The Curse

Chapter One- Relieved She is Dead

I steadily stroke my daughter's hair. And when her heart stops, so do I.
I sigh, relieved.
I hope she found peace in her last moments here.

I remember it like yesterday...how this all started.
How I ran off to be married with the most fascinating human, Iwa Hana.
How, as my daughter was still developing inside of me, that monster placed The Curse on her.
I remember I pondered plotting something against him for a long time, but...in the end I decided to simply live life as long as I could with my new family, with my wonderful husband and our daughter. We named her Shirakaba because of that birch tree.

I see the sun is starting to set outside.
The tears have finally stopped, leaving my eyes sore. It hurts to finally stand myself up.
Now then...what do I do?
The last thing I want to do is look down.
I suppose I'll have to bury her.
Or...
No, I can't think about that now.
Now...
Now, I'll just...
I suddenly hear the sound of scratching on the floor boards beneath me.
I tilt my head downward. A few moments later, my gaze follows.
Shira's nails have dug into the floor.
"Ha," I choke. "Ha...haha."
Tears flood down my cheeks yet again as I stare off into my current reality, the version of reality I had ruled out completely.
Her wings, that of a bat, are not quite bigger than her; but with one motion, they propel her up from the ground.
She floats back down, facing me.
She doesn't appear to be completely awake yet, though her eyes are open, revealing red irises and slitted pupils.
And then, finally, her eyes begin to glow.
I close my eyes, but make no effort to escape.
When I open them just a moment later, the room is almost unrecognizable.
The mirrors are shattered, the wallpaper ripped and soaked in what I assume is her blood, or maybe mine...and I'm on the floor, my body aching.
I don't have to look at her directly as I can see her reflection in a shard of mirror sitting beside me.
Blood drips down her back and along her wings, and her clothes have been reduced to shreds.
Her fiery eyes are still aglow, and of course...she has fangs.
This sends me back to when I lost Iwa...her father she never knew.
As I drift off into this memory, I can already feel myself changing, uncontrollably, into my true form.

My name had just recently been officially changed to Hebi Hana, and there I was, already staring down at my next cause for celebration, my newborn daughter Shirakaba Hana.
Iwa sat next to me, gently rubbing my back, gazing fondly at our baby girl. His bright eyes described what words could not.
"You did it," he finally said to me. "You're both okay...and she's beautiful."
I smiled up at him, gazing into his warm, hazel eyes.
"Yes...she really is. And...she doesn't have fangs, either." I giggled, followed by a sigh as my remaining strength began to wane.
I relished and cherished this dreamlike moment; I knew I would soon be dead.
"Yes, that's a good thing." he laughed.
But he frowned when he looked at me.
"...You need something to drink, don't you?" he asked.
My fears came true. He had realized the childbirth was too brutal for me.
And he was right...in order to survive, I needed sustenance immediately.
"I'm too weak to hunt right now, honey...it's alright, though. I can wait—!" I explained before flinching in pain, despite my efforts to appear unfazed.
"No, you can't." he said sternly.
He pulled up his sleeve.
"And...you can't feed Shira if you can't even feed yourself." he finished, taking our daughter into his arms.
After looking at her little face one more time, he gently and securely held her in one of his arms, holding the other out in front of me.
My eyes widened in shock.
"Honey, I can't! You know I can't control it!" I gasped.
"I believe in you. Look at what you just made it through," he nodded as he looked me in the eyes. "I trust you. And I have since the day we said our vows...since the day we ran away, and since the day we met under that tree."
Before I could object again, he leaned down, delicately placing his free hand on the side of my face.
He kissed me until I believed in myself as much as he did.
I gazed into his eyes one last enduring moment before I took his arm and brought it to my lips.
I sucked in his sweet, luscious blood until I had my fill. He smiled at me as he saw the color returning to my face.
But then, though I commanded myself to let go, my body latched on.
I screamed.
I screamed as I drank, trying to release myself from him, but I had lost all control.
Iwa understood what was happening.
As I continued to drain him, with the strength he had left, he placed Shira into the hospital crib.
He then knelt beside me.
I shook in fear as I struggled, still trying to stop, desperately pushing his arm away from me.
"It's...okay..." he groaned as he fought against collapse, but to no avail.
His body became limp, his life slipping away from him, from me.
"I...lo...ve..."
It went quiet.
Overwhelmed with sheer panic, I found that despite my body's continuous effort to drink, I wasn't taking in any more blood. Tears began to form as my mouth finally unlatched, and I grasped my motionless husband.
My baby girl began to cry; I noticed she was still somehow keeping hold of Iwa's hand.
But then it fell to his side.
I hugged his lifeless body to mine.
"Iwa...you didn't finish what you were saying," I said to him. "I want to hear how we met from your perspective, okay?"
I lifted his face to look into his eyes.
"Iwa."
I began to bawl.
I faded in and out of reality, back and forth from not thinking at all to thinking desperately about what to do until the sun started to set.
That's when I heard a loud crash.
I glanced out the window to my left to see a car had just crashed into a ditch.
I gave it a moment to see if any survivors would escape, or if any cars would drive by or stop.
None did.
I took my husband into my arms, leaving my Shira behind in her little cradle, and crawled out of the hospital window. I climbed into the tree covering just outside and then jumped down.
I made my way to the car in an instant.
I immediately noticed a gas leak.
I closed my eyes for a moment before taking action.
I first made sure all of the passengers in the car were already dead, and then I placed Iwa inside the car through a broken window. I kissed him one last time.
As I climbed back up the tree to my hospital room, I heard a loud noise.
The car had caught fire.
I pulled myself up into my hospital room and took Shira into my arms before laying back down.
What Iwa had managed to breathe out before he lost consciousness played over and over again in my head after that.
"It's...okay...make it an accident."
So I did. A car accident.
"No one will know...and you won't remember," I whispered to Shirakaba. "Only I will."

And I did.
Every moment of every day.