Kane leaned heavily against the rock wall clutching his stomach in pain. It felt like a hole had been carved right through the middle of him. The keen sensation of the cold stone wall was sharper through his wet shirt; reminding him he was drenched head to foot…
… in blood.
Closing his eyes hard, Kane tried to think of something else than the thick, almost welcoming sensation of sinking into the vast pools behind him. He could hear his friends behind him shaking the gore from their clothes but he felt frozen; locked in place, fearful that if he moved, he would see again the sea of red.
Even with closed eyes, Kane‘s mind’s eye would not turn away from the shimmering, slowly moving pool behind him.
Not what I thought, not at all…
Part of him had dreaded this moment; the opportunity to devolve into the cliche his curse promised; a ravenous, drooling, mindless fiend bent on satisfying its bloodthirst. Thankfully the cold, almost sour taste was not at all appealing… it sickened him. He as he feared it would be different. That it would awaken something in him. The stitch in his side grew stronger as his thoughts remembered the bitter taste in his mouth.
Hearing Isak‘s voice behind him, Kane returned to the real world. Reaching down, he picked up his pack and started looking for his change of clothes. Good thing this stayed dry. Quickly ridding himself of the soiled clothes, Kane stuffed them within his pack, as if the deeper they sank the further from his memory they’d fade.
Noticing that the pain in his side was slowly easing up, Kane turned to his companions in the cold, dark hallway, “The bell… we must find the bell. Delphina and Eilian are depending on us.”
Turning, Kane started back down the hallway into the darkness, his supernatural vision leading the way.
