Desperate Youths, Bloodthirsty Babes

by whiplash_girlchild

AU – Alternating viewpoints. Romanti-pervy. You know how I roll. Enjoy.

English Countryside - 1812 - (Effy)

My horse gallops at breakneck speed and tree branches whip me in the face. His large legs are thundering through the forest, pounding like the rhythm of a drum. "They are still chasing me," I realize. Nothing I haven't been through before. If I hadn't killed that girl, maybe just maybe things would've been different. Maybe I wouldn't be running for my existence, I hesitate to say life; as I lost that, quite some time ago. The branch that had hit me has left a small scratch across my cheek, but blood doesn't flow from it, reddish brown. Instead, I can feel the dark black liquid ooze slowly from it. I ignore it. My fucking corset is killing me. Fuck this century and its impractical fashions. If I had lungs to breathe with, I swear to god I'd be suffocating. My hair billows behind me as the horse strains his legs furiously, muscles and tendons pulling and grinding against the bone. He snorts and his breath fills the cool air briefly before it is carried backwards.

I was used to running. My "family" had to move every so often to avoid detection. You can only stick around for so long when you look "this good." I'm not being conceited, I promise. It just comes with the territory. It feels like I've seen ages pass, slipping past me effortlessly, yet they stretch out before me, endlessly as well.

Suddenly my horse rears back and throws me to the ground. "Fuck!" I yell loudly. And suddenly a flint lock pistol is being pointed at me, its dull steel barrel pointed sharply in my face. As I look up, I see a plainly dressed man in a brown wool overcoat and short pants sneering down at me. "Now you die, foul creature," He spits at me, his pale skin glinting in the moonlight and his dark eyes menacing. Two other men join him, riding up on horseback. One carries a large bronze cross and is holding it outwards toward me, the other a wooden stick sharpened on the end to a point. The first man is staring at me and finally bellows. "Elizabeth Stonem, your ungodly existence ends tonight. There is no escape."

I smile at him. I smile my "Effy smile," and say sweetly "You don't know me and you never will." I lace the words with as much sickening meaning as I possibly can. Then I lunge for him faster than any mortal can move and I rip from him, his tender throat. He doesn't even have time to scream. I make quick work of the second man, snapping his neck. Unavoidable I'm afraid, 'the family' will be pissed. The third man, I pull from his panicking horse and drag him into me. I bite down hard on his neck feeling the sweet nectar of his blood rush into me. The scrape on my face disappears. Color rushes to my cheeks again. Fuck yes. With every pulse of his heart beat, I feel alive again. As it begins to slow to a stop, I release him, snapping his neck in the process. I was done anyways and we don't feed on the dead. It's a rule.

I gather myself, smooth my dress and find my horse 20 clicks from where I almost lost my wretched existence. Why keep trying? Why keep fighting for something so horrible? Because, it's honestly better than being nothing. That is my only other option. This creature that I've become or oblivion, which one would you choose if you were me? Honestly, it's not glamorous being this child of darkness. This "vampire," as they call it. Frankly feasting on blood isn't the fun you'd think it is. But what really bothers me isn't the violence and sheer misery of it, what bothers me are the little things I actually miss, being hugged by my mother, laughing with my father, breathing, being in love. I miss it all. How can I bear to exist this way? Why am I cursed among women? I don't know, I never fucking know. Because "I'm the Oracle," I suppose. My sire had told me this before I was embraced. I could see into the future. See people for who they were. They were laid bare beneath my piercing gaze. Being undead has only magnified these powers. So far, I've lived almost a century and I'm not fucking impressed. Will civilization get better or worse? I don't know, but I've got plenty of time to find out. I grinned wickedly to myself.

I make my way back to the small shelter I share with my "family." I use this term, but really it is a small clan of bretheren who bare the same curse as I do. I'll just go ahead and spit it out into the black night, letting it fill it with its wretched emptiness and longing. Vampires. We are vampires. I gaze at my adopted family and realize that we must leave tonight.

The twins, such beautiful pale skinned, dark haired, doe eyed creatures. Beautiful like porcelain dolls. Sometimes I'm afraid to touch them. For fear that they might shatter at my concrete touch. Katherine and Emily, I smile to them. Their brown orbs eye me sadly. They have never adapted fully to their curse. Everything they do is tainted with their sadness. I feel bad for them. At least I relish this existence from time to time. James, he is brash and angry, filled with rage and hard to control. His sandy blonde hair seems disheveled and he grins at me wickedly. I'm surprised I'm the one to ruin our charade this time. Usually James, I mean "Cook" is the one to give in to his baser instincts.

I didn't mean to kill her. It had only been an attempt for me to satiate that dark thirst within me. No, not bloodlust; not this time. I have been attracted to both sexes for a long time and while I enjoy shagging the occasional man, sometimes I crave the touch only a woman can give, their soft skin, rosy lips, thighs and bottoms. In the time when I was mortal, I was caught with another girl once. They hung her and I ran. I ran so far and so fast that I felt ashamed of myself for my cowardice. I was careful this time, so cautious and so sly. This time was different, I kissed the girl, ran my hands down her back and she shivered; I could feel myself losing control. I kissed this girls neck, I imagined all of her soft fullness beneath me and I sunk my teeth into her. I drank furiously and wantonly. Clutching her naked body to me, I hadn't meant to. I didn't want to. I honestly just wanted to feel her warmth against my cold heart. For once, I had just wanted the warmth of being needed. Instead, I took from her a delicate life that wasn't mine to take. Sometimes being a monster sucks beyond the telling of it. Her father had found me with her lifeless body, drenched in her blood. He chased me outside of town and had cornered me there. I had ripped his throat out, killing two others after that.

I told them what I had done. The twins hated me for it. Both of them yelled furiously at me. Katherine swore at me in her delicate lisp, that I couldn't help but find cute. What? Effy Stonem, snap out of it. I pulled my lips up into a patronizingly sweet grin. Emily's eyes were filled with sorrow and bitterness as she lectured me on the perils of "being discovered." I rolled my eyes and made a "wanking off" gesture behind her back. Cook laughed recklessly.

Ultimately, it came down to eliminating any trace of our existence. We dug up corpses and placed them inside our dwelling just outside of town, we then set our home a blaze. As we wrapped our coats tightly against ourselves, shielding us from the bitter English cold; we walked away from the existence we had grown accustomed to, again. I looked at Cook and his face was lost and sad. Katherine and Emily held hands and their dark brown hair mingled together as it blew behind them. Emily's eyes held unshed tears. My curly brown locks blew behind me and my blue eyes gazed ahead of me, into the caverns of time and space. I smiled to myself. I wasn't sad. I was always waiting for what would come next, the adventure of it all. What each new decade would bring, let alone each new century. I dared fate just then, "Come on, then. What have you got? Shock me for once. Startle me. Take my fucking breath away!" The universe seemed quiet, but I could swear, just for a second that I heard it whispering to me. "Just wait…" Well, I guess I've got all the time in the fucking world.