"Frozen Windows #3" by Meghan Engele (Apocalypse)

Darien gave her no information as to where they were going, or why for that matter. Sitting in the backseat though, she could see nothing but the darkened road ahead. The windows were tinted, but it seemed that they were black in the back. She couldn’t have seen the true size of the building if she wanted to. Darien had parked the car underground in some form of a parking lot.

A faint scent of cinnamon sifted through the air. Aillen barely noticed it, but when she did, she tried to find it, quietly. A little glass holder was what she found beside her. There were ashes inside it, and little packets beside that. The cinnamon smell was stronger here.

Aillen snatched one of the packets and put it in her pocket. Perhaps she could use it later.

“We are there.” Darien stated.

Aillen moved into the middle seat and stared. It was the castle from her dreams. The iron gates, they were coming closer, faster. Darien was in a hurry. Inside, they would be chasing her, hunting her. She couldn’t let that happen, not as if it had in her dreams.

Full of apprehension and fear, Aillen dove towards Darien and seized the wheel. Before Darien had a chance to react, Aillen had already jerked the car to the right sending the car rolling off the road, and finally into a tree.

Slightly dazed, Aillen fell back into the back seat and tried to open the door. It was locked, and Darien was awake.

“What are you doing?” He yelled, obviously infuriated.

Aillen shoved her hand into her pocket where the cinnamon packet was sitting. Perhaps she could stall him just long enough.

“I can’t go there.” She stammered. “They will be there.”

Darien looked at her completely confused. It was the perfect time. Aillen forced the cinnamon contents into Darien’s eyes and kicked the window in. As she ran, all she heard was Darien screaming in pain. Then that died, and she was far away, farther then Darien could go in the time she had.

She had lost him, and left the castle far behind. Aillen still ran, but then slowed eventually stopping. Why had she run from the castle? Whispers filled her mind; the voices were speaking to her and she couldn’t hear them clearly.

“I don’t understand…”

A laugh erupted from behind.

“I see you haven’t lost your touch Amber. Really the illusion is magnificent.”

Aillen turned on the man. Before finishing the turn, she knew it was a vampire; nothing else could have come this close to her without her knowing. When she saw him, she realized it was the vampire she saw in the portrait, and the one she saw in her room. Aillen breathed the name Amber. It did seem familiar, but she didn’t know how.

“So you don’t remember.” The vampire mused tapping his chin thoughtfully. He was mocking her, but why?

“Who are you?” Aillen demanded. The bloody bloodsucking thing had read her bloody mind. If he did, again she was going to hang him to dry high noon.

The vampire cringed slightly. “I am known as Bree.”

Aillen scowled.

“It looked like you needed some help.”

“Liar.” Aillen breathed breaking eye contact with the vampire.

The vampire didn’t move. “No? Well perhaps that wasn’t my first inclination, to stop you. However, you do need help, and I can help you.” Bree explained.

Her eyes turned blank. How could he help her? Did he even know whom, she was?

“Prove it.” She didn’t demand an answer, she was curious. The emotion bloomed in her eyes.

Stone faced, the vampire brought a pouch from his black coat.

Inside she found the black necklace from her dream. The yellow glow was nowhere to be found. After viewing it for a short moment, he concealed it within the pouch and hid it in his coat.

“You are not a member of the ruling clan, whichever it may be. Are you?” Aillen asked absently.

The vampire shook his head. “We can’t speak here. You must follow me if you wish to discuss something, anything.” He said disregarding everything, she had said deftly.

Curious, and determined to stay away from the ruling clan, and Darien, she followed this new vampire, Bree. The feeling of him being beneath her flooded her mind. She also knew that he must know what she was. His slight threads of fear could stand for nothing less.

After many minutes Bree had guided her to a large house still within the forest. He ushered her inside without hesitation and locked the door.

Inside, the windows were sealed with a sheet of metal and barred as well. There were no furnishings what so ever. When she turned to see what Bree was doing, she saw that the door was just as armored as the door.

“You fear being attacked?” Aillen asked plainly putting the thought of him trying to keep her in this place out of her head.

Bree seemed slightly taken back and averted his eyes silently to the floor.

“You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into yet, do you?”

With difficulty, Aillen suppressed her paining urge to scream. How did he come to the conclusion that she had gotten herself into this?

Aillen shook her head, not daring open her mouth to reply.

“I will tell you, but it isn’t entirely safe here.” Bree motioned for her to follow him into the basement. She did without hesitation.

The stone stairs seemed like they would go one forever, when finally Aillen stepped onto an azure carpet.

“I can tell you here.” Bree stated. “Please sit down.” He pointed to one of the black leather chairs as he sat in the other.

“You have come at a very delicate stage in our history Aillen. The ruling clan and its followers have fought against us for centuries, but…” He seemed to be looking somewhere else. “I need to start from the beginning Aillen.” He gazed at her eyes looking for what she believed to be permission.

Aillen nodded.

“Our aggression, our rebellious outbreak began right after the third last of your kind was killed. We rebelled because we believed that the Ruling Clan had murdered him unnecessarily. When they wouldn’t inform us, we turned against them.” He took a deep breath and continued. “Then, 250 years later we heard that another had been found. It was a female this time, and we knew where she was.” Aillen’s mind spun circles in her head, the voices uttered her name as less then a whisper in her mind.

“Amber.” She breathed.

Bree seemed surprised, and concerned.

“Yes, but I don’t know how you would know that.”

“Don’t worry about it, keep going.” Aillen breathed holding her head.

Bree nodded uncertainly but continued. “We got to her first, and told her everything about her and ourselves. At first we thought she would come with us, and help us overthrow the Ruling Clan, but she fled on horseback. We couldn’t have kept up with her if we wanted to. So, she escaped, not before telling us that she would never help us or them. We tried to find her, but after a week we lost her for good.” He almost smiled. “We were blinded by her power, how she could help us that by needing her so much we were only pushing her away. Both of us knew that. But Amber figured out that we would do anything in a heartbeat, and turned it against us all.”

He laughed. “Now, I am straying from the actual story. Amber must have lived for a very long time because you were found 300 years later, far past the regular expectancy.” His eyes darkened. “We have only theories, but we know that somehow Amber must have tapped into immortality. Our next best guess is that she went mad, and in a panic found out how to make another one. If she had not, we would still be waiting. Your resemblance to her also plays a huge part, you are her daughter Aillen. We can’t begin to imagine how you could help us. However, we can’t keep you against your will, myself and any that got in your way would end up dead of that I’ve no doubt. So, like Amber, I will ask for you loyalty and your aid in exchange for the help you require for you to keep your sanity.”

Aillen leaned back in the chair fighting off all the possibilities that were entering her head. Then, those voices came back. She could hear them all at the same time telling her what happened, who they were, and that the vampires couldn’t be trusted.

She didn’t know that outside her mind she was bent over in her chair with her hands grasping her ears. She was screaming in pain.

Bree just watched, he had seen this before. Amber had had a similar reaction, but he had found it less severe then this one. What did it mean? He couldn’t begin to imagine what was going through her head just then.