"The Child"

By: Gabrielle Isabelle

Children, often seen as gifts from above, a Heaven sent gift from God, a small version of an angel that has the face of the parents they are born to. But in every family there is always one that is different then the rest, one who stands out, one whom is seen as the "black sheep" in the flock of "white sheep". Even if they are the pariah of the family, surely someone must love this child. No one, not even an abandoned child, can live without love, even if that love comes from a creature not of the living.

Wallachia 1556

"Viktor! Viktor come inside right now, before you die of the flu!" that was the usual admonish calling from my mother. She always worried about her children, even the ones she did not really care for, like me. It was a usual winter day, fresh snow coming from the sky every day in the late hours of the evening. I had just finished tending to the cattle when I decided to make a Snow Man and Snow Lady. They looked like sickly people and I would offend destroy it before my older brothers came to see me, obviously not doing my chores. I stood outside for a moments staring at the sky, watching the snow fall. I sometimes would dance around in a circle as the snow fell on my head, but then one of my older brothers would jump on me and bury my head in the ground calling me a calumny, a "nothing" or a "bastard". They aren't my full brothers they are actually my half brothers. Their father died when they were about to reach young adulthood. Two years later my mother remarried my father, but then he left her after I was born. In our hometown, if your husband leaves you, often if not always, you were labeled the "town whore". This was the sad fate to the woman, but even worse fate to the bastard son she would bear, which was me.

I ran inside just as the sun was setting causing it to become colder. When I came I saw all 4 of my brother already eating supper with mother.

"Is there any left?" I asked taking off my wet clothes by the fire.

"There is some lamb I saved for you, it isn't much, since you were outside playing in the snow instead of eating with the rest of your family!" she scolded. Whenever she would scold me her eyelid would twitch making her look like a crazy old witch. Sometimes I would laugh, but then stop because she wasn't trying to be funny.

I sat next to her, and ate my lamb quietly. After supper, my brother would sit by the fire, and usual talk about women, money, politics that were going on, it was conversation not fit for a 12 year old boy to be apart of. So I would help my mother clean the dishes and put them away in their proper place before going off to wash my face before bedtime. After washing my face, I took off my dirty working clothes, said my prayers to God before sending myself into dream land.

I usually never wake up in the middle of night, but I heard a strange noise coming from outside. It sounded like wolves but louder, and closer. We would often get wolves, but usually in the spring time after wolves give birth to their babies. They would eat the sheep and chickens we have, and one of my brothers would have to go out there with an axe or some other type of weapon and scare them off; but this is time I heard screaming! I jumped out of my bed and ran downstairs to see what was happening. When I reached the bottom of the staircase I saw a pool of blood, and it trailed to the opened door. I ran outside into the freezing cold with nothing on but my sleeping clothes. The blood trailed to the barn house where we kept the sheep. I ran over there, shaking from the cold, hoping that my mother was okay. When I got to the barn I opened the door, I stepped inside and saw dead sheep everywhere, all on the floor surrounded in their own pool of blood, coming our their slashed open throats. What kind of person would do such a malevolent thing? I kept on walking to see if any of the sheep lived, hoping one did so we wouldn't go poor. I searched all over to see if one, just one was alive, but all were dead. I sighed in deep sadness, now we would have nothing for spring to sell.

As I was turning around to leave, I heard another scream coming from what sounded as if it were from the house. I ran out of the barn and I saw the body of my older brother, Angelo, dead in a pool of blood. My body froze; I had never seen a dead person before. His throat was torn open, like the sheep, and his face has a squalid expression; why would the wolves come after him? He was build like a bear, no one could ever bring him down! I heard a gasp come from behind me, I turned to see my mother pale as the snow she was standing in.

"Viktor," she said quietly.

"What is it mamma?" I asked as I noticed blood coming down her neck, but it was pouring out like with Angelo and the sheep. I walked up to her, trying not to be in a palpable area of her neck, "Come mamma, let us go inside before your freeze to death."

I was trying to lead her away before she saw Angelo. Blood was all over the snow in such satiated, that it could be mistaken for a river! When we got inside there was only one of my brothers there, William. He took mother by the hand and had her sit down.

"Viktor, go get mamma a blanket," commanded William, for he was the eldest and smartest of the family.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Nothing, just do as I say," he yelled.

I went upstairs and got mother a blanket. I gave William the blanket, who then wrapped her tightly in. I went to the kitchen to see if we had any hot tea for her to drink. As I searched William seemed to know what I was doing and said sternly, "There is no tea left, remember? Its winter."

I stopped searching for the tea that wasn't there. I turned back to mother who was still white and her eyes were wide open. I looked at her, then William, and asked again,

"What happened?"

William then sighed, and said, "Strigoii."

"What?" I asked again.

William stared at me with cold eyes, "Strigoii, un-dead, nosferatu, vampyre, what ever you wish to call it. It attacked us and killed the cattle and Angelo, Markus, and Bram. This isn't the first though, it killed our father as well while he was attending the sheep."

"But, it tore the throat open, I thought they drink blood not attack and rip open a person."

William's expression of coldness didn't change. "This isn't a person, it does not choose how it kills, it just does!"

Still something was not right, I looked back to mother, who I just remember seeing her bleed. I walked up to her and turned her neck to the left and saw two small holes covered in blood. William stood up and saw them, then gasped.

"Wait! Wait, this is a strigoii bite!"

"But I thought you said-"

"Forget what I said! This is the real thing, come look," answered William calling me with his hand. I took a closer look at the bite marks, they were close together and were quite small really, if people were not close enough you could mistake it as a bug bite. I looked at my mother's face, she was still in shock as her eyes were still widened. William seemed very calm about discovering the strigoii bite on mother, but then again, William is always the calm one during times of trouble.

When dawn came, William and I both burned the bodies of the sheep and our brothers, when I asked William why, he answered, "To make sure they stay dead!"

I didn't know what that meant but instead of bothering him with more questions, I continued the work that was needed. I cared for mother as William cleaned all the blood from the floor. He was so quite and consecrated, it was as if he had done this before.

That night, William went straight to bed, I knew how tired he was, so I did not disturb his rest; I made supper for myself and mother, three slices of bread and jam that we saved for Christmas. Mother wasn't talking but at least seemed aware of the situation we are in. We both ate quietly, I think it was for the best, mother and I rarely talked and when we did it was usually over my mistakes or about my brothers' father. After she finished eating she took her plate washed it and put it back on the shelf with all the other glass-ware, I did the same with mine; Mother sat by the fireplace and fell asleep, instead of going up to my bed I decided to stay with her and keep her company. As my eyes began to get heavy I heard mother say, "Viktor, you are tired, go to bed my son."

It was the first time I have ever heard her call me her "son". So with a smile on my face, and showing some bellicose, I walked up to her and kissed her on the cheek, and went upstairs. Mother's face was un-moved by the kiss but I knew inside she was. As I lay down on my bed, I looked out the window that was to my left. The sky was clear, a first all winter, it was a small miracle from God, a sign that said everything was going to be fine.

The next day mother and I went into the village to buy some vegetables and hopefully buy some new animals. As we entered the small village I noticed people staring at mother and me, not in an angry way but more of fear and sadness, as if they pitied us. They knew what had happened that night and they knew that my mother only had two sons now. I looked at my mother's face, although she did not speak much I could tell what she wanted to say. She wanted to say "Don't listen to them, they don't know anything!" But instead she remained quite with a stone face. After buying carrots and some large plums that were brought in from the Anglo-Saxons, who bought them from other nations I have never heard of, mother began to walk away from the village and towards home, I began to follow her, I realized now we weren't going to buy those animals until Spring; Spring was along time away, and Christmas had not even pass yet!

That night, William began yelling at me for not telling mother to buy the sheep we needed.

"How stupid can you be Viktor? How stupid can you be? We need those animals more than these God forsaken vegetables!" He began to throw me around the room, hitting anything with my back. Mother was witnessing this and did not say a word at all. She had a sad expression on her face, so I would know what she was thinking. I knew she wanted to do something, or at least attempt to, but she just sat on her chair with her sad expression. After William finished beating me, he left upstairs and did not return until dinner, which was boiled and chopped up vegetables. After dinner I began to help mother clean up everything, but as I reached for the plates, she grabbed my hand and quietly said,

"Go to your room, son."

I did not want to hurt her by insisting I stay so, I listened and went to my room. I could not sleep, so instead I looked out my window. The moon was out and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. I could always see all the stars in the sky, and I remember once hearing from our town vicar that whenever you see the stars during a harsh winter season, it is a good omen, and that you should pray to God for a better Spring; This was our town's tenet. So I did what he said, I prayed to God, I asked not only for a better Spring but to help my mother over the loss of her sons. As I lay in my bed still looking out my window I heard my door open up, I turned to see mother with a candle in her hand to give her face light. She sat next to me, and she did what she hadn't done in awhile, she smiled.

"Viktor, isn't it a lovely night?"

I smiled back, "Yes mamma it is." She put down the candle next to us, and put one arm over my shoulders. I leaned my head against her chest to be closer to her. She has never done this before so I wanted to remember this moment for everything that it is.

"My son, its nights like these that remind me of your father," said my mother in a whisper. I looked up to her face; her eyes were in tears.

"Mamma, don't cry."

She smiled again, "Its alright, I loved your father, and I would have done anything for him, anything. But he had a choice to make, me or his other life. He chose that other life he had."

I am confused, why is she telling me this?

"Mamma, I love you." I said with a smile. She didn't look at me but she was stilling smiling. I soon felt my eyes becoming heavier and heavier, and soon I was off to dreaming.

I woke up in the middle of the night, not by a noise but because I was wide awake. It was very rare for me to wake at this hour, but as hard as I tried I could not go back to sleep. I went downstairs to see if maybe I could start breakfast for mother and William before they woke up. But like the night my brother's were slain, the door was open and blood was on the door post. My heart skipped a beat, and I quietly went back up the stairs hoping if I went back to my bed it would all end up being a dream. I ran quietly as possible to my bed and went under my blankets.

"This is only a dream, only a dream, only a dream," I whispered in the night, hoping that I would fall asleep. But then I heard a crash and my brother William screaming.

"Mamma, mamma, please mamma, I need you," I cried out as tears fell from my eyes. I could here a fight out side the house, I didn't want to know, I didn't want to look, but something told me I had to. I looked out my window to see my headless brother's body, and a wolf-like creature that was standing on two legs, carrying the head away. I felt my stomach turning in and out all at once, I felt so sick that I vomited on my bed. I felt dizzy and I wanted air, fresh air to calm me down. Yes that's what I need fresh air! I felt myself gliding through the house, and down the staircase, and out the door. I took a deep breath of air in my lungs and let it out slowly as my head began to float on air. The world was spinning and I with it, my body then floating on towards the woods' edge. When I reached one of the tree, I held on to its trunk as hard as I could. I then heard my mother's screaming coming from inside the woods. My head no longer felt light, but back to its normal state of heaviness. I let go of the tree, I could see the barn is not far from where I am standing, I could easily ran over there, or I can save my mother. I had a choice, safety or mother; I choose my mother!

I ran into the woods calling for her, "Mamma! Mamma! Mamma scream again!"

No reply.

"Mamma! Mamma, can you hear me? Scream again!"

I stood in one place hoping for some type of reply, but none came. I was not going to give in so easily; I kept running calling for her again and again.

"Mamma! Mamma! Can you hear me?"

Still nothing, no noise except the owls. I stood beside a large tree that symbolizes the middle of the woods. My eyes began to fill with water, "Mamma, mamma, please mamma don't leave me, mamma." I knew that I was alone now, my brothers are gone, my father never cared for me, and now mother, the only one who ever said "I love you," to me, now gone forever. I fell to the ground whether from tiredness from yelling or maybe from running all over the woods. My tears were rolling off my face and on to the forest floor that was covered in snow. I knew I would die here, it was cold, I am only in my sleeping clothes, yes I am going to die here, on this very ground. I looked up to the sky for the last time, and said my final prayer to God.

"Lord, please allow my mother into Heaven. It wasn't her fault my father left her, it was mine. If I had not been born, he would have stayed with her, and they would have been happy. Please God let her into Heaven with you and Christ, she deserves it."

I turned my body over to my side, and began to let the coldness in. I felt myself going into a sleep that I will never awaken from. As I was passing on to death, I thought of those creatures that caused this. Strigoii, was it? Why had they attacked us, there were plenty of other homes close to the forest's edge, why us? What had we done? I then heard noises coming from my backside; it sounded loud and heavy, was it the strigoii coming to finish me off?

"Well it seems as if our job here is done Father, the boy is dead just how you wanted it," said a young male voice. I didn't move, instead I lay still hoping they wouldn't hurt me.

"Very good, now let's get rid of the body," it was the voice of the vicar, our vicar, the priest who sang songs of paean, the one who baptized me, and my entire family!

"Father, why are you doing this again?" asked the young man.

"He was born of that cursed strigoii and that whore. We did what we had to, to protect the village of a plague of half-breed humans that once caused great trouble in our village, many years ago. This boy needed to die," said the once magnanimous man I knew.

"But the other family members were not his brothers born to one of our glorious soldiers? Surely they were human?"

"Yes but they knew too much, they protected him and his whore mother to the very end. Protecting a monster child is a mortal sin, my boy, read your Bible!"

I had heard everything, everything single word. I am a monster child, a demon, a vampyre, nosferatu, a strigoii! But how and why? Why hadn't mother told me? It did not matter now I needed to die for the sake of the village. I then heard a large item being lifted.

"My goodness this shovel is heavy!" said the vicar.

"Father, what are you doing?"

"I have to hit him over the head to be sure he is dead."

I closed my eyes, and felt the hard iron crash against my skull, breaking it into two. I am dead now, and I hope I see my mother soon.

THE END

(A/N: Reviews would be lovely)