The Frozen Moon - By J.D. Swinn Page 0,21

to move to the furthest point of the hall, the last portion unexplored. They now stood at the front of the hall, where the DJ table lay in ruins; she hadn’t noticed that the music had stopped. Though there was no music, sound was not in short supply in the room; the clatter of weapons had been deafening, but was now receding. In fact, she thought, it was nearly gone. The battles around her were ending with final plunges, and people stood leaning against walls breathing and bleeding heavily. Still, even through the thinned crowd, she couldn’t see the girls they searched for. She turned to give a worried glance at the rest of the group, who seemed to mirror her expression.

She remembered the first thing she had noticed about each she had found; with Seth it had been his sharp features, with Cal it had been his deep black hair, and with Mira and her group it had been the gold glittering off of her. The first thing she saw of Eve was her loose curls spilling over her body, and with Gwen she saw her pale blue eyes, looking more ghostlike against pale white and blood red than ever. The two were surrounded by what had to be nearly all of the remaining attackers, and were standing about twenty feet away. In her next breath, the line of monsters was pulsing forward at frightening speed. Nameh lunged with all the life still remaining in her frail body, determined to stop however many of them she could. She fell upon the nearest vampire with such a vengeance that the creature barely quivered before its death. The others could be felt around her more than seen, and she knew they had the same goal. She knew that there must be screams and clinks of swords, but she could hear none of them. Sound was gone.

The movements of the creatures appeared to her in slow motion, with lines blurred together and sound nonexistent. Those they could not kill in time were upon the girls, crushing any attempt at defense they might have protested with. She watched their faces contort into expressions of horror, an image that she would never rid herself of. Her legs continued to heave beneath her, pressing forward with all the strength they could find in her heavily taxed muscles. Her sword was up over her head, and she brought it down again and again. She struck out again and again. She killed again and again.

She slaughtered the monstrous things until her torn body could simply take no more, as the last one fell she dropped to her knees, and the floor came up to greet her. She knew her eyes were still open, but she could barely force them to make out blurry shapes. Through her mind swam the thoughts of disorientation, Where am I? What happened? The world went black, different from the soft white of the vampire bite. Was this what death was like? She felt free of pain, her body some distant entity that she was aware of but not connected to, like the sun, moon, or stars. She was pulled up through the tunnel of a night sky, flitting away from her body without a second thought. The vampire’s magic trickled into her thoughts and polluted her mind; everything felt easy and natural. No more questions resounded in her mind, just the corrupted and repeated knowledge: this is the way of the world.

Fading Horizons

We are those who cling to moments,

Grasp at straws and time gone by.

We know not the onyx oceans

That lay beyond the horizon.

Can we not continue on?

Leave this sunset far behind

Before this golden light turns

To pitch black?

Even sunsets, in all their splendor,

Give way to night.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: MOVING ON

When her thoughts began to clear, she could think only of Eve and Gwen; what had become of them? She felt something warm encircling her tightly, giving her the feeling of being a child pulled up onto her father’s lap. It was this that caused her to snap into reality, opening her eyes slowly only to snap them shut again once she realized that she had a splitting headache.

“Guys, I think she’s awake,” said a soft voice that sounded near. Hushed exchanges of words followed, then movement on all sides. Did she dare try to open her eyes again? The only action Nameh desired was to slip back into the darkened sleep she had prematurely emerged from. She decided to assess her damage first.