.”
“Then your elders should have told you. . .”
“I am the elder of my clan you coward.” He elated. “While you and your kind cower away in caves and darkness ive watched my clan diminish in numbers for centuries. We three are the last left. When I awaken our ancestor, our father, he will restore our clans numbers with members that are strong enough to take up the mantel and even lead the rest.”
“If you are the elder then you know why he is here, he is too dangerous to walk the earth. He will kill on such a scale that he will threaten life. I was there when he walked the earth last. What the humans called the bubonic plague was really him and the first members of your clan ravaging life on earth. This is why he is hear, this is why he is sealed away.”
“And this is why he must rise again. He will restore the honor and glory of the Nesher
clan.”
“He will destroy you and everything that he can before he even comes to his is lust. He is only two fathers away from Krave. . .”
He instantly appeared before the Akahreth smacking him, exposing his fangs and now had an animalistic growl in his voice.”
“Do not ever speak the great one, the father of us all name again insect, you have no right. You are nothing more than rotten food. Know this, if you could be killed, I would have done so.”
The one that with the childlike wickedness smiled now. He began to cough, as he did he began to spit up blood. It grew worse and until he fell to the floor. He coughed up blood and blood began to run from his eyes nose and ears until all blood that was in him was now lay in a pool under his lifeless body.
The man that never spoke looked at the leader confused while he slowly floated down.
“I told him not to feed on the Akahreth, not even a single drop.”
“But I don’t understand.” the quiet one said
“The Akahreth’s blood is poison. It is pure and incorruptible by disease or death it is the opposite of the virgins blood. It possess so much essence, pure essence every vampire that has ever attempted of feed on these rotten piles of flesh has died in the same manner.” The leader again turned back to the Akahreth and spoke. “Immortal rotten flesh where are your scrolls”
“Why do you want them? The ones that sent you here, that told you of here. They must want them? Why do they want them?”
“It must enrage you rotten flesh, for centuries on end to know all and see all yet we come and you know nothing.” You are as the rest of the food, blind and ignorant. I will find them, and if I do not find them Nesher will. Your secrets will be known.”
“I will not let that happen.”
“You will do nothing!” The leader said with the growl in his voice. As he did a loud thunder sound emanated from the mountain and a great earthquake shook the mountain which started a great wave that reached the shore of the neighboring islands killing thousands of villagers and British along the shores in minutes.
“You see.” the leader said. “Nesher is stirring, he hears us and will soon be with us.”
Christopher F. Brown © 6/15/2013
