Lamech

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It only took me half an hour to get to Betsom's Hill. It had started to rain as if the sky also knew it was a horrible day. The trees around the place had lost most of their leaves, making the grey day seem even more depressing.

The Priestess hadn't told me exactly where, but through the wind, I caught the scent of bad breath. I followed it and sure enough, it led me straight to them.

They stood and waited for me in an open field, trees framed it. I counted to fifteen of them. Seemed like they had decided to take no chances with me.

The woman that stood at the front, whom I assumed to be the Priestess, wore a purple long dress and a haughty and prideful expression.

"So you ought to be Lamech Carnell," she said when I stopped a few meters away from her.

"I came, just like you wanted. So let Crimson go now," I answered and kept my eyes firmly on her, while I let my other senses take in as much information as possible. I could hear that almost all of the witches had somewhat increased heartbeats. Either my presence had them nervous, or they were excited. I couldn't tell which.

"Why the hurry? We're just getting started. Kendra!"

A witch stepped out among the rest. She carried something that she threw in my direction. When it landed by my feet, I could clearly see what it was. Iron cuffs.

"Put them on yourself," the Priestess told me with a smirk.

It seemed like they had come well-prepared and wouldn't take any chances with me. But I really wasn't a threat to them, not as long as they had Crimson. So I obliged and cuffed myself. Both hands and feet.

"What else do you want?" I asked and watched as the Priestess gave the witch that had thrown the cuffs a look. That witch and five others stepped forward, towards me. I just waited, because, as with the cuffs, I would play along in any game they wanted.

Except for the one it turned out they wanted to play.

"Get him on his knees," the witch named Kendra said.

The five others grabbed hold of me and forced me down. I rolled my eyes. "You could have just asked."

She acted as if she hadn't heard and brought out something from under the black cloak she wore. When I saw what it was, I immediately became less cooperative.

A wooden stake.

I flipped my head backwards, hit the one that stood behind me with the back of my head with such force that she fell to the ground with a yelp. Next, I threw my shoulder first at the one to the left and then to the right. I got to my feet and with my cuffed hands I grabbed hold of the stake and wrenched it out of the witch's hands. I planned to crush it with my fists. But that was as far as I got before I felt magic forcing me down.

I kneeled again, still holding the stake, but my movements weren't my own.

"Stop this! Just bring Crimson here first!" I yelled at the Priestess who looked at me with malevolent eyes as she made a turning movement with her hand. My hands, which held the stake, began to move on their own. They turned so the sharp part of the stake was directed at me.

I tried to use all my strength to stop what was happening. But it didn't matter how much I told my arms and hands not to move, they did it anyway.

"Don't!" I yelled right before the stake pierced my skin and went into my heart.

In an instance, I froze as if I had been turned into a stone statue. I was unable to move. The only parts of my body that still worked were my senses. I could stare forward right at the Priestess. Could hear them talk and feel the wind and rain on my skin.

Killing a vampire by fire after having pierced them with a stake truly was the cruelest way of killing us. We would be unable to do anything to escape the flame. Not even be able to scream, but we would feel how the fire turned our bodies to ashes.

"Now what?" Kendra asked and turned to the Priestess.

"He came so fast that I didn't have time to think of the best way to kill him and that abomination," the Priestess admitted and cocked her head to the side. "One thing is certain though. I won't make the same mistake as last time. Both of them shall die tonight."

I had already known that was the most probable outcome but her words still made my dread increase. I wanted to scream at her to kill me, but spare Crimson. Since I couldn't, I hoped she could see the request through my eyes.

"Did you know, Lamech Carnell," she said to me, and her eyes filled with intense hatred, "that I once met your father? I was only a little girl back then. My mother was foolish enough to believe it when your father claimed that he wanted to discuss a way for us to live in peace with your kind. When he came, he instead made a pretty strong argument for why that would never be possible. They killed five of our sisters and abducted three more."

What she said didn't surprise me in the slightest. That sounded exactly like something my father would have done. But it did make me wish I was able to speak even more. I wanted to tell her that things were different and that if she just let me and Crimson go, they wouldn't be disturbed by any vampire from the Midnight Refugees anymore. But all I could do was to keep on watching and listening as she displayed her anger and resentment.

"But what shall we do? Just kill you and then go back and kill her? Or maybe bring her here so either you can watch her die before dying yourself or the other way around? Or maybe," a wicked evil spark came to her eyes and I knew that whatever idea she had it would be bad, "we'll bring her here, and burn the both of you at the same time? Wouldn't that be a fitting end?"

Considering the pure hate that shone from her eyes, it would indeed, by her standards, be a fitting end. I could not think of anything crueler she could have decided on. We would both feel the pain of death while also watching the other die. Unable to do anything to stop it.

I needed a way to avoid it, but I could not think of anything. I was completely helpless. For a moment I even wished that I hadn't come. Anything else they could have put Crimson through wouldn't have been as painful as what they planned.

My brain screamed at my muscles to move, to just rip that stake out and attack the Priestess. But no matter how loud and fierce it screamed, I remained immobile. I even tried to just get to close my eyes, to not have to look into those hateful ones of the Priestess, but not even that was possible.

For a moment, I wondered what I had done to deserve this. Hadn't I done my best to live an as good life as possible? Or had I killed too many people in the beginning of my life to warrant all of this? And worst of all, to drag Crimson down with me.

"Kendra, take a few and fetch Crimson here," the Priestess ordered.

"That won't be necessary," a low and cold voice said behind me.