CHAPTER 1
Valentine had crossed the last line. He expected me to do these vile things to humans, things I could never fathom doing. I know I had been a human once, I know that I hadn’t been born the way I was today, and I knew I couldn’t do what Valentine wanted me to do to other humans. He often left “gifts” for me in my room, “gifts” on the brink of death, so if I was home at night it would be waiting for me. I would always look at these “gifts” with disgust in my eyes, the victim cowering away from me, knowing their death waited. But I would always let them out of the mansion, giving them a somewhat fighting chance to survive, knowing that in Valentine’s anger at me he would at least put them out of their misery. He never made any others, just me and I believe he was proud of that fact. He certainly said it often enough and he liked to rub it in the council’s face even though they would rather him make more. I was starting to get tired of living with Valentine. I have been living with him for 97 years now, ever since the day he changed me. When Valentine first changed me, I loved it; I loved being what Valentine had made me. The feel of the air when I ran, the power surging through me when I levitated just a little bit, the satisfaction of killing an animal and feeling the blood flow through me, making me stronger than I had ever been; I embraced it whole-heartedly. A life with Valentine let me do what I wanted, albeit under his watchful gaze. It was so much fun for the first few decades or so, but now… now he wanted me to do these unspeakable things to humans. I knew it was time for me to move on, to live my own life. I hated being this… thing now. This thing that humans referred to as “monster”. I didn’t mind so much living here; at least I was taken care of, with a mansion to live in and lots of animals to feed on, but I needed to be away from him, away from the things he was trying to make me do. I was hoping that Valentine would just let me go, no questions asked. I didn’t want a confrontation, just a peaceful goodbye and keep in touch. I hated what he had made me but he had tried to make my life as comfortable as he could, which I tried not to be ungrateful for.
I thought Valentine was at home so I began to search through the mansion, trying to find him. I knew I could call out to him with my mind, but I blocked him as much as I could, not wanting him to know everything I thought all the time, so I kept a wall up in my mind even now when I needed to find him. I had been through this mansion so many times I knew it by heart. This place was huge but I knew I could clear it in ten minutes so I began my search. I went through the various bedrooms first, knowing he wouldn’t be there, but covering all my basis; again I didn’t want to let down my shields at all so I had to do what humans do and actually work to find him. After wasting two minutes clearing the 13 bedrooms I already knew to be empty, I started checking the other rooms. I was always amused by how many studies he had; at least six, each with its own wall to wall, floor to ceiling shelves filled with books that he didn’t even read. I had been with him for nearly a century now and I don’t think I had ever seen him read once. I knew he just liked to keep up appearances that he was well read and “classy”. He even had a separate room he called his “library”, different from the six other studies he had. I had lived with Valentine for so long and yet could still not understand why he was so vain or cared so much about appearances. Any live thing that came to this mansion died anyways so it wasn’t as if he had to impress anyone. And anytime anyone from the council came, they never noticed how classy his place was or how nice he looked; they were more concerned about how many others he had made. These beings even had their own set of rules which they made sure others like them carried out and followed. I never understood why they had their own set of “rules” besides what humans abided by. They seemed to think they were better then humans and therefore could not follow the lowly human rules. I didn’t understand them and I was never going to understand Valentine and I was done with this whole life.
I knew for sure that he would not be in any of the studies; he found them too stuffy and closed off, so after the bedrooms I decided to check the library. Even though he never even read he seemed to spend a lot of time in that place. I opened the double doors and called out his name, the word echoing throughout the entire room. I was always a little awed whenever I walked into the library; it was so huge and had so many books. I have never cared for trivial things like books, even as a human, but it was still a tremendous sight to see; with each wall covered floor to ceiling with still more shelves in the center of the room. I had known when I first entered the room that Valentine wasn’t in it, but I couldn’t help my awe and lost in my thoughts of leaving, I wondered throughout the room. I kept going deeper and deeper, the room seemingly endless until I finally reached the back wall. There was a canvas painting hanging on the wall stretching from floor to ceiling, one I had never noticed before. In all my 97 years here I don’t think I have ever gone this deep into the library. I walked up to it, wondering when he had received it and who had done it for him. It was a painting of Valentine himself stretched up to his full 6’7” height but because of the length of the painting looking a thousand feet tall, his eyes blood red with an evil smile on his lips. His eyes were focused on his victims, three young boys all cowering off to the side, trying to cover one of the boys who had already died. They were all standing on a pool of blood which covered the whole bottom of the painting. There was blood running out of Valentine’s mouth, covering his shirt so I would imagine he had been the one to kill that little boy. The other three boys had such terrified looks on their faces, it was all I could do not to look around to make sure this monster wasn’t lurking somewhere, ready to attack me. I wondered who the fuck would even paint this for him and what kind of sick creature would even put this on his wall. I leaned against the painting, trying to wrap my head around this. I knew he fed on humans, almost every night in fact, but children? What a sick fuck. I hit the painting with my fist, angry that someone out there would do this painting for him, would showcase the face of this monster and instead of the dull thud you hear when you hit a wall, I heard a metallic clink. ‘What the hell?’
I hit the painting again, this time a little harder, punching a hole through the canvas. I peered through the hole I had made and noticed the wall behind was in face metal instead of wood or brick. I didn’t want to go snooping in case Valentine was out there waiting to feed on me, but after living here for this long I thought I knew all the ins and outs of this place. This room was new; or at least something Valentine made damn sure I would never find. With a grunt I tore the whole painting down, revealing a large metal door. I had to find out what was in here before I left. I don’t even know what drove me, but I couldn’t think of anything Valentine would want to hide from me. He had always let me have free roam of this place and the forest outside; what on earth would he want to hide from me that he had used that horrible painting to cover it?
I saw that the door was padlocked with a chain, but that wouldn’t be a problem for me. I grabbed where the lever met the ward and yanked up. I had to exert a little strength, but Valentine had underestimated me if he has used this lock to deter me. After a few seconds of pulling, the lever came out of the ward with a little metallic “ping” and snapped off, the whole lock falling off the chain with the chain sliding to the floor after it. I looked around; sure that Valentine had heard that noise but saw nothing behind me. I took a breath, making sure my mind was still blocked and that nothing would bring the mental wall door. I opened the doors onto a long hallway, noting there were no light fixtures anywhere. I guess Valentine forgot I was a creature like him and could see the hallway like it was daytime inside. I entered the hallway, feeling out with my mind to make sure no one was in the hallway with me. When I was satisfied no one was, I continued to walk the length of the hallway. At the end there was another door, this one not even locked, let alone padlocked. Apparently Valentine never thought anyone would get through the first door. The strong metallic odor of blood filled my nose. I was very wary about opening the door, but I had to see what was in the room and where the smell was coming from.
I pushed open the doors and allowed my site to adjust as it was brighter in this room than in the hallway. When my eyes had adjusted I looked around and reeled back through the doorway in horror.
“No… this can’t be…” I didn’t want to get closer, but I had to be sure of what I was seeing. I went back into the room, into the pool of light in the center. The room had about twelve metal posts bolted to the floor, not quite reaching the ceiling. The posts were a rust color because of all the blood that had stained them. Right now, thankfully only 6 of them were being used, but it was more than I wanted to see. Attached to each posts by what looked to be large nails, were six young boys, maybe around the age of ten or eleven. Each boy was suspended upside down, their feet at the top of these posts hammered in with the large nails. The rest of their bodies hung freely, each one over a large tub. The boys had horrified expression on their faces as if they had been killed at the height of their fear. For some reason my mind thought of the canvas blocking the first door. Each boy’s throat had been cut into what looked like huge, grotesque smiles and their wrists had also been slit. The strain of being upside down had starting tearing some of the boys heads off their shoulders so some were just hanging on by a thread of skin. All their blood was running into tubs placed directly below each boy. The tubs seem to be there to collect their blood all in one place. I realized with a start this was some sort of blood room; a room Valentine could use to harvest little boys and collect their blood. If he didn’t want to go out for blood, he could just come here and take a bath in the blood and have his fill. I hated to think about when all twelve posts were used up. No one deserved this, especially not little kids. My stomach started to cramp and I felt disgusted at myself when I heard it start to growl. The blood was getting to me and I wanted to taste it. I wanted to jump into one of the tubs and slather myself with their blood and have my own fill. The urge was so strong that a sound between a moan and a scream escaped my lips as I forcefully pulled my body from the room. I wanted it so badly that tears starting running down my face; I would not let myself be the monster I now knew Valentine to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment