Chapter Four

(1500years ago. In the year 520.)

Her world changed since then, not being able to walk in the sun, or eat food like an average human, not that she even recalled what it was like, to enjoy a well-cooked meal: just blood, and not just any blood but animals' blood.

She never left the mansion Richard brought her in. His brothers and sisters looked at her as a threat and treated her like a queen. Nothing felt right to her. Everything was strange. She could feel it, yet she felt safe. Everything she knew was what Richard told her. The memories she was trying so hard to forget only came to her in recurring nightmares and fragments.

...

In the depth of the night, a strong gust of cold wind shivered her in her sleep. She was trembling, fighting to wake up from her nightmare. Silent moans escaped her lips, and fear gripped her heart as she struggled.

In her sleep, she found herself in front of a burning house. The same nightmare she has been experiencing for a century now. A man walked closer to her.

"Jessica, what have you done?" The man cried out, and before she could realize it, he stabbed her. Jessica's knees quivered as her gaze traveled from her imbrued belly to the man's face; then, she stabbed him with the dagger in her hand.

"Arrrghhh," Jessica screamed in her sleep. Her voice pierced into everyone's ears. Richard rushed to her room and smashed the door open.

He saw her holding her belly in anguish. When he noticed her eyes were tightly closed. He kept on calling her name and gently kept slapping her cheeks.

"Jessica, Jessica, Jessica." Richard kept calling, but she wouldn't open her eyes, neither did she stop screaming.

Eunice and Marcus entered the room.

"Is it time?" Eunice asked, and then she joined Richard in trying to hold Jessica. As she held Jessica's hands, she noticed the dark veins on Jessica's arms. Her hand was turning black like it was getting rotten from within.

"The curse." Eunice's eyes drifted towards Marcus, who stood by the door.

"We must find the human." Richard was getting paranoid, afraid he would lose Jessica.

Suddenly, Jessica stopped screaming and opened her eyes. She was gasping for breath. Immediately she saw Richard she hugged him.

"I had the same nightmare again; it feels real every time, and every time, I feel like I'm going to die. What can I do to make it stop." She cried.

Richard could not bear seeing her in such agony. He hugged her, stroking his hand on her hair. Jessica wrapped her arms tightly around Richard, giving him a warm embrace. Her throbbing heart was halting. As she released her grip on him, she noticed dark veins all over her arms.

"Arrrghhh" Jessica screamed when she saw that it wasn't just her arms, but all over her body.

"It's okay. You've lived for a century now, and according to the curse, we need to find the child whose blood will heal you." Richard held her hands.

"We must hurry; we don't know how long she will survive." Marcus walked out of the room straight to Peter.

"We must leave to the human world. We need to find the child."

Peter got dressed, and they all met downstairs. Jessica was covered in fur. They climbed on their horse as they rode out to the hidden gates.

The hidden gates were what divided the vampire's world from the humans. The humans talked about the gate, but most believed it to be a myth. Only the vampires knew its location, as it was a passageway to the human world.

A land, more significant than five cities, of several forts of about 500m tall: the forts were separated by a hundred miles apart from each other. It took them a day to travel from one regiment to the other. They spent a month trying to get to the human world.

...

When they arrived at the human world, they disguised themselves. They would search several hospitals in the depth of the night, looking for the child whose eyes turned purple in Jessica's presence.

For several nights they searched, Jessica was getting weaker by the day. Richard tried his best to comfort her. Deep in Jessica's heart, she wished to die. Since she became a vampire, she has never hurt any human, but now, she would have to to survive, and it broke her heart.

When they lay at night in a paid tavern, Jessica tried not to fall asleep to avoid having nightmares. But suddenly, her eyes closed. She saw a boy lying on his bed. Beside him was an older woman, kissing him on his forehead as she faked a smile. The boy looked sick. She could feel his pain. When he coughed, Jessica coughed. When he felt sharp abdominal pains, she felt it too. At that point, she knew that if he died from his sickness, she would die as well. She became anxious; she looked around for any handbill to see the location.

Her gaze kept squinting around the room. When she looked out the window, she saw a chophouse named Billi. Jessica's eyes instantly opened.

"Let's go." She woke Richard up. "We have to get to the child. He is sick. I can feel his pains; I can feel his heart about to give up on him. If he dies, I die." She was breathing heavily, staring deep into Richard's eyes.

Richard saw the fear in her eyes. He didn't understand anything, but at that moment, he just nodded, staring at her like she was insane. He woke the others, and they all stepped out. They located the chophouse and found the child's house right opposite. Jessica walked into the room after Marcus, Peter, and Eunice had captured the parents and locked them up in a different room.

As she approached the child, the child's eyes turned purple. He was five years old. She knelt by his bed and smiled at him.

"Poor thing." She placed her hands on the child's hair, and suddenly she saw flashes of her nightmares. She was shocked and wondered if she was having nightmares awake. She walked away from the child, and Richard carried him in his arms.

When they got to Crimson mansion, she placed the child on top of a coffin in a room whose roof was opened. She chained his hands and feet. Eunice would feed and take care of him, ensuring he didn't die until the sixth month of that year.

When the month came, Jessica dressed up in white on a full moon. She walked into the room with a dagger given to her by the witch.

As she approached the child, he was shivering.

"Are you here to kill me?" The child asked her. Tears dripped from the corners of his eyes.

"Yes." She answered in a low tone. "Unfortunately, I have to." She leaned towards him, nuzzling his hair.

"Please don't kill me; take me home to my parents." The child pleaded.

"I'm sorry, I can't do that." Tears rolled down her cheeks and dropped on the child's face.

"I've seen you before." The child said to her.

"You have?" She giggled and looked up, waiting for the full moon to cover the opening of the roof.

"Yes, I remember you."

His words amused Jessica. "I doubt that cause I don't know you; we haven't met before."

"I know your face. I've seen you in my dreams. If there is another life, I will remember you." The child tearfully said to her.

"Why do you want that? Won't you be scared?" She asked him as she undressed him. The moon was now covering half of the opening of the roof.

"To kill you."

Jessica paused; her eyes traveled from the child's chest to his eyes. Just then, the room was covered by the full moon.

"You do that." She said to him and kissed his forehead. "Close your eyes."

As soon as the child closed his eyes, Jessica lifted the dagger with her two hands and stabbed the child on his chest.

She placed four bowls at the four corners of the coffin, gathering the blood dripping from it. She undressed and knelt on a witchcraft symbol drawn on the floor. She took a bowl and drank the blood. The other bowls she poured it on her body, from her head downwards.

She could hear the crackling sound of her bones as they renewed. The dark veins disappeared, and she looked younger than before. Her eyes flickered purple. The blood she poured on her body sucked into her skin. Her skin was not as pale as the other vampires. She was glowing under the moon.

She felt a surge of power through her body. She started smiling devilishly.

"No wonder they crave the human blood." She snakes her tongue out and licks the little blood on her fingers.

"Much more tasty than the animal's blood."