Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“Thank you for understanding.” Melody walks into the gloom, her form visible but unobtrusive.
I wander forward, drawn back to the silent fountain, its waters stagnant but also teeming with life. Sitting on the mossy edge, I stare at the reflection of the sky, my eyes becoming better adjusted with each passing moment. Wherever we are, I can see plenty of stars. We must be far from any city—that, or whatever town we’re near doesn’t have power. Not uncommon. Once the plague hit with full force, plenty of cities collapsed. Then they reformed in loose collectives or allowed the federal government to step in and impose a bare bones sort of order. In the worst scenarios, people became lawless and violent. Leaders emerged—some warlords, some actually concerned for the greater good. A mixed bag of ideals and monarchies, democracies and dictatorships.
Austin was different. We had power more often than not, other services, too. All because of Juno. She kept civilization as intact as possible, used federal resources to maintain the rule of law, and set up food and medicine banks. Our hospital was up and running even in the darkest days of the plague, when the bodies piled up in tractor trailers and then the streets. When the crematoriums were running around the clock and the smoke from the open burn pit beyond the city’s edge darkened the skies. Juno kept order, kept the people moving toward hope. She saved lives. Countless lives.
“Why?” I whisper to her, to myself. Why did she accept Gregor’s offer? Access to vampire blood couldn’t have been enough reason. My work in the lab was fruitless. I never found the cure, never found anything to help save humanity. If I had, we wouldn’t be here right now. Maybe her misplaced faith in my ability was her true downfall.
She believed in me. I failed. And now the world is burning, Juno’s dead, and I’m trapped here. What was it all for?
A turtle surfaces, only its head visible, getting air. I watch the ripples in the pond, melting away from the creature simply trying to survive.
I sit for a long while, the light wind turning colder. Melody is nowhere to be seen as I meander over to the statue. The stone woman is still looking past me, her sad eyes somewhere on the horizon. There’s no marker, nothing to tell me who she is or why she’s trapped here like me.
Venturing farther than before, I stroll past a row of fruit trees, their limbs barren, the rotten fruit beneath them already subsumed by tufts of grass and piles of leaves. The rolling hills give no clues of what lies beyond them, and as I stand still and just listen, no sounds make it to me other than the breeze soughing through the trees and the slight clack of limbs bumping against each other. No civilization. No rolling waves. Nothing to give me any real hints.
Footsteps behind me, particularly loud when I know Melody is capable of moving without a sound. “We should return now.” She’s being polite, making her presence known so she doesn’t startle me. Would a monster do something as thoughtful as that?
“All right.” I walk with her past the trees and back into the garden proper, but I pause when we get level with the statue. “Who is she?”
She stops. “I’m not sure if that’s my story to tell.”
“Please?” I catch her cat-eyed gaze and hold it.
She ponders for a few moments, her body eerily still. Sometimes I think the vampires exist outside of the laws of physics. I’d love to examine one of them. Though Melody has been patient with me, I don’t know if I can ask her to let me perform a physical. It’s not as if I have any tools here, anyway. The best I could do is press my ear to her chest and listen for a heartbeat.
“Do you have a heartbeat?” I ask before thinking better of it.
“Where’d that come from?” She gives me an amused half smile.
“Sorry. No ADHD meds here.” I shrug.
Her smile grows a little. “Yes. My heart beats. I’m still young in vampire years. The older ones, though, their hearts stop eventually.”
“But they’re still alive. Breathing?”
“I believe so, though I don’t know the particulars. That could stop, too. I’ve just never inquired about it.”
I can’t remember most of my work in the lab, though I remember receiving samples from Valen. It was vampire blood. What did I learn from it? Before I can think further on it, a dull ache sets up behind my temples. A warning. I return my gaze to the statue, to an unknown bit of marble that has no chance of driving a spike into my skull.
“I’d love to know about her.” I don’t want to push, but I’ve always been a curious creature. My imprisonment hasn’t changed that.