by Amy Cross
“Well,” he muttered, as his eyes filled with the flames' reflection, “no point hanging about, is there? You'll be just about done by the time the kids are ready to go to bed.” Turning, he grabbed a trolley and wheeled it over to the table where Jennifer was still struggling to get free. “If it's any consolation, you'll die pretty fast in there. Two, three minutes of agony at most and then your dead body will roast for a good few hours, until all the juices are just -”
“Go to hell!” Jennifer shouted, trying and failing to kick him.
“Oh, don't worry,” another voice said suddenly. “He will.”
Turning, Constant was suddenly struck in the face by one of his own heavy saucepans, which sent him spinning back against the wall. Before he could react, he was struck again, and then finally Madeleine Le Compte hauled him by the shoulders and slammed him down onto the trolley.
“Sorry it took me a while,” she muttered, as she wheeled Constant toward the oven, “but being blind and all, I couldn't exactly run. I'm really getting the hang of my other senses, though.”
“Where's Kate?” Jennifer shouted. “Where's Anna?”
“One at a time,” Madeleine replied, as she grabbed the dazed Constant and pulled him to the oven door. “Let me get rid of this monster first.”
Barely conscious after the blows to his head, Constant let out a faint groan as he tried to push Madeleine away. Smiling, she turned him around and then pushed him head-first into the oven, before swinging the door shut and sliding a bolt across.
“No!” Constant shouted, slamming his fists against the inside of the oven door. “Let me out of here!”
“Is there a window on the door?” Madeleine asked, taking a step back as she listened to the sound of Constant's screams from inside. “Can you see him burning to death?”
“No,” Jennifer replied, staring at the thick metal door on the front of the oven. “Thank God.”
“Pity,” Madeleine added, as Constant's cries became louder still. He was still banging on the door from the inside, desperately trying to get out, although after a few more seconds his screams began to fade away. “Well, I guess that's him taken care of. I've got to admit, if I could see a damn thing, I'd have had much more fun dealing with hi, but right now it's important to move fast.” Turning, she felt her way over to the table and then started untying Jennifer.
“Where's Anna? Have you seen her?”
“Bad choice of words, don't you think?”
“Where's my daughter?”
“I don't have a clue,” Madeleine told her. “She's around here somewhere, though.”
“What about her heartbeat? Can't you track her down using her heartbeat?”
“I've told you before,” Madeleine replied, pulling the last of the ropes and chains away and stepping back to allow Jennifer off the table, “I'm not a goddamn sniffer dog. My accuracy is still pretty poor.”
“We have to find her,” Jennifer said, hurrying to the door.
“Hang on!” Madeleine called after her. “Are you seriously going to go running around a vampire orphanage in the middle of the night? That's suicide!”
“Then come with me and help!”
“I have to find Kate.”
“Then...” Stopping at the door, Jennifer paused for a moment, grabbing a knife from the counter before turning back to Madeleine. “Thank you for rescuing me, but I have to find Anna. You understand, don't you?”
“I guess so,” Madeleine replied. “I guess if I had a kid and it was trapped in a place like this, that'd be my priority too. Just be careful, and don't trust anyone you meet, not even your daughter.”
“What do you mean?”
“She might not be herself anymore,” Madeleine continued. “It might be too late, she might be one of them now.”
“I -” For a moment, Jennifer thought back to the way Alicia had been killed by her own daughter. Glancing over at the large pot on the stove, she felt a shudder pass through her body. “Anna wouldn't change, not like that. She's too strong. I have to find her.”
“Too strong?” Madeleine paused as she heard Jennifer racing away, heading through to the main part of the orphanage. “Yeah, I bet every mother would say that about their kid. The problem is, they'd almost always be wrong.”
IV
Stopping suddenly, Anna turned and realized she could hear the sound of someone sobbing nearby. She paused, listening for a little longer, before setting her mop and bucket down.
“Hello?” she called out.
The sobbing immediately stopped.
“Who's there?” Anna asked, taking a step toward the far end of the corridor. “Who -”
Before she could finish, Emily stepped into view, wiping her eyes.
“It's nothing,” she said with a trembling voice. “Don't tell anyone.”
“Did something happen?” Anna asked.
She waited for a reply, but fresh tears were already forming in Emily's eyes.
“I heard a lot of people running about,” Anna continued, stepping toward her. “I feel like something's happening in the downstairs part of the building, in the part we're not allowed to go to.”
Emily paused for a moment, before wiping away more tears. “Do you ever feel like there are two of you?” she asked finally.
“Two of me?” Anna asked with a frown.
“What do you dream about?”
Anna looked over her shoulder, to make sure no-one could overhear them, before turning back to Emily. “I know I'm not supposed to, but I dream about home.”
“I don't know where home is,” Emily replied. “I think I've forgotten, but I dream about an orchard. It's the same dream, every night. I'm in a small, walled orchard, and there are orange trees all around me. I'm collecting some of the oranges, and then a door opens and there's a woman standing there, and she calls out to me.”
“Is she your mother?”
At this, Emily paused again. “I think so,” she said finally. “That's what I always thought, and then that woman, the woman from my dreams... She came here tonight. I saw her. And Ms. Eversham, she made me do something to her.”
“What did you do?” Anna asked.
Emily opened her mouth to reply, but for a moment no words came out. “I killed her,” she said finally.
Anna's eyes opened wide with shock.
“It was like I needed the blood in her veins,” Emily continued. “I was overcome by this desire to drink from her, but once it was over...” She paused. “Ms. Eversham said I'd done a good job, but now I'm not sure. Now I'm scared that when I go to sleep this time, I won't have the same dream, or it'll be different somehow. I liked that dream. I liked how... the woman always let me inside the house, and she treated me kindly.” She paused again. “Sometimes, I think maybe it's not just a dream. Maybe it's a memory.”
“What was it like?” Anna asked. “When you felt her blood in your body?”
“It felt good,” Emily admitted. “I've been here at Raven's Briar for so long, I'm not sure who I used to be before I came here.” She paused. “Do you remember who you used to be?”
“I think so,” Anna replied. “I mean, sometimes it seems like it was ages ago, but -”
Hearing a noise nearby, both girls turned with a sudden flash of fear in their hearts, only to feel a sense of relief as soon as they saw that it was Camilla, not Ms. Eversham, who was standing in a nearby doorway.
“You know it's forbidden to talk about our lives before we came here,” Camilla said darkly. “If Ms. Eversham found out what you two were just discussing -”
“Please don't tell her!” Anna blurted out. “Please!”
Camilla paused for a moment, before turning to Emily. “Did she really do that? Did she really make you kill the woman from your dream?”
Emily nodded.
“And do you really think that woman was your mother?”
Emily paused, before nodding again.
“I see.” Camilla stared at them for a moment, before stepping forw
ard. “Go! Get back to your chores! And make sure no-one else overhears you talking about such things again!”
***
“Oh, Kate,” Ms. Eversham whispered. “You have no idea how much I'm enjoying this.”
Staring back at her, barely able to move a muscle, Kate watched in horror as Ms. Eversham's hand moved closer, finally reaching through the hole in the front of her chest. She gasped as soon as she felt the other woman's fingertips brushing against her exposed heart.
“Shall we take another layer?” Ms. Eversham asked with a smile. “Yes. Let's take another layer.”
With that, she ran her fingers up to the top of Kate's beating heart and then slowly began to tear away a thin layer from the outside.
***
“Anna!” Jennifer hissed, looking along the corridor. “Where the hell are you?”
Making her way toward the door at the far end, she looked over her shoulder for a moment, convinced that at any moment someone or something was going to creep up behind her. She'd managed to find a long metal roasting fork as she left the kitchen, which she figured might work as some kind of a weapon, but for the most part she had no idea what she'd do if anyone tried to get in her way. Reaching the door, she saw the word 'Dormitory' set into a small metal sign, and finally she realized that she had to go inside.
Reaching down, she tried the handle and found that the door was unlocked. She slowly opened it and stepped inside, only to see row after row of empty beds running along each wall.
“Anna?” she called out, although she was fairly sure the room was empty.
Taking a few more steps forward, she looked around. The dormitory was so plain and bare, although it was difficult for her to see much since the curtains were drawn and the only light came from a few flickering candles at the far end of the room. Each of the beds had been carefully made, and there were no personal effects to be seen, although after a moment she realized that a crude wooden sign had been hung on the end of each bed, with a carved name that she assumed must refer to each occupant.
Hurrying along the central aisle, she looked at each of the wooden signs, until she reached the far end and saw one with the name 'Anna'. Stopping, she looked down at the bed and realized that she'd finally found where her daughter had been sleeping ever since she'd been spirited away from Thaxos.
“I'm going to find you,” she whispered. “I swear to God, Anna, I'm getting out of this place and I'm taking you with me.”
Turning, she began to make her way along the aisle, heading for the way out, before suddenly the door swung open and she saw to her shock that Anna was right in front of her.
“Anna!” she called out, racing forward and dropping to her knees just in front of the girl, and then wrapping her arms around her. “Oh my God,” she continued, with tears flowing down her face, “I've been looking everywhere for you! I'm never, ever going to let you out of my sight again!” She hugged her even tighter, before slowly realizing that Anna had shown no sign of recognition. “It's me,” she whispered after a moment. “Sweetheart, it's me! It's your mother!”
She waited, but Anna felt curiously stiff and unresponsive in her arms.
“Anna?”
Leaning back, she looked into her daughter's eyes and saw a kind of calm, detached expression.
“Anna,” she continued, leaning forward and kissing the girl's forehead for a moment, “I'm so sorry you were brought here, but I've come to get you out. We're going home!”
Anna stared at her for a moment. “Home?”
“Back to Thaxos. Back to our grubby little shop with its grubby little courtyard, and those chickens you love playing with so much.” She forced a smile, hoping her daughter would reciprocate. “The Kazakos family store on Thaxos might just have a future after all.”
“But -” Anna continued to look into her mother's eyes, before slowly glancing down at her neck.
“We have to get out of here,” Jennifer continued, taking Anna's hand, “but after -”
“Wait,” Anna replied.
“What is it?” For a moment, Jennifer couldn't help thinking back to the sight of Alicia Bernotti being slaughtered by her own daughter. She told herself there was no way that Anna would do something similar, but in the back of her mind there was the faintest of doubts as she saw a hint of hunger in the girl's expression. “Anna, if -”
Suddenly, Anna lunged at her, hissing and opening her mouth to reveal her fangs. Falling back, Jennifer let out a pained cry as she felt her daughter biting down hard into her neck.
“Anna!” she gasped, putting her hands on the girl's shoulders and trying to push her away. “Please, don't do this!”
With her fangs buried deep in Jennifer's neck, Anna began to draw out some of her mother's rich, warm blood. She closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of slow fulfillment that was starting to spread through her own body, and the sense of a new kind of strength that was flowing into the marrow of her bones. In her mind's eye, she saw herself growing taller, and wiser, and more powerful, and being welcomed by all the other cold-bloods in the orphanage. Draining more blood, and drawing it in faster to her own body, she continued to feast on her mother, even though there was a voice at the back of her mind telling her that she should stop, imploring her to open her eyes and see what she was doing.
“Anna,” the voice said suddenly, louder this time. “Stop.”
Opening her eyes, she pulled her fangs from her mother's neck and waited for the voice to speak again.
“Father?” she whispered.
She waited, but silence fell all around her, until finally she looked down and saw with horror that her mother was not only unconscious, but that her skin had become noticeably pale, with just a hint of crimson dribbling from the two small puncture wounds on her neck.
“Mother?” Anna said quietly.
For a moment, she found herself remembering her old life: being in the store with her mother, and playing with the chickens, and running through the streets of Thaxos with her friend Susannah, and watching the sunrise from the wooden jetty. Seconds later, however, those memories began to fade, as if another part of her mind was trying to force them away, and she felt the lust for blood starting to return. Finally, she leaned down to sink her teeth back into her mother's neck.
“No,” Camilla said suddenly, reaching down and holding her back, having slipped into the room quietly. “This is wrong. Don't do it.”
Looking up at her, Anna let out a faint hiss.
Immediately, Camilla hissed back at her, with enough force and spray to send Anna falling back onto the stone floor.
“Don't get into a hissing contest with me,” Camilla told her. “You'll never win.”
Staring at her for a moment, Anna finally felt her anger and hunger beginning to fade. Looking back at her mother, she started to realize what she'd done, and her soul filled with horror.
“She's alive,” Camilla explained, as she checked Jennifer's pulse. Spitting onto her own hand, she wiped saliva onto the puncture wounds. “Believe it or not, vampire saliva – whether it's cold-blooded or warm-blooded – actually helps to clot human injuries, provided it's applied liberally. At a lower dose, it makes the blood run freely, but like this...” She leaned down and spat into Jennifer's wounds, and the blood was already starting to thicken around the two holes. “She's going to survive,” she added, turning to Anna, “but she's going to be weak for a while. Don't worry, you're still too much of a kid to have caused any permanent damage.”
“I didn't mean to hurt her,” Anna whimpered, with tears running down her face.
“Come here,” Camilla said, hurrying over to her and wiping tears from the girl's cheeks. “You're lucky, you've barely begun to change at all. You can still fight this, and hopefully you can find someone with greater skills than me, someone who can restore to you how you used to be. Trust me, you don't want to get turned into a vampire, not all the way.” She paused, before looking back at Jennifer. “This isn't right. Children shouldn't be getting
raised from the dead to kill their parents. Ms. Eversham is -”
She paused, as if she could barely bring herself to say the words.
“Ms. Eversham is what?” Anna asked.
“Ms. Eversham is wrong,” Camilla continued, feeling a shiver pass through her body. “I've suspected it for a while, but now I'm sure. Meredith felt the same, but... I don't want to end up like Meredith. There has to be another way.”
“I want to go home,” Anna sobbed.
“Of course you do. You're a child.” She paused again, looking around the dark dormitory for a moment before getting to her feet and heading to the door. “When I'm gone, lock this and keep it locked until I come back, or until someone you know and trust knocks. Don't open it for anyone else, Anna, not even for one of the other girls.”
“But -”
“This is important,” Camilla added, stepping out into the corridor before turning back to her. “Stay here with your mother. If she wakes up before someone comes for you, tell her...” She paused for a moment. “Tell her you'll both be fine.”
V
Fumbling through the dark storeroom, Madeleine finally felt a metal can on one of the shelves. With no way of seeing, she had to struggle for a moment to get the lid off, before smelling gasoline inside.
“Perfect,” she muttered, before running her hand along the shelf and finding several more cans. “Even more perfect,” she added with a smile, as she gathered four cans in total and carried them out into the corridor.
Stopping for a moment, she realized she could sense hundreds of cold-blooded heartbeats in a nearby room. She made her way along the corridor, before stopping at a door and listening to the sound of the children gathering in the Raven's Briar dining room, waiting for their final meal of the night.
“Huh,” she said, unable to stifle a faint chuckle. “Now this is about as perfect as it gets.”