The Vampyre Huntress

CHAPTER 2: ALABAMA AND BLOODSHED

ALABAMA, USA

1844 – FEBRUARY 27TH

It's getting darker outside as I lay out dinner bowls and cups. You can start to see the unusually red Alabama moon peeking from above the trees that surround our little farm. The children are sitting by the fireplace with wooden blocks. Lucy is stacking them while Will tries to knock them over. My growing belly touches the kitchen table as I scoop the cornbread and soup into the dinnerware. My husband, Sam, had been in the barn with our mare all afternoon, he was now washing up the mud he had accumulated on his boots and trousers.

"Sam!" I heard someone scream from outside of our small, rustic cottage. "Sam, they're comin' this way!"

Henry Davis frantically rushed inside our house, extinguishing lights and bolting windows. He grabbed the rug covering the kitchen floor and threw it back, revealing a freshly dug basement room under the floorboards.

“Get the little ones, Rory! Get inside and stay quiet! We’ll draw them away from here.”

We had been expecting this, but it did not make it any easier. I grabbed a bowl of soup and a cup of water for the children, not knowing how long we would have to stay hidden. Henry grabbed blankets from the chair beside the fire and threw them down into the hole. Sam kissed and lowered Will and Lucy into our make-shift hide out, telling them both that he loves them.

As I grabbed the rifle from above the fireplace, I saw Sam run out of the front door with his military-issued musket and Army coat. I lowered myself into the floor and Henry closed the hatch over me, pulling the rug back into place. I kept the lantern off as I snuggled the children into the blankets in the far corner. Sam and Henry had dug out the back with a section just perfectly sized to hide the children. I sat with my back to the hole and pulled a blanket around me, in an attempt to hide the children even further.

Above us, the vampyres made their way into the house, turning over furniture and knocking the pots off of the stove. I loaded ammunition into my gun as the rug that hid the entrance to our hide out was moved. I could see the beasts moving around through the cracks in the floor boards. I point my weapon toward the hatch door as the vampyre moves to open it, holding my breath, I move my finger to the trigger. Something else must have caught the thing’s attention, it seems to give up on messing with the hatch and moves into the children’s room.

We stayed in our little hiding spot for hours. When the sun came up the next morning, I could see small rays coming through the cracks in the floorboards. Last night, Will and Lucy ate the soup and cornbread that I brought down with us, so I decided to run up and grab some food for them. The kitchen was destroyed, the table laid over on its side, my chairs broken in half. The soup from the night before was poured out onto the counter, spilling over onto the floor. As I was grabbing a loaf of bread from the cupboard, I heard a loud banging on the front door.

Terrified of what I would find, I grab a knife from the kitchen drawer and slowly walk over to the window in the living room. I move the white linen curtain aside and peer out in the direction of the door. There are vampyre bodies littering the yard but the body I am most concerned about is covered in a regiment jacket and fresh blood.

I rush to the wooden door and move the chair that was blocking it from opening. I swing it open and drop to my knees in front of Sam. He has the stock of his gun against the door frame, using it to get my attention. He’s weak and unable to move as I lift him up into a sitting position.

“Inside, Aurora. Get inside!” Sam whispers in a barely understandable tone.

I manage to drag him into the kitchen by his torso as he pushes with his booted feet. When he’s inside fully, I turn to close the door. Lucy comes out of her hiding place and I sit a chair down into the hole so they can climb out. She helps Will up and they start righting what furniture they can. Will finds enough edible food and some well water that we had collected the night before and they sit down in front of the extinguishing fire to eat.

I managed to flip our kitchen table over and with Lucy’s help, laid Sam onto it. The old table had been turned into an operation table, all of my healing spices and herbs laid upon the splintering wood. My poor husband had unusual wounds all over his body. They almost looked like.. bite wounds? Deep lacerations adorned his face and arms, no doubt from the fight he put up, possibly from the vampyre’s claws. It was well into the evening before Lucy and I were done cleaning and stitching his wounds.

It was absurd how someone could live through that. I was absolutely horrified; I knew I had to keep William from seeing his father like that. I could hear him in his room, sobbing. Why does he have to be subjected to things like this? He is only a young boy.

I decided to send him and Lucy to my parents a few days ride north of here. Lucy's mother, my sister, had passed a few years before, leaving me with her only child. Hopefully, my babies will be safe until Sam is healed. Putting them in the carriage and saying goodbye was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

MARCH 6

Seven days have passed, and I received word that the war with these creatures is still raging but the children are safe with my mother. My father, lost to this madness, had passed two nights ago. Today, Sam smiled at me for the last time. Or so I thought. As I lay over his cold, unmoving body, I felt him stir.

"Sam?" No reply.

"Sam, honey it's me." Again, nothing.

Pushing my long hair behind my ear, I bent over his chest and laid my ear to his heart. Nothing. Not a beat, not a breath, no movement. I looked back up just in time for Sam to knock me back into the cupboard and run from the house, straight into what was once our town. I must have blacked out for a few minutes. When I got the strength to stand again, I raced to the stables out back and mounted my horse.

When I made it into town, I felt my blood run cold. I was too late. I couldn't stop him in time, Sam had already killed two men and was working on his third. When I round the corner, my husband had his best friend by the throat. It took a few minutes to find the courage to yell out at him. He sees the horror written all over my face and he drops Henry onto the cold ground.

"Aurora, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. I-I don’t know what came over me." He spoke.

I believed him, the Samson Karloff I know would never have done anything like this. Sam and Henry had been best friends since they were children. They did everything together, they literally bled, sweat, and cried together. Sam is a good soldier, a strong fighter, but he wouldn't rip someone innocent apart as he has.

His cold, rough hands rubbing my round, pregnant belly brings me from my thoughts. I had gotten off my horse, but I hadn't noticed him standing in front of me. Sam drops to his knees, blood smearing his face, hands, and chest. I still can't see any color in his dark eyes and his teeth are like razor blades. He speaks with a rough, hard voice. Four years of marriage and a lifetime of being in love with him and I have never heard him sound as desperate as he does in this moment.

"Rory, please. I'm sorry. Let me fix it. Let's just go home and pack our belongings! We could be on our way up North before noon. We can go be with William and Lucy!"

He has desperation in his voice, but his eyes show no remorse.

"Sam, I can't. How? How could I go back with you? How could you... feed... on human flesh and blood? You murdered Henry, Sam! What about our family? Would you bite into the necks of our young? Would you murder them too?"

I gasped in horror as his hands covering my belly moved away and his teeth elongate as he stands up to his full height. Sam has always been tall and muscular but today he seems impossibly taller.

"Why would you say something like that Aurora?"

His hand finds my throat and lifts me from the bloody dirt where I was kneeling in front of him. His dark eyes looked strangely beautiful.

"I would never hurt my children!" He screamed. "I would never murder my family!"

I struggled to pry his big hands from my neck as he screamed incoherent words in my face. This isn't Sam. Not my Sam. Not the man I fell in love with all those years ago. Not my Sam that asked my father for his oldest daughter's hand before he even asked me. My Samson wouldn't hurt me like this. He wouldn't harm his unborn child. I guess he saw the hurt in my eyes because he let his hold on me go.

I fell loosely to the ground in the center of the town. Sam looked down at me and slowly looked around us. I had to get him away from here. Away from people and towns.

"You did this Sam. You destroyed what was left of our home. You took away any hope that this town had left."

"No, I couldn't have. I would never. Only a monster would do this!"

I gulped down my fear and slowly laid my hand on the side of his face, stroking his short beard.

"Sam, darlin' you did this. You destroyed our town, our family, us. You must leave Sam. You have to run and stay away from people. You can't come back. We can't be a family while you're like this. I'm sorry Samson."

Sam wrapped his arms around my body and kissed my hair, whispering into my ear.

"I love you, Aurora."

That was the last thing he said to me before turning and running into the woods. Disappearing forever.