Blood Lines: The War to End All Wars

A blood-red moon was glowing eerily in the night sky, reflected in a fresh puddle deep in the woods.

A pair of modern sneakers splash through the water as Cameron Wilson, a pretty and adventurous college student, leads her two best friends even deeper into the forest.

All three were armed with flashlights, their breaths ghosting out as white smoke in the cold night air.

Josh Renolds, the guy on Cam’s left, shines his flashlight further up the empty path.

“Hey, Cam? Just out of curiosity... Where exactly are we going?”

“You’ll see. We’re almost there.”

Josh slows his pace, almost stopping.

“Well, on behalf of my survival instincts, I gotta ask. Have I done anything to piss you off or offend you lately? Cause I mean, if I did, you’d just tell me, right?”

Cam laughs, pointing her flashlight back at him.

“What’s the matter, Josh? Afraid of the big bad woods?”

“More like afraid of never leaving them.”

“Relax. If I were gonna ditch your ass out here, I wouldn’t have brought Kimmy as a witness.”

Cam turns to her other best friend.

“Unless, of course, you’d be willing to help me bury the body...?”

Kimberly Austin, who has now passed both of them on the path, shivers violently, hugging her jacket closer.

"I’m gonna bury both of you soon if we’re not headed for a cute little cabin with a hot tub. It’s freezing out here, and we could just as easily be watching the eclipse at-”

Kimmy’s voice suddenly stops.

Cam looks back to find Kimmy is gone. She frowns, waving her flashlight towards the trees.

“Kimmy? Josh, did you see where-?”

Turning to the right, she finds Josh has disappeared as well.

“Guys? Very funny… Come on, we’re almost there! I swear!”

A crouched figure glides between two trees on her left, just far enough away to avoid Cam’s direct eye-line.

She swings the flashlight around but only finds more gnarled trees.

“...Josh?”

She hears more rustling followed by snuffling, then an unearthly, animalistic moan of hunger.

That definitely wasn’t her friends.

Cam starts to back away slowly, then turns and bolts further up the path.

The trees around her creak and groan eerily, creating an unnatural cacophony of screams as they’re afflicted by pure evil and contorted against their nature.

Hunched-over figures crawl between the trees all around her, moving fast enough to stay just out of direct sight.

Cam sees a clearing up ahead, lit by five torches. As she approaches, she can hear chanting.

When she reaches a break in the brush, she sees five strangers wearing cloaks and standing around a pit of embers, faces raised to the eclipsed moon in some sort of ritual.

The smell hits Cam before she’s close enough to see. Bodies. Or more accurately, body parts.

Animal and human alike, from fresh kills to dried bones, all positioned around the fire in a pentagram and served up as blood sacrifices.

She stumbles to a stop and ducks out of sight, one hand clasped tightly over her mouth and nose.

The shadowy creatures, Maras, slowly emerge from the darkness and surround the edges of the clearing, each one facing the ember pit and waiting intently.

The Maras have wispy strands of hair and skeletal bodies, their skin stretched paper-white across their malformed bones.

One of the five people steps towards the pit and uses a dagger to slice open his palm, letting his blood flow over the embers which sizzle angrily in response, then he hands the dagger to the next person and the last three follow suit.

When the final drops of blood mix with the others, the ground begins to quake.

Cam gasps in horror as a hand suddenly emerges from the ember pit and the cloaked strangers bow down to it respectfully.

Only then does Cam see the teenaged girl in a tattered dress, lying bound and unconscious on the ground nearby.

Cam starts to move towards her, but then a Mara prowls into the clearing between her and the teen, stopping and sniffing deeply at the air, the breath rattling wheezily in its lungs.

It tilts its head slightly, the sounds of cracking bones accompanying the movement.

Cam retreats backward a few paces, then a low rumble behind her has her turning, her flashlight beam falling on another Mara slowly approaching.

Its blind eyes are dark, empty sockets, and its head sways from side to side, tracking her scent.

Its mouth distorts into a horrifying semblance of a smile, revealing dangerous rows of shark-like teeth. The creature’s voice is gravelly and raspy with disuse.

“I can smell you, little one. Come to join the sacrifice?”

Then its empty sockets lock directly on her, sending absolute terror coursing through her veins.

Cam bolts from her hiding spot, dodging the tree limbs that are reaching out for her as she plunges deeper into the thick woods.

When the chanting fades off into the distance, Cam glances over her shoulder to see if she’s being followed.

Then the ground drops out from beneath her feet, sending her sprawling into a freshly dug grave, recently unearthed by the Maras judging by the crude claw marks along the edges. Her flashlight lands next to her hip with a dull thud.

She lifts her head delicately with a groan and finds herself face-to-face with a half-unburied skeleton that is missing an arm.

Cam scrambles back against the dirt wall, accidentally kicking her flashlight further away in the process, sending it spinning before it comes to a rest, illuminating the far side.

The muddy walls around her seem to pulsate with a life of their own and her hands start sinking into the moist earth behind her and she realizes that the pulsating is actually from worms and insects writhing in the freshly loosened dirt.

They begin to crawl between her fingers and she jerks away with a yelped curse.

A hand suddenly covers her mouth from behind and Cam latches onto the delicate wrist with both of her own, intending to break free.

But then the teen from the clearing leans closer to whisper in her ear.

“Shh... They’ll hear you.”

Cam’s eyes widen and she stills as a Mara approaches the top of the ditch.

Its clawed hands wrap around the edge of the dirt wall, crumbling it and sending debris down to where the girls are crouched. It inhales deeply, head swaying as it samples the air.

A large spider crawls over Cam’s shoulder and she clenches her eyes shut, fighting the instinct to move, her heart pounding wildly in her chest.

A female’s screams can be heard from the distant clearing, followed by a deadly gurgle and the chanting starts up again.

The Mara bounds off into the woods, back towards the others as if responding to a silent dog whistle.

The girl slowly releases Cam who immediately brushes the spider off and wipes her hands on her pants in disgust before turning to look at the girl who stands up to watch the Mara race back towards the fire circle.

Cam retrieves her flashlight and shines it on the teen.

“What the hell is happening out there?!” she hisses. “Who are you? How did you-?”

“We don’t have much time. The Mara has gone to greet its new master, but it’ll return soon.”

“What are you talking about? What new master?”

“The creature that is responsible for all that…”

The teen points behind Cam who stands and turns, her light illuminating an entire cemetery behind her that seems to stretch on forever, fading off into the distance beyond where the beam can reach.

“The Harbinger has been set free. Death and destruction will follow in his footsteps. There will be so much blood on his hands…”

The girl raises her own hands which are now dripping with the coppery fluid and she stares at them sorrowfully.

She staggers a bit, then suddenly gasps, gripping Cam’s arm tightly and wrapping her other hand around her own abdomen.

When Cam looks down at her, she sees that the girl’s eyes are now completely milk white.

“I’ve seen the end. War is coming. He’ll have an army soon, and they’ll slaughter anyone who tries to get in their way. But it's not too late yet. You can still save our people.”

“Our people?”

“The power of five raised him from Hell, and five can send him back. It's in our blood. Find the others. Unite them, and lead them. Or the whole world will burn.”

“I-I don’t understand…”

“You will. In time. You can stop this. You can stop it all.”

The girl collapses forward into Cam’s arms, her eyes normal again but unfocused. She’s weak and out of breath, barely conscious.

Cam eases her to the ground, blood now flowing down the teen’s dress from beneath her hand.

“Oh my god...”

“P-please-”

“It’s okay. You’re okay. Just stay with me. I’m gonna get help.”

Cam puts pressure on the mysterious wound, then fumbles for her phone in her pocket only to find there’s no reception.

“Damn it! Come on!”

The wind kicks up, swirling leaves around the grave, and Cam does her best to protect the girl from the debris.

“-Please, p-promise me you’ll save him.”

“What?”

The girl reaches up and pulls a heart-shaped locket from around her neck, then places it in Cam’s hand.

Cam looks down at the locket and makes note of the unique symbol on it before the girl closes Cam’s hand around it, squeezing it tightly.

“Promise me you’ll save my brother.”

“I don’t-”

The teen’s eyes lock onto something standing behind Cam.

“You have to go now. Before he finds you.”

A heavy hand suddenly lands on Cam’s shoulder.

She whips around and finds herself staring into hellfire eyes, the bright flames reflecting back into her own.

The girl grips Cam’s upper arm.

“Reditum,” she whispers weakly.

Cameron jolts awake to find herself sitting in her college classroom, heart still hammering in her chest.

Her psychology professor, Mr. Landon, is at the front of the class, staring back at Cameron and looking amused.

“Welcome back, Ms. Wilson. I trust you’ve had a refreshing nap?” he asks, good naturedly.

Cameron blushes, trying to ignore the students giggling around her.

“…Sorry, Professor.”

“I’ll try not to take it personally. Let’s chalk it up to a late night of studying, shall we?”

Cameron nods with a mortified but grateful smile. She drops her eyes to the pen she is holding, her hand clearly shaking.

The page she had been taking notes on has the heading “Psychoanalysis Exam” printed at the top and a handful of notes beneath it.

The rest of the page is filled with scratches and drawings she has no memory of making.

The guy sitting directly behind her whispers to her.

“Hey, Cam?”

Cam looks over her shoulder to find Josh watching her in concern.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Just a weird dream.”

She forces a smile and he nods at her, then they both return their attention up front.

“Alright. That’s it for today, folks. I’ll see you all bright and early on Monday for the test. If you have any questions or concerns before then, you know where to find me.”

Cam stands with the rest of the students, closing her notebook and collecting her stuff, when something metallic falls to the ground.

She stoops to pick it up and finds-

-the girl’s heart-shaped locket.