My Favorite Nightmare by Abigail Livinghouse (ebook audio reader TXT) 📕

and bodies. Bodies everywhere, littered all over the place. Mother covered Michaela and Liana’s eyes to keep the horrors of the streets away from them. I swallowed my frustration and confusion at what was going on and barreled into the crowds of people, rushing about with torches lit and held high up, pointing to the sky darkened with smoke.

 

“Kyla! Kyla come back!” Mother’s voice faded into the distance as I ran farther and farther away from her. I couldn’t’ stay with her, I had to find the vampire who had left these bloodless bodies on the grounds of our village. I had to find the immortal and end this.

Chapter Twenty

I saw Trine with his fiancée Katina being pushed through all the people, the girl’s belly bulging in her shirt slightly from her unborn baby.

 

“Trine!” I called. He looked up in surprise, waving to me and saying something that I couldn’t make out.

 

I shoved people aside with mumbled apologizes, getting a few fingers and being damned by at least five people. I grabbed onto Trine’s outstretched hand, coming forward and holding onto Katina’s arm.

 

“Are you alright?” She asked me. Katina had short burgundy hair and pale green eyes. She was short, much shorter than me and Trine. She had a kind, motherly instinct that at times got her into difficult situations. I nodded.

 

“I should be asking you the same thing. What happened?” I shouted over the noise around us.

Katina shook her head, clutching my arm almost as if she needed the support. “The vampire who had attacked our village just a month ago, he’s back. You see the bodies around us?” She made a sweeping gesture about the ground, as if there was a body at our feet. I nodded. “These are just a few of the poor souls unfortunate enough to cross paths with the unnatural creatures.” She said sadly, tears glistening in her kind eyes. There was something that she had said that had caught my attention.

 

“Creatures?” I asked her.

 

Katina’s delicate eyebrows pulled together in question. “What?”

 

“You said creatures. There is more than one?” I clarified.

 

She nodded. “Yes. There are at least two.”

 

My eyes widened in surprise. Oh God, this was bad. I touched her arm gently. “Thank you Katina, don’t worry. I’ll take care of it. You go find shelter, Trine”, I said and his eyes rested on me for a second before his attention became diverted once again. I sighed. “Take care of her.” I said sternly. He nodded, still distracted, but I knew he’d heard me.

 

I bid them goodbye, then headed over to a group of people huddled together, discussing tactics, similar to like when Trine and I talk about hunting strategies. I ghosted over to the group, blending in easily.

 

“He’s over by the feeding quarters, killing our cattle and diminishing our food supply!” A man with a booming voice and graying beard at the head of the gathering shouted. He seemed to be the leader.

 

Many people grumbled and shook their heads at this news. I myself grimaced. Our animals were already weak, and now some were dead. We didn’t have a high number of cattle or crops, we were a fairly insignificant community, which means we didn’t have a huge supply of food or even basic necessities. With this attack, we were being hit where it hurt the most, which was a huge problem.

 

“The creatures”, the bearded man began again, “with the pale skin and soulless eyes, they deserve to be cast back to hell from which they came from!” He screeched. Shouts of agreement followed, along with fists of defiance raised high in the air. “Come men! Let us fight!” Old gray beard bellowed, throwing his own hairy knuckle above his head.

 

I moved away from this group, feeling that they were just a bunch of barbaric shit for brains deluding themselves into believing that they could take the immortals with their rinky-dink homemade weapons that their wives carved for them. The truth was, these potbellied men stood no chance against even one vampire, let alone two. They would serve as the creatures’ dinner, not assistance to our village. Oh God. My stomach did little twists and turns at the thought of our town being under attack once again. It wasn’t the attack that turned my stomach, but the worry of who was doing the attacking.

Chapter Twenty One

I hadn’t brought my arrows along with me for this, I had left them in my room since I figured a huge bow and arrows would be too recognizable if you’re going for the element of surprise. I wasn’t sure what I was going for exactly, but I knew where I was going. The feeding quarters were just up ahead. I could hear the pigs squealing from where I stood. I began walking towards the barn, gravel crunching loudly under my boots. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as I got closer to the animals.

 

I had never cared if I was to go hunting alone or with someone else. But this time, I desperately wanted someone by my side, whether it’s Trine or even Tirana, who retired years ago. I straightened up a bit, shoving my fear back down. I had no idea why this was getting to me. It wasn’t like I had never been in a situation like this one before.

 

Then, as I got to the entrance of the barn and pushed the doors out of my way, I realized that this time things were different, because I was different. The situation had drastically changed, because this time, I cared.

 

       The scene before me was grisly. Cows lying on the ground with their throats ripped out, chickens with their heads torn off, and even a few of the sheep had been bitten into and ravaged like another animal had attacked them. Bile rose in my throat at the slaughterhouse sight, but I forced myself forward, seeing as the immortals were on longer in this part of the barn. The only other section was the back, where we kept our horses.

 

I walked slowly, cautiously up to the doors to the stalls, hearing the squish of my leather boots in the mud beneath my feet echo all too loudly in the eerily silent barn. As I got to the doors, just as I was about to open them, the hinges creaked. My eyes widened and at the last minute I jumped back, away from the doors which were ripped away and disregarded randomly into the dimly lit barn a second later. My heart pounded wildly as I peeked around the corner I had ducked behind, seeing who the intruders were. All of my breath left my lungs in an instant at who I saw standing before me.

Chapter Twenty Two

Carline stood just a mere ten feet away from me, her blonde hair shining and gray eyes glistening. She would’ve been pretty, if it wasn’t for the smear of crimson on her lips and chin. The man who stood next to her, was not Pearce, which was the first thing I noticed. He had black hair and blue eyes, and he stood tall and angry with all his threatening muscles. He too had the same splash of red on his mouth as Carline. She turned in my direction, a smile curling her bloody lips.

 

“Kyla, I know you’re in here.” She called. Her voice was sweet, with a deadly undertone hinting at punishment, making her melodic tone of kindness false.

 

I stayed where I was, slowly inching my way around the corner of the barn where I knew would be another door leading outside. I wasn’t afraid of her or her partner, but I knew that if I killed either of them, and they were friends of Pearce, them he would kill me. An eye for an eye. I thought as I kept sliding along the splintery barn walls.

 

“Kyyyyllllaaaa!” Carline trilled in her high sing-song voice, sounding like a psychopath who just broke out of the institution coming towards me. I halted, waiting, listening to see if she was getting closer.

 

“Kyla!” Carline’s head poked around the corner just inches from where I was standing. I jumped backwards, snatching my stake out of my bag. She just laughed, but her partner remained serious.

 

“There you are. This isn’t a game of hide and sneak you know.” She tsked as if I was a child who had done something wrong. My lip curled.

 

“Get the hell out of my village before I send you back to hell, where you belong.” I growled.

 

Her high pitched laugh echoed off the walls. The man next to her stood still, in stony silence. “Ah but my dear, that’s not how this game works. In this game, you play to win. You lose, you die.” She said simply. I sneered.

 

“Go. To. Hell.” I said in the same simple tone as her. She smiled the smile of a joker, her red lips seeming to take up her entire face.

 

“I already am.” 

Chapter Twenty Three

She lunged, but I was too