Chapter 3: The ritual begins

I really did not like this, at all. I didn't like blood magic, I didn't like needles and I didn't like partaking in anything with either of those parts, especially not when it was including both. Besides I had no idea how this "old blood" worked as an alchemical ingredient or whatever it was. It would be reassuring to know, ...but on the other hand, it did already sound plenty of unholy and I had no choice, so I choose to stay blissfully ignorant and not ask questions. It took Claire a couple of minutes to prepare the blood but I would have needed a couple of days to get ready for it. She came in with a crude bowl made of black stone, runes etched around the edge, giving off a malevolent red glow. I had never seen any runes like that before, but they made the small hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Claire walked slowly to the side of my bed and put down the bowl on the night table before turning to me.

"Close your eyes Alexandria." She said, "It's easier that way." Oh gods the needle, oh gods it had to be big for her to actually worry that I might see it, Minja grant me strength, I thought to myself as I closed my eyes. I could feel tears gathering, but damn it to oblivion if I was going to scream or cry. I didn't want to appear weak so I forced the tears back and tried to prepare myself.

"Are you ready Alexandria?" she asked I croaked something back, along the lines of "just fuck me up". She laid a piece of cloth over my eyes and opened my shirt, which I didn't have time to get excited over. The first thing I noticed was a forceful tug in my gut, and then a sharp lingering, throbbing pain rushing through me from my chest, starting right over my heart. I gasped in panic and bit together so hard that I could almost hear my teeth creak under the pressure. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that I wasn't being impaled by a giant needle, I was being cut with an uneven knife. I couldn't see which somehow made it all worse, and the world began to spin as wave after wave of continuing pain washed over me and Claire carved on. I think realistically it only too a couple of minutes, but I wouldn't know. For all I knew, it could have been an hour before she lifted the blade from my skin. There was a few minutes where I blacked out I think, at least a few where I didn't notice anything but the pain. Then I went numb. The world became still for a second, I tugged in a quick breath and I noticed my heart again, hammering away like a raging wyrm. I felt a heavy liquid being poured into the wounds, it felt as if it was freezing the wounds together and then flowing further down through my open skin, my flesh and into my heart before a new wave was coming crashing down. After a while it stopped and I didn't recognize it at first, it felt unreal. After a minute of me realizing I was not dead, Claire removed the piece of cloth. She was standing over me, observing my face and I observed hers. She looked different now. Her skin was like porcelain, with no wrinkles or folds and her eyes glossy and dark. Her rosy cheeks were smooth and looked like they were painted, beautifully, but not real. She looked like a doll, but her lips moved when she spoke and her eyes had a spark of life.

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"You did well Alexandria." She said to me and I could see in her eyes that she meant it. "How are you feeling?" I hadn't thought about that. I felt fine actually. The pain was subsiding quickly and I could feel the magic in me rushing around, sending soft pulses through me as it mixed with the blood that was now coursing through my veins. There was also something else, but I couldn't put my finger on it, my mind was so blurry and I saw so much more than I was used to, I couldn't keep up; there was the faint blood splatters on the ceiling, the hole in the window that was from a gunshot, there was Claire that was clearly not as human as I had thought and then, there was the moon. It wasn't a pale moon as I had thought, it was a red, bloody, crimson moon, closer and more threatening than it should be. I think I tried to answer her, but I don't remember, I blacked out again, but this time I didn't wake up in my room.