Unlike Nothing I Have Heard

The rage is so intense that I dare not move. Hatred saved for him grows with each passing moment and I no longer have the will to contain it. A caged monster is inside me and will no longer be imprisoned. My hands are shaking, and suddenly I am wet from sweat making my hair stick to me.

Crouching here huddled on the cobblestone path, I begin to doubt that we’d make it back in time. I scowl with madness realizing our cloaks are no match for the approaching dawn. Damn my need for revenge – it will no longer subside, and damn Nathaniel Abbot for creating this affliction.

We should be inside getting ready for the approaching day, which is much sooner than I’m comfortable with, yet here we are held my contemplation of such a rare opportunity. My companions, Seth and Danielle, understand why I’m not able to resist such advantage. For their sakes, I attempt once more to control the manic fiend without a favorable outcome. I part my lips to utter some sort of apology which Seth ceases with a caressing kiss.

“My love, it is essential to do what you must. No longer are you in control and I can bear your suffering no more.”

Seth is my lover and best friend. Both he and Danielle have been with me for a sometime now. I realize for the first time how much they have affected the choices I have made. But with Nathaniel in my sight, I’m a slave to the anguish that now possesses me.

Seth and Danielle’s eyes widened as the town’s striking clock begins to issue its warning. Both aware it’s time to say goodbye.

“You must go now. Run fast, find shelter, and if anyone asks those are small sacks heavy with apples. Coerce them if you must, but make them believe you.”

They’re gone and I stay still while I watch his every move through the window. Anger courses all through me as he carries on as if all is right, or that he needn’t pay for any of the damage done. He’s so smug, sitting there in that chair without a care in the world.

I succumb to the monster surpassing all sound judgment and reason for the first time in fifty years.

I deliberately open the creaky door hoping my melodramatic entrance would make him beg, but he made no attempt to stop me from approaching. He looks older than I remember. Heavy gray envelopes his crown of thinning hair and creases are deeply carved on his face as worry took away his beauty.

He looked up at me taking shallow rapid breaths, anticipating the inevitable. “Katelyn… I always knew you’d find me someday. I must admit, it’s comforting to know it will all be over soon.”

“I have something for you Nathaniel. A gift I no longer want the burden of.” Grabbing him hard by his throat, I stared into his eyes coercing him to believe my tale was his own. I welcomed the flood of memories to surface as I transferred all my horror to him.

I started with the night he left me alone in the field when he purposely ran away as the vampires converged. Tricking me to believe that we’re destined for love and he was ready to ripen my womb. He screamed in anguish when he felt them bite me over and over until finally I’d been drained.  Then the pain of awaking as one of them. Tortured by the burning in my throat and the affliction of a hunger I did not understand.

My persecution continued with the poor soul who became my first victim. Only by instinct was I drawn to the boy. It was a fast kill, but a casualty none-the-less. The grief plagued me as I’m haunted by those I’m forced to murder each night unable  to stop.

The night I fed on my own sister was when I try to end my so called life. Stupidly I lit a barn on fire where I burned for three days. Nathaniel could no longer cry out because the pain too intense now.

With wounds healed, I sought out others vampires to teach me how to control who I killed.  It was then I vowed to turn my agony into retaliation and combed the earth looking for him.

I exposed my love for Seth and the distasteful introduction of Danielle who we consider our daughter. We found her on the brink of death begging me to save her. I relinquished the memory of watching them flee with sacks of animal hearts filled with blood, knowing we may never meet again.

Releasing my hold on him, Nathaniel collapsed into a pile of rubble gasping for his precious air. “I’m ready to die now Katelyn,” he sobbed. “I’m begging you.”

Without warning I nearly drained him. “I’m not going to kill you Nathaniel. I’m going to turn you.” Biting a chunk of flesh, I forced my wrist hard on his mouth and felt him gulp down my power.

It took him a long time to awaken. “Why did you do this to me?”

“It’s the greatest pay back of course. Now you have to live for an eternity and endure my suffering. Come, I want to show you something.”

We walked towards the door. I turned to him and gently smiled granting him all the comfort of a parent to a child who just awoke from a terrible nightmare. Then I threw him through the door into the sunlight and watch him slowly turn to ash.