For decades the soft silence had surrounded him, provided an escape from pain and helped him maintain the spell, but slowly impressions pierced though the veil, a breeze rustling the trees, an owl's hooting and the scuttling of mice on the stone floor. Instinctively Ashley fought against it, trying ever harder to pull the darkness closer and wrapping up his brain in it to fall back into his deep sleep, refusing to wake. But the sounds got louder for every moment, his efforts proving futile, what finally pushed him across the line and ruining any chance of going back to sleep was a familiar scent, sweet and metallic. Reluctantly his eyes snapped open, above him an old stone roof arched, cobwebs hung from the walls like decorations and dust piled on the floor. Heaving himself up in a sitting position he tried to lift the fog that lingered in his mind, putting a hand to his forehead he frowned, something was very wrong, he shouldn't wake up, it would ruin everything.
Slowly he climbed over the edge of the open stone coffin, the original owner of it lay discarded near a wall, stiffly Ashley stretched trying to ease up his muscles and limbs. He couldn't feel the pain as anything more than a tingling discomfort but he did feel how stiff he was, like an old man as ironic as that was. Pulling a pale hand through his dark brown hair, removing dust and cobwebs as much as possible, absently wiping off his clothes as well he could before he remembered what had ultimatly forced him awake. The smell of blood not too far from the mausoleum if he could sense it through the thick stone walls, stepping over to the doors he pushed them open with some effort, the simple action showed how weakened he had become during his sleep. The fresh, cool night air cleared his mind, cutting through the fog like a knife and he felt alive again, or well, as close to it as possible.
Well outside he quickly located the source of the smell, an oddly dressed human kneeled on the ground not too far off, he was wrapping something around his arm where he must have cut himself on something. A smile flew across Ashley's face, he was lucky, just awoken and a human was already there waiting for him, he would have rathered starved than hunted an animal, almost. Their blood was far less appetizing than a humans, in his younger days Ashley had at times wondered over his mentality when he found it easier to hunt from his former species but he'd quickly dropped such thoughts.
Quickly striding over the grass, criss crossing graves on the way Ashley grabbed the man and sank his teeth into his neck, the large artery there offering one of the best places to drink from, the human had barely time to react before he was unconcious. Strength returned to his body as the life ebbed from the human and when he was done Ashley almost felt like normal again, dropping the lifeless body on the ground and wiping blood from his mouth he made his way over to the newer part of the cemetery, it was much bigger than he remembered, many graves had been added since he fell asleep. Curious over how long he'd slept Ashley headed towards the town only to stop dead in his track when he came through the large iron gates, before him the ground stretched out, dark grey and hard as a stone wall beneath his boots, odd white lines divided it up in squares, not unlike the stalls in a stable. "How long have I been asleep?" He murmured quietly to himself, the humans had learned new skills it seemed.
Continuing on the strange dark ground as it narrowed into a road, divided in two by white markings, Ashley followed it towards the strong light surrounding what used to be a small town, a breeze ruffled his white, puffy shirt but Ashley didn't feel the cold, if anything the night was perfect. He passed many wonders on his way, buildings taller than the trees, paintings that spelled out names instead of art and blinked in different colours, lampposts that glowed without fire and strange waggons that weren't pulled by any horse or cattle. Nowhere were the tall church or the houses made of wood and stone along dirt streets and cobblestone roads of his home, everything was stone and that odd hard substance, a few small trees skirted the roads. So far he had not seen a living soul outside, although the city couldn't be abandoned judging by all those lights in the windows, lights that didn't flicker like firelight.
But then he saw a human up ahead, short with red hair and a slim build, also dressed in those strange clothes, Ashley's soft leather boots made little noise upon the hard ground and when he was almost upon the human he was shocked to realize it was a girl, a girl dressed in men's clothing no less. "Excuse me Miss," Ashley said, his good upbringing shining through despite the human's obvious lack of manners. "What year is it?"
