by Dani Hoots
Jack was still awake, and sat up in his makeshift camp bed when he saw me enter.
“Amalia, what are you doing here so late?” he whispered, knowing that it could be bad if someone found me in his tent at this hour. I admit, it wasn’t the greatest idea, but I didn’t know where else to go, who else to turn to. I didn’t want to worry too much about rumors circulating about my improper behavior, when this situation set before me demanded urgent action.
“I’m not,” I rubbed my head. “I’m just not feeling that great.”
“Did I get you sick?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, it’s not what you have... It’s something else,” I sat down next to him, debating if I should tell him the truth. “Something strange happened last night to me.”
“Oh, what’s that?”
“I... thought I saw something, someone, in the forest.”
Jack placed his hand on mine. It felt cold with sweat but I didn’t mind. “Did they hurt you? Are you okay?”
“I...” I was about to answer the question when I noticed a cut on his hand. “What happened to your hand?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just caught it on a piece of wood on my bed. You know how splinters are,” he tried to smile, but started coughing instead. I stared at the cut, detecting the same scent that accompanied the blood of the deer carcass in the tent. I couldn’t move my eyes away from his cut; I had to have the blood pouring freely from it. I had to consume it.
My hand slowly made its way to Jack’s wrist. I stroked his skin slowly, captivated by the red blood that had begun to fall down his arm. I’m not sure at that moment if he thought I was being strange, or if he thought I was showing him affection. All I knew is that the world around me had stopped and all I could focus on was that blood giving off the most delicious scent that I had ever breathed.
“Amalia, there is something that I have been wanting to tell you...” Jack began. I wanted to look at him in the eyes, but I couldn’t help but to stare at the cut, my eyes locked in place. “I just... I really care for you. I didn’t want to say anything in fear that I may lose this battle against the sickness and I didn’t want to place such a burden on you, but I feel like you need to know the truth. Amalia, I love you.”
I wanted to tell him the same thing, which was that I truly loved him as well and I would do whatever it takes to heal him of this sickness. But I couldn’t. I felt as if nothing else around me mattered except that pull inside myself, making me want to sip the blood dripping down his arm. The pain ached inside of me, and the only way I could satisfy it was to drink that blood.
I grabbed Jack’s wrist and pulled the cut to my mouth.
“Amalia, what are you doing?” he asked slowly.
Without warning, I bit down on his arm, the delicious liquid trailing down my throat once more. This time it was different, though, this time it was much sweeter and much more satisfying. It brought so much energy to my veins.
Jack screamed out and tried to pull his arm away. I let go of his wrist, his yelling bringing me out of my trance. Then it hit me, I had tried to kill my best friend. I had tried to kill the person who just confessed his love to me.
“What is wrong with you? What are you?” he looked at me as if I were some monster. My heart felt like it dropped to the bottom of my stomach. How could he look at me like that when moments earlier he was happy to see me? I thought out of all the people, he would be the one who would understand. I was wrong.
The flap to the tent opened and I turned to find Madam Sonia standing there. I don’t know what she saw when she looked at me but her skin turned deathly white.
“No, this can’t be possible,” she covered her mouth. “Strigoi... Strigoi!” she called out to the camp.
She saw what I was; I couldn’t deny it any longer. The strigoi was not part of a nightmare, it had been real. And I had been turned into the creature that my village greatly feared. “No, Mama, I’m not what you think—”
“Get away from me, you demon!” she yelled.
My heart sank in my chest. My own mother couldn’t look at me; she couldn’t face the creature I had become. I was confused, and afraid as to what was going to happen. She was the only one who could have helped me sort this all out, but she had turned her back on me just as Jack did. I didn’t understand, I didn’t want to believe it, yet here she was, calling me a demon.
I ran out of the tent in shock, and I fearfully saw the occupants of the camp begin to circle me with undisguised anger, holding up both knives and torches. All of them wanted me destroyed. I couldn’t believe it, after all this time they would betray me this easily.
Madam Sonia held up her hand, but I could see the sadness in her eyes as she looked down at me. “She is a strigoi, she is an enemy of this camp.”
“Mama, please,” I begged. “I am still your daughter.”
She shook her head and I watched as a tear left her eye. She didn’t want to hurt me, but I could see that she had no other choice in order to keep the camp safe. “No, you are a curse to us. You must be burned before you hurt anyone else. I will not let this burden affect the camp. Not again. You already bit Jack, and it is only a matter of time before he turns now.”
“I didn’t mean to. I won’t do it again, I swear,” tears were running down my face. “I just want to be home and to be with my family.”
She shook her head. “No, you are a demon cast upon us as a curse. You must be destroyed before he can get his hands on you.”
“What are you talking about...?” I began as the people circling me started to come even closer near me with a more antagonistic stance. They held their torches and knives a little higher in their hands. My heart was beating fast as I looked every which way for some means of escape from them, my family. It ached my heart to think that they would turn on me like this, not letting me tell them what had happened. But the fear of the strigoi had been passed down by many generations, and I couldn’t help but understand their actions, even though it hurt me inside to fathom them. But I couldn’t let them catch me, nor could I let them kill me. I had an urge to survive, even though I even considered myself a monster at this point. I had to run; I had to be free of them. The only way to do that was to run straight into the woods and to never look back.
And that was exactly what I did.
I didn’t know if it was the fear of them capturing me or if it had more to do with my being a strigoi now, but I felt as if I could suddenly run faster than I ever had been able to in my entire life. It was as if I was hyperaware of everything around me. This newly discovered ability was bound to be my way of guaranteed escape from being killed by my own camp. Who knew that in a short span of time that I’d go from “one of the tribe” to exiled renegade? I would mull over it later, right now I had to figure out how to get away from all the people that were after me.
In addition to my newly acquired powers, I fortunately knew these woods like the back of my hand, for I had spent a lot of the time out in the woods foraging for any berries and plants that had healing properties. I also knew all the best hiding spots—none of which they knew anything about. I would get away from them eventually; I just had to run fast enough away from them.
As I kept running, I felt something pull me back. I tried to scream but the person who had caught up with me put their hand over my mouth.
“Shh, it’s alright. I won’t let them hurt you,” a man’s voice whispered in my ear.
I kept struggling but it was no use, he was stronger than me. I watched as the hunting party ran by, not noticing us as we hid ourselves in the nearby bushes. After a few moments, they were out of sight. The man finally let go of me then. I spun around and faced him. He had dark hair and the shadows of the night masked his light-skinned face. He wasn’t someone I had ever seen in the camp or in the towns I had been in, but I swore he looked familiar. Something about him made me feel calm, as if I could trust him with my life. I didn’t know where it came from, but at least my heart was no longer racing and I no
longer feared that the people of my camp would catch up with me. Yet, my relaxed nerves worried me even more.
I backed away from the man. “Who are you?”
“I am just like you, a strigoi on the run from humans,” he explained, flashing his long canines at me. “I saw you were being chased, so I knew I had to help.”
I shook my head. “No, there aren’t any strigoi in these woods that weren’t already driven out long ago. How could one of you still exist? I don’t believe you! You are trying to trick me!”
He grabbed my arm and tried to calm me down before I could run off in the other direction. As his hand touched my arm, I felt as if my worries were driven away. “I’m not trying to trick you, I am just trying to help you. I know what it’s like to be driven out of a home for becoming a monster. Just let me help you.”
“How did you become a strigoi? How do I know you aren’t just going to kill me?” I asked, even though it didn’t feel like I was really worried about it, yet something inside of me wanted to ask those questions.
He sighed. “The same way you did, by the man with the violin.”
I felt as if my heart skipped a beat. The man with the violin. Was he out there at that moment? Would he come for me and kill me? Or did he just make me a strigoi and let me out into the world, hoping I would cause havoc? I had so many unanswered questions in my head; I just didn’t know what to do, nor who to trust. All I wanted was to go home, but I knew that would never happen.
“Why did he turn me? Why did he turn you? I don’t understand,” I muttered as I ran my hands frantically through my hair.
The man shook his head. “I’m not sure,” his eyes shot over to the side. “But we should get out of here. I’m afraid they may find us. I know a safe place we can hide; it’s where I stay most days.”
I debated letting him take me to his hiding spot, but I really didn’t have another choice. Something inside of me made me trust him and every time I started to question this feeling, something in my mind blocked the questions. There was something about him that felt almost unreal, as if I would do whatever he said without question. It made my body quiver, in fear there was something else going on, as if this was still all part of some dream. Every time my mind lingered at the thought, it seemed to just disappear into nothing and I was again faced with the dilemma of whether or not to go with him to the safe place he had. A strigoi or not, my camp wanted me dead and this man seemed to want to help. He seemed honest enough, especially since he had just saved me. He also knew what happened and for all I knew, he may have more answers as to why the man in the castle turned me.
“Fine, let’s go,” I said, even though I felt I would regret it later.
He led me deeper into the woods. I followed him closely, my heart jumping every time I heard a noise around us. For a moment, I was sure it was someone wanting to cut my head off and burn my body- any of my fellow tribe mates would do that without a moment of hesitation. I gulped. I couldn’t believe what mess I had found myself in. I couldn’t believe this was all due to some entrancing violin music, which put me under some crazy spell.
As we walked back, I replayed everything back in my mind from the night before. I did find a castle with the violin. This man had mentioned seeing me go in the castle, so it wasn’t all in my imagination after all. I couldn’t believe it. The strange man, who nearly killed me the night before, was indeed real. I started shaking, not able to take it in all at once. I was a creature, a monster, and everyone I knew for so many years now wanted me dead.
Except for this man.
Why was that? Since he was also obviously a strigoi, then he wouldn’t want one of his kind to be killed. Maybe he was lonely and needed a friend and just couldn’t stand by and watch me die. So many questions were running through my head. I wanted to ask him the questions that were running through my mind, but I had a feeling that he didn’t want me to make a sound.
The woods were eerie that night; I had never experienced them in such a way. I had never had to fear for my life while running through them before. Every wavering shadow the trees made by the moonlight felt as if it were going to attack me. I felt as if something out of nowhere would jump out of the darkness and devour me once and for all. Never had I feared for my life as much as I had that night.
As we came upon a large tree, the man I ran with began to slow down. He stopped in front of the tree that had large roots going through a rock. It didn’t appear to be anything special until he stood by the rock and pushed on one of the branches. Suddenly a piece of it opened and it opened up to a large room. It was a secret cave.
He gestured towards the inside of the house. “Welcome to my humble abode!”
I stepped inside and gasped. I couldn’t believe how large the interior main room was. Granted, it wasn’t anything special. A chair here, a table there, and a cot for a bed, but it was a lot nicer than I had imagined, standing on the outside and seeing only a rock and tangled net of tree roots. It was also more spacious and refined than a tent, so I really wasn’t one to judge.
“What is this place?” I asked as I peered around.
“Just a place where I can hide from the world. No light comes in during the day so I am able to stay out of the sun. It’s great, really. I don’t have to live in a grave like the stories led you to believe,” he smiled.
“Do you also have to stay out of the sun?” I questioned.
He nodded as he glanced out the door once more. “You won’t be able to stay in the sun any longer, now that you have had time to process the change. Usually after the first day, your body can no longer handle it and you will burn to ash from this point on. Believe me, I have tried to go out there during the day. It doesn’t work, and no it doesn’t just leave really bad sunburn.”
I couldn’t believe what he was saying. I would never be able to enjoy the warmth of the sun again. And, I wouldn’t be able to run in the words, during the light of the day, or see either my mother or Jack again. All the times I had help healed one of my camp members, one of my family, then they turned around and treated me like a monster. I had brought so much joy to them over the years and them to me. Yet one little mistake had led me into the woods at night, and led me to follow the music of the violin. Then everything I loved was taken away from me. I felt tears begin to form in my eyes.
The strigoi must have seen how upset I was about it all, for he suddenly wrapped his arms around me to try to console me. “It’s alright, don’t worry. I will help you through this.”
I felt strange being in this man’s arms all of a sudden, not even knowing his name. Although I had always believed that the strigoi would be cold, being in his embrace made me feel warm and calm. I felt as if I could be there forever, as if all the problems I had in this moment would go away. At the same time, though, it didn’t feel real and it was also not this person’s arms I wanted to be in. I had hoped that Jack would see me as the same person still and help me through this, but I guess I had asked too much of him. I mean, I was asking a lot for a whole camp that uniformly despised the strigoi. As for this man, he wanted to help for some reason and I wasn’t sure as to what reason he wanted to help me. “Why?”
“Why what?” he asked.
I stepped back and looked up at him. “Why would you care to help me? You don’t know me.”
He let out a breath. “I know more about you than you realize,” he sighed again. “There is a lot to explain, but I know why you were chosen to be turned into a strigoi and why you are one of the only ones who could hear the violin at night.”
Why didn’t he say that in the first place? It would have made me feel a lot more secure about trusting him, but him knowing about the violin made me begin to worry as to how long he had been watching me. “What? How?”
“As I said, it’s a long story. I have to start from the beginning,” he gestured to the chair. “Please, take a seat.”
I sat down on one of the chairs he had set out and waited for him to tell the story.
“It all started a century ago. The ancestors in your camp found a family of strigoi that lived in these woods. Long story short, the strigoi killed many in your camp and your great-great grandmother, along with other leaders, put a curse on them,”
I nodded. “Yes, my mother told me that story. But isn’t that it? She banished them from this land? Why are they reappearing now?”
“She didn’t banishe them, she trapped them within the castle boundaries and the castle wouldn’t appear to humans except on the three days of the full moon. On those three days, a human can enter the premises of the castle, but the strigoi cannot leave.”
So there was more to the story than my mother had told me. Did she not know that they were simply hidden, not actually banished from the land? “Do you know how she trapped them?”
“A very dangerous spell. Are you not the daughter of a Shuvani?” he asked.
I nodded slowly.
“So when you traveled out last night, during the first night of the full moon, you stumbled upon the castle and through that, the leader, Petru, figured out who you were and turned you into one of them.”
“Even if they were the stigoi that my great-great grandmother cursed, why would they turn me into one? What is the point? Wouldn’t they just have wanted to kill me and be done with it, out of revenge?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No, they would want you to suffer the same as they have. They want you to understand how they felt being trapped for so long and break their curse, since only the one with the same blood as the Shuvani that casted the spell can also lift it.”
So that was why they wanted me, because of what my great-great grandmother had done. She was powerful enough to bind them to that castle, and they thought that I was strong enough to break that curse. Was that why I had always heard the violin since I was a little girl? It was the strigoi calling out to me, waiting for the day I would waltz into the castle so that they could turn me and cause me the same pain that they felt? It seemed like something out of a ghost story, but I had to face the grim fact that it was true. The only problem was, I still didn’t understand who this man was and why he knew all about my family and this legend.
