Author's Note: Graphic violence and gore and some profanity ahead.


Baker-Malloye Farm

July 11, 1925

Night

Rayne had a wonderful tenth birthday party at her grandparents' house. It was almost a carbon copy of the family's Fourth of July celebrations last week sans the fireworks and sparklers, and Rayne was the center of the day's festivities. Pin the tail on the donkey and the usual tag, hide-and-seek, and cornhole were all played by the children, and Benjamin, at his parents' behest, let Rayne win at hide-and-seek since it was her birthday. Rayne's favorite foods were served, but the crown jewel of her birthday dinner was one of Ellen's famous cakes. Ellen loved to bake, and for her firstborn great-grandchild's tenth birthday, she baked a mahogany cake with so-called "ermine" frosting that was topped with sliced strawberries, the fruit being Ellen's own personal touch.

The birthday girl received plenty of gifts from her relatives, but Rayne's favorite gift was an illustrated butterfly book that her stepfather Arthur had given her. Rayne was looking at that book that night at a quarter to nine in her bedroom after her party had ended. She was lying on her bed with her eight year old cousin Cathy – both girls were lying flat on their stomachs wearing pajamas – gazing at the beautiful and colorful illustrations of butterfly species from all around the world. Upstairs with the girls were their younger cousins: twins George and Ada; Pauline and both her younger siblings – one year old Betty and seven month old Jay. All five young'uns were fast asleep in their beds or cribs.

Nine year old Benjamin was the only child who was downstairs with the adults. Benny was outside on the porch with his father Harold, grandfather James Sr, uncles Jimmy, Charlie, and Tommy; his Aunt Lizzie's husband of three weeks, Arthur, and his great-grandfather Joseph, whom Benjamin and his cousins affectionately called "Grandpa Jo"; the children gave their great-grandmother Ellen a similar nickname - "Granny El". Benjamin was sitting next to Grandpa Jo on the porch swing listening to all the grown men shoot the breeze about everything from jobs to politics to events they had read about in the newspapers. The Scopes Trial down south in Tennessee, which began yesterday on the 10th, was front page news nationwide and the grown men on the porch were all talking about it at that moment. All the young Benny could grasp from his kinsmen's conversation about the trial was that a high school teacher in the Bible Belt was in trouble for teaching his students that people evolved from monkeys instead of descending from Adam and Eve, which had led to the press in labeling the current court proceedings as "the Monkey Trial".

Joy's piano music wafted outside from the open windows, giving the men a pleasant ambience for their conversations. Chalmer was the only man inside the house, and he was in the parlor with his mother Ellen, big sister Sarah, nieces Theresa and Eliza, and nieces-in-law Mary and Ruth listening to Joy play. Chalmer was sitting in an armchair rocking his head from side to side out of rhythm to the music that he was clearly enjoying. Ellen was rocking leisurely in her chair next to her son resting her chin on the palm of her right hand. Sarah was sitting on the sofa with Mary and Theresa while Eliza and Ruth were sitting on chairs between the sofa, rocking chair, and armchair.

Everyone was enjoying the music, though Ruth, who smoked her last cigarette before the birthday dinner, was anxiously wringing a handkerchief in her hands to keep her tobacco addiction in check. She really wanted a cigarette but did not want to be rude to Joy while she was still playing the piano. The second Joy's music stopped Ruth was going to hop up from her chair and fetch her handbag to procure a cigarette and go outside to light it and puff away. Another woman was waiting for Ms. Irving to stop playing – Annie - the Baker-Malloye's maid of three years. She had been quietly resting in the kitchen after cleaning up the birthday party listening to Joy's music and to the men talking outside from the screen door and open kitchen windows.

Annie rose from the kitchen table once Joy's performance had ended, and she walked to the parlor. "Missus Malloye?" Annie politely asked. "I'm ready to go home now. Do you need anything before I go?"

Sarah shook her head. "No, we're all good, Annie. Thank you for asking." Sarah rose from the couch and headed for the front door.

"Let's see who'll take you home tonight."

A chorus of "Good-night, Annie" rose from those who remained in the parlor. The men's conversation about the Monkey Trial stopped as soon as Sarah opened the screen door and peeked her head outside.

"Annie's ready to go home now. Any of you boys want to take her?"

Charles, who was sitting at the top of the porch stairs with his wife as she smoked, raised his hand to volunteer himself as Annie's chauffeur. "I will, ma. I'll take Annie home."

"Good." Sarah replied while nodding. She opened the door and let Annie outside. Annie followed her employer's middle son down the porch steps to his car to, a black 1923 Model T Ford, to the sound of the rest of the men, Ruth, Sarah, and Benny saying good night to her. For propriety's sake, Annie sat in the backseat instead of upfront with Charles. It was not long until that Model T was driving down the tree-lined lane, its headlights brightening the way.

It was a pleasant midsummer night. A rain shower had passed through the area earlier that evening, and the misty air smelled of wet earth and plants. Summer peepers and crickets were serenading from the shadows of the night, their singing drowned out temporarily by Charles's car as he drove down the dirt lane. Charles and Annie could hear only a slight whisper of the peepers and crickets singing over the rumble of the car's engine, but the rumbling was low enough for them to make small talk during the drive. It was Charles who initiated the conversation.

"Nice party today, wasn't it?"

"Oh?" Annie turned her attention from her window where she had been watching the passing scenery. She caught on quickly and responded. "Yes, yes it was, Mister Charles. A very nice party. Hard to believe Miss Rayne is now ten years old."

"Yes, it is. My twins turned five in March; they're halfway to being ten! They'll be starting kindergarten later next month. You don't have any kids, right, Annie?"

Annie nodded. "Yessir, I don't have any children. Never been married either. I live with my aunt and mother. They're both widows who are getting up in age and hard of hearing, and I take care of them just like I do for your grandparents, Mister Charles."

"I see." Charles nodded. His mouth opened in reply, but nothing came out as Charles observed the sudden appearance of a thick white fog that was obscuring the end of the lane and the adjacent road. The fog was so thick that Charles had to slow down to a crawl wherein earlier the preceding mist had only veiled the surface of the surrounding area. That mist was also not too thick, and visibility had not been an issue until now.

"What the hell?" Charles whispered. "Where did this fog come from? It didn't rain hard enough for it to get foggy like this."

Annie leaned forward from the backseat to get a closer look at the fog through the windshield. This was very strange. Was there a thunderstorm somewhere in Van Buren County and this fog was rolling in from there? Charles turned on his windshield wipers to clear away the fog that was building up on his windshield. Quite an unexpected development, and another one was about to unfold.

A loud popping sound suddenly rang out from the left rear tire and that end of the Model T tilted downward. Startled shouts coming from Charlie and Annie filled the car, and it was only after they quieted down did they hear the telltale sounds of a flat tire: the wheel rolling through deflated rubber, squeezing out the tire's remaining air in the process. "You have got to be kidding me!" barked Charles as he moved the car off to the right-side of the lane to park it. He reached into his glove compartment and pulled out a flashlight, turned it on, and then turned off the car.

"Annie, come outside with me. I need you to hold the flashlight while I change the tire. It shouldn't take long at all."

"Alright, Mister Charles." uttered a rattled Annie as she exited the car and felt her way to the trunk through the nocturnal fog.

Stepping out from the driver's side, Charles made his way to the car's trunk, pausing momentarily to cast light on the damaged tire for a cursory look. The sight of the flat tire made Charles curse under his breath, and he made his way to the trunk where he handed his flashlight to Annie and retrieved a spare tire, car jack, and tools. Jacking up the car, Charles knelt on the damp ground in front of the flat tire. His fury simmered down into perturbed captivation when Annie shined the flashlight upon the gaping gash that stretched across the width of the totaled tire. The gash was horizontal as if it had been slashed rather than punctured. A sharp nail or rock could not have made that gash; it looked as if the rubber had been slit by a blade or a razor of some sort.

Charles traced the edges of the gash with his fingers. It was a clean cut. "What on earth?" Charles whispered to himself. What, or who, could have slashed the tire when it was in motion?

"What's the matter, Mister Charles?" asked Annie, who did not like the look on Charlie's face. "Is something stuck in the tire?"

"No, it's just -"

Metal glinting in the flashlight's beam was caught in Annie's peripheral vision for only a split-second as it swung towards and apparently "stopped" at the side of Charles's neck, ending his sentence abruptly. Charles gasped, his mouth hung wide-open, his eyes fixed on Annie wide and brimming with great fright. Annie jumped from the sudden movement and remained frozen to the spot as she tried to register what was happening to Mister Charles. There was a huge, thin, curved metal object next to – no, lodged in – the side of Charles's neck. Deep crimson blood was leaking from Charles's wound, the dark streams pouring down his neck and staining the right-side of his shirt.

The wounded man could not speak, only gurgle, blood dribbling from his lips. Charles reached his hands up to the blade in a vain attempt to pull it out, as if that would save him. His fingers had just touched the surface of the metal object, a sword, a scimitar in fact, when it was pulled out to the nauseating sound of sharp metal dislodging from bone and sliding through flesh. A stream of blood shot out from the now exposed wound and splattered onto a horrified Annie's dress, who backed away gasping in disgust and horror. Charles's eyes rolled up into his head, and he slumped over onto his left.

A long-fingered hand reached out from the fog to cradle Charles's head as he fell, and a black-clad figure lunged forward and knelt behind the dead young father of two's body. The figure laid their bloodied scimitar down on the ground, using their now free-hand to prop Charles's body up. Judging by the figure's outfit, a late-Victorian mourning dress and veil, Charlie's killer was a woman. She, the Woman, was facing her victim's gruesome neck wound, and she lowered her face down towards it. Slurping and sucking could be heard along with muffled moans of someone enjoying what they were consuming.

Annie witnessed this all unfold in abject horror but was unable to look away from the scene at the same time. This could not be real. This could not be happening. "What in God's holy name?" muttered the petrified Annie.

The Woman, who either had her fill or could feel Annie's eyes on her, raised her head and turned to face the maid. Annie's horror only deepened when she saw the Woman's face. Her pulled-up veil revealed a beautiful heart-shaped face and an aquiline nose; her mouth's shape was obscured by Charles's blood, which was smeared all over the lower half of the Woman's face. Staring back at Annie were two bright blue eyes. Combining the blood smears and blue eyes together with pale skin gave the Woman an air of supernatural allure, mystery, and danger.

For whatever reason, no doubt for the sake of looking as evil as possible, the Woman grinned at Annie. Her teeth were smeared red with Charles's blood just like her face was, but when the Woman ran her tongue over her front teeth, Annie saw her fangs. Annie broke out into a cold sweat when she saw the Woman's fangs. Seeing Annie's increasing terror caused the Woman's grin to expand further and her eyes glowed with a blue light, making her expression appear even more demonic than it already was. She laid Charles down and rose from where she was kneeling, never once did the Woman take her glowing eyes off Annie.

Shaking now, the flashlight trembling in her hand, Annie's feet finally moved backward on the guidance of primal instinct to get away from danger. Annie only took four steps back when she bumped into something big and solid. She turned around and came face to face with the Monster, who looked down at the trembling maid with glowing red eyes that pierced through the fog and an evil grin that displayed his fangs. The sight of this second demon restored Annie's power of speech and she screamed in pure terror. The Monster covered Annie's mouth with one of his large hands and used his other one to seize Annie's right arm to keep her in place.

Annie screamed into her captor's hand, frightened tears welling up in her eyes. She grabbed the Monster's wrist with her left hand in a futile attempt to pull his hand away from her, but the Monster had his way. He tilted Annie's head to the left and sank his fangs into the exposed side of her neck. Annie gasped into the Monster's palm as a great burning pain flared up where the demon had bitten her on her neck. The poor woman struggled as best she could, but her movements became sluggish as the Monster drank more of her blood.

Annie eventually stopped moving and her eyes rolled up into her head. The flashlight fell from Annie's dead hand, and it landed on the ground with its light still on. The Monster pulled away from his victim's neck, licking his bloody smiling lips, having clearly enjoyed drinking Annie's blood. He let the maid's lifeless body fall to the ground with a soft thud. The Monster's eyes met the Woman's, and the two vampires grinned excitedly at each other.


Annie's first scream carried all the way to the Baker-Malloye Farm. The men on the porch stopped talking as soon as they heard the scream, as did the women inside the house. "Did you all hear that?" asked Harold as he rose from his rocking chair on the porch. His in-laws also rose from where they had been sitting.

"I believe we all did, Harry." answered James I. "That sounded an awful lot like a woman's scream..."

"Couldn't that have been a fox, grandpa?" asked Benjamin as he looked over his shoulder from his perch on the porch swing. "You told me one time that foxes have humanlike cries."

James shook his head.

"No, Benny. Foxes make those sounds during mating season, and that only happens during wintertime, not summer."

Benjamin's heart beat faster after his grandfather dismissed his wishful thinking that the scream had been made by a vixen in heat rather than by a lady in distress. His anxiety was not helped when his grandmother and mother came to the door.

"What was that?" Sarah asked through the screen.

"I don't know, Sarah." was her husband's response, which worried Sarah even more.

"That could have been Annie. What if something happened to her and Charles?"

"Like what?" inquired James, fatherly fear blooming inside of him like a poisonous flower.

"Maybe Charles's car broke down and, I don't know, a coyote or prowler came across him and Annie..."

Jimmy exchanged looks with Tommy, Arthur, and Harold. James tensed up at the thought of one of his children being in danger. He sprang into action. All the men streamed into the house. Joseph and Benjamin headed to the parlor while James Sr, Jimmy, and Harold went about the house looking for flashlights and guns to take down the lane with them to investigate the scream. Thomas and Arthur were instructed to stay behind to keep watch over the house and protect the women, children, Chalmer, and Grandpa Jo.

James had his eldest son and son-in-law lead him out of the house since they had flashlights. James Sr and Jimmy were both armed, with the latter carrying a double-barreled shotgun and the other a 1911 Colt 45 pistol; father and son both carried ammunition. The men felt that two guns were more than enough; that was why Harold wasn't armed. It was a tense walk down the dark lane, and nothing was said between the three men as they traversed further down. All they could think of was Charles and Annie and whether they were okay or not.

There was no sign of the fog that had entrapped Charles and Annie earlier. It was just a normal if somewhat misty summer's night. There was one odd thing though that the men noticed as they walked. No summer peepers were peeping, the crickets weren't chirping, and there weren't even any owls hooting either. Save for the far-off howling of a dog, the woods surrounding the lane were deathly silent.

This silence put the men even more on edge. It was oppressive and unnatural. If it weren't for their footfalls on the dirt lane, James, Jimmy, and Harold would have heard how heavily they were breathing, maybe even heard their rapid heartbeats. The men's eyes darted from left to right and vice versa. Thanks to Sarah, the trio believed that a pack of coyotes or a gang of prowlers were lurking in the shadows ready to strike.

The Baker-Malloye's lane was a long one, and it could take one about fifteen minutes to walk from end to end if the walker's pace was brisk, and James, Jimmy, and Harold's paces were brisk; the tension made their walk seem longer. The tension grew when the trio saw the light of a flashlight shining down near the end of the lane on the ground. The cherry on top was finding the abandoned 1923 Model T Ford on the side of the road still jacked up with the spare tire and Charles's tools lying next to the flat left rear tire. But Charles and Annie were nowhere to be found.

"Charles? Annie?" James called out; his tone anxious but restrained. No response. Only silence answered back.

The men searched the car and found it to be empty. Harold scanned the ground with his flashlight looking for footprints or drag marks when he discovered what looked to be red paint splattered on the dirt. It did not take long for it to register with Harold that the "red paint" was blood. It had been overlooked during the men's initial excitement over finding the car.

"Um..." a now pale and sickly-looking Harold mumbled. "James... Jimmy... Come see this..."

Father and son came over to where Harold was standing and looked at what his flashlight was shining on. It was James and Jimmy's turn to grow pale. The blood was fresh but beginning to coagulate on the dirt lane. Not only that, but the size of the splatter was indicative that the blood had been spilled from a serious injury. The trio's hearts sank. James, Jimmy, and Harold knew right then and there that something terrible had happened to Charles and Annie.

"Charles! Annie!" James called out again, this time louder with his fear running loose.

"Did you hear that?" Harold hissed, swiftly aiming his flashlight at the bushes on the opposite side of the lane. James and Jimmy followed Harold's beam to the bushes.

"No, what was it?" Jimmy asked.

"Sounded like something moving through the bushes there."

"Charles? Annie?" James repeated anxiously. "Is that you? Are you two okay?"

There was no vocal response, but there was a rustling sound as if something big were making its way through the forest undergrowth. Leaves being brushed aside, twigs snapping underfoot. James and Jimmy both cocked their guns. A low snarling sound put the men on edge. James looked over at his son and gestured for him to stay put. With Jimmy standing by, James carefully made his way towards the trees with his shotgun primed and ready.

"Whoever or whatever you are, you better come out right now and slowly. I've got a shotgun here, and I'm not afraid to use it if you do anything stupid."

One of the bushes shook under the glare of Harold's flashlight. James and Jimmy aimed their firearms at it in anticipation of something charging at him from out of the woods. Harold's hand shook as he held the flashlight. There was a loud thump coming from the car roof and a figure pounced on James from behind. The shotgun went off, but the shells only hit a nearby tree.

The blast startled everyone including James's attacker. "Jesus!" Jimmy and Harold shouted simultaneously. James, although terrified, took advantage of his assailant's weak grip to roll over onto his back to try and shoot the bastard. The figure grabbed the shotgun's barrel, pulled the weapon out of James's hands and threw it to the side.

Darkness obscured half of the figure's body while electric lights shining on its back from Jimmy and Harold's flashlights revealed the other half. The figure was a man with messy light-brown hair wearing a shabby gray coat with pale gray skin whose mouth had cat-like fangs that were framed by an ever-widening grin. His eyes glowed red like lit coals in the dark.

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" James cried out at the sight of this monster. The vampire hissed menacingly until gunfire rang out, his body trembling from each gunshot that struck him.

"Get the hell away off my dad, you son of a bitch!" Jimmy roared as he fired his pistol four times at the vampire. The creature turned to face the shooter and snarled at him. Jimmy felt the blood drain from his face when he saw what was attacking his father. Jimmy's finger was pressing on the Colt's trigger when what was hiding in the bushes, another vampire like the one attacking James, charged out and knocked Jimmy down.

"Jimmy!" Harold shouted helplessly.

Jimmy gaped in horror at the vampire that was on top of him, who bared its teeth at him and growled. Those same teeth sank into Jimmy's throat a split-second later as the poor man laid there screaming. His screams mingled with that of his father, who was being gruesomely mauled by the other vampire. Flesh being ripped and torn and bones getting crunched and broken created an awful backdrop to James and Jimmy's screaming. Harold had flattened himself against the Model T's chassis as he witnessed the horrific deaths of his wife's father and brother.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" Harold whimpered repeatedly, his voice soon becoming the only human sound being made in the lane. Another thud was heard coming from the car's roof, and the chassis shook. Harold quickly turned around and looked up, his flashlight illuminating the face of a third vampire.

The creature glared hungrily at Harold, and he licked his lips and showed his fangs. "Oh, Jesus!" Harold cried out, his eyes wide. He backed away from the car and the vampire jumped off and sauntered after him. Harold somehow lost his footing and fell backward onto the ground.

Evil crossed the creature's face as he watched his prey fall and attempt to crawl away from him. He could see that Harold wasn't armed, and he decided to "play" with Harold for a bit before killing him and drinking his blood. Heart pounding in his heaving chest, Harold crawled backwards from the approaching monster, who was growling and hissing at him with a wicked, taunting grin on his face. At some point, Harold's left hand brushed up against something cold and hard. It was the muzzle of the now late James Sr's shotgun

Harold grabbed the barrel with his trembling hand and was able to pull it up just in time as his attacker lunged for him with an open mouth. The vampire's jaws clamped down on the shotgun's barrel, and it tried to pull the weapon out of Harold's hands like a dog trying to pull a stick out of someone's hand. Saliva from the vampire's mouth oozed down onto Harold as he wrestled with the monster, his terrified brown eyes fixed on the vampire's predatory red ones. At some point during the struggle, Harold was able to kick the vampire off him, giving him the chance to position the shotgun properly in his hands. The vampire got back onto his feet and went after Harold just as he aimed the shotgun right at him.

Harold pulled the trigger and unloaded two shells into the vampire's face as it closed in on him with a loud bang. The creature's face, along with part of its head, was obliterated by the powerful blast. The vampire's now lifeless body fell onto Harold, which he kicked off again and got back onto his feet. Glancing at the other two vampires as they looked up from feeding on his late father-in-law and brother-in-law, Harold took off up the lane for the house with the shotgun tightly clutched in his hands. He made it about five yards away on foot when gunshots rang out.

Harold was struck three times from behind: twice in the back and once in the back of his head. Harold fell to the ground in a swift and undramatic fashion, never to rise again. "Excellent shot, Pedro." commented the Monster as he and the Woman, who was veiled again, emerged from the shadows arm-in-arm. "Maravillosa punteria, Pedro."* remarked the Woman in Spanish. Pedro bowed before the two vampires with Jimmy's smoking pistol in his right hand.

"Gracias, mi senor y senora."*

The Woman nodded in acknowledgment of Pedro's gratitude. She turned to look at the Monster, who in turn met her gaze.

"Are you ready, mi querido?"* The Woman asked in an accented voice. The Monster smirked.

"I am, my love. But first, let's hide the rest of these bodies just in case any lawmen come. Then we shall finally meet my daughter."

The Woman smiled at her lover. "You always think of everything, mi amor."*

Ordering Pedro and the remaining other vampires to move the bodies into the forest, which is where Charles and Annie's cooling corpses had been dragged off to, the dreadful quintet then made their way up the lane to "meet" Rayne.


"My God, what is happening out there?!" breathed a worried Sarah as she looked out of one of the parlor windows. The sounds of gunfire and shouting had carried over to the Baker-Malloye House, putting everyone inside on edge. Sarah was not alone in the parlor. All the adults and young Benjamin were in the parlor with her.

Mary and Ruth were by their mother-in-law's side looking out the window fearing for the well-being of their husbands. Theresa was still seated on the couch with Benny sandwiched between her and Eliza. Ellen was still sitting in her rocking chair clutching at her shawl with one hand and holding her husband Joseph's hand with the other; Joy was sitting on one of the other chairs in the room. Chalmer had let his father sit in the armchair, and he was standing with Arthur and Thomas in the upper left-hand corner of the room across from where Sarah, Mary, and Ruth were. Crying and whimpering coming from the babies upstairs could be heard, and the stairs creaked under the footfalls of child's feet.

It was Rayne. She was halfway down the stairs, her cousin Cathy looking down unseen from the top of the stairs. "What's going on? Is somebody poaching deer?" the young girl asked amidst the din of her younger cousins crying.

"We don't know, honey." Eliza said as she rose from the couch along with Theresa, their sisters-in-law peeling themselves away from the window to follow Eliza and Theresa upstairs to attend to their distressed children. Rayne and Cathy were shepherded back to the former's room by their mothers, who told the two girls to stay put and that everything would be fine. Ruth soothed her twins as they cried in their beds by stroking their heads, fluffing their pillows, and pulling the covers up under their chins. Mary did the same with Pauline in her cot and was trying to soothe Betty and Jay at the same time. Eliza came in to check on Mary and help her with the children to try and calm them down; Theresa and Ruth went back downstairs after learning that Eliza was helping Mary.

Betty settled down in her Aunt Lizzie's arms and was placid when put back down into her crib. Seven month old Jay was still fussy no matter what his mother did. "Lizzie," spoke a flustered Mary, "would you please make a bottle for Jay? I think that will get him to settle."

"Of course." responded Eliza with a nod.

"Thank you, so much. I really appreciate it."

Benny pleading with his mother to stay downstairs could be heard from the second floor as Eliza made her way to the stairs. Focusing on preparing a bottle for her baby nephew and her worry over the commotion down the lane did battle inside Eliza's mind as she walked down the stairs. Eliza was nearly at the landing when she glanced up at the front door and froze. The door was straight across from the stairs, and the main door was open with the screen door shut so that fresh summer air could come in while keeping the bugs out. A lantern on the porch illuminated the shadowy figure of a man standing at the door.

Eliza stared at the figure. How did this person get to the porch without anyone hearing his footfalls on the stairs and floorboards outside? The man was too tall to be Eliza's father, brothers, or Harold, and was more physically built too. The figure leaned forward until his forehead touched the screen. Two red lights glowed through the screen like burning coals.

But those lights weren't from fireflies, they were eyes, a pair of eyes that Eliza was all too familiar with. They were the eyes that appeared in her nightmares, from her darkest memory... Eliza gripped the railing, her nails digging into the lacquered wood, her other hand grasping at her chest as if trying to keep her racing heart contained within her chest. She stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the Monster as his evil eyes glared back at her. The Monster was doubtlessly grinning at his former rape victim, his fanged mouth hidden by darkness.

The Monster lifted his head from the screen and reached for the door handle. Seeing the screen door move was what finally thawed the fear that had frozen Eliza and allowed her to scream. It was a scream of pure terror; the same scream Eliza had made through her gag all those years ago when the Monster hurt her and sired Rayne on her. Arthur and Thomas stormed into the foyer the second they heard Eliza scream shouting "Eliza, what's wrong?!" and "What's going on?!" respectively.

A flash of black and blue and silvery-white shot into the foyer through the open screen door as soon as the words left the two men's mouths. Glinting metal was the last thing caught in Thomas's peripheral vision as a scimitar reached his neck. Unlike Charles, the blade completed its arc through Tommy's neck. His body fell within seconds after his head had landed on the hardwood floor. Arthur's face twisted in horror as the reality of what had just happened to his brother-in-law sank in only for him to grimace and cry out in pain as a bullet went through the right side of his chest.

Arthur crumpled onto the floor in agony from his gunshot wound as his horrified wife looked on, too frozen with fear again to even move or scream. A smug looking Pedro calmly walked up the hall from the door leading to the back porch, his stolen pistol smoking once again. The two vampire minions raced through the door with the Monster following them inside. Screams of terror rang out from the parlor and upstairs as the home invasion commenced. Massacre would be the more appropriate term.

Joy was the Woman's next victim after she had killed Thomas, her scimitars slicing Joy in half at the waist, brutally snuffing out the nineteen year old's life without a single hint of remorse. Sarah shrieked at the grisly murder, and she was quickly silenced by a single bladed swipe made at her head by the Woman, a swipe that separated Sarah's head from her mandible and body. A grinning Pedro entered the parlor through the other doorway with eyes glowing blue like his mistress's. He quickly identified Chalmer as his biggest threat, who was standing in front of his parents in a protective manner with his back towards Pedro, who aimed Jimmy's gun at the man's head and fired. Chalmer's body jolted when the bullet went through his skull, and he fell forward as his parents, Theresa, Ruth, and Benjamin all screamed.

Pedro turned his gun on Theresa, who was seated on the couch clutching her son close to her. The sight of a mother protecting her child mattered nothing to Pedro. He shot both Theresa and Benjamin without a care in the world, his grin never once dropping. Ruth screamed and tried to make a break for the doorway closest to the stairs to get to her children. The Woman rushed after Ruth with lightning speed and slashed the young woman in the back with one of her scimitars.

Ruth let out a shriek as she fell forward onto the hardwood floor. The Woman towered over her latest victim as she tried to crawl away with blood streaming down her back. Smirking beneath her veil, the Woman sidestepped around Ruth on her right, her foot stomping down on Ruth's arm to hold her in place. Kneeling over her helpless victim, the Woman retracted her arm back and thrusted her hand into Ruth's wound, bypassing cut bone to wrap her fingers around Ruth's still beating heart. The Woman tore her victim's heart out as the two surviving vampire minions drained the blood of Joseph and Ellen, who had been knocked down to the floor along with their chairs.

Eliza meanwhile had not budged an inch from the stairs as her family was being slaughtered. She was pale and her face was twisted with horror, but there were no tears in her eyes. Poor woman was simply too shocked to do anything. Not only that, but the Monster was blocking Eliza's way, having not taken his eyes off her once. Arthur, who had been writhing in pain on the floor, grit his teeth and rose slowly to his feet with one hand clutching his wound and the other helping to push his body off the floor.

"Lizzie..."

Eliza and the Monster turned to look at Arthur as he found his footing.

"Arthur?!" Eliza's voice quavered as she took in the sight of her wounded husband. The Monster smirked at Arthur, anticipating his next move with the confidence that Arthur would be dealt with permanently very soon. Arthur saw the Monster's smirk and it enraged him. "You son of a bitch!"

Arthur pulled out a pocketknife from his right pants pocket and he charged towards the Monster shouting "Get away from my wife!" The Monster simply took two steps towards the charging Arthur, extending his right arm and grabbing Arthur by the throat with his hand and lifting him up off the floor. Undeterred, Arthur plunged his knife into the Monster's forearm. The Monster's reaction to getting stabbed was a mere facial twitch. The Monster retaliated by squeezing Arthur's neck until an unsettling crack reverberated throughout the foyer.

Arthur's body went limp in the Monster's hand, and his own hand released the hilt of his pocketknife and dropped lifelessly by his side. Eliza screamed shrilly and covered her mouth when she realized that her husband of only twenty-one days was dead. Ignoring Eliza's scream, the Monster casually pulled the pocketknife out of his forearm as if it were a thorn and flung it down on the floor. Repositioning his hands on Arthur's body so that his neck was exposed, the Monster sank his fangs into the side of his newest victim's neck and drank his blood. "Delicious." the Monster said contentedly after drinking the last of Arthur's blood.

He released Arthur from his grasp and let his body drop to the floor like a rag doll. Eliza's frightened, glistening eyes fell on her dead husband's body. How could this be happening? Why was this happening? Why her husband and her family?

Why?

A floorboard creaked and Eliza looked up to see the Monster advancing towards her. Panicking, Eliza finally regained the use of her limbs and she turned to try and run up the stairs to protect Rayne. She surmounted only three steps when a black cloud materialized in front of her, and the Woman stood before her. "Going somewhere?" the Woman taunted, her cornflower eyes glowing through the veil that covered her face, a veil that the Woman lifted.

The Woman walked down with a taunting grin on her now clean face, forcing a horrified Eliza to backtrack down the stairs until she was in reach of the Monster. "Come here." he growled as he seized Eliza's left arm, all but dragging her down the steps. Eliza struggled against the Monster's grip, but her resistance stopped when her captor squeezed her bicep, feeling the powerful pressure from his hand painfully smash her muscles against the bone. She winced and stopped struggling.

"Good girl." the Monster then directed his attention up at the Woman. "Ofelia, take Pedro and the two cretins upstairs to take care of whoever else is up there with my daughter. Keep those two imbeciles from hurting her. Bring her down to the parlor once her other relatives are dead."

The Woman, Ofelia, nodded.

"Of course, mi amor."

Ofelia called out to Pedro and the two other vampires to follow her upstairs as the Monster dragged a whimpering Eliza into the parlor to await Rayne's arrival.


*Maravillosa punteria: Spanish for "Wonderful aim."

*Gracias, senor y senora: Spanish for "Thank you, sir and madam."

*Mi querido: Spanish for "My dear".

*Mi amor: Spanish for "My love."


What has Changed:

1. Name(s): Ofelia (Origins) - Ofelia (Rebirth) - Ofelia is the proper Spanish spelling of her name.

2. The massacre is more drawn out and given more detail here than it was in the original story. Pedro also takes Jimmy's gun as his own after he is killed.

3. Ofelia now wears a mourning veil as part of her outfit.