Isabel left the walled city one night several weeks after Priest had declared the new vampire menace. The church had immediately overreacted, banning everyone from leaving the city. Those who were caught trying to flee were arrested. She made her escape under the cover of a raging thunderstorm. Nothing could be heard over the crashes of thunder and the pounding of the rain.
"Where do you think you're going?"
She turned and saw Priest glowering at her.
"The war is only beginning," he said. "It's not safe out there."
"I don't care," she told him. "I can't stand it here anymore. The church has everyone caged in like prisoners. This city has become our prison, Priest."
"That may be," he said, "but you'll find far worse things out there."
"So be it," Isabel said. "I have to be free, and being a priestess is a curse I'll endure no longer."
She pulled the hood of her robes tighter around her head and whirled away from him, walking as fast as she could.
"Leaving the church isn't the answer!" he called out to her.
"Isabel, wait!"
She could hear footsteps running behind her. It was Priestess. These days she never left Priest's side.
"Isabel, wait!" Priestess called again. "Please reconsider!"
"Sorry, Priestess," Isabel said. "I can't stay here any longer. Whatever awaits me out there is my true destiny."
After climbing over the wall (no easy feat in the pouring rain), Isabel began her way south. She didn't really know where she was going, she just needed to get as far away from the city as possible.
Being adopted by the church at an early age, Isabel never knew what it was like to be a normal girl. As long as she could remember, she had been fed all the religious mumbo-jumbo she could stand. That she could have tolerated, if she had been chosen to be trained by the warrior priests. Instead, she had been looked over time and time again. She had even asked Priest himself, to teach her the ways of the warrior. He had refused, just like every other warrior priest.
"You're too young, Isabel."
Priest had even went so far as to tell her that she didn't have enough faith. Well of course she lacked faith! How could you have faith or believe in God when every single day of your life was spent locked up inside a city so dark that the sun was never seen? God was supposed to be the creator of everything in life that was beautiful. Why would he have his children locked up like animals?
She walked until she came to the desert. Unsure of her location, she decided to continue in the same direction. No sense wandering around in circles. She walked on until she became too tired to walk any farther. Finding a shallow cave that looked like it had once been home to a coyote, she lay down and fell asleep.