Nevermore, the Complete Series (55 page)

“Salem…” I whispered as I continued slowly backing away from the coffin, nearly screaming when I walked right into my father. “Come here.”

He stared back at me and shrugged. “It is okay, Alex. I am sure he is dead.”

“I…I’m not so sure. And you’re not the strong vampire you used to be, Salem,” I said. “Just get over here…just in case…”

His eyes narrowed and he marched over to us with his arms wrapped around his chest. “He isn’t moving at all. He’s dead.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that, kid,” Paul said with a grimace and nodded his head in the direction of the coffin.

The man began rising to his feet, a bewildered expression on his face as he examined his surroundings as if he were a baby seeing the world for the first time. His eyes were not the alarming shade of crimson I had expected, nor did he appear very menacing...but I still wasn’t sure what or who he was. His eyes finally landed upon us and he looked at us quizzically.

He spoke in a language I did not understand, and when we did not reply he spoke in another. Finally in a thick accent that I was unfamiliar with came something we all understood, “Where am I?” Long curls of dark, wet hair hung at his shoulders, and he had a dark complexion despite the touch of paleness to his skin.

“You are in a cave. In Florida,” Salem answered, eying the man curiously. “Who are you?”

“Ah, the English. More importantly I ask who are you? How did you find me? Where is Eleanor?”

My eyes widened as I stared at the stranger. Had he said Eleanor? This couldn’t be who I thought it was. That was impossible.

“We came here in search of the fountain,” I explained cautiously. “We found you by mistake, and I don’t know anyone named Eleanor.”

“You did not make the mistake of letting her free, did you?” his voice was harsh and scared at the same time.

“I don’t know her,” I repeated. “How were you alive in that box?”

“The witch!” he growled. “We must find her and put an end to her before she slays more innocent people!”

Salem’s eyes brightened with recognition. “Eleanor…the lady dressed in the veiled black gown.”

“Yes, that is she.”

“She is dead,” came the voice of Paul who now had a crossbow loaded and pointed in the man’s direction.

The stranger bowed his head and smiled with relief. “You have saved so many people, and for this, I am thankful. I tried to stop her, but…I failed.” A hint of deep
sadness clouded his face and I knew there was more to his sorrow than the death of the innocent people.

“It was either that or die ourselves,” Paul grunted. “Now, I think we’d better have an explanation. Clock’s tickin’.” He tapped his trigger finger on the outside grip of the crossbow.

“Of course,” the man replied, squinting curiously at the weapon. “You know of the spring’s powers I assume, no?”

“Yes, we do,” I said.

He nodded. “Tell me, from where did you learn of them?”

I walked to the other side of the cavern, collected the journal and offered it to him. He stared at me with amazed, deep brown eyes and his mouth fell agape as he ran his fingers along the spine of the book. “Bahamet,” he said proudly.

“Bahamet, the Shaman?” I asked.

“He is the one that I left this book in the possession of,” he explained. “He was the only survivor of the Howlers.”

My mouth fell agape and I failed to make any words come out of my mouth.

“Do you mean to say that you are Ezra…Ezra Chase?” Salem asked, perplexed.

“Ezra,” he said fondly. “It has been a long time since I heard anyone speak that name. I had begun to think I may never hear it again, or the voice of another person for that matter.”

I shook my head in confusion as I stared at the man who, hundreds of years prior, wrote in the journal that led me to this cave…the man who wrote of his own death. “How are you alive?”

“Alive,” he spat. “I could hardly be considered alive. If you asked anyone else, Ezra Chase died a long, long time ago. I might as well be just a host for a near forgotten memory.”

“No, you are Ezra…regardless what happened, that is who you are,” I disagreed. “Trust us, we understand.”

“And just who are ‘we’?”

“I am Alexis,” I said, then motioned my hand toward the other two, “This is Salem and my father, Paul. Salem and I were vampires, just as you had been, and had it not been for this journal…we still would be.”

He looked at us admirably for a moment. “Vampires have changed a lot since last I walked the Earth, I presume.”

I frowned. “No, they haven’t, really. Most of them are still evil creatures…there are just a few of us that live the way that you tried to.”

He smiled and sat cross-legged on the cave floor. “Then, perhaps you shall understand my story.”

The three of us looked to each other and then sat down, Paul clutching his weapon the entire time.

“Eleanor and I had been due to wed a month following the incident,” he explained. “Assuming you have read much of the journal, you understand what it is I speak of.”

I nodded.

“She was once a beautiful, warm, and loving young woman,” Ezra sighed and grimaced. “It was her belief that I was having an affair on her, when in truth I was avoiding her in order to save her from becoming my victim. I couldn’t possibly tell her that I had become one of them – I would have been slain once word was spread. Perhaps it would have been a better end for my story, however.

“Yet, had that happened…had the spring not been discovered, you wouldn’t be here, alive – and for that, I am truly thankful. Eleanor followed after me, unbeknownst to me at the time. She thought that I was abandoning her back home for my ‘secret lover’.” He frowned and shook his head. “Even after revealing the truth to her, she would not let go of the story she had developed in her mind. She was fanatical. Once someone is so strongly set on such a belief it is near impossible to convince them otherwise.”

I frowned at Ezra sympathetically. “I’m so sorry, but…you referred to her as a witch? Is that just an insult, or was she really one?”

“How else do you think I maintained my ‘youth’ for so long? Despite how I may look, I am no vampire. It was her wickedness that did this to me! She had me trapped beneath the waters, stuffed in that box, for eternity – or so she had hoped. It is also believed that she is the one who summoned the Howlers upon the village.”

“Your last journal entry, then, was…a lie? Why would you do that?”

“I suppose you could consider it a lie of sorts, although when I wrote it I thought myself dying, but Eleanor…she found me and decided to elongate my misery. Rather than letting me die, this is what became of me. She had been sacrificing lives to this fountain with the belief that the blood of humans feeds it the blessed powers it possesses, while forcing me to listen to their dying screams as their blood dyed the water around me time and again.”

“Pardon my forwardness, Ezra, but did she really become so evil merely because she thought you cheated on her?” Salem asked skeptically.

Ezra scowled. “I believe there was always evil nestled in her heart, yearning to come out. I had heard other servants of my father’s house talk in hushed voices about Eleanor and her family practicing, but I never thought much of it. It is hard to believe in gossip, let alone that about witchcraft. The circumstances she thought to be true only acted as a catalyst to bring the darkness out, and once out I fear it consumed her.”

“That’s terrible…” I mumbled. “What can you tell me about the Howlers?”

“There isn’t much to say. I never saw them, but Bahamet claims that they were ebony-furred wolves with empty, black eyes. According to the village’s legend, it wasn’t uncommon for criminals to become wolves in ‘the next life’ – but I believe this to be myth and lore.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, Ezra,” I began, “but…how are you alive, exactly? I mean…she is dead now…for sure. Shouldn’t this curse or whatever be gone now?”

He smiled tenderly at me. “You need not apologize, curiosity is of no harm. Eleanor put a curse upon me that stopped my aging. As far as the curse being gone now that she is no longer with us, well…I do not pretend to be an expert on all the occult. I do not know.”

“So, you are immortal…without the unwanted side-effects that come with being a vampire?”

“I suppose this is true, yes,” he agreed.
“Although I also gained nothing in return. No strength, nor speed. I am a hull of a man, damned to live forever.”

“What about the water,” Paul nodded towards the falls. “Why don’t you just use the water and get rid of this curse if you despise it so badly?”

“How much water do you think I filled my belly with as I lay submersed all this time? How many years has it been? No, if the water could heal this curse then it would have long ago.”

“Well…it didn’t get rid of Salem’s ability either…” I said, recalling this slight contradiction to what had happened to the shaman in Ezra’s journal, “But it got rid of the shaman’s powers?”

“I do not understand it myself,” Ezra replied.

“Maybe we can find some answers…somewhere,” I said, looking around the cavern. “I don’t know what we should do…really.”

“If you would have my opinion on the matter,” Ezra began as he too looked around the cave and rose to his feet, “the wisest thing to do would be to destroy this whole damnable place.”

“That would make it impossible for any other vampires to be given another chance at mortality,” Salem replied.

“It is a sacrifice - that is true, but how many have actually used its powers over the year for such purpose I wonder, hmm? How many vampires know of it, how many care about it who do? I would rather prevent the fountain from being used improperly again and hurting many rather than sitting and helping a few.”

Salem nodded as he considered Ezra’s words. “But how would we do it?”

“We must block the entrance somehow,” Ezra explained. “From the inside…and then, find another more secluded way out, and block it as we leave.”

“There is a ladder leading up to an old lighthouse above the cave, but I am not sure how sturdy it is…but that can be our exit maybe,” I said as the memory of John’s voice came back to me suddenly – ‘Lighthouse’. “But, I’m not sure how we can block the entrance for good…”

“I’m sure Salem can summon something useful,” Paul said as he eyed the ebony-haired boy beside me. I could tell that he still felt some contempt toward him despite his apologies, I hoped it would eventually fade.

“Summon some rocks or something,” I shrugged. “It may not protect the cave forever, but it will stop intruders for while at least.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of dynamite myself,” Paul shrugged, “but…yeah…rocks could work, too.”

Despite the situation, the three of us laughed while Ezra eyed us oddly.

“So be it,” Ezra said, and we began to follow him away from the roar of the waterfall…until it was nothing more than a growl and a memory.

After twisting and turning through the long, winding passages of the cave, we finally came upon the entrance. A small beam of light eased in through the crease and I knelt down to peek through it. To my surprise, Hannah was sitting a few feet away in the sand. I called out her name but she didn’t even turn to glance in my direction.

“We should get her, shouldn’t we?” I said as I looked back toward Salem.

He shrugged. “That it is up to her. If she wants to stay out there, so be it.”

I frowned. “How will she find us?”

Salem didn’t reply and I sighed. “Hannah!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Come back, please!”

This time she looked back at me with a disgusted expression. “What do you want?”

“We are going to barricade the entrance to the cavern so that no one can enter it anymore…do you want to join us?”

She huffed. “Why should I help block it, it doesn’t matter anymore. Who cares about the dumb fountain being found when the world is already doomed now?”

“Would you get over that, please? Like I said before, the future isn’t set in stone – things could turn out entirely different from how you saw it. Please, just come with us.”

“And how do you expect to get out after you’ve blocked off the exit from inside? Did you ever think of that one? Why not just block it from out here.”

“It would be more noticeable and out of the ordinary to people walking by if it was buried on that side. And as far as getting out, there is a ladder in here that goes up to the lighthouse.”

“Whatever, I’ll meet you up there,” she grumbled and began walking away until she was out of sight.

I backed up to give Salem space and watched from afar as a large boulder appeared in front of the hole. The room was completely dark aside from the beam of light from Paul’s flashlight and the tiny crease of light high above. As I watched, Salem summoned rock after rock around the larger one until he was certain it would be near impossible for someone to get in without machinery or explosives. Then, without warning, Salem clambered to the ground and gasped with exhaustion.

“His powers are taking a toll on him,” Ezra examined. “Being without his vampiric strength, his body cannot handle as much.”

I rushed to his side and turned him over to view him clearly. The flashlight pierced through the darkness and landed on half of his face. His skin was pale and hot to the touch. Beads of sweat trickled down the sides of his face and his breathing became stressed and labored.

“Salem…” I whispered, awestruck at the sight. I was not used to him appearing so fragile, so frail…

“I-I am okay,” he stuttered and attempted to sit up but failed. “I never knew how much energy…it took.”

“Me either,” I said with a frown. “Are you going to be okay?”

“I will be fine,” he said with an assuring smile.

“Let him rest a moment,” Ezra insisted. “We shall carry on when he is ready.”

Pacing back and forth as Salem recovered, the ladder caught my attention as it had earlier. It seemed as though that had been days ago now, although no more than half a day had probably passed. I left the three of my companions at the front of the cavern in order to inspect our way out. My hand wrapped around the side of the slightly decaying ladder and I stepped up lightly to test its strength. It creaked slightly, but I was almost positive it would last at least long enough for the four of us to make our escape.

I returned to Salem and the others and began reflecting on everything it took to get us to this point. My main concern was that we had made the wrong decision. I wasn’t used to seeing Salem so weak; he was always strong and capable of almost anything. I couldn’t picture him sick in bed with a cold, or suffering from a broken arm – those were all things that had once been impossible, and now it could happen at any minute. But this was what he had wanted – he wanted to experience the pain and suffering of a normal life. With a sigh, I cleared my mind of the unwanted thoughts and helped him up from the ground.

“Everyone ready to climb?” I asked with a grimace.

“One last thing,” Salem said, as his eyes shimmered purple once more and another large boulder appeared, blocking the path we had come from.

“Salem, no!” I yelled. “You aren’t strong enough to be using that again yet!”

“I am fine, really. I just wanted to be sure if someone did make it through, somehow…maybe they would think it was just this one cavern.”

It was decided that Salem would go ahead of the three of us; I would follow behind him, then Ezra, and finally my father. I watched nervously as Salem gripped the sides of the ladder and began his trip upward into the darkness. There was no telling what was concealed away in that lighthouse, but whatever it was, hopefully it was better than wasting away in a closed off cave and dying.

Step by step, I warily watched Salem. Various rungs on the ladder creaked and wobbled every few steps under his weight. He continued onward, higher and higher until for a moment I saw the light blot out and appear again. He had reached the top. I swallowed hard as I made my way up the rickety ladder behind him, my heart racing frantically as I worried what was awaiting me above. My eyes betrayed me long enough to get a glimpse at the drop below
me, I shuddered and nearly released my tight grip on the ladder, then carefully readjusted myself. What I would not give to be able to fly again and simply soar through the air to the opening. With the longing of my possibly-lost powers clouding my thoughts I climbed through the hole at last, Salem’s outstretched hand grasping hold of mine and tugging me up the rest of the way. I instantly fell into his arms, breathing heavily and sighing with relief.

Hannah was nearly invisible, hiding in the corner of the lighthouse. I could barely make out the shape of her body as she stood, cross-armed, against the far wall. Her eyes burned with the glow from a very recent meal, and I prayed it had only been a bird or some other animal she found on her way in.

The room was stacked to the ceiling with wooden pallets and other odds and ends that nearly made the spiraling staircase impossible to see. My attention was instantly distracted when I watched Ezra scramble up the ladder and crawl up onto the surface.

Once Ezra was safe and upright, he moved to the back of the room and bumped into Hannah.

“My apologies, Miss,” he gasped and stepped away. “I did not see you there.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Hannah grumbled rudely. “Who is this anyway?” she asked us.

“That’s Ezra,” Salem answered as I leaned over to peer down the ladder in search of Paul. He still carried the flashlight as he climbed and every new step I could see its light change position with his hands. Why he didn’t just leave the thing down there I didn’t understand.

“Ezra?
As in the one who wrote the journal and discovered this place?”

“Yes, that would be me,” he confirmed. “Who are you?” He asked, as I saw him grow tense at the notice of Hannah’s now slightly duller red eyes.

“That is my half-sister, Hannah,” Salem answered for her. “She is the only one of us who did not wish to be human again. However, I can guarantee you she will not harm you.”

“She is a vampire, then?”

“Oh, he’s a smart one,” Hannah spat, clearly still sulking at our decisions from earlier.

“Correct, but just like us, she does not feed on human blood,” Salem said, ignoring his sister’s rudeness.

“Are you okay down there, dad?” I called as I tried to catch a glimpse of him without any luck. He must have dropped the flashlight at some point.

“I’ll be up there in a minute, kid,” he replied.

“Please be careful…”

I heard a loud creak of wood as Paul’s weight pushed against another rung. He grunted and began climbing slightly faster. I could see him now – only eight, maybe ten, feet from the top. The steps creaked and bowed with each step. Then suddenly came the unmistakable crack of wood breaking and I saw him slip slightly.

“Dad!” I shouted, as I watched him scrambling to pull himself up with just his arms. Just as I thought he had regained himself, the rung his hands gripped pulled free from the wall, it’s old rusty spikes that had held for who knew how long had given out.

“Dad?!”
I shrieked. “PAUL!?” Bile grew in the back of my throat as I considered the possibilities of what had just happened. Without thinking I went to climb down to save him. Salem pulled me aside as I fought to get out of his grip. Suddenly someone strong held me by the shoulder and I turned to see Hannah’s now barely red eyes looking into mine, there was no use struggling now that I had no powers.

Salem peered down the hole as I watched from a mere foot away, but it was hopeless – he couldn’t see anything in the pitch darkness. Despite his exhaust, his eyes flashed violet and within seconds, the bottom of the cave was illuminated by a bright lantern. It was still too far away, as bright as it was the cave floor was so distant from here it seemed as if everything down there were pebbles. Salem’s eyes flashed again and a pair of small binoculars appeared. He sat down, breathing hard.

I jerked free from Hannah and picked up the binoculars.

“Alex, you should…” Salem said between breaths, “let me look first.
Just…just in case.” 

Ignoring him, I looked through the glass and used them to scan down the ladder – no sign of Paul clinging on anywhere. As I adjusted the view and pointed them towards the lantern I saw him.

Paul’s body was sprawled across the stone floor, both legs warped and twisted backwards in such a way that I knew he wouldn’t be able to stand or walk ever again...if he was even alive. I could see blood pooling beneath him and noticed the front of his shirt was shredded into nothing. His fingers were bent and bloody and I knew he must have tried desperately to claw at the cave wall as he fell, to catch or slow himself. I felt sicker the more I looked.

Panic began to settle in the pit of my stomach as I stared downward, waiting and praying that at any given second he would at the very least open his eyes, or say something – anything! It wasn’t long before I couldn’t handle it any more. The room began to feel stuffy and I was positive I couldn’t breathe. The walls appeared to close in on me. Salem attempted to steady me as I felt my body collapse onto the ground as a wave of dizziness overcame me.