Havenwood Falls Short Story Anthology 2018: A Collection of Holiday Bonus Stories by Havenwood Falls Collective

Author:Havenwood Falls Collective [Collective, Havenwood Falls]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ang'dora Productions, LLC
Published: 2018-11-21T05:00:00+00:00

Viktor’s words brought back memories I’d tried for hundreds of years to keep buried, but they followed me like the plague. My birth as a vampire wasn’t an easy one. It had been horrific, painful, and so had been the years afterward. I became a monster I could hardly recognize, the Mr. Hyde to my current more reserved Dr. Jekyll. No matter how hard I tried, the creature within was never far from the surface.

17th August 1674

My master was displeased with me again. The plow horse is lame, despite my best efforts to stop the festering around its hoof. It needed to be put down, but Lord Brennan wouldn’t hear of it. The nearest animal doctor was in Galway, near on ten miles to the west of the Brennan estate. It took two days to return with the physician, by which time the horse refused to stand. We put him out of his misery and harvested what we could, but Lord Brennan decided payment for the horse’s loss had to be made in flesh.

Forty lashes on another thirty for not returning the same day.

It was the seventh lash that finally broke the skin, letting blood run freely. My back was shredded, and there was nothing salvageable remaining of my only good shirt. Many times I’d contemplated running away, but always resigned myself to my term. Freedom laid just the other side of the next three years, assuming I survived that long. After the whipping, that seemed even less likely. Lord Brennan didn’t cut me down from the post, and no one dared come near enough to tend to me in fear of the repercussions.

Hours had passed when nightfall came and the temperature was near freezing. I was sure I would die before the sun rose again. Sometimes, I even wished for it. The angel of death must have heard my pleas because a demon emerged from the darkness, eyes shining brightly in the darkness and focused on me as he drew nearer. He looked like a man, no older than forty, with alabaster skin and dark hair tied at the nape of his neck. His clothes were fine, dripping with high quality and class.

“Fighting to the end. That’s honorable,” the demon said.

I didn’t have the strength to answer him, nor to lift my head and stare him back down to the pits he rose from. I didn’t have to—the beast did it for me.

“Don’t fear. It’s almost over, boy,” he said soothingly.

It was the last thing I heard before his teeth sunk into my neck, draining me of the little life I had remaining. My heart beat throbbed loudly in my ears as it slowed to a stand still and then, there was nothing.

I woke several days later with the worst headache of my life. There was a single candle lit on a table against the far wall, but I could see everything clearly as though it were broad daylight. The room was unfamiliar to me, much finer than I was accustomed in the servant’s quarters.

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