Shades of Grey

LOCATION UNKNOWN— DECEMBER 1843

I tried reasoning with myself. I tried convincing myself that this was some alternate dimension where everything was in reverse, an illogical land of Dadaist values where all the laws and rules of nature that I knew of were upside down...twisted…insane... How could Lanek comfortably live with a guard made up of Treptiks and take advice from the very Vanguard who had murdered my family? Was I in a place with any logic at all?

Solomon dragged me down the staircase back to the dungeons before he threw my chains to another guard.

“Put ’er with the woman up top. God knows she’s desperate for some comp’ny.”

The Treptiks turned, still grasping my arms with vice-like strength and walked swiftly up two staircases to the top level. They opened the doors to a cell that looked like an antiquated Newgate, undid my chains and gag and threw me onto the dirt floor inside, shutting the door quickly.

I stood up gradually and leaned against the bars in defeated surrender.

“What the hell is happening?

“Don’t search too far for logic. There’s hardly any left in the world at all.”

I turned around in surprise, having completely forgotten that Solomon said there was another prisoner in this cell.

She sat on one of two thin cots, lying casually across the length of it with a thick book in her hands. She promptly closed the book and sat up, smiling at me with perceptive brown eyes through one curly brown braid of dishevelled hair. Instantly I recognised her from the mediocre bits of memory I had uncovered.

“Mother?!” I whispered in astonishment.

A tear rolled down her cheek as she nodded sadly.

I felt compelled to embrace her, to verify that she was real, but the lack of reason in this bizarre place caused me to hesitate. I feared that she was another smoky phantom who would vanish upon my touch. I slowly walked over to the bed and sat next to her, dumbfounded.

“What happened to you?” I inquired, staring at her many ebrasions.

“The same thing that happened to all of us,” she said cryptically. “The same thing that is happening now.”

“But what is happening? Why do these people hate Hunters so much? Why does the queen look like me?”

My mother sighed and turned to me, allowing me a decent look at her. She was handsome: dark eyes, high cheekbones and on the whole, a facial composition that made me wonder how I had ever descended from such comeliness. The years, however, and God knows how long of rotting in that damn cell had taken their toll. She was emaciated, sleep-deprived and numerous battle scars ran up and down her thin body. She looked like a beaten porcelain doll.

“Grey, in this world, the Hunters are hunted while the Creatures roam free.”

I blinked, unsure of what sort of game Natara was playing.

“How?! How could this have happened?!”

My mother shrugged passively, hugging her skeletal legs to her chest.

“Lanek was appointed King about twelve years ago, after the attack on the life of Evan the vampire.”

My stomach tightened.

“You mean, my attack on his life? The attack I’ve been planning since learning of what he did?!” I thought briefly for a few moments. “I’m in the future?”

“Yes,” my mother replied with sad eyes. “In this world, you failed, and Evan is now Lanek’s chief advisor while you are queen…pregnant with Lanek’s child.”

“But why?! How? I told Lanek what Evan did to me…to you and father!”

My mother turned to me and was about to say something, but she closed it once more, deciding against it. I then thought of something else.

“Wait a minute, if this is the future, then how could I become the queen? Wouldn’t I have to become a Creature for these people to accept me?”

There was a beat of silence, before she began to cry in despair.

“Grey, I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed, throwing her bony arms around me. I pulled her away and forced her to look me in the eye.

“For what?!” I shouted compellingly. “What are you talking about?”

“When you attacked Evan…you were unsuccessful and he…he transformed you. He turned you into a Vanguard.”