The Blood Revolution (SOON)

Chapter 36

Hannah grabbed my arm and pulled me outside the room. I wasn't able to resist as she dragged me infront of her convertible. Sometimes this girl could really be a bit sadistic. I just wish she wouldn't dare to time-freeze me and slit my throat in the process.

I fastened my seatbelt on the shotgon seat. "Where are we going?"

She turned the car on and hit the transmission. "You're wondering why you're here and why all of this is happening. Well, it's about time you understand things."

The car slowly crept and moved out of the Halfblood Haven into an open area that looks like a junkyard. A white-sanded rough road greeted us outside. It was the first time since last night that I got a glimpse of the light of day. Inside the hall it was kind of dim. I realized that the building we were in is some sort of an abondoned warehouse in a far-flung part of the city. Tall, leafy plants and dead trees surrounded it. Old, unused cars barricaded the vicinity with barbed wires wrapped around rusty G.I. sheets that looked like a construction site fence.

"What happened to it's not safe to go out?" I said.

Hannah glanced at me and grimaced. "It's daytime. But that doesn't mean vampires don't exist. They still do."

"Don't they burn in the sun?"

"All your questions will be answered, Peter. A little patience might suffice."

Right, coming from her who gets annoyed so easily. How ironic!

"So where are we going really? I hope you're already taking me home." I groaned.

"Like I said, all your questions will be answered. Now shut up! I don't want anyone talking too much when I'm driving."

That made me stop and sigh.

Hannah had a history of overspeeding but I was glad that this time she had stayed below speed limit. I tried to keep my mouth shut, something I've always had a hard time doing. The way Hannah threatens me makes me sick. I wonder if that's her powers too. Threatening people and scaring them to death. I could use a power such as that.

We traveled around 15 minutes on roads I'm not quite familiar with. We were heading somewhere away from the city. Of that I'm sure. The road was pretty small and narrow, rough and uncemented. I had bumped my head a few times in the roof that my forehead already hurt. Soon, the road splitted into two. Hannah took a curve to the right, the narrower one. It led towards a denser field, and we found ourselves moving downwards on a small grassy hill.

The car stopped infront of a ruined building. It looked old and deserted with only a few more beams and one side of the wall left. Hannah turned off the car and opened the door. I followed her outside and stayed a short distance behind her back.

What is this place?

I didn't knew that there was something like this in Gavaldon. Maybe I wasn't exploring much. That probably explains it.

"What is this place?" I asked her. I just don't see anything suspicious or special about the place. How will a ruined building help me undestand everything that's happening now?

Hannah walked towards the wall and approached it. I followed her, attempted to make a ridiculous comment. But I reposed myself, remembering what she did to Blue back at the Haven.

"Look," she uttered and traced her fingers in the brick wall. I walked towards her to get a closer look at the wall she's touching. It looked derelict, rough and filled with holes of different sizes. There were drawings on them. Figures and symbols I couldn't understand. A round circular pattern with a star in the middle. Below the star, faded and almost washed out of time is a huge letter V. Hannah took my hand and guided it into the letter on the wall.

I screamed. The touch of the letter dazed me. My body superheated, like there was something inside that wishes to explode out of me. My skin felt like disolving into the heat. The scenery around me blurred, as if I was sucked into the middle of a whirlwind. Something hit me from behind and I was tossed like a puffball into the air. I lost my weight. I was floating. I tried to fight the heat in my body and the extreme pain in my head. My eyes begged to shot of the eyesockets. My nerves felt like popping.

Where the hell is Hannah? I screamed when the torture got worse! What is going on! My screams grew louder as the whirlwind around me grew stronger and faster as if it was the end of the world. Then I felt like falling.

I hit the ground hard. My bones felt like they've been crumpled, wisps of dust puffed in my face and dirt got into my mouth and lips.

I heard voices. I lifted my face to see a different view. I was lying in the sand in the middle of the road in an unfamiliar place. I coughed the dirt off my mouth and got up, examining the place.

Small thatch cottages lined each side of a brown rough road that stretched onwards for a half mile. Overhead, the setting sun showered it's last rays,  painting the skies with gloomy shades of red and indigo. With the heavens giving it's final streaks of light, the villagers began litting the torches that gleamed like dull rubies.

The place looked old enough for me, something quite historical to my perspective. The people were no exception. Dressed in tunics and long ankle-length dresses, they walked and ran around with their own errands. No one seemed to notice me. Behind, children's  echoing laughter brought me to turn around. Holding toy cars made up of wood and wool, they laughed and ran around in vibrant cheer. A group of women passed by carrying pails and baskets.  Everyone seemed too busy to pay me attention.

A young woman in a yellow dress walked past me, carrying a pail of fresh milk. She was smiling at me so I smiled back. But her eyes seemed distant and ignored me even as I said hello.

"She couldn't see you," Hannah said, popping up at my back. "We don't exist here. We are only visitors hence we can't intefere with this timeline."

"You got us back into time?" I must admit it's pretty amazing to be back in time and witness it for yourself. I could really use Hannah's help on the History class I've been flunking lately.

"Obviously," she answered.

I heaved a breath. I guess I really had to deal with this girl's sarcasm. "So how am I supposed to understand our present with this past. And where have you been?"

She gave me a dry glance.

I groaned and gestured in the air, pointing at the village infront of us. "Well, I see nothing wrong with this place at all. Like come on. It's just a small, peaceful town."

"Watch."

It felt like a warning coming from her. She looked serious so I waited for something significant to happen. The skies finally darkened, tiny specks of light dotting the clear heavens. But for the next five minutes, nothing happened. I almost asked Hannah to get me back to the present when I heard the yelling closing in.

The ground quaked, as if a massive vehicle is approaching. The pile of sand beside us cracked, receded and flattened. The cottages creaked and grated. Alarmed, villagers ran around in trepidation. They gathered their children, locked doors and barricaded their homes. They fled the streets like what's coming is something they desperately dread.

"What's that?" I asked Hannah. "Do you hear that?"

The ground rumbled as heavy thuds grew stronger, closer. The sound of a hundred hoofs galloping.

She darkened. "His here."

"Him who?"

"Hell himself."

It happened so fast, even faster than an eye could blink. The villagers exploded into panic and chaos. Screaming blasted from all corners. From the darkness, they came. Horse-riders in black capes, armed with axes and swords. They swarmed the village like dark, formidable beasts and attacked people upon sight. Sharp, glistening metals cutted, sliced and pierced through soft flesh, blood showering like sprayers. Axes cutted through running bodies, tossing heads and arms towards different directions. More caped men appeared. They leaped from every direction, pouncing and grabbing people towards their doom. They crawled onto roofs, charged at houses and left clamoring screams. The villagers tried to escape their demise. Some shut doors of their cottages, others hid. A few villagers fought back. They gathered swords and shields and defended themselves. But none seem to stop the invaders. They were hunters of the night. They s*******r people as if they were animals.

I felt my body tremble. I grabbed Hannah and attempted to ran but she told me to stay put.

"We can't stay here. We're gonna die!" I was panicking. I don't plan on getting cut into pieces today.

"No one can harm you here, Peter!" She pressed my arm tight, causing me to wince. "You need to see this if you want to understand everything."

There came a screech, loud and piercing that I feel on my knee. Hannah lifted me up. Two horsemen leapt from two black stallions and landed infront of us, catching me by surprise. I tried to run but Hannah grabbed my shirt and kept me still. The two men walked slowly towards us. Sharp claws grew out of their hands on what used to be nails. They hissed, fangs bared. These aren't humans. They're vampires.

"Hannah, you better do something," I told her. "I don't plan on dying here in the past."

One of the vampires leapt and reached for us. I screamed but the man went through me as if I were nothing but mist. He landed straight behind me where a cart covers a young boy.

A scream.

The vampire left like a zing of a bullet, leaving the kid drained of his blood, two red dots tainted his pale neck. I recognized the kid from earlier with the wooden toy car. His eyes were wide open, face contorted out of horror and pain. A drip of blood trickled down the side of his icy lips.

He's dead.

Yelling and screaming amplified behind me. I turned around and a surge of cold icy wave slapped me. Men, women, children—torn to shreds like breadcrumbs. The soles of my feet felt like pricked. This is too much to watch.

"What the hell is this?" I cried at Hannah. "We need to help all these people!"

She grabbed my arm when I attempted to run. Her blue eyes, fierce and piercing, met mine. "Peter, there is  nothing you can do," she said. "The past is already written. You can't change it. The fate of these people are already done."

"They're going to die!" I pointed out.

"They're already dead!"

My chest ached. I couldn't watch it. I couldn't bear the sight of it. Not while they're dying and I'm here. . . watching them die. That's it! I swung my arm off of Hannah's grip and ran towards the nearest vampire.

"Peter, what are you doing?" she yelled at me.

"If you want to sit one out, I don't care! I'm helping these people!"  It was a reckless move but I felt the need to help these innocent lives. I saw a sword lying cold, bathing on the crimson liquid on the ground. I picked it up and slashed at the back of the monster kneeling infront of a woman. But the sword zipped past his body, like it was made of thin air.

Someone grabbed me by the collar and I dropped the bloody weapon that clanged softly on the ground.

"You hard-headed cow!" Hannah thundered. "I told you we don't exist in this timeline! Don't you see? It's too late! This event already happened. You can't save anyone here."

She pointed her arm infront of us and my eyes darted towards the direction. I wanted to flee from the scene that greeted my eyes. Beneath the silent sky dotted with billions of twinkling stars, dead bodies littered the ground. Blood splattered on the walls of the cottages and on the ground, leaving a stream of fresh red blood sinking on the sand, drank by the earth as if it too longed the taste of blood. I felt my insides forming a knot.

"They're all. . . dead." My voice faltered I almost choked.

"This is the first attack the Valerious coven did  on the halfbloods," Hannah began. "Two nights ago in this timeline, a prophecy was stated. The end of vampires lies at a halfblood's hands. No one knows who said it or how the prophecy came to be. The Valeriouses just started exterminating halfbloods to prevent the prophecy from happening." She heaved a breath.  "You see, Peter. We might not be able to change how the past was written. But the future is still a blank slate and we are the pen. What the future may hold is completely within our hands. That is why we need all the halfbloods we can get. To stop this from happening again. Halfbloods need to survive. . . To be free."

The skies brightened. A massive mass of cloud unvieled the world and a full blood red moon rose above us, enveloping the world in an ocean of red gleam. The skies reflected the blood on the ground, a red pool of halfblood lives.

Neighhhhh.

Hannah and I turned around. Four figures emerged from the shadows of a torn-down cottage. Midnight black capes rippled behind their backs as their giant horses walked slowly towards the village's main square where Hannah and I are standing in one corner, domed by a shadow of a lampost with a fading torchlight. Even as I couldn't glimpse the faces of the newcomers underneath their black hoods, they carried fear with them.

They stopped in the middle of the square and the one leading them slowly pulled off his hood. I felt cold sweat trickling down my spine. I knew this person. I've seen him in one of my dreams. Skin pale and bluish as ice: eyes bright blue and piercing like needles; hair slicked back, black as coal. Seeing him here made my knotting intestines revolt in panic. My knees buckled.

"Lucian," Hannah whispered, voice full of repulsion. "He's responsible for all this."

The rest of the newcomers followed Lucian's lead on lowering their hoods. One of them had a short black hair cut in army style, a sword strapped behind his back. The other one beside him is blond and looks younger than the other two. He too had the same pale skin and blue eyes. He turned to my direction and met my gaze but he could see nothing. He couldn't see me.

My heartbeat quickened as our eyes met. I feel like I should know him. But before I could see better, Lucian spoke. "Gather your men. Burn the entire village. Spare no one!"

The black-haired man nodded and moved ahead. The blond man glimpsed at my direction again before following the other vampire.

"We need to leave now," Hannah said and grabbed my arm.

Infront of us, the fourth rider lowered it's hood, exposing long, ebony black hair braided by the sides. Coated in crimson, her lips appeared bloodied on her ghostly skin.

She turned to our direction.

Her eyes blazed in bright blue, her expression dark and haunting.

I felt Hannah's grip on my arm tightening.

"She can see us." Her voice quaked.

"What?" I trembled in shock. "But I thought you said no one could see us here?"

"Peter, run!"

The woman jumped from the horse and grabbed something from her sidepocket. The torch glinted and I saw the glistening dagger in her hands. Eyes vibrant blue, she threw the dagger at our direction. Hannah grabbed my arm and shouted something I wasn't able to comprehend. She whirled around me and we exploded in a bright white light. I felt like being squeezed into a pulp until we dropped into an open space, slamming ourselves in the rough, dusty road infront of the old abondoned house where we started.

My fall was bad. I face-slammed on the ground. I tasted dust on my tongue, blood on my lips. I grunted. "Who was that?" I asked when I recovered from the pain of the fall.

"Aemilia," Hannah replied, coughing off the sand and dust of her lips. "A Valerious. A time-walker. Like me. But she's a lot more powerful than I am." She got up and wiped herself. "I can't believe she was there too." She fell silent, heaving a series of deep breaths. She got up. "We need to go back to the Haven. It's almost evening."

She's right. The sky was beginning to turn dark. We need to get back to the hideout before we get caught up in another vampire ambush.

I followed Hannah as she walked limply back into the convertible. That's when I noticed the liquid dripping in the sand, creating a droplet trail of red. I followed the trail and was horrified to see a knife stabbed in Hannah's back.

"Hannah, you're bleeding!"

I ran towards her just in time for her to collapse on my arms.

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To be continued. . .