The scent of fresh and wet earth woke her. The rain beat heavily upon her back, the thunder echoing across the dark land. With a groan she managed to push herself up into a sitting position.

“Nivek? Sokanone?” A panicked whimper escaped her as her vision double on itself. She touched just under her eyes, controlling a sob at the blood seeping from them. If her sister had been right, she would be fully blind in mere moments.

Trembling, Cy folded her arms over her breast and looked about. She was still in the surreal graveyard. Her siblings had abandoned her. A soft cry escaped her but she shut her eyes tightly and refused to cry.

They left me to die here, in this land full of savage vampires. The thought registered but she bottled in what she could and let the rain drench her. Her vision had worsened by the time she opened her eyes once more. Everything was swimming hazily as she tried to take it in, to savor what might be the last thing she ever saw.

The moon was the biggest she had ever seen it and pale orange. It lit the graveyard eerily, casting shadows from its wrought iron gate and strange black trees that slumped sadly.

Cy took some comfort from it and whispered to herself, “I'll just stay here...Mother will find me, she will know they are lying and come looking for me.” Her vision began to cloud further, the poison slowly taking it's effect as she stared sadly up at the moon. “If a vampire gets me I shall take comfort in seeing something as pretty as you.”

She felt a rock drop in her stomach as the faint sound of a horse echoed throughout the forest.

Oh Gods, it is a vampire...It will tear me apart! Nivek said that vampires will not approach someone who is praying...

She curled up tightly behind a tall headstone, praying. “Please Lady Callaia, see me through this....”

The pounding hooves came closer. They sounded so loud she was sure whomever it was must be right at the cemetery's gate.

Lady Callaia, lady of mercy and love, please ward this evil creature away from me...

A cold sweat broke out over Cy's forehead as the unseen horse slowed to a trot and snorted in protest. It's steps came closer, sounding strangely mechanical, as though it were decorated in armor.

Cy took a deep breath and slowly poked her head out, trying to blink through her spotting vision. She was astonished to see nothing. “Am I going mad?”

She slowly crept out from behind the headstone and rose to her full height on the tallest hill. The graveyard was surrounded almost entirely by forest, the gate had an old, dirt path beaten out that winded into the dark forest.

The sounds came again and she cried out this time by their closeness. “Oh Gods, help me!” She rubbed her eyes and cried in frustration, “Am I to die than?! Hunted down and blind?!”

Again, the hooves beat furiously against the ground. She could hear the horse whinny just barely over the lightning and thunder.

You must not loose your head. Pray and maybe it will go away.

She bowed her head and began to chant to the gods of mercy and kindness. Her focus was enough to drown out the hoof beats momentarily but without warning she was seized by a strange feeling.

It was entirely unprovoked and unexplainable. She felt ice slide down her stomach and the inexplicable realization that she was paralyzed. The feeling of being in the presence of a demon was so strong that she looked up to the sky in awe.

“Gods...Gods, help me....”

In the crack of lightning it came. Appearing before her was a sight so startling she felt her breath leave her.

The lightning revealed a horse that was all machine and a shiny a black onyx reared before her. It's rider was a man cloaked in a greatcoat and a top hat.

Her mind went dizzy, slowing the world around her and he seemed illuminated by lightning, his horse moving as slow as death. Her eyes darkened and spotted but still managed to see his dark red locks. The thing she would always remember before everything went dark was his eyes. She could see but one but it was such an intense green that it shook her.

The intensity of his gaze made her go dizzy but she couldn't look away.

Before the lightning that had revealed him had faded she had fallen back into the cold, wet Earth.

* * * *