Lunar's Curse

It was cold...

The blood...it clashed with his body temperature. It was freezing...but his blood was warm. Almost like a soft blanket... Soft...warm...safe.

Her green eyes flashed in his mind. They're everything he had ever wanted. She was beautiful. Strong. Ambitious. He wanted to reach out and grab hold of her...but he couldn't. He couldn't move and something was pulling him back no matter how hard he tried to run away from it.

“I...need...you...” he croaked. It was very quiet. All he could see were those green eyes—the ones that shone out in the darkness... Those eyes that beckoned at him...tempting him...

A sudden attack of pain flowed from his neck. He gave a yelp, but the pain demised as soon as it came.

“I need you,” he whispered again. “Please...”

But nothing happened. Nothing but...coldness that continued to spread. Even the blood wasn’t as warm anymore...

Green eyes flashed again in his mind. He opened his mouth, trying to get the words out.

“Please...don't...” he whispered. “Don't let me...go...”

The only response he got was the whisper of the winds, tickling at him, teasing him, mocking him. Telling him that he would never get what he wished for.

In the darkness, in the pits of his own Hell, the boy was left there to drown in a pool of his own blood. Slowly...but surely.

“The boy will die.”

The voice speaking was feminine and definitely not from the dying boy. It was filled with pity but nothing more.

The boy opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but the words won't come out. He could hear her loud and clear and it sounded like the girl of his life.

“I want to save him,” the feminine voice said. She said this with confidence, but there was a hint of doubt in her voice too. She was asking for permission.

Permission to save him.

“No.” It was a deep male voice that spoke this time. “It's his time. He will die. It's in his own choices. He chose her and he will die for his sins. He has let the beast run loose and destroy civilization. He fell for her petty lies and games.”

“Still! He doesn't know. Look at him—he's just a little boy.”

“He is a young man. He knows right from wrong. He is not a child.”

There was silence. “Look,” the feminine voice finally said, “do you want him to...suffer like that? Can't we at least end his pain and misery?”

“No,” the male's voice said firmly. “It's his own fault. The greater the sin, the worst the suffering.”

“What are we suppose to do then?” she cried, her voice bordering hysteria. “Just watch him die? That's not what we're here for!”

“Yes,” the male's voice said, low and threatening. “That's exactly what we're here for. We wait. And then we retrieve his soul.”

“No!” she shouted. “You don't know how it feels to die slowly! You don't! But I know how it feels! It's burning—every last second and you just want to die. Your mind has given up but your body won't. It's torture! No one deserves it! Can't we at least put him out of his misery?”

As if cued, the boy groaned and made a whimpering sound at the back of his injured throat like a dying animal.

“Look at him!” she shouted. “Look at him! I don't give a damn if he was the one who set her loose! I don't care if he helped to create the Vampire race! I don't give a damn! We have to save him!”

There was a weary sigh. “We can't do anything. But...if you insist... Though you may be executed...”

“I. Don't. Care,” the feminine voice said, filled with defiance. “We have to save him.”

“You will be banished,” the male's voice said. “Banished...into a human. Again... Made to repeat death... Maybe worst. Maybe you'll be kept in your Hell until the time comes. You have to know what you're getting into.”

“I do know,” she said softer this time. “And I know I'm not heartless enough to watch him suffer.”

“All right. But you have to know—”

“I know!” she screamed with frustration. “All right!”

Then...she came into view.

She was wearing a long flowing black cloak and had a hood over her head. She was tall and the cloak did nothing to compliment her curves. In her hands was something like a grim reaper's scythe. Strands of loose red vibrant hair was sticking out.

Another person appeared. It was the male that had spoken earlier. He was wearing the same clothing as the girl, but his scythe was bigger...with a golden jewel embedded on it. He had no loose hair sticking out and looked much more composed than the girl. He was larger than her and was easily twice her size.

The girl knelt by the dying boy. “Shh...” she whispered. “I'm here.”

The boy opened his mouth, wanting to say something. He turned his head towards her, trying to get a look at her face. But he couldn't see anything but darkness beneath the hood. Other than the strands of red hair, he couldn't see anything but black.

“I...” She took a look at his wound and shuddered. It was the Vampiress's work. A wound meant to kill, not to Turn or to suck blood. It was a wound for killing.

It was hopeless. He was going to die.

“He's going to die,” the male said simply, sounding much more relieved now. “All we can do is wait.”

“No!” she replied fiercely. “I will not be so inhumane to do that!”

“You aren't human,” he said simply. “Not anymore.”

She screamed and struck out at him, but he caught her pale hand before she could hit him. “Don't lose your temper,” he said. “You are, by far, the most difficult student I've had to train. You are too empathetic. It may be better if you help him anyways.”

“How can I help him?” she asked.

The male sighed and flicked his hand. A bottle filled with black liquid appeared in his hand. “You give him this. It will make him die faster to put him out of his misery. But...you will reincarnate him.”

“Isn't that a good thing?” she asked, taking the bottle from his hand with her own shaky ones.

“He is a Catlin,” he said. “He is blessed with gifts. If you give this to him...he may not come out sane. You can literally destroy his soul and that is the worst thing anyone can do.”

She hesitated. “But...” she began, “I can't leave him to die. I'll take this chance.”

“You will be banished,” he said simply.

“I don't care. I hate being what I am anyways,” she said almost nonchalantly. She opened the bottle and poured it into the boy's mouth.

The boy shook violently and tried to spit the potion out. It was burning through his throat. He thrashed against it but it was no use. The burning spread from his throat all the way down to his stomach. Then numbing started and he was unable to move his fingers. Movements were slower and sluggish now and then he stopped moving at all.

The bottle was empty. “What happened?” she whispered. “Did I...destroy his soul?” Her voice was filled with fear. Never once had she destroyed someone's soul. She knew she had been taking a chance when she used the potion but she didn't think the chances of destruction was so great. Her fingers trembled with the scythe. With no soul, there was no retrieval. She would go back empty handed and face punishment.

The male peered forward. “No,” he said softly. “The potion is working... He will die within a few minutes before being reborn in the life cycle.”

Just as he said this, the boy reached up with regained strength and pulled her hood down.

Her red hair spilled down her shoulders and her green eyes flashed brightly into the darkness. She muttered a curse and gave a sheepish look to her mentor before she reached to pull the hood up again.

“Mortals are never to see you face even on the brink of death,” he muttered to her, shaking his head. “You'll be banished now for sure.”

But she wasn't listening to him. The dying boy was trying to tell something to her. His lips were moving but she could barely hear what he was saying.

“What is it?” she asked, leaning down so her red hair brushed against his face.

“....Lamia...” he whispered to her, his eyes searching hers desperately.

“Oh no,” she said. “I'm a Soul Reaper. I'm...Death. I'm not the Lamia,” she said softly, caressing his cheek with an expression of affection. “Shh...you'll be fine now,” she said.

The boy looked into her green eyes and searched them. “...love...you...”

She felt her heart skip a beat. Then she reminded herself that he was mistaking her for someone else. “No, I'm not her,” she said. “I'm...”

“Mel,” her mentor finished. “Mel.”



MEL.

MEL.

That name was so familiar...

My eyes opened and I jerked into a sitting position. The memories of Claire and my grandmother hit me and I gasped out loud. Where in the world was I?

I surveyed the room. It was something of an inside of a tent. It was a triangular shaped area was easily as big as a classroom if not bigger. The fabric walls were a yellowish shade and there was a small clear window near the closed flaps. I was sleeping on something that looking like a camping cot. Other than that, the tent was undeniably clear of anything.

I pushed myself off the cot and stood up on the sandy floor. I was still wearing the same clothes I had from yesterday. I could still remember the look of the razor teeth...

The flaps opened and he stepped in. A wry grin appeared on his face at my expense.

“Skittish?” he asked me. “Well I wouldn't be surprised. You are a mortal, after all,” he said.

I felt a sort of confusion and anger go through me. I chose to listen to the anger. “You,” I said, hissing the words. “What are you? And what have you done to me?”

“Me? I'm a mere half-breed,” he said in a mocking tone. “But probably one of the best half-breeds. I'm also a marquis, did you know that? That makes me extra special.” He strutted around the area of the tent keeping a good metre away from me.

“You? A marquis?” I said, almost laughing. “You're a monster!”

He simply laughed at my outburst. “Myra, Myra,” he said, almost as if scolding a child. “Don't go pointing accusatory fingers like that. You're with my gang. I'm the better one after all. Sucking blood really isn't my thing.” He shot me a wide smile. “Not a large part of it anyways.”

“S-sucking b-blood,” I stuttered. I couldn't help it. The thought of it just made me think of Amanda... I could only think of one thing that sucked blood.

“Vampires,” I whispered, feeling my heart stutter along with my earlier speech.

“Nah,” he said almost absentmindedly as if we weren't talking about supernatural beasts. “I'm not a Vampire. Not a full-fledged one. I can only qualify as half. The other half? Well, my family caught onto lycanthropy earlier. Funny, isn't it?”

Lycanthropy. He was the one in my vision after I passed out when trying to cross the threshold to my house. Him and...

“Justine!” I said, almost choking on her name. I glared at him and he smiled back as if it was a funny anecdote.

“Yes, well, she got a little boring,” he said, his eyes on mine as if mocking me. “You know her. She tends to drone on and on about odd things.”

Anger was burning through me. “What have you done with her?” I said, my voice eerily quiet. “I swear if you laid a finger on her—”

He raised his hands in false surrender. “Calm yourself,” he said, laughing, “I haven't done anything and I doubt that you can stop me if I do anything at all.”

I felt like lunging at him and clawing his eyes out before an unbidden image of his sharp fangs entered my mind. He could kill me. He would kill me. “She trusted you!” I managed. Then, “I trusted you.”

“Trust is a stupid thing,” he said simply. “One thing to gain and another thing to lose. I prefer not to trust anyone seeing as it makes you as weak as a flower exposed to the frost. Now, follow me.” He turned around and started to head out of the tent.

“Why should I?” Was he going to kill me now?

Alex turned back and fixed his brown eyes on mine. “Trust me.”



The sky was a light grey shade and there was no sun. The ground was made of the same sandy terrain of the tent I had been sleeping in. There were a few trees scattered about. Most of them were dead and looked like they had been dead for years. There were a few leaf bearing trees but they were all so odd. A tree that I passed by had leaves at the bottom and the trunk stuck out at the top like it was upside-down. Alex caught my surprised looks.

“Everything looks different in Seul Âme.” Why did that name sound so familiar?

I immediately thought of the research time I had with Justine in the library—the site about the Lamia. Was the site...telling the truth? If so, I would be in another world.

“Are we in...?” I didn't finish the question.

“Another dimension? World? You can say that,” Alex said. “You probably won't be going back,” he added without remorse. “If I didn't get to you first, the Prince would have taken you to the Cattle Farm.”

“Cattle Farm...?” That didn't sound pleasant, especially the way that Alex had said it like it was going to be the end of me.

“You know, the Prince.” Alex turned and smiled at me once again. “Xavier Catlin.”

I stared at him, my heart pounding fast. “The Prince of what?” I asked, my voice sounded calmer than I felt. Xavier was a Prince. That would explain the arrogance but for Alex to bring him up now meant that he wasn't...human...

“The Vampire Prince,” Alex said simply. “And I had thought that you figured it out by now.”

Vampire Prince. I should have known. Then...he was the one who...killed Amanda. It all made sense now. He took too much blood from her. It made sense.

If I could believe that Vampires existed.

“What exactly,” I began, “is lycanthropy?” The word sounded very familiar but I could place my finger on it. And right now, Alex seemed amused enough by me to provide answers.

“Wolfen. Or Werewolves, as you may call it. The real term is wolfen,” he said. “I was born half wolfen so it wasn't me who wolfened our bloodline.”

A Werewolf. He was a Werewolf. This sounded exactly like something off one of Justine's shows. Except that the Vampires and Werewolves would be the dashing romantic interest. I found it impossible to be attracted to Xavier and Alex now that I knew. Vampires and Werewolves were a species apart from humans. They were never humans and can never be like one so why were they always romanticized?

We finally reached our destination. It was another tent just like the one I had exited. The exterior was the same yellowish as the interior of the tent. The flaps were down and a woman in something that looked like armour stood beside the flaps. She bowed when she saw Alex and shot me a look.

“Another prisoner?” she asked sharply in her gravelly voice.

“Yeah, sure, why not?” Alex did another smile at me that was honestly getting on my nerves. “That's where you'll be staying from now on,” Alex said, motioning to the tent. “Don't try to escape.”

With those as his last words, he spun around and left. The woman took me roughly by the arms and pushed me inside the tent.

It was as nicely lit as the other tent but this time, there were more cots and other people in the tent. Most of them were bony and slouched over. The only emotion that their faces portrayed was the feeling of hopelessness.

Except for the girl in the back. Her eyes flashed with defiance and her long blonde hair wiped around as she turned to face me.

“Justine?” I asked hesitantly. “Is it you?”

“Oh my gosh!” she cried. “Myra!” She ran and gave me a hug that made most of the others stare at us. She let go of me and stared at me as if she was afraid that I would disappear at any moment. “You wouldn't believe it,” she began, “like, this is almost my dream come true!”

Her eyes were shining with happiness. Did she still think that Vampires and Werewolves—er, wolfen, were 'hot'? My heart sank. I would never be able to convince her out of this place if she thought so. Couldn't she see all those desperate faces around her?

“Justine!” I said. “Are you still...?”

“Heads over heels with Alex?” she finished. “Heck yes! And now it's even better that he's a Werewolf, I mean how, super hot is that? It's almost like a dream come true.”

A dream that would turn into a nightmare soon, I thought. “Justine,” I said hesitantly, “but he's...a... They're not the same. He's not the same as those on your television shows,” I told her almost desperately. “You can't believe that he's just a good guy! I mean look at all these people!” I pointed to the others walking around. Some of the stared at us but I paid no attention to that. I couldn't believe how Justine thought that Alex was still the charming boy from school when he clearly wasn't. His persona from school and now was completely different. In fact, I'm sure everything he did at school was part of his fake personality. Everything had been a lie.

But I doubted that it mattered to Justine because she stilled had a glazed and happy look in her eyes every time Alex's name was mentioned.

“They just don't know yet,” Justine said, waving them off. “You know what? This could be on a TV show! The bitch dies and then the girls get the hotties. Oh!” Justine squealed, “Xavier is also a Prince! A Vampire Prince! How hot is that?” She swooned, a dreamy smile etched on her face.

“No,” I said almost forcefully. “Justine, they're not hot. They're not cool. What are you on about?”

She glared at me. “What are you on about? Don't you understand this dream come true! Don't be the killjoy, Myra. Every girl needs their fantasies.”

I was getting very desperate now. “Not this kind,” I said, shaking my head. “They're not humans. They're monsters. They're a different species! That's why things are how they are! We need to get out of here!”

Justine looked at me as if I was crazy. “Get out of here? No, this is my heaven and no way are you going to get me out of here. And if you are, you'll have to take me screaming.”

“Please, you have to trust me. Alex isn't your friend,” I managed. I was fighting a losing battle and unlike Justine, I didn't think I had the will to push further until I got to her. Knowing Justine, it was impossible to sway her to see my side of things unless she wanted to.

“Then who is?” Justine asked me. Her voice was quiet now, something I rarely ever heard. “You're not my friend either, Myra.”

I could only watch in shock as she pushed pass me and walked straight out the tent.