Cross

Prologue

The trash of the Cross family.

"He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than He that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread."

Vampires; Ghosts ; Ghouls; Goblins; Elves; Wolves; Dwarfs; Demons; Angels; Shadows, each one of these wretched and divine creatures of the darkness and the light, these creatures had spent centuries creeping in the darkness, hiding in the shadows, blending in amongst the humans, those who wanted their heads as trophies. Those who saw themselves as more righteous and saw them as the very scum of the earth.

Some caused mischief, others brought good will, what these creatures did with their spare time varied greatly, but what remained the same in each of their worlds was one: they all slipped up at one point or another.

With each slip up, a new myth came to be, no matter how many would refute it. When Theodora Blackwell made the mistake of feeding before a witness in a ravenous state, out came the myth of vampires and their carnivorous ways.

When Elsey McLaughlin accidentally devoured her prey in the clearness of day, with her capture came the myth of ghouls and their taste for flesh and blood.

Year after year, they would slip up and with their downfall a new myth would come about. The myth of vampires exploding within sunlight, the myth of all angels being a Godsend, the myth of werewolves shifting only in the light of a full moon.

Of course, these creatures themselves never thought to correct these misinterpretations, how could they do such without damning themselves to hell? Besides that fact, they found it entertaining to watch humans roam about thinking they knew all that there was to know about these creatures, unaware that all of their information was false.

As the years went drifting by, some of these creatures were discovered and killed. An example of this would have to be the fairies. Their kind was hunted, drained of their abilities and eventually killed. In the end, their species was wiped out completely.

Others were spared, as they advantaged the humans. An example of this was the Cross family, a family of fully fledged vampires.

The first vampire in the family was Elizabeth Zacharias. She was a woman born and raised in luxury, and was seen as one of the most prominent in high society. At the tender age of twenty, she married Constantine Cross, a man of equal importance in the society they lived in.

The two lived peacefully in their castle, and often showed their kindness by allowing any and all nobles to stay in their castle. They often held balls and dances, sometimes even simple tea parties, anything to socialize. At the later age of thirty, Elizabeth was attacked and turned by a vampire in her own home. Upon the realization,  her husband begged her to turn him as well, as the man could not bare the thought of dying and becoming separate from his love. So of course, as the story would go, she turned the man and it became their little secret.

After living for over a hundred years—and not aging in the slightest— Constantine and Elizabeth Cross were finally kidnapped and tortured by angered villagers, and that was how they were discovered to be vampires amongst men, wolves in sheep's clothing if you may.

They were to be impaled by wooden steaks and burned for good measure, yet they weren't.

There were still villagers who saw fit to let them live. They had been offering refuge to travellers and struggling villagers for over a century now...how could they rid themselves of such an asset?

And that was why the couple was freed, under the condition of continuing to show their 'good will' to the people.

As the years passed, Elizabeth Cross grew to be more beloved and respected than even the queen of the land a great feat for a woman in the 18th century, especially the wife of a mere duke and a vampire. She was seen as the epitome of beauty, the definition of class, considered to be the fairest vampire of the bunch. This is why when her first daughter was born a vampire, she was elated.

The vampire virus brought along with it not only immortality, but undeniable good looks to whosoever possessed it.

From the onset, Arabella Cross was a clear beauty and was expected to be one of the fairest maidens in high society. The couple had wanted nothing more for their precious girl.

But of course, one can never get their way.

When their princess was four years of age, their second and what would later become their last born daughter came into their lives. This little creature was Abigail Cross.

Abigail was, for lack of a better term, a disappointment from the onset.

Unlike her sister, who was born with the vampire virus in her DNA fully active, Abigail was born human, as supposedly the virus was less prominent in her blood.

This led to her being an outcast in her own family, shunned and rejected. It was only when she was three years of age did the virus in her system take effect, but by then it was much too late. Abigail Cross, last born of the Cross family, was an outcast.

Her only saving grace: her beauty. Fifteen year old Abigail had finally become the beauty that her sister had always been, resulting in her being more...known in high society, yet she remained the trash of the Cross family for year's to come.

As Abigail was taught her role in the castle and how she was to treat guests, she slowly—yet surely—began to loathe humans.

She was taught to smile, to be kind, to be seductive, to flaunt her figure, to hold herself with prestige,  to be respectful, to be the dream woman in order to leave male guests mesmerized and female guests envious. Of course, this was only because her sister was trained for a much more important societal role.

With each lesson, Abigail began to loathe humans and how their opinions of her defined her presence. She hated how their opinions defined where she stood in society. Her, a vampire who could kill them all in the blink of an eye.

It was laughable. And laugh she did when no one was watching.