— Thessa Rowlan, “The Mind’s Monster: A Psychological Guide to Fear and Folklore,” page 88
Returning to the pasture was like stepping back into a nightmare.
It was simple, not too distinct from any other she had seen, yet somehow the air here felt heavier, thicker, almost. It was like all the grief and guilt she had felt towards this place had pooled into the soil and never fully dried up.
Emily couldn’t bear the thought of returning after what happened. Yet here she stood, standing at the edge of the sheep-laden field, with her arms awkwardly at her side and her heart pounding against her ribcage.
Mina walked ahead of her, leading them around the rebuilt barn. It looked so out of place compared to the rest of the pasture and the forest behind it. Freshly painted planks, new supports, and a half-finished roof, sure, but it still looked spectacular.
“You remember where we first saw signs of them coming from?” Mina asked as they approached the treeline.
Emily nodded and pointed over toward the side of the stone fence. “There, right?”
Mina nodded and led her over. “Sangrevoros are harder to track than most monsters. They’re fast and light on their feet. They don’t crash through the forest like a bear or stamp around like a stag. They move quietly and gracefully like cats.” Mina knelt by some underbrush. “If you’re expecting brute force, you’ll miss the signs.”
Emily knelt beside her and frowned. “So… what are the signs?”
Mina pulled aside a few branches from a nearby bush. “Look here.” Nestled between the brush was a tuft of coarse, blackish-grey fur. It glinted faintly in the sunlight like a thin wire.
“Sangrevoro fur,” Mina said. “Brittle. Comes loose in a fight or when they pass through thick growth. You won’t find blood unless something slowed them down. And even then, they clean themselves fast.”
Emily picked up the fur. It was wiry and stiff.
“The fur’s the clearest indicator,” Mina said. “That and claw marks. And the scent, if you’ve got the nose for it.”
Emily chuckled nervously. “Like you?”
Mina nodded. “A heightened sense of smell isn’t all it's chawked up to be.” She stood, sniffing the air with a subtle turn of her head, eyes narrowed. “It’s faint. But there’s a trail. This way.”
They pushed into the forest.
Emily followed closely, trying not to step too loudly. She kept a hand near her revolver, not because she thought it would help much, but because it made her feel like she had something. She knew that Sangrevoros preferred hunting at night, but the idea of one of them lurking through the forest during the day haunted her. There was always a chance.
Deeper into the forest, the trees grew denser, the canopy darker. Sunlight filtered through the branches in patches.
“Keep your eyes open,” Mina said. “When it comes to tracking just about anything else, you need to know what the indicators are.” She pointed down at the muddy ground near a creek bed. “Deer. See the split hooves? Fresh. Probably passed through an hour ago.”
“How can you tell it’s that fresh?”
“The edges of the print are still wet. No sign of drying. You see moss displaced here? That means movement. It doesn’t spring back instantly.”
Emily nodded.
Mina stepped to a nearby tree and ran her fingers over a gouge in the bark. “Blackback bear. Claw marks are high, see. At least seven feet up. It’s old, though. A week, maybe.”
Emily looked around nervously. “So we’re not just dealing with Sangrevoros out here, huh?”
“No. The world is filled with more than just monsters. That’s why we move carefully.”
They continued on. Every few feet, Mina would pause and point something out, like rabbit prints in the mud, the twisted spiral of a snail trail on a mossy rock, even the feather of an owl caught on a low branch. It was strangely calming. For a moment, Emily forgot where they were headed. She just listened.
Then Mina stopped cold.
Emily nearly walked into her back.
“Here,” Mina whispered. She pointed to a tree at the base of a ravine. Four claw marks dragged deep into the bark. They were long, ragged, and beneath them was another tuft of coarse fur. “They were here,” Mina said. “One, maybe two of them. Passing through. Recently.”
“How recent?” Emily asked, voice low.
Mina closed her eyes and inhaled. “Within the hour. Scent is fresh.”
Emily’s mouth went dry. “Great…”
Mina glanced over her shoulder as they walked, her eyes narrowing slightly beneath the brim of her hat. “You’re still nervous.”
Emily looked down at the revolver holstered at her hip, then at the trees swallowing the trail ahead. “Of course I’m still nervous.” Her voice cracked, but she tried to play it off by adjusting her belt, even though it didn’t need adjusting.
Mina slowed, letting Emily catch up until they were walking side by side. “It’s alright to be nervous. It keeps you sharp. Being stupid is what gets you killed, but you’re not stupid.”
Emily laughed and chuckled awkwardly again. “Right now I feel pretty close.” They stopped at a ridge where the treeline broke. “I just… I don’t want to fight them again.”
Mina turned to face her and again put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re going to be alright. Yes, they got you last time. They nearly broke your arm. They would have killed you if I hadn’t stepped in.”
Emily didn’t say anything.
“So what are you going to do now? Hide? Walk away? Let them come back again and again until someone else ends up in that barn, bleeding and screaming.
“No. But—”
“No one gets to choose the things that hurt them, Emily. But you do get to choose what you do about it.”
Emily looked away.
“If you need to, think about it another way. Revenge. Look what they did to you. They haunt your dreams. They torment you. Don’t you want to do anything about it? Don’t you want to prove to them, hell, prove to yourself that you’re stronger? You have no reason to be afraid of them. Bite them back. And if you want to be afraid, fine, bring that fear with you. But don’t stand there hoping this goes away. It won’t. This is the only way forward.”
Emily swallowed hard. “...I’m not just doing this for revenge,” she said finally.
Mina raised an eyebrow.
“I just… I don’t want to feel useless again.”
“You won’t be.” Mina gave her a reassuring smile, but it did little to satiate the nerves eating away at Emily.
She didn’t give Mina a proper answer, only a hesitant nod. She wasn’t sure what to do. It almost felt aimless, like no matter which path she walked, it was leading her nowhere. She needed to be stronger, but she couldn’t bring herself to be. She needed to face her fears at some point, but she could hardly bring herself to. If not for Mina dragging her out here by force, she wouldn’t even consider doing this.
A small part of her knew she was doing the right thing by braving the forest in search of these monsters. She knew that by killing them, she would be saving someone else’s life, someone who might have shared her fate.
So why did she feel so wrong about it still?
Soon, they came to the mouth of a narrow cave.
The trees here had thinned out to expose the jagged stone and sloping ground. Emily hadn’t even known such terrain existed here in Cresthill, but then again, they were in the valley of a small, crescent-shaped mountain. Anything was possible here.
“This is it?” she asked hesitantly.
“I’ve been here before,” Mina explained. “Same cave, different pack. Never any sign of an Alpha.”
Emily shifted uncomfortably. “What does that mean?”
“It means we’re not dealing with normal Sangrevoros. They’re acting like foot soldiers.”
Emily stared long into the darkness of the cave mouth. The forest felt still around her, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that every tree had eyes. She was being watched, but there was nothing there. “I don’t like this,” she said.
“Me neither. But we don’t have a choice.” She took a long breath. “I’ll draw them out, and you’ll fight them.”
Emily’s stomach dropped. “Whoa, whoa, no, no, no, no, I’m not fighting them on my own.”
“I won’t always be there to protect you. You need to learn how to fight on your own.”
Emily opened her mouth to argue again, but Mina was already walking toward the cave. “Mina—wait!” she hissed.
Mina paused at the entrance. “Gun loaded?”
Emily checked the revolver. “Yes, but—”
“Then stay sharp.”
With that, she slipped into the darkness.
Emily stood alone, her heart thudding hard and fast. She drew her gun and aimed it at the mouth of the cave, taking a few deep breaths to calm her nerves. Her hands were shaking, and likewise, the gun was too.
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She waited…
Waited…
Waited…
Mina’s voice echoed faintly from deep within the cave, but she couldn’t make out what she said. How far in was she? It had to be pretty far to be as quiet as it was.
Emily pulled back the hammer and steadied her aim.
The sounds of the forest echoed around her. The rustling of trees, the faint trickle of the nearby creek. Then, she heard nothing at all. It was that familiar silence that haunted her dreams, like all the sound in the world had been sucked into a void and forgotten about.
The Sangrevoro were close.
Mina emerged from the darkness of the cave, moving backwards with a sword in one hand and her gun in the other.
A pair of red eyes gleamed in the darkness, and the first Sangrevoro slunk out from the shadows. It kept low to the ground, its twin tails uncoiled behind it, bristling like dry brush.
Emily’s breath caught. She wanted to scream, but couldn’t.
A second emerged. Then a third. Each one was nearly identical.
Emily took a step back and aimed at the first monster. It’s ribcage was visible under its sickly skin, and its teeth gleamed like rusted knives. It’s lip curled up into a silent snarl.
Mina kept moving back until she passed Emily, and left her at the forefront of these creatures.
Her finger trembled against the trigger as her eyes locked onto the creature's jagged, yellowed fangs. Her heart was hammering, her lungs were being squeezed tight. The memories came rushing back; the barn, the fire, the white-hot pain when its jaws clamped down.
The red, gleaming eyes burned a hole through her soul, and her body seized.
She couldn’t do this.
Emily tried to back away, but her legs had locked up.
The first Sangrevoro crouched low, then lunged for her. A blade cleaved through the creature’s neck, and its head flew free from its body, bouncing against Emily’s gut. She let out a silent scream as she stumbled back, blood splattering across her shirt. Her stomach ached, and for a moment, she thought it had bitten her, but she was fine.
Two bright flashes caught her attention, and suddenly, sound came crashing back into her ears; Her panicked, ragged breathing; the rustling of wind through trees; the blood dripping from Mina’s blade. A bird chirped somewhere overhead, oblivious.
Smoke drifted from the barrel of Mina’s revolver, and the remaining two Sangrevoros lay dead in the dirt.
Slowly, Emily lowered her gun and let it tremble at her side. “I—I’m sorry,” she choked out. “I—I should’ve—”
“Don’t,” Mina said flatly, her gaze fixated on the three dead monsters. Emily opened her mouth again, but Mina raised a hand without turning. “I said don’t.”
Emily tried to steady her breath, but her heart wouldn’t slow. She couldn’t get her hands to stop trembling.
BANG!
Her gun fired at the ground near her feet.
Emily yelped, dropping the weapon as she jumped aside. Her hand was shaking so much that she had accidentally pulled the trigger.
Mina glanced back over her shoulder. “You alright?”
“Y-Yeah…”
“You can’t let fear take hold of you like that,” she said, disappointed. “You can’t let it decide whether you live or die out here.”
Even though Mina’s gaze was calm, something about her silver eyes burned through Emily. Her stare drifted to the forest floor. “I know,” she responded quietly.
“No, you don’t,” Mina snapped. “If that had been Queen Lockhart herself stepping out of that cave, and you hesitated like that, you wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
“I just… I panicked. I’m sorry. I can’t… I don’t know…”
“Next time, I might not be close enough to save you.” She paused for a moment, relaxing her shoulders as she glanced back at the cave entrance for a moment. “I understand that you're afraid of them after what happened, but you’re stronger than they are. You’re smarter—” Mina’s head snapped to the left.
The sudden movement startled Emily, and just as she turned to see what had grabbed her attention, another gunshot went off beside her. She jerked aside as a figure stumbled from the underbrush and collapsed, groaning.
In the blink of an eye, he was back up and on Emily. A blade flew toward her chest.
CLANG!
Mina’s sword whirled to parry the strike. She got into a tussle and hurled the figure into a tree. The massive trunk exploded as they went flying through, and the tree collapsed with a thunderous crash of rustling leaves and branches.
Emily’s heart skipped a beat. Her eyes frantically scanned the area as Mina stepped in front of her.
What the hell just happened?
A hooded figure rose in an olive-green cloak, groaning, flashing a set of pointed fangs. Blood ran down his pale forehead, and his black hair spilled over his shoulders.
A knot caught in Emily’s throat.
In one hand, the vampire clutched a knife, and in the other, a pistol. He was covered just enough to avoid the burn of sunlight.
Before Emily could even fully process what was happening, Mina and the vampire sprang on each other. Two gunshots went off, and a pain scream was followed by the sickening crunch of bones. Blood sprayed across the grass as the vampire collapsed face-first into one of the few sunlit patches that cut through the canopy above. His legs had been severed at the knee, and he was left writhing on the ground.
Emily scrambled for her fallen gun and quickly aimed it at the vampire. It didn’t look like Draven, and that scream he made didn’t sound anything like the one she remembered. “Where the hell did he come from?”
The vampire’s hood had fallen, and so his face was sizzling in the sunlight. He crawled away desperately, but Mina kicked him onto his back and stomped her boot into his chest, pinning him. His pained screams were stifled when the bloodied tip of her silver sword pressed lightly against his neck.
The vampire hissed, baring his fangs. “You don’t know what you’re interfering with.” The side of his face had blackened, the skin raw and melted.
“I don’t care,” Mina said.
Emily blinked. “Wait… he was watching us, wasn’t he?”
“Probably has been for a while.”
The vampire’s breathing grew shallow. He clawed for his fallen gun, but Mina quick-fired into his hand.
“Fuck!” The vampire recoiled. “You bitch! You’ll die for speaking of the Queen like that! I’ll rip your throat out and offer your spine to her altar—”
Mina drove her heel into his chest with enough force to knock the breath from his lungs. There was a loud crack that made Emily cringe. “How did you find us?” Mina growled, pressing harder
“I don’t—I don’t know who you are!”
“Wrong answer,” she said coldly, pressing the flat of her silver sword against his neck. The vampire's flesh quietly sizzled, and he hissed through the pain.
“All I know is that you’re a traitor,” he growled. “I know what you are. You’re one of us.”
Mina narrowed her eyes. “Yeah. I am. That’s why I know how to kill you properly.” She put more pressure against his chest. “How. Did. You. Find. Us?”
“I didn’t—fuck—I didn’t come looking for you! I was told to be here!”
Emily scanned the treeline again. There had to be others, right? She couldn’t see any, though. Maybe that was the point.
“Did Draven send you?” Mina demanded.
There was nothing but shock and confusion on the vampire’s face. “The Queen’s Huntsman? Why would I have been sent by him?”
“To find her,” Mina gestured to Emily.
The vampire craned his neck as best he could to peer at Emily and scoffed. “I don’t care about her. I don’t know where Lord Draven is. The Queen hasn’t received word from him in months.”
A low growl escaped Mina’s throat. She turned the gun to his skull. “You weren’t sent to find the Conduit?”
“The what?”
“The Conduit,” she repeated, slowly.
“I don’t know what that is—fuck!” He screamed, groaning as he tried to catch his breath. “I swear on the Queen’s blood, I don’t.”
Mina shifted her boot, pressing her heel deeper into his chest. A sharp, wet crack rang out as a rib gave way. The vampire let out a shriek, coughing blood that bubbled in his throat. “Why are you here?” she asked again.
He gagged and scrabbled weakly at her boots. “Please—please stop—!”
“Why?” she repeated.
“I was sent,” he panted, “to observe… a rift.”
Mina’s brows furrowed. “A rift?”
“There’s a rift!” he cried. “That’s what they told me. A rift was going to open nearby. The Queen wanted someone here to watch it. To see what comes through. I—I was only supposed to observe—”
“Observe what?”
“Them!” he choked. “Those things! The ones that crawled out of the cave! She told me not to interfere. Just watch. Watch how they behave. See who survives.”
Mina’s gaze darkened. “You’re holding back.”
“I swear—I’m telling you everything! I don’t know what the Conduit is! I don’t know who you are! I was just following orders—”
Emily waited in anticipation as Mina stared at him. She could see the fury swirling around in her eyes. The vampire must have too, and he must have recognized there was no escape for him.
“Wait…” he groaned, staring into her gleaming silver eyes. “No, you can’t be… the Traitorous Princess of Alnwick?”
Mina drove her heel down with all her strength. His ribcage caved in, and his organs burst. His lungs and heart were crushed into pulp beneath her boot. An eruption of blood sprayed up Mina’s leg and across her coat.
Emily screamed, stumbling back a step, both hands flying to her mouth. She couldn’t pull her eyes away from the sight. His chest cavity was a crater of sharp, protruding bones and fleshy lumps.
The vampire convulsed weakly beneath Mina, struggling to hold on to every last second of life he had. Only when it looked like he had finally stopped moving…
BANG!
His brains splattered across the grass.
Mina calmly lifted her bloody boot, pulling bits of mush and viscera with it. She dragged the vampire fully into the sunlight and ripped his cloak away. It was like the sound of eggs frying in a pan. His skin bubbled and burned down to the bone.
Emily stared with wide eyes. Her breath came in shallow, quick gasps.
Mina turned toward her, then looked down at herself, coldly wiping her blade off in the grass.
Emily took a shaky step forward, still staring at the corpse. “He was telling the truth, wasn’t he?”
“If he was, then something worse than Sangrevoros is coming.”
“H-How long has he been here?”
Mina shook her head. “I’m not sure. No one’s been bitten, so it’s likely he arrived recently. And if Queen Lockhart sent him, he would have come from Alnwick Island. Takes a few months to get here from there.” She paused and pondered for a moment.
“I-I-Is… she coming here?”
“She rarely leaves the island. I’d be more concerned with who else she sends.”
“Like Draven?”
“He wasn’t working with him. But, he was working for the Queen, and that’s bad enough as is.”
“Does she know we’re here?”
“I don’t know…”
“But what if—”
“I don’t know, Emily,” Mina snapped. “Give me a minute.”
Emil’s breathing picked up. She hadn’t thought she’d see a vampire again so soon. She hadn’t even expected the attack to happen so fast. There hadn’t been a sound; not a rustle, a footstep, or even the ring of a blade being drawn. She would have been dead immediately. How was she supposed to fight against that? And then there were his last words. ‘Traitorous Princess?’ Did he mean Mina?
“We’re returning home,” Mina said in a firm voice. She had lit a cigarette and pinched it between her teeth.
“Hold on. Did he… know you?” Emily said between panicked breaths.
“No.”
“Why did he call you—?”
“I don’t know. Now come on, we need to get you back to the house.” Mina reached out to grab Emily by the shoulder, but she moved away.
“He called you princess.”
Mina narrowed her eyes.
“He did know you…”
“He didn’t.”
“Then he recognized you. What did he mean by princess?”
“Emily—”
“No!” She took another step back. “I want to know!”
“You don’t need to know everything.”
Emily scoffed. “Sorry, but I kind of do! I’m training to kill the Queen of the Vampires, and he just called you princess!”
Mina took a long, slow drag, then plucked the cigarette from her lips.
“You know her, don’t you!”
“Now isn’t the time for this, Emily,” she growled. “We need to get you inside.”
“I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me.”
Mina paced toward her, and Emily stumbled back. She quickly seized her by her shoulder. “Emily, listen to me, I’m trying to protect you!”
“From your mother?” Emily fruitlessly squirmed in Mina’s iron grip.
“She’s not my mother!”
“Why did he call you—”
“Because I am!” Mina shouted.
Emily went quiet, staring into her burning silver eyes. Her chest was heaving rapidly with her quickened breathing.
Mina stared back. “I was going to tell you.”
“Then why didn’t you?!” Emily tried pulling back again, but there was no escaping her hold.
“Because I knew you’d act like this. I don’t have time to explain it now, but I need you to trust me right now.”
“You’re the Princess of Alnwick! Isn’t Lockhart the Queen of Alnwick?”
“I’ll explain it to you later, but we need to get you inside now.”
Emily shuddered under the scrutiny of her voice. She was suddenly pulled along through the forest, struggling to keep up. There was no way for her to break free from Mina’s grip, and even if she could, what was she supposed to do? Mina was the Princess of Alnwick. In her attempt to run from the vampires, had she inadvertently fallen into a trap? That couldn’t have been all she was hiding.
Emily’s mind raced as she was hauled along. She didn’t know what to do.
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