Vampire Hunter Tsuki

Prologue

The building, a large, shopping centre or some such building, was white. Everything, from the walls, to the floors and ceiling, even the windows and railings, were white, in various shades. There were no shadows there, only darker shades of white. The sounds of heavy breathing and footfalls echoed around the building, bouncing off the stark white walls. The footfalls belonged to a girl. She was about nineteen, with long blonde hair, a single braided bang hanging on the left side of her face, blue eyes, one lighter than the other. She wore a simple top and denim skirt. She was the only colour in the entire building.

She ran up flights of stairs, along corridors, down flights of stairs. Always running. End­lessly running. Never stopping. The only sounds in the entire building her breathing and the sound of her shoes hitting the white floor. She wasn’t sure why she was running, or where she was. She just knew she had to run. So run she did. She got to the bottom of another flight of stairs and paused. Another sound had joined the sounds created by herself. Other footfalls. Not echoes, not hers. She glanced around and ran over to the railing. Looking over the edge, she got a good look at the building.

It stretched up several floors, ending in a roof with a skylight, which let in stark white sunlight. Looking down, she could see that it went down an unknowable number of floors. So many that she couldn’t see the ground. And, when she looked to either side, she couldn’t see one end of the building, stretching off into the infinite, the other several hundred metres away. She turned from the railing, then froze. Laugher! She turned back and scanned what she could see of the building. Over there! She could just about make out someone else! They vanished. She turned from the railing and began running again. But this time, she knew she why she was running. There was someone else in the building with her.

Up stairs, along corridors, around corners, down stairs, she ran. Stopping occasionally to check where the other person was. But they were always so far away from her. She could see them, but she couldn’t make out what they looked like. So she continued to run.

She ran down some stairs, to a corridor with a wall of glass on one side. Through the glass she could make out the form of the other person. But she couldn’t see them clearly, as the glass was misted, and the pattern of the glass broke up the person into a mass of swirls and rings. But their laughter still echoed clearly, though she couldn’t tell if they were male or female still. They turned and ran. So did she.

She ran and ran and ran until she came to a corridor that was different from the others she’d run through. This one was lined with pillars. She slowly walked along the corridor, looking at the pillars. They, like the rest of the building, were white, in various shades. Some of the pillars were angled slightly, but most were upright. Despite the fact there were no windows, nor any lights that she could see, the corridor was well lit. It also was the longest corridor she had walked along since she had entered the building. Whenever that was. She was beginning to wonder if the corridor would ever end, as she couldn’t see anything ahead of her, just more corridor. She glanced behind her, to see how far she’d walked, wondering if she should just turn round and head back the way she’d come, but she could see nothing behind her, except for continuous corridor. With a sigh, she faced forwards again and gasped. Right in front of her was a small flight of stairs, at the top of which was a door, with a green exit sign above it, and a metal handle; the only other colours she’d seen since entering the building. She slowly climbed the stairs and looked up at the sign. She looked at the handle, took hold of it. She twisted it and pushed. It was a struggle to open the door, as it was thick and heavy. But with a grunt, she managed to get it open. She opened her eyes and gasped.

She was outside, on a high balcony. Stretched out before her was a semi-familiar cityscape. Only the buildings were in ruins, some at angles, the windows shattered. The streetlights flickered in the streets below, illuminating the wrecks of cars and rubble, and corpses, in a sickly yellow light. The sky above the ruins of the buildings was a blood red.

She walked to the edge of the balcony and looked out. In the distance, hovering above the ruined city, was a giant monstrosity. It was a pulsating, amorphous blob, that seemed to change shape as she looked at it. As she watched, eyes seemed to form in the blob, then vanish, followed by mouths that seemed to be screaming, before they too vanished. Giant grasping hands shot out of the mass of floating pulsating flesh before being reabsorbed. Floating around the monstrosity were buildings, looking like branches being thrown around by a tornado. Her eyes were drawn to the roof of a building not far from her.

Two other people, both female, and about her age, were standing there. One had long, dark hair and was dressed in a grey skirt, dark tights or leggings, and a grey jacket over a deep red top. The other had short brown hair and wore a pink dress, with gloves and boots of the same colour. They were both armed, the dark haired one with a rifle, the brunette with two swords. She gasped as the two girls jumped from the roof. But instead of falling, they flew. Towards the monstrosity.

She watched as beams of energy shot from the floating monstrosity towards the girls. They broke left and right, dodging the beams, though there were so many that they couldn’t dodge them all. She gasped as the girl with the long hair was struck by a beam, but she didn’t seem fazed by it as it broke around her, deflected by an invisible barrier. The girl raised her rifle and fired, the bullets barely seeming to do anything to the giant thing. The girl in the pink dress dodged and weaved around and between the beams as though she was used to doing this sort of thing. She dodged a beam, then froze. A building was flying towards her. The building struck her, before it crashed into another building, sending a cloud of dust and debris flying out, obscuring the area where the build­ings had impacted. A window shattered about half way up the building that had been used as a weapon, and the girl in pink flew out. She seemed unharmed as she dodged more beams.

‘They don’t stand a chance against that thing!’ she cried, her hands tightening around the railing.

‘No, they don’t stand a chance against it,’ a voice from besides her said. She turned to face the voice. Sitting on the railing was a small creature. It looked quite like a cat, but with four large ears, two of which ended in what looked like three fingered hands, and two tails that both split in half at the tips. ‘But they’ll continue fighting, knowing they don’t have a chance.’

‘But they could die!’

‘Yes they could. They’ll continue to fight, nonetheless,’ the creature said. ‘If they give up, everything is over.’

‘Why?’ she asked. ‘Why do they fight if they know they’ll die?’

‘Because if they don’t fight, if they don’t risk their lives, everyone will die.’

‘It isn’t their fight though,’ a new voice said from behind her. She turned to face the new voice. Standing there was a woman, dressed in a formfitting full length black dress, with a black hat and veil, which covered over half of her face, leaving only her mouth exposed.

‘What do you mean?’

‘It is their fight,’ the creature said. ‘Because they have no choice.’

‘There is always a choice,’ the woman said. She looked from the woman to the creature. Neither took their eyes off the battle being waged above the ruins of the city.

‘In hindsight, there is always choice,’ the creature said. ‘Or to an outsider, the choice is always there. But to those who are the ones making those choices, the choice is always limited, or not there.’ The dark haired girl was struck by powerful beam that sent her flying backwards, into a building. The one in pink turned to face her, worry etched on her face.

‘But you have to power to change this, Hitomi Ray,’ it said. Hitomi turned to face the creature. ‘This de­struction, this sorrow and pain. You have the power to stop it from happening, to change it.’

‘But, how?’ she asked. The girl in pink looked in her direction, and recognition passed over her face. Fear soon replaced recognition as she turned to face the dark haired girl again, shouting some­thing.

‘You make a choice,’ the woman said. Hitomi turned to face the woman. ‘You can either bring this to pass, or you can stop it.’

‘Depending on what choice you make,’ the creature said. Hitomi looked at the battle just as the dark haired girl turned to face her. Fear and pain contorted her face as she reached out, seemingly towards Hitomi. The girl in pink was struck by a beam from behind and fell from the sky. Even then, she seemed to be reaching out to Hitomi, almost imploringly.

‘How can I stop this?’ she asked. ‘How can I help them?’

‘You choose,’ the creature said.

‘What do I choose?’ she asked, looking at the creature, who was watching the battle. She turned to face the woman. The wo­man was grinning, her mouth looking like a gash, filled with razor sharp teeth.

The insistent beeping of the alarm continued as she stirred, before a fist came down in the alarm, not only silencing it, but knocking it over. Her eyes slowly opened, before she sat up. Hitomi rubbed her eyes, before yawned and stretched. ‘What a weird dream,’ she said, scratching her messy long blonde hair. She looked over at the outfit she had chosen for the day, and smiled. ‘I wonder if they remember me?’ she said. ‘It’s been nearly ten years. I wonder if they remember the promise we made.’ She picked up her alarm clock and looked at the time. ‘Oh, shit! I’m going to be late!’ She threw her alarm clock down and jumped out of bed.