The Moon We Met Under

Chapter 1: Alexa

Alexa

Danger! I jolted awake, it was pitch black! My eyes adjusted to the darkness but there was still very little I could make out, rare. According to my other senses I could smell the earth, the air felt musky in my lungs, a little stagnant and reused, it weighed, and the absoluteness of the silence. I circled back to the darkness, earth, stagnant, weight, and silence. Could I be underground?

Step one, stay calm, and use as little oxygen as possible.

Two, check the situation for any other threats.

I gingerly moved about, discovering I was hung up loosely by my neck. My hands were tied behind my back, and my feet, free? I tested moving them on the surface they were on. A creak emitted. I was standing on some form of a platform, I traced its shape with one foot exploring its base, square, and at the far edge, it reached up and stopped at about calf height, and went across and down the other side. Then I prodded the centre of my floor. It was slightly squishy. So, this was it, I was going to be allowed the choice of death by asphyxiation or chair. "Vampires..." I treated myself to a huff.

Then my world shook! Not good. How could I get my legs over around my arms so I can free my neck from the noose in the next 30 seconds? The earth shook again, a rumble, followed by dirt trickling down onto my face. I listened out for something in that rumble, perhaps the screeching of wheels on a track. I could do an underground train line. I just had to be ready to leap up on the top before it squashed me, no biggie. Or just the sound of a train line, to make me panic, use my oxygen faster, clever clever vampire.

All routes lead to death, or how did D say vampires procreated? Their intended spawn must ingest the vampire parent's blood and effectively die to kickstart the transformation. I couldn't taste blood, I couldn't taste much of anything. But, what a plan, to feed me blood, force me to kill myself, and then watch me claw my way out, with the force of fresh vampiric hunger. I would never allow that to happen, I would rather die... I crunched my false tooth I had full of an extremely high sulphur garlic compound, I swallowed the mass hard. It was VILE! A tongue can only take so much garlic, but at least it would permeate my bloodstream and dispose of vampire me before I became a danger to anyone.

The earth shuddered violently again. Larger chunks were falling, I could hear them landing on the far cavern floor from the ceiling. Was there something coming? This would be my only chance to escape the noose. The insane rumble reached a soft apex, and a wet snarling flooded the room. A creature forced a hole in the cavern wall. A tiny bit of light, but enough for me to see backlit the quadrupedal mass of fur. It stalked in, its snarls echoing all over the chamber, not allowing any other sounds to permeate the air.

It may sound dire, but all I could think was, it had made a hole and brought in fresh air and light. Despite the new threat, I had an escape. The thing launched for me! It was huge! I lurched as far as I could out of its way. It snarled as it crashed straight into the wall behind me, without a moments hesitation it launched again, furious and hungry. I caught its jaw with a single foot, sending it flying backwards. "I can go all night!" I shouted at the beast confident after my little involuntary nap. I just needed to angle the thing to leap over me and catch some of my bindings.

It could hurt, but as soon as I was partially free I'd be able to subdue the animal.

That was the plan, however the best-laid plans of puppies and men and all that had left me hanging for hours, fighting with only one leg at a time. The mangey mutt, after my eyes had adjusted I figured out it was a wolf. It had only been going for my legs, no matter how hard I tried to throw its attention to my face, spitting at it, barking abuse, and biting my lip so the stench of blood dripped down my chin. This is a pretty bad way to die too, the damm thing just won't let up. The dread was getting to me. I had to try and kill the poor creature now I had no other choice. When it came at me this time I, tensed, concentrated all my force in my heel and contacted the edge of the creature's muzzle, 'Crunch' the mutt's face dropped to the ground. 

As if by sheer force I had caused a reaction in the entire body of the wolf its bones crunched and broke in every place imaginable, its joints dislocated and for a split second, I just saw a furry mass of animal parts. Then the fur receded, joints popped back, bones crackled smoothly back to a remembered place and suddenly before me crouched an incredibly handsome, tanned, chiselled, naked man.