Vampire Nightlife

Lukas opened his eyes and bolted up straight—the Dark Forest around him was still dark as ever, but then he was already scrambling up to his feet.

"Rhea—?" Lukas called out.

There were other things that was probably important, the corrupted Vampires, Matthew, Philip, Anthony and the rest of the people…

"You have finally awoken."

Like an angel of death, Cerisedel descended down from the sky, still in her human form—but her dragon wings were open in full expanse and with bits of jagged scales as if they were ripped and injured.

"Cerise!" Lukas\' arms spread awkwardly and looked at her with a slightly guilty expression. "You are alive and that\'s great, I—"

"I do not think that you wished me to be dead." Cerisedel said.

"Of course not!"

"And yet you were the one who recruited me and asked me to help you save all of these people." Cerisedel glanced at the corner of her vision.

Lukas hadn\'t noticed it at first, caught up with Rhea, but then he saw that most of the Vampires were lying on the ground and passed out.

The signs of corruption, the dark veins that were underneath their skin vanished completely and they were all still alive and breathing.

Lukas\' lips pressed into a thin line and he sighed. What Cerise said actually had a point and even if she was alive, he needed to acknowledge what he\'d done.

"I\'m sorry, but between the two of us, you were the most capable—"

"Do not worry about it. I have known the risks of helping you when we both realized that we were dealing with the Unknown. I agreed to help you knowing that I most likely would die as a result." Cerisedel crossed her arms over her chest. "What I did not expect that there would be some interloper that would intrude my honorable death. I sensed something—she was of yours?"

Those words snapped Lukas\' out of his thoughts and he nodded immediately.

"Rhea. Yes, where is she?" Lukas tried to look over Cerisedel\'s shoulder to search for the dark hole where the Unknown lay and where Rhea was no doubt somewhere there still alive.

He knew that he needed to take a step forward to check, and yet his palm was sweaty and cold in a way that shouldn\'t have been possible for a Vampire but was all the same.

If Rhea was alive, then she would have reached out to him in the same way that they did through telepathic means and yet there was nothing but static silence in his head.

Almost as if something was cut loose.

The thread! The thread of connection between them was—

"… Lukas, I am a Dragon that expected death. You… you must have trouble accepting the truth of what has transpired. This Rhea that you speak of, she is not with us anymore."

"So you mean that she succeeded? She had defeated the Unknown by her own?" Lukas\' shoulders stiffened as he glanced momentarily at Cerisedel\'s face. He didn\'t know what was written on his face but Cerisedel\'s expression softened slightly.

"The truth is that… well, she\'s not that powerful to defeat the Unknown by herself, but her nature? What is she? Some kind of being that controls dreams?"

"Dream Eater. Nightmare of Blood. Rhea. That\'s her."

"Well yes, suffice to say, that she was able to enter the mind of the Unknown and put them into a deeper state of sleep. Trapping it into its own dreams and such." Cerisedel said.

"So you mean she\'s alive—!" Lukas\' body moved on its own and he dashed forward, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"It is a fate worse than death." Cerisedel said. "She is alive, but she must stay there to keep the Unknown in a deep state of sleep. Let it sleep forevermore and never arise again. It has gone deeper into itself that its own control in the Dark Forest has retracted itself—so your friend, this Rhea of yours is actually doing a great job at crafting dreams. I\'m not sure how she\'s doing it when she\'s faced against an Unknown, but perhaps… well, it is what it is."

"What do you mean?"

"Lukas, there\'s much to be done." Cerisedel squeezed his shoulder. "I know that right now you are in a state of shock and it is hard to cooperate, but you and I must do our part to help these people. I need to create wards, a powerful spell to truly seal this area, prevent others from coming here again to accidentally awaken the Unknown and so we need to make everyone leave."

Lukas knew that he shouldn\'t be weighing people and determining their worth.

\'You should have died instead of Rhea getting trapped there?\'

Such words were nothing more but born out of grief. Lukas closed his eyes and rubbed his face. "She had wanted it. She had wanted it so I ought to—did she really have to think that this was the best way? If she had stayed and listened then I could have convinced her to…"

"We cannot control the choices of other people, Lukas. If she had decided that she wished to take on the burden of dealing with the Unknown then you must accept it." Cerisedel said. "But even though I said that, I must implore you to help me with your people."

Lukas wanted to snap a little, that irrational part of him that wanted to lash out to vent, but then he stared at the torn part of Cerisedel\'s wings.

"Those… those look like they hurt." Lukas said.

Cerisedel bristled at his words and quickly folded her wings or perhaps hid them with an illusion.

"One cannot expect to deal with dangerous situation and find themselves able to leave unscathed."

"I did." Lukas pointed out. "I was lucky. I\'m somehow always incredibly lucky. I didn\'t die or get trapped—did you know that I faced a Dryad who wanted to kill people and survived. Dealt with a giant sandworm and lived. Offended Vampire Overlords and yet I\'m still not dead, Cerisedel."

"You…" Cerisedel stared at him and pursed her lips. "I suppose that is impressive to some extent. But ah, well, not all people face physical—but yes, you did well. And now you\'ll assist with your people?"

"Yeah, I will." Lukas nodded. "It\'s the least I can do."