The Vampires of Repleti

The Peasants and the Lord

    The peasants kneeled in front of the throne. Their bones aching against the marble. A whole village had come before the lord today to beg for help. But many had trouble kneeling, their knees bruising from the lack of cushion on their bones. They had endured a harsh winter and a summer that had smoldered all of their crops. The bags under their eyes were the only parts that reminded others that they were human.

    The Lord sat on a throne that was concealed by a veil. It was hard to make out his features, or what he looked like, but ever so often when the light shined just right you could see its reflection off of the crown that he wore.

The Peasants pleaded with the lord.

"Have mercy on us, my lord!"

"We were starving, my lord."

"We were dying, my lord."

"The lands could not provide for us, my lord. Surely you see that we had no choice?"

    The voice of the man from behind the veil broke their pleas, "You have disgraced your land in which I give you freely." The figure shifted, moving their ankle to rest on their knee. "You meddled in a force you did not understand, and have become something that you no less understand. You know that you are in trouble, some of you have already started to thirst. That is why you are here, is it not?" His head cocked to the side. In a voice that shook the windows, he declared the truth that the peasants did not want to admit. "Your fellows have started to disrupt the natural order of things, they have started to feast on blood. They have started to kill your neighbors, and you fear that you will be next. But you are doomed to their fate either way. And soon, the blood will run out. And your mind will no longer be your own."

    Silence spread across the room. Shame stuck to the tounges of the people. A Peasant crawled forward. Her appearance more ghostly than the others. She begs out, "We were dying! Our children were nothing more than skeletons, and our workers were not strong enough to mend to the barren fields. What did you expect us to do, my lord?"

"I expected you to die. For that would be the kinder fate."

"To die!? My Lord!"

"You do not understand the gravity of what you have done," he growled out. "I have no choice in what I must do," then without missing a beat his voice dropped two octaves, "I now, Lord of Repleti, sentence all who have dealt with the underlord to die."

   Chaos swept the throne room, people ran to get out. They trampled each other in their efforts. No one cared who was a mother, father, sister, or brother; in their chaos all that mattered was themselves.

    A few peasants stood still and stared at the veil, their mouths hanging open and their chests barely moving. A few stayed kneeling, praying for forgiveness and pleading in screams. Their screams mixed in with the others in the room.

"Come forth, Julian," the Lord commanded evenly. A figure came forward from behind the throne and became exposed to the light. A royal blue coat stood out against the beige of the peasant's clothes, but the scars that littered his face marked him as one of their own.

"My senor?"

"Go to the village, take a squadron, burn it to the ground."

    Julian froze, puzzled by what his lord had commanded but nodded, "Si' senor, consider it done." He rushed out the door to the left of the throne, not wanting his lord to see how uncomfortable he had become in his request.

    When the door had shut, four shrouded people came out from behind the throne. They were all of varying heights, their features not visible through their layered robes. They stopped at the sides of the throne, two on each side, and breathed in as they observed the chaos before them. "May we, our lord?" they spoke in unison. If you listened closely, you could hear the anticipation leak through their mostly stoic voices.

"Go ahead, my Paulo Tenebrosorum."

    They stepped out from their positions and spread out across the throne room. Their feet never touching the marble of the floor. When they advanced towards the swarm of panicking people, they unsheathed their blades. All four left bodies in their wake as they made their lines forward to the door.

    The peasants who had been kneeling on the ground stop breathing, their ears explode with pressure. Their insides burned to their outsides, as if their whole being was changing. They fall over onto their sides, their heads up in the air as they thrash. Long teeth expand from their gums at the height of their pain. But as soon as it started it stopped, barely noticeable in the panic of the room. But the Paulo Tenebrosorum noticed, and they made their way towards the newborns.

    The newborns each stood up separately, cocking their heads as if someone was speaking to them. In their hearts, they became something different. They were given a purpose, to protect their own. Snarling they turned around, bared their teeth, and ran at the Paulo Tenebrosorum. They slashed their newly formed claws at them and reached their necks to bite them. But with as little skill as they had, and as new as they were to vampirism, they were no match for the vampire hunters of Repleti.

    The Paulo Tenebrosorum slashed their heads off before impaling them in the chest with their stakes. And as quickly as they were dispatched, more showed up, and they killed them just the same. Soon, all the peasants who had come that day found themselves burned in a pile outside the stronghold.