Midnight After Midnight - Nanowrimo 2022

Chapter 17 - Lionel's Parents

As Lionel went upstairs, he recalled all the memories he had of his childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Throughout his life, he used to do such things casually, loving to reside inside all the incredible moments he'd experienced over the years, but now that the beloved people who raised him were gone, he breathed in sighs, trying not to cry from all the mirth they had filled his existence with, which was now tainted without them.

Quickly, he snapped out of the trance he was in. His parents wouldn't have wanted him to be as sad as he was, they would've wanted him to grieve after them nobly and remember them fondly, looking back at all the time they'd spent together with nothing but joy.

It all started when he was a baby. In his first years of life, his parents used to incessantly tell him about why they'd chosen him in particular instead of any other baby on the planet. His mother was a picky woman, and although his father constantly begged her to bite a child at once to take as their own, she only bit children if she intended to leave them helpless in the wilderness or if she wanted them dead, not accepting a child into her family until she was in her early thirties.

With her attitude, he thought that it would never happen, but it happened on a night that seemed like any other at first. The moon was shining with the utmost brightness, and the stars were plenty, merrily winking in their direction, which they in hindsight thought was a sign of what was to come. A few days beforehand, they'd heard that a poor family had moved into Ravenseye from two old women who liked to gossip, which the people of Ravenseye loved to do as much as vampires love to drink blood, but they didn't pay it much attention because it didn't concern them at all.

The day the family, which consisted of a father and mother with a male child, moved in, they all fell asleep early, except for the child itself, which was turning around in bed in despair because it couldn't fall asleep. While it was doing that, Flora yanked her husband's hand, using her free hand to point in the direction of the rundown cottage the child was located in. Naturally, he had no idea what was going on, expressing his confusion by raising an eyebrow.

"My dear, what's so interesting about that wretched house? It's just the house of that poor family that had moved in recently, so I don't see why you felt the need to point at it."

She fanatically sniffed the air. "Oh, you don't smell what I smell? My nostrils have just been engulfed with a most wonderful aroma coming from the open window, which I was able to recognise in a heartbeat. It's the scent of fresh blood emanating from the child, and not just any fresh blood. It's the best blood I've ever smelled in my entire life! Oh, how great it is to be alive tonight! 

I want nothing more than to sink my teeth into the gentle neck of this sweet, innocent, oblivious child and be by its side forever. Do you not think it is a great idea, my dear Vincent? Should we not go there right now before something wakes the parents up, thus missing out on this perfect opportunity? Things like these only happen once in a lifetime."

He couldn't smell what she smelled, but he was still charmed by the child's appearance. Its eyes, which were grey as the mist, were pretty and soulful, gleaming with happiness because the child had not yet completely realised the misery of its surroundings. It also had long blond hair, a taut nose, and plump, blood-red lips that were curled into a lovely, carefree smile, all of them features which matched its bone structure perfectly. The husband and wife turned to each other with stern facial expressions, fully knowing that the other agreed that they couldn't let a child such as this live in poverty. Not long after, Flora marched over to the window, Vincent trailing behind her.

Jumping away from the edge of the window, the child began crying the instant it saw them. The house, or at least the part they could see, was completely unfriendly, entirely engulfed in cold, silent darkness. The child's crying echoed through the unwelcoming nest of misery, but so did the snoring of both of its parents, which was loud as two chainsaws, and from the volume of their snoring alone, the visitors were able to conclude that they were among those people who couldn't be woken up even by a tank. A wide smile stretched across Flora's face at that, her eyes gleaming with excitement as she pressed her hands against the edge of the window.