She was scared, a strange power flowed through her veins, and the sun hurt. That was not all, she felt an extreme thirst. Like one she’d never felt before. The wooden door creaked open in front of her, revealing a tall woman. The woman looked down on her with glowing red eyes, almost looking like smouldering embers.  She was paler than anyone Aloe had ever seen, and to Aloe’s desperate mind, she was gazing down with pure kindness; Aloe felt a shiver of hope - was this her saviour from this room which she’d been in for longer than she could remember?

The woman spoke up, “Hello, Youngling, I am Ember, Ember Pentecost. I’m sure you are confused and looking for some answers. But that will have to wait.“

“Wait… why?” Aloe asked

“Well, you must be oh so very thirsty, right? Poor little thing”

Aloe began with a start, “But why am I h-”

At once her urge to ask questions was gone, only her thirst consumed her mind as the woman pulled out a clear packet filled with a red liquid. The thirst had been bearable before but now she needed to quench it. And she knew the liquid in that packet would, she expected it was the only thing that could quench it.

For the first time, her captor’s carefully planned mask slipped and she grimaced at disgust in the desperation of the pitiful being in front of her. This Lapse was temporary though and she quickly resumed the caring look she gave the girl. She threw the packet in front of her. 

Human brains are truly incredible at spotting patterns and minute shifts so though a short one, the lapse in Ember’s facial expression may as well have been a few minutes long for Aloe, she knew something was gravely wrong. However she was no longer just thirsty, her throat was on fire, she needed to drink whatever was in front of her. She ripped the packet open, at once her nostrils were filled with a sweet rustic scent and her mouth latched onto the hole, her mouth was flooded with the sweetest liquid she had ever tasted and the fire in her throat dulled. Once she had finished drinking; it was better but not wholly gone. She wanted more. At once, she felt an immense surge of power which filled her veins and strengthened her muscles. The once impenetrable cell now resembled toilet paper more in her mind, easily broken. However, first she had to thank her saviour who had brought her that delicious liquid. 

Aloe turned to her saviour “Thank y-” She was interrupted.

“You want more?”

Her inner voice was screaming at her but she didn’t listen, she no longer wanted the liquid - she needed it. Aloe nodded.

“Good. You are a Pentecost now and I want you to kill someone, I will show  you how to use a few abilities but you will need to do it.”

Aloe hesitated, killing someone, could she even do that? Her thirst did not. “Yes miss Ember, who do I need to kill?”

She closed the door behind her, the conditions of her stay were much better now - she had her own room and could move freely, a reward for her cooperation she supposed. It was today that she was supposed to kill her target, a male dryad at a nearby gulf town. She’d received instruction in several abilities such as blood bold and blood cloak. The former allowed her to shoot an arrow-like bolt composed of completely blood in a straight line at incredible speed - it could pierce most metals and even produce other weapons if she was well fed, or so she had been told. The blood cloak would form a mist of blood around her, lessening the adverse effects of the sun and allowing her to go out in the daytime. A knock sounded at the door, it was Ember. 

“Aloe dear are you ready?” Ember asked.  

“Yes I am just preparing. Do you have any blood I could consume to make the effort easier?” Replied Aloe, 

“You will receive blood after you complete the task, don't worry.” 

Aloe nodded and activated her blood mist, surrounding herself before beginning to run at top speed towards the hill which overlooked the town - this would be the spot at which she shot her blood bolt. The mist almost flowed around her but stayed in a gaseous form, protecting her from the deadly rays of the sun - a sun cream for vampires she thought and giggled, giddy with the extreme power she had been granted -  physical and otherwise. She directed the cloud of mist to rise slightly above her, dispelling it as she was now under the thick cover of a towering spruce tree. 

Just as she laid down, she saw her target, he was walking just outside the church, he looked to be quite large, she smiled, carefully lining up her shot. The dryad slowly walked around the outside of the church, eventually settling at a bench where he seemed to look out at the hill she was on. ‘He couldn’t be looking at me’ she thought, he was after all quite far away but to be sure she cast a blood lens, and focused on his eyes. As she thought, they were glancing around in a relaxed manner but just as a sigh of relief left her mouth, she saw them lock directly onto her. Panicking, she immediately released the shot as a thought came into her mind, she took a double take. As she reassessed the features of the dryad she noticed he looked remarkably like her dad.

She focused, he didn’t just look like her dad, he was her dad. In shock she almost charged down to  check on him but seeing the attendees of the coronation, she instead ran deeper into the forest. Distraught, she decided then and there that she would not go back to the people who locked her in the cell and then tricked her into killing her own dad, no she would go into the forest and think awhile.

Several weeks later, she sat in the rain - her body was in a sorry state, wracked with hunger, wet, cold and damaged due to her weakening in accordance with the strength of her thirst she stumbled in an almost trance-like state in the direction of any food she could find - animals tasted worse than humans but she figured they would do at least for now. Despite that, she had now already hunted most of the larger animals to extinction in the area and knew she would soon need to move on.

In this trance state she went south and as she was about to stop to rest, the most delicious smell caught her nose. Humans! And they were nearby, she found herself unable to stop her full sprint towards the smell and found herself barreling through a sandstone wall and sinking her teeth into a young man in the house, she drank everything she could.

As she came to her senses, she could see the withered shell of what was once a human laid on the ground in front of her. She looked around. The house very closely resembled the one in which she grew up, a jolt of realisation hit her, she was in Villedeboard, she could see her dad! However, she knew if she revealed herself, he would find this man and he’d view her as a monster that had to be slain. Her father. She looked down at the spruce floor, remembering the events of that day a  few weeks ago when she’d killed him. She didn’t know her uncle well but she knew he wouldn’t hesitate to kill the inhuman monster she’d become, a spasm of fear ripped through her - asking him for help was off the table, at least for now. 

She retreated to the forest, though she wasn’t a fan of the idea of biting humans she had to admit, their blood did taste very good, it was then she decided. Every two weeks she would go into Villedeboard, she would go at dusk, target the drunk or elderly and drink until she was full but she couldn’t let them live. Leaving witnesses was too risky. 

And so she did her plan, keeping comfortably full. At day she would relax in her little camp just out of Villedeboard, at night she would practice her abilities, she was getting adept at using the blood bolt in order to create weapons now. They were incredibly tough and incredibly strong. Not only this but she noticed her strength rapidly increasing. With each human she consumed, she felt her humanity leave her slightly more, she no longer feared her Uncle, rather she was just wary as it would be easier to hunt if she didn’t need to confront him. 

Later that night, she got up, it was hunting time once again, she perched atop the roof. She watched the people going in and out of the pub waiting for a good time, it was too busy. Then at last she saw her opening, two large looking men stumbling away from the tavern, wrapped in cloaks. She leapt.

As she zoomed towards them, she felt something was wrong and stopped just before she hit them. This saved her, as millimeters in front of her was a blade, directly in her path. She had been headed straight for it, shocked she looked up at the two men who shrugged off their cloaks, to the left, her uncle holding a naginata to her face and to the right, her father, she was stuck to the spot. Stunned in the moment, she had little time to react to the green moss-coated fist flying towards her face. She was not fast enough. 

Thrown back, she felt herself hit a wall, this time not with enough force to pass through but she felt herself dazed as Slate darted towards her with naginata outstretched, this time however she was prepared, if a little dazed, she materialised a bloody red shield, blocking the naginata, but shattering under the force of the impact. The sound of the shattering snapped her from her daze, now the naginata seemed to move in slow motion, She stepped out of the way of it, giving it a sharp kick as he did so, the wood creaking slightly. 

Slate’s eyes followed her almost effortlessly. She would clearly have to do much better against him, however Vert’s eyes were lagging behind slightly. He might be her father but she wouldn’t just roll over and die, Leaping she threw a devastating punch into his stomach, he was winded but not badly hurt. Her fist hurt, she’d just punched what would have felt like a boulder before her transformation. 

Vert was thrown back into a house behind, he grimaced in pain, and looked down to see a literal crater in his body. He leant back on the house, unable to continue fighting and nodded slate good luck.

Aloe allowed herself a short grin for this success, a mistake which she was quickly rewarded for with a powerful smack to the bottom of her head with the handle of slate’s naginata, she felt herself thrown up into the air, She could see she’s underestimated her Uncle as he prepared to jump towards her, clearly hoping to deliver a lethal blow. She was almost relieved, she wouldn’t have to kill her family. 

However a new voice spoke inside of her, sounding extremely similar to that of  Ember Pentecost it instructed  “Kill them.”

She felt her control over her body slip as she felt as if someone else was controlling her with strings, her body simultaneously activating a blood cloak and a skill she’d never even heard of, blood lens. Her perception greatly enhanced and her strength through the roof, she flew back into the fight moving on par with Slate, they fought at terrible speed and buildings crumbled around them. However, whatever was controlling her was more experienced than her and summoned several blood bolts, which darted into the slate, knocking him off his feet.