SCENE II

The Age of Learning is overthrown and forgotten.

"Ah..." She woke, terrified and drenched in sweat.

She hadn't even noticed when she'd fallen asleep. She was now curled up on the bed, her hands clenched in the sheets. Slowly, she sat up and stared blankly at the poster. Nothing had changed, and her cloak hadn't moved in the wind for even a moment...

"Stupid!" she muttered to herself, raising her hand to the poster, but she didn't seem to have the strength to rip it off the wall.

In the end, the poster remained in place. For some reason, this angered her even more, so, as was her habit, she turned to a magazine stacked neatly on the floor. She didn't read any other newspapers except The Exorcist. She loved it for its directness. They didn't seek cheap thrills, but told stories about things that had actually happened. In the penultimate issue, which she happened to pull out, the main topic was vampirism. Without hesitation, she began reading. It primarily discussed the Eloratian Runes, recreated by the Coven of Sahjaz for the Sanguinarium.

At first, she read with little interest, but one of the drawings, the only one depicting Runes of this type, made her heart stop for a moment. This rune looked exactly like the one she'd seen on the dome of the monument! It meant the same as a Sanctuary or temple, a sacred place only for Vampires and Kitra...

"So it's true...?!" she thought frantically, examining the illustration in the magazine. "...I can't be wrong, it's definitely the same sign... no, the same Runa... kitra... kitra... I know that term from somewhere... But where?!?"

"I'm one of the Kitra! Remember? Kitra...

" "It's impossible!" she moaned, froze over the open newspaper. "I can't believe it..."

A thousand thoughts raced through her head at once, and she couldn't focus on even one of them. She felt as if she were suddenly entering a completely different dimension, as if the sharp line between reality and her imagination had suddenly begun to blur... She swallowed hard and, her heart pounding, read the explanation of the word. "givers, lovers, advisors who participate in rituals and ceremonies."

"But how could I possibly know about something like this...?! How could I even have dreamed it!? This is the first time I've heard of something like this..." she thought, tossing the newspaper aside. "The first time..."

The rest of the article was useless. What little she'd managed to read, what was interesting to her, was merely a curiosity for the reader. Nothing more...

Akasha nervously twisted her fingers, biting her lower lip. She couldn't explain it. Until now, she'd managed to explain everything with reason and intellect. She considered fairy tales about ghosts, strange creatures, monsters, and apparitions nonsense... She would never have believed a story she'd just witnessed firsthand! Her entire back was drenched in sweat. She quickly combed her hair back from her face, then cursed under her breath, leaping out of bed.

"It's impossible," she thought, pacing back and forth around the room. "Is it just a coincidence, a mere coincidence that this all turned out this way..."

She sat back down on the bed and grabbed the newspaper to read the entire article again. It all made sense, and that was probably what terrified her most...

That night, she couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned constantly until she finally couldn't take it anymore. She got up, put on her sweatpants, and went outside. Only when she saw the dark, narrow streets, only occasionally lit by the faint light of street lamps, did she calm down and take a deep breath. The cold air awakened her mind, and before she knew it, she began walking. Without thinking about what she was doing and ignoring the cold, she reached the park, only to stop at the dome.

"What..." she groaned, clutching her head. "What am I doing here?"

A milky mist enveloped her on all sides, and occasional rays of the full moon escaped from behind the clouds, so it was light enough for her to see where she had come. The old trees in the park bowed and rustled eerily in the wind, which repeatedly whipped the milky mist filling the clearing where the dome stood.

"But... That's the monument..." she thought, taking a hesitant step forward. "That monument with the Rune symbol, signifying that this was the Sanctuary... the vampire temple...!?"

A shiver ran down her spine, and she suddenly looked at the monument. A bright streak of silvery light now descended upon it, enveloping the enormous monument on all sides. Akasha suddenly felt her breath catch...

"How beautiful..." she thought, gazing at the shimmering surface of the water. "How beautiful..."

The sound of her alarm clock roused her from her sleep. Without opening her eyes, she reached for it, then turned it off by rolling from side to side. Suddenly, however, she jerked upright in bed, her eyes widening. She looked at her hands, then at the clothes she'd slept in. She was wearing pajamas. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"It was a dream..." she settled more comfortably. "Just a dream... a stupid dream..."

Somewhere around noon, she got up and started making herself breakfast. She made some tea and, waiting for it to cool, began clearing away the clothes scattered around the room. There were so many of them that at first she didn't see the sweatshirt lying right next to her bed. Only when she bent down to pick it up did she realize it was covered in mud. She froze mid-motion, then quickly withdrew her hand. It was the same sweatshirt she'd put on in her dream... But was it really a dream? Akasha quickly pushed the thought aside; of course, it had to be a dream! She wasn't going anywhere, nowhere! She sat down on the floor and touched the mud stain on her pants. It was fresh. Definitely not dried. Suddenly, she jumped to her feet and ran into the small hallway where her shoes were stored. She paused at the door, as her sneakers were undoubtedly filthy with fresh mud. Akasha took a step back, then slammed the door to the hallway shut. For the first moment, she thought nothing. She leaned against the kitchen wall, then slowly sank to her knees, burying her face in her hands. She was trembling like a leaf... For the first time in her life, she was terrified... For the first time in her life, she felt like she had no control over what was happening around her...

For a long time, she sat against the wall, motionless, still burying her face in her hands. She had no strength to rise or make even the slightest movement. She felt all her strength draining from her...

Before she knew it, the sun began to set. She rose from her knees, her whole body aching and numb with pain. Then she threw on a black trench coat and went outside.

On the narrow streets, she only occasionally passed drunken men who, oblivious to her, muttered to themselves. Akasha walked slowly, as if delirious, leaning against the cold shop windows. The dim streetlights hurt her eyes, making her squint, but she still felt pain... Finally, her vision began to blur, and the world began to spin before her eyes... She braced her hand against the wall, lowering her head. She had the terrifying sensation that something inside her was trying to escape, screaming and struggling to escape. She felt it! This pain... She didn't want it to happen! She was afraid of this thing that had suddenly given its first sign that it was alive and that it was inside... inside her!

She moaned, clutching her hands to her chest. She couldn't breathe. The roaring in her ears was so loud she felt she was about to die... Pain... Pain so sharp she couldn't bear it. Every inch of her body felt like it was being torn to shreds! ...