Nightfall: Chapter 1

Dawn took a deep breath. She would have to risk it...
Better know a witch, Max. I like being in one piece.
"I won't let you massacre the Nightbane."

I already told you. I'll kill them all if you don't tell me.

I grin a little.

All I want to do is give them a warning.

"You'll kill them either way, Knight. I have no reason to trust you."
Dawn breathed easier, her panic gone...but her fear there.

Have I not stuck to my word the whole time so far? Tell me where you're based or they all die and I will drag your brother back over here and tear him to pieces in front of you.

"You might not do it personally, you'd just send a legion of vampires and kill them all."
Dawn's defiance was strange at it's arrival...but it came at the best times for standing up.

I give a hysterical laugh

I don't command legions of vampires... Oh wow.

I wipe a tear from my eye.

That. Was pretty funny.

"Leak the location of the Nightbane base. How many vampires wouldn't't go try and wipe them all out?" She retorted.

Anything said in this room is between you and me. People don't come to me for information, nor do they expect me to tell them things.

I give a little sigh

For the third time. I'm just interested in a little warning.

"And how do I know your warning won't be my mutilated body?" She said.

Because you'll be carrying my warning. I need a carrier pigeon after all.

"Why do you need the location when I can just call them and warn them? The location is unneeded to serve your purpose."

If they choose to ignore my warning. I'll have to send a much harsher message to them.

My tone darkens at that.

And as I said. Not all of them will be killed. I'll even spare your brother.

"So, no matter what, you'll kill people." She said. "And...Max would...No, I would never forgive myself for having my brother spared as you slaughtered others."

I raise my head when I thought I heard something from where Dawn was sleeping.
"Everything okay in there?"
I begin walking to the door, grabbing my .45 on my way.

I raise my eyebrows at Dawn, dropping my voice low.

You want his blood on your hands? Tell him everythings fine.

Dawn sat there, frozen, staring at Knight.
He'll kill him
"E-Everything is fine. B-bad dream."

Something seemed strange in her voice, but I wasn't sure what it was.
"Alright, well I'm making breakfast, should be done in a minute!"

I walk over to the window, lifting myself up onto the ledge.

You have until 1pm to reconsider, Dawn. Try to run out of the city and you'll be killed. You can't hide from me, so don't try that either.

I swing my legs over, dropping out of the window.

Think about it Dawn. You could save a lot of lives here.

Dawn sat there and cried before slipping the trunks on and shskiy getting up and out of bed. She stepped outside the door, crying.
"He knew I was here. He was in the room." She sobbed. "I have till one PM..." she fell onto the couch. "I can't tell him. I can't...and help won't arrive in time....I'm...I'm...I'm not going to see tomorrow's dawn.

My eyes widened.
"Wait... Knight was here? How'd he get in!?"

Ayashe crawled out from her crude bed of cardboard and trash bags to continue her trail. She’d hidden in an old abandoned warehouse the night before in order to avoid the Humans. The only creatures sharing the space with her were a couple of diseased rats.

She paused disapproving of her now soiled once wonderfully clean coat. A deeply ceded sense of pride yanked at her to clean it however she had no time.

She stood surveying the area, hungry and slightly homesick. This city was nothing like The Range, all these people, all this stone and metal. The smell of Apes, oil and pollution hung in her nose like a decaying corpse. Ayashe’s ears pricked as her dulled sense now felt revitalised, she could hear the traffic and footsteps surrounding her. This static rambling the humans caused made all the skill Ayashe honed useless in the Hive. That’s what she called it, the human homes, human Hives.

Finally secure in the knowledge that no one had spotted her the night before she morphed. It was an agonizing experience causing her to whelp like a pup. The bones in her back twisted and cracked reforming into distorted and alien shapes. Her paws ripped and pulled at her skin as they altered into a Human form. Ayashe always dreaded the teeth, they became so compact and disproportionate, her gums began to bleed, drops of warm blood began forming at her now more human like face. An audible crack was heard from her jaw as the transformation appeared to be complete.

She gasped for air inhaling the dust surrounding her.
Coughing she tried to compose herself, Ayashe had never coughed before she came to the cities and it was always as a human. She assumed it must be caused by her substantial smaller lungs. She started walking in her altered position, the odd place her back and head sat became so jarring. She looked down at her feet, 'Two legs, How?' she began to wonder if the humans had some hidden talent for balancing on such scrawny things.

Ayashe’s stomach ached something that had become a far too familiar feeling on her journey. No fresh game, everything outside the Range was dead and slavered in rock and filth. Ayashe grimaced as the thought of eating from the trash again crossed her mind. Eventually after eyeing up the bags nearby she judged that her hunger could wait as more important things would demand her attention of her today.

The scent was near, faint but it was the right scent nevertheless. She'd been hunting it for miles, she couldn't afford to be wrong.

She hopped over a fence plastered with signs condemning the building she made her temporary home in. As Ayashe’s feet reached the streets she realised how sore they felt, running across the country wasn’t that bad as a wolf, but being a human and wearing these blocks of rubber was irritating and restricting.
She sniffed the air trying to focus on the scent , she had to find it soon she couldn't be in her human form forever.

Dawn trembled.
"The window. He just used the window." She sobbed. "No sole Nightbane can face a Primal. No sane one would ever attempt that...Please, don't die on my account. I can't let innocent blood get on my hands."

She curled into a ball, shaking.

I rush into the room seeing the open window. Then walk back in the main room.
"And what? You expect me to sit by, while Knight comes after you?"

"You ever play Skyrim: Dawn guard, Detective?"

Dawn looked up at him.

I was confused for a moment.
What do video games have to do with any of this?
"I usually don't have enough free time to play games... So no."