章 1: Chapter 1: The Past

For those who haven't noticed, there is a Prologue which is situated in the Auxiliary Volume. With that out of the way, Enjoy!

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It was a morning just like all the other mornings: the sun shone through the wooden shutters on the windows and you can hear the church's bell sounding through the sleeping quarters of the church's orphanage.

A girl opened her brown eyes grogilly and swiped her equally brown hair out of her face, took a moment to adjust to the light and when her eyes adjusted to the light, could gradually make out what seemed to be the Sisters waking up the other children. The children complained a bit before going to the well to wash their faces before they could go and take breakfast.

She grunted "Ugh", before setting off as well, taking a few clothes with her to get dressed. On the way to the well, they met the head priest of this monastery, Father Alexander. "Good morning Father.", the children said.

"Good morning everyone", he responded before quickly adding "Dana, can I speak to you for a bit after morning duty? I'll be waiting in my office." I nodded at him to indicate I heard him and continued walking under curious gazes of the other children until one of them couldn't hold it anymore and asked the question on everyone's mind: "Dana, why does he want to see you? *Gasp* Could it be you are going to be adopted!?"

I quickly responded: "Probably not, Mary. Don't be starting rumours now, it's way too early for that."

Mary was a girl with blond hair and blue eyes. She always had the disposition of speaking whatever was on her mind. Maybe that was the reason why she thought of her as her best friend: she would always be honest and never hold anything back, like, at all.

I kept thinking until we arrived at the well where we all washed ourself, dressed up and went to the dining room to get breakfast, all while still being in my own world thinking why Father Alexander called me. I didn't even seem to register the cold water on ly face although it did help to clear my head a little.

'Why would he want to see me? It can't be me being adopted, he wouldn't wait until after morning duty then. Then what could it be?' I continued thinking while getting my serving of oatmeal porridge.

I was never able to eat bread, or any other solid food for that matter, like the rest of my siblings and had to resort to only eating liquid or semi-solid ones. The Sisters in charge of cooking always had to make an extra serving for me alone. I do feel quite guilty about it but what can I do about it? My body just didn't seem to be able to handle it.

"Dana, you should probably hurry up and eat or the Sisters are going to scold you again for taking too much time and 'skipping morning duty'", Mary urged me while poking my side with her fingers.

"Ugh, alright. I got it, stop poking me", I responded.

I quickly wolfed down my breakfast before going towards the main hall together with Mary and the others to begin morning duty.

Morning duty was as boring as ever: sweeping the hallways to the altar, cleaning the altar itself until the marble was like a mirror, dusting the paintings on the walls,...

While I was doing my chores, I was constantly being interrogated by the other children as to why I was being called by the head priest but I knew just as much as they did so I always just responded with something along the lines of "I know just as much as you all" or "Your guess is as good as mine". Needles to say, they were pretty disappointed and quickly walked away to do their own jobs.

After I was finished with my chores, I put the broom away, said goodbye to Mary and walked towards Father Alexander's office, albeit at a slightly faster pace than normal because I had gotten quite curious as well.

When I arrived at the office, I knocked on his office door and waited. After I heard a muffled voice say "Come in" from behind the solid-oakwooden door, I went into the office.

I pushed the door open and looked around the familiar-looking office: the bookcase full of religious books and bibles, the walls decorated with crosses and paintings, the wooden desk in the middle of the room where he sat at the moment and the dark-wooden closet behind him with the big padlock on it. Nobody really knew what was in there, they were forbidden from even going near it so everyone could only spuculate on the mysterious contents of it.

I sat down on one of the chairs in front of the desk and waited until he was finished with his work.

A few minutes later that felt like an eternity to me, he put down his pen and looked up to me. "Sorry for the wait", he said, "do you know what I called you here for?" I quickly responded by shaking my head and directing a questioning gaze at him.

He saw that and said:"I have decided to fill you in on your past and your parents. "

At first I was shocked. After that, only bewilderment. Why? Every single time I asked about my parents, the only thing he responded with was, 'when you're old enough.' and now suddenly he wants to tell me?

The priest saw her frowning slightly and sighed. "At first I was planning on telling you when you became an adult at 16 but I think you're ready to hear about it now. Times have changed and it's time to face reality."

I felt puzzled and looked at him again, silently urging him with my eyes to go on.

He chuckled, before turning serious," It all started on a cold night in October, the Blood Moon was out... "

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"... After that, I went to the house of the village head and informed him about what happened and asked him to prepare a funeral for them. I also wrote a report to the baron in charge of that region and to my superior the Bishop at the Church's Headquarters."

I didn't know what to say. I felt sadness because my parents were murdered, then anger towards the vampire that killed them and lastly gratitude to Father Alexander for avenging them. I took a deep breath and looked towards him again. "Do you have anything to remember them by? A memento, a locket, anything?"

"I'm afraid not, they were serfs: anything of value went to the baron in charge of that region before the house got a new owner assigned to it. I'm sorry."

I looked towards my feet, still unsure what to do with the information that I just received.

"I'm not finished yet." He suddenly said causing me to jerk my head upwards, surprised. I stared at him, waiting for him to carry on. "I didn't notice at first," he continued, "because you were still so young and it normally shouldn't be possible for this to happen, but it did."

I wondered what he was talking about but resisted the urged to question him about it because I felt that he would elaborate anyway.

I suddenly had a bad feeling in my gut, and that's never a good sign. My gut feeling had never been wrong before and it didn't disappoint this time as well.

He sighed before looking towards me and said with a firm voice: "You're one as well. A vampire."