swirlsofpurple

Alice wakes to a bunch of very loud scary sounds. She picks up Roger, her most trusted teddy bear, and tiptoes out of her room. As Alice goes down the stairs she sees the dining hall doors are open and one of daddy's parties are happening. Her uncles are all there. She sticks her thumb in her mouth. She doesn’t like them, they’re scary. And not really her uncles, they’re her great uncles and great, great uncles and great, great, great uncles. They look young but are really very, very old. She doesn’t really understand it. Her daddy told her it’s because they’re vampires, but she still doesn’t understand.

Alice sees her brother, Gerard, and sits down on the steps to watch. The uncles are jostling him around merrily; he’s the centre of attention. But his smile looks wrong. It’s not her brother’s smile.

They put a tiny glass of red juice in front of him.

Gerard takes a sip, makes a disgusted face, but still finishes it. Everyone cheers.

Alice holds her head up and forces herself to look unafraid as she enters the room. It’s her first time attending one of her dad’s parties, she’s now deemed old enough. She didn’t want to come, but knew she had to if she wanted the strength and power that came with her family’s legacy.

She hates the way these men look at her, like she is a thing.

Alice has the urge to suck her thumb, like she’s a little kid again, but doesn’t.

She measures her movements to stay out of their reach. But there are so many people and one of their fingers finds her neck.

His smile is wide and intensely creepy. “I would love a taste.”

She mumbles a polite refusal, shuffling away as quickly as she can without running.

A shot glass of blood is placed in front of her and for once the gazes on her are interested in her as something other than a thing. She downs it without hesitation, the taste is vile, but she forces her expression not to show it.

Everyone cheers, just like they had for Gerard all those years ago. And she’s more determined than ever to prove how strong and powerful she can be. How much more than a thing she can be.

She gets Gerard to escort her to her room and locks the door, pushing a dresser up against it. Then Alice sits on her bed and listens to the door knob rattle: her heart rabbiting in her chest. She bites her nails.

The lock breaks, the dresser gets pushed aside. The vampire who had touched her neck is standing in front of her. She tries to struggle but he holds her still. His hands feel itchy against her skin.

“Just a little taste.”

Strangely, it doesn’t hurt at all as his teeth pierce her neck. But the feel of it fills her with bile.

He takes only a mouth-full of blood. It’s over in moments. And then he leaves. Her skin somehow unblemished, as though it were a dream.

There was no pain during and none afterwards. It hasn’t left her weak. But it still leaves her shaking on her bed for the rest of the night.

Alice steals some holy water and she steals a dagger and teaches herself to fight and the next time one of the vampires comes for her she’s ready.

She slashes and claws with everything she has. She injures them, but it isn’t enough. They are too strong and she is too weak. They eventually leave, but she knows it’s more that she wasn’t worth the effort than that she had beaten them.

She falls to the floor and screams.

It’s a special night for Gerard: he’s going to be made a vampire. He still has the same fake smile and sad eyes he always has at these parties. And she wants to take his place. She needs to be powerful if she’s ever going to have her revenge, if she’s ever going to be safe.

They drink his blood. (It’s the first time they’ve drunk his blood). And then he drinks some of theirs. His face is blank, but sweating, pale.

Then he is different.

The knock on her door, instead of overt intrusion, surprises her.

“It’s me.” Her brother’s voice.

Inexplicable anger fills her and she yanks the door open. “Are you here to drink from me too?”

He startles. “What? No! I need to talk to you.”

She nods, sits on her bed, waits.

“You need to run,” he says, thrusting a handful of cash in her direction. She stares at his outstretched hand, unmoving. Gerard continues, “They have no intention of turning you. They are going to use you to birth the next generation.”

“You’re lying! You just don’t want me as competition!” she cries, even as she already knows he’s telling the truth.

“I’m not. Think about it, how has the line carried on until now,” he says gently, and repeats, “You need to run.”

“Leave me alone,” she says, curling up on the bed. He sets the money down beside her and walks away.

She bites into her fist to keep from sobbing.

She’s considered running from the night of her first party. But has always known she had to stay to get the power, the strength, she needed. All of it, everything she’s been through, has been for nothing. She’s been so stupid. They were never going to consider her more than a thing.

The next time one of the vampires come to her room, she lets them. Her door is unlocked, her dresser still against the wall. She sits docile, subservient, as they feed from her. Closes her eyes and tries to imagine she’s somewhere else. Her posture holds only defeat.

And as they move to leave, she grasps their hand and buries her teeth in their wrist. They’re too surprised to stop her and she swallows the blood in her mouth before they can try.

She’s sweating and sweating and sweating. And then everything is different. She’s different.

Alice runs.

She still hates the taste of blood, even though she longs to have it fill her mouth. It’s not hunger. It’s need.

Alice comes up with various concoctions involving whipped cream and chocolate and enough overwhelming sweetness to mask it. And sells them to the far friendlier vampires she meets on her travels.

She never looks back.