Karma

Amelie folded her hands in silent prayer, gazing up at the large crucifix situated behind the cathedral's altar. She liked the silence and the dark; it allowed her to think clearly. It enabled her to escape from the evil that her corrupted grandchildren had brought into her home, with all their horrendous vampire stories.

            Lord, she pleaded, help me to raise my grandchildren to be holy and obedient. They are always disobeying me and I have no choice but to teach them a lesson. While Amelie's prayers seemed regretful and genuine, she was, blatantly speaking, a hypocrite. There was a part of her, at the back of her mind, which enjoyed the horrified and shocked looks on her grandchildren's faces as she struck them with her palm, or as she swatted them with the stick...

            "Ma'am?" a voice echoed throughout the dark cathedral, the candlelight flickered, and the room grew colder. "Can I help you with anything?"

            Amelie spun herself around to face the priest suddenly standing right beside her.

            "Yes. My grandchildren never listen to me and I've no choice but to punish them." She continued explaining the situation, forcing a fake tear out of her eye. "What do I do?"

            "I have a simple solution." The priest smiled, flashing a pair of rapidly growing fangs. "Why don't you just leave them alone?"

            Amelie had no time to scream before the priest, the creature, lunged forward and ripped away the skin from the side of her neck with his horrible jaws. His face continued to distort as he peeled the rest of her skin off of her body, one area at a time. Amelie, in so much pain that she couldn't scream or run, could only watch as the creature lapped at her blood, spilling out onto the marble floor like the holy red wine, with his hideous serpent's tongue, and Amelie's thoughts flashed to the tragedy of Eden.

            As she closed her eyes, she said one last prayer before falling into her eternal slumber. Lord, teach my grandchildren to be holy and obedient....