A Dark Night

Chapter VIII

Chapter 8

The Scarlet Banquet I

 

The red. The red in their eyes. The red in mine. The red on my face, the red in their chattering gums. The red everywhere stared at me and judged me from afar telling me I needed more, or I shall become as lifeless as the lad whom I had just eaten the life out of. This silence was like a winter breeze, greeting me with a cold, comforting embrace. It held me like a mother holding her crying child in her arms, shielding it from the horrors of the world. And in her cold embrace I took upon myself the strength of the cold. The cold that had become me and entered my being forever, no longer did a warm sensation of life flow through my veins. There lay only ice as cold as the blizzard that summoned it to existence.

“S-Sire, Sire! Are you m-mad?” I could see the fear in their eyes. Like a pack of old dogs beaten and bruised begging for their master to stop. But these beasts beheld the fruit of life within them. The night was still so young and I was just beginning after having my appetizer. This hunger, this yearning had taken over me and nothing else seemed more important than getting my taste at every last drop of blood.

But I could not bring myself to say a single word. The only sounds uttering from me were of cold death and warm life. The heavy breathing emitting from me echoed in the cold winter air morphing images of imagination in the air. Yet I swear… I swear in my breath I could see the face of the young lad I had just eaten alive. It was as if life was coming back to haunt me, but I was no longer haunted by such things. The horror I had become had freed me of all conscious fright, for I had now become that fright. That monster in the back of minds. Our inner evil made flesh.

“Shut up, shut up! Shut up and fight me you monster!” I heard a man yell from the crowd. He yelled at me with such anger, such rage that it emanated a flame from his mortal body. Yet from this flame, this rage I could see an expression of fear and cowardice. And this flame, this fire, this light was burning! Burning into my eyes. His eyes ridden with a deep blue fear yet his heart flaming his soul in an aura of rage, I could tell such a phenomenon began to inspire his fellow man. “We’re not afraid of you! W-we will strike you down Captain!”

“Strike me down. Murder me. Strip me of my life and claim it as your own, for I am dead. Dead and lifeless as this snow. This pale, bleak, white snow! Rip me of my skin. Feast upon my life, for I am no more.”

And nothing was heard of from then. It was almost as if, no I was sure of it, they believed me another man. And they were right. As right as I was of it. I was sure of it. Completely, without a doubt. Without a doubt that I was no longer a man. For man does not eat man. Such is a sin. And men do not sin. Only do his kin sin, the fallen of men.

And here was I, the fallen of men, before these men of God. His servants, his warriors. They cast their shields before them like crests of their allegiance. Allegiance to the lord whom I had forsake my allegiance to. For the Lord loves his children. And a father does not cast his child to darkness. Such is the fault of a father, the fault that affects only the son. And this son was now a goat of the fallen seeking the sacred blood of the lamb. And the blood of the lamb lay in the children of the Almighty, all who lay before me bearing their crest of light.

And the lambs ran. Ran at me, sprinting with blade in hand. Bearing arms about 4 attacked at once. Yet I could see them coming moments before it all happened. And using this to my advantage I intercepted and dodged their strikes, moving to their sides and matching their blades with mine. Yet... I did not strike back. I only protected myself. Part of me held back. Held back this hunger, this lust, this power! No longer shall I hold this back, I shall embrace it! And with this embrace I shall be reborn in its might!