Requiem of Humanity

by Catherine Stovall

  What he had seen in the blood could not be true. He had never thought that Jenda could be capable of such hatred. Breaking the kiss so suddenly they almost stumbled, Matteo pulled away to look into her eyes. He saw there the truth, that the blood had changed her so much already. Even as he stared deep into her eyes, he saw the blackness start to overtake the green and he knew the red of blood lust was not far behind. Her message in the blood was clear and before he could consciously make a decision, his eyes began to change as well.

  Belle, unable to see their faces from her position, reached one long and delicate hand out to touch Jenda’s arm. Just as her skin met the girl’s, Matteo and Jenda turned on her like two wolves who have stumbled onto easy prey. The attack began. Jenda and Matteo both grabbed one of Belle’s arms and pinned her to the wall of glass as they sank their fangs into her throat. Belle fought against them, screaming curses and swearing that she would kill both of them.

  Though her strength and years were not as much as Matteo’s, the fear she would die lent Belle power. Freeing her arm from Jenda’s grasp, Belle grabbed Jenda by the hair and slammed her face into the stone hearth. Jenda moaned and fell to the floor in an unconscious stupor. Matteo fought his desire to run to Jenda’s aid and continued to battle Belle.

  With one arm free, Belle was a much more difficult opponent. She broke Matteo’s bite with one swift jab to the side of his head and the two now struggled in the middle of the room. Matteo made a desperate grab for Belle’s throat that proved to be fatal. Belle glided out of the way in the last second, seized the back of Matteo’s hair, and jerked his neck back until the cracking sound echoed throughout the room.

  With his neck broken, Mateo could no longer fight and his senses were dulling by the minute. Belle smiled sweetly down at him, letting her honey filled voice filter slowly through his dulled senses. “Oh Matteo, you were my dearest friend. It is such a shame that I must end your life. Don’t worry dear; I will take care of your little love for you. She will pay for her betrayal.” With those words, Belle knelt beside Matteo and thrust his head to the side where it lolled in an unnatural way because of the broken bones. Just as she sunk her teeth into his throat with savage force, Jenda woke. She screamed in terror at the sight of Matteo, helpless and dying in Belle’s hands.

  Then as if by some miracle, Soborgne emerged from the shadows of the hall. She looked fierce with her black hair shining in the fire light and her eyes burning iridescent red. In her hands, she held a long sword that gleamed in the moonlight high above her head. Jenda screamed, afraid that Soborgne would kill Matteo as well. The sound shattered the quietness of the moment and Belle’s head jerked up, blood running down her chin. Belle looked up just in time to see Soborgne’s sword sweep down with lightning speed.

  Belle’s mouth opened and shut but no sound came from within. Her eyes blinked once, twice, three times before they stopped and became truly void of life. The severed head lay inches from Jenda as the rooms three inhabitants simply stared in shock.

  Already healing from the broken bones, Matteo began to struggle to raise himself from the floor and Jenda quickly ran to his side. Soborgne still stood motionless, sword held tight in her hand and eyes still burning red. Cautiously Matteo spoke, holding his hands just the way he had when trying to calm Jenda before. “Soborgne, we will not hurt you. I let you live below because I wanted to reunite you with Jenda. Please, put down the sword so that we might finish the task at hand and rid this house of its purest evil.” He nodded slightly at Belle’s beheaded body lying at her feet.

  Soborgne did not blink, she did not attempt to drop the sword, and she continued to stare disbelievingly at Jenda. “Sobo?” Jenda’s voice cracked a little as she spoke and blood tears began to pour down her milky white cheeks. At the sight and sound of her friend, Soborgne dropped the sword and ran to Jenda. Both girls collapsed into each other’s arms, weeping in joy and pain.

  30

  The trio barred the door to the den. Not even Matteo knew who else was in the compound and they were afraid to be discovered by human servants or vampire followers. They added logs to the fire and stoked it until it was burning with such intensity that Jenda and Soborgne both cowered from the heat, their vampire instincts telling them just how dangerous those flames could be. Once the fire burned hot enough, Matteo gently lifted Belle’s head and whispered, “Ciao, Signora. Thank you for your gifts. You promised me many years ago that you would bring me new beginnings and now you have.” Then, with less formality than Jenda expected, he carelessly tossed it into the flames.

  The stench burned their noses and their eyes even as they escaped out of the balcony doors. They made their escape just as footsteps could be heard in the hall. The smell of rotted and burning flesh seared itself into their pristine vampire memories where it would never be forgotten. The three of them ran as if Lucifer himself had set the hounds of hell on to their heels. They disappeared into the forest surrounding the compound. There wasn’t much time. They must find shelter before sunrise. Though Jenda shared Belle’s blood and Matteo had drank quite a lot during their battle, there was no guarantee that they would survive the sun and Soborgne had never tasted Belle’s blood at all.

  Matteo stopped running. The girls halted as well, stumbling a bit in the suddenness of the stop. They had put a great distance between themselves and the compound. Running at vampiric speed for an hour could take even fledglings close to sixty miles away from the starting point. The girls looked towards Matteo with questioning eyes. They now were depending on him to lead them through their first trials and tribulations of vampire life. “Why did we stop? Are we safe now?” The questions were spoken by both girls simultaneously. They shared a brief giggle but then turned back to Matteo.

  “The sun will rise in a few moments and we can’t risk being exposed. There is a shelter just on the other side of these trees where we can spend the day. I have used it in the past. There is much you do not understand about your new lives and we will need safety to talk.” What he didn’t want to tell them was that if they stayed out in the open they all might die.

  The three of them relaxed into a languid stride as they closed the distance between them and the shelter. As they grew closer, Jenda wondered how that could keep them safe from anything. The wood was warped and crumbling with age and exposure. Yet, Matteo was sure of their direction so she followed without complaint.

  The trio reached the shack just as the sky lightened from the dark midnight blue to the graying of pre-dawn. Matteo hurried them inside and into a trap door hidden under an old cast iron pot bellied stove. Below, Matteo left the girls standing in the center of room as he lit candles. Jenda discovered a quaint room, made cozy by a large bed with homemade quilts, a small table, and piles of books.

  As Jenda turned to speak to Soborgne, she saw her best friend’s eyes flutter open and closed in quick succession before the girl crumpled lifelessly to the floor.

  31

  “Soborgne!” Jenda rushed to her friend’s side, the tears instantly welling up in her eyes. They had fought so hard and been through so much. Until the moment Soborgne had burst through the door and saved them from Belle’s wicked plan, Jenda hadn’t truly believed she was alive. Jenda could feel the silence in her friend. Soborgne was not breathing, her heart did not beat. She had lost her best friend after all.

  Flashes of the last few months buzzed through Jenda’s mind as she cradled her best friend’s head in her lap and wept like a child. She moaned and let her head fall forward until her forehead touched Soborgne’s. Jenda’s tears fell gently from her eyes to the unmoving face below her. Matteo was talking; he was trying to comfort her, and trying to tell her something but Jenda couldn’t hear him. The home movie in her mind was all she could focus on.

  She saw her best friend laughing and happy and then jogging away towards her car. She saw herself, as if from a distance, worried and worn throughout that first day that Soborgne went missing. She could see it all as if she had only been a spectat
or, not one of the characters on the grisly stage that Belle had set. Then the tears, the mourning, and watching Soborgne’s mother turn from dramatic socialite to an old and brittle woman. Then at the funeral, seeing Belle for the first time and knowing there was something wrong with the woman.

  Jenda could see herself flicker like a dying hologram. Her physical body taking on a static transparency as she cast her mind into the astral world. How she had survived the voices, the asylum, and the loss she would never know. She remembered the pain, the torment, and the quest to try to find her best friend whom everyone thought was dead. The movie kept playing and Jenda’s grief mounted higher than ever as she watched the final night at home.

  Now it was a double feature. As if two screens were now playing, Jenda continued to watch her physical body as it tossed and turned in her bed at home. It seemed so strange to watch her body as it flickered and faded from solid to transparent. On the other screen the scene from her mind played. The astral plane, looking foreign to her now, was once so familiar. She watched as she struggled with Matteo. She could see the fear etched deep in her face and the hungry desire in his.

  Then as if by magic, the screens melded together, and Jenda watched as her body became solid, pliable flesh once more. She was mesmerized, her grief momentarily pushed away. She watched as she fought to resist the heart wrenching connection she felt for Matteo. She could see the anger and confusion that she had never noticed in his face when the moment had been upon them. She couldn’t help the instinct to gasp as she replayed the instant that Matteo wrapped his arms around her and smashed the window in their escape.

  The girls had both been stolen and tortured, changed from human teens to vampires by a wicked and cunning woman whose past had been so painful that she lost her immortal mind. Jenda’s mind, not willing to relive the long nights in the vampire compound where she’d been kept, pressed the proverbial fast forward button. Images flashed quickly but not quick enough that Jenda did not see Jonathan’s face leering above her shoulder as he attempted to rape and murder her. She again noticed herself flicker in and out like a TV channel with bad reception. Then Matteo had rescued her.

  Both the tender and angry moments that had passed between Matteo and herself during the time of her captivity were accented in a golden hue. She wanted to slow her mind to replay them, analyze them, so that she could attempt to understand what she felt for him. She wanted to try to forgive him and not to lay the blame on him. She wanted to drive away the hate that lay buried deep in her heart every time she thought of what her life was. Regardless of what she wanted, her mind was not hers to command any longer. It continued to streak through the memories until finally slowing on the past few hours.

  Still seeing the entire thing as if she was only an observer from afar, Jenda watched as Belle explained the generations of Jenda’s ancestors she had stalked and destroyed in hopes of finding her heir. She was horrified as she watched herself fall into a trance. Then Belle gently brushed her hair aside and lowered her mouth to the artery that lay just beneath the fragile human skin. The memory stirred the feeling in Jenda and she could feel the warm wetness of Belle’s mouth on her skin and the tiny fangs sinking into her skin.

  Jenda tried to stop the memory. She fought against it with everything she had but she couldn’t revive herself. It was as if she had no control. She was forced to watch herself hungrily drink the burning blood. She was forced to relive the pain as her veins scorched inside her. As quickly as it had started, the pain resided and she was looking at her reflection in the window before her.

  She was a monster now. She was beautiful and tragic, eternal and deceased, and she was a vampire. She watched as Matteo embraced her, knowing already the plan she had formed in her mind. She saw the fear and surprise in his eyes once she communicated her plan through the blood kiss. She watched the battle unfold until blackness filled her sight and the muffled sounds of Matteo’s bones cracking was the only sound she knew.

  The final scene faded in. The girl, Jenda knew that was herself, screaming for her friend not to take Matteo’s life. She watched in slow motion as the sword in Soborgne’s hand whistled through the air and severed Belle’s head from her shoulders. Again, Jenda felt powerful emotion flood through her. The first sight of Soborgne, knowing now that she was alive in the sense that any vampire is alive, filled her with relief and joy. As the girls embraced each other and blood tears streamed down their faces like macabre symbols of joy, the movie ended.

  “Jenda, Jenda! Please answer me. I cannot help you if you do not tell me what is happening.” For an instant, Jenda almost found the caring and vulnerable tone in Matteo’s voice comical. How could a centuries old vampire with speed, strength, and telepathy sound so wounded and human? Before she could laugh, reality hit Jenda as if someone had punched her in the stomach. She still sat clutching Soborgne’s lifeless body in her arms as blood tinted tears streamed from her eyes. After everything, she could not save Soborgne.

  “She’s dead. She’s dead.” Jenda couldn’t make any other words or thoughts form.

  Matteo gently pulled Soborgne’s body from Jenda’s arms and stood from the dirt floor. “No, my love. She is only sleeping. She is a vampire now and the sun is rising. She must sleep during the daylight hours.”

  Jenda’s confusion was apparent in her furrowed brow and quivering lip, “Then why…why are we not sleeping? Why did she collapse there, why isn’t she breathing, why? Her heart isn’t beating!” Her voice was grating and whiny. She was like a child who had lost something very important and her irrational fear would not allow her to understand what had happened.

  Matteo lightly laid Soborgne’s body onto the bed and covered her with one of the heavy, handmade quilts. “Jenda, my Baobhan Sith. There is much I must share with you, an entire history, if you will. Trust me darling, your friend is only doing what comes naturally to the unnatural. Through the blood of Belle and the legacy of her maker, we now have the power that they shared. We can walk in the sun. Her heart does not beat because it no longer needs to and she does not breathe because it is no longer necessary.”

  As he spoke to her, his eyes filled with love and his smile broadened across his face. Matteo placed Jenda’s hand over his own heart and his on hers so that she could feel that there was no lifeblood pumping through either body. He looked boyishly handsome in that moment. Jenda sat staring at him in awe, captivated by his beauty and presence. Jenda couldn’t help but trust in him. She stood and crossed the small space to wrap her arms around him in a fierce embrace. Again, she wept, but this time it was with relief and love. His arms circled her waist and their lips met in a gentle and chaste kiss. She breathed the words, “Thank you” against them.

  Matteo gently pulled away to look deep into Jenda’s eyes. “I must leave you and your friend for a while. I have to test the strength of the new powers granted to us by the blood and if they are as strong as I believe, then I have many tasks ahead of me. We must be ready to run at nightfall. Someone may come after us. It is a crime in the vampire world to kill another of our kind and it will not have gone unnoticed for long. Daylight is our only advantage.”

  Jenda felt the tears in her eyes and knew that she had every right to be afraid. Her words were like the rapids of a raging river. They ran from her, dipping and swirling quickly as she spewed her fears out and the tears she cried left pink, watery streaks on her face. “What if we did not drink enough? What happens if you walk out there? Will the sun burn you or will you turn to dust? Who would be chasing us? What will they do? What if they come while you are gone? Surely we cannot be the only ones who have found Belle’s secret.”

  Matteo could not bear her tears and the look of terror in her eyes. “I promise you it will be okay. I will test the sun’s rays before I fully enter them. Jenda, I have lived hundreds of years, a little suntan is all I will get. The rest I will explain later, but as I said you are safe here and there are things that must be done. I love you, my Baobhan Sith. Now come with me and l
et us test our strength together.”

  He took her gently by the hand and led her up the narrow stairs. He pushed the trap door open slowly, cautious not to let any stray sunlight in if he could help it. Luckily, the upper floor was still dark and they could just see the orange and pink streaks depicting the oncoming sun. They emerged together, gracefully maneuvering to a corner of the room farthest from the windows and the larger cracks in the walls. Standing together, they awaited the dawn.

  “How do you feel?” Matteo’s voice was a heavy whisper as he tried to disguise his own fear of the situation.

  “A little strange, I can’t help but be afraid and I’m a little tired. There’s something else too. I can’t explain it. It’s like something inside me is pulling me back down to the other room. Like I need to be down there close to the…the…dirt.” Her face was almost comical as she spoke the last word. Her confusion and disgust for wanting to lie in the dirt was evident.

  Matteo chuckled softly, just the way Jenda most loved. “There’s no reason to be worried. Those are a vampire’s natural instincts. The sun is usually our enemy. It is supposed to frighten you, to make you want to sleep, and send you scurrying into the deepest, darkest hole you can find like any nocturnal creature. I feel the same as you my dear.”

  They stood silently embracing each other after that as the sky changed from a colorful palette into different variations of blue. At last, the pure blue of a winter sky blanketed the horizon and the first rays of sun softly gleamed through the uncovered windows and peeked through the gaps and holes in the rundown shack. The dust swirled and danced in the streams of light and each particle was magnified a thousand times by the vampire eyes watching.