Legacy (4 page)

And to add insult to injury, they had both decided to take this opportunity to meow as loudly as they possibly could.

Great! I haven’t slept properly for over a week now and through sleep deprivation, I am beginning to see shadows everywhere causing me to freak out thinking they’re made by people wanting to harm me in some way! I’m also starting to annoy my flat mate and my garden has suddenly become a meeting place for the local cats who want to smash all of my flowerpots!

By now you can imagine I was not in the best of moods and the only way I could ease my frustration was to show those bloody cats outside who really is boss around here.

The key had been left in the lock and I turned it before sliding the patio door open, the night air pushing its way past me into the lounge as I put my bare feet onto the cold concrete outside.

It was a lot cooler than inside and if my body wasn’t already cold with nervousness, it was now absolutely freezing from the sudden change of temperature.

Here I am, standing outside in the cool night air wearing virtually nothing, childishly plotting revenge on a couple of cats – if my mother was here, she would be telling me to get back inside before I catch my death of cold.

I looked directly at the cats ahead and the urge inside me to hurl something at them subsided as they gently meowed as if sweetly asking for me to show them a little attention, but suddenly, for no apparent reason, they both jumped up with their backs arched, hissing constantly to my right.

Something had definitely put the fear of God into them and as I spun round to see what had done so, I walked into the chest of a man much taller than me.             

He immediately grabbed me in a bear hug and effortlessly lifted me off the ground, at the same time pushing the palm of his right hand over my mouth to restrain me from calling out for help.

His strength was overwhelming and I found it impossible to break free from him, no matter how much I squirmed and kicked out.

I looked over helplessly towards my flat window praying that Tanya would walk out at any time and help me, but she was probably still in the kitchen making the coffee.

I also tried to catch a glimpse of a nosey neighbour looking out, but at this time in the morning, not one light was shining through any of the windows in view.

But, just for one second, it felt like I had managed to break free from my attacker’s grip, but as I tried to run away, he tackled me with such force that we both crashed through the wooden gate that led into the alleyway at the side of my flat.

I hit the ground so hard that it took me a few moments to regain my composure, but my attacker had already got to his feet and he had grabbed hold of my hair and was beginning to drag me further away from the gate.             

I desperately tried to break his hold of my hair and escape, but he once again got me into a bear hug, this time squeezing me much harder, violently forcing out the air from my lungs.

I desperately gasped for breath and I could hear him laughing to himself as he forcefully pushed his hand over my nose and mouth to speed up the process of unconsciousness – the smell of stale nicotine that lingered on his fingers nearly made me sick.

My eyes began to close due to lack of oxygen and my body started to become more and more limp, rendering me completely helpless in fighting back.

But the fear that I was experiencing right now certainly wasn’t abating as I felt myself being carried towards a darker part of the alley, but as we disappeared from the light, something tripped my attacker up, making us both fall to the ground awkwardly with him landing on top of me and with his large muscular frame, the weight was immense.

He looked down at me with anger as if it was my fault that we had stumbled.

              “You stupid little bitch!” he snarled, quickly following up with a hard slap to the left side of my face – the force of which took me a few moments to regain my bearings, but the stinging on my cheek remained.

I could smell alcohol on his vile breath as his face came closer to mine, grabbing me by the throat as he did so.

              “What do you want from me?” I asked, almost inaudibly due to the grip around my throat tightening.

He just grinned at me wickedly, revealing brown decaying teeth.

              “Please let me go!” I begged with tears welling up in my eyes, but I knew that however much I begged, the look that was on his face right now showed that I was only going to leave here when he had done what he wanted to me – and I had an idea exactly what he wanted after feeling his groin thrusting towards me – the buckle on his jeans digging sharply just below my belly button.

I tried every way possible to try and wriggle from under him, but my attempts were halted as he suddenly pulled out a knife from nowhere.

              “Don’t go spoiling all the fun!” he whispered into my ear as he swapped his hand around my neck for the cold steel blade of the knife digging into my neck without breaking the skin, “We’re only just beginning!”

Our foreheads touched and I turned my face away in disgust only to find him sniffing my hair before feeling his warm vile breath running down my jaw, groaning as he did so.

I could feel the satisfaction that he was getting from all of this by the erection that he had which was pushing into my inner thigh and suddenly he sat up abruptly and glared down at me exactly like a wild animal would look at its prey before killing it.

But I had seen those eyes before – whether it was pure anger or whether he had taken any drugs – the man looking down at me had piercing red eyes.

The exact same vision that I had earlier back in my flat.

A premonition of my death.

The fear that ran through my body paralyzed me and I felt the knife continue to dig into me, this time slowly making its way from my throat to the centre of my chest where it paused momentarily before being lifted high into the air, preparing itself for the fatal blow.

I was about to die – and my last memory was a crazed man above me holding the object that was to end my life.

All I could do was squeeze my eyes tightly as I prepared myself for certain death – I kept asking myself would it be quick or would it be slow and agonizing? The answer to that was out of my hands completely - I just wished that I could survive to see another day!             

And just when I thought that all hope was lost and nobody would rush to my aid, something incredible happened that would change my life forever.

The weight of the man on top of me suddenly ceased and I felt the sensation of him being lifted into the air.

As I opened my eyes to see why, I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing – my attacker was being suspended off the ground by another man who was evidently far stronger than him.

Feelings of shock, relief and amazement shot through my body at being saved, but now the violence that had been inflicted on me was now being returned to my attacker by my unknown hero – and I watched on as he was constantly being thrown around the narrow alleyway as if he was nothing more than a rag doll.             

I attempted to sit up but stopped as I saw my attacker being thrown against the wall beside me and as his body made contact with the hard unforgiving brickwork, I clearly heard some of his bones snap upon impact.

The sight of his limp body lying contorted on the ground beside me horrified me and I instantly knew that it would not be long before he would be taking his final breath - but I did not expect it to happen in such a strange manner.

My body was hurting so much right now and it prevented me from doing what any other normal person in my situation would have done - run away as fast as possible back to the flat and call the police, but all I could do was watch on helplessly as my saviour continued with his brutal onslaught on the clearly dying man.

The sound of breaking bones filled the air as the limp body of my attacker was lifted once more off the ground and held in a standing pose facing towards me.

The injured man’s head was then forced to one side to reveal the soft flesh of his neck, which was stained with the blood from one of the many wounds that he had sustained to his head.

I feared for my life moments ago – then one man saved my life - and now my attacker was about to lose his.

Even though it sent shockwaves of horror through my body, my eyes were firmly fixed on the two men and I sat in shock as I saw the man who saved me smile directly at me, revealing a mouth packed full of almost animal-like teeth which he used to easily bite through the skin around the man’s neck, immediately sending blood pouring from the wounds.

I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds before opening them again in the slim hope that what had happened to me tonight was nothing more than another of my nightmares, but instead I found myself captivated by the hypnotic blue eyes of the man who was now drinking my attacker’s blood directly in front of me.

I could see the man’s look of satisfaction grow more and more as he continued to drink and he suddenly stopped momentarily to say something to me.

              “Is est non vestri vicis morior etiamnunc!”

I had no idea what the man had said or even what language he had said it in, but that was the least of my worries right now as I could feel my body quickly begin to lose all feeling and it wasn’t long before the numbness took over me completely, leaving me to fall backwards onto the hard unforgiving ground.

CHAPTER THREE

I slowly opened my eyes, completely unaware of exactly how long I had actually passed out for, but instead of being on the cold ground of the alleyway, I found myself sitting upon the floor of a dimly lit room inside a house that I had never seen at any point of my life before.

I looked around, but nothing that I saw revealed any kind of familiarity to me and I began to feel incredibly uneasy.

Where the hell was I right now?

What exactly was I doing here?

Was this all a dream?

As more and more questions began to fill my mind one after the other, I began to make out what sounded like screams of panic coming from outside the house, mixed in with the sounds of horses galloping accompanied by loud incoherent shouting echoing from every direction.

I gingerly lifted myself off the floor and made my way towards a small window that was in the room to take a look at what exactly was going on outside and as I stood in front of it, a young man suddenly joined me at the window sill to investigate as well.

The sight that greeted us outside was nothing short of sickening as I looked down to see men, women, children and animals scattering in all directions as an army of heavily armoured swordsmen rode through on horseback indiscriminately slaughtering anything and anyone that had the gross misfortune of being in their path.

Other riders followed closely behind carrying flaming torches which were being used to set fire to homes as they rode past, forcing those who hid inside out onto the streets in order to face their ultimate demise.

The air just echoed with unearthly screams as one by one the death toll began to rise as each victim was being picked out for elimination.

I watched on in sheer horror as I witnessed body after body falling onto the street and I caught a glimpse of an old man and woman stepping out from below us, both with confused faces as to what the commotion was all about.              

It was at this point that the young man to the side of me finally ended his silence by shouting directly to the old couple below us to get back inside the house, but unfortunately his plea fell upon deaf ears as nothing was audible due to the panic that was breaking out all around us.