Cleansed by Fire
A Settlement Outside Varád, Transylvania - 1710
A young man swept his black hair from his dark eyes as he flirted with one of the young, village women that leant against the inside wall of his bedroom.
She giggled at his flattering words and bit her lip playfully as she tucked her hair behind her ear.
The man then leant forward and whispered something into her ear that caused her eyes to flutter to a close.
Just as he was about to press his lips against hers, another woman ran into the room - panic-stricken and wide-eyed. “Iosua!” She shouted in her native tongue towards the confused man “They’re here. They’ve found us.”
He pushed the girl whom he had been projecting his affections towards away and strode past the fiery-haired girl who had shouted his name, “Who have found us?” He asked before he sceptically peered round the frame of the building’s door.
“You know who, brother!” She snapped whilst she grabbed the sleeve of his white shirt and slammed the door shut, “The slayers are here. The council is purging this city of our kind, and they will not be satisfied until we’re all dead!”
Iosua took a deep breath and turned back to his sister, “We need to flee, Maria. We cannot stay here.”
Maria wrenched the befuddled woman from the corner in which she had tried to hide and pulled her arms up behind he back, “If we’re going to flee, we need to eat first.” Her jaw cracked as she opened her mouth wider than should have been humanly possible. Her canines increased in length and her eyes darkened until they resembled black holes. Then, she pierced her victim’s neck and drank deeply as the girl twitched and screamed in reaction to the pain that her bite caused her.
Her brother ran over to the flailing and dying woman encompassed by his sister’s arms and tried to pry her free, “If they’re already here, we do not have time for this. We have to run, now!” He continued to tug on Maria’s sleeves whilst her victims’ eyes rolled back into her head until only the whites were visible. “Let her go, please, let her go!” He screamed.
She looked up at him as blood dripped down her chin and a hiss escaped her lips, “I am not leaving, not yet.” She growled before returning to her meal, to consume her until she was drained.
A pair of strong hands grabbed Iosua’s shoulders and dragged him away from his feeding sister. Though her protested and tried his best to force his way from their grip, it was futile. He could not free himself, no matter how much he tried.
The sky outside burnt orange from the razed buildings and the flames that seemingly engulfed every possible escape route.
People - vampire and human alike - screamed and cried as they frantically searched for the loved ones from which they had been separated. The agony in their voices was tangible.
Maria ran from the house, blood still dripping from her lips, just as the hunters wandered by.
One of them clamped his gloved hand round her bicep and wordlessly plunged a dagger into her gut.
She crumpled and gasped as she vomited the blood she had only consumed moments ago down her front. Her eyes stared through the smoke at her distraught brother.
Iosua fought against the man who held him and wailed for his sister.
The last thing he remembered from that day was the terrified look on Maria’s face as she was thrown onto a pyre with numerous other writhing bodies of the soon-to-be deceased evil that had plagued the city for almost a century.
