INTO THE MIST
1056 Words
Book One: Moon & Blood
Chapter Five: Into the Mist
Kai didn't sleep that night. Not one bit.
He sat on his bed with the old book open in his lap. The same page. The same torn edge. The same words over and over.
“His mother was a vampire. His father was a…”
That was it. The rest was gone. Someone had ripped it out. Someone had burned the other pages. But they left this one. Why? To tease him? To warn him? He didn't know.
He read it again. And again.
His mother was a vampire. So the creature was half vampire. That meant the father was something else. A wolf? A human? Another vampire? He had no idea. And that empty space ate at him like a rat in the wall.
He closed the book and put it back under the loose floorboard. Then he stood up. He pulled on dark trousers and a dark shirt. No fancy armor. No shiny belt. Just his dagger and his boots.
He had to find out more. There was only one place left to go.
"The Sunder"
The walk to the Bone Bridge took him an hour. The moon was behind thick clouds. No stars. Just black sky and cold wind.
When he got to the bridge, he stopped.
The mist was thick. White and wet and cold. It crawled up from the black water below like something alive. The water made no sound. No splash. No waves. Just silence.
Kai stepped onto the bridge.
The old bones groaned under his feet. The bridge was made from the ribs of some giant dead thing. The vampires had built it a long time ago. Their magic still lived in the bones. Kai could feel it – a cold hand trying to squeeze his heart.
But he was an Alpha. He pushed through it. One step. Two steps. Three.
Halfway across, he saw someone.
A figure stood at the far end. Tall. Wearing a hooded cloak. Not moving. Just waiting.
Kai put his hand on his dagger.
“I'm not here to fight,” the figure said. A woman's voice. Old. Tired. Like dry leaves rubbing together.
“Who are you?” Kai asked.
She pushed back her hood.
Her face was grey. Wrinkled. Not old like a grandmother. Old like a stone that had sat in the rain for a thousand years. Her eyes were white. No color at all. Like milk.
Around her neck hung a grey rock on a string. It glowed a little. Soft. Beat like a heart.
“Morwen,” she said.
A witch. Kai had heard the name in old stories. He never thought she was real.
“You're the one who left the page?” he asked.
“No. The page was left by someone else. Someone who wanted you to find it but not all of it.” She stepped onto the bridge. The bones hummed under her feet. Not a groan. A hum. Like they were happy to see her.
“Then tell me the rest,” Kai said. “What's the father?”
“No.”
“No?”
“I said no.” Morwen stopped a few feet away. “You're not ready. The name would hurt you. Maybe kill you.”
Kai felt his anger rise. “I don't care.”
“You should.”
He stepped closer. “The creature killed my aunt. It killed Nova's father. It's been taking hearts for three hundred years. I need to know what it is.”
“You know it's a hybrid. Half vampire. Half something else. That's enough for now.”
“It's not enough.” Kai's voice got louder. “Tell me the rest. Now.”
Morwen shook her head. “No.”
Kai pulled his dagger.
“I'm not playing,” he said. “You're going to tell me, or I'll cut your throat and find out another way.”
She didn't even blink. “Put that away, boy.”
“Make me.”
She laughed. A dry, sad laugh. “You think a dagger scares me? I've been alive since before your great great great grandfather was born. I've seen wolves come and go. I've seen kings fall. A dagger means nothing to me.”
Kai grabbed her arm. “Tell me.”
She looked at his hand. Then at his face.
“Let go,” she said.
“No.”
“Last chance, wolf.”
Kai lunged.
He didn't reach her.
His heart stopped.
Not slow. Not a stumble. Just stopped. One second it was beating strong in his chest. The next...., nothing. No thump. No blood. No breath.
His legs gave out. He fell to his knees. The dagger fell from his hand and clattered on the bones. His lungs screamed for air.
He couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Couldn't even blink right.
Morwen knelt in front of him. Her white eyes stared into his.
“I could leave you here,” she said. “Heart frozen. Body still. The mist would take you. No one would ever find you. They'd think you fell into the Sunder.”
Kai tried to speak. Nothing came out.
She touched his chest. Her fingers were cold. Colder than the bridge.
“But I won't,” she said. “Because your mother asked me to watch over you. Before she died. She knew you'd be like this. Angry. Stupid. Brave.”
She kept her hand on his chest.
“Go home, Kai. Stop digging. The answers will come when you're ready. Not before.”
She pulled her hand away.
His heart started again. A hard thump. Then another. Then fast like a drum. He gasped. Air rushed into his lungs. He coughed and fell forward onto his hands.
When he looked up, she was gone.
The mist was still there. The bridge was still there. The black water still made no sound. But Morwen had vanished.
Kai sat there for a long time. Shaking. Breathing. Trying to remember how to stand.
Then he got up. He picked up his dagger. He walked back to Grimmoor.
He didn't look back.
Behind him, somewhere in the dark down below the bridge, two yellow eyes watched from the shadows of the Sunder. They blinked once. Then they were gone.
- Writer
