April 8th. Cloudy afternoon. 23-year-old James was closing his booth early for the day to get ready to see his parents and his aunt that were coming over to St. Lithe to visit him and stay the night. As he was walking from his booth, he heard a rustle behind him in the bushes. He looked behind him and saw nothing and continued walking to the cathedral. During his walk, he started to have glimpses of Harland screaming and running from whoever killed him which gave him a migraine. He began to hold the left side of his head.
‘…Why? Why am I having thoughts of Harland’s death? It’s been almost 9 months; what are these images telling me? Is… his killer close by?’ He thought to himself.
~~~
On a clear starry night, James was outside in the back sitting with Nyris, Theresa, and Deborah along with the other nuns and the children. The children laughed, smile, and clapped to the music while they watched Elsa dance near the lit pyre while Gad was playing a drum while James’ aunt who had red hair, Ester, was playing her flute and danced with Elsa. Elsa danced near James and extended her hand to him.
“Come and dance with me, my son!” She insisted with a smile.
“Uh… I can’t dance, Mother…” James said waving his hands in decline.
“Come now, dear boy. Have fun.” Nyris said touching James’ shoulder.
All the children shouted for James to dance, he sighed.
“Alright… I’ll dance.” James said while grabbing Elsa’s hand.
James got up and began to dance with Elsa with the children cheering. During the dance, Esper gave the flute to Elsa so she could dance with James. As the three danced, Deborah and Theresa clapped with the children their hands to the beat of the music joyously.
~~
After the dance, everyone went inside with the nuns putting the children to bed and most of them also turning in for the night. Inside the cathedral’s dining room, James, Elsa, Gad, Esper, Deborah, Theresa, and Nyris were sitting and eating at one of the tables.
“So, what type of music is that, Elsa?” Theresa asked out of curiosity.
“The music we danced to is the song of celebration. It’s type is called Calyp.” Elsa replied. “Not many of my people do it now because of the discrimination we still face.”
“How do you both dance like that?” Deborah asked Esper.
“Well, to tell you the truth, I never used to dance until Elsa taught me to. It’s whatever you feel in your body or your soul that makes you want to dance. If you like, we can teach you.” Esper implied.
“Oh… No thank you. I can’t dance that well.” Deborah said.
Nyris chuckled.
“I’m sure you can be able to dance, sister Deborah; you too, Theresa.”
Theresa looked at Nyris, squinting at him.
“I don’t dance, Father.” She spoke. “Besides the dancing, Esper, you don’t look like the woman to… do what Elsa does.”
“I never used to be.” Esper replied. “Gad and I lived in a strict religious home. ‘Something close as witchcraft and vampires are demons. We are under a damned and condemned land ruled by a vampire. Becoming any one of these is damnation.’ That’s what our parents said and that’s how they were. I was so sad when Gad left, because of them disowning him when he went with Elsa. With Elsa saving me that day from the radicals, I learned afterward our parents were wrong about them. Not all Romas and vampires are evil. They’re no better than humans. Witches and vampires, I’ve known them to be the greatest people to ever meet and interact with; even the wolfen. It’s fun to be universal. It’s fun to dance from your soul. It’s another type of religion, but freer. It’s another way to express yourself. And it’s nice to see that church lot like yourselves aren’t discriminative.”
“Thank you, Esper.” Nyris praised. “I tell you, the moment when I held James in my arms when he was a baby, I knew he was gifted. Most priests can’t see that. Some priests I used to know would lead their flock to do… treacherous actions to a person that wasn’t the same as them. Those are the men that give priests a bad name. So, anyone is welcome to come as they are to Holy St. Lithe Cathedral. You three are welcome anytime as well here.”
Gad, Esper, and Elsa smiled and bowed their heads at Nyris’ hospitality.
“Thank you, Father Dustine.” Gad commented.
“Please. Call me Nyris.”
~~
Later that night, James helped Elsa get her belongings into the guestroom she and Gad were staying in. As James put her belongings down, Elsa had slipped something in James’ pocket. Confused, James took out whatever Elsa put in his pocket and saw it was folded paper. James looked at Elsa in confusion; Elsa signaled him to open it. When he unfolded it, he saw that it was the deed to the land near Mt. Kianu. James looked at Elsa with a concerned look on his face.
“W-why are giving me the deed to the land up north?” James asked.
“…I have a feeling that you’re going to need more than me.” Elsa replied.
“What do you mean? You aren’t sick or anything, right?” James asked.
“Of course not. Your father and I talked about this before we came down here and we thought to give you our land, because we feel our time is close; even Esper’s.” She replied.
“Mother… you’re scaring me…”
James then felt what she was feeling; the same type of feeling when he saw visions of Harland’s murder. The left side of his head began to hurt as he saw what looked like the soon future. He looked devasted as he saw the visions and looked to Elsa.
“Mother, you, Father, and Aunt Esper have to leave from here!” He warned.
The two of them heard screaming coming from downstairs. James and Elsa got out the room and headed downstairs. At the head of the stairs, they saw Nyris guarding Theresa and Deborah with his cross from a woman robed in red concealing her face. Gad and Esper held pouches that held crushed silver in it. As Gad and Esper started to throw silver dust, the robed woman dodged from the thrown dust and dashed toward Nyris. When Elsa snapped her fingers, the silver turned into a giant hand, grabbing onto the woman. The silver began to burn the woman, making her scream.
“She’s a vampire.” Elsa stated and looked to Nyris. “Nyris! Use your cross!” She instructed.
As told, Nyris extended his cross and said a prayer; making the woman scream in pain. As Nyris was praying as fast as she could, the woman had a red aura form around her. In a fit of rage, the woman screamed out, obliterating the silver hand and instantly slashed Nyris’ cross away and severing his hand off. As Nyris screamed in pain, the woman impaled him through his stomach with her claws and threw him to the side. The woman quickly dashed towards Theresa and Deborah and slashed through them like paper; making them bleed out. Before the woman could make it to Gad and Esper, Elsa snapped her fingers again to form tendrils from the silver dust to grab and bind the woman. Esper and Gad moved out the way and threw out more silver for the tendrils to be stronger.
Elsa motioned her hands to tighten the grip on the tendrils as she walked down the stairs, burning the woman’s skin once again. Elsa then picked up the cross and aimed it at the woman while James ran down the stairs to check if Nyris, Theresa, or Deborah were still alive. As Elsa said a prayer while holding the cross to burn the woman with the help of Gad and Esper, James saw that Nyris suffered massive blood loss from his stomach and was dead. Deborah also suffered blood loss from her neck and was dead next to Theresa who was alive and putting pressure on her bleeding stomach wound. James held her up which made her cough up blood. Theresa looked up at James.
“So… this is how we leave you… I never thought it would be like this…” Theresa struggled to say.
“Sister, please don’t say that. You’ll be just fine.” James tearfully tried to assure her.
Theresa chuckled.
“Things… like tragedies happen for a reason. Don’t blame yourself for this… tragedy. Promise us… that you will be greater in life... For the sake of Velorice as a whole…” Theresa pleaded.
“I will… I promise, Theresa…” James agreed.
Theresa smiled.
“I’m… proud of you… So is Deborah… and… Nyris…”
Theresa breathed out her last breath and became limp in James’ arms. In tears, James laid Theresa down and looked to Elsa, Gad, and Esper who were struggling with the female assailant. In another fit of rage, the silver tendrils started to disperse. When the woman screamed, the silver blasted away from her, hitting Elsa, Gad, and Esper with the silver dust. With the force of the blast, Esper hit the back her head on the wall behind her, splitting her head open and killing her. Gad was hit with the silver dust, impaling him like micro shards of glass and going into his mouth. He began to cough up blood and leaned on the wall and slowly sat on the floor as the robed and burned woman walked up to Gad.
She grabbed Gad by his neck’ lifting and strangling him. Since he had silver in his body, she tightened her grip on his neck to the point she snapped his neck and dropped Gad’s lifeless body. She then turned to an injured Elsa who was being held by James. The woman smirked as she saw James was filled with anger.
“Remember, James…” Elsa started to speak; making James look at her. “… This was destined to happen. I’ve seen it.” She stated.
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