Character fiction from a Classical Greek era Werewolf the Apocalypse LARP.
The Nightmare
by Simon W.
"Ellll-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-saaaahhhhhhh...."
The voice drew Eli down a long hallway. Compelling, beguiling, impossible to ignore; it sounded like wind chimes on warm summer nights and the calming crackle of a peaceful hearth fire. It promised warmth, love, and never being abandoned. Eli nearly tripped in their hurry to reach the source of the sound.
As they were running down the hallway, they missed when it changed from smooth stone covered in tapestries to a catacomb lined with bones. The voice drew them on as the hallway got darker, narrower, and danker. But as the surroundings grew more unsettling, the voice sounded all the sweeter.
The hallway finally ended in a small room filled with bones, both human and wolf, and as Eli stepped inside the door disappeared behind them. Whirling around to find the way out, they found themselves facing Khui as he had looked the day they married.
"Oh.... Love is this really you?" Eli asked breathlessly.
"Of course, death could never separate us." He drew Eli close and held them close. In their relief at seeing their beloved once again, they didn't think it strange that he was cold. He wrapped his arms around them, only they turned into snakes hissing into their ears.
"I died because of you"
Eli finally realized the danger and tried to struggle out of Khui's grasp.
"You failed your mother."
The arms turned into snakes only grew tighter.
"You abandoned Lysander. Theodore is dead because you left; abandoned him just as your mother did you."
Eli twisted and turned, trying to see Khui's face now that he was saying such vile things.
"Our son will die before he has a chance to live because you cursed him to life as a full moon born."
Eli tried to cry out against this but their voice had been stolen by the snakes now squeezing around their neck.
"Your other children resent you. Your siblings see you as a burden. Even the dead know that you are unworthy and not to be trusted."
The room they were in dissolved, and Eli found themselves on a wide desert plain, hearing the wind rising in the distance. Looking to the horizon they could see the sand coming toward them like a wall.
"It's beautiful, is it not, the Storm? Soon we will ride it together. And you will never be weak or useless again."
The voice was no longer sweet and comforting. It was sibilant and cold. Eli knew without a doubt that whatever it was that held them, whose face they still could not see, was not their beloved Khui.
"You will be the instrument of my vengeance. None of them will suspect weak, useless, Elissa of Carthage, unable to even speak to a single spirit. First you will destroy the children of Owl and then you will destroy all of the Gaians. And, you will enjoy it."
Eli shook their head violently in denial, since they still could not speak. They struggled with all their might to break free.
"I'm waiting; I'm always waiting..."
The sandstorm hit with full force and Eli felt themselves being torn apart by the violent wind. But just before they were completely annihilated they heard one last whisper.
"Mine..."
Elissa opened their eyes, heart pounding, to the relatively comforting normal darkness of their house on Dokos. They took slow, deep breaths and carefully listened. They only heard the normal nighttime sounds of the the pack sleeping. They ran their tongue over their teeth to see if they were normal. They were normal teeth, not fangs. Finally after what seemed like an age, Eli was able to convince themselves that they were not actually a vampire.
They got up and went to look outside. From the position of the stars it was only a couple of hours until sunrise. Eli figured they might as well get up. No more sleep would happen tonight. They shivered. If only it were possible to go without sleep at all.
It was going to be a long day. And Elissa of Carthage had work to do. So they may as well get an early start.
