The beginning of the end

The next morning the phone woke me up. Tomorrow was well said, it was after all one o'clock in the afternoon and accordingly I felt exhausted. After almost half a minute I finally realized what that annoying noise meant and I picked up the phone. "Siras... Something happened," I heard Morten say at the other end, "You have to come to the cathedral ... at three, best!" It pissed me off: "Damn Morten, I really don't have the nerve today for something like that! ". "What? ". "I have other problems besides this stupid church," I continued. “What do you mean?” Morten shouted angrily, “That is definitely more important than any small private problems! "." Oh yes, the fate of humanity depends on it. "I replied angrily. I just didn't want to anymore. I just wanted to sit back at home for a whole day as I used to, without having to worry about anything or having a guilty conscience about it.Morten was silent for a while, then he said softly: "Siras, the cathedral burned again last night, but you probably don't care anymore. I don't want to mess up your daily rhythm either, so I better not get you in the future bother with my problems. ", he said completely seriously and hung up.
Damn it! I thought, now I actually felt even worse than before. Did that have to be? Was it really only going downhill now? Was there anyone else who didn't hate me at the moment? I decided that indifference was the best solution now, and I made myself think about nothing. I made myself a mediocre breakfast and turned on the television. I probably needed something like that now, a bit of normal - perfect - world - gossip. I lasted like this for about an hour, but then the memory of what Morten had said earlier slowly crept back to the surface of my mind.The cathedral had burned again. . . she would probably be standing there unharmed again and sneering at us as if nothing had happened, but something inside me urged me to go there and find out what happened there. I had to do something, even if I had no idea what to do there, I had to go there!

It was five past three when I got to the cathedral. It couldn't be more punctual for me. I was wrong. It was not, as expected, completely intact, but was now completely black with soot and some windows had broken and fallen out. Morten stood leaning against the fence and looked satisfied when he saw me approaching. But I was still a little pissed off because I hated it when I didn't keep things I said.
"Look at that, she didn't manage to fully recover this time. I wonder what happened last night," he began without any greeting phrases."Why should I come here anyway?" I asked. After a short hesitation he said "Because this has slowly gotten serious." "How... How do you mean that?" “What do you think this is actually?” He began, “A big church that burns down every now and then and stands there the next day as if nothing had happened just to scare people?” What he asked me that? I had no idea, maybe it was really like that. He grinned crookedly when he realized that I really seemed to be worrying about it. "Believe me, there is definitely more to it." What do I have to do with it? "I started again and he looked at me and seemed to think about it. Suddenly he turned around with a jerk and took my hand." Come with me! ".

We stood in front of a small metal merchandise shop after Morten had led me wordlessly through half of town. "What. You wanted to show me that?", I asked blankly, "Do you want to go shopping now or-" "Wait and see.", he cut me off and dragged me into the store. Not that I really minded, after all, I loved this music and had never been here before, but I just found it inappropriate now, after all the hints for now to go shopping.
The shopkeeper at the counter looked up briefly as we passed him and crossed a door that said "Private". It looked like Morten was well known here and I had to smile to myself for a brief moment when I imagined him to be a real metalhead, in lederhosen and with an electric guitar. Not a bad picture, I had to admit that.
Behind the door came a small hallway and Morten purposefully turned into a second door on the left, which housed a stone spiral staircase down. Wonderful, I thought, we're going to the basement. That wasn't a very reassuring thought, but then I could hear muffled music and after the next door I was presented with a really amazing sight.It was something like a rock bar, a cozy, dark metal club with excellent music. I could only grin, "Tell me... Morten..", I started, but I didn't know how to end it. I was speechless and glad that he had brought me here. "Come on now," he urged me and headed for a table in a cozy, dark corner where a woman was sitting. "Ui!", She said astonished when she saw us. I knew her from somewhere, but from where? "Well, who did he bring back with him?", She continued and now I recognized her dirty smile. She was the dark woman from the bus. I was just remembering her claiming that she didn't know him personally when Morten started, "Zaira, we need to talk." Greetings really weren't his thing. "Okay?" She replied expectantly, making a grimace after sipping her glass of clear liquid. "Let's go! ". "We ... have to tell her.", he then confessed to me with a nod in my direction. Zaira grinned at me and I found myself swinging along to Trivium." Oh really? ", she answered then, not very surprised. Morten bowed his head guiltily and Zaira looked at him coldly. It seemed they must have been on this topic before. I felt like a little child that you wanted to enlighten yourself but could not overcome it. "Man please! What is now? "I asked impatiently.
"We're not normal people, you know?" Zaira began conversationally. Morten looked at her questioningly. "And by the way, neither are you." "Ah!" I said. I didn't understand anything. She smiled briefly and continued "Can you imagine that there are people who do not know where they come from? Who were just there and have no parents and ..." "And live forever?", Morten said at the end. “What the hell are you talking about?” How should I imagine that? What bullshit."That is all the fault of the cathedral! Nothing else is at stake here. Only about this horrible thing", Zaira burst out, "Demons have been called, vampires, they have persecuted us!". "They tried to kill us, but they couldn't," Morten interjected quietly. "What? Tell me, are you kidding me?" I felt stupid. Where did I end up here? They couldn't expect me to believe that. Zaira took a breath to calm herself down and took another sip. "Guess how old he is", she started again and pointed to Morten, "Whole two hundred and eleven years old". He looked thoughtfully at the table top. Zaira sighed, "And I'm a hundred and thirty". "But you don't drink blood, do you?" Now she looked at me angrily "I would seriously consider it with you.", She replied viciously, "Damn, it's just nothing beautiful here. The world is no longer worth living You know, we used to find it exciting to see how everything became more and more progressive and what kind of stupid things people came up with and, above all, how we have always remained young and beautiful.But we quickly realized that it was usually much better in the past than in the time after and it was just cruel to watch our friends die away before our eyes and we always had to be the ones who were left. . . We just have nothing left. Never. "The grief on her features had completely changed her face. She raised her head and continued." My favorite time is still when I was born. It was even more dangerous for us because some people really believed in vampires, but you quickly learned to be careful. And most of them were happier and much more kind and considerate than they are today. ", she wallowed in her thoughts a little longer and then said," Little one, you can't imagine how much we hate time. "You could literally feel how relieved she was to finally be able to tell someone, there must have been no opportunity to do so in years. Only...why was she telling me that? As if he had read my mind, Morten finally spoke. "The point is that we came out of the cathedral, Siras, and for some reason you seem like the only one who can help us." "Oh... And how do you come up with something like that? Why me?" . "The cards told him so," interjected Zaira. Morten looked at her as if she hadn't understood anything. "For some reason you are the only one who can destroy this cathedral-", "I should destroy it?", "Yes, so that nobody can be born like us and we can finally die," he explained. "Oh man," I said. That was getting too much for me. Why then just me? If I understood correctly, I should kill the two of them and everyone else who was immortal and came out of this cathedral. Damn it, I couldn't do that. I got up to get a drink and as I waited briefly at the counter, I realized that I was slowly beginning to believe this story.Incredible, I thought, but I wasn't exactly the most ignorant person and I had to admit that it used to be nice to believe that something so fantastic really existed. I returned to the table with the bottle of red wine and a glass. "How did you think I was going to destroy this cathedral on my own?" I remembered. "I ... don't know.", Morten confessed. Well that was a good start.
When the red wine slowly began to spread in my blood, the painful burden that had been pressing on my insides since this news finally eased and as I was thanking this delicious drink in my mind, Zaira suddenly jumped up, which, as it turned out, was must have been drinking vodka all along. "Come on, such a dramatic downfall has to be celebrated! Let's enjoy our last days to the fullest and honor the damned end!", She roared happily. "To redemption and the end of all horrors!", she said solemnly and toasted with me. Thereupon Morten took the glass from her hand and drank it up," To redemption! "He confirmed with the first real smile I saw from him. I was already infected by the