Saving Light

Saving Light


Zin could see safety. A seven by four portal that led into daylight. A tear rolled do her cheek as she knelt behind a crumbling statue of some old forgotten king or another. She glanced at that beacon of hope, that call home, that open door that led out of this tomb. For tomb it was, and that was what had brought Zin, and her two best friends, the twins, Dawn and Dan, from they’re little village just to the south of the Cursed Mount. The old stories of long forgotten riches left behind when an older evil had been mistakenly summoned from the dark side. Zin shed silent tears for the vision that she would hold forever in her mind of Dawn being chewed apart while she yet lived, of having to behead Dan to keep him, it, from doing the same to her after he had turned. Zin dripped the bloody sword in her right hand and the equally bloody dagger in her left hand and grimly stood to make her run at the door. Sunlight would keep some of these creatures at bay, and the rest could be out run. Zin yelled “ Go!” in her mind and stepped forward. It was a long hall, bits of smashed furniture , a long table, a throne on a dais, tapestries hung on the wall , were all that Zin could see in the dim light, that, and the sunlight streaming in from the door. One step, two steps , three steps…. The floor erupted. Hands grabbed at her legs, ripped armor, tunic, and small clothes from her until she battled naked, severing zombie arms and hands just to stay free. Ever forward did Zin move, and she was half way to the door when one zombie got a good grip on her ankle and started pulling her down. Down into a hole she would never crawl out of if she went in. Zin called on all of her training and spun, instead of fighting not to go down, she used the creature’s momentum against it and lunged at it, relieving the thing of its head as she jumped back across the hole it had been pulling her into. As she turned back to the light, a shadow rose from another hole in the hall floor and charged. The Werewolf zigged and zagged as it came forward at great speed, a move designed to confuse its’ target until it was too late, but Zin had been trained by her uncle Ban, the greatest warrior this side of the Terror Plains. Zin kept her eyes in front of her until she was sure which way the Were-thing would hit her, then she closed her eyes, counted, the swung. The Silver blade of her grand-father, and his father before him, hummed as it sliced through air and werewolf alike. The thing’s head rolled off into the darkness, already changing back into its human resemblance. Zin stalked towards the door. Fifty feet to go. More zombies attacked, only to be cut down. Forty feet. A vampire. It almost had its fangs locked into her before she dismembered it. Thirty feet. The floor swirled and turned into a pool of poisonous vipers. Illusion, Zin walked right through it. Twenty feet. Zin stopped. She blinked, not believing what she was seeing. Dawn laughed as she sauntered forward, pretty as ever, and, obviously, not zombie food.
“Damn, Zin! You are better than even I thought! You might be better than Ban! Too bad no one will ever know. Confused? Think. Think!” Dawn began walking in circles around Zin, whispering at her, sometimes in her ear, sometimes from near the door. It all came to her. The night, as a small child, that the witch had approached her, telling her one day she would come to this cursed place, and leave rich. Of the witch telling her where she would go to play the next day, to meet her best friends in life. She remembered now how Dawn and Dan had always been the ones to plant ideas in her head that would lead to them all getting in trouble, though she could not now remember ever meeting anyone else that knew the twins. Then it all hit her. The Witch had been Dawn all along. Zin’s head came up, sword and dagger at the ready, ready to kill this witch. Dawn stood at the door, unarmed and smiling. She said two words. “Too Late.”
Zin knew just what she meant as Dan rose behind her and sunk his teeth into her neck. She felt the first bit out pain, the first squirt of blood fill the Dan-thing’s mouth, and she tried to struggle, but he had her wrapped in his strong arms, there was no moving. Dawn rushed forward to taste her. Dawn stared into her eyes.
“Illusions are great. You didn’t think I’d let you cut off my brothers head did you?” Dawn laughed as she went back to enjoying Zin’s life blood, greedily sucking at her just as Dan was. Zin could hear them slurp, and smack they’re lips. She had been fooled from the first. Her last thoughts as she drifted off into the cold dark where. “What a fool I have been….”