The Monster's Love

*Chapter 3: Fear

            “He—.” She stopped abruptly as her wits began returning to her. There was no way she could tell Penny. If she did she’d be endangering her friend’s life. The only reason why Bertrand had spared her life so far was because he wanted something from her and because, according to him, she brought out the humanity in his kind. But there was nothing stopping him, or any other vampire, from killing Penny for knowing too much. As much as she wanted to find comfort in her friend she knew she couldn’t. If she did it would mean losing her in one of the most horrific ways possible. Slowly she took in another steady breath and released it so she was calm. “I had another nightmare.”

            Penny sighed and pulled her friend into a tight hug. “Jesus Eva, don’t scare me like that,” she chastised holding her friend protectively in her arms. “God it must’ve been one hell of a dream. You looked as if you’d seen Satan or something.” Eva chuckled for it was very much true. Though Bertrand was not Satan he was the closest thing she would ever get to meeting the devil himself. “Look we’re gonna be late so let’s go inside so you can get ready.”

Eva nodded, reluctantly pulling away from the safety of her friend’s arms to return to the confines of her tiny apartment. It did not take her long to dress and pull back her long black hair and soon the two were running out the door desperate to get to their classes before it was too late. However class was no help in distracting the young woman from her thoughts which revolved around vampires, death, and lots and lots of blood. The dream replayed over and over again like a movie in her mind bringing back all of her fears that she had tried to the best of her ability to keep locked away.

Vampires didn’t just simply suck your blood, all neat and tidy taking only what they needed. Oh no they wanted their victims to suffer. They feed off a person’s fear, their pain, and reveled in the sound of their victim’s screams. Mercy was an unheard of concept. Compassion is not a part of their vocabulary. Their humanity and souls were ripped clean from their grasps upon their turning, by their own choice or otherwise, which freed them of grief, sorrow, remorse, guilt, and allowed them to kill without quarter. What happened to her parents was proof.

She was told they’d been slaughtered not far from where she and her grandmother slept safely in their house. She barely recalled seeing them off as they went in search of a vampire that night. When she tried to remember she was met with only darkness, a void that refused to give her any answers, though her dream last night seemed to stir something in her. It was almost like a memory, though more twisted and manipulated by her own fears to be completely true. It made her curious as to what exactly happened the night her parents were killed, if there was more to it than her Gran had led her to believe. She shook the thoughts away.

The minute she entered her apartment after classes ended for the day she locked the door and rested her back against it, heaving a sigh as she leaned there for a moment. All of her thoughts were on the vampire who would surely be paying her a visit again that night. Fear spread through her at the thought of the monster being so close to her again but she locked it away for it would only help speed up her demise. If she wanted to live she would have to forget about her fears and look the devil in the eye. With a determined gaze she moved away from the door and went to her bedroom knowing what she needed to unpack before the sun set and the monsters came out to play.

There, tucked away in the back of her messy closet, was a mahogany box her mother had given to her years ago before her death. It housed some of Eva’s most precious items as well as things she didn’t want anyone else to know she had. The wood was smooth as silk to the touch and was engraved with black words written in Russian, her mother’s native tongue. No one but her or her mother could open it thanks to the spells engraved into the wood a fact that made her smile. Carefully she opened the lid and looked inside at the pistol and knife concealed within. When they started teaching her to defend herself against the creatures of the dark they’d given her the pistol, loaded with silver bullets filled with holy water that released into the vampire upon impact, and the knife. According to her mother it had been handed down throughout the generations, from mother to daughter upon finishing their training and becoming a proper hunter. However since her mother never wanted her to become a hunter she gave to Eva to be more of an heirloom to hand down to her own children rather than use. Eva swallowed a lump in her throat knowing she was about to go against her mother’s wishes.