A woman tore through the forest, her breath ragged, hands pressed tightly against the wound in her arm. Blood seeped relentlessly through her fingers, warm and slick, trailing behind her like a red thread in the darkness.
She had been struck by an arrow nearly an hour into the hunt. Now, the thunder of hooves pounded behind her and the cause for the noise was a galloping horse with a vampire on top of it, grinning widely as if the vision of death himself.
Tears stread down her eyes, fear of death terrorizing her, making her feel the terror a little rabbit would feel on a hunt by humans.
Tears blurred her vision. Her lips quivered as sobs caught in her throat, but she didn’t stop, she continued to beg for help, yelling for it into the forest even though deep down she knew the truth. She knew that no help would co, not here, not now, never. Even then she still ran, she still cried for help.
Because in this wretched ga of hunt- this hunt of humans for sport— no one dared show rcy. Sympathy was a death sentence. To pause, to lend a hand to another bleeding soul, was to forfeit your own life. So the others ran too. They heard her cries, but they didn’t look back. They couldn’t. Everyone was struggling to keep their voices down, to held their breath and to wish they could beco one with the forest floor so they wouldn’t be noticed by the hunters.
They all could hear her whimpers and cries but that only turn into a gospel, telling them to shush and run so they wouldn’t be the next prey to the slaughter.
And just as the woman’s strength began to fail, just as her legs buckled and her knees hit the forest floor, a frail pair of hands reached out from the shadows.
The figure yanked her behind a tree, rough bark pressing against her back, her body swallowed whole by the dense undergrowth. The thundering hooves passed by and the voices of the hunters lood over as they realized their prey was missing.
And for a breath, the world held still until one of the vampire walked down from the horse, clicking his tongue, "She was here earlier. I could still sll the blood."
"Are you sure you sll the blood?" Another vampire walked down, licking his lips that were red with blood, "I sll blood all over, I could barely discern the difference of it any longer."
"Ah damn it, she was here. She couldn’t have gone so far," The vampire looked around with his arrow, humming, "She was crying so well, you know? How I missed this- How I miss hunting those humans to teach them their real lesson where they truly belong! It makes my heart jump in joy to know that they are all here, allowed for us to kill in whatever manner we want without being held accountable."
"Indeed, I was deep down upset to hear that the crown prince had ended this tradition. So what if the humans tries to kill us? All we need to do is put them under stricter rules, after all they are nothing but life stocks for us."
"But didn’t you hear?" the other vampire whispered, "I heard that there were many families who disagreed with the hunt. The queen shut their words down and that’s why though it seems many, there is actually only a little participant for this hunt."
"Hah, they just wish to make a good na for themselves, to look innocent and to avoid the humans’ wrath, a weak vampire without a backbone or pride, I tell you," answered the other vampire with a scoff, "A real vampire has to hunt humans, teach them where they belong and drink their blood when they are still fresh."
"But those who backed away from the hunt cos from the five families," the first vampire continued to mutter when suddenly he heard a crack and his eyes snapped to his left.
Hiding behind the tree was three won.
The woman who had a cut on her arm earlier nad, Vinna, the girl who had directed them to hide, Mischelle, and the one who used to beco Minister Rueben’s favorite, Iliza.
Iliza had took a step back while being careless, not knowing that she had stepped into an old branch of tree instead, causing for the loud noise to fill the room, surprising the three of them and gathering the attention of the vampires.
Mischelle’s face went pale but she muttered, "It’s alright, just keep a quiet. We have to stick together and when they catch us, we all have to run to different areas to keep them guessing."
Vinna nodded her head. Although she was scared, she listened to Mischelle’s words, knowing that the girl knows better on how to survive than her.
But Iliza’s eyes had gone panicked. When she heard the sound of the horses coming toward them, they all ducked to hide under the thick bushes. Mischelle could see the disinterest in the vampires’ face, guessing that soon they would be on their way, finding a new prey. Vampires tend to get bored easy and though their prey was fun to play with earlier, now they weren’t and they would find another one who was more fun to them.
If they keep quiet a little more...
"What are you doing?" Vinna asked and Mischelle turned to see Iliza who had held her by the arms.
Their face went into white in a snap of second, as if their blood was drained from their body in such a split of second.
All of their eyes froze, staring at Iliza who had grabbed Mischelle’s body and then pushed her out from the bushes.
Mischelle could have ran but she didn’t, and perhaps that was out of shock as she didn’t expect that soone she had trusted would out her so suddenly, shoving her to the mouth of death.
The vampires imdiately walked toward her, grinning wide and before Mischelle could ask for help, Iliza had ran, ran as fast as she could, ran away from the ss she created.
She wasn’t going to die today. SHE WON’T DIE!
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