Page 101 of Cloak of the Vampire
The hopelessness was beyond bearing. It felt like I would never be able to dream again, to feel, to hope.
It was as if God himself had just died.
Something shifted on my lap, and my eyes snapped open. Shocked and horrified, I watched the bird decaying right before my eyes, its body fragmenting into dust from the tip of its tail to the top of its head.
I tried to hold on to it. I tried to keep it in my arms, refusing to let it go, but by the next blink, I was no longer fighting to hold its body but its ashes.
Devastation tore through me, and I watched as the wind carried these ashes away from my palms until they were nothing but small specks in the distance.
My head dropped in utter defeat. I was crushed. I didn’t know how I could go on from this moment. How could I go on living when I felt like I was being completely pulverized from within.
But then I saw the patch of wilted grass I was sitting on, and my shock, pain, and unbearable grief transformed into awe.
Because this patch of grass was no longer wilted.
It was as green as a ripe bell pepper. So green that it was almost painful to look at.
Raising my head, I looked around me, my heart beating quickly in my chest, but the rest of the grass remained the same. Only this patch right here had suddenly become healthy.
Shakily, I raised my hand, but then I winced in pain. Right. I’d cut my arm. But why did it suddenly ache? When I held the bird, it hadbeen fine. Looking at my arm now, I saw that the wound had stopped bleeding. In fact, it seemed like it was pulsing.
Frozen in place with a sudden, renewed shock, I saw with my bare eyes the wound slowly seal shut as though an invisible needle was stitching it back together. Then it closed seamlessly, leaving no trace on the arm, as if I’d never cut it open to begin with.
Shivering, I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling a sudden sense of fear. I raised my eyes to the sky above, staring as it suddenly started to distort and ripple.
And just like the wound and the bird, the whole world, this dreamlike realm, started warping as if someone was sloppily lifting a curtain to resume a show after going on a break.
The sky transformed into darkness. The healthy, pretty patch of grass became a blindingly lit stage with an easel and a blood-painted canvas. The rest of the wilting expanse was replaced by the dark void that was the audience.
I was back in the Auction hall.
As if all of what had just happened was only in my head, a faint, heartbreakingly realistic dream.
I was standing near the finished canvas. That soft, odd breeze from before was gone. I pulled my ponytail forward, and my shoulders slumped in relief. The brown dye was back. Or perhaps it had never disappeared in the first place.
Raising my eyes, I stared at the audience and frowned. Like before the whole thing happened, they didn’t seem to be moving. Were they in shock? Had they been in that field too?
Then I turned to look at the host, Kaylon, who stood at the foot of the stage and seemed to be talking to someone. But something wasn’t quite right. Their mouths weren’t moving. Neither were their bodies.
An alarm went off in my head as I strode to the edge of the stage and crouched before Kaylon and the other person, needing to take a better look. They seemed to be frozen in time, almost like realistic dolls in a wax museum.
With my heart drumming in my chest, I scanned the first row, where the newbies of the remaining Leagues sat. They were all staring at the stage, but like the host and his friend, they seemed to be frozen, their expressions set in their faces as though they were merely portraits. I didn’t even see them breathe.
My knees were suddenly weak, and I fell back on my ass, my breaths coming out so rapidly that I realized I was hyperventilating. Because what I saw couldn’t possibly be real. There was no fucking way.
I stared at the vampires as seconds ticked by, and still no one moved.
Meaning that I was the only one in this room who felt the seconds go by.
Because for everyone else, time seemed to have stopped.
CHAPTER 39
The only sound in the eerie silence was my heartbeat drumming in my ears in a panicked rhythm.
I rose to my feet and began to climb down the stairs, leaving the stage, as I watched the faces of the people in the audience become clearer. Each of them wore different expressions and were frozen in different poses. It reminded me of that game I hated back in kindergarten—green light, red light. Only this was far creepier.
I walked through the rows, passing the frozen vampires, fascinated, confused, and yet terrified by what was happening. What was causing this ...anomaly?
