Rose
It was pitch black. I could hear the blood curling screams echoing through the village, they were back. I tried to hide under the covers to make the noises and fear go away but a candle light glared at me, it was mum.
‘Hurry, we have to hide’ hastily she grabbed my hand and pulled me to the trap door in the living area. It squeaked as it opened, I started stumbling down the uneven stairs in front of mum when the front door burst open and a cold gust of wind swept all around us.
I looked back, there was a tall thin figure in the doorway all I could see were his red glowing eyes and then his pearly white sharp teeth.
He was smiling evilly at me. ‘I’ve finally found you, little one’. He licked his lips.
Mum screamed defiantly at him, she took a dagger out from behind her back and ran at him. In one quick motion he had her by the arm she held the dagger in and lifted her into the air. Without taking his eyes off me he sank his teeth in her neck.
***
I woke up screaming. My brow was filled with sweat, my hands clammy. Even though it was hard to see through all the tears I knew where I was. It’s where I’ve been since he took me ten years ago. The same small stone brick room, cold and empty. The room which gives me an emptiness nothing could fill.
As my eyelashes blinked all the remaining tears away my eyes began to focus. It was dark as usual, only the small magic flame lighting a small section of the wall kept the blackness away.
The only items in the room are a toilet in the corner and a thin mattress on the floor, which after ten years here is rather flat and resembles a piece of fabric now rather than a mattress. But at least it’s better than being on the cold stones.
Within this stone prison the thing that brings me a little piece of purpose everyday are the drawings I’ve carved into the bricks.
I shuffled my bum on the cold stone floor and sniffled back my tears. I moved towards the toilet and reached round the back to find the fragment of sharp stone I use to carve the drawings.
When I originally found it on the floor after being thrown into the bricks, I considered using it as a weapon, to fight my way out of this place but I’m so weak from Victor drinking from me daily that there’s no way I could do enough damage to stop one of them. So instead I use it to brighten my existence.
Scooting back across my small room I began scraping at the stone in small movements, to make sure I was as quiet as possible. I had created a landscape of my home which wraps around the whole room. My house with my mum standing outside was one of the first things I carved. A little bit of love which looks at me in this miserable place.
My fingers worked on a carving of the village square, creating the wooden pillars of the library door. Clinging to the memories of home was what kept me going all these years. That one day I would be there again.
I heard the clacks along the stone hallway. Quickly stashing the stone back behind the toilet, I retreated back to the corner of the room on top of my mattress standing ready for whoever was going to be taking me to him.
I heard the metal lock unlock and the door swing open. My heart beat raced slightly, although it was my normal it wasn’t fun to be at their mercy during the walk to Victor.
Blue light from the magic torches in the corridor filled my room. I tensed as a shadow stood in the doorway, his red eyes staring at me. A wooden bucket was dropped to his feet, small drops of water landed on his perfectly polished black shoes. It was Sullivan. He is the vampire who is rougher than others, always giving me more bruises or even broken bones by being rough. He relished in my pain.
His gruff voice with no ounce of kindness or humanity grunted at me, ‘wash’. My feet were heavy but I moved to the bucket, I knew the drill by now. Victor didn’t like to drink from me when I was dirty, so I had to use ice cold water to rub myself clean.
I mentally let out a sigh of relief, there was no brush in the bucket today which I was grateful for. The brush is another kind of torture. Its bristles are hard and sharp with no flexibility or softness, it takes off a layer of skin, leaving me red and bloody all over.
Today, I used my hands to wipe my skin clean. Shuddering with every drop of water, my teeth began to chatter together making Sullivan grin wickedly at me.
‘Come on human, he’s waiting’ Sullivan snarled. He walked from the doorway down the corridor, I followed. For years now they haven’t bothered chaining me up, they realised rather quickly that I’m too weak to escape.
The two times I tried were pathetic. I barely made it down the corridor before I was scented and thrown back into the room kicked near to death.
I knew then that I wouldn’t be able to escape this place, they’re too strong, their senses too superior to mine. This would be my prison for the rest of my life.
When I was taken I became a shell of myself, lost almost completely to the darkness. Terrified and alone. Until one year after I was captured something beautiful dragged me out of the darkness.
Every year the vampires celebrate starfall, a magical event where stars shoot through the sky all night. I’ve never seen it but the vampires are excited about it for weeks beforehand. They say it fills them with wonder.
That day every year Victor doesn’t drink from me, I’m left in my room to imagine the stars and what it might look like.
The first year it happened and every year since. On that night a warm, loving golden magic fills me. It wraps around my body and then disappears inside me where I feel a little more whole. A little more loved.
It keeps me going when the darkness starts to creep back. It reminds me what it was to live, what it was like to have home. It is my miracle.
All year I remember that magic, I hold on to that feeling and I push myself away from that darkness and hope. I desperately hope that someday I will be happy and loved and this will all be a distant nightmare.
So I take small moments of satisfaction where I can. At this moment, while Sullivan led me through the castle, I took satisfaction admiring all the elegant pieces of artwork that filled it. Although they definitely weren’t to my taste, far too ostentatious, I could appreciate the craftsmanship of the items.
The grand staircase in the centre of the castle was always my favourite, the walls were lined with portraits of truly menacing vampires. The colours in their clothes dissipated the black from everywhere else. Bright red, greens and golds mixed in their portraits.
The frames, so beautifully carved it must have taken months to do. They depicted awful things, like blood and death but I had to look past the horror to see the beauty. I had to. It was too much to only see the pain and fear. So I looked at the details and how much talent went into it.
As we reached the top of the stairs Sullivan grabbed my arm so hard he was close to breaking my bone and dragged me towards the huge door at the top of the stairs.
I knew who was behind it. He chilled me to my bones everyday.
‘Enter’ he commanded.
Sullivan shoved me into the room with such force I fell to my knees. I squirmed to get to my feet aware that there would be more bruises there by morning. Biting back the pain I bowed my head to Victor.
‘I am hungry little human. Sullivan leave us.’
Bowing in respect he slowly backed out of the room, closing the door behind him.
