Razed By The Wolves

The Will of the Eternal

The sleek black limousine snaked its way along the smoothly paved drive until it pulled up outside the hospital. To the human world it was just a disused hospital waiting to be demolished. To the vampire world it was the single most crucial building to their survival. All vampires had a slight insanity to them; that's all part of their animalistic nature. But every so often one would go to the extreme and slaughter an entire village in a night.

These vampires were a severe risk of exposure, and so had to be isolated from the human world. That's where the hospital came into play. The hospital was now an asylum for the most unstable vampires. However, there was one vampire who was the most unstable of the bunch, and it was this vampire that the man in the black robes was here to see.

He strode down the corridor with purpose, only stopping occasionally to look inside a cell. Finally he came to a cell that was guarded by two uniformed orderlies each holding a diamond-topped cane in their hands. He showed them his identification and they nodded, stepping aside to allow him to enter. As he edged steadily into the cell, he noticed the security cameras all pointed at the twitching figure on the floor. It sat with its back to the man, not even turning around to acknowledge his arrival. If it wasn't for the raven-black hair twitching every so often he'd have believed it was a statue, but it was definitely the vampire he'd come to see.

He approached it warily, as a poacher would a lion, and whispered its name softly. It growled savagely at him and he recoiled as it wheeled around to face him. He could see now that the past year had not been kind to it. Before the incident it had actually been very attractive. But now it genuinely looked deranged. Its eyes were tired, but still burned with primal fury. He knew it would've torn him to shreds right there, were its arms not restricted by the concrete straightjacket.

"Shhh..." He whispered. "I'm not here to harm you." His voice was smooth, and had a reassuring edge that was able to convince anyone that he was telling the truth. He waited until its eyes had softened before continuing. "I've heard all about you. I heard about who you were before the Cardinal turned you. I heard about you being there when the Eternal returned. And I know why you're in this place. I'm here to offer you a way out. You'll be free to get revenge on all those who've wronged you. Does that sound tempting to you?" The vampire contemplated this before it finally stepped out of the shadows.

"I'm listening." whispered Victoria, a smile spreading on her insane features.

 The lights shut off, sending everything into darkness. Screams rang out from every direction, so loud I thought even MY eardrums would burst. Instantly I felt the pressure mounting, and I wanted to run. But I'd made the choice that had led to this, and now I had to go out there. And so, with a quick nod from Elizabeth, we ran through the curtains and onto the stage. In the year since we'd lost Ashley, we'd decided it was only right that we start up the band we'd always talked about in his honour. Elizabeth and I shared the roles of lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist, and after putting the word out we'd found ourselves a bassist and drummer. But it was our lead guitarist that was the most difficult to find. Because Ashley would have been our lead guitarist, we needed his replacement to be a fitting tribute to him. He'd had a very unique style of playing, and nobody we auditioned could even scratch the surface. Until we met Fletcher Wainwright.

Fletcher had marked himself out as different from the second he walked into the room. All the others swaggered in like they'd already gotten the position. It was like they thought they were the main attraction, and that really wasn't what we wanted. Guitarists like them were two a penny. We wanted someone who was unique. We wanted someone who'd contribute to the band and make themselves heard, but without trying to upstage everyone else. So when Fletcher shuffled in shyly and waited for us to ask his name, he immediately piqued our interest. This was a man who'd clearly been treated badly throughout the course of his life, just like myself and Elizabeth had been. All his self-confidence had been stripped away, and when he picked up his guitar and started to play, he didn't flail around like everyone else had.