Demise of the Vampire Queen

by Jodie Pierce

“No, no. It’s nothing like that,” Caleesy stated, still feeling anxious.

  “Well…what is it then, my dear?” the Queen asked, softening.

  “Well…he asked me out on a date the other night,” Caleesy confessed.

  “He did what?” the Queen shrieked. “Tell me more about this boy!”

  “Well…um. He showed up at my apartment the same day he met me at the Red Cross. I wasn’t aware that he even knew where I lived. He seemed very intelligent and kind at work that day, but I never thought in a million years that he was working up to asking me out.”

  “What is this vile creature’s name?” the Queen asked, grinding her teeth together and her face flushing.

  “Tuwa,” Caleesy answered. She watched the Queen as all the color ran out of her face, and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Why? Who is he?”

  “Tuwa was part of my life in a past time. I didn’t even know he still existed. He disappeared from my side during a fire raid from the villagers in the 1800s,” she said with fond memories.

  “What happened?” Caleesy prompted her.

  “He and I were…lovers,” the Queen started and looked at Caleesy to see a disapproving look from her. “We were together for centuries before that and survived many nuisances. However, this one particular evening, we were in the den of our lair. We walked alongside the villagers, dined with them, and attended their glamorous and entertaining extravaganzas. We stayed in for about a month so we had no knowledge of what was to befall us.

  “I sat there reading a book when the house started to smell like smoke. Tuwa came running down to the den and informed me that there were villagers outside our doors with torches. They had thrown a couple inside the open windows and were guarding all the exits. He said he would take care of the villagers in the front, which would leave me time to get to the top of our establishment and take flight. I…of course denied leaving him, but he insisted.

  “As I flew into the air, I saw the villagers converge on him outside our door. I was sure he was dead, so I left and found another place to stay. It was so lonely without him, and I cried for a week. I finally decided I had to suck it up and deal with the pain of losing him. After the grief came the rage. I was so mad at the world, my feedings became cruel, vicious, and unnecessary. Life became meaningless until I met the Count. He was my accountant before he became my Keeper. I tried to love him but Tuwa just couldn’t be replaced.

  “Eventually, the lovely Kendra came along, and though we didn’t get along at first, we became lovers, and that void in my heart started to fill, again. There is much more to this story that I don’t care to continue with this evening.

  “I’m sorry you had to deal with Tuwa, for I’m sure he’s going to use you to get to me. Please do not allow this to happen. Keep all your thoughts about me out of your head while around him, for he is a very powerful vampire, okay?” the Queen explained and begged.

  “I will, my Queen. I would never do anything to hurt you,” Caleesy said reassuringly and put the Queen’s hand in her own. “I owe you everything. You are my savior and my love. I will never betray you.”

  “Thank you. I know you won’t,” the Queen smiled and squeezed her hand inside Caleesy’s. The women kissed and parted for the evening as Caleesy had to work in the morning and the Queen was too upset to host her any longer.

  Where was Tuwa all this time? Why hadn’t he come to her sooner? Had something happened to him that he was unable to come to her? If so, what was so bad to keep him away? All of these thoughts ran through the Queen’s mind. She couldn’t believe he was alive and didn’t come to her, for they were inseparable during their time together.

  * * * *

  The Queen

  The Queen threw herself back into her school. Things had been lacking around there for almost a week after the Queen heard the news about Tuwa. She needed to erase him from her mind and get on with this century’s doings. She was in a foul mood, so she looked to her simple pleasures in school. She glided around the hallways of the school, tormenting the weak ones as she so often referred them. She would sneak up behind them and bellow their name from behind. Every time, the student would jump, drop their books, and kneel to the ground in front of her. It was a simple trick, but one she had to do at least once a day to make her own day bright. She enjoyed tormenting the weaker ones, for the others were more difficult. They lived through her tormenting in their first couple years but knew now that she had more kids to take their places.

  “Miss Amayia, where is your school pin? You know every member of my school is required to wear the pin I designed specifically for this school to signify you are a member here?”

  “I…uh…I,” the girl stammered as she dug down to the bottom of the bag her books were in. “I have it here somewhere,” she stuttered.

  “Somewhere? Somewhere? Do we all go around having our school pin somewhere?” she asked and spun around the corridor. Every student stopped and checked to make sure they had their pins on their shirts, so she would not bring her wrath down on them. The corridor was still and silent, with only the girl’s frantic fingernails scraping the bottom of her tote bag for the pin. She finally dropped her bag on the floor as the Queen glared down at her.

  “I…I must have…l…l…left it on yesterday’s shirt,” she stammered, again.

  “Yesterday? Do we not all have two pins for school?” she asked spinning around to look at the corridor. She was met with quiet agreement or silent nods before she turned her attention back to the young girl. “Well, since you have one pin missing and the other on yesterday’s shirt, you will come to the Devil’s Lambaste Chair for ten lashings, the cleaning of my linens, and any other things I can think of before you are done tonight!” The Queen snapped her fingers.

  The girl picked up her bag and silently followed the Queen out of the corridor with tears streaming down her face. It wasn’t until they were out of sight that the corridor went back to the usual hustle and bustle of changing classes. The Queen usually taught two class every day, so she had to hurry up to instruct the girl, give her the ten lashings, and make it to class on time.

  So what if I’m not on time to class. They’ll wait for me. She dragged the sobbing student behind her into the dungeon where the Devil’s Lambaste Chair waited. The minute the girl saw the chair, she started to wail and back away.

  “Do not be a coward, young vampire. You are going to experience much worse when you get out into the world on your own!” The Queen grabbed the girl, dragged her to the chair, bent her over the back, and strapped her in. She grabbed her favorite purple rattlesnake skin whip and cracked it behind the girl a few times for effect. The girl continued to wail, only much louder now. As the Queen whipped the girl’s back, blood started to stain her crisp, white shirt. The Queen smiled, for she loved the sight of new vampire blood. Though they would heal quickly, it would be a constant reminder to never displease her, again. When the girl stopped wailing, the Queen unstrapped her, and she collapsed to the floor.

  The Queen nudged her with the toe of her shoe. “Get up! We still have more for you to do, tonight,” she said and walked away.

  Once she was a few feet away, the girl got up and followed her. The Queen instructed the girl to wash her towels, pillowcases, and the bedding that made up the luxuriousness of the Queen’s bed. Having made sure the girl understood her, the Queen strode away to teach her Bloodletting and Drinking class. This was her favorite class to intimidate and belittle the students. She loved it, because it gave her a chance to feed on a fresh human or two and allowed her to embarrass at least one of her students. As she strode in the door, the students were sitting quietly in their desks, afraid of angering her. She got right down to business.

  “Now, as you will see, there are two different ways of drinking from humans. The first is the most savage and, had you not been brought here, you would never have known that you are capable of this. There is also a different way. First, let’s talk about the way untrained, new vampires think they
need to drink. They hold back from drinking, initially appalled at the thought, until they are so ravenous, they cannot control their urges. They take the first victim that comes by them in the shadows and tear out their necks. The Queen showed them gory, detailed pictures of the wound left on the human by the vampire. The class gasped as the Queen projected picture after picture on the board, each more gory than the first. The class squirmed in their chairs, yet the Queen continued until they were uncomfortable. Finally, she turned the light on and the projector off.

  “Do you see what your life could have been like had you not come to my school? Do you see how much you need me? You would have been ravaging beasts,” the Queen said, before she was interrupted.

  “Aren’t we already monsters?” A petite girl chimed in from the back of the room.

  The Queen focused in on the young new girl. She only came to the school a week ago. This was the Queen’s opportunity to enforce her power.

  “You are only beasts to the rest of the world, as they have not yet accepted vampires into their races. Oh, and the next time you interrupt me in class, you will receive ten lashings on the Devil’s Lambaste Chair,” the Queen said with an evil grin. The Queen glided out of the room, leaving it as confused and in turmoil as it before she entered it.

  “See to it that the girl has a horrible daytime’s rest,” the Queen nonchalantly instructed one of her bodyguards as she headed toward her office.

  As she entered, her secretary handed her five messages—all from the same person.

  “Caleesy,” the Queen said softly.

  She went into her office and closed the door, leaving the security detail to stand outside her door, ready for anything. She hired security when she found out Tuwa was in town. She knew what he was capable of, and who knew if he wanted to hurt her, or what his plans were. She hired four specialty vampires for the night, four trained Navy Seals during the day, four more to follow her constantly with four for backup, and four more mentally and physically strong vampires to guard the doors and grounds of the school. She prayed she’d done enough. The last thing the Queen wanted was a showdown with Tuwa, especially inside the walls of her school and in front of her students. She’d have to get Caleesy to find out what was going on outside the walls of her precious safe-haven.

  * * * *

  Caleesy

  He begged Caleesy for days to go out with him. He started taking extra shifts in the evening just to be close to her. Yet, what he didn’t know was he was spoiling the plan Caleesy and the Queen had for getting blood bags. They would be there in two days to pick up the blood, and Caleesy couldn’t get the hound off her tail. That evening, when Caleesy arrived home, all appeared to be normal. After she closed the door and put her keys in the bowl on the table next to the door, Caleesy turned to find the Queen sitting on her couch, watching her. The Queen didn’t need to ask what the problem was as she read Caleesy’s mind the minute she opened the door.

  “So, we have a little problem, do we not?” the Queen asked with a smile. Caleesy flung herself into the Queen’s arms and s0bbed. “It’s okay, dear. Please, tell me what’s going on at work,” the Queen encouraged her.

  Finally, Caleesy stopped sobbing and looked up at the Queen. “He’s been asking me out several times a day. He’s picked up overtime to allow himself to get closer to me. In the evenings, after everyone has left for the day, he keeps trying to seduce me, though I tell him over and over I’m not interested. If he stays on this shift, it will complicate things for your pick up in two days. I just don’t know what to do,” Caleesy said, starting to cry, again.

  “Hush, my little Paramour. You are still my Paramour, are you not?” the Queen asked, already knowing the answer. Caleesy nodded her head. “Good. Then, we will take care of him tomorrow. You will leave early while he’s working, so he can’t follow you. I’m sure that’s how he found you here,” the Queen said. Caleesy shrugged her shoulders before nodding, again. “You will come directly to my school. I will leave your name with my guards, who will let you in. You will come directly to my bedchamber and stay the night with me. He will not be able to find you and will take the next night off work to look for you. You will come in late, in just enough time to shoo away the other employees before it’s time for delivery. Tuwa will be none the wiser, we will have our delivery, and you will be safe and sound. Got it all?” the Queen asked those big, beautiful eyes that she came to love so much.

  “I got it. I’m so sorry I brought this all down on you,” Caleesy apologized.

  “Do not apologize. It’s Tuwa. He could have found me at any time, during any life he wanted. He wants to play a game with me now, so I say game on, my old companion, game on,” the Queen said proudly as she grabbed Caleesy’s hand and placed it in her own. “We are going to be okay. Remember that. Nothing has changed except for the sniveling little weasel named Tuwa. I’ll deal with him another way later. Now, I just want to enjoy the extra time I get with you this month,” the Queen said soothingly into Caleesy’s ear. The two women melted into each other’s arms as they lay back, kissing on the couch.

  The Queen could tell she’d put all of Caleesy’s fears to rest, but what about her own? Did she have enough men guarding her? She’d have to add five more to inconspicuously guard Caleesy in case she got into something with Tuwa and was in over her head. Now, for the first time in her life, the Queen started to worry. This time, she had more to lose.

  The next day, a memo was sent out to all the teachers that there was going to be a purification ceremony that evening just before sunrise at 4:00 a.m. and the entire school was required to attend. The Queen thought it was perfect timing for Tuwa to come clean if he used a student to get inside her walls, and since it was the day before the delivery, those involved would be purified. The Queen’s only concern was the twenty-five guards she hired for her protection. She couldn’t even afford to lose one or more, as each one was counted on for various duties. The Queen was nervous about this evening’s outcome and the cleansing of the impure vampires.

  At 4:00 a.m., the Queen was inside the Purification Ceremonial Temple. The students were assembled on the floor, and the teachers stood around the edges of the room. The Queen glided smoothly up to the altar in the front of the room. She lit the five candles of Earth, Fire, Water, Air, and Spirit, and moved around the objects on the table to put them in order. The Queen stood up two stairs on the middle of the altar with both palms upraised and started humming loudly. The rest of the crowd sat still and quiet for they knew the consequences of interrupting the ceremony. When she lowered her arms, she looked blindly forward and stepped down to walk over to the altar without looking at it. She grabbed the small rock on the table, stretched out her arm with her palm upward, and waited. She watched the stone raise up off her palm and spin in all directions in the center of her hand, creating heat. To the crowd, she said with strength and emphasis:

  “Let all ye who haunt me

  And my vampire reign,

  Explode into fire,

  Turn into powder dust,

  And fly away for good.”

  Her words haunted the students, as each one was afraid of being the first to move. Finally, some of the teachers started whispering, so the students shifted on the floor. The teachers started to move the students out of the Temple, leaving behind a clearly exhausted Queen. The Queen heard a set of high heels on the floor walking up to her.

  “I’m sorry. The ceremony is over. You have missed it,” the Queen said without even looking up. A pair of long, skinny legs bent down to look into the Queen’s eyes. “Caleesy! What a wonderful surprise!” the Queen said excitedly, jumped up and grabbed her, kissed her, and held her tight. “Oh, you don’t know how much of a relief you are to me, today. I really needed to see you!” The Queen smiled, and Caleesy returned it until slowly it started to fade. “What’s wrong?”

  Caleesy looked toward the ground and turned away from the Queen.

  “We might have another problem at the blood bank tomorrow
night,” Caleesy said.

  “Okay, my dear. What else is going on?” The Queen moved back toward Caleesy to comfort her.

  “Tuwa has started working nights with me, so I haven’t been able to miscount the bags, and I won’t be able to get them to you,” Caleesy said sadly.

  “Don’t you worry about that,” the Queen ordered. “Keep to the plan but you’re going to have to scramble for blood packs, okay?”

  “Yes, I can do it with your help,” Caleesy said, starting to feel a little better. She couldn’t help but think about the upcoming night she would spend with the Queen in her chamber. Caleesy sighed.

  * * * *

  The following evening, the teachers went to the blood bank and sneaked in the back door left open for them. When Professora Fernandinha came around the corner, she stopped in amazement that there was only their usual person instead of the two that the Queen mentioned. The amount of bags of blood were not lacking in quantity. The vampires moved quickly to load their trucks. Caleesy stood next to the counter and stayed out of the way as they loaded up. When they were done, one of the vampires came up to shake her hand and say goodbye. It was a small gesture, but one Caleesy came to look forward to each month.

  The next day, Caleesy spent her time listening to Tuwa pine away for his lost love instead of asking her out relentlessly. It was obvious he was referring to her Queen, but she kept quiet. She had to take him out the night before when the school came to get their supplies. She was afraid he would find out what they were doing. She was much stronger than him, so she overpowered him, knocked him on the head, and threw him in the cleaning closet. He awoke with no one around to question. She needed to learn more about Tuwa. The next night at work was one of the longest she’d experienced. She was anxious to get home to her plans and only had until dawn to complete them. As the night went on, Tuwa continued to express his undying love for the Queen and even shared hints of his past with her. Nothing Caleesy could use for her plan, but it started to complete the scenario she formed in her mind. Eventually, it was time to go but Tuwa asked her to go out for a drink afterward.