The night was bitter and cold.
As the clouds began to mask the light of the moon, the cries of a woman could be heard amidst the silence of the night.
In a dimly lit bathroom, she laid in the bathtub with her legs raised along the sides.
Her naked body was pale white, her hair, gray and frail.
Sweat dripped from her forehead and her back.
Tears poured from her eyes without stopping.
Her hands gripped her large stomach.
She gripped it to the point where blood was now seeping from scratches she had just made.
A tall man wearing glasses, a stained white collared shirt, black vest and black slacks slowly walked into the room with a towel in his hand.
He knelt beside the screaming woman and pulled her hands away from her stomach as he dabbed the blood from her wounds.
“You’re almost there, push a little harder.”
The woman took in a deep breath before tightening her stomach and pushing.
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Her face became beat red as she began to lack oxygen.
“Relax and breathe again,” The man said.
His voice was relaxed and it seemed to help the woman greatly.
She repeated her previous actions multiple times in a cycle.
After what felt like hours of pain and suffering, silence eventually filled the room.
Only a few seconds after the quietness settled, the cries of a baby could now be heard.
The man reached into the tub and took the baby into his arms and briefly looked at it.
It was a boy and on his back, was a faint brand in the shape of a jagged tail encircling an eye.
He looked back at the woman, lying nearly lifeless in the tub.
Her body scarred, bruised and bloody.
“You did well Mira…” the man said with a mournful voice.
With a hoarse and breathless voice, Mira responded;
“Take care of Jean, Klaus”
As the clouds began to give way to the moon again, its light shone through the small window placed above the bathtub.
The light shone directly on the body of Mira.
Her skin was now withered and her face was sunken.
The frail gray hair was no longer there, and her eyes had rolled back behind her head.
Klaus now cradled the baby in one arm as the other reached for a blade holstered to the back of his waist.
“Don’t worry Mira… I will,”
As Klaus responded, the once lifeless body in the tub, suddenly began to shake uncontrollably.
The skin ripped and the limbs stretched, blood seeping from the tears.
The hair grew back, white as snow, yet coarse and thick.
Her hands elongated and her nails began to sharpen.
The sounds of bones snapping and cracking to joints and muscles popping and deforming, overpowered the crying baby.
Mira was no longer a woman, but a hairy white creature resembling a dog.
Klaus quietly pulled out a blade and brought it up to meet the beasts neck.
Without moving anything but the one arm, he shifted his hand and the blade grew in length.
And with one clean slice, the head of the beast fell into the tub.