Chapter Two
~Victor~
For the second time since I’d been interred, the presence of a human on my island had disturbed my rest.
The spells those witches had carved into my tomb hadn’t done what they were supposed to. I’d expected to be as close to death as possible. And yet, it was more like I was trapped inside a decaying body, unable to move or feed or even fully wake.
My body was useless, probably wasted away from lack of blood, lack of movement. I had no idea how much time had passed since I’d given up on life, but I knew that it had been over a century at least.
Through the years my consciousness drifted, absorbing knowledge and the strange changing of language and technology. I knew that images were projected on screens, allowing moving pictures to be viewed inside every room of a home. I knew that something called cellular phones allowed constant contact around the world at the push of a button.
But I didn’t actually understand it. I didn’t know where it came from, or how it worked. I just accumulated the information while hunger clawed at my senses.
Hunger and anger. My only two constants.
And now, I let that anger flow from my mind, sending it out like a beacon, warning all humans that they were not welcome on my island.
I could accept the monsters moving on, enjoying the beauty of this place I’d created. But not humans. They’d destroyed everything and I would not stand for them destroying this place, too.
The presence of the human seemed to draw closer to me, their vile stench permeating even through my sarcophagus, causing my rage to swell even more violently.
For the first time since I’d crawled into this coffin, I wished that I could rise again. That I could physically lash out and destroy the norm that dared to step foot on my island. I interred myself here to be away from everyone. They had no right to disturb my slumber.
Muted voices grew closer, the thunder created by my anger drowning out any words they were actually speaking. I could sense that one of them was a supernatural creature, a shifter of some kind.
And the other…
Had my heart been beating it would have stopped dead in my chest.
There was something familiar about this human. Like a distant memory long since forgotten, tugging at my consciousness as if begging to be remembered. But try as I might, I couldn’t grasp it. Couldn’t place it.
“Is it structurally sound, do you think?” a man’s voice cut through the storms outside, obviously coming from the entrance of my tomb.
“It appears to be,” the woman answered. “Honestly, I’ll take my chances.”
They were the first voices I’d heard in centuries, and had I been able to weep, I might have. Even knowing that one of them was a normal, this was the closest I’d been to anyone in so long, that I was overcome with emotions.
“Oh my,” the woman whispered, her voice so close now that I knew without a doubt she was standing over my coffin.
“I’ll be damned,” the man responded, shock clear in his tone. “The legends were right.”
“We don’t know anything yet,” the woman said.
My senses were suddenly completely overwhelmed, and every memory I’d ever held of my sweet Claire flooded through me. It was as if I’d suddenly stepped into the sun for the first time. Warmth and light and peace washed over me.
It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be her. She was long dead. I’d watched it happen. And this woman, this person that was so close to me now she may as well have been touching the corpse that had held me dormant since my torpor began, was most definitely a human.
And yet it was if Claire were holding me in her arms once more.
It was too much. My consciousness screamed, the sound guttural and brutal as it echoed in my mind, unable to take actual voice through my body, until I had to shut down completely to block the pain and fear that swallowed everything that was left of me.