The Gereziac Chronicles

It had been a very eventful and extremely fulfilling night for Lucius as he scoured the night sky to find a victim suitable enough to help satisfy his never-ending thirst for blood in order for him to continue his secret existence deep within the world of the pitiful mortal human race.

Even with the warm summer nights bringing dawn a lot earlier than normal, there would still be enough prey innocently walking through the streets to choose from and lure away to somewhere a lot more private where Lucius could bring his victims to their slow demise undisturbed, puncturing through the soft skin surrounding their necks in order to drain them of their warm and heavenly blood, instantly sending Lucius into a state of pure ecstasy as he drank more and more.

Being a vampire within the pitiful mortal world gave him an immense feeling of power because after all, he was nothing like the puny mortals that he watched undetected and mocked, but instead he was an incredibly strong and well-known member of the vampire world which meant that someone had to give up their life in order for him to survive – and Lucius relished the thought of playing God as he personally chose his victims – and those who tried to fight back would meet their demise a lot quicker than first expected.

But on some nights in the past Lucius’s feelings of power could be tested as the choice of victims available to him could either be incredibly scarce or on the odd occasion even to the point of being non-existent which meant that he had to return to the sanctuary of his secret lair unfulfilled and still hungry, hoping for better luck the next night or his survival could be in question.

But tonight Lucius had fed well and at this moment, he had his eyes firmly fixed upon a young couple who were hidden away in an alley below him.

The young lady was around five foot six inches tall, with long flowing red hair and was beautiful to look at with a figure just as pleasing to the eye as her almost perfect facial features.

The young man was a lot taller - around six feet tall and muscular with dark hair and also possessed an aura about him which meant that trouble was never too far behind.

Lucius secretly watched the couple from the rooftop above and listened into their conversation, patiently waiting for the right moment to swoop down and attack. Their conversation had been quite amicable so far, but soon the friendliness between them came to an abrupt end when the man tried to force the young lady against the wall in order to kiss her.
“So, Chantelle,” the man said to her, “are you going to stop this silly game of being a tease and give in to what we both want and make it an extra special night?”

She pushed him away and with his ego seriously bruised after being refused what he wanted, it wasn’t long before the young man finally revealed his true colours and attempted to overpower her as she categorically refused to submit to his attempts to have sex with her.

The man slapped and even worse, punched the helpless young lady who was clearly nowhere near strong enough to defend herself against his substantially more powerful frame and within moments she found herself helplessly lying on the ground with the extremely sexually-charged man on top of her, his one hand covering her mouth to silence her calls for help as the other began to rip off the clothes that she was wearing.

The fear inside her was immense and the poor young lady had no other option available to her but to give the man what he wanted and hope that he would not kill her after he had got what he really wanted.

She looked up helplessly at her attacker and looked into his eyes for a few moments and immediately realised that they were now full of rage and lust that could only be described as almost animal-like.

He had seemed such a sweet guy when the pair met for the first time in the nightclub where the young lady worked as a barmaid just a couple of hours before and his kind offer of walking her home safely seemed so gallant, but little did she expect that her night would end up like this.

She closed her eyes in an attempt to block out what was happening to her and prayed that someone would pass through the alley and come to her aid, but it was now plainly obvious that her attacker had chosen his spot very carefully, almost as if pre-planned, to make his attack upon her.

Her attacker’s sheer difference in strength against hers meant that she was completely defenceless and very quickly he was beginning to succeed in undressing her in order to reach his ultimate goal of having sex with her.

But, just when it seemed like her last gasp of hope had disappeared, Chantelle suddenly felt her attacker’s weight lift from on top of her and she looked up in disbelief to witness him being lifted into the air before her very eyes by another man just as tall as him, but clearly showing signs of possessing a lot more strength than her attacker because he was being thrown around the alley as if he was a rag doll.

Chantelle struggled to sit up and as she did so, watched her newly found hero throw her attacker against the wall behind her and as he made contact with the hard brickwork, she swore blind that she heard some of his bones snap upon impact.

She froze at the sight of her attacker’s limp body lying on the ground behind her and watched on stunned as the man who had just saved her walked towards him and proceeded to lift him off the ground with one arm around his neck, pausing momentarily to turn to face Chantelle before giving her an eerie smile which revealed two incredibly sharp fangs which promptly bit into the soft flesh that covered her attacker’s neck.

Chantelle closed her eyes for a couple of seconds and opened them again in order to confirm that she was not in the middle of a nightmare that she would soon awake from, but as she did so, her eyes met with her hero’s and she could instantly feel her body beginning to go numb as she became more and more mesmerised by the strangely captivating deep blue eyes that were staring back at her, which seemed to ooze out a feeling of ecstasy and almost sexual satisfaction as he drained the man’s body of blood before her very eyes.

It was at this point that the numbness completely took control over Chantelle’s body and she was completely helpless as she felt herself fall backwards onto the hard unforgiving ground.

She slowly opened her eyes, unaware of exactly how long she had actually passed out for, but instead of looking up at open sky in the alleyway, she found herself sitting on the floor of a dimly lit room inside a house that she had never seen at any point of her life before.

Chantelle looked around, but nothing that she saw revealed any kind of familiarity to her brain and she immediately began to feel incredibly uneasy.

Where was she?

What was she doing here?

Was this all a dream?

As more and more questions began to fill her mind one after the other, she began to make out what seemed like screams of panic coming from outside, mixed in with the sounds of horses galloping accompanied with loud incoherent shouting echoing from all directions.

Chantelle lifted herself off the floor and ran straight towards the small window that was in the room to take a look at what was happening outside and as she reached it, a young man suddenly joined her at the window sill to investigate as well.

The sight that greeted them outside was sickening as they looked down to see men, women, children and animals scattering in all directions as an army of heavily armoured swordsmen rode through on horseback indiscriminately slaughtering anything and anyone that had the gross misfortune of being in their path.

Other riders followed closely behind carrying flaming torches which were being used to set fire to homes as they rode past, forcing the hiding villagers inside back out onto the streets in order to face their ultimate demise.

The air was filled with unearthly screams as one by one the death toll began to rise as each victim was being picked out.

The two watched on in sheer horror as they witnessed body after body falling onto the streets around them and looked directly down to see an old man and woman stepping out of the house to see what was happening.

The young man by Chantelle’s side ended his silence and shouted directly to the couple to get back inside the house, but his plea fell upon deaf ears as in the panic that was breaking out around them, nothing was audible.

All that Chantelle and the young man could do was to watch on helplessly as two swordsmen rode past the elderly couple below them, simultaneously swinging their swords through the air until the cold steel blades met the soft flesh of the old couple, sending their lifeless bodies crashing to the ground.

One of the attackers backed up his horse and stood majestically over the two bodies for a few moments before looking up towards the window as if he had spotted the spectators inside.

He held his sword aloft and pointed it directly towards Chantelle and the young man.

As he did so, one of his comrades swiftly rode up behind him with a flaming torch in his hand and turned to see exactly what the swordsman was pointing at and without a second’s hesitation, he galloped up towards the house and began to set it alight which instantly sent Chantelle into a state of panic and she asked her fellow watcher to direct them out before the whole house suddenly burst into flames with them in it, but she received no reply from him.

Instead, he just turned and without saying a word, ran out of the room with Chantelle in close pursuit and headed down an old wooden staircase towards a large oak door that when open, led the pair out onto the street where bodies lay everywhere.

Those who had manage to survive were running frantically through the streets desperately trying to find their loved ones and some were lucky enough to be reunited with other surviving members of their family while others faced nothing but grief as they came across the bodies of theirs.

The young man suddenly dropped to his knees as they both reached the lifeless bodies of the old man and woman and he could no longer hide his immense feeling of grief as he held the woman’s head in his hands. Blood was pouring from underneath her as he did so and tears ran down his face as he gently kissed her on the forehead.

Grief and anger began to build inside the young man as he took in the full extent of what had just happened.
“My God!” he shouted at the sky above them, “Why have you forsaken us? How could you have allowed these barbarians to kill my parents? They were good people! What have they ever done to anyone to deserve to die like this?”

Chantelle could do nothing more but look on helplessly as the young man came to terms with his personal loss and in a moment of compassion, she stretched out her hand to place upon the grieving man’s shoulder to comfort him in some way, but as she did so, a young brunette lady ran past her and embraced him instantly.
“Anna,” the young man sobbed as she held him tightly, “look at what they did to my parents.”
“They were very good people and you should always be proud of them.” Anna replied, “Luckily my mother and I were in our cellar when they attacked, but the Tavern is completely burnt to the ground. I ran over here as quickly as I could to see if you were okay.”

The two continued with their tight embrace and were obviously overjoyed to see each other alive and well. They also kissed in such a manner that immediately revealed to Chantelle that they were obviously more than just friends.

Chantelle had to take a moment to regain her bearings in order to fully comprehend what was happening in front of her very eyes right now.

After all, the last thing that she could remember was being in an alleyway and now she was suddenly in a village that she had never seen before witnessing the unpleasant aftermath of a bloody barbarian attack upon it.

Out of nowhere, in the corner of her eye, Chantelle suddenly spotted something move and as she turned round to see what exactly had caught her eye, she was met by the menacing figure of one of the barbarians who had just attacked the village moments before slowly moving towards them with a sword in his hand.

She shouted to the young couple that he was behind them, but they both failed to respond to her warning and continued to hold each other, completely oblivious to what danger was beginning to build around them.

Chantelle stood in disbelief at their lack of urgency and shouted louder this time, but yet again, there was no response.

It seemed that no matter what she was saying, everyone kept ignoring her.

The swordsman continued to move in closer to them undetected by everyone but Chantelle and all that she could possibly do right now was to slowly back away from him towards the couple on the ground, but as she did so, she lost her balance and crashed down on to the pair.

But Chantelle did not fall onto their bodies, but to her complete astonishment, actually fell physically straight through them and lay on the ground in amazement at what had just happened.

In order to confirm that her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her, she held out her hand to touch the young man and yet again, her hand passed through him as if he just wasn’t there.

Suddenly, the young couple turned around and finally noticed their potential attacker sneaking up on them and the young man took no hesitation in lunging at the barbarian, which sent the two of them crashing to the ground, with the young man landing on top.

As the two men collided, the force of their bodies meeting instantly sent the sword flying out of their attacker’s grasp until it landed on the ground close to them.

The young man spotted the weapon immediately and made a hopeful dive to retrieve it, but the attacker was a well-trained and fit fighter and even with all the armour that he was wearing right now, was just as quick to reach the sword, ending up in stalemate as both men held onto it for dear life, each one showing no signs to the other of intending to let go as they began their struggle to discover which one of them would claim it and achieve the upper hand.

The attacker had incredibly strong arm muscles and a grip to match that he was beginning to gain the upper hand on the young man and it was obvious that very soon the sword would be claimed by its rightful owner.

But from completely out of nowhere, Anna ran towards the two grappling men and without any warning, leapt into the air and kicked out at the attacker who had now regained possession of the sword and was not afraid to use it.

The young man tried desperately to get to his feet and help Anna, but he was much too slow for the well trained soldier.

Chantelle continued to lay on the ground helpless, and could do nothing more but to watch on as the attacker turned his attention towards Anna.

What happened next shocked everyone.

The attacker lifted his arm and held the sword aloft and with one quick flick of the wrist, sent the weapon flying through the air until it nestled into Anna’s chest, who could do nothing more but just look down in shock after realizing what had happened to her.

As she dropped to her knees, both men looked at each other for a moment before her killer made a dive for the sword that was still inside the dying girl.

The young man also made a just as determined leap for the sword too and the two men wrestled for superiority once again, both of them with their hands firmly gripped around its handle.

And that is when there was an almighty flash of light which almost blinded Chantelle.

She lifted her hand in order to shield her eyes from the piercing bright light and when she finally managed to see through squinted eyes, realised that everyone had gone and she was back in the alleyway.

But the blinding light continued, accompanied by footsteps walking towards her and as the footsteps became louder, the light got stronger.

Then, the light suddenly deviated from her face to illuminate a different part of the alleyway, revealing the lifeless body of her attacker.

Chantelle heard a man gasp in disbelief and soon realised that she was in fact laying no more than six feet away from two policemen.