Fourteen years ago.

Alice was pretty young the first time she went to an amusement park, and Arthur was even younger. They played games, went on rides, went through a mirror maze, the works. All in all, it was almost a perfect day. There was just one hiccup that happened about halfway through the trip, right about when Alice was about to go on a roller coaster for the first time.

“I wanna go on the roller coaster,” Arthur had whined.

Alice, standing next to the ‘you must be this tall to ride’ sigh, smirked. Arthur pouted angrily.

“Alice,” said Mom warningly. “Don’t tease your brother.”

“Don’t worry, kid,” said their dad to Arthur. “If you take after me, you’ll be taller than Alice when you grow up.”

“Dad!” Alice protested.

Her father just laughed, “Come on, Alice. Your mother doesn’t like roller coasters.”

Alice pouted for about ten seconds, but quickly got in line for the ride with a smile on her face. It was a long wait that day, and Alice kept fidgeting, ready to go, which her father found quite amusing. Finally, they reached the front of the line. Alice was so excited she ran up to the roller coaster as fast as she could.

“Honey!” said Dad. “Slow dow…”

It was too late, however. Alice tripped on the stairs leading up to the roller coaster and hit her head on the side of the ride. A moment later, Alice was on the ground, crying. Her dad had to politely ask the amusement park staff for a band-aid. A moment later, they were outside the ride and Alice had a band-aid on her head and a miserable expression on her face.

Dad gently pressed on Alice’s head where she’d hit it.

“Does that hurt?” he asked.

“No,” said Alice.

“Good. That means nothing is broken. It will be sore for a little while, but you’ll be fine. Hate to say it, but you should probably wait until next time to try the roller coaster, just to be on the safe side.”

Alice looked down, feeling miserable, “It hurts.”

“I know, sweetie,” he said.

“Can we go home now?”

“Alice, just give it a few minutes. You’ll be fine, I promise. There’s no reason this has to ruin our day.”

Alice groaned, and her father sighed.

“Come on,” he said. “I think I know how to cheer you up.”

Alice reluctantly followed as her father took her to the games area. He led her to the air gun game with three conveyer belts of moving targets. Alice wondered how this was supposed to cheer her up until her father pointed to the prizes.

“Which prize would you like most?”

Alice, her head still throbbing, reluctantly pointed to a plush pink bunny. Her father then got in line, paid the attendant, cracked his knuckles, and then began the game. It only took him a few seconds to shoot every target dead on and win a prize. Alice’s eyes grew wide.

“Whoa,” she said.

Before she knew it, Alice had a little pink bunny plush in her hands.

“How did you do that so quickly?” she asked.

“Practice,” he replied. “Lots of practice, and I can do it again too. Can you see anything Arthur might like?”

She didn’t hesitate, “The dinosaur.”

She wanted to see him do it again.

A moment later, Alice had her bunny, and dad carried a blue t-rex under his arm as they looked for mom and Arthur.

“So,” said Dad. “Feel better yet?”

Alice thought about it, “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

“That’s my girl,” he said proudly. A moment later, he added, “Don’t let this sort of thing beat you, Alice. A little pain is nothing to fear, and there’s no reason to let it ruin our day.”

“Okay, dad,” she said. “I get it.”

Arthur was indeed excited to get a dinosaur toy, and the Hayes family enjoyed the rest of their day with more games and rides. That day was easily one of Alice’s happiest memories, despite that one hiccup.

And it was one of the last days she got to spend with Dad before he died.

###

Present Day.

Those who knew about the supernatural observed that even the undead needed sleep, but few could say exactly why. Reanimated corpses didn’t have physiological needs after all, so why should they require rest? One theory says that it’s a measure of the curse itself, that it can only animate a dead body for so long before it must recharge. Another theory considers it an echo of the behavior those bodies engaged in when alive, a habit that they cannot quite shake. The final theory posits that sleep replenishes not only the body, but the soul as well, even the twisted artificial soul of a lesser undead such as a revenant.

Lord Victor Sorenson didn’t know why he needed rest. All he knew was that after losing sleep to the missile, he couldn’t force himself or the other vampires to awaken before his thrall Clara. He knew she was going to wake up as a newborn vampire, but he also knew she might slip through his fingers yet.

“It’s too soon,” he heard Harold Stone say in his dreams. “Far too soon. You haven’t suppressed Alice enough for Clara to thrive.”

Archibald Jackanape chuckled, “That William sure did play a nice joke on you, didn’t he? Or was it Gary Frasier? Who even knows?” and he chuckled some more, much to the displeasure of the other elders, especially Fara.

“It’s sooner than I would like,” Victor admitted. “But not too late to salvage her. When she wakes up, she’ll feel our overwhelming thirst. All I need to do is keep her focused and lead her to the sweet blood that will quench that thirst. I will be a hero in her eyes and she will accept whatever reality I give her. I will, of course, need to dedicate all my focus to this task.”

“I know,” said Fara Duval. “I will lead a contingent of vampires to find her. William was my responsibility. I will not allow a new crucivire to terrorize our people.”

“Do so, with haste.”

###

She dreamed that dream again, finding herself crawling out of a dark hole. Corpses tried to pull her back down, but she could see a dark, shadowy figure reaching down from above. “Reach for me, Clara!” he said. If she could just reach his hand…

She started waking up.

The first thing she was aware of was pain. As she slowly came awake, she felt the pain manifest an overwhelming thirst. Her first instinct was to quench that thirst, leading her to the second thing she became aware of. She was buried under kudzu vines, her limbs stifled, and her mouth covered.

A moment later, a clawed hand reached out of the vines followed by another. The hands parted the vines and a newborn vampire emerged with no glamour to hide her grey, skeleton hugging skin. As she sat up, she cried out from the painful thirst. The vampire crawled out of the vines, her movements awkward and clumsy, before she fell to the ground, hugging herself as she curled up into a fetal position, still crying out from the pain. Tears of blood fell from her eyes, staining her face as her mind called out for someone, anyone to help her.

“Clara.”

She heard the voice calling to her and didn’t even think before she answered.

“Help me,” she whispered. “Please.”

“You’re thirsty, my dear Clara,” said Victor. “You need sustenance. I can help you find it.”

The young vampire, in the back of her mind, saw that vision of trying to climb out of a dark hole. As corpses tried to pull her down, it was Lord Victor Sorenson reaching down to help her back up.

“Follow me, Clara,” he said. “And I can ease your pain.”

“What do I do?” she asked.

“Smell the air,” said Victor. “Look for a sweet scent. It may be faint, but it will stand out compared to the others. Just follow that scent and your salvation will be near.”

In the real world the newborn vampire turned over and crawled on all fours like a beast. She sniffed the air a few times, and after a few moments she caught it, that sweet magical scent her benefactor mentioned. Her nostrils flared and her red eyes grew wide as she inhaled that smell. The aroma alone, as faint as it was, seemed to ease her pain, just a little.

The newborn vampire crawled forward, tracking the scent. That vision, ever present in the back of her mind, showed her crawling upward, towards Lord Victor’s outstretched hand.

“That’s it, my dear Clara,” said Victor. “Just follow that scent, and I can ease your pain.”

###

Fara Duval and her vampire followers ran like the wind through the forest. They tracked the scent of William and Clara, and it seemed the rogue William had gotten her very far away from them. She almost wished that Lord Victor would have Clara wait for them, but that was risky. The sooner she drank human blood, the sooner Lord Victor could control her. Being forced to wait could drive Clara mad, and he might lose control over her, so he’d be steering her towards human blood as fast as possible. Fara also wished she could fly in this situation, but it would be difficult to track the scent from high in the air, so she was forced to run.

“Faster!” cried Fara. “We can’t take any chances! Run faster!”

Fara and her servants sped up, running to Clara with as much speed as they could muster.

###

The scent led Clara out of the forest. She remained on all fours, jumping from tree to tree, occasionally lifting her head to sniff the air. That smell was slowly getting stronger, and with the overwhelming thirst flowing through her body, it drove Clara to move faster and faster. Birds and insects fled from the pale, skeletal creature as she leaped through the trees. With her enhanced hearing, Clara could hear it all, but she kept focus on that sweet scent.

Soon, she came to the end of the forest. Landing on a tree at the edge, the first thing she saw beyond the tree line was a stone wall. She took one more leap and landed squatting on that wall to see a suburban neighborhood with houses going on as far as the eye could see.

With her red vampire eyes scanning the night, Clara searched for the source of that smell. It was everywhere. If Clara’s mouth still produced saliva, she would have been drooling.

She heard Lord Victor in her mind.

“There it is,” he said. “Your hunting ground. Do not try to enter the nests of your prey. That is dangerous. Instead, try to find one that has wandered outside. Hunt, kill, and eat, and that will ease your pain.”

That makes sense, thought Clara. She crawled down the wall to stalk through the houses, staying low to the ground to hide in the shadows. As Clara came close to the houses, she kept her nose and ears sharp. That scent was still everywhere, and she could hear a few living things breathing, snoring, and in some cases, moving about, but the sounds were all muffled by walls.

As she jumped a fence, still searching for something that had left its nest, she landed and looked up at a house to see the back door. She saw a strange symbol on the wall, two lines intersecting, and flinched. Just looking at that symbol seemed to burn her mind.

And yet she stopped. Despite the pain, Clara’s gaze was inexplicably drawn to that symbol. It was a long vertical line with a shorter horizontal line cutting across the other near the top. It was such a strange thing to put on a door, she thought, and yet she had this strange feeling that she’d seen it before. It made her think that there was something she had to remember, but she just couldn’t think of what it was.

“Ignore that,” said Victor. “That symbol is nothing but more pain for you. Find food, and quickly.”

Clara gave that symbol one more curious glance, but as Victor had said it was painful to look at, so she turned away. Clara continued her hunt, hoping to quench her thirst and ease her pain, just as her benefactor had said.

###

Fara was amazed by how far William had carried Clara. Tracking them this far was such an inconvenience. As she ran on with her entourage, following that scent, Fara imagined what she would do with William once she got her hands on him.

If it was William’s personality that had betrayed them, she’d cut him up into pieces with silver to prevent him from regenerating. When he finally begged for death, she’d rip his heart out with her bare claws and ram a wooden stake through it right in front of his eyes.

And if somehow, by some miracle, the personality of Gary Frasier had survived and hidden from her, she’d round up every member of his family she could find and torture them in front of him. Only when she finished would she run a stake through his heart.

She would have grinned in glee imagining this normally, but right now she was focused on her task. She would reach Clara before long, and Fara Duval would not allow these humans to humiliate them. Not on her life.

Soon the scent lead them up into the trees where William had begun leaping from branch to branch. The vampires Followed their mistress up, and the hunt continued.

###

Clara kept seeing that symbol. Given the pain it brought her, it must be an effort from the prey creatures to drive hunters away. It was the only explanation. Almost every house, barring a few, had a cross on the doors and windows. Clara’s thirst was getting more and more desperate, so she had to find a creature outside, and soon.

Finally, she heard a sound that wasn’t muffled by walls. Clara quickly crawled towards that sound, silently leaping over a couple of fences as she headed towards it. She came closer and closer, and then finally jumped over a fence and landed silently.

In that backyard, Clara heard her prey on the other side of a shed. She crept around the small building, preparing to catch a glimpse of the creature she was hunting. Before she could make her move, she heard it walk away.

Clara saw the light of a flashlight illuminate the prey’s path as it walked towards the house. Peeking around the corner of the shed, her sharp night eyes saw the other creature walking on two legs. Seeing and smelling a prey creature this close brought her thirst to a breaking point. She lowered to the ground, ready to leap on her prey.

But as she approached, another creature started making noise. A dog a few yards over, a German shepherd, had smelled something foul and started barking in that direction. Spooked by the noise, Clara fled, jumping over the fence. Her foot hit a metal post, and the prey turned its light in her direction, along with a handgun.

Clara hid behind a stump as the light passed over her, the shadow of the metal fence shifting with it, the dog still barking in the distance. When the light passed her by, she peeked at the creature she had been hunting.

It was a man in a bathrobe and slippers, an unkempt beard on his face. He aimed his flashlight and his gun back and forth, searching for the source of the sound. In the distance, the owners of the German shepherd brought their dark inside to stop him from barking, and soon the barks ceased. In the newfound silence, the man Clara was looking at swallowed nervously.

This man began backing away slowly towards the house, still scanning for threats with his gun and flashlight. Clara watched him go, hiding her head when the light passed over her again. When Clara peeked out again and saw his face, it gave her a strange feeling, even as the thirst pounded at her.

“Who is he?” she whispered.

“Does it matter?” Lord Victor’s voice answered. “All things must eat, even predators. As the wolf hunts the rabbit, so you hunt these creatures. Attack him now, before he gets away.”

The thirst drove her to obey, drawing her to her prey like a moth to a flame. When the flashlight wasn’t pointed in her direction she jumped over the fence, landing quietly behind the shed once more. She crept forward, ready to jump on him when he wasn’t looking.

And yet, the closer the got, the more reluctant she became to kill this man. Something in the back of her mind told her it wasn’t right, but she couldn’t say what it was. Trying to get over this block, she sniffed the air, trying to catch that sweet scent again.

Clara caught that scent, as well as a few other scents. More than one person frequented this yard. One with a scent slightly different than the man. A woman, perhaps? Then there were three or four other scents that were…fresher? No, that wasn’t the right word. Younger. Those scents were younger.

This man was a father.

Realizing this, Clara looked up at the man and a feeling she didn’t understand began to wash over her. Tears of blood began to flow from her eyes.

“Clara,” said Victor urgently. “This new feeling, this new pain, shall pass as well once you feed. Strike now, before he gets away!”

###

“Stop!” cried Fara.

The vampires stopped leaping from tree to tree and looked at their mistress curiously. Fara stopped and observed one of the branches. She narrowed her eyes, carefully examining a spot where William had landed, and could see a subtle imprint of claws, just as she’d seen subtle imprints before. These newest imprints were shallower than before, and there was only one explanation.

Clara had been alone when she woke up, so William must have hidden her at some point. While these marks bore Clara’s scent, that had to be William filled with her blood. These marks were him leaping to the tree without Clara’s extra weight, and so the place he hid her must be nearby.

Sniffing the air, she searched for another source of Clara’s scent. After a few moments, Fara caught it. Raising her wings, letting them slip from under the glamour of her dress, she leapt into the air and flew in that direction. Landing, she looked around and caught the scent of another trail. A hollow spot among some kudzu vines at the base of a tree lay at the beginning of that scent trail. This was the way Clara went, Fara was sure of it.

“With me!”

Her servants leapt to her, and she led them on. They would reach Clara soon.

###

Clara was torn between her sadness and thirst. Her body trembled, coiled and ready to spring at a moment’s notice. However, the more time she spent in that yard, the more the scents painted a picture in her mind. Clara could smell where the children ran around excitedly playing tag, where they were pushed on the swing by their father, where their mother gave them cupcakes and the crumbs fell to the grass. Something about all these experiences was so familiar to her.

That vision in the back of her mind was still there, with the corpses pulling at her from below and Victor reaching down from above. In that vision Clara froze halfway out of the hole. Slowly, her head looked back and she saw four of the corpses reaching for her. She didn’t know why, but the faces of those corpses were important.

“Clara, he’s getting away!” said Victor in the vision, still reaching down. “You will die of thirst soon! You must feed!”

In the real world, Clara looked up at the slowly retreating man, but she hesitated for a second too long. The stranger entered his house, the light of his flashlight disappearing as he closed the back door. With the door closed, Clara once again saw the cross symbol that seemed to burn in her mind.

“Clara,” said Victor, his tone sympathetic. “I just want to help you. I know you’re confused, and I know you’re in pain. Please. Let me help you. Clara?”

She didn’t answer. Though it seemed to blind her, Clara’s eyes were locked on that symbol. In the back of her mind, she heard someone telling her, “You have to remember! You have to remember!” Clara began to rise, lifting herself up until she stood on two legs, still staring intently at that symbol and searching desperately for what she was supposed to remember.

And suddenly, she imagined that symbol as a shining silver cross hanging from a chain.

Clara closed her eyes, tears of blood still falling from them, as she remembered something.

###

Alice held the silver cross her father had given her as she sat on the bed. It was the morning after her father’s funeral, and looking at this cross reminded her of him. With a tear in her eye, she put the cross in her luggage, burying it under the rest of her clothing. It was just too painful to think about dad right now.

She was in the hotel room they’d booked, and Mom was out now, getting breakfast for them. Arthur sat in a corner looking miserable, and Alice knew how he felt. Alice closed her luggage and took a good look at him. He’d never looked so small to Alice as he did just then.

She remembered getting into yet another argument with Arthur the previous morning over something trivial. She couldn’t even remember why they’d been angry, only that they’d yelled at each other, and mom had yelled at them to stop yelling before starting to cry. That had shut them up quickly.

Slowly, Alice slipped off the bed and walked over to him.

“Arthur,” she said, looking away. “I’m sorry I yelled at you before.”

“I…I’m sorry too,” Arthur had said. A moment later, Arthur looked up and said, “Alice? Mom said that Dad went to Heaven. Do you know where that is?”

Alice sat on the bed behind her, wiping more tears from her eyes, “No, Arthur. I…I don’t think it’s a place you can go to.”

At least, not for a very long time, Alice thought.

“Why did dad have to go away?” asked Arthur.

A few answers came to mind for Alice. He is a soldier and it’s part of his job. He died a hero. It’s just something that happens with soldiers. All those answers just sounded hollow to Alice.

“I don’t know,” she said, looking away.

She had to wipe more tears from her eyes.

“Alice?” asked Arthur. “You and Mom aren’t going to go away too. Are you?”

Alice turned to see her brother looking up with tears in his eyes and fear written all over his face.

“No,” said Alice, shaking her head.

Alice jumped off the bed and went to sit on the floor next to her brother. She hugged him, letting him lean his head against her.

“We’re not going to leave you,” she said. “Mom and I aren’t going anywhere.”

“Promise?” asked Arthur.

“I promise.”

And she sat there, hugging her brother until their mother returned.

###

Her name wasn’t Clara, she realized. Her name was Alice, and that one memory triggered an avalanche of memories as her life flashed before her eyes.

Alice remembered when she was young, and her parents doted on her.

Alice remembered when Arthur was born, and began feeling jealous that he started getting all the attention. It wasn’t long before they found things in common like enjoying the same movies and games. They fought like cats and dogs but enjoyed each other’s company just as much. Times set aside for the family like outings and game nights were some of Alice’s happiest memories.

Alice remembered when her father died. It was one of the darkest times of her life, but the remaining members of the Hayes family had taken comfort from each other. Without dad around, there was one less person to stop Alice and Arthur from arguing over something childish, but their mother’s diligence and their shared memories of dad managed to hold them together, even when they were at their worst.

Alice remembered when Arthur had been taken, and it had broken her. She retreated from the world, isolating herself even from her mother and becoming obsessed with the idea of finding lost people. She went to college, joined the police academy, and became a police officer.

Alice remembered that she had become a police detective. With her partner Gary, she took on many missing person cases. She kept him at arm’s length, not willing to risk getting close to someone. They did good work together, however, finding missing people and reuniting them with their families.

Alice remembered the vampire attacks, seeing her brother again after all this time, joining the night hunters, training hard, saving Penny, learning that Arthur remembered her, being kidnapped, and being enthralled to Lord Victor. She remembered Gary trying to save her, only to succumb to a vampire’s bloodlust. She remembered everything, the good and the bad.

Alice, still standing there with tears of blood on her face, opened her red, vampiric eyes. As the memories washed over her, her tears began to flow clear, water dripping from her eyes. After a moment or two, the salty tears washed the blood away from her face.

A moment later, Alice looked up. A waning moon and twinkling stars stood in the sky. As she continued to cry, Alice was filled with a newfound resolve. She closed her eyes, crying tears of joy for all the memories that had returned to her.

And in the back of her mind, she heard an exasperated sigh from Lord Victor, “I’ve lost you, haven’t I?”

“You bet you have,” said Alice. “The name’s Alice, by the way. Maybe this time you’ll bother to learn it.”

She heard lord Victor chuckle, “Trust me. I won’t forget the name Alice Hayes any time soon. It’s rare that anyone slips through my grasp.”

She believed him.

In the forest near that neighborhood, Fara Duval was getting close. It wouldn’t be long before she reached Alice’s location.

“It isn’t too late, you know,” said Victor. “Even if you remain Alice, you can still enjoy the endless pleasure of a vampire. Surely you cannot desire to feel the pain of a human.”

A part of her still felt that thirst, and this thirst tried to push her to find a human and drink as much blood as she could. She didn’t listen, however, and simply shook her head.

“You obviously weren’t paying attention,” said Alice. “The pain is only half the equation. There’s so much more to being human than that. Besides, becoming a vampire would mean killing others just to satiate myself. If that’s the price of this pleasure you offer, I’d rather feel pain. And besides…”

Alice thought of what Jacqueline had said about vampires. The harder Victor tried to convince her that being a vampire was wonderful, the more she was convinced that Jacqueline was telling the truth. Somehow, Alice knew that if she drank human blood, she would be forever doomed to drink more and more in a futile attempt to quench a thirst that could never fully be satiated.

“I’ll only prolong this suffering if I do as you say,” said Alice.

In her mind, she could feel him shaking his head, “How foolish.”

“I don’t know what pain you’re running from,” said Alice. “But I’m not going to let you ruin more lives just cover that pain up. I’m coming to save my brother and to kill you. That’s a promise.”

She could sense him sneer, “Me? Running from pain? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have always been Lord Victor Sorenson.”

Alice lifted her hands and put her claw to the back of her hand, “Yeah. Just keep telling yourself that.”

Fara Duval entered the neighborhood with her vampiric servants. They ran like the wind, jumping over the stone wall, leaping over fences, and darting between houses.

Slowly, Alice began cutting her flesh to form the first line of a cross, “Me? I’m done running from my pain.”

“Pity,” said Victor. “You would have made a magnificent vampire.”

Alice began carving the second line, “No such thing, Victor.”

Fara Duval saw Alice in the distance and ran forward, her face contorted with rage. Before she could reach her, however, Alice finished the cross. The bloody cross flared with smoke for a moment, and then Alice’s hand caught fire. She shuddered from the sudden pain, and yet she wasn’t afraid. The fire spread down Alice’s arm, growing fast, and within moments, Alice’s entire body was covered in fire.

Fara had never seen this in person but knew what was about to happen. Growling, she immediately darted to the right, hiding behind a house. Her vampire servants, however, couldn’t control their bloodlust and continued running forward.

Alice leaned her head back and spread her arms as light burst forth from her body, the flames roaring and bathing the area in a blinding glow. The vampires stopped, shielding their eyes with their hands as Alice’s body transformed. Her skin smoothed out, becoming healthy and alive. Her eyes became a light brown, and her short dark hair regained its former shine.

At that moment, the vision that had been in the back of her mind came to the forefront. She still tried to climb out of that hole in the ground, and could see the corpses of her Father, Mother, Gary, and Arthur, trying to pull her back down. However, as Alice looked up, she didn’t see Lord Victor reaching down, but those same four faces, not dead and decaying, but alive and breathing. Alice reached up as her Father, Mother, Gary, and even little Arthur grabbed her hand to pull her up, all smiling proudly.

“That’s my girl,” said Dad.

“I’m so proud of you,” said Mom.

“Well done, Alice,” said Gary.

“I knew you could do it,” said Arthur.

Alice smiled as the three of them pulled her up.

She opened her eyes to find herself standing in a backyard. Her body still glowed, casting the area in daylight as the stars twinkled above. She looked at her hands, fascinated by the light coming off her smooth, healthy skin. It seemed to bleed through her clothing a little, which Alice noted was black pants and a black t-shirt, not the dresses that Victor seemed to have put her in. She didn’t notice them switch out her Night Hunter uniform, but supposed they must have done so at some point.

When she saw the scar of a cross on the back of her right hand, she curiously reached up and touched her cheek. She could still feel her scars there, but she didn’t mind. Somehow that seemed right.

“I knew you could do it,” she heard.

“Arthur?” she asked, looking in the direction of the mansion.

She could sense him chained down deep beneath the mansion near the seal. He was crying tears of joy, and she could feel his pride flowing through their connection.

“I said you could do it, didn’t I?” said Arthur.

“Yeah,” said Alice, smiling. “You did. Hold tight, little brother. I’m coming for you.”

Most of the vampires following Fara had run from that light in terror, stumbling over each other to get away. Fara, hiding from that light behind a house, seethed. She had failed to stop Alice from becoming a Crucivire, but that didn’t mean this was over.

Fara quickly tore off a piece of her sleeve and wrapped it around her eyes. She then drew her sword, a rapier with a cage like a spiderweb surrounding the hilt. There was one more way to regain control over this situation, and Fara wasn’t going to waste it.