Chapter Text
Loneliness was something you hadn’t really experienced often, your village was full of life. Your parents used to tell you to always treat people with compassion and to show empathy towards all, even those who didn’t see clearly. You stuck with those morals, not for any particular reason, but because the feeling of seeing other people happy always made you feel warm inside. Your village was considered to be a bit small but that just made it easier to bond with your townspeople. You were ‘friends’ with a handful of the other folks and even tried to be friendly with passersby.
You looked back on this as you were carried away on your family’s carriage . You had no idea why or where you were going but they seemed urgent. You started to wonder if you had done something to upset them. They haven’t talked to you since you’ve departed, not even saying your name. As the horses slowed to a halt you finally were able to peek at where they had taken you. You stared blankly at the massive house that was fixed within your gaze. The surrounding area was littered with forests for miles, no civilization in sight. It looked almost abandoned, having vines and moss growing along the outer walls and around the pillars out front.
It made you all the more nervous when your parents had stepped out and began walking towards it. You followed quickly in suit as to not make them anymore upset then you had thought they had been. You were about to question why you were there when you heard the sound of keys jingling followed by your father unlocking the door to the place. It took you a couple of moments to process what had just happened or why they even had the keys to begin with. There was no way we’d be staying here, it just didn’t seem real. You thought about slapping yourself to test if you were actually dreaming but decided against it as you slowly stepped through the doorway.
The sight made you mesmerized as you forgot about all of your previous thoughts and only focused on what you were witnessing in that moment. The first thing to catch your eye was the dark wood stairs carpeted with a crimson red, it seemed to branch off two ways into just as stunning balconies. You looked up to see a beautiful fluorescent chandelier stationarily hanging from the ceiling, which felt miles away. Speaking of which, this building was huge, even just the front doors seemed a bit big. You couldn’t help but stand in awe as you took in every sight of this new place. It was so wonderful that you practically felt the stars in your eyes as you flicked your eyes around to every little detail. To the immaculate designs on the baseboards to the unlit candles scattered around on the extremely dusty tables.
You forgot all about your village as you ran around the house, peering in every room to take in all of this new wonder. You were about to step foot on the first step of the stairs when a thought came across your mind, why did your parents take us here? There was no way it was a vacation since we had packed all of our belongings beforehand but it also seemed unreal that they would buy a place as lavish as this. You wondered if your parents were just not talking to you because it was a surprise of some sort so your new objective was to find them. You knew they couldn’t be downstairs since you just spent what felt like an hour exploring it so your next stop was upstairs. You ran up the stairs with a slight grin on your face as you turned left towards the first door you saw. You opened it up to find what seemed to be a laundry room, which made your old room look like a closet in comparison. It made you all the more curious to why your parents would bring you to such a strange place.
You closed the door once more and turned back to continue your quest. You put your hand on the next doorknob until you heard whispering from behind it. You weren’t exactly one to listen in on others' conversations but you were almost begging for answers.
“We can’t just leave them here! They’ll starve! They’re just a child, are you even hearing yourself?”
You perked up at the sound of your father and leaned closer to the door to listen in more on their conversation.
“You’d seen what they did to that poor boy. We mustn't allow ourselves to be bewitched or cursed!”
“How do we even know they are cursed, that could’ve been any poor fool.”
“I watched with my own eyes as they turned into that thing and attacked him, do you really not trust your own wife?”
Your father had paused for a moment before taking a deep sigh.
“We can’t let them leave here but I also will not allow myself to leave them here alone.”
“It’s not like they will be alone here anyways, you can’t have forgotten why we brought them-”
You were listening so intently that you didn’t even hear your breath hitch until you realized they had gone silent. Your head felt like it could burst with an information overload as you were just processing what had just been said by your parents. You didn’t get much time to think as the door swung open as you saw your mothers furious gaze coupled with your fathers upset demeanor. Your mother marched up to you and stared at you with a look you had never seen before. It looked like a mix of anger, stress, and.. fear?
It was extremely evident they were not fond of you listening in on their conversation, even then they never made a sound towards you. You felt your head lock at her gaze until she pointed towards a door on the other balcony. Even without words you could tell she was ordering you to go to your room as you hung your head and slowly slumped towards the door. Admittedly it was very dramatic and you felt stupid doing it for so long but you couldn’t bring yourself to stare into your mothers cold eyes once more. You only looked up to the door you had stopped in front of and as you turned the doorknob you were met with another set of stairs. As you reached the final step you were confused by the sight. It was almost nothing like the rest of the house, you would want to say it was a guest bedroom but it didn’t look very welcoming. The bed was practically just a mattress, you could barely even see a bed frame. It looked incredibly scuffed, even ripped in some places like someone had used it to take their anger out on.
You looked around at, which you assumed was, the attic. It had a massive glass mural on the side, though you could exactly make out what it was depicting. Your eyes blinked around as a new detail caught the corner of your eye. You saw what looked to be four wooden coffins laying near each other, each wide open. You strided up to them and took a closer inspection. You swept your hand across one of the lids that was leaning against its presumed owner. It was certainly dusty, there was no doubt about it, but it was not as dusty as the rest of the house. That made you even more concerned about the new place you found yourself in. You peered into one of the coffins, it looked to be coated in a blue velvet felt. You brushed your hand across the surface to find that it was incredibly soft and smooth. It almost made you want to just jump inside of it but you decided against it. You wanted to leave this place as the cobwebs hiding in the ceiling started to make themselves known to you, shining in the dim light. But you knew your parents would not allow you to leave after what you had just done.
Not just the eavesdropping but the other thing, the thing that made your own mother fear you. You attacked somebody, a child. When you had done this you had no idea. She must’ve been telling the truth if she was this fearful of you, or was she just trying to get rid of you? No, your mother wouldn’t lie to you, even then you thought the ages of bewitchment ended a long time ago. Then again you had heard the tales of immortal beings from centuries ago resurfacing just to cause havoc once more. But there was no way you were the center of one of these attacks, you couldn’t be. Not just that but a possible possession , it just wasn’t possible. But why else would you parents have brought you to this distant mansion at the edge of the forest. You decided to just leave that thought because you were tired, maybe the thought would even disappear when you were to wake up tomorrow. As you curled up on the shaggy mattress you felt a shiver run down your spine so you tried to throw your coat over yourself to provide what little warmth was left in it back to yourself. It didn't help that you could hear a tree tapping against the glass, almost in a taunting way. You curled even further as you laid into a dreamless slumber, hopeful that tomorrow would be better.
The sun pierced its way through your eyelids as you began to stir awake. That had possibly been the worst sleep you have ever had, you didn’t even have a dream you could try to remember. Instead your mind immediately wandered back to what your mother had said the previous day. Before you could send your head spiraling again you decided to take a break and head back downstairs, hoping your parents would no longer be angry with you. As you walked down the creaky, dim stairway of the attic your mind went fluttering over to the four coffins in the room. You had sworn you’ve heard a tale of a creature that lives in a coffin but you can’t exactly remember which one. Maybe you could find a book or two in this place to try and find out or better yet take your mind off it completely.
As you emerged from your room you noticed that your parents had been downstairs in the kitchen. You were hit with a sudden jolt of excitement as you raced down the stairs to greet them. But as you spat out your greeting you were met with the disdainful glare of your mother which immediately put you back in a solemn mood. You quietly sat down at the table and picked at the breakfast that had been laid out for you already. At least they were thoughtful enough to make you a plate beforehand? You tried to reason with the fact that they may still be a bit wary of you. Although you didn’t exactly enjoy it, you would have to make due with the fact they were still processing the events of the last couple of days, hell, you were too. Sadly there wasn’t all that much to process as you still couldn’t remember lashing out at anyone.
You decided to take your mind off of the events by exploring more of the upstairs since you hadn’t exactly been able to finish. You immediately crossed out your parent’s room, not willing to make them any more upset with you. You headed up the stairs and turned right this time to be met with a door immediately, you mustn't had noticed it in your sunken state yesterday. You grabbed at the doorknob once more and were met with a massive study, it was nearly the size of the foyer. You replaced your original mood with astonishment and excitement. You looked around and saw as the walls were littered with bookshelves. You immediately ran towards the bookshelf closest to you. You looked at each spine of the book, grazing your hand lightly over each one as your eyes lit up in amazement. You could get lost in this book collection for years and never even know you were lost to begin with. You turned to look at the lonesome desk in the middle of the study, only it looked a little bigger than a conventional one. It looked pretty much the same as any regular desk. You peered at the drawers debating on whether you wanted to try and peek at what was inside but decided not to as to not disturb the peace of this room.
However you couldn’t help but take one of the many books in the collection, making a mental note of where it lay in the organization. You looked out the massive window that peered off to the shore as you decided that's where you would take this day to. You couldn’t help but imagine the calmness of a nice cool breeze on the beach while the waves of the ocean roared nearby. Added to the bonus of having an interesting book and you had set up a perfect day. You practically sprinted out of the study and raced out the door. Your moment of peace was interrupted by the thought of making it down to shore in the first place. You looked around for a path down and decided the quickest way would be to just carefully tread down a steep slope nearby. Sure it wasn’t the safest and definitely not the smartest but you just wanted to get out and experience calmness, even if just momentarily.
You began your journey down the rock, carefully putting your feet through each crack so as to not fall. It didn’t take as long as you expected, only taking around ten minutes. You ran down to the shoreline and the first thing you did was feel the coolness of the water. You had no idea why you did this but you felt a need to do it every time you passed by a body of water. You shook your hand to try and relieve your hand of any loose water before just wiping it on your pants, not willing to get the book wet. It was the middle of autumn so the breezes were just right and the sun wasn’t all that blinding. You stepped back a couple of paces and took a deep breath as you sat down in the sand and began to flip through the pages of your newly acquired literature.
You found yourself incredibly invested in this book, being about mythical creatures and what not. Most of them were the usual tales you had heard, dragons, elves, faes, fairies, all the usual. Even if you had known most of these it didn’t make it any less interesting. Learning about these creatures (that most likely didn’t exist) felt like a breath of fresh air from your current situation. You would be lying if you were to say you weren’t also trying to find answers to what would be living in those coffins or what had allegedly possessed you a couple days ago but you tried to bury those thoughts down. You were nearing the end of the book when you came across a creature that caught your attention, the vampire. You carefully scanned through the pages, each word coming as a shout in your head. You couldn’t help it as the words exited out of your mouth as a whisper to yourself. It felt as if you were under some enchantment, everything around you seeming to no longer exist.
You paused, you had reread the same couple pages over and over again trying to find a different answer only to be met with none. There was no way your parents knowingly took you to the home of some ancient, bloodsucking immortal being. But then your mother’s voice rang through your ears.
“It’s not like they will be alone here anyways, you can’t have forgotten why we brought them-”
Is that why they had brought you here? To become some sort of sheep to a wolf? There was no way, your parents were- are good people. They wouldn’t do that to their own child , no parent would. Your thoughts jumbled your brain again and you felt so overwhelmed by them. You couldn’t help the tears welding in your eyes as you hug your knees close to you. They couldn’t have known, they couldn’t have, they-
“Hello little one~”