IZEL

A chilling coldness surrounded me. I opened my eyes, and when the blurriness faded I saw the dark, foreboding bars before me. I quickly got up and immediately regretted it as I felt a sharp sting at the back of my head. 

I had been knocked out. 

When the wooziness subsided, the memories of what had happened swarmed my mind.

Jaeger... was gone.

A lump formed in my throat and I lost feeling in my legs as I dropped to the hard, rocky ground and tears began streaming down my cheeks.

Jaeger... was gone.

I couldn't process that fact. I couldn't accept it. I wasn't going to. I didn't want to.

My breathing quickened and I had to take deep breaths to get sufficient oxygen into my lungs. I covered my mouth with my trembling hands to quiet the sobs that tore through my chest.

Jaeger... was gone.

I dug my nails into the skin around my mouth, trying to create a physical pain of some sort to drown out the feelings that were tormenting me. My body wracked with the sobs that penetrated my lips, and I wanted to tear my heart from my body because it felt too heavy to carry.

"You're awake." That voice, I knew that voice. And I loathed that voice more than anything else. "You were out for quite a while, I must have hit you harder than I thought."

I raised my eyes. A deep hatred and a burning heat pulsed through me when I met the eyes of the Zas.

"You look mad, may I ask why?" He cocked his head, a grin on his lips.

The audacity. "Go to hell!"

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the prison cell," he mocked.

"I'll... kill... you," I said, my voice still shaking.

"Didn't you already try that? How did that end?"

"You're a devil!" I screamed. "You... you..."

"I remember," he recalled. "It ended with that Impurity bleeding to death, and you being locked up in a cell." I clenched my teeth, willing myself not to cry. "I still can't believe you're the Vanquisher with a reputation of killing vampires. Makes us look weak." And with that, he turned and left, and as soon as he did I drowned in my tears.

I broke down and my whole body started trembling. I hadn't felt like this in years. Those same feelings I felt when I lost my parents overwhelmed me. I felt like something inside me broke. Like something inside me was... dying.

I didn't think death even felt this torturous.

*****

Every day was worse than the previous. 

Jaeger was dead. I was locked up. And the Zas was going to keep me here till there were no humans left, then he'd get rid of me.

"You should be happy," he'd said, "you'll be the last human alive."

Humans were going to end up losing the war after all, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Alek was going to die. Raya was going to die. Fergus was going to die. We were all going to die.

I wished I was dead.

Seated against the wall in the cell, I was staring at the stale food that was before me. I hadn't had a bite of anything the entire time I was here, and it had been days. Weeks maybe. I didn't know. I didn't care. I just wanted to die.

It was just me... and the shadows. 

So this was how it felt to be lonely, how it felt to only have yourself as company, to not have anyone else, this is how Jaeger felt. He was alone all his life, he'd felt like this all his life. He even died alone, and that realisation only made me more miserable.

An urge to scream encompassed me, so I screamed. I screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed till there was no voice left in me to scream.

I splayed my body across the hard, rocky floor and looked up at the plain, concrete roof. This was really how it was all going to end. I closed my eyes, a tear rolling down my temple before more nightmares haunted me.

*****

Months. It'd been months. I'd been locked up for months and I was starting to go mad.

"How long does it take to wipe out a race?" I asked the Zas, who was accompanied by the Quearus, the vampire that had killed Jaeger.

The first time I'd seen her I'd tried to kill her. I'd leapt to the bars, grabbed her by the collar and forced her face into the bars. I'd wanted to do more, I'd wanted to break her nose, to crack her skull, to watch as the life seeped out of her, but she'd gotten out of my hold before I could. I'd reached my hands through the bars, growling as I'd tried to grab her again. After then, she'd been too cowardly to come close to the bars again, so I'd resorted to throwing my food at her, and that was the most satisfying thing ever. It was only when I got an appetite again that I stopped wasting my food on her. She wasn't worth it.

"Thanks to you and that plan you'd come up with, longer than it should be," the Zas answered bitterly.

I took a spoonful of the stale food before speaking again. "Then just kill me and get it over and done with."

"You'll die human," the Quearus said, "once everyone you love is dead."

If she had said that to me a couple of weeks back I would have had to bite my tongue so as not to break down in front of them. But I'd exhausted all my tears, crying every day and every night does that to you, so nothing she said could bring tears to my eyes.

"Why are you trying to kill us anyway? You know you could stop the war," I told the Zas.

"Why would I do that? I hate humans and overpopulation." The Zas said. "We needed more land, and fewer humans and this was the only way. I managed to kill two birds with one stone, get rid of you filthy humans and solve overpopulation. I'm a great leader."

He smiled to himself, satisfied with his decisions before leaving, the Quearus following him like the dog it was.

Pigs. They were all filthy, retched pigs and they were keeping me locked up in a sty of a cell. I had to get out of here. I'd die if I tried, but I didn't care, I didn't know if anyone in my village was still alive so I had nothing to lose at this point. No one to lose.

*****

Another couple of weeks passed. I was still locked up.

I'd tried to break out countless times, tried to look for any weakness that I could use to my advantage but each time, all I found was nothing. 

Nothing. 

Nothing.

I couldn't pick a lock with a plastic spoon, I couldn't injure anyone with a plastic tray, it was hopeless. I was hopeless.

I hugged my knees to my chest, seeking some kind of warmth, some kind of comfort as all hope withered away.

I was stuck in here...

I heard footsteps approaching, and knowing it was the Zas and Quearus or one of their pig vampire slaves bringing me food, I didn't bother looking up. I heard them fiddle with the lock. That was new.

My body went taut as a thought surfaced. They'd succeeded. They'd succeeded in killing all the humans and now they were coming to kill me. The cell swung open and I felt two hands against my shoulders. I hoped they'd at least make it fast, that—

"Izel," said a voice. A familiar voice. A voice I hadn't heard in ages. A voice that—

My head shot up and my eyes made contact with Alek's. He was kneeling before me in his Vanquisher uniform, his hands against my shoulders and other Vanquishers flanking him.

"Ahh!" I screamed, scrambling backwards but being stopped short when my back made contact with the wall. "I'm hallucinating now?! This damn cell is driving me crazy!" He looked so real that I couldn't help but laugh. And laugh. And laugh.

"Snap out of it Izel!" Hallucinated Alek urged as I struggled to breathe because of my laughter.

"Wow, I've got a great memory. I haven't seen you in ages but everything looks so accurate," I said as I brought my hands to Alek's face, "birthmark there, a scar there, thick eyelashes and the dimples would appear right... there."

Hallucinated Alek looked at me like I was crazy then suddenly shook me by my shoulders. What the hell? Why did it feel so real?

I quickly scrambled to my feet, pressing my back against the wall as I stared at the people who were before me. I scratched my eyes but they were still there when I opened them. I pinched myself but I still didn't wake up. I then slapped myself. Hard. But still, nothing changed.

"What the fu—"

"We have to go Izel. Now!" Alek grabbed my hand and forced me out of the cell and into a dark corridor.

We ran to the end, having to step over bodies of vampires, as well as some humans, and went up a story's worth of stairs. How far down had I been locked up? How long was this dream going to last? We stopped right before a door and Alek unsheathed his dagger before handing it to me.

"You're going to need this," he told me, "don't even try killing yourself because this is no dream, you'll die if you do."

I had a habit of killing myself in my dreams if I urgently wanted to wake up, Alek knew that, but I didn't know how hallucinated Alek knew that too. I wrapped my hands around the hilt of the dagger, and... it felt so real! 

I'd experienced a fair share of dreams like this, but not like this one. I was tempted to stab myself, to end this hope-filled dream, one that would give me a broken heart once I woke up, but, I couldn't. The dream felt so lucid, too lucid that I was afraid it was real.

"Is this really real?" I asked Alek.

"It's real." He told me.

"How—how'd you find me then?" Surprisingly, tears brimmed in my eyes as I began feeling convinced that this was, in fact, a dream. There was no way they could suddenly find the Zvade and know exactly where I was located if this was real.

"The Masked Slayer."

I expected him to laugh, and when he didn't, I laughed instead. My laugh, however, began to sound a lot like a cry. The tears streamed down my face as I realised this was definitely a dream.

"I don't like this dream," I cried, bringing the point of the dagger to my stomach but Alek grabbed my hand before the point met my skin.

"What are you doing!?" He demanded, "I told you not to—"

"I told you I don't like this dream!" I screamed.

"It's not a dream!"

"Jaeger is dead!" I seethed.

"No, he's... I mean yes he's... I mean—"

"He's dead and... I don't... I can't... Just let me wake up, please!"

"Izzy, this isn't a dream!"

"You're not real! None of this is real! I'm gonna wake up in tears because of you, I'm gonna wish I was dead again because of this stupid dream, I—"

"Izel, look at me," he begged, gripping my shoulders. Only when I looked up at him did he continue, "this is not a dream. It isn't. It's me, and we're getting you out of here."

With that, he opened the door letting through a blinding light and led me through it. The light was abnormally bright and I had three ideas as to what the light resembled.

Either this was a dream and I was waking up.

Or I was dying and going into the light.

Or this was reality and I was being freed.