Requiem of Humanity

by Catherine Stovall

  “He swept me into his arms and vowed that he was in love at first sight. I couldn’t stop the pounding in my chest. My dreams of grandeur stood in front of me at last. Then Augustine did the most peculiar thing. The children had been waiting quietly behind me. Augustine stepped away from me and seemed to appraise the children with a calculating eye. He paid little attention to Jenny, spending only a second to look her over. Lucy held his interest. She stood there in the doorway of the house holding a candle in one hand and the other was tightly clasped around the cross that she wore around her neck. At first I was jealous, what would any man be looking at that child for? She was barely sixteen and her religious zeal made her ugly despite her beautiful appearance.

  “My jealousy was quickly dispatched when Augustine began to laugh. He looked to me and said something about how the child must think he is the devil. Her peculiarity must certainly worry me. I reassured him that Lucy was just praying that he would stay and become her Papa. I then sent the girls to their beds; after all, there was business to discuss. That was the longest night I can ever recall.

  “Augustine took no delicate approach. Once we were sure that the children were asleep, he began at once to tell me that he knew of my misdeeds. He laid it all out, every little detail. He even knew about Kornelius in the old country. I was terrified, trapped, and helpless. I began to beg him not to turn me in. I pleaded with him to understand the misguided intentions I had about simply wanting a better life and how none of the men had ever kept their promises. Augustine sat quietly with a smile on his face. I believe I would borrow your description of Matteo here to say that he greatly resembled the Cheshire Cat.

  “He stood then and pulled me into his arms with a great thunderous laugh. The words he spoke made no sense to me. I stared at him in confusion and fear. It was then that I thought that I had seen his eyes change a bit. Just a slight shift in color but my mind was so clouded by the fear, I never had a chance to process what that change might mean.

  “His voice was deep and raw as if he were consumed with passion as he said, ‘Dear Belle, do you not understand? I am not here to condemn you or turn you in. I am here to offer you my companionship.’ He explained quietly what he was and I believed him because the proof was there holding me hostage in his eyes.

  “I felt the sting of his teeth in my neck and felt the swoon of dizziness as he began to lap my life’s blood. Then just as quickly, he pushed me away. I felt cold all over. His skin had been like ice but his deadly embrace had been fire. Without the nearness of him, I shivered. I began to weep, thinking he had only been toying with me. I was going to die at the hands of this man whom I desperately wanted to love.

  “He hissed and spat blood on to the floor. ‘You are with child!’ He exclaimed it as if that was a fact and that it was the same as poisoning him. I stammered, I had not known. Maybe I had already suspected it but I had not truly known. I begged him to forgive me my ignorance and told him that I cared nothing for the child inside me. We would go to the doctor’s and they would rid my body of its poisonous presence. I was desperate to earn his approval and love.

  “He seemed to calm down and consider the situation for a painfully long moment. He reclaimed his seat and pulled me down next to him. I nestled my head into his shoulder and waited for his decision.

  “He explained to me that he could not make the changes necessary until I had birthed the child because the abortion would weaken me, and it was also not an option. Together we made plans. We sat together for the remainder of the night planning and conspiring. I remained nestled there against him, loving the chill of his body more than I had ever enjoyed the heat of any man’s passion.

  “Finally, as dawn neared we had set our plans. I would birth the child and live for two years as I had been. I would be allowed to continue my quest for money and companionship as I had done before. At the end of those two years, my body would once more be capable of enduring the change and I would live forever. I was frightened and begged him to stay with me but he told me to stay my childish behavior. He would come often and together we would continue his research. He was going to build an army of night walkers and reclaim the world once again.

  “He kissed me quickly and left the house just as the sky began to turn. He was gone before the first rays of the sun could kiss the barren winter fields. I went to my bed and watched the sunrise through my window. It all seemed as if it had been a dream. That was until Lucy burst through the door. She ranted, raved, and accused me of having alliances with the devil. She swore that she had seen me murder Paul and that I must repent. I smacked her across her round little cheek and knocked her to the floor. She quivered in fear as I stood over her and I told her then that an ungrateful child would not remain under my roof.

  “She begged for her life and I helped her off the cold floor boards. I held her to me and promised her that she only had to be patient and I would make everything all right. With her small hand still pressed against the angry red whelp I had left on her cheek, she wept. I told her to trust me and sent her to cook breakfast for Jenny while I rested. I knew then that something would have to be done about Lucy.”

  Belle stood from the chair then and faced the windows along the side of the room. Jenda followed her gaze. She realized that dawn was quickly approaching. The sky was a smoky dark blue and the light of the remaining night stars was twinkling faintly still. The forest that lay down the slope and ranged for what seemed hundreds of miles was still blackened by darkness. This only made the illumination in the sky more pronounced. The picturesque view beyond the house was startling in comparison to the hateful visions Belle’s story had left in her mind.

  “Well children,” Belle addressed Jenda and Matteo without actually looking at either. “I hadn’t planned the story to eat away the night and the deeds I had planned do not hold their magic once the sun’s rays have kissed the world. Let us retire to our rooms and we will meet again tomorrow. One day is nothing when you have waited several lifetimes.” With that said Belle gathered her skirts and swiftly left the room.

  Matteo lifted the tiny silver bell from the table and rang it. How ridiculous it looked, a man of his size and demeanor tinkling that obnoxious little trinket. Maya entered the room meekly. Matteo spoke gently to the girl, “Maya, please get Jonathan and make sure that Jenda is returned safely to her chambers.” The girl nodded in response and left as quietly as she entered.

  He turned to Jenda then, and his eyes blazed that chilling blue. He took a small step towards her and she backed away. Unconsciously shielding her face with her hands, Jenda’s face contorted in mute horror. She didn’t want him to touch her; she didn’t want to feel the swoon, or the passion. He was evil and he was, despite anything he claimed, a monster hidden inside the body of a man.

  “Jenda, please.” He almost sounded weak as he spoke the words gently. “I know that this all must seem terrible to you and I know you can’t begin to understand but you must trust me. It will be so much better in the end.” He hadn’t moved any closer but he held his hand out to her, pleading with his eyes for her to come to him. She almost did. Her strength almost faltered. She needed someone to hold her and tell her that it would all be okay and in this house of horrors, he seemed to be her only friend. Yet something inside her grew cold, almost as cold as his skin had been on her own.

  “No, Matteo. I am not going to play into this.” Her voice was much more controlled than she had imagined it would be. “I am not just some flippant little girl who will overlook the pure fact that you and your kind our evil. I will not be charmed by your falsehood; you are a demon and a monster.” She stood now, green eyes blazing with pure hatred and disgust. She no longer shielded her face but stood, determined and looking into Matteo’s soulless eyes.

  Before he could respond Maya returned with a handsome boy about Jenda’s age beside her. Jenda could tell that he was not another human servant. He was a vampire. His skin had obviously once been a golden tan and some color still lingered there. His
eyes shone a deep golden color. He would have looked like any handsome, all American boy if it wouldn’t have been for the look of deep contempt he wore on his face.

  When he spoke, his voice did not hold the lyrical hum of Matteo’s or the thick buttery music of Belle’s. It was a clipped and irritated sound. “So, I’m to escort the little wretch now? What’s wrong, Matteo, afraid she’ll bite?” His arrogance was typical of all the normal teenage boys that Jenda knew but underneath that normalcy, there was the inner rage of a beast.

  Matteo ignored the boy’s remarks and simply addressed Maya. “Make sure she is taken straight to her chambers. No little detours.” Then looking directly at the one he called Jonathan, “No midnight snacks either. If you harm a single hair on her head you will not answer only to me, Chico, you will be answering to the Lady.” Matteo then left the room without a word to Jenda. She hated that she felt slighted by his indifference to her in front of the others. Hadn’t she just told him she hated him and that he was a monster? Why did she suddenly see the lie in her words now when she had meant them so much only moments before?

  17

  Soborgne paced the small cell. Waiting and thinking. That’s what she had done all night. She had waited for someone to come. Yet no one had. She had slept on and off through the night and her impatience was growing inside her. Along with that frustration, she could feel the other sensation growing as well. She had thought about it and she knew what it was now. It was hunger. Hunger for blood and death, it was a hunger that would heal her body and clear her mind. It was pleasure and pain. It was heaven and hell.

  She knew what had happened to her. The blood from the servant girl had helped the blocks her mortal mind had thrown up. She remembered the pain, the fear, and she remembered the ruthlessness she had been treated with. There had been the woman with the golden curls and shining blue eyes. The woman attacked. She drained most of Soborgne’s blood and then had left it poured on top of her car. The woman bound her hands and feet and threw her into the backseat of a car.

  Soborgne was barely conscious when they arrived at the compound. She could feel herself slipping away. That’s when the first transfusion had come.The tall dark-haired one entered the room and the woman told him to treat Soborgne. He slit his own wrist and shoved it inside her mouth. She tried to fight but he held her and forced her to swallow. It burned her deeply. The searing pain made her want to scream and tears stung her eyes. She blacked out then. The loss of blood and the pain had been too much.

  He had only given her enough to keep her alive. Her body was still living but her mind floated in dreams and nightmares. Sometimes she thought they were speaking but she couldn’t be sure she had really heard them and not her own feverish mind. She heard them say Jenda’s name and they spoke of something called the Gift. It sounded important but she couldn’t hold on to the fragments long enough to understand what it all meant. Then dreamless darkness enveloped her.

  The next thing she remembered was being strapped to a table. Before this memory had been gauzy and unclear but now it was a movie playing in high def. The clarity of it still made her flinch from the pain. The man and woman were arguing. He didn’t want to continue the process. He was afraid that it would kill the girl. He said it was too much too soon. They should take it slow. The woman dismissed him and said they would continue. She wanted to test her new theory and if they killed the human girl there were others just like her.

  A second transfusion began, this time it came by a more traditional method. An IV tube was run into Soborgne’s arm and the thick red liquid was pumping slowly through it. It set Soborgne’s veins on fire as if they were filled with gasoline and someone had lit a match where the needle entered her flesh. She writhed in agony but could not free herself from the bonds that held her. Finally, the woman told the man to stop. She didn’t want to change Soborgne quite yet. The woman drank from Soborgne’s wrist before leaving.

  She had awoken several times to the same situation over the next few days. The woman and the man speaking in hushed voices, the burning pain from the blood they were forcing into her body, and then darkness. It always ended in the same way, with the woman saying it was time to stop and then drinking from Soborgne.

  She understood now that they were experimenting on her. Playing Devil and God while preparing her to make a change, she knew she would become like them in the end. The only other clear memory she had was when she had attacked the servant girl. She understood from those few recollections that she was not quite human and yet she wasn’t a vampire yet. She was somewhere in between but she was sure she was now more parasite than human.

  This is why she waited, she needed more answers; she needed to know if Jenda still lived. She wanted to know if her friend was suffering the same fate as she did. Her mental babbling was stopped short by the sound of footsteps. She knew it was not another human because there was no sound other than the steps. A human’s arrival would have been obvious by the thrumming sound; vampires’ hearts did not beat.

  Soborgne stood facing the iron bars and listened closely to the visitor’s descent. Then suddenly the footsteps ceased and a man appeared as if from nowhere. She hadn’t wanted to be caught off guard but his sudden presence startled Soborgne and she shrank a few steps back. It was the man who had bled her and then had given the burning blood to her repeatedly.

  18

  Jenda was still fuming from the way Matteo had left her carelessly with the vampire boy, Jonathan, and the servant girl, Maya. When Jonathan grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her towards the door, she let out a little scream. He barred his teeth menacingly at her and growled deep in his throat.

  “Come now, Princess, let’s have none of that girlishness. I am not as afraid of Matteo and the Lady as they think. If you push me I will harm more than just one of those coppery little hairs on your pretty little head.” Somehow, coming from Jonathan the word pretty sounded like a cuss word.

  Maya followed them meekly but her amber eyes flashed with alertness. Jenda knew, if Jonathan turned too rough, that the girl would flee to summon Matteo or Belle but she wasn’t sure that Jonathan wouldn’t just dispatch the both of them on a whim. The boy seemed very unstable and Jenda wondered if he was as young in the blood as he was in age. Maybe some people went insane when they were turned into blood sucking monsters.

  He pushed her roughly through the halls and she made a conscious effort not to cry out each time his powerful fingers bit into the tender flesh of her upper arm. The silence was deafening as they made their way towards Jenda’s room. Once in awhile, Jenda would catch Jonathan stealing a glance at her through the corner of his eye. She could feel the turmoil inside the boy stirring. She imagined that if she could see inside his mind it would be full of swirling black clouds and ominous thunder.

  Finally, they reached the door to her room. She expected them to shove her inside and lock her away but Jonathan apparently had different ideas. He quickly stepped inside and slammed the door shut behind them, leaving Maya standing in the hall. Jenda could hear the girl’s muffled cries through the door and she hoped that Matteo could be reached in time.

  Jonathan pushed her roughly up against the door and pressed himself close to her. His eyes were black holes of ebony glass as he smiled at her. “You know you are quite an attractive little thing, Princess. I can see what Matteo sees in you, if I look past the annoyance of your beating heart.” As he spoke, he traced his finger down the tendon in her neck, along her collar bone, and down between her breasts. As he said the word heart, Jonathan’s hand cupped around Jenda’s breast in a painful hold.

  She gasped in pain and terror, trying with all her strength to push him away. He only laughed at her efforts and held himself against her that much more. With his free hand, he wrenched her neck to the side and placed a chilling kiss where the artery throbbed beneath her warm, white skin. His lips felt like ice cubes being gently pressed against her throat and she uttered a moan of terror that he mistook for pleasure. His cool breath tick
led her ear as he whispered to her that if she wanted passion she shouldn’t play with a crone like Matteo.

  Jenda was so frightened that she couldn’t think and couldn’t move. She was going to die now by the hands of a teenage monster if she didn’t think of something. She tried to reason with Jonathan. Tried to convince him that his demise would not be worth the small amount of pleasure he’d derive from this act. “If you do this,” she stuttered, “they will kill you. Matteo and Belle will not let you live if you harm me. Matteo said so himself.” Jonathan only chuckled.

  He released the painful grip on her breast and relief filled Jenda. Maybe he was listening, starting to see the folly in his ways. Instead, he grasped the front of her dress and ripped it down the front. Jenda screamed and instinct took over. She jerked her knee up into Jonathan’s groin and shoved at his chest as hard as she could. He didn’t have the reaction that a normal boy would have but the maneuver gave her enough space to escape being pinned against the door.

  Jenda backed away, searching hopelessly for something she could use to defend herself. The boy’s eyes had taken on the crimson hue that Jenda knew now was blood lust. She was powerless against him. He would rape her and then kill. Inside her head, she chanted a mantra consisting of only two desperate words, “Matteo come. Matteo come. Matteo come.”

  Jonathan was once again advancing on her but his pleasant smile was replaced by a menacing snarl. She tried to run but he was much faster than she was. A sudden pain shot through her scalp as he caught her by the back of the hair and hauled her against him. The impact with his hard body knocked the breath from her. His arm snaked around her torso like an iron bar and she felt an explosion of pain as one of her ribs cracked under the pressure. His hand still in her hair, Jonathan jerked her head to the side, baring her throat. He uttered a moan of satisfaction that ended in a growl of fierce hunger. Jenda sucked in a deep, painful gulp of air and then she screamed.