Blinded

It must be said that I was a little nervous as I walked down the cold street; the damp street that ran along the dank and dark city. The yellow tinted lights that hung shivering in the night air cast ominous shadows on the dismal old walls of the buildings. The church bells chimed; chimed eleven times echoing through the empty alleyways and crevices of the brittle brick work of the buildings. I run late; late from nervousness that causes my legs to walk more slowly than normal. If I did not arrive in time it would be too late. If I did not arrive in time then I would surly perish. A newspaper blew threw the air; it seemed to know where it was going as it blew upwards in a spiral then back down again and out of sight. Rays of light shone in the night sky above my head from the few people still awake in their towers.

Do they know where I come from? Wretched souls -- busy body eavesdroppers. They surly suspect that something has happened. I was not quite enough.

That old lady is watching me from her window sash. She stares -- stares at me from her wretched soulless eyes. I must walk faster and at one with the shadows. The lightlessness provides some relief from the inquisitor and her black eyes -- the darkness always provides some relief. I had no choice in what I did, the man was a beast. A beast of the night that wanted my soul -- a vampire prepared to drink my health. I must hurry, how much time has passed since the count down to all hallow's hour. Another person at their sash looks for me; looks from his sentry tower, prepared to sound the alarm. His dog must smell something as it peers into the emptiness below it. It is a curious looking dog with lines of character and pert ears that twitch at the slightest sound. I must stay still or it will hear me. My heart beats too fast; thumps with a ferocity of a thousand stampeding horses.

I must be calm -- quite.

Time seems to almost stop as I stand their locked in the silence by an enemy that knows something is their but unknows its location. I stay in the shadow until his view passes away. The man's dog leaves after him, satisfied that it was nothing, that the sounds it heard was the wind or an idle nothingness.

The moon above shines new from another month having passed. The few trees in the city show their gnarled flesh as they give away their last few leaves to winter; begging to grow again but ultimately being told no by the mother of all things. A dark stranger with a black cloak walks towards me from afar. He keeps his head bent towards black boots making it difficult to view into his eyes. Was he one of them? Do not show fear. Keep walking. The man approaches towards me slowly as I walk towards my destination. A glimour of something refracts the glowing street lamp in my direction.

A KNIFE!

The creature carries a knife towards me, undoubtedly intending to push the hot steel through my flesh.

I cannot allow him.

He is still far enough away. I pick up a bit of iron leaning on a nearby building; quickly hiding it under my cloak. As the creature draws close I prepare my preemptive strike, holding tightly to my iron rod. The man's foot steps match the thumping of my heart; slow and methodical but heavy with intention. I swing quickly with determination striking the man in a downward motion at the base of the neck where it is most tender. The wretched thing falls quickly to the ground looking miserably up at me with a most defiant expression on his face. I know I must make sure that the man does not get up ever. The iron slams though the eye of the man sounding a clank of iron on stone as it burst though the skull to the ground below.

I pick up the body and move it to a nearby alley dropping it to the earth to rot with the rats. I look out from the shadows, everything appears quite. But suddenly I hear a woman screaming something. The banshee's sound comes clear to my ears.

"MURDERER! MURDERER! GUARDS COME; THERE IS A MURDERER!"

Bells begin chiming in a chaotic rhythm from different directions! Lights begin to shine in a cascading effect from the windows aligned down the street.

"MURDERER! GUARDS! GUARDS!"

I feel an intense pulling at my navel and a tightening that threatens to implode my head as adrenaline courses through my body. I begin to run; run for my life. Lights continue to come on as people run to their window to see what mischief is afoot. People join with the old hag from all sides.

"I SEE HIM! I SEE HIM!; Mummy he is down here!

"GUARDS HE IS HERE! COME QUICK!

My heart threatens to burst as blood flows faster and faster through my body trying to keep oxygen flowing to my over worked lungs. My lungs push and pull air as quickly as possible to gather much needed oxygen for my strained muscles. I feel my heart pumping in my throat as I run from the human sirens.

Ahead I see guards arriving on the street.

Oh no! They see me!

They run towards me shouting to each other. Blades begin to refract light once again.

"We got 'im now boys. Draw your swords."

I leap at the first guard like a trapped badger, biting his nose off as his sword clangs to the street. I get up from the bleeding body; blood dripping from my chin I pick up the unused sword lying on the ground. The guards begin to circle around me. As I spit the nose to the ground I size up my enemies. The one I had attacked was young; unproven. The rest would not be so easy to take down

"On guard fellas. He's a regular carnivore!"

I swing the sword quickly at the closest Centurion, causing the man to falter to his knees. Focusing on the single guard I forget to look behind me. The first guard runs his sword through my lower abdomen to the hilt.

IT HURTS! aaaAAGGGHHHH!! IT HURTS!

I swing wildly behind me cutting the man in the arm. He stumbles away as another guard stabs me though the back. Then another stabs me through the chest. I fall over hitting the ground hard.

It doesn't hurt so much anymore. The pain has eased.

My blood flows out of my body and pools in the street. The guards help their injured get up. I die never having found out the truth. Never having found out whether the man I killed was responsible; whether the vampire truly had been lovers with Aditha.