Over the next few days, he’d forgotten about it, until he finally felt compelled to read it while settled in his chair by the fire in the library. The paper crinkled as he opened it. The headlines, of course, were all about the latest on the war and political feats, but there was one column that made Leon’s stomach drop.
The headline read:
Sink Your Teeth Into This
The title alone put a bad taste in Leon’s mouth, but he continued reading.
Someone—or something—has been plaguing the outskirts of Dresden. Local reports of a seemingly cannibalistic killer have been flooding the police stations. Most of the victims have been Jewish-German women and children and the attacks have all occurred at night. The victims were found drained of blood. What kind of monster might be out there? Keep your children safe with you at night!
But how? Leon thought, too afraid to read any more. I haven’t blacked out in ages. Could it be happening again? There was that boy, Anna’s friend. I hadn’t even thought there was a reason he came. How naive of me. He thought I did something… His thoughts were interrupted by a banging at the door, quite a rare occurrence.
Leon jumped out of his chair in the library and went to the main entrance, which was already opening. It was one of the officers he had seen occasionally when he spent the night outside Anna’s window.
“They have Gwen ... and Anna,” the officer puffed, leaning against the door for support.
Something caught in Leon’s throat. “How did you find me?”
“Gwen, my girlfriend, she came here once with Anna. She told me generally where to go and I just ... guessed the rest. I’m Henry.”
Leon nodded and bolted out the door with Henry following close behind.
Chapter 36
Anna
“Gwen are you okay?” Anna turned to her side and began shaking her sister. She was barely breathing and had been looking pale the past few hours. What was in that injection? She felt something stirring in herself as well, threatening to break the surface.
Gwen stirred and slowly propped herself up against the wall behind her bottom bunk. She had originally had the top, but Anna grew concerned that she might fall out with her declining state. “M’okay.”
They had finally been sent back to the sleeping quarters with other girls— not that Anna had been able to sleep.
“Gwen, I need to tell you something.” She heard her own voice faltering. She wasn’t feeling well either, but she blamed it on lack of sleep. She’d convinced herself that there were no blankets to comfortably cover her neck, and that was what kept her up.
“What?” Gwen coughed.
“You remember Joe?” Anna peered down from her bunk.
“Yes, of course. I saw him... He—he attacked Henry. He was…” Gwen trailed off.
“I didn’t know that.” She hopped down from her bunk and quietly climbed in with Gwen. It was warmer there and made her a little more comfortable.
“Well, he attacked Leon, too. It’s strange, I keep forgetting things that happened at the castle, but lately it’s been coming back to me. But Joe ... he attacked Leon and Leon’s dog tried to protect us ... and it—it killed Joe.”
“Joe’s dead?” Gwen’s voice croaked, and tears fell down her cheeks.
The tears made Anna’s shirt damp and she embraced Gwen tightly. She had never seen Gwen cry — not since they were little. She hadn’t meant to make her upset, but she came to a place herself where she couldn’t hold it in anymore.
She had to tell someone.
Before she knew it, she felt the threat of tears behind her own eyes. It made her angry. She didn’t want to cry, and she pushed it away.
Someone was coming and the girls all scrambled to stand next to their bedposts, which were really just planks of wood, as Margot entered the room with a basket stocked with bread. “You poor darlings look famished. Here I brought you something.” She placed it on the floor in the center of the room.
The girls waited a moment to make sure it wasn’t a trap before launching on the food like wild animals. They didn’t know when they would eat again.
“1347 and 1348,” Margot began, and the other girls glanced sideways at Anna and Gwen. They didn’t have names here, they had numbers. Anna did notice, however, that their numbers were different from the others. Some had longer numbers, or a symbol or letter attached, though she wasn’t sure why. “Come with me, please.”
They grabbed a few more scraps to take with them and followed Margot out the door. Anna felt the others staring at their backs.
Margot led them across the grass to the building with the cement room. She opened the door and waited for them to get inside but Anna lingered outside a moment longer. It was a beautiful day. It was starting to snow. It was the light snow that brought with it the silence and peace of winter.
“Well, come on. I’m not waiting for you all day. You can daydream about sledding on the way back.” Margot waved her into the main room.
Through the door and down a long hallway, they came to the cement room. Just as expected, when she walked in it sucked away any good feelings.
Anna absently touched her arm where the doctor had injected her the last time. It was still bruised. He hadn’t been exactly gentle with them, and she winced at the pain.
Below that bruise was another pain, from the tattoo—her serial number. 1347.
This time, Margot spared them the monologue and set up her bag and the pieces the doctor would need. Her silence spoke louder than anything.
Anna and Gwen exchanged looks, something was off with Margot, but what was it? Surely, she had nothing to worry about.
Margot fumbled with something in the case before pulling out a newspaper and slamming it on the table. “Here. You must be bored and out of touch. Give it a read. I do not want it anymore,” she said and stood up to leave.
The doctor came in as she left and rolled up his sleeves. But before he grabbed anything, he noticed the newspaper. “What’s this?” He grabbed it out of Anna’s hands and threw it on the ground. “Where did you get this?” She shook her head. “Right. Get on the table.”
Anna reluctantly obeyed. This time, she anticipated the pain, which would make it that much worse. The needle was still big, but this time the fluid was a different color—blue.
The doctor prepped the needle, but he seemed distracted. He kept looking out of the sole crawl window behind Anna, but she was afraid to follow his glance. If she turned to look at it, or Gwen, she didn’t know how the doctor would react.
He fiddled with the needle, his eyes moving sideways every few seconds. Something was there, something was in the window. Anna didn’t know if she should be afraid. She could feel Gwen tense beside her and knew she wasn’t moving either.
At the sound of a bang from outside, almost like a gunshot, the doctor dropped the needle, making the girls jump.
“Don’t move,” he said sternly, bending down to get the needle that had fallen on the dirty ground. Without cleaning it, he turned quickly and motioned for her arm.
“What the—?” he began before the window shattered, sending bits of glass across the room. The girls jumped off the table and Anna felt a sharp sting as the needle swung from her arm. She moaned and grabbed it, cringing as she pulled it out of her arm.
Gwen was on the other side of the room, cornered by the doctor. He had swung and grabbed for Anna when he let go of the needle but missed her and grabbed Gwen instead, who was too weak to resist. Anna took the needle and before she could think, leapt off the table and jabbed the needle into his side.
The doctor spun to look and saw the needle sticking out of him. “What have you done?” he asked with wide eyes. His blood was all over the floor, pouring out quickly.
“See? We are all the same,” Anna said, pointing to the blood rushing down her arm and the same crimson staining his clothes. Only his was much worse.
Anna turned to the window, where bodies were shuffling through, but at the same time she hear
d footsteps coming down the hall. They were cornered.
Two men fell from the window and immediately relieved Anna’s fear.
Henry and Leon…
Henry was panting, but Leon seemed just fine. “Is there anyone else?” Leon asked, staring at Anna. She shook her head and he pulled her close.
“You’re all going to die,” the doctor laughed from his pool of blood. He pointed a weak finger towards the door, which banged open a few seconds later. The SS men looked confused, but a few managed to get to the doctor and get him out while the others charged the group.
It was three on two, with Anna and Gwen trying to hoist themselves out of the window, but to no avail because they kept stepping on glass with their bare feet. Instead, the girls picked up large shards of the glass in anticipation of an attack. Fortunately, none came. The Nazi’s guns were on the floor and one man was already down. Leon had taken him out swiftly with a hard slice of his knife to the neck, leaving him as cold as the cement. He moved on to the other two who ganged up on Henry—probably because he was visibly tired. He suffered a few hard blows, but was able to grab one of the guns and shoot. The men were weak, but no amount of strength was going to stop a high-power weapon and years of skilled training.
“I really didn’t want to do that,” Henry said and rubbed the back of his neck. “We need to go.”
“Henry, go, now” Leon demanded as someone else entered the room.
“Oh dear, Doctor Heinrich is going to have a field day when I tell him about you,” Margot said and giggled.
Anna’s eyes widened. Did she know his secret? She only said it to Leon, not Henry.
Before she could do anything to help, Henry grabbed her arm and pulled the two sisters towards the window. They climbed out frantically, but Anna couldn’t help but look back. Leon had come to save her.
He was now sprawled across the floor, vulnerable and dazed. There was a needle sticking out of his arm.
He’s a vampire, how on earth did she take him down?
“Anna!” Henry and Gwen called in unison. She turned her attention back to them and pulled herself the rest of the way through the opening, out into the sunlight.
Chapter 37
Leon
Leon’s vision was hazy, but he knew he was in a different room. The guards had become too numerous for him to take on by himself and the last person he saw come in was a woman; she said her name was Margot and that she had been waiting for him. She’d ordered the men to drag him out, tie him down, and then to leave them alone.
“I brought them here, you know, to lure you.” Margot sounded pleased with herself. “You may not be a twin, as the doctors would prefer, but this trade off isn’t so bad. If only they knew.”
Leon could barely breathe, and his voice came out in strained whispers. “Who are you?”
“Your maker. Remember me?” She sat down beside him on the table and caressed his arm. “You have become such a beautiful creature. It’s a shame things never worked out between us.”
“You are…” His words hurt deep in his chest as it dawned on him who she was. She looked different from the first time he’d seen her tattered on the side of a dirt road. “...a ... demon,” he said through his teeth.
“A clever one, thank you. I found your little girl—your little town. I admit it took me a while to find you again, but now here we are!” She looked at him, but he only saw colors and blurry shapes.
“What did—”
“What did I do to you? Don’t waste your breath talking, hun. It’ll only hurt you. It’s a little something I cooked up with the help of some great doctors here. It can subdue your healing abilities and set them in reverse, causing severe pain. Something special combined with the disease I gave your family.”
She’s the reason they got sick. The reason I had to take their lives. Leon twitched angrily.
“I’m quite happy with the way things have worked out. I’m going to enjoy watching my children destroy each other. That’s right, there is another. I can’t wait for you to meet. Children are a joy, they are so chaotic. This Nazi society has been so much fun. Anyway, Walter will kill you and your little lady, though he doesn’t know he’s next. That’s the little bit of fun I haven’t told him. I am the angel of death to mortal and immortal beings. Since I made you fascinating creatures, it is only fair I orchestrate your demise. It is beautiful. Poetic, actually.”
Leon couldn’t see, his vision grew fuzzier each moment, but he could make out her red lipstick as it curled up in a twisted smile.
Chapter 38
Walter
Walter stumbled through the doorway, using its frame as support. He was incredibly dizzy.
“Really? The bar again?” His wife Lina leaned in the kitchen entryway with her arms crossed over her nightgown. She knew he had been going out to the bar every night after his late rounds, and this night seemed no different.
Walter didn’t say a word; he just grunted and turned towards the bathroom. He wasn’t feeling too well, though he had to admit the alcohol really helped with the cravings.
“Fine, if that’s how you are going to be just don’t wake the kids.” She paused, her expression softening. “They’ve missed you, you know. Ruth has been waiting for you to read that book to her. I read it to her tonight.” She was waiting for some sort of remorse, but Walter ignored her, which increased the blood flow to her face.
Finally, he looked at her. He could sense the change in her pulse, the way her blood was traveling, and its increasing flow through her neck. He looked back towards the floor—it was easier that way. He couldn’t go after his wife.
“I don’t know what to do with you anymore. You know, I used to be proud of you. Now, I’m afraid to talk about you because I can’t even get you to stay home one night.”
Walter reluctantly looked up at her again. He was at a point where he would’ve fallen over without the wall. He couldn’t even see straight, but he could sense her.
“You don’t understand, you never have, and you never will. There is so much more than this, but you are too stupid to see it.” His own pulse was racing, filtering foreign blood through his body. It fueled him, empowered him.
Her fallen face was the last Walter could take. She would never know how much he had done and was destined to do—what he was and what he could be. She was only an arm’s length away, which would make his attack easy. He hadn’t fed in a few days, and while he didn’t need another kill just yet, he wanted it.
“I can’t,” he said aloud.
“You can’t what, Walter?” She leaned closer and touched his arm lightly. “Maybe you need help, I could call—”
“No.”
“Stop looking at me like that. You’re scaring me,” she whispered, looking more uncomfortable by the second.
She shrieked as he advanced and bit down hard into the side of her neck, right in the jugular. He didn’t have to find where it was, he knew. She only fought him for a minute before sinking to the floor. He could feel her pulse fade beneath his jaws. That made eleven.
“Daddy?”
Walter spun around, still in his crouched position. He could feel the blood dripping down his chin onto the floor. It was his six-year old daughter, Ruth, standing in the hallway rubbing her eyes.
At the sight of him the girl began crying as she ran back to her room, but she wasn’t fast enough. He was on her before she could reach the door. She went down even faster than her mother.
He was surprised to find he didn’t feel anything this time.
He moved quietly to the other bedroom where his youngest child slept silently. Tears ran down his face. Why? He saw Anika sleeping like an angel—so young and pure. She never woke.
Thirteen.
Chapter 39
Henry
On the other side of the town, Henry sat in the corner of the living room of his parent’s house. He brought Effie there to keep her safe, while the others returned to their home to grab a few things—despite his warnings. Go
ing home was the worst option, the SS would look there first when they realized they were missing.
Without anything to do other than worry, Henry decided to tell his parents what happened, though it didn’t go as planned.
“Why did you get involved? Are they going to come here? For us?” His mother fiddled with her hands, unable to find a place to put them. She tucked a piece of blond hair behind her ear. It was unlike her to have a single piece out of place, but Henry’s news seemed to have her frazzled.
His father stared at him without a word. He placed his hand on his wife’s leg and breathed heavily. “She’s right, son. We’re all in danger now. I wish you didn’t come here.”
“What—? Is that what you think is—?” He stood, unable to believe his ears and went back to the little girl waiting in the living room.
“I can’t do this anymore,” he whispered to himself with his head in hands. The room was spotless, as usual. Complete with a fancy new rug on the floor that his mom purchased over the weekend. He sat in the chair next to the window. It was stiff. Beside him Effie had her fingers curled around the windowsill. If his mom knew, she’d yell at the girl for marking the white paint with her dirty fingers. Henry didn’t mind though, she was innocently watching the night.
“You seem like you’re feeling better, Effie.” Even in the dark, he could see her up on her toes and her little face bright with anticipation. She had been sick on and off for weeks, but it seemed her body had finally fought off whatever it was. He was sure having some good food after spending time at that dreadful camp had helped a lot too.
“Mhmm,” She replied absentmindedly. “What’s that?” Effie asked, turning to him briefly before pointing out the window toward the sky. There was a speck, falling like a star.
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