Red Moon Over New York part2
That comment made Kurt curious. "What do you mean, 'you created the third option'? Hasn't it always been like that?"
Looking up nervously, Sebastian spat, "We don't have time for that right now. I have to get out of here. What do you want?"
"I want to be human, or as close as possible."
"Well good luck, honey. I will come for you as soon as he has got you trapped at the cave. Stay strong, and don't ruin your pants when he shows up"
Just as Kurt was about to answer back, a low rumbling was heard in the distance. The moon above them had turned a dark blood red and on the
horizon they could see darkness rising and traveling fast across the sky towards them. The air had turned colder and a shiver ran up Kurt's back.
"Is that what I think it is?" he asked, but, when he turned back to where Sebastian had been not even a minute ago, the spot was empty. 'Here we go,'
he said to himself, and started running into the woods, away from the darkness fast approaching.
Kurt ran towards the mountains. If he wanted this dream to be over, he might as well make it easy on the shadow, the creature and himself by running
right to where he would end up anyway.
Trying to stay ahead of the looming darkness, he ran straight through the forest, branches cutting into his face and arms. Roots seemed to rise from the
ground, purposely tripping him. The things that had waited outside the grass circle earlier now got braver, reaching for him, attempting to slow him down.
They were holding onto his clothes, and ripping the fabric of his shirt and pants, scratching him in the process. Blood ran down his arms, chest and back,
soaking his once white shirt and gray pants in a sticky red mess. Little drops of the liquid oozed from a cut on his eyebrow, mixed with his sweat and
dripped into his eyes, making it even harder to evade the claws and teeth that came from left and right, from above him and seemingly out of the ground.
He was panting hard but he kept running.
He turned around once to see how close the shadow had gotten, and, just then, one creature to his left saw him distracted and slashed its claws into his
thigh, ripping the skin. Screaming in pain, Kurt toppled to the ground. Tears streamed down his face as he inspected the wound. It wasn't fatal -
"…You cannot die in the forest, but the trees and the monsters living there will do anything they can, to make you believe otherwise…"
- but it sure hurt like a bitch. A piece of flesh was missing, and blood streamed out of the wound.
Kurt ripped the bottom of his shirt off and tied it around his thigh above the hole in order to stop the bleeding. In all, it took no more then three or four
minutes, but more and more monsters came to surround him. He knew sitting there for longer would result in even more pieces of his flesh missing, plus
every minute he spent sitting on the cold, dark ground also meant the shadow of the Predator was getting closer.
With shaking arms and pain soaring through his leg, he pulled himself up to a standing position. He put some weight on his injured leg to see if he could go
further or if he would have to wait for the shadow to drag him to the cave. Relieved to discover that standing didn't result in blinding pain, he inhaled and
reached for one of the branches right next to him. The bark felt slimy and cold, but he broke it off to use it as a weapon. He started swinging it like a
machete in front of him to chase away the things that had gotten into his way and were trying to get closer to him. Once he had a cleared a path wide
enough to ensure no more of his blood would be spilled, he threw the branch away and picked up a running pace that felt comfortable. Limping now,
he was slower than before, but still fast enough that he wasn't worried about the distance between him and the big predator as he continued on his way
to the mountain.
"Head straight through the forest, towards the hills. The trees and the creatures living there will try and either block your way or hurt you to
stop you from taking the shortest route! Do not spend much time thinking about what’s going to happen, just keep going. If you make it to the
clearing at the bottom of the hill before the shadow has reached you, there is nothing they can do to you anymore.
Stay out of sight so the creature from the cave doesn't see you until the shadow has arrived. Once he is there, he will be enraged that he didn't
catch you (sore loser, I know), but do not let that scare you. Step up to him and deny him."
After what felt like hours of running, Kurt saw a dim light a few hundred feet ahead of him. The trees seemed to glow in a flickering orange-yellow tone, indicating that there was a fire burning. Slowly, he walked closer, making sure that he couldn’t be seen. In front of him, right in front of the
line of trees he was hiding in, was the clearing. He was able to look straight into the cave. Not wanting to walk straight into the creature’s arms, he started
running to the left, staying behind the tree line but making sure he didn’t get drawn deeper into the woods again. The creature’s cave was now to his right,
and slowly he crept out of the woods into the clearing.
His wounded leg was throbbing from the running and blood was still seeping out of the hole that that little bastard had ripped into his flesh. Kurt's socks
were torn to shreds and soaked in his own blood, making the fabric stick to his skin. Twigs, dirt, leaves and God knew what else were stuck to the bottom,
making it even harder for him to walk. He held onto a rock for balance and bent down to get rid of the remains of the once white cotton and used it to wipe
down his leg so he could inspect the damage that had been done. The bleeding had slowed down a lot and, as long as he didn't touch the area around it, the
pain was bearable.
After cleaning himself up as well as he could, he took a look around.
The area he was standing in was shaped like an odd circumcircle, with the trees behind him forming the dark half round line, and the mountain, covered in
sharp edges, dead bushes and dry grass, cutting the shape off like a wall. Moss hung over some of the edges, making it look like the dark brown rock was
bleeding and dripping into the clearing. The ground under his feet was dry and cold. It looked like there could have been some grass growing a long, long
time ago, but now it was just dirt mixed with little sharp edged pebbles that cut and poked into the bottom of his feet.
Just as he had planned, the entrance to the cave now lay to his right, hastily covered by what seemed like a door, handmade from old branches. A glow of
light shone through the spaces between the makeshift planks, giving the space in front of the cave a warm and inviting glow, but Kurt knew better.
A loud rumble startled Kurt from thoughts of what was going to happen next, and on the opposite side of him, leaving the cave between them, the darkness
touched the ground. The shapeless cloud of black smoke slowly materialized into the looming shape of a man dressed all in black. His face was hidden by
long straight black hair that reached his shoulders. It seemed that the darkness was dressed in a black suit, black shirt and a trench coat.
'God, I hope that is a trench coat and not a cape! Capes are so cheesy,' he thought. It took Kurt a second to realize the absurdity of the situation, and then
he giggled. He just judged the clothing choices of the great and scary darkness that was going to try and turn him towards becoming a predator. This night
was not going the way he’d thought it would.
The creak of a door opening took his attention away from the figure across from him and directed it to the cave.
"Hello?" a thin and quiet voice asked into the clearing. "Is somebody out there?"
"Silence!" boomed the voice of the Great Predator and, with a whimper, the old creature went back inside its cave.
Kurt was staring. This all seemed so unreal to him. Suddenly, the shadow stood right in front of him. No sound was heard while he had moved, and the
air around them seemed to be charged with electricity.
"You are fast, running like the prey you are. How dare you run away from me? How dare you standing here, watching us, waiting like you know what’s
going to happen. HOW DARE YOU NOT SHOW ME THE RESPECT I DESERVE?" The Predator's voice grew louder and louder with every
question and the last sentence was yelled right into Kurt's face.
"I am not scared of you! I am not prey. I wasn't running away from you but running to where you wanted to have me anyway,
BECAUSE I KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN! And for the record, respect is not deserved but earned.
You are nothing but a bully that takes joy in scaring and hunting the unfortunate souls that end up in your twisted little dream world,
I AM NOT SCARED OF YOU!" Pointing a finger at the shadow, Kurt took a step forward and to his surprise, the great shadow moved back,
creating more space between the both of them.
"So it seems you are strong, a leader perhaps. You could be the greatest predator of all of us. Follow me! Become one of us or die here tonight!
Become like me, make your choice NOW! Be strong and powerful. I can make you invincible."
"NO!" came a whimper from the cave. "Come here, help me, protect me! I am so scared! He is going to hurt me again. Come inside and warm up
at my fireplace. I will clean your wounds and make you feel better. Don't become a monster, stay with me and you will never have to kill."
Both beings kept talking, voices growing louder and more insistent.
"Be strong, kill with me," was yelled at him from the figure in front of him,
"Don't hurt me," the old and fragile within creature whined.
"Feast on the weak," the Predator snarled.
"Stay and hide from all the pain. Oh help me, please stay with me my darling boy," came the plea from behind the makeshift door.
By that point Kurt couldn't understand a single word anymore, since both voices just started to blend together into a roaring that echoed across the
clearing, only to get reflected back by the mountain, turning it into an endless loop of echoes.
*
Meanwhile, back in New York, Burt sat at his son's bedside. He looked tired, and his red rimmed eyes were hurting from a mix of crying and lack of sleep.
He reached up to change the wet washcloth from Kurt's forehead, a useless attempt at bringing the fever down.
"You know that’s not going to help him, right?" A voice from the doorway interrupted his movement. Slowly, he turned around and looked over.
"You’re late," Burt accused. "You were supposed to be here and help him through, not pop up when he’s almost dead, just to let me know how little
I can do! Look at my son, lying here, still and barely breathing. His skin feels like I could fry an egg on it. I changed the sheets three times already
because he keeps sweating through them and it's only been one hour!" Burt got up and walked over to the hooded figure leaning against the wall
right next to the door. The light from the hallway fell into the room and, when he got close enough, he was able to see under the hood.
"I should have known you were one of them, too. Why did you come into his life? You tried to blind him and hurt Blaine in the process.
How on earth can you be the one that I have to trust with my only child's future!?" His index finger poked into Sebastian's chest, and he yelled
straight at his face, shaking with rage and helplessness.
Sebastian put his hand over Burt's and pushed the accusing finger slowly down so he could walk closer. In a whispered voice, he answered,
"I was an idiot, hell I still am and I didn't know. We never know as long as we are human. We know it could happen, but we all hope it doesn't.
I mean, who wants this life? We are trapped living at night, granted only a few minutes of sunlight under great agony and fear of burning alive if the
sun finds a weak spot in the clouds. We learn to appreciate rainy days. We drink blood, for crying out loud!"
Shaking his head, he turned away from Burt and walked to Kurt's bed. He stopped at the foot and looked down onto the dying body hanging on to
the last remainders of human life. "He’s almost dead, but he’s strong and stubborn. I’m pretty sure he is at the clearing already, and, from the looks of it,
already arguing for his humanity. I have to go there. I have to be there and be his third choice, or he will be stuck with either killing or suffering."
"Why do you have to be the third choice? What do you mean?"
"Nothing, don't worry about me, worry about Kurt."
And he was gone. No smoke, no thunder, nothing fancy. Sebastian was gone, and Burt was left staring into the space that was left.
*
"Shut up! Both of you need to shut up!" Kurt yelled.
Pointing a finger at the cave entrance which the creature looked out of, he continued, "First of all, to you, you need to stop whining and crying.
I am not going with you. I will not turn into one of you. Second," he turned towards the shadow, "I will not turn into a monster.
I don't want to go out, hunting humans or scarring and murdering them just for fun, like you do."
Kurt's chest was heaving from the screaming and the adrenalin in his body made him shake all over. Fear and nervousness were starting to show on his face,
knowing he had just angered the two worst nightmares of the vampire nation. He was worried about what was going to happen next.
As of right now, all he could do was wait and see, but inside he was wondering and growing impatient about where Sebastian was and why he wasn't here yet.
Kurt had done everything he could in order to stay as human as possible, yet his golden ticket out was taking his sweet time showing up and saving him from the enraged beasts he was now trapped with.
"The Mentor is the only one that can get you out of the dream world once you have stood up to the creature and the shadow."
'Where is he,' he wondered. He was out of words and he was running out of time. 'I hope nobody ever got trapped here just because Sebastian was busy screwing around rather than coming to help them.' His stomach sank and he took a step back in order to get some distance from the Great Predator who was still right in front of him.
"You pathetic excuse of a wannabe Vampire," the dark figure in front of him snarled as he noticed Kurt's shrinking back. "You should go on and go to the cave. Go on - run to safety from the monster," he started to mock. He bent down towards Kurt's face and growled like an animal, showing of his sharp, pointy fangs.
"Kurt!" Sebastian's voice called from behind the shadow, "Run!"
Kurt dashed around the Predator and ran in a big curve, as far away as possible from the cave entrance, towards the edge of the treeline where Sebastian was waiting for him.
"One day, I will find you in the outside world and I will rip you to pieces, you traitor!" the shadow yelled in Sebastian’s direction from behind Kurt, but he didn't move any closer. He seemed to know that he had lost this one. The other creature moved slowly back into its cave, but not without snarling and hissing at the two boys until it closed the door.