The shadow of the night hunters

First

I was a child on the verge of adolescence, I was close to fourteen. I lived in a village forgotten by the world. We were in a small settlement of about 2000 people who were dedicated to cattle ranching and remained hidden in the mountains for fear of the appearance of strange creatures in recent years. There were many rumors about monsters attacking people and disappearances of dozens of people but we all considered them just legends. There were still some concerns.

Unfortunately living in such a place had its disadvantages, as the winter was too harsh compared to other places. The fireplaces in the houses could not cope with such frost. Most of the walls of the homes were made of stone which made the cold more intense. Touching them would practically freeze anyone's hands. Worst of all, the food ran out ahead of schedule and all that was left were leftover bread and some flour. It was a sad scene where we were slowly starving to death. Our bodies could no longer cope with all that we were experiencing.

It had only been four days since the end of the freeze that the country was suffering. The snow had almost completely evaporated, but our animals had almost all died, they could not stand the cold and so had our crops.

We were doomed to die, there was no way out of that place in the middle of nowhere. Our panorama looked very dark, no horse could make it down that mountain, and the journey was even more complicated, because the road was completely waterlogged and quite steep. The sun was not yet strong enough to dry the gigantic puddles formed by the snow.

Under these conditions we spent another week of agony, some people died because of this situation and were buried one by one on the outskirts of the village. The village was protected by a two-meter stone wall, and the surrounding area was covered by trees, but these had completely lost their leaves and anyone could find the village. Everything was very discouraging. For my family it was very hard, because my father got sick. He was in bed and seemed to have a bad cold. He was a black-haired man, quite well groomed, with a big beard, a rather broad face and black eyes. He was as white as snow. He couldn't even get out of the straw bed where he slept with my mother.

His health was so bad that I offered to go, but I knew that they were going to sacrifice the last of our animals, but it was complicated, because they were in the same situation as we were, but we had no other choice. In our house we had two very thin hens, one of them we ate and she had almost nothing. We kept her alive on bread rations that didn't help her much. The only thing she had were feathers that gave a false impression that she was fat, but she was not. It was practically her time.

I went out to look for wood on the outskirts of town. I had to walk a long way as the place was a rather strange area. For security reasons, all the trees near the houses had been cut down. So I had to walk about two kilometers to find good wood, in the walls that hid the village.

It was intensely cold, even though there was no more snow and everything was full of mud. I sank in several places, and I got dirty almost everything. I was wearing a tunic and brown cotton pants. I even got splashed in the face several times. In one of the puddles I could see my reflection. I was very thin. My face was a little lined and I had dark circles under my eyes, my blue eyes looked tired. My black hair was dull and dirty, the mud had splashed even on my face. I decided to stop looking there. The wind was still strong and was hitting me in the face.

I was hungry, the little I could eat was a few small pieces of poorly prepared bread. An invention of my mother trying to give us something to eat.

I barely made it out of town. I started gathering wood that I found lying around. Even though they were all wet and muddy. Most of the trees had no leaves. They had all fallen off. Some were lying on the ground and I set out to pick them up.

While I was picking up some branches, I saw a very strange man, apparently he was a foreigner, he looked too white as snow, he was hiding his eyes, with a kind of hood, he was wearing a kind of black vest and a pair of tights, he had a strange hat, as if he was trying to avoid the sun hitting his face, he looked like someone lost, but I was too young to distinguish him. When he saw me, he spoke to me without hesitation. I could not see his face well, but he approached me and began to say his first words.

"Boy, are you coming from some village" he said to me in a rather thick voice.

"Yes, are you coming to help us" I answered in an innocent manner.

"Yes, the king sent some help that is on its way, but we need men to go and help the floats that are bringing him food. The chariots coming here got stuck in the mud. Take me to your village, please"

I was very excited to hear that, I felt it was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I pointed to the road in the middle of the muddy place. We both walked to the entrance of my village. We passed through the wooden gate and reached the main street, where there was a stone well where we drew water. There were several people there, talking as if nothing was happening. That man kept looking at everyone. Until he saw someone who caught his attention. Without hesitation, I told him who the person was that he was observing so much.

"He is the mayor of our town"

The man walked over to him, and the two of them stood there talking. I felt that my mission was accomplished and I was very happy.

I immediately went home to tell my family the good news. We lived about 20 houses away. As soon as I arrived I spoke to my parents who were sitting on the floor thinking what to do.

"Mom, Dad, the king sent someone to help us. They need adults to help pull things in. Some floats are near here, but they got stuck"

They were both old people, in their thirties and forties, only my mother was blonde, kind of short, round face, and a mole on her cheek, with blue eyes. We all inherited that from her.

They both looked happy, the faces of despair disappeared from one moment to the next. They left immediately to tell the neighbors, and I stayed with my 10 siblings. Our house was two-story and very narrow. We all sat somewhat happily in the living room where usually, as there were so many of us, we ate on wooden logs and a makeshift pine table. All eleven of us were alike, blond hair, blue eyes, round faces, somewhat tall and an expressive look. I was the most hyperactive of all, but the only one who had been born with my father's black hair and decided to cut it off, I considered it a nuisance. That was the only thing that differentiated me from my siblings. Being so many we lived in misery because of this frost, I thought that after this everything will change and so, but not as I thought.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. A heartbreaking scream was heard near our house.

I went out to look and saw everyone running to see what was happening. I did too but I closed the door warning my brothers not to go out. I was not the oldest, but instinctively I did not want anything to happen to them. Several took various objects from the house to protect themselves, some sticks and knives that were there.

Through the muddy streets of the village I began to hear strange noises, the closer I got, the worse it got. I saw many animal marks on the walls of a stone and wood house, I got scared and wanted to go back, I only had a wooden stick in my hand, something long and thick. When I tried to turn back a man came out of the village. He was covered with blood all over his body and with intense red eyes, and I could see his fangs looked like those of an animal. It was terrifying to look into his eyes.

He approached me violently, he gave me no chance to escape. He cornered me on a wall of that house trying to bite me, and with his strength he managed to diminish me totally, since he was an adult, he could not do anything. I was only a teenager, it was impossible for me to do anything. The smell from his mouth was horrible, as if he had eaten bad food. He put his hand on my head and prevented me from moving. It approached me and without hesitation buried its fangs in my neck, as if I were its prey. I remembered wolves and foxes when they hunted. That's how they kill their prey. I felt two hot nails piercing me at the same time. I tried to push him away, but my arms didn't respond. He kept doing that, and he seemed to enjoy it, because the more he sucked. And with his other hand he was scratching my breast. It was a crazy situation. Something hot started to run through my body, as if it was burning my skin. I couldn't move anymore at that moment. No one appeared at that place to help me.

The streets looked lonely and it seemed that some houses were on fire, I had no idea what was going on. There I remembered the rumors of the appearance of the monsters that seemed like horror stories to scare the children

[...]

When that man finished, I fell to my knees on the floor in confusion. I spent almost two minutes like that. I thought I was going to die in that place.

I didn't know what was happening and I fainted watching how little by little he walked away desperately looking for another victim. I tried to get up, but it was very difficult. My body weighed me down and I was unresponsive. When I least expected it, I closed my eyes against my will.

A strange sound came out of nowhere, the church bells resounded loudly, alerting people that something was happening.

Thanks to that, I was able to pull myself together and little by little I started to pull myself together. Unfortunately I didn't know how long I was like that. I was almost unconscious. I only knew that it was already night. I could hear screams everywhere and I saw some houses were burning. It seemed like the end of the world. I got up with great difficulty. I tried to remember what had happened and started thinking about my family. I immediately got up and went to look for them, but unfortunately I noticed that my house had burned down from the area where I was.

The street where I was at that moment was marked with animal claws and blood everywhere. I felt like my soul was leaving me when I saw that scene. I ran trying to get there, even though I couldn't stand up.

The door of the house had been ripped off and the inside of the house had been burned. I saw some burned bodies one on top of the other that I was not able to go and see. I knew it was them, I felt stabs in my chest when I saw that scene. I left the house totally destroyed mentally and started crying non-stop.

Was I the one to blame for this, I asked myself every moment and I beat my hands against the floor. Maybe it was a nightmare, I took a knife to make a wound and wake up, but when I did, I felt pain and I was still in this same place.

I got up angry and the only thing I thought about was that man who had bitten me to kill him, maybe he had been the one who had done this to my brothers.

When I got up from the ground I saw that the wound on my leg had healed, I was surprised, I touched my neck where that guy had bitten me, I could hardly feel anything. There were only two small needle-like holes.

I heard some steps approaching me without any fear.

"You were bitten, right?" said a man who appeared out of nowhere, he looked like a foreigner, he was dressed in black, with a kind of silver armor. He had a helmet that did not show his face and a stake in his hand, with some blood on it.

"Yes, how do you know that"

"I wasn't sure, but it's strange, your eyes are still the same as your human form"

"Do you know what's going on, please tell me?"

"A vampire was running away and came to this town, and started biting people to feed. Unfortunately, when it bites someone, the blood loses the taste they like, so it looks for more people. The people in this town are very strange, some of them didn't turn, but you seem to be in the middle, you didn't become a vampire, but you are not human either"

"But why are there dead people all over town?"

"Because everyone when first bitten has an insatiable hunger for blood and wants to taste types of flavor, and most are in the bones, so with so many people immune and low on blood, they killed as many people as they could to bleed them dry and drank as much as they wanted"

"Then everyone ..."

"I'm sorry kid everyone in your village is dead or demons now, besides I will have to kill you, you are no longer human..... forgive me for not being on time. Just close your eyes and may God help you on your way"