Revelations

Eliza welcomed sunrise like she would welcome a lover into her arms. As she and Zachary stepped out from their hiding place the warmth of the sun caressed them and drew them into the light. Eliza spread her arms out like they were wings and shut her eyes. The warmth seeped into her body, reached into the cold, dark recesses and turned them into light. The sun made anything seem possible.

“Sometimes,” she said to Zachary, “It seems impossible that the sun could rise with so much darkness in the world.”

“Yet it rises all the same,” was the response.

Eliza let her arms fall back by here sides and gave her new ally a sidelong glance. “You don’t seem all that thrilled. The sun is up. We’re out of danger, for now.”

Zachary shrugged. “I just don’t feel excited. It doesn’t make the vampires any less evil.”

“I guess that the smaller things fill me with joy,” Eliza murmured. “They are so few and far between.”

“That’s true.” A pause. “So you never did tell me what you’re doing here.”

“The... the people I travelled with. They were coming here. I think there’s some kind of rebel group you don’t know about.”

Zachary looked intrigued. “I thought the rebel groups here were long gone. How have they managed to escape the vampires for so long? ” It was more of a hypothetical question, more to himself than to her. He seemed rather annoyed that he hadn’t figured this out sooner. “And you were planning on finding these rebels... how?”

Eliza looked sheepish. “I don’t know.”

He came over and peered at her closer. “You didn’t come here to find them.” It was a statement. He made a lot of statements. “You came here to die. Didn’t have the guts to end it yourself.”

It scared Eliza, how insightful he was. “Can you really blame me? I didn’t know what else to do. In case you haven’t noticed, the human race is becoming extinct!”

“Well, getting yourself killed isn’t exactly helping that situation now, is it?”

Eliza pursed her lips, knowing he was right. “Well, what am I supposed to do? The only people I knew were murdered right in front of me!”

“You’re supposed to live. They would want you to live.” Zachary’s gaze skimmed the buildings surrounding them. Despite the neglected state of the city, it was still up and running. The vampires carried on in their world almost the same – they ran electricity, had a wayward sort of government. There was something so incredibly... human about it.

“So what are you doing here?”

“I already told you.”

Eliza shook her head. “No. I mean, what are you really doing here? No one comes here to kill vampires by themselves. If they do, they’re just asking to be killed. Or, they have another reason.”

“What would that reason be?”

“You tell me.” She folded her arms across her chest.

Zachary shrugged. He perched on the edge of the building, glancing up at the sun. “I’ve heard an Ancient lives here.”

“An Ancient?”

He turned back to her. “That’s what I said.”

“You’re crazy. No one has ever killed an Ancient, except an Ancient.”

“Then maybe it’s time someone did.”

Eliza turned away from him, shaking her head. “Great. I find another human and he turns out to be crazy. It figures.”

“Can you stop talking to yourself? How do you know I couldn’t kill one?” Zachary actually had the grace to look offended.

He’s got nerve... but if he keeps this up he may as well lose it. “Have you heard the stories about humans who come face-to-face with an Ancient?”

Zachary frowned and leaned forward, intrigued. “No... Have you?”

“No! Because no human has ever survived an encounter with an Ancient! They all died! All we have heard are myths. A lot of people don’t even think they exist.”

He snorted. “Well, of course they exist.”

“Maybe they do, maybe they don’t.” Eliza sighed. Shielding her face from the sun, she looked toward him. “The only stories people have heard are those from vampires who encountered an Ancient. They speak of them as gods. Indestructible, unrelenting, exalted.”

“Exalted is hardly the word I’d use,” remarked Zachary.

“What I mean is, you could be looking for nothing. The Ancients could just be something the vampires constructed, like our gods. They could be making it all up simply to scare us.” Eliza paused. “Like we weren’t scared enough already. What makes you so sure that Ancients exist?”

Zachary picked up a piece of concrete from the ground and tossed it over the edge. A faint sound was heard as the rock hit the pavement below. Then he glanced back at Eliza, and she saw the sincerity in his eyes. “Because I met one,” he said.