By Blood or Water ||ONC 2026

Renne Abercrombie considers herself an actress. Every day she begins as a hard-working matchstick girl, and ends as a doting, newly wedded wife, each faced with diligence and a well-practiced smile. Both feel unnatural, but that is the way of things. In four months time she will be a mother, and that too, will be accepted with grace.

But something in her rejects it. It is a wicked, selfish thought that grows stronger with each passing day. It claws its way past the act she knows so well, beckoning her to run away from her monotone life and into the dangerous streets of Liverpool. There are rumours of a creature lurking there: feasting on the bodies of men and children, but perhaps she deserved such a fate. A punishment for refusing her natural duty.

So, when a young vampyre child turns her in his search for a mother of his own, Renne becomes determined to find any way out she can. The road is long and wretched, filled with Hunters and Witches set on claiming her head, and seemingly no cure in sight. Her only hope lies in a Witch who claims to be playing for both sides. One who says she can open a path to the Eldritch plane and destroy vampyrism at its very source.
The only price?
The child within her womb.

ONC submission using prompts 99, 81, and 62.