Chapter 7 Betrayal

I'm in the wrangler with Edward on our way to the prison where he keeps the followers and holy shit do I have a fucking headache. That rush from last night made me pass out the second the spell let up. I woke up the next morning with Eddie shouting at me to wake up and I didn't realize I had almost bled out from the wound. Now he's mad at me. You'd think he half wished me dead, but he was in such a panic about it that he damn near suffocated my arm wrapping it. He also made me put on a large cloak and hood to wear outside.

He hadn't said anything about the issue or at all since this morning. The silence has been a big help to my migraine, but it's hard to deal with when you're with the most talkative man on the planet. I'm not sure where he's taking me for having such a long ride, but this gave me an opportunity to take in the sights. I never left the valley in my old life and I've always wondered what it was like on the inside of the walls.

It was actually pretty nice. The building were clean and made the place shine with the daylight, the streets were freshly paved, and people walked the streets without a care in the world. Like the fight with the blood church never happened. As if the whole thing about us and our crimes to the world around them had no meaning. I guess that makes sense. Not even our goddess saw herself as a big deal, so why should anyone else?

I feel a stink in my chest thinking about it that way. I knew why the others felt under-appreciated, but what could we do when we've done nothing to deserve that appreciation. I sigh at the thought. That blood rush got to me heavier than I thought.

"You know, you've been sighing and fiddling with you bandages for a long while now." Eddie suddenly says. Fucking hell, that scared me. I look to my hands and see he was right. I just picked a hole in it. I clench my fist to make it stop. "... What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I tell him. Honesty it really is nothing but me thinking nonsense. "Just wondering how they can all enjoy life like this? Like there's nothing in the world to care about. Like it never concerned them. Then I think it would make sense since nothing has anything to do with them at all. Now I wonder why everyone before was so caught up in trying to be recognized."

"... Hm. Well, I can't say you're wrong." It goes quiet again for a long while. Almost an hour. "... Can I ask you something?"

Shit, man! "What?"

"Why did you... Do that? To your hand?"

"It's how you summon the blood goddess. By offering blood to her in exchange for her time."

"... Blood for time huh? So you are a god summoner? .... Fuck! What is up with you?! First you tell me you're that you someone else completely, then you get all of those titles! Now your telling me you nearly died from blood loss because you were talking to your goddess of blood?" Wow is he ever pissed.

"Wh-...!? What the hell do you want me to do about that!? I didn't ask to be like this! "

"And what's with the the fucking vampire title! You a real blood sucker now?! You gonna go on hunts at night and kill more people?"

"No! That's not what a damn vampire is! All of those tales are complete crap!"

"So you don't drink blood?"

"N-not necessarily..."

"Then you do!"

"I cleanse blood! There's a difference!"

"How is that different when people die from it!"

"It depends on the corruption of a person!"

"How does that make any sense!?"

"I asked my goddess about all of these titles! Vampire is specifically meant for cleansing and or punishing the corrupted. God summoner was probably because I did it for the first time right before dying, and everything else is a result of being a blood priest in my past. I already had all of the things I have now they're just reset to my bodies current endurance to magic and power."

"... What the fuck? So I'm just gonna go off a limb and say your goddess has some big plan for your or something?"

"It's really nothing crazy."

"What fuck where you supposed to do then!? Cuz nothing else would make any fucking sense other than some cults cause of destruction!"

Ouch! You bitch! "We are suppose to make a family!!" I'm so fucking irritated right now. "Everything they did then wasn't suppose to happen at all! But one misunderstanding lead to another and even more along the line and somewhere everyone just decided that was how they were going to run things, who could change anything!? I couldn't do a damn thing about it I wasn't born yet! I didn't know what I was suppose to be doing until I asked!"

He gave me a look of disgust and regret. I would too if I looked in the mirror.

"...what did your god tell you about your followers?" He suddenly asks calmly. It was an eerie calm.

"... Let them rot. As far as she's concerned, they have nothing to do with her at all."

"... That sounds like she never thought of them as her followers in the first place."

"... She didn't. Unless they are willing to accept rightful punishment for their misdeeds in the past, she couldn't care less about them, because they were never apart of the 'family'."

We finally make it to a large building and he parks the wrangler. We step out and head inside and take an elevator down to a basement floor. It was dark and grim and the air was heavy. We walk down the halls and pass every other room. They were cells. He took me to a prison. To the left men, to the right women. One of the men walks up to their cell door and stares at me with cold blue eyes. He looked starved as I see his hand take a cell bar and rise over his head were I could clearly see his ashen skin line his rib cage. Eddie pushes my back softly to press me on.

We make it to the final four cells where everyone was arguing and fighting among themselves with blames and accusations and beating against the cells shouting and pleading their innocents. I could recognize all of them. They were the followers. Some were shouting blame at their priest, blaming me, for the things they've done. Others saying what they did was for the best interest of their god and that all others should rot and perish in the depths of hell. My heart sank and pain replaced it. What hurt wasn't seeing them in such a state. It was seeing them for what they really were. Fallen people. They don't know anything and that became their down fall. Now they feel like they should be praised and rewarded for their sins.

I don't feel sorry for them. Not at all. I feel sorry for my goddess that had to endure such things. She didn't misguided anyone. They did this to themselves and now she has abandoned them. Only I could save them and help them find redemption, but no. I can't do that to her. She doesn't need people like this. I should just start again and let them all rot here for the rest of their lives. But I won't. I have to set this right. This is all my fault that they've all been so corrupted.

"This is them." Edward tells me. "What'll you do?"

I take off my hood and the cells fall to a cold silence.