Blood and Bone

He was drawing closer to something; was it the witch? The pull brought him through the desperate mass of humanity. Some begged him for food. Yet, it was obvious that he did not carry any. Though, his leather coat protected him from their clawing, others tried to search his pockets for food.  Others barely felt a blade pierce their flesh. Darius felt little empathy for this lot. He stabbed those who got too close. He saw them as merely cattle, something to be eaten. These were the former purveyors of pornography, bad scripts and shoddy filmmaking. They had gotten what they deserved. He killed even more as they continued to get in his way. The crowd grew violent, some were searching for him, the murderer. But he blended in with everyone too well.

Crowds began to scatter out of fear. They were trying to protect themselves, but they were only delaying the inevitable. He tried to justify his wanton killing: "they were better off dead,” or so he told himself.

His intuition led him to believe that he was closer to the witch. The energy pull seemed to stop. He might be at ground zero, close to her, or maybe not. He was unsure. Darius changed tactics. He grabbed a man from the street and brought him up to face level, with his closed fists. He asked if he had seen the witch, Saneeta. The man looked terrified, meek and in need of escape. The man managed to point down the road, towards an old hut. It had small animal heads, totems and other knickknacks adorning the entrance. Darius sensed that this was right. He pushed the man to the side and headed towards the hut. He passed a few more destroyed cars and remnants of Hollywood shops. He hesitated before entering this small, greyish abode.

He ducked down to enter the witch’s hut. The interior smelled old and musty. Dust circled about as a few slivers of light penetrated the darkness. The witch sat behind an old office desk. Her eyes were grey and she surrounded herself with shelves, filled with several oddities. Darius thought he say a fetus in one glass jar. Feathers and old tomes sat on other shelves. The old woman’s table was filled with ledgers, artefacts and writing materials. This woman is no homemaker, Darius thought to himself. Still, she might be the woman he was looking for.

He approached the old wooden desk, in the gloom. Darius sat down in front of the old crone, in an old rickety chair. It creaked under his weight. Darius looked at her eyes. It was obvious that her eyesight was gone. Her orbs looked glossy and unfocused. She seemed to move her head about as if trying to absorb sounds more effectively: "who's there?"

Darius spoke up and announced his intention: “I hear you can make vampires mortal. Is this true?” Darius stared at her intently for a response. He looked at her face to see if she might lie, to save herself. Instead, the woman simply titled her head in an awkward fashion. She opened and closed her mouth several times as if to speak, but she was unsure of herself. Darius was not sure if she had heard him.

Finally, the old woman sat up straighter and she brought her face towards him. Darius shuddered at her grisly, pale sight. Her mouth drew open again, in shock. She pulled back as if she feared something. Her hands grasped the desk as if preparing for a strike. She knew that Darius was a vampire and she prepared for the worst.

A few seconds passed by, when she knew that Darius did not intend to attack her, she replied: “Yes, I know the ancient ways.” Darius asked her to proceed, to help him become mortal. She reached over for a book and she placed her hands on a particular page. Her hands went over the book as if she was reading Braille, or something similar. Then, she pointed her face towards Darius and spoke, again. “Do you wish to perform the ceremony? If you say yes, there is little chance of returning to your former state." She paused and waited for Darius' reply.

Darius thought of the hundreds of years he had been a vampire. Over the centuries, he had killed thousands. He had seen empire's rise and disappear into the desert. He had seen humanity shift and wane, only to wax later on. It was a tempermental species and he wanted to rejoin its masses.