Fear me, Love me

Message for Rabbit

The blistering heat of the sun baked the dry earth and Hannah kicked up dust clouds as she walked. Her gaunt face had a harsh kind of beauty - made from sharp lines and contrast of shadow and light. Her dark eyes glittered brightly whilst her skin was starved, lifeless as marble. Lux, a light spirit, whispered soft murmurs into the werewolf keeper's ear. Lux shone brightly, a stunning orb of white light about the size of a golf ball - she fluttered at her shoulder like a ghost parrot.

As Hannah walked through the ramshackle market people stopped and stared. They bowed their heads reverentially to Hannah, many fell to their knees, and some of the women reached out to touch her - tears in their tired eyes. They worshipped her. Hannah tensed, eyes fixed straight ahead. Lux shrank bank into Hannah's dark hair causing the inky strands to spill over her face.

Leaving the crowd behind Hannah quickened her pace and descended the stone steps to the underground. In the harsh lighting her expression looked severe. She paused for a moment, her gaze running along the walls that were lined with posters and the piles of them burning in the grates. Jordan's image fixed on her - he was smiling charmingly - the resistances' handsome hero. Hannah's heart fluttered in her chest. She took a poster and folded it up - hiding it away in her back pocket.

She took the long winding staircase down to Aleksey's laboratory. It was deep underground and heavily guarded. The guards bowed on seeing Hannah, their crimson gazes falling to the ground. Vampires. She waited as they scanned their passes to release the locks. They didn't follow her inside. To enter Aleksey Dubiki's laboratory was to risk your life. It was crammed with half completed inventions, bubbling vats and wires trailing down the walls and hanging from the ceiling. Aleksey's mind was brilliant and terrifying.

"I got everything on the list!" Hannah called out to the chaos.

"You should have ignored it," she followed the sound of Aleksey's voice, "new break through, everything's changed," he was rambling rapidly to himself, "I'm going to need so much more. Unless of course I'm wrong in supposing -"

"Where should I dump these?" Hannah interrupted, referring to the packs that weighed heavy on her shoulders.

Aleksey didn't look up at her. He had his sleeves rolled up to reveal his thin arms and was scribbling furiously on a scrap of paper.

"What have you got there?"

"Everything on the list." Hannah let her bag drop to the ground where she stood. The place was a mess anyway. "You got anything for me?"

With deep reluctance Aleksey pulled himself away from his work.

"Yes. It's ready." He motioned for her to follow him through the labyrinth of wiring, machines and cages. Coming to an abrupt halt Hannah helped him to pull aside a mass of plastic sheeting to reveal his latest creation. Hannah's eyes widened in admiration.

"Wow," she breathed. He clapped her on the shoulder.

"Send that bitch a message."

Chaga wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. He gazed up (squinting his eyes against the glare) at the mighty structure built upon the sweat of slaves. It was going to be a deformed monstrosity on the landscape. Loud clicking warned him that he needed to keep working. He trudged on, his shoulders trembling with the weight he was carrying. He felt like an ant, following the single file of the other ants in the colossal shadow of the tower.

He'd been caught by slavers just three weeks ago. He and hundreds like him were assigned to this labour camp to build a temple for Wabyt - the mother of Demons. His lips twitched up, "why's she called Rabbit? Like a bunny." He'd heard a child ask during their cramped train journey here. The mother had hastily shushed her child but Chaga had laughed. Long live Queen Rabbit.