LRAB Chapter 144: They are not humans
Chapter 144: They are not humans
Blake stood amidst the eerie stillness of the clearing, his senses assaulted by the sight of the grotesque scene unfolding before him. The bodies, suspended from stakes like twisted marionettes, bore the marks of decay and desolation.
Some were shrouded in webs spun by industrious spiders, while others bore the marks of scavenging insects, their bloated forms writhing with a wriggling mass of beetles and maggots.
Others were simply too dry and couldn't possibly house a living thing.
The harsh elements had taken their toll on the corpses, their once-vibrant forms now withered and desiccated. Some were little more than skeletal remains, their brittle bones exposed to the elements, while others retained a semblance of flesh, though it hung from their frames like tattered rags.
Despite the ravages of time and decay, the bodies remained suspended from their makeshift gibbets, their lifeless forms swaying gently in the breeze.
"Why? Why would you do that?" Blake's voice quivered with disbelief, his eyes scanning the gruesome scene before him. The contradiction between Nana's earlier claims of victimhood and the horrifying reality he now faced left him reeling.
As he gazed upon the desecrated bodies, a torrent of questions flooded his mind. How could Nana and her people justify such cruelty? What twisted logic could drive them to commit such atrocities and still maintain a facade of innocence?
The stench of decay hung heavy in the air, mingling with the sickening sight of mangled corpses. Blake struggled to reconcile the image before him with the peaceful facade of the village he had seen just days before.
Perhaps this was the dark truth behind the village's mysterious deaths. Could Nana and her people be responsible for the very horrors they claimed to suffer?
The more Blake pondered, the more he found himself questioning everything he thought he knew. And amidst the chaos of his thoughts, one unsettling possibility loomed large: that the true villain may not be who he had been led to believe.
It made very little sense to him that they would carry out this malicious act and still live with themselves.
Perhaps it was the reason their own people were mysteriously dying and then she was blaming it on poor innocent Elena who had been nothing but sweet to him?
"I think you have it all confused," Nana said.
Nana's response was calm but insistent as she closed the distance between them. "Have you checked their nails and teeth?" she inquired, her tone almost clinical as she gestured towards the outstretched hand of one of the desiccated bodies. She walked up to him and then took the hand of one of the body, urging blake to come closer and see for himself.
Blake hesitated for a moment before reluctantly stepping closer, his eyes fixed on the gruesome sight before him. As Nana guided his gaze towards the corpse's hand, he couldn't help but recoil at the sight of the elongated nails, gnarled and twisted with decay.
"Whoa, those are long," he remarked.
"But isn't that normal when we... die?" His voice trailed off, a note of uncertainty creeping into his words as he struggled to comprehend the significance of what he was seeing.
Nana's hand trembled slightly as she reached out to bend the stake, the wood creaking under the pressure. As the head of the body came into view, Blake's breath caught in his throat at the sight.
"Are those normal as well?" Nana's voice was steady, but there was a hint of sadness in her eyes as she gestured towards the teeth of the body.
Blake shook his head in disbelief, his mind struggling to comprehend what he was seeing. "I suppose not. They look like they belong to an animal," he murmured, his gaze fixed on the unnaturally long canines.
Nana nodded, her expression grave yet somehow relieved. It was as though she had been waiting for Blake to make the connection, to understand the truth of what lay before them.
"These aren't humans, Blake," she confessed, her voice barely above a whisper.
Blake's eyes widened in shock. "Okay?... I'm going to need context. They sure look like humans to me. Except the nails and teeth," he argued, his voice tinged with disbelief.
Nana took a deep breath, steeling herself for the revelation she was about to share. "Yes, they do look like us, humans but they are not. These were my people. But they at one point ceased to be. They became creatures of the night. Monsters, you might say.
But I refer to them as demons. Blood-sucking demons," she asserted, her voice filled with sorrow and regret.
"Wait, you mean... vampires?!" Blake's voice was barely a whisper.