Fireflies - English

Prologue

It was so cold, out here in the light.

The fresh air had been a relief when he'd first surfaced, having stumbled along in the humid dark for so long. He'd been fine in the dark; this body was so small but his senses were still more than enough to see in the dark and instinctively find his way towards the opening. It had taken hours, trekking uphill barefoot, tired, hungry...but nothing had prepared him for the emotion that swelled within him once he'd escaped the cavernous prison that they'd trapped him in.

Free, he was free.

He hadn't let himself nibble on any of the others while they slept, or on the tasty, fit humans he'd come across camping in the more boisterous entrances he'd effortlessly circumvented. Now, it almost regretted it. He'd have consumed them all with naught a blink and likely remain famished with how insatiable he felt, but the problems it could cause may be colossal. He was too old to be so recklessly impulsive, especially in light of the oaths he'd taken at confirmation. It'd be sacrilegious too simply devour as he wished. He had to wait. Wait. However, it was all far easier said than done. His yearnings yowled in his core and desire flooded his veins; he was too weary to hold back. The next thing that crossed his path was getting the fangs. He'd worry about the consequences later, when his knees weren't trembling and the world wasn't blurring at the edges from the starvation howling within him. The bloodlust clamoured for his attention above the call of the bright day blooming around him, as he shakily stumbled along the...Amazon, yes? He, he couldn't quite remember. He was too distracted by the feast surrounding him, innocently tempting him with life gushing through their veins.

The beast, it too desired freedom. And it refused to yield.

Barbaric thing! How ever had it become so rebellious? How long had he been slumbering? He hadn't gotten sufficiently close to those oddly healthy morsels from before, (for fear of ravenously tearing them apart and all that), so he hadn't gotten the chance to glean information from their vulnerable minds. Speaking of pathetic minds, where were his retainers? Had they not sensed their master's awakening? Useless lumps of reanimated flesh...never was he creating another ghoul if they couldn't even be trusted to put in an appearance at his new birthday with a sacrifice. He wasn't picky. The church had long sent he the worst of the worst and he had thrived all the same. Perhaps that horrid Cardinal (and what was his name, again?), had managed to fulfil his ambitions, had become the Pope, and had then had reassigned his vassals? That fiend! How dare he? And he called himself a priest! What part of thou shall not steal did he not comprehend? Those were his minions, and without them, he had no-one to drag a pure, nubile, fertile...tasty offering - like the one just to his left.

Indeed, peeping above the foliage, ripe with vigour and radiant with love was a young couple. Both appeared to be about twenty-five; they were deliciously full grown and sure to be bursting with energy. The woman was short but curvaceous, not abnormal for the region in colour or characteristics, and was arguing with what his eyes were more drawn to. Her partner. He was far taller, European perhaps? Yes, definitely some German roots. Though, on second thought...No, not with that accent. He was surely American. But very well spoken for someone from the former colony. Nouveau riche? Wouldn't be so astonishing. He was polite, charmingly gentle, and most importantly - blond.

Ah, how lovely. Le petit déjeuner, and right on time too.

'Bon appétit,' He thought as they came closer. The woman wisely stuttered to halt, surprise and suspicion at his sudden appearance. The man however, well, he was immediately disarmed at the sight of a pale, naked toddler with big green eyes and long, wavy black hair hesitantly ambling towards him with a fisted hand in his pouty mouth. The monster looked up, eyes almost unnaturally wide and filled with crocodile tears so perfectly crystalline that the woman too, now cooed at him, helpless against such a brilliant performance. Sadly, the disguised predator noted a wedding band when the male scooped him up, murmuring platitudes in counterpoint to the confused river of inquiries from his wife as he cradled it to his chest.

'Oh well,' the vampire comforted itself. 'Just a quick taste, then I'll leave him be.'

The rosary his future mother slipped around his head put instantaneous stop to that plan...and his consciousness.

Damn Catholics and their penchant for toting around powerful religious objects just because!