Bloody roses

4: Monster

“Buy the Timișoara Daily! Corpses found in a burnt down cottage and the town borders: Is a serial killer on the loose? Only here! Exclusive intel in the Timișoara Daily!”

The murders were the talk of the town. Twenty bodies that could not be identified despite barely any visible injuries. Well, except from the one pierced by a spear. Then, another two in the city, and that in just two days? And even stranger, they had been drained of all their blood. The guards were unsure of the culprit. However, they knew two things: Firstly, there had been a girl living in the destroyed cottage, who had not been found yet, and secondly, the killer must have had an immense amount of physical strength. So, the girl was the only lead they had. Did she get kidnapped? Or had her corpse just not yet been found?

In order to find the potentially important witness, the officials decided that search parties should be looking all over the area around the town.

The civilians, however, had an opinion already. The murderer must have been a supernatural being, judging by the wounds, a vampire. The churches were flooded with people praying for safety and confessing their sins. Part of the crowd was the couple Ioana and Andrei. The latter worked as a town guard, who would be a part of the search in the afternoon. Though, his wife was desperate to convince him to stay at home. She had the strong opinion that the killer was supernatural, and her Alexei did not stand a chance against him. 

“Please, my love. Praying will not help you when you stand face to face with him”

“You know I have to go. It is my duty as a guard.”

“Your duty! Is that more important than your life?”

“I won’t die. Besides, someone has to stop this maniac. He won’t stand a chance against armed guards.”

“The first victims were armed! And he can’t be human. They were vampire hunters, probably trained all their life, and didn’t stand a chance! “

“Don’t be ridiculous. Vampires don’t exist. These guys must’ve been mad to take on that weird job. And, we’re only looking for that girl living in the cottage.”

“This is pointless! Why should she be alive if she encountered him? I bet he took her somewhere to sacrifice her! Or did even worse things!”

“Darling, stop worrying about me. I’ll go. End of the discussion.”

Defeated, Ioana left to confess. When she addressed her concern for her husband, which led to the argument, the priest nodded understandingly. He shared her concerns about the killer suffering from vampirism and advised her to give Alexei a silver dagger and a cross necklace to wear. Satisfied with the advice, Ioana went home.

She had, however, confused the time Alexei’s group was to set off. When he came to say bye, she had not yet found the dagger. He discarded her pleas for him to wait another attempt to stop him and left. Hysterically, Ioana continued searching and when she had finally found it, she chased after him, following his footprints in the mud.

Lacrimă slept peacefully in a cave, with the bat hanging from the ceiling. Then, a delicious scent disrupted her peace.  She got up immediately in order to look for its source. Soon, she found herself face to face with a bunch of men. As soon as they saw her, they began to murmur between themselves. One spoke up: “Are you that girl from the burnt cottage?” But Lacrimă did not answer. The letter shot through her head. Her father wrote humans were evil, and they would be after her. She took a step back, defying her instincts that screamed at her to bite them. 

“We won’t hurt you, I swear. We are simply investigating the murders and were wondering if you, as the habitant of the crime scene, saw something.” In order to prove his words, he dropped his weapon. 

But the vampiress could not resist her burning thirst anymore. She sprinted towards the unarmed man, baring her fangs. He saw her inhuman teeth, his wife’s assumption shooting through his head, and turned to pick up his sword. 

Too late. 

Like a viper, Lacrimă struck at his neck, rendering him motionless with her vampire strength. 

The others drew their weapons and circled them. Lacrimă, never having sparred before in her life, grabbed the dying man's sword to parry the attacks. Soon, his comrades were, too, lying drained in the mad. When the vampiress, bloodstained again, raised up from her latest victim, a scream pierced her ears. 

“Alexei!”

A woman came running towards her, holding a silver dagger. Lacrimă was not hungry anymore. The men she killed were more than enough to quench her thirst. “Monster!” Ioana screamed. Lacrimă stood in the middle of the guards' corpses, blood running down her chin and no trace of an emotion visible on her face. Ioana stood opposite her, trembling in fear and anger, her hands clutched tightly around the silver dagger. 

Well, that is until it was ripped from her hand and buried in her chest, more blood splattering on Lacrimă’s already ruined dress.

Why did she kill her while having no desire for her blood? She did it for the thrill, for the sight of fear overtaking her victims body, and, perhaps to prove, the term ‘monster’ described her perfectly.