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Shilo woke up with a churning feeling in his stomach. He laid on the cold, smooth concrete of a place he didn’t know. Nobody was around. The churning bubbled and rose in his gut, he felt lightheaded and squeezed his eyes shut as he gagged and hurled onto the concrete. When he opened his eyes and refocused his vision, there was a large pool of blood on the ground under him.
Shilo coughed and wiped his mouth, then stood up with shaky legs. He looked around the room, but it was just too dark. The only thing he could see was a metal door that had been illuminated by a single beam of moonlight that seeped through the cracks of the building. With no other options, Shilo stumbled to the door.
As he wrapped his hand around the doorknob, he hoped, even prayed that there wouldn’t be anyone beyond the door. He felt a deep, sinking feeling in his stomach. He couldn’t tell if that was the fear or the nausea.
He slowly creaked open the door to see nothing but an empty hallway with another metal door at the end. Shilo made his way down the hall, then attempted to open the other door.
It was locked.
Just as he was going to turn back and find another way out, he heard the loud slam of the other door shutting behind him. In a panic, he ran back, trying to turn the doorknob to escape, but to no avail. This one was locked too. He went back and forth, trying to open the doors but it wasn’t enough. Tears began to form in his eyes as he rattled the doorknob yet it still wouldn’t open.
Shilo looked around frantically, banging on the door and screaming for release until his vocal chords felt sore. Yet the door did not open, but he instead heard a calm, familiar voice.
“Shilo..?”
Shilo turned to face the voice, where he was greeted by the sight of his own mother, The Queen, standing at the other end of the hallway.
“…Mother?”
A tidal wave of emotions swirled in Shilo’s mind at the sight of The Queen, both standing still as stones. The most predominant of these feelings were fear and relief.
The Queen opened her arms, and without even really thinking Shilo ran to hug her, squeezing her tightly like a small child as he sobbed, crimson tears streaming down his face. The Queen wrapped her arms around her son, tenderly stroking his hair as she muttered softly to comfort him.
“My dear son…” She whispered.
Shilo continued to cry, blubbering almost incoherently as he buried his face in his mother’s clothes. “I missed you so much— I thought you were dead!” He cried.
“Shilo, you know that vampires never really die. Why won’t you come home?” The Queen said, her voice soothing and comforting.
Shilo just started to cry more just from the question. “I-“ He struggled to get the words out. “I don’t want to! I’ve always felt trapped, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life locked away in the castle— I want to go out, see the world, meet new people I want—“ Shilo looked up to see his mother’s face. Instead of being greeted by sympathy, all he was met with was cold, unfeeling, glazed over eyes.
She was dead, wasn’t she?
Shilo froze as he stared up her. “You… are not my mother.”
There was no more relief, no more joy. Just pure, unbridled fear. He was being held by a corpse, and the thought sickened him to his stomach.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” It asked, whatever voice is was using faltered as it glitched for a moment.
Shilo immediately shoved it away. He ran back to his end of the hall, where he continued to bang on the doors and scream for release. He could hear voices coming from his ‘mother’ as the synthesizer failed.
“Dammit, Viv! I thought you said it would work this time!”
“I thought it was going to! Why do you think I went through the effort of making that construct?!”
Of course. Of course it was them.
Shilo shouted and rammed his shoulders into the doors with all the theatrics he could manage, but he quickly heard shouts and yells that we’re not his own coming from the speaker in the construct. As he listened, it sounded like a struggle, and there were lots of curses to be heard.
The construct seemed to go limp, like it had returned to being nothing but a corpse as the noise continued. It collapsed onto the ground like a rag doll, no more life left in it. Shilo cautiously approached the body, listening closely.
Suddenly, a familiar and unfiltered voice came through the speaker.
“Prince, are you there?”
“Arthur!” Shilo exclaimed with happy tears. “Is Emizel there? What about Grefgore?”
“We’re here, dude. Are you okay?” Emizel said, accompanied by the sound of someone (presumably Arthur) getting shoved to the side.
Shilo could hear Grefgore shout from over the speaker as well. “Is my prince alright, my prince?!”
Shilo giggled a little bit. “I’m okay. Please come and get me, though. They locked the doors.”
“Gotcha. We’ll be there soon, hang in there.” Emizel said, followed by the sound of movement.
Shilo sighed with relief. He was going to be saved, and by his favorite people. Despite not having known them for that long, Arthur and Emizel felt like family to him. They valued him in a way he felt he never had been before. Even so, sitting next to a recreation of his mother made him feel uneasy.
Five minutes passed. Then ten. Then fifteen. Then twenty. Shilo grew more and more panicked by the time second. They weren’t really coming, were they? Of course. Why would they want to save him anyways?
Shilo continued to spiral as his worries got the best of him. He had always been taught to assume the worst in others, and he was starting to think those teachings were correct.
Ten more minutes passed, then there was a loud banging on the door that snapped Shilo out of his thoughts. The door opposite from Shilo burst open, and he was relieved to see Arthur, Emizel, and Grefgore standing behind it.
Shilo stood up and ran to the three of them, completely overjoyed. He immediately wrapped his arms around them in a big group hug, with varying reactions from all parties.
“Okay…” Emizel drawled, then turned and whispered to Arthur next to him. “I’m not good at this whole brother thing what do I do?”
“Just go along with it.” Arthur whispered back, gently hugging Shilo back. Emizel promptly did the same, followed by Grefgore.
It was a nice moment. Shilo, for once, felt content. After a little while, he finally let go and wiped away his tears.
“Sorry, I was just happy to see you.” Shilo said nervously.
Emizel shrugged. “No worries, man. It’s not like we were gonna just leave you, you’re still kinda important.”
Shilo giggled. “Thank you. Thank you for saving me.”
“You’re welcome.” Arthur chimed in. “But if you don’t mind me asking… why is a corpse designed to look like The Queen in that hallway?”
Shilo tried to look back at it, but he couldn’t bring himself to. “I think it was a ploy of some kind. Either that or the Weylins just wanted to toy with me.”
Arthur nodded, glaring down the hall with disapproval. Emizel in turn inhaled sharply through his teeth and let out a quiet “yikes”. After a brief explanation, each of them gave Shilo a quick hug. Arthur’s in particular was strange, because it was reluctant yet motherly in a way. Was Shilo seeing Arthur as a parental figure? Who knows.
Arthur looked around, then back to the group. “We should get back to the motel, it’s almost sunrise.”
Shilo nodded. “Okay. Thanks mom.”
“Excuse me?”
“What? I didn’t say anything—“
Emizel rolled his eyes and nudged Shilo with his elbow. “Hate to break up the conversation, but we do need to leave.”
“Ah! Right, leaving.” Shilo took a couple steps forward, then turned back to Emizel after realizing he had no clue where to go. “Lead the way.” He said.
Emizel began to walk, with Shilo walking next to him as Arthur and Grefgore trailed behind. Shilo decided to make small talk as they walked.
“So how exactly did you deal with Viv and Vex?”
“We tied them up and knocked them out. I left a special surprise for when they wake up.”
“Oh no, what did you do?”
“…I drew on their faces.”
“Heh, nice.”