My Precious Nightmare

Chapter 49: Escape

The darkness brought Aster to a more primitive state, and he could feel his pupils stretch, almost painfully, as far as they could go to suck in the black. Even his nostrils flared, widening for the run. Outlines in the pitch black came to him. With his sight came instincts that hunched him down and sent him running towards the door with Husani. He couldn't see the shadows the older vampire controlled. But he could see the door opening on its own and pushing back bodies heavy with the ripe aroma of meat and sweetness.

Fear, he realized. This sweet, heady scent like ripe fruit beneath the sun was human fear.

His lips curled back. His gums itched, and fangs brushed his bottom lips. His throat felt hot in a pleasant sort of pain, like a massage on sore muscles. Each breath brought the pleasant ache deeper into his gut.

Then something unseen wrapped about his waist and dragged him through the crowd. Husani's glowing red eyes drank him in, narrow and disapproving.

"So young," he whispered, or sighed.

Then Aster Morianton grasped the control he hadn't realized he'd lost and fell into a run. The invisible force withdrew from his waist. Sounds of boots and yells and the rustle of Kevlar bodies filled the hall, but the only ones who could see were the vampires. Aster found himself needing to move faster than he'd ever dare before in order to just keep up with the older vampire, and the ease in which his legs sprung him up stairs and swung him about corners made him grin.

The next floor brought with it a waft of cold and an entirely new scent. Sweet fear turned sour, rotten, and a cold chill cooled whatever heat had been left in his throat. It was like body odor, old socks, or a bed overdue to be made. Underneath it he caught the now familiar rotten fruit scent of his own kind and suddenly understood what this odor was. After all, he wasn't the only predator in the building to smell the human's fear.

Bars snapped down over the double doors. The clang of more bars dropping cracked across the vast expanse of the jail. A wild roar came from the rotten fruit scented cells.

"Husani—" he started, just to be cut off as Husani took a running leap, spread the giant wings folded against his back like an oversized trench coat, and shot straight up to a clouded skylight, the only unbarred window. Afterall, what human could reach that height?

Aster's mouth went dry.

But he moved all the same, sprinting towards the nearest wall of cells and throwing himself up the wall with his superhuman strength. His long limbs served him well, and his extended strength shot him up one story, then two, then—

"Morianton!"

Holding himself to the railing of the third story line of cells by a foot and hand, he twisted back. Husani's hand hung below the skylight, legs and fist keeping the bars from closing; shattered, opaque glass splattered along the floor below.

Aster jumped to the top of the railing, crouched, then let go as he reached out for the hand—

The lights flashed on. The world flashed white, spiking pain through his skull. Fingers brushed his wrist—claws bit. He let out a shout of pain as the claws dug deeper to the bone, weighted by his body.

Thunder cracked the air. Fire pierced his legs, his chest—

The claws slipped. His insides flew to his mouth as the rest of him fell.

Then the hard concrete knocked out him out, leaving only agony and a chaos of senses and hungers that took up the space where thought had once been.

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I think watching 'Attack on Titan' is a legitimate Halloween experience myself. I mean, my goodness.