Dear Agony

PART I – Darkness

The near future…

Shay

“The queen is missing.”

Whispers from a fading dream ripped through her body, startling her from a restless sleep.  Sitting up in the middle of the stuffed cot, she used the back of her hand to swipe away a heavy layer of sweat and oil from her brow.  She looked down and saw that her hands were shaking.  Her breath was ragged and she could barely breath.  Her chest was heaving high with deep sobs that refused to release from her lungs.  Silent screams were the worst.  The burning behind her breasts was nearly unbearable, like the flare from a blowtorch was crisping her skin to shriveled shreds.  When she realized what was causing the pain, she immediately recoiled.  Her thin legs lifted from the edge of her shabby mat and yanked them back so that she could hug them to her chest and pin herself at the head of the bed.

With her back against the cool plaster of the wall behind the bed, her eyes watched the cause of her mania.  The last beams of daylight were slipped through the thin slit used for ventilation and slid across the tiny single room quarters.  Even the muted illumination of the pale orange was strong enough to cause a gnawing pain behind her eyes, forcing her to coward deeper into the darkness of the corner she was now trapped in.  She shut her eyelids tight and buried her head between her knees, seeking desperate relief from the glow spilling into the assigned room of the apartment building.  There was at least another full hour of torment to endure before the last drops of late twilight disappeared from the sky then sweet relief would finally come.

This was not the same world she had been born into.  Somewhere along the way, everything had flipped.  Night was day, and day was taboo – forbidden, dreaded, to be avoided at all costs…even lethal, like now.  After so many years of hiding in the shadows, even the darkest skin was white as smoked ash and the palest skin was nearly transparent.  A society of vampires?  Hardly.  A pack of ravenous heathens condemned to dwell in darkness?  Very possibly that is what they had all become.

For the next hour, while the last embers of sunlight slid into a merciful twilight, she fought off panic and tried to ignore wispy strips of pain ebbing across her skin.  The moment purple overtook gold in the eternal struggle for dominance of the sky, the first howls pierced the air.  Strangled high-pitch screeches fill the early night.  Time to move.  And move fast.

After a quick birdbath from a small basin of chilly water stashed in the opposite corner of the room, she pulled on her work uniform – a tattered black halter top, battered mini skirt, tall leather spike-heeled boots, and elbow-high leather gloves with the finger coverings removed – and made a dash for the dive hall she called home seven nights a week.

Rule number one:  Never let your guard down.