by Patricia Naylor
Bella stared out at the rolling tide, praying
silently that she would have the courage to do what she needed to do. She had
nothing left. After the break up of her marriage, her husband had taken
everything, and found a way for her to pay alimony. She immediately quit her
job and moved in with her sister. She had lost the will to do anything. She
collected unemployment checks and wondered how her life could have gone so
wrong.
"Libera me Domine de morte eterna in dies
illa tremenda."
She was chanting her own requiem Mass, ready to
die. She couldn't bear to lose so much of herself, with no hope of recovery.
She'd left the suicide note on her sister's bed, her favorite quote being,
"Enjoy your life and don't let this bring you down. I want you to be
happy, because I am happy with the path I have chosen."
Ella quickly removed her clothes. The sky was
pitch black, and the weather was a cool fifty degrees, which meant the water
had to be much colder. If she didn't die of drowning, she'd die of hypothermia.
Ella stepped into the water and bit back a scream. There was no going back now,
she'd already written the note.
As she plunged into the water head first, she
was abruptly jerked out by the armpits and immediately ascended upwards fifty
feet. She was flying, shivering cold, and yet within minutes she was wrapped in
blankets in front of a fire, staring at a man that had all the physical traits
of both a human and a bat.
"How would you like me to appear?" he
said, in a gravelly, deep voice.
"Were you ever a man?" Ella whispered,
awestruck. He could read her mind!
"Yes I was. You may not believe this, but I
was a medieval Earl, slated to die during the Black Death, and was given these
powers by a fellow nobleman. England was obsessed with death from the Great
Famine, earlier in the century, when the bubonic and pneumonic plague overtook
us in 1348. Once it struck, there was such widespread chaos, no one tended
their fields. We lived in terror of when we would be next to die. Noblemen and
peasants alike died from the disease, including the King's own sister, Joan.
Ships filled with dead crews wandered the ocean. Once they found land, the
corpses spread the plague quickly.
"My people died from hunger. They also died
of the plague that was sweeping through every inch of the known world. Scholars
believed it was caused by the atmosphere. We had no idea the fleas from Asian
rats carried the plague over to Europe. It soon crept into the village, and later
the castle. When every other noble retreated to their homes, locked themselves
in, and ignored the cries of their own vassals, I decided to do what I had done
every year since my father had died: I informed the King that I would harvest
my own crops, to try and feed all of my people. I thought if I could harvest
one successful crop year, my vassals and villeins might have enough to eat.
"My oxen were surprisingly unaffected,
though the sheep that grazed in my fields all died. It was an age in which death
was all around us, and the animals died just as quickly as we did. I took six
oxen and began breaking the ground of the miles of land that I owned. I toiled
the land until I literally dropped. I was just as weak as everyone else; I had
shared my last morsel of food with my Steward days ago.
"I was hungry and driven to plant the last
of my seed grain. I succeeded--at the expense of my body. What was once
muscular and healthy from training and good meat, was now thin and emancipated.
I collapsed next to my oxen, who eventually wandered into the village, and were
promptly slaughtered for their meat, a grave offense, and yet it fed the entire
village.
"I awoke in the middle of the night, and
found a gaunt, pale figure before me, dressed in black. It was Death himself. I
recognized him--he was King Edward's most favored nobleman. He said, "You are
dying of malnutrition and exhaustion. You will perish before morning. You may
choose to die now, or join me in living death. You must decide.
"I was afraid to die. I had seen death in
war, plague, floods, fires, childbirth, and many other catastrophes, and was
tired of worrying when it would be my turn. 'I will join you in living death,
as long as you answer this question: what will happen to the village?' His
expression was mournful. 'I am sorry, but the peasants will all die in the
coming weeks. If not from hunger, from the plague that was brought here from
the East. It is not rare that whole villages have died from this disease,
therefore you cannot feel guilt. Your sacrifice will not be made in vain. It
will be the turning point for the men that serve you in your army and holdings.
We will both make sure of it.'
"He took me into his arms and bit me on the
neck. It was Death's embrace, as he drank my blood, then let me feed on his
open, dripping palm. The blood gave me life, but at a terrible price. I would
have to feed at least once a night in those early days. This became relatively
easy: we ended plague victim's lives quicker, and took those dying of hunger.
Those who found the dead looked at the neck wounds and immediately thought they
were plague victims. It was a time of widespread madness, and my only solace
was that I would not have to die next."
He paused. "Your name is Ella, is it
not?"
She nodded, and her fiery curls bounced. She was
a beautiful little angel to the vampire's eyes, young and strong, nothing like
those he'd met as a human. She was blessed to live in this age.
"You haven't told me your name," She
whispered. Her skin appeared golden from the fire.
"Please call me Garrick. It is a name I've
always liked, and since my transformation, I've had no desire to be called by
the name my human mother gave me."
"Why did you bring me here?" Ella
whispered. She was afraid of the answer, whatever it might be. "You could've
took my life earlier, in the ocean."
"I can read your thoughts. You were going
to kill yourself. I looked into your heart and saw a woman that had been
defeated and was helpless to change her circumstances. I want to help you
regain the confidence you once had. There is no reason for you to give up
now."
He turned his back and slowly changed into a
human form, as he walked towards an elaborate black and silver Chinese screen.
He emerged in a floor length dressing gown, that was a deep crimson color with
a hundred embroidered gold oxen, as elaborate as the time he had come from. Are
you ready to join me? He held his arms out to her as an invitation.
Her first impulse was fear. How could she trust
him on such quick terms, especially with the obvious supernatural powers he
possessed? It could be glorious, or an irreversible disaster, as far as she
knew. But she had nothing to lose at this point. She stepped into his embrace,
and was at once surrounded by icy, strong limbs. "My bride," he whispered
in her ear, then slowly sank his teeth into her neck. She writhed in
masochistic pleasure, as they descended to the floor. While he drank from her
neck, he slipped a hand between her legs. He made sure she came quick and hard;
it would be her last experience as a human, a very good one. When he felt her
orgasm, he waited until her body grew slack. Then he drank deeply without
swallowing, letting the blood cause shudders throughout his body. When she was
close to losing consciousness, he tore open his own throat and pressed it to
her lips.
"Drink, my beloved."
She was reborn from this fountain of blood, that
poured down into the darkest corners of her body. When she thought she could
take no more of this ecstasy, this endless pleasure, Garrick tore into her
wrist and started the cycle over again. Before long she felt herself fading,
but this time she did not recover. The room turned gray, and then black.
She awoke some time later, and felt like a
wonderfully strong creature. She was now ready to become a blooddrinker. Her
ex-husband would be her first victim. She looked at her maker, and said in a
strange new voice, "Teach me how to kill."
The vampire smiled, revealing a row of spiky,
long teeth.