Alcingeria Chapter Seven: Ignacio's Secret

Don, Macalister and Redmond discover where Robert has been for the last few days. Don, Macalister, Robert and Redmond discover that Ignacio, the man who saved their lives, harbours a dark secret...

Chapter Seven Ignacio’s Secret:

Tuesday June 22^nd 1690

The door that I followed Ignacio through led out into a small hallway. It was only about four or five feet wide, and about fifteen feet long. There were no windows in here, either. Instead, there were candles mounted on the wall every few feet. The candles rested on bronze holders that had been pegged into the walls. The dreary glow of the candles cast dark shadows that flickered along with the flames of the candles. Our footsteps were short and blunt in the small space that we were in. Ignacio was a few feet in front of me, leading me to the food and water. I peeked out from over his shoulder and saw a small cupboard at the end of the little corridor. I also noticed the hood that Ignacio had been wearing since he rescued my friends and I still hadn’t come off, it still obscured the upper half of his face. Why was that?

            “Ignacio?” I asked.

He turned to look at me, his hood still obscuring half of his face.

            “Yes?” He asked.

            “Why do you have your hood down over half of your face?” I asked.

Ignacio turned away, continuing to lead me to the food and water.

            “Are you going to answer my question?” I called after him.

            “No.” He said flatly over his shoulder.

I shrugged and followed him down the hall. I suppose that he had a right to privacy. I’ll respect that.

Ignacio and I reached the end of the hallway. He reached out to the small cupboard that I had noticed earlier, withdrawing a loaf of bread and a small flask of water.

            “There. I’ll bring your friends theirs. Why don’t you go and sit down somewhere else while you eat? The front door is just right here.” Ignacio said, passing me the bread and water and gesturing to a door on our left. It was partially concealed due to the shadows that the candles cast.

            “Thank you, Ignacio.” I said.

He nodded to me, pulling out two more loaves of bread and two more flasks of water. Ignacio walked back down the corridor.

I decided to walk around outside, to get a look around at where we were. I looked to the door that Ignacio had indicated, reached out and turned the knob. I pushed the door open and stepped through. I closed it behind me, still carrying the bread and water. I walked away from the house. When I was around twenty feet away from it, I turned and looked back. It was a small cabin in the middle of the forest. The carriage wreck was nowhere to be seen. How far did Ignacio carry Don, Macalister and I? It couldn’t have been far. After all, Ignacio didn’t look like a strong man. He looked pretty thin and almost frail. Coming to this realisation raised another question: Where were we?

Feeling my stomach grumble, I held up the piece of bread. It looked fine, it had no mold on it, but it was cold. That was fine. I raised it to my mouth and took a bite of it. The bread was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, just as bread should be. I took another bite of the bread, and another. Pretty soon, I had satisfied my hunger by eating the whole loaf. I was now thirsty due to the dry bread, so I raised the flask of water to my lips and took a drink. I downed the entire flask in a few swigs. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. I thought about going back to Ignacio’s house, but I decided to walk a little while longer to get a bearing and try to find out where I was. I walked through the forest that Ignacio’s house was located in. My feet crunched down the dead leaves that littered the forest floor. The canopy above was dense and blocked out a lot of sunlight. The dim light let in by the canopy reminded me of the dim light that was around me when Ignacio rescued my friends and I.

Remembering the carriage wreck, remembering Queen Mycta’s guards advancing, made me remember Robert’s brave venture to buy Macalister, Don and I some time. He had made six of the twelve guards follow him. I looked out into the surrounding forest, wondering where Robert is, and wondering if I would ever see him again.

I then felt something. It was a feeling similar to the one I had when I was about to pass out when Ignacio rescued my friends and I; my head was becoming cloudy! My vision blurred at irregular intervals, my heart rate increased dramatically. Fear shot through me. What was happening? My knees went weak and I collapsed. My thoughts were slow and almost incoherent. My vision was almost nothing now, as if I was surrounded by fog. My vision began to darken, and then everything faded to blackness.

***

I awoke to find myself in a dimly lit room. The floor was wood. The air was cool and musty. It smelled old and damp. I looked around. I saw shelves stocked with jars of dark red liquid. The ceiling was around seven feet high, and I was sitting on the wooden floor. What was this place?

I forced myself to stand. A jolt of pain was sent through my chest. I clutched where the pain was present on instinct. Instead of feeling my tattered, bloodstained shirt, I felt a clean, new one. My bandages were still on, but I could tell they had been changed. What happened to me? Who changed my bandages? Was it Ignacio? Why had I passed out in the forest? My arms still hurt a little, but they seemed to have healed since I got the wounds from the broken glass in the carriage wreck. How did I get here? Was it possible that Ignacio drugged the bread or the water that he gave me? It’s the only logical explanation…

            “Kid! You’re awake!” I heard a familiar voice call.

            “Shadow?” I asked, deciding to follow Don’s lead in calling each other by our aliases.

            “The one and only. Listen, Rapier is down here! Follow my voice, Troll is here with us too!” Don called.

            “Why are we calling each other by our aliases?” I asked.

            “If that man finds out our real names, he could report us and turn us over to the law enforcement officers, regardless of our deal.” Came Don’s reply.

I decided to trust him, after all, it was a reasonable fear.

I followed the sound of his voice, stumbling through the dark room that I now found myself in. I stopped moving when I heard Don breathing in front of me.

            “Where are we?” I asked.

            “We’re in that man’s cellar!” Macalister said with fury.

Confusion settled over me.

            “Why would Ignacio put us in his cellar?” I asked.

There was a moment of silence. Light then flooded the room. I looked at the light, and saw Ignacio’s silhouette against the bright light.

            “Ignacio?” I asked, trying to see if it was actually him.

            “Yes?” Asked Ignacio.

Ignacio then closed the door, bathing the room in darkness once more.

            “Why are we in your cellar? Why did you put us here? How did you make me pass out in the forest? How did you carry Shadow, Troll and I all the way from the carriage wreck?” I asked in a flurry of words.

I heard Ignacio chuckle.

            “Well, seeing as there is no point in trying to deceive you anymore and seeing as you’ll be dead soon, out of some twisted sense of honor, I suppose I owe you the truth.” Ignacio said casually.

Ignacio reached over to one of the shelves and pulled off a jar of dark red liquid. He unscrewed the lid from it, raised the jar to his lips, and began drinking the dark red contents of the jar.

            “What’s that?” I asked him in disgust.

            “It’s something very delicious. Something very common, and the only thing that keeps me alive.” Came Ignacio’s reply.

            “What might that be?” Asked Don.

            “Blood.” Ignacio explained.

I stood dumbfounded at Ignacio. Surely he was joking? What kind of person drinks blood? He must joking!

            “Very funny. Now tell us what it actually is. Or don’t, it doesn’t matter.” Don said.

            “Oh, so you want proof?” Ignacio challenged.

            “Ah, why not?” Don taunted, obviously merely humoring Ignacio.

Ignacio nodded.

            “Just know that you asked for what comes next.” Ignacio warned.

Don just laughed.

            “And what comes-“ All of a sudden Don started screaming.

            “Shadow! Shadow! What’s happening?” I asked in a panic.

I couldn’t see anything past a foot in front of me ever since Ignacio closed the cellar door.

During the next few seconds, a slurping, gulping sound filled the air, as well as Don’s screaming. Confusion settled in my thoughts, as well as fear. Why was Don screaming? What was that slurping sound?

After a few seconds, Don’s screaming stopped, and I heard a dull thud. Then I heard Don start to weep.

            “Shadow! What happened?” I asked urgently.

            “He… He…” Don stuttered through sobs.

            “What did you do to him?” I asked, directing my question at Ignacio.

            “I proved to him that I drink blood, just like he wanted me to.” Ignacio replied.

            “You mean you…?” I started, unable to finish the sentence.

            “Yes. I mean that I drank your friend’s blood. I sank my fangs into his soft, supple neck, and I sucked the blood right out of him. Blood does always taste better fresh, it tastes stale when jarred for too long.” Ignacio continued.

            “Fangs? What are you going on about? You’re mad! Absolutely mad!” I yelled at Ignacio.

I looked around in disgust at all of the jars of blood stacked on all of the shelves.

            “You mean those jars are actually filled with…?” Macalister trailed off.

            “Yes.” Ignacio confirmed.

Fear, disgust and confusion filled me.

            “What are you?” I asked, my voice wavering.

            “I’m a vampire, and you four are my prisoners.” Ignacio replied evilly.

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think!

Reviews

[KeithKVH]

Yeesh, I'm not generally bothered by vampires and their blood drinking, but the blood being in jars all around the room made me think of hospitals or blood banks and such. I hate having blood drawn, so it got me a little regardless. It'll be a good visual for people who get that fear of vampires and blood and such, good job with it.

Kid's surprise and disgust are really well portrayed, you can tell he's like wth. I find myself wondering whether Ignacio really had to be that cautious with the deception what with all their injuries, but it does add more of a twist to the story rather than the straight attack. Drugging them on top of it all does seem to give him the win, I wonder if it does anything to their blood though? Just a thought I had.

If there was anything to spy on grammar and such, I certainly didn't notice it. Very nicely done!

[Ryan Henderson]

Thank you for the amazing review! I admit that I did think about the drug tainting the blood of the four men, but it is merely a sleeping drug, and when the men woke up, the drug was already out of their systems.

[Cool Girl]

Great detail! I love the chapter:P
Again I do love all your chapters because you are a fabulous writer.
Happy writing!

- Cool Girl (I'm an awesome person. Haha, jk I'm not that selfish)

[Ryan Henderson]

Lol thank you for the review, Cool girl! I am glad that you like my writing, if you enjoy Alcingeria, you will definitely enjoy my three books I have on my profile (A Hero's Journey, Soldier of Destiny, Beside the Dying Fire) And you may like the Vampire Knight Fan Fiction I have on there. I mainly write about vampires, and all three of the books up there (A Hero's Journey, Soldier of Destiny, Beside the Dying Fire) are about vampires. Thank you again for reviewing!

[Cool Girl]

You are so totally welcome! :)