The Sacrifice (Legends Of Transylvania) (10 page)

“All I wanted to tell you is that you will get back to normal soon and never forget that I have lived and struggled just because of you ... goodbye.”

The phone interrupted and
Ariana fells on her knees crying. After a few moments Benjamin came to her mind and the fact that he could do something to stop Alexander from doing something crazy. In an indescribable rush she went out the door heading towards the forest's alley which leaded to the village of the jaguars. On the way she met Benjamin.

“Benjamin, I need your help! Alexander is in danger!”

“Calm down, he's not in danger, but Volod is.”

“But Alexander said ...”

“Alexander can destroy Volod and the whole clan, including those who are getting ready to come out and become a new army of vampires. Alexander needs only one thing and that is help from us. We're going tomorrow at midnight and we will help. I have to go now, and please prepare yourself body and soul because it will be a very hard night.”

Ariana
tried to ask one more thing but Benjamin disappeared in a second.

Alexander took the guitar and left to the mountains to gather his thoughts and prepare a plan to destroy
Volod and his evils. Reached the top of the mountain he sits on a rock and with the guitar in his arms he began to sing for the last time, the song that stirs so many memories.

“Beautiful tune and charming instrument!” a familiar voice said.

“Oh, it's you. Again passing by?” Alexander asked.

“No, this time I came to talk to you.”

“What do you want to talk about?” he asked without stop playing.

“About sacrifice” replied the old
man.

Alexander then placed the guitar down, stood up and looked him in the eye

“I’m interested in what you want to tell me”

“You need help to go the way you plan. You need someone to shed your blood and bury you. You need someone to take ground from your grave to destroy the evil and all the curses that at some point, will lead to the disappearance of the world.”

“How do you know all this?” He asked troubled.

“I can read events from people's lives just by staring in their eyes.”

“But I am not a human “he answered turning his back to Benjamin.

“You’re half human and half vampire. Everything
Volod told you were just lies; he just wanted to make you play by his rules because he sees in you a danger. And if Ariana will prick herself like you did she will become half vampire and half human, like you and if she will get pregnant and will give birth to a boy, that boy will be able to destroy the vampires. That's why Volod was mad about that lost rose, but don't worry tomorrow night we'll help you.”

“We?”
And how you know about Ariana? And by the way, she doesn’t have the rose anymore, I took the box and gave the rose to Volod.“

“She replaced the rose with another one, I suppose
Volod didn’t check it yet to see if it bleeds or not, but I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. Listen Alexander …you will not succeed alone, you need some powerful forces just as the vampires and ...”

“...And the black panthers are powerful right? Now I know who you are.”

“Yes, I'm the one who saved Ariana. Now she has blood from our blood.”

“Who turned her into a beast not who saved her!”

“And what are you? Listen!! “He shouted “If I had not saved her she would have died.“

“But you will not take her with you tomorrow night, will you?”

“She already tried to talk to me. She asked for help. I said that tomorrow night we will help, but she does not what kind of help. So see you tomorrow night “He tried to end.

“Wait! Don't go yet.”

“Yes?”

“I want you to be the one who kills me. You're the only one who can help me.”

“Do not bother to explain. I know what I have to do.”

After he finished, Benjamin disappeared just as quickly as he appeared.

Alexander took the guitar and left. When he arrived home he took a shovel and went to the graveyard. His footsteps were heavy as if he was carrying stones and his heart seemed to get out of his chest. The feeling that he will have to close his eyes forever and never see Ariana again, was destroying him. Reached at the grave of his parents, he began to dig the hole next to them. Tears were flowing to his face and a heavy rain which started to fall was making room in his grave. Once he finished digging, he took two pieces of wood, made a cross and placed it at the head of the grave. He looked once more into the burial place and returned back home.

The next morning he dressed in black clothes and a long black coat and went into the basement of his house. He prepared some wooden planks, nails, and a hammer and began to build. After finishing the coffin he lifted it upright and looked at it closely. When he attempted to put it down he was startled to see Benjamin standing there.

“What are you doing with it?” He asked.

“This will be my eternal home.”

“You can break it because you do not need it. The hole where you will stay must be empty. Your blood must flow into the ground.”

“Okay
. “

“Wait for me at the cemetery around midnight.”

“Please don't take Ariana with you.”

“
Ariana will be at the castle with the others, I will come here alone.”

“Could you tell her that I will always love her and I ask her to forgive me?”

Benjamin didn't respond but instead he smiled and vanished.

In the evening
Ariana left to the village to talk to Benjamin about going to Transylvania but to her surprise, she found Zinon bleeding in the forest.

“
Zinon where is Benjamin and why are you bleeding?”

The animal turns his head to Benjamin who was coming towards them wearing a stake in his hand.

“You were looking for me Ariana?”

“Why is
Zinon bleeding?” She asked, “He had been injured?”

“Just scratched himself a little, you know they are very fast and sometimes when they are running they tend to hit every tree.”

“And why is that stake full of blood?”

“Oh, it is a little blood to heal his wound, but don't worry he feels good.”

“He is going to be fast enough to run up in Transylvania? We need to get there before midnight“

“Calm down we will get there in time, let's go to inform the others.”

Arrived in the village, they were welcomed by a lot of black panthers, large and horrifying. Their red-orange eyes were glowing amazingly beautiful and their fur shined in the moonlight. The village was not as Ariana would have imagined, with houses and human things, but is made of a lot of trees whose branches are huge and tangled with each other within which animals sleep.

“How beautiful... I have never had the opportunity to come here because most of the times we met on the road.”

“Yes, this is our lifestyle.”

“And I spend my nights in the woods ... alone.”

When Ariana tried to say something else Benjamin interrupted her and asked her to be quei.

With an insistent glance Benjamin called all the panthers around him. After a moment in which he looked straight in their eyes, the animals became agitated and started to walk and howl very loud, sign that they saw in his eyes the place they had to go and what was to come .The nightfall transformed
Ariana into one of them too but she was different from them, her eye color was more reddish and more strident.

The man suddenly disappeared and the jaguars began to run through the forest at a rate which exceeds the ability of human's eyesight.

Once in front of the castle, the felines surrounded the building so quietly that no vampire felt their presence. Dark as night, only their eyes were shining. Ariana saw Benjamin is missing and became so hectic that with a great howl she alerted all vampires.

“What was that?”
Volod asked..

Then all vampires looked out the window and noticed how some wild eyes were slowly approaching their land.

“What a surprise! Zinon's clan attacks suddenly like cowards, let's go out!” Volod cried.

They did not grab well the door to get out and
Ariana rushed over them, then the others joined her and a strong fight started.

Alexander was waiting at the cemetery. Looking upon the hole he dug and thinking about
Ariana and what might happen in that moment he felt his end increasingly closer, the air he breathe was more and more hot and for the first time in a long time he felt human. His lungs seemed to burn inside him and his body unfolded bit by bit. He fell on knees and Benjamin made his appearance.

“Alexander!” He shouted “It's time.”

The boy stood up trying to quench his emotions. Wiping away his tears he looked at the old man.

“I hope
Ariana is not with you?” He asked looking around.

“No, she's at the castle along with the other felines, are you ready?”

“Nobody will ever be ready for death, but I'm prepared to save Ariana ... No matter if it costs my life. Please take care of her and hurry to destroy them, I do not want her to get hurt or anything until you get there.”

“Do not worry; I get there in a flash.”

Observing the stake from Benjamin's hand, Alexander asked, “That stake has blood on it or what is flowing out of it?”

“It is blood to relieve your pain. I'll pierce your heart, and I will make you bleed into the hole. I will put earth over you and from that earth I'll take a handful and go to the castle. Are you ready?”

“Well...” He answered thoughtful.

“There are resting your parents?”

“Yes ... There.”

And while the answer, Benjamin took advantage of his inattention and stuck the stake firmly through his heart. With one last breath and with both hands holding the stake, Alexander fell to the ground with eyes closed.

“I’m sorry my friend but we don't really have time.” He whispered.

He took him in his arms, placed him in the grave and left him to bleed more. Afterwards he threw soil over the wound. Then he went down into the hole and mixed earth with the blood that flowed out of the boy's chest. Afterwards he took a fistful and placed it at surface. With a strong blow he threw all the land into the hole and covered Alexander's lifeless body. Taking some more ground from above and mixing it with the wet one, Benjamin disappeared in an instant, leaving the strong wind to caress hero's sacrifice.

Arriving at the castle between the two clans has been a battle indescribable. Blood flowed continuously from the corpses of several panthers and some vampires were laying down on the ground with their heads torn off .In a moment of inattention, Volod attacked Ariana from behind and strangled her as hard as he could. Zinon jumped between them, grabbed Volod's arm and squeezed it until he broke it. Seeing the incident, one of the vampires rushed behind Zinon and with a strong bite, slammed him on the ground. The vampire had no time to enjoy because in a second two jaguars attacked him and killed him.Seeing what was happening Benjamin vanished and went into the basement in which were the cursed tombs. With a powerful blow he threw the ground all over vampire's tombs. Suddenly the basement began to burn off and a deafening sound is heard from outside. Emerged to the surface, Benjamin noticed a blinding light coming from the vampires who were burning in flames.

Volod's
clan was destroyed; Alexander's sacrifice was brought to an end.

Ariana
slowly came near Benjamin and with a look in her eyes; he saw the whole battle and the environment in which his son died. Then she turned her back to look after Alexander.

“Come with me, I have to show you something.” Benjamin said.

Her tremendous body and her reddish eyes began to tremble, a sign that she glimpsed something in his eyes. Running with great speed they reached the graveyard. Ariana remained at the gate but Benjamin made a sign to get closer. With feline slowly steps she went near him and observed the new dug grave. The old man approached her and said, “Look deep into my eyes for it is the only way to understand.”

Then the panther looked the master in the eye and saw the moment when Alexander found in the castle the only method to destroy
Volod - the cursed roses and the damned graves. Ariana tried then to leave but Benjamin stopped her and watched her eyes again. In that moment she saw his meetings with Alexander, his words 'I will always love her' and 'ask her to forgive me', and also the moment when he stuck the stake through his heart and buried him.

In that moment she stepped on his tomb and with a powerful roar which echoed among mountains, cried her sorrow.

“I am sorry Ariana” said the leader trying to comfort her.

She dodged and looked at him fiercely.

“Don't look at me like that, it was the only solution and it was his desire as well.” Benjamin continued.

He didn't finish off his words and
Ariana suddenly jumped on him, but with great force he threw her to the ground. Trying to attack him again she noticed the other panthers approaching their master slowly, sign that they will defend him and alone she will have no chance against them.