Blood rain pounded down onto the hard, flat stone ground, landing in gleaming pools. Darkness surrounded me, blocking out my vision to the point I could barely see my hands. My knees scraped against the ground as I fell in defeat, crying out into the inky darkness, “Mom!”
No answer returned to me.
The air was thick and my hair was plastered to my face, dripping drops of dark, thick blood down my chin, soaking into my clothes, sticking them to my skin. I cried out again, this time for Azia, but only a growling thunder returned to me, striking the sky white with a blast of bright blighting.
The icy blood rain had frozen my skin to any touch besides cold, to the point my hands felt foreign as I tried to rub them over my bare forearms. I tucked my head into my chest, trying to retain any heat left inside of me while wishing I could leave the horrid place I had found myself in.
Then, a monstrous snarl cut through the downpour, coming from everywhere, so loud it was like the creature who made the sound was right by my ear. I desperately searched the darkness, even though I knew I would see nothing. Which is why I froze in shock when I found two glowing red eyes from the darkness.
It’s shape was hidden from view, with only the monstrous gaze open to my sight. I was shaken from my frozen posture when it roared again, and suddenly I was on my feet, running desperately through the endless darkness, my boots slapping against the puddles of blood and sending showers around my feet, while the pouring dark rain thundered on my head, pounding in my ears.
I could hear it, its paw steps gaining on me, getting closer and closer every second that past, with every heartbeat the sound of its bounding leaps getting louder until it’s hot breath was on my back and its steps making the ground rumble.
Then it tackled me, teeth digging into the back of my neck, sending an awful flaring pain through my body, so bad it was indescribable. My face slammed into the ground, then was brought up as the creature shook its great head back and forth, flinging me around like a toy. Then it dropped me, using one large, tough paw to roll me over.
It’s muzzle was a mix between a cat’s and wolf’s, long and thick with sharp shining teeth stained with blood. It’s eyes were large and devilish, staring deeply at my soul through the clear window that was my eyes.
Then its claws were in my stomach, tearing my flesh off with its great talons. It’s shadowy paw looked like a thick cloud of black smoke that had been packed together to make a form and was slowly seeping free, but it still somehow stayed together as the creature hacked at my insides.
The agony that was filling me was overwhelming, and all I wished for was that my pain would end with me drifting off into a quiet, soft sleep. “Aysel.” Hearing my name in its disgusting, raw and rough tone made me feel sick, though I had no insides to retch up my past meals.
“Aysel,” it growled again, its burning hot breath right on the side of my face, with a strong feeling like it was melting my skin. I could feel and hear the sound of my heart beating, and it began to get louder, blocking out the downpour of blood and the creature's deep growling. Except my name stayed loud as well, getting lighter but louder with every quiet call.
"Aysel! Aysel!" The pumping of my heart became more like the sound of knocking on wood, until that's exactly what it was, and the voice was now light and human and belonging to Macrisa Lial--our maid. My eyes opened, blurry for a moment before focusing on my room's ceiling.
"Aysel, wake up!" the woman called from the hall.
"Uh, coming," I said tiredly, my mind still racing from my dream, though it was also foggy and dim. I couldn't remember exactly what happened. I remembered the dark blood pooled on the ground, the feeling of the blood rain pouring down on my head, flattening my hair, the look of the terrifying shadowy paw as it tore at my stomach.
But nothing else. No reason to how I got there, or what it meant.
After another rattle on my door, I forced myself from my bed, unlocked the latch, and pulled the door open. Macrisa smiled at me, her few wrinkles becoming more prominent. "Sorry, dear, but it's late enough."
"What time is it?" I asked as she came into my room, going to my closed blinds and pulling them open with a flourish. Bright sunlight shined into my dark room, filling it with a orange-yellow light that burned my eyes.
"Just past noon! Azia has already gone out to take Althalos on a run with Balren, and your father is having a meeting downstairs! Please don't bother him, it's an important one." Macrisa started to clean up my bed, flattening out the sheets with a smile and a light hum.
"What's the meeting about?" I asked as I went to my closet and picked through my clothes, deciding on a pair of dark pants with a long-sleeved tan shirt and a black vest. I added a long woven overcoat that Grandma Allia had made me for my sixteenth birthday almost a year and a half ago.
"Oh, I'm not sure," Macrisa replied, now moving to my closet before I could close it to grab the garments thrown along the floor. She didn't seem to mind, though. "I'm guessing it's to do with the new Affected, though."
"What?" I felt like I had been slapped, and stared at her in shock. "When did a new Affected come in?"
"Late last night," Macrisa replied. "Maybe sixteen, born and raised in Whren, if you can believe it! So close to us and we had no idea! Terrifying thought."
"What's his ab--I mean, what's his Curse?" I asked, worried.
Macrisa paused to think for a moment. "Hmm, I think it may have been changing his hair color."
"Changing his hair color?" I repeated, raising my eyebrows.
Macrisa thought for another moment, eyes narrowed, then she nodded a few times. "Yes, yes that was it. A lady saw with brown hair one moment, flaming red the next! Ran straight to some guards and told them. He was gone from where she saw him, nor at his house! It looked ransacked though, and his little sister was missing. Days later, they checked his house and found him hiding under a bed! Imagine the damage he could've done if they missed him!"
"Changing hair color isn't really that dangerous," I said softly, and the maid hesitated, trying to find a way to voice her own thoughts without trying to overrule my own.
"That is true, but it's still a Curse from the Dark Halls, from the God of Death, no less! It means nothing but trouble." She hurried back to cleaning, and I left her to her own thoughts.
Why did everyone think abilities were a Curse? They were Gifts. The Affected were only dangerous because the Capital made them so, just like a dog; chain a dog up and treat it wrong, even the nicest breed will turn into a killer. And like dogs, it wasn't the fault of the Affected that they had a Gift.
If only the Gods could tell them, I prayed, wishing the great Lexos would come from his throne in the sky and tell the people that worshiped him that the Affected were not to be feared, that they were just as human as the rest. More, even. Affected didn't burn people at the stake and sentence them to endless darkness. But ordinary people did. Because they were terrified and threatened by anyone different from themselves.
I passed Azia's room and poked my head in, with the door already being open. I saw the back of another maid as she cleaned out his closet, and decided to quietly leave before she noticed and another conversation about Affected was brought up.
I traveled lightly down the stairs, my feet instantly cold as they settled on the cool wood flooring, and I heard distant voices coming from the dining room. Dad's meeting! I thought quickly, and ducked against the hall, creeping my way forward. There was a small coat closet right next to the room, and I snuck inside, closing the door behind me, and slipped behind the coats against the wall.
I felt the wood until I found a small enclave, and when I pulled it, it revealed a tiny room with a dim bulb shining. Crouched inside was Azia, looking through a small hole, and when he saw me he gestured me inside, and I silently shut the small door. I lay down next to him, using my elbows to prop up my upper half, and peeked through my own hole for my eye.
Dad was sitting at the end of the long meeting and dining table, with many noble men lining both the sides. They had been served steaming food and fresh wine, though they were all focused on Dad and didn't pay it any attention.
"-makes no sense!" Dad sighed, leaning back in his chair with a piece of parchment in his hand.
"They got it off of a captured Affected," Azia whispered very softly into my ear.
"I heard about him," I responded, barely loud enough to hear. Azia nodded and focused on the meeting again.
"'Mind end eater told under said apple table light archer kill education editor right in never dear'! It's nonsense! They must be crazy!"
"Dad thinks the Affected was with a group, and the note would lead him to his friends," Azia told me with an almost-silent whisper.
"We could rearrange the words," one man said.
"We've tried that!" Dad snapped, slamming his hands on the table, then let out a sigh and dropped his head. In a forced calm voice, he said tensely, "we've tried everything."
"What about taking one letter from each?" a skinny man with a balding head said. When Dad looked at him, he added, "it was a common way for commanders to contact their spies during war without the enemies knowing what it meant."
Dad quickly grabbed a sheet of parchment and started writing furiously with a pen, checking the note and reading each word with his hand. He sat back when he was done, letting out a short breath of astonishment.
"Great Gods in the sky! 'Meet us at Lake Erind'! Sir Jun, you're a genius! Quickly, get a hunting team ready to move out in an hour! We don't want to lose them." Dad slammed up from the table and stormed from the room to ready himself.
Azia and I quietly looked at each other in shock and fear. "A whole group..." Azia whispered, his voice now a little louder, for the men had dispersed in a loud hurry and wouldn't be listening for eavesdroppers.
I turned onto my back and pulled myself against the wall, hiding my head in my lap. "So many Affected are going to die. One or two every month or so I can handle--barely--but a whole group? That'd be five or six, at least. So many teenagers will die..."
Azia's hand was soft on my leg when he whispered, "we'll do everything we can."
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