Black Hellebore

by Maya Shepherd

  “Chasity loved you. In her eyes you were part of her family.”

  “I know. I wish I could have been a better niece. Can you tell her that when she wakes up?”

  Claudia nods and presses her lips firmly together, her eyes uncharictaristically shimmering with tears. She steps back as Victor steps forward. With one swift move he open the door, and a frightened tremor goes through the crowd and the murmering begins. Everyone shouts as they shield their eyes and step as far back into the shadows as possible, and even Mary steps back in fear. Her courage and self-confidence are gone, and she realises just how much she is still clinging to the idea of surviving this nightmare. After all: she never really had a proper life to begin with.

  “I would like to say that I wish you a good morning Mary. How about you head outside and take a nice little stroll in the sun?” Victor asks triumphantly.

  Claudia rolls her eyes.

  “Leave your joking Victor, nobody finds it funny!”

  Mary peers through her hand at the courtyard and after her eyes adjust to the bright light, she realises how beautiful the sight is. Dew has settled on the frozen lawn and in the leaves on the trees and the light sun rays bounce off their wet surfaces. The previous night’s rain sparkles on the white stone statues and benches. There is a fountain in the middle of the courtyard which is quietly splashing water around. But the most amazing sight of all is the rainbow that is floating in the sky. It seems to be there just for her eyes, and looks like a bridge to another world. Even Vivienne stares out into the yard, fascinated by the beauty of it all, hardly able to tear her gaze away.

  “To make sure we are adhering to the rules, I am forced to ask this question; does anybody here wish to take Mary’s place in the sentence being carried out here today?” Victor pipes up as he stares around the room. It rarely happens, and yet it remains a part of their law. The one who takes the punishment for someone else’s wrongdoings can consider themselves cleansed and absolved of all sin.

  “No? Well then...go ahead Mary!”

  “I will go!” Vivienne suddenly shouts loud and clear. Mary’s eyes spring open in shock, as does everyone else’s. Claudia shakes her head.

  “No.”

  “You are Cain’s vessel” Victor yells in outrage and the murmurs start to spread around the room again, but Vivienne steps forward and walks towards Mary, taking her small trembling hand in hers one last time.

  “I am sorry about what I said to you. I am proud of you. You did exactly the right thing and now it is my turn.”

  Mary’s eyes fill with tears.

  “This is not right. You haven’t done anything wrong. I am the one who turned the girl and I am the one who let Orlando go free, not you.”

  Her confession about Lia is a shock to the vampires. Mary’s words absolve Orlando of any guilt.

  “Even if it can’t be seen clearly, you have grown so much today. You have grown up, my little girl. My work here is done and I want to give you the chance to finally live free. The world is so big and you have not seen any of it.” Vivienne bends down towards her, her violet scent wafting towards Mary as the dark skinned beauty kisses her first on the left cheek, and then on the right.

  “I love you. You are the only daughter I have ever had, and I couldn’t have asked for a better one.

  Mary throws herself into Vivienne’s arms as she sobs.

  “No, I don’t want you to go. This isn’t right!” she wails and wraps her arms around Vivienne’s waist. Vivienne tries to push her away and when this doesn’t work, she looks pleadingly towards Claudia, who nods with tears streaming down her flawless face as well. Forcefully, but also comfortingly, she pulls the crying and screaming Mary away from Vivienne and presses her firmly against herself.

  Vivienne glances at the gathered vampires and smiles.

  “I have lived long enough. No one person should live this long. We are not made for immortality.”

  She turns around and without any hesitation, walks out into the sun. Her body doesn’t even twitch as the light rays of the early winter morning sunlight touch her body. She glides light as a feather out into the courtyard, while her clothes burst into flames, followed by her hair and then her body. It almost seems like she is dancing, before all that remains of her is a pile of ash.

  Vivienne’s honourable sacrifice does not comfort Mary; it makes her hate herself even more as she sobs. Claudia is whispering to her more gently than she ever thought possible that everything will be ok, but even this is no comfort to her. It is only when Orlando comes bursting through the back door with his coat over his head that she manages to raise her tear-stained face.

  He looks at the gathering in confusion.

  “You’re too late!” Mary shouts trembling with anger and storms towards him. Her fists speed towards his face, but she is too small and so she hits him several times over in the stomach. Orlando protectively holds up his hands and takes a step back.

  “What’s wrong? You are still alive!”

  “You horrible, selfish man! Vivienne sacrificed herself for her while you weren’t here!” Claudia confronts him angrily

  “She is dead?” Orlando asks, clearly affected as he tries to see through the crowd out into the courtyard.

  “She is nothing but ash!” Victor answers and shrugs his shoulders in disinterest. “But I don’t know what you are so worked up about. The little one just admitted that she was the one who turned the girl and not you. So it’s all good.”

  “Nothing is good!” Claudia and Mary shout out as if from the same mouth. Orlando looks at them baffled by the whole situation.

  “Vivienne was right about one thing. We have more important things to worry about than dealing with these little issues. Cain is waiting for us. The ship is leaving tonight and we have a long journey ahead of us. A little rest will do us all some good.” Victor says, seeming surprisingly judicious.

  To Mary this feels like a betrayal. Everyone disperses and leaves her alone back down in the cellar. Her tears force her to the ground, and rob her of her breath. She wishes for nothing more than to smell the sweet, comforting scent of violets. That is all she needs right now, but she knows deep in her heart that it is gone forever.

  - 26. Tru Wilson -

  Her eyes rest blankly on the sleeping Lia. Just yesterday she still looked awful, if not to say inhuman. Now she looks like innocence incarnate. Tru can’t tell whether or not Lia is really a vampire, because although there is the element of massive bloodthirst, it doesn’t seem like it’s actually the blood that she is after. Every bag of blood that Tru has offered to Lia has been turned away, and Tru is even starting to question whether it is actually Lia in there, or just an empty shell. She won’t speak to Mike or Lindsay and Tru has caught her speaking to herself several times. Something is very wrong there, but as long as Lia refuses to talk to her, she can’t help her. Lindsay says to just leave her in peace to rest, because she has gone through hell and back, but that is much easier said than done when she doesn’t seem to really recognise the people who supposedly mean the most to her.

  A quiet whimper escapes Lia’s throat as she turns restlessly onto her side. Tru quickly rushes to her and places her cold hand on her forehead. Her fever is gone, another factor in all of this that Tru can’t explain. Vampires don’t get fevers. Lia’s eyelids twitch erratically before they swing open. She seems confused, but as she recognises Tru, her whole body stiffens and she looks away. It has been the same way every time, and every time her reaction hurts Tru’s feelings. What did she do to deserve this treatment? It’s not her fault that this happened.

  “Are you hungry?” she tries again, but Lia just ignores her and turns her back to her.

  “Should I get Lindsay or Mike?”

  No reaction.

  Tru sighs in frustration. “Are you ever going to speak to me again?”

  Lia’s shoulders stiffen, but nothing else happens. Disappointed, Tru turns her back to Lia as well and walks across the creaking floorboards to the do
or.

  “This pillow smells like you” Lia’s quiet, weak voice breaks the silence. Tru stops in surprise with the door handle in her hand, and she turns on the spot.

  “It’s my bed” she explains and notices Lia’s eyes looking around her room. She lies on her back and intently examines the shelves full of books piled on top of each other in no apparent order. Her eyes wander over to the open doors of the mahogany wardrobe, where a similar chaos reigns. There is a mountain of clothes; black, blue, dark green and brown. Her wandering gaze fixes on the sheer light blue curtains through which the soft light of the hazy twilight can be seen. The sky is pink. She has slept the whole day through, and for the most part, without any problems.

  “Should I change the sheets? I didn’t think of it in all of the uproar.”

  “No, I like how you smell” Lia says and turns towards Tru for the first time, looking at her with sad eyes.

  Tru hesitantly steps towards her.

  “If I bury my face deep enough into the pillow, then I can pretend like none of this has happened.”

  Even though Lia’s words are anything but happy, a huge wave of relief washes over Tru because she is actually speaking to her again. She wearily sits on the edge of the double bed. The silence between them is deafening, and so Tru feels like she needs to say something.

  “I’m sorry...” She says at the same time as Lia.

  They look at each other in astonishment.

  “I am sorry that I insulted you and didn’t listen to you. I had no right to do that. I didn’t even give you the chance to explain yourself. If I could go back and change it then I would.” Lia blurts out and sits up straight. “Sorry, I just interrupted you again.” She adds as she looks at the light blue diamond pattern on the blanket.

  Tru laughs in a way that she hasn’t heard herself laugh for what seems like an eternity. It is pure relief. She hugs Lia tightly against herself and is glad to still be able to smell a trace of her usually powerful strawberry-like scent. So there is still hope.

  “And I am sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner.”

  Lia smiles shyly at her. “Everyone has their little or big secrets.”

  Tru looks at her sternly.

  “But I don’t want to keep any more secrets from you. I have been alone far too long because of that. Do you want me to tell you my story?”

  Without hesitation, Lia nods and hangs on Tru’s every word. She inhales deeply. It is time to forget the past and start over.

  “I am not like Orlando, because I am not a vampire; at least not entirely. According to folklore, the most appropriate name for me would be a dhampire. That means that my father was a vampire, and my mother a human. It is not quite the beautiful love story that you would hope for. My father murdered my mother right after she gave birth to me, because he didn’t care about her; she was just a means to an end for him. I was raised like a soldier; my sole purpose was to serve him. But he forgot that every human is born with a will to survive.”

  She stops for a moment as Lia watches her in anticipation.

  “What happened?” Lia whispers.

  “I found my calling with him. I am a vampire hunter and he was my first victim. It might seem pretty horrible to you that I have killed my own father, but believe me, the word father couldn’t have been any more misplaced with him. He never had one nice word to say to me, if I didn’t do exactly as he said, then I would get beaten. The scars that you have asked me so many times about are his doing.”

  Lost in thought, she gently strokes the wafer thin scars on her hands. The memory still pains her as much as it did all those years ago.

  “But that was nothing compared to some of his other ‘methods of upbringing’, as he called them. One time I snuck out of the house and went to a playground. I met a little boy there who couldn’t have been older than eight, just like me. We played together in the sandbox, as...” Her mouth warps in disgust “father came and saw us together, and so he took the boy and sucked every drop of blood from his body in front of me. He then forced me to cut the body into pieces, put those pieces into a box, and place it on his mother’s doorstep.”

  Tru swallows hard as her lips and hands tremble. Lia sympathetically places her hand on Tru’s. She is warm.

  “I moved around more times than I can recall. From that day onwards, I never had another friend or any kind of relationship with another human being. My father’s death was my salvation.”

  Tru’s breathing is frantic. She is completely worked up just thinking about that horrible time.

  “As a dhampire, I am different to vampires in certain ways. I possess the same supernatural powers, but the sunlight doesn’t harm me. I am not a creature of the night like they are. My heart beats.”

  She grabs Lia’s hand and presses it onto the left side of her chest where her heart is. It beats wild and fast under Lia’s fingertips, which suddenly start to tingle. Goosebumps have also started to spread over Tru’s body. She let’s Lia’s hand go, but she doesn’t move it.

  Tru looks uncertainly at her. “I am alive” she manages to say.

  Lia nods and places Tru’s hand over her own heart. It is not as strong and easy to feel as Tru’s heartbeat, but there is still a weak pounding to be felt. It is as gentle and barely noticeable as the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings. There is her proof. Whatever Lia has become, she certainly is not a vampire.

  “Unfortunately I am just as bloodthirsty as the vampires. But as opposed to them, I have not killed another human since the day I freed myself from my father. Whenever I can, I get myself some blood bags, but otherwise I just settle for animal blood. It doesn’t fill you up for as long as human blood does, but it is better for a clean conscience. Vampires do not have a conscience; they are cold-blooded murderers. The bloodlust in them is far too strong to feel anything of the sort.”

  “How do you know that?” Lia says brashly and tears her hand away from Tru’s chest, but keeps a hold of her hand.

  “My father is the prime example, and every vampire that I have killed since was no different. I caught all of them red handed as they were killing humans. They didn’t care whether it was a child, a mother or a father. They didn’t think about whose life they destroyed with their deed. They don’t care, because the most important thing to them is themselves.”

  “And if I had become a vampire?” Lia stops. “Would you have killed me too?”

  “You are not a vampire.”

  “Would you?”

  Tru swallows. “No.”

  “Not all vampires are the same, just as much as every human is different. Orlando is different.”

  Tru tears her hand away from Lia in frustration.

  “Definitely not. You wanted to know how I knew him, well I know him because he is number one on my hit list. You can’t and don’t want to imagine the amount of women he has killed this year alone. I was on his trail, and then you showed up.”

  “Maybe he has changed”

  “Why would he? He is dead. Vampires don’t change.”

  “He saved me from Bradley and didn’t try to bite me.” Lia argues. She doesn’t want to deny that Orlando has probably had less honourable times in his life, but she never saw that side of him.

  “He didn’t bite you because he couldn’t! Your blood has its own defence mechanism of sorts. It is poisonous to him.”

  ‘Do you know what makes the black hellebore so special? It is beautiful to look at, but its sap is poisonous, if not deadly. You remind me of them.’

  Orlando’s words echo in her head and when she thinks about them, she feels that Tru is right.

  “How do you know that?”

  Tru hesitates. “When I found out that you were his new chosen victim, I had to stay close to you so I could follow him.”

  Lia looks angrily at Tru. “That was you!” she suddenly shouts at her. “Do you have any idea how scared I was all the time? I constantly had the feeling that I was being followed! I thought I was going crazy!”

 
Tru tries to calm her and raises her hands defensively.

  “I am sorry. I never wanted to harm you but it was my only chance to get close to him.”

  Lia’s eyes narrow. “Does that mean that you only became my friend to get closer to Orlando?”

  “No!” Tru replies immediately as Lia stands up in front of her.

  “I...I...” she can’t find the right words. “It was practical.”

  Feeling wounded Lia stares at her. “I thought you liked me.”

  “I would never have let him hurt you in any way.” Tru tries to make it all better and calm Lia down. She can’t tell her that she means more to her than she will ever know. She can’t say that she would have loved nothing more than to stop the whole thing. She can’t tell her that she almost went crazy with jealousy when she knew that Lia was with Orlando. There was only one night when Tru wasn’t there, and that was the night Lia died.

  The door swings open and Mike enters the room followed by Lindsay.

  “I have it!” he calls triumphantly and then his eyes stop on Lia, who is still standing in front of Tru.

  “You are awake...” he says quietly. Lia’s irritated face quickly turns up into a gentle smile.

  She nods.

  Mike returns her smile, and Lindsay cheers for joy and with two dance-like skips she makes her way over to hug her best friend tightly.

  “You gave me a good scare there. Don’t do that again! It was pretty creepy finding you standing naked in the forest and then you puked up all that black stuff!”

  “Lindsay!” Mike scolds her and steps forward to give Lia a hug. The hug goes on just a little bit too long for Lindsay’s liking, and so she pouts her lips in protest to try and keep her snarky comment to herself. Tru is standing to the side and feels totally out of place in her own home.

  “What did you find out?” she says, trying to go back to what Mike first said. His expression brightens for a moment as he starts waving some printed pages in front of her face.

  “I figured out what Lia is.”

  “WE figured it out.” Lindsay comments and winks encouragingly at Lia. “You are not a vampire.”