“Did you hear about what happened to Matilda?” an old woman asked. “She went to the forest to get herbs for her poor sister and never came back!”

“Of course she didn’t come back, she doesn’t even know the way!” a grumpy old man responded. “That place is far too dangerous for a young lady, has nobody taught these young kids that the forest is death?”

“Oh, don’t be so harsh, she needed the herbs for her sister. You would do the same in her situation!” the old lady chastised.

The man scratched the back of his head in shame. “I guess you are right… But now the vampire has claimed another victim…”

“Oh, poor Matilda! If only that coward of Dabeltorn hadn’t quit!” she cried.

“Oh, come on, now! Let’s not be ungrateful, that man has saved us far too many times. I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for him!”

“Perhaps, but why did he have to stop?”

“Give the man a break, he lost his wife, anyone would be heartbroken after that!”

“We don’t know if the vampire lord killed Anna, though.”

“Who else would have been?”

“I heard that Marcus Dabeltorn killed his wife,” a sneaky teenager said, forcing himself into the conversation. “That’s why he never explained how his wife died!”

“Hasn’t anyone taught you to not be noisy, young man?” the old man replied. “Besides, he wouldn’t do that, he loved his wife with his whole life. Anyone with eyes could see it!”

“It’s true,” the old woman agreed. “Marcus loved Anna very much, their love was the talk of the town back in the day!”

“I’m just saying what I hear,” the snarky teen defended himself.

As they were arguing, they failed to notice that the very daughter of the pair mentioned was walking nearby. She was an average size woman with black as night wavy hair tied in a thick ponytail, she had a pair of equally black but shiny eyes, the kind that made her eyes look bigger than they were, and skin slightly colored by the warm sunlight but remaining white nonetheless. She wearing a large blue skirt with a white off-the-shoulders shirt and a silver locket on a long chain.

Elizzabeth Dabeltorn was used to these rumors, there was nothing else to talk in a village suffering from a vampire problem than the hunter who used to protect them, so she wasn’t very angry at their talk. Not much, at least.

Riverbel was a small village, founded centuries ago when the kingdom of Lysvelle was expanding its borders towards the East in a somewhat brutal conquest. It was named after the beautiful rivers that were found in the forest. A calm and fertile territory that was just waiting to be conquered.

Everything was fine at the beginning, but few years after its foundation, when everyone was too settled in to move away, they discovered that they had built their village on a vampire’s territory. Not only that, it was the Great Vampire Lord, the most powerful and cruel of all vampires, their king in everything but name. The village itself was the safest place in the territory, but the rest of the land was wild, dangerous. Every night or so, the vampire lord would send his servants to find new victims in the outskirts of Riverbel (or, in some cases just like last night, in the middle of the forest), and once they were captured they were never coming back. The only thing the people could do was to pray that they were given a swift and quick death.

That was the case until one day Marcus Dabeltorn decided to hunt those vampires down in revenge for what was done to his own parents — murdered by the lackeys of the vampire when he was only sixteen — and protect the village. There were many others who had try standing up to the vampire, but only Marcus had lived to tell the tale. He was the savior of Riverbel, the hero everyone was looking up to.

During one of those patrolling nights, Marcus saved the life of Anna Lebeaupin, a woman who was known locally for her beauty and kindness. It was a fated meeting that resulted in love, marriage, and an adorable daughter. A mere two years passed and the life of Anna (now Dabeltorn) was lost, and with it the hope of Riverbel too.

But nobody knew why he actually gave up…

Lizzy couldn’t deny that part of her resented her father for abandoning his duty as protector of Riverbel, like everyone else in the village. He was the only one capable enough to survive the task, he was still young when he quitted, and he didn’t even had a successor? No wonder why everyone was mad! Still, she understood not risking it all when you were the only parent a child has left. If there was someone who hated the vampire lord with all of their might, that was Lizzy Dabeltorn, the daughter of his sworn enemy.

Lizzy kept walking up to the farm of his friend Jimmy. He lived on a farm on the outskirts of Riverbel, a dangerous place in its own right. Thankfully, they were close enough to avoid casualties. Well, except for one…

“Hey, Lizzy!” Jimmy greeted. Jimmy Flores was a year younger than Lizzy, making him seventeen, yet he was taller than Lizzy (to her utter dismay). He was a man of darker complexion, of short, black and thick hair and brown eyes. His clothes were simple, wearing a white shirt with its sleeves rolled up, short brown pants and a orange vest. He was working on his family’s farm, giving hay to the cattle.

“Hey, Jimmy!” she greeted back. “What’s up?”

“Working. Wanna help?”

“I don’t know, it seems you have everything under control…”

“Come on! Can’t you help a friend out? I need to finish this!”

“Alright.”

Doing manual labor wasn’t something that a refined, young lady such a Lizzy should be doing, but she didn’t care. This was Riverbel, a small village in the middle of nowhere, too far away from proper society. Who cared if the daughter of a well-off family was spending her time with the “lowly” farmers, giving food to cows, chicken and pigs? This could be the very last day of their lives, why bother with something so trivial? Or at least, that was what Lizzy thought. Her father didn’t mind, he was happy that she had a friend to be with, but he certainly preferred that she wouldn’t be so far from the village and that he would come to her instead.

After spending all afternoon feeding the animals, then cleaning up after them, they rested a bit. Or at least, that was Lizzy did, she sat down on the ground but Jimmy didn’t join her, he was too preoccupied brushing one of the cows (a task that Lizzy would enjoy to do if it wasn’t for her current state of exhaustion). The sun was going to set at any minute, which meant that their time together was going to run out.

“Oh damn! This one has one too!” he suddenly said.

“What’s wrong?” Lizzy asked.

“There are bite marks on Betty. I’ve found some of them on the pigs too. This is not even the first time it happens, every couple of weeks something bites the animals!”

“Let me see.” Lizzy approached the milk-white cow, finding two small bit marks near her neck. “Weird.”

“Do you think it’s a vampire?”

Lizzy laughed. “What kind of vampire would drink cow blood instead of human blood? Besides, the size is too small for a vampire. It must be some kind of animal.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense…” Jimmy gave the cow a little pat before walking to the spot Lizzy was previously occupying, then he laid down dramatically. “I’m soooo tired!”

Lizzy joined him on the floor, sitting down properly. “Come on, it wasn’t that long!”

“For you, maybe, I’ve been cleaning the whole farm since morning!” he complained. “Whatever, what hour is it?”

“I don’t know, but the sun is about to set…”

On the horizon, blue hues were beginning to retreat, turning into pinkish and purple ones, soon to be turned into full amber and scarlet. A soft breeze was blowing and Lizzy had to brush a lock of hair off her face, one of the few that couldn’t be contained in her ponytail. It was quite a beautiful image. Sadly, that meant that it was time to leave.

“James! Get ready, we need to go!” Jimmy’s mom called.

“Alright, ma!” he answered with a yell. He then turned to Lizzy. “Sorry, I don’t think I can accompany you back home this time, we need to go to the church.”

“Oh? Why is that?” Lizzy asked with curiosity.

“It’s for the anniversary of Camilla’s death,” he replied.

“Wait, I thought it was next week?” said Lizzy now with worry. She swore that it wasn’t the day yet! How could she be such a bad friend and forget the day your best friend’s sister died?

“Yeah, it is, but we kind of have to do the anniversary-mass-thing now because next week is packed! Too many people have died this year…”

“Yeah, I heard there was another victim yesterday…”

They fell into silence, not wanting to talk about the obvious. Marcus Dabeltorn, and how he could have saved more lives if he hadn’t retire in exchange of managing a successful merchant family business. The good thing about it was that they were able to meet, even if the circumstances were not the best.

Camilla was a victim of a vampire, not the same lord that terrorized the village, though. It was a different one, one who preyed on humans in a different way. Camilla was approached by a man who conquered her heart, and the whole family was supporting the relationship between her and the young man. What they didn’t know was that the man was a weaker vampire just trying to get a meal. He killed her in her own home and left.

Jimmy was a small child at the time, unable to fight for her big sister, but he still pursued the perpetrator into the forest, blinded by righteous anger. The vampire in question almost took his life too, grabbing him by the neck, when a certain ex-hunter appeared. A fairly tall, brown-eyed man with light brown hair tied in a short low ponytail, wearing grey pants, a white shirt under a dark vest and elegant blue coat.

“I wouldn’t hunt on Lord Sângestacojiu’s territory if I were you,” Marcus said to the vampire, walking in like it was no one’s business. The vampire turned to him, then dropped Jimmy and ran away in fear, perfectly understanding the threat.

Jimmy didn’t understand what happened, but he got onto his feet to thank his savior. “Thanks! Mister…?”

“Marcus Dabeltorn. What are you doing in this forest so late, young man?”

“That vampire killed my sister!”

“And you thought it was wise to go after him?”

Jimmy looked away in shame. It was a pretty stupid idea. But someone had to do something!

Marcus kneeled down to meet Jimmy’s eyes. “You were very brave, but you are also very young. It was not your responsibility to go after him.”

“Then who’s was it? Yours?”

Marcus looked guilty. “Maybe it was…” After a short moment of silence, he stood up and talked again. “We need to go, it’s not safe here.”

He offered his hand, and Jimmy took it, returning safely home, where his family was waiting for him. His parents had a few choices of words for Marcus, being drowned in the grief of losing a daughter, but they couldn’t deny that they had to thank him for saving their other child. It was a very passive-aggressive thanks, though.

The next day, during Camilla’s funeral, Marcus paid a visit to give condolences to the family, feeling too guilty to not do it. Once again he was casted away, but his intentions were not unwelcomed. That day he had brought Lizzy with him, letting Jimmy and her meet.

If it wasn’t because of Camilla’s death (for as tragic as it was), then these two wouldn’t have become friends, but perhaps Jimmy would have preferred to keep his big sister instead…

“Anyways, I think I should go,” said Jimmy, back in the present, standing up.

Lizzy snapped back from her thoughts. “Huh? Oh yes! Should I just go with you?”

“Nah, don’t worry! It’s going to be boring and you are going to miss the curfew. Besides, if it gets too late, we’ll have to sleep at the church. I’ll be fine.”

“If you say so…” She got up too. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Are you going to be fine?”

“Of course, I’m an adult, I can take care of myself!”

With that said, they parted ways. Lizzy followed the main path, passing next to other farms who were readying themselves for the worst, walking under an beautifully colored sky. Then, she walked through the forest’s path to get to the Dabeltorn mansion (which was outside the main village), and imponent building of white stone and hundreds of windows that for little Lizzy looked like a castle from a fairytale.

Home.