Chapter 6 - Blood

I’m all alone, inside this old castle hidden in the lonely woods. Sitting on a cold, hard chair that’s facing the window, looking at the the oh-so-beautiful fire burning the trees, and listening to the people who started it.

“DIE!”

“DEATH TO ALL VAMPIRES!”

“COME OUT SO WE CAN KILL YOU, VAMPIRE!”

“STOP HIDING AND SHOW YOURSELF YOU MONSTER!”

The voices of the people interrupting my classical music are becoming louder and louder, whilst the fire gets brighter and brighter.

Do they hate me so much that they’re willing to sacrifice themselves along with me? Is this how it ends?

Are they not aware? I hate myself more than any of them could ever hate me.

I guess to find out how broken I am from inside, I need to break through something more materialistic than my mind. I pierce through the window as if I’m meant to shatter it with my shattered soul.

The exact moment the shards of glass embedded into me was not painful, but the moment after that was. The moment I hit the ground, and I found myself still alive.

“Am I cursed?” I ask, while lying on the ground, with shards of glass stuck in my back, surrounded by people with torches and blades in their hands.

I look at the night’s starless sky and scream at it as if it’ll answer me. “Mother, father! Why? Why couldn’t I be born to be blessed?”

“Blanche, wake up!” I hear a familiar voice say.

I open my watery eyes and see Jean leaning in above me. “Was that… a dream?” I softly say.

“Are you alright? You were saying some weird things in your sleep.” Jean says, with a concerned expression on his face.

“What time is it?” I ask, to avoid Jean’s question.

“It’s 7 in the morning, you still have some time before Jacques comes to pick you up.” He answers.

What kind of dream was that? It felt way too realistic…

“I made petit déjeuner*, are you hungry?” Jean adds.

“Mhm” I nod.

Maybe that dream was an effect of not having had blood for so long. I can’t risk waiting 2 more months for blood, what would happen if I suddenly become bloodthirsty in school? I have to get this problem solved as soon as possible.

I get out of bed and join Jean at the dinner table, he prepared for me a cup of hot chocolate milk, and a croissant with a sauce cup with jam in it.

“I didn’t get the chance to ask you yesterday, but how was your first day of school?” Jean asks, with a mouth full of bread.

“It was alright, the school seems really big and intimidating, and there are a lot of people around me, but I’m sure I’ll fit in eventually.” I say, before taking another sip of my hot chocolate milk.

“Don’t worry too much about fitting in, Blanche. You were born to stand out!” He says.

“Ooh, that was a good line, I should use it for my novel!” He continues proudly, before I got the change to say anything.

“…” My face turns to disappointment for taking him serious.

After finishing the petit déjeuner, I quickly put on my uniform and wait for Jacques to come.

After a safe travel to school, I finally arrive in my classroom.

“Good morning class, my name is Mr. Sebastien, and I’m your history teacher.

The first 40 minutes of history class went slowly, and was pretty boring. Mr. Sebastian talks with a monotone voice, but also in an elegant way. His class is still boring though.

But, suddenly Mr. Sebastien starts talking about something much more interesting.

“Do any of you know, what historical event took place on January 5th in 1675?”

1675? That’s about 200 years ago, right? Could he be referring to the Battle of Blood and Blessings? I raise my hand.

“Blanche Lenoir? You may answer.”

“Was is the Battle of Blood and Blessings?” I answer hesitantly.

“Correct, you are very knowledgeable. Mr. Lenoir.” Mr. Sebastien says.

Mr. Lenoir? Did me answering correctly make him respect me more?

“So about the Battle of Blood and Blessings,..” He continues.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“This was a very important war for mankind, and also the start of our blessings.”

Mr. Sebastien continued to tell the class the story behind the Battle of Blood and Blessings. “Ever since the day this city was built, the citizens of Paris lived in fear of vampires. They were cruel, bloodthirsty creatures who would rape women and kill men just for fun-” Huh? What’s this guy talking about? That’s can’t be true, right?

Benedict is the biggest vampire-hater I know, but he also always stayed loyal to facts, yet this guy is telling a completely different story than Benedict…

“- Not only that, but they would steal our appearances and hide among us, resulting in mankind being unable to trust their peers.” Mr. Sebastien continues.

Ooh! An ability to steal appearances, that sounds great! I MEAN; WE DON’T HAVE THAT KIND OF ABILITY! Tsk, this teacher is getting on my nerves… How much longer until next class?

“This bastard, he’s lying…” I hear Léa whisper to herself.

Did I just hear that correctly? How does Léa know he’s lying? Every other student seems to believe him. Could Léa also be a vampire? Or could she maybe be connected to vampires in any way? That would explain why she’s also trying to hide her blessing.

I can’t just ask her though, can I? I mean if she’s not a vampire she might get suspicious of me for asking. I’ll just give it some time, I still have two years to get to know her better after all.

Mr. Sebastien went on telling the story of the Battle of Blood and Blessings, putting vampires in a really negative light.

“And that’s why, the church has decided to label vampires as demons.” Mr. Sebastian said, to end his story.

W-we’re considered demons? That’s rough…

The more I learn about this world, the more scared I get about it finding out what I am.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, all we did was get introduction classes of each subject. I sure hope school becomes a little more interesting soon.

I told Jacques to go home without me because ‘I wanted to visit the school’s library today’.

But today, I actually wanted to go to the center of Paris.

So I got on a different bus, taking me to the center of the city. it was only a 5 minute bus ride since The Royal Academy of Paris is just outside the center of Paris.

“Whoa, so this is what Paris really looks like…” I say to myself.

The vibe here is so different than it is at home, we live near the outskirts of Paris because Jean doesn’t like crowded places, so there isn’t much to see at home. But this, this is beautiful!

Today, for the first time in my life, I set foot in the heart of Paris.

T-this must be Jardin des Tuileries*! This is a where the main character of a novel I read went on a date! Actually being here in real life is so cool!

And there’s the Notre-Dame de Paris*, where the main character first met the antagonist!

“Whaaa, Paris rocks!” I yell in excitement.

Multiple eyes around me turn to me. That’s right, this place is even more packed than school.

Hmm, there’s a bakery right there! And I’m always craving some croissants!

I enter the bakery and ask the lady working there for a croissant.

“You’re such a handsome young man.” The lady says, as she turns her gaze to my uniform.

“And you go to the Royal Academy of Paris? You have a really bright future ahead of you, I’m sure all the ladies love you!” She adds, while putting the croissant I asked for in a bag and handing it to me. “That’ll be five French Francs, please.”

I hand her a 5 Franc coin and take the bag with the croissant in it. “T- thank you very much.’

“Be safe on your way back home, peasants will do anything to get their hands on that uniform you’re wearing.” The lady says, as I leave her bakery.

They’d do anything to get their hands on my uniform?

I decided to walk around and explore the city a bit, until I arrived at a nice and quiet place where I could eat my croissant in ^peace.

This is such a pretty place, I wonder why there’s no one here… Whatever, works for me.

I sit on a bench facing the Seine, a river in the heart of Paris, and eat my croissant.

It was already getting dark, but this place is filled with streetlights so it feels like it never really gets dark here.

I suddenly hear the leaves on the ground rustle, someone’s approaching me.

“Hey there, shouldn’t ye be in school? Hehehe” A creepy voice, not hiding it’s ill intentions says.

I look behind me and see a tall, but skinny middle aged man approaching me.

“Excuse me?” I say, while still sitting on the bench, with my head turned towards the man.

“Let’s not make this any harder than it should be, just come with me and I’ll let ye go once y’er mommy or y’er daddy hands me money...” He answers, with a smug expression revealing his greed.

“Ah, I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. I don’t have parents, you see.” Or at least I think I don’t…

“aww, poor you. Would you like me to be y’er new daddy? I’ll take good care of ye, hehehe”

Dude, that’s just creepy… Also what’s with your accent, it’s gross.

I stand up and face the man, this is perfect. Having the blood come to me makes things much easier.

“Oi, ye sure you wanna fight? don’t you know who y’er up against?” The man tries to intimidate me.

“A peasant who came to Paris to kidnap kids for money?” Seriously, who does this guy think he is?

“I’ll fucking kill ye, you fucking brat.” He says, as he pulls out a knife.

“As a member of the Lenoir family, I advise you to broaden your vocabulary.”

“You’re still gonna act like y’er all that huh? You don’t even have a weapon, y’er no match for my fast-dash blessing!” The man says, hesitating to make the first move.

“A weapon? I don’t need one of those, because I am the weapon. I’m a vampire, after all.” I reveal, as I get ready to counter-attack the creepy man who’s preparing to attack me

“Heh, a vampire you say… Those went extinct many years ago, you can’t fool me.” He says.

The man uses his blessing to boost himself forward and swings his knife at me. I use my hand to block his attack, resulting in my palm being impaled by his knife.

“Y-you used your hand… to block my knife, are you crazy?” The man, who’s now right in my face says, with his eyes widening out of disbelief.

“After you give me your blood, it’ll be healed in only a matter of seconds, so I don’t see what’s so crazy about it.” I say, and before realizing it, I developed an evil smirk on my face.

My eyes turn red as my bloodlust is starting to take over.

“Your eyes… Y-you really are a vampire, a demon!” The man says, fearing his life.

“Didn’t I tell you?” I say, as I bring my other hand towards his throat, gently touching it with my nail.

“M-M-MONSTER!” The man cries out.

I lean in towards the mans neck, and insert my teeth in it. Finally sucking the much needed blood out of him.

“W-w-was that all you wanted? T-then please, let me go now, I swear I won’t tell anyone about you!” He says, as he falls to his knees.

Huh? He’s still alive? I thought drinking all of that blood would surely be lethal.

“Mm-mm-mm. I can’t let you get away alive, I’m sorry.”

“Just you wait! My boss should be on his way, I swear he’ll aven-“

Oh, he died.

Without leaving me any time to heal my injured hand, a bullet pierces my thigh.

“Are you his boss? You should introduce yourself before shooting someone in the leg, y’know.” I say, as I reach for cover behind the bench.

“Foul demon! I, Damian Dampier, swear I will kill you!” The muscular, bald man says, revealing himself coming from an alley.

That’s a rather late introduction…

I have to be careful though, I don’t know what his blessing is.

Damian quickly approaches me, with a rifle with a bayonet in his hands.

He fires three shots, all hitting the bench I’m taking cover behind, as he continues to close to distance the between us.

I run towards the next bench, trying to widen the distance again as he shoots 5 more shots my way, with one of them hitting my thigh once again. “Tsk, he’s leaving me no time to heal my wounds.”

Wait, rifles like that only have 8 bullet slots, right? Then this is my chance.

I leave my cover and quickly leap towards Damian, grabbing his arm and dislocating his shoulder.

“A pale skin and red eyes, You truly are a vampire. How frightening,” Damian says, as if admitting defeat.

I stab his heart with my hand, “I’m no monster, but tonight...I’ll make an exception,” I say, as Damian takes his last breath.