Vampires, rare and hunted, became merely monsters to the people. They were once higher beings who took care of their lands and the people living under them. They were protectors from the cruelty lingering outside. However, mankind’s hearts were darkened with jealousy and hatred. Their ugly inner feelings turned into lit torches and sharpened pitchforks, killing any “blood-sucking monster” they came across. Those who survived the humans’ attacks fled to the north and went into hiding.
Hundreds of years passed, and they were written off as legends and myths. Those who still believe in the name “vampire” also believe their negative reputation; That they were human consumers ran only by a monstrous instinct for blood.
Reva Deluge was a prime example of a true vampire.
Reva was born in cold climates, with dark features and pale skin. She grew up without knowing the sun since it was always snowing. Her parents were both vampires who blended in kindly with humans. Until the Hunters came. She doesn’t remember much of that night; Only that it had been dark and very cold in the mountains as she ran, pretending not to hear her mother and father’s screams.
After that, she wandered the mountain, hopeful that her parents would escape and find her. A day, a week, a month passed, but they never came. Reva became a lost child who eventually climbed off the mountain. As the temperature rose, constant snow turned into constant rain. Roads were busy and people were rude. Food became scarce and shelter harder to find. Eventually, she collapsed, knowing she should have stayed in the cold hilltops.
A dark man named Jarvis found her on the road and took her in, only to use her for twisted entertainment in his constant travels. Under a colorful striped tent, he presented her in a cage like a trapped animal and the dead look in her eyes proved to the people watching that she came close.
She was called a Cursed Child with the rain her only alley. People would say because she is a vampire that the sun would burn her alive. She wouldn’t know, because the rain has always been there to cover it with clouds. She saw the rain as her protector, even though she didn’t know if the sun was really her enemy.
She wanted to believe--needed to believe--that she was protected by something. Anything to put her faith in. After all, to the bystanders watching her wounds close seconds after being stabbed by a sword, she was merely a monster. A cursed child with a need for blood. Jarvis showed her off as such every day, demonstrating her abilities to regenerate to the public, using different weapons to do so. After watching one of her cuts erase off her skin, he tested different levels of torture until he knew how far he could stretch her limits.
Pain became her constant companion, and it came to the point that she no longer reacted to any of it. In order to get a rouse out of her, he would cruelly release bats or rats outside of her cage, watching as she weakly and desperately tried to reach them through the bars. If her instincts took over completely, she could easily break free and catch them all, then turn on all of the people laughing at her.
However, Reva has a compassionate heart and refuses to lose her temper. She would never allow herself to be the monster that they believed her to be. She shows that she is weak to ease their own hearts, as wicked as they may seem. Reva has more hope in humankind than anything else. She knows that if she, what they claim to be a monster, has a heart then surely humans who are so much like her do as well.
She stayed strong in her resolve over the years. Then during her twentieth year, on a day like any other at first, everything changed.
A fire started. Flames rose and quickly engulfed the traveling tent. They were strong enough to burn even while it rained. Reva's dark, normally emotionless eyes watched with horror as people screamed and fled, leaving her far behind them. She looked to Jarvis, who didn't even look her way as he fled the flames as well. She took hold of the bars as they started to grow hot, pupils dilated as her lungs filled with smoke. She was starving, but she still had enough strength to break free from her rotten cell once and for all.
She stepped onto solid ground, surprised to find enough strength left to stand. Then again, as she walked forward,...