Reborn

Feeling slightly sated, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, scarlet streaks marring the pale white skin. She stood, sweeping her long black hair over her shoulder. The rush she felt in seeing the humans had abated, and she was able to compose herself.

She smoothed her dress down over her hips and noticed that the clothing was well-fitting but foreign to her. The silky and obscenely short white dress was hardly funeral attire. The front was a sheer panel of fabric, but the sides and back were nothing more than thin strips that held the front panel to her body. The revealing design, coupled with the fabric tear above her heart, left her feeling exposed. It was a feeling that enraged her. The sandals on her feet were flat with golden ribbons that laced intricately around her toes, feet, ankles and calves. Examining them closely, she saw that the soles did not run the full length of her feet. There was a thin strip of reinforced leather under the ball of each foot, and a thicker strip under her heels. The golden ribbons laced the pieces together and held them fast. She longed for a cloak of some sort and a proper pair of shoes, and vowed to kill - slowly - the person who had left her in this ridiculous state.

She pressed her hands to her forehead and tried to remember how she arrived here or anything about her life before this moment, but there was nothing there. The harder she tried, the more a dull pain increased behind her eyes. She gave up trying to remember and decided to look for clues in her surroundings.

The crystal cave was incredibly small - it would take her only a few strides to cross the room. The walls that had contained such beautiful colors before now glimmered with only silvery streaks beneath. But what caught her eye this time was the object that had imprisoned her. It was impressive in appearance - a perfect golden casket with intricate symbols carved all over. It rested upon a slab of the same crystal that the walls were made of. She took a step closer to examine the symbols, running her fingers over the perfectly etched designs. A spark of recognition tugged at her consciousness, but try as she may, she could not decipher any of the runes.

The lid had been cleanly separated from the casket, and several sparkling pieces of metal were scattered across the floor. She knelt down to examine them closer. The metal pieces were nearly three inches long and looked like bolts, but each head was a perfect sphere that was covered in the same symbols as the casket. She reached to pick up a bolt and felt a warmth in her hand that sent alarm bells ringing through her head. The second she grasped the bolt, a fiery pain raced up her arm and she hissed as she dropped it back on the floor. The pain continued down her spine and her mind filled with images of the same dark robes and dead bodies, but this time she could hear a high-pitched shrieking that chilled her to her core. The screams were her own.

*******

Taking a moment to let the pain subside, she stood and grabbed the edge of the casket for support as her strength came back. She felt a dip in the metal and noticed several deep holes where the bolts had been embedded. She looked at her hand and noticed a dark red welt where she had touched the bolt.

"The humans must have removed them," she though to herself, realizing that the force with which she removed the lid would have sheared the bolts in two. She picked up the lid and flipped it over to reveal the underside, where two hand prints were pressed deeply into the metal. She looked at her hands in wonder and then drew her nail over the surface of the lid. Her claw dug a perfect line in the metal as if it were clay.

She ran the metal between her fingers and formed it into a little ball. "At least it doesn't burn like the bolts," she murmured, pinching it flat and dropping it on the floor. She went back to the casket and peered inside. The interior was nothing more than a block of metal with the imprint of a body in it. The only thing that was missing was a space for the arms, which she realized wasn't necessary because her arms had been folded over her chest.

She reached out to trace the outline of the metal, and felt a warmth emanating from it. She withdrew her arm in shock and looked at her hand again. Cautiously, she lowered a single finger toward the deceptively plain metal. Even millimeters before she touched the surface, she felt the same warmth that began to turn into painful burning.

"All silver..." she mused aloud, "but why?" There was no reason to try to cause pain to a corpse. She ran her hands over the exterior of the casket again, but felt nothing other than the deep lines of the carvings. It made sense to her to make the bolts of silver so no vampire could tamper with the coffin, but why the interior? Everything about this place was wrong.

Looking at the other end of the interior, she saw that the spaces for the feet had ridges in them. She realized in horror that the ridges would align perfectly with the missing pieces of leather in her sandals. In fact, her entire outfit was designed to maximize skin contact with the excruciating metal tomb.

A terrible fear struck her - whatever vile being had constructed this casket had designed it specifically for her and her torment. She suddenly felt grateful for her lack of memory.

She couldn't stand to be in this place any longer. Turning to leave, she was faced with the human corpse, ankh protruding obscenely from his chest. Curious, she walked over and bent down to withdraw the ankh from the corpse to examine it. Her hands did not burn, so she knew it was not intended as an instrument of torture, but as an instrument of murder.

"Why then, am I alive?" she wondered, noting the same runes carved into the length of the metal. The walls, casket, and drained body before her held no answers, so she stepped over her first victim and into the dark tunnel ahead.