NIGHTS OF HALLOW

Serena continued her inaudible chants as white vapors rose slowly from the ground. It picked momentum when she increased the pace at which she chanted her words.

Before the exorcism, Headchurch Donovan had demanded from her the use and purpose of each item she asked them to provide. And to his demand, she had explained to him and Theodore.

She told them that the holy water will act as the agent for cleansing the village. All the evil and atrocities that may have been laid down in the village will be destroyed.

Secondly, she had also said that she will use her blood in performing the ritual because their aim for the exorcism was to expose any hidden vampire that might be the one abducting humans. If it had been only cleansing the village, she would have used only holy water in doing it.

She had explained that by using her blood, it would make any vampire who perceived its scent to come out and hunt for it. It will activate their thirst for blood because the blood of the witches has very rich potent that can lure any blood-sucking being out.

Using holy water that was dangerous to vampires and also using blood that was food for the night creatures was the best way to expose them.

While the blood from the witch lured them out, the holy water spreading through the white vapors will attack them at full force, thus making them turn like deranged vampires.

Deranged vampires had no control over blood. Once they are hungry for blood, they lose their self-control, thereby drinking and killing humans in the process.

Deranged vampires were easily identified because of their reckless way of hunting for blood after they had lost their consciousness and self-control, and this was one of the reasons why the church had arranged for guards to be stationed everywhere.

The guards were ordered to patrol around the village in case my vampire made their way out in search of the sweet blood that they perceived.

The incantations of Serena continued and as seconds passed, her words came out faster and slightly louder. The lines of the triangle and the circle suddenly emitted a ring of blue light on them as the holy water and the blood of Serena mixed together.

After the mixture, the blue ring light disappeared and a thicker white vapor rose from the ground at full force. The next second, Serena snapped her fingers, and the white vapors which only she and Theodore could see because they were not humans, started to spread from there and around the village.

It pushed past the circle drawn on the ground and rose high in the air and the breeze that suddenly started to blow helped in spreading it across the village.

Soon the village was filled with vapor from the ritual Serena was conducting for the exorcism.

Theodore who stood there when the ritual was being performed felt his throat itch. His vision and smell heightened as his fangs fought to elongate from his mouth. Green veins popped out on his forehead and arms as he tried to control himself and the urge to sink his aching fangs into someone’s neck.

Theodore turned around and left there in haste to avoid receiving the effect of Serena’s ritual firsthand. He decided to get on with the task of the king.

Headchurch Donovan noticed the change in Theodore’s appearance to know that the ritual of the exorcism was working. He saw Theodore leave and he thought he was leaving because of the ritual, not knowing the vampire church member had another important task of the king to take care of.

Before Theodore could inhale more of the ritual vapors, he quickly brought out a piece of cloth that was dipped in a substance the king had given him to use when a situation like this one arose.

Theodore securely tied the piece of cloth securely on his nose and mouth and immediately, the smell of the substance on the piece of cloth subdued the scent of the holy water and blood wafting in the air.

He increased the pace of his steps and quickly went to meet with the king’s chief advisor who he was ordered to help get in.

Also, at the same time, the vapor from the ritual being performed by the witch was quick to spread everywhere in the village, and the villagers inhaled the smell not knowing there was a substance that had been released into the air.

In the place where Serena was still enchanting her inaudible words, black vapors that were seen only by her, came from around the village and were slowly entering the circle and the white vapors that left from the triangle continued to spread around the village.

The black vapor coming from the village and entering the circle represented the evil that was being cleansed in the village. And the white vapor coming from the triangle and spreading into the village was for exposing the hidden vampires.

In the house of Perdita and Marco, the siblings sat with a heavy and dreadful heart as they thought of how their doom was silently waiting for them.

Before they knew it, the smell of Serena’s ritual reached their nostrils. It came from their slightly open window and the small openings of their door and entered their house at full force.

Their body was quick to react to the smell they had unknowingly inhaled. Their throat started to itch badly as their human eye color began to change to red.

Perdita reacted faster than her brother who was still holding himself back. They glanced at each other in confusion, wondering what was happening and the cause of their sudden change in appearance.

Marco inhaled deeply because of the painful ache in his throat and gums where his fangs were threatening so hard to come out, and it was then he perceived something in the air.

Something was off.

He turned to look at the open window and it dawned on him, the exorcism had started!

”Close the window, sis!” Marco shrieked loudly and rushed to shut the window close. But it was too late for Perdita who had inhaled a great amount of it.

Perdita stood on her feet, her eyes now bloodred as she stared at everything in the room in a daze. Before Marco could reach and hold her, she had already dashed to the room where the cats were hidden.

She immediately reached for the knife on the table and slit the neck of the cat which was quick to gush out blood, and immediately she sucked on the cut of the cat and started to drink the blood.

Finished with the first cat where the strained voice of Marco who was trying hard to stop her failed to reach her ears as she took another cat, and then the third, the fourth, and the fifth till she lost count of how many cats she had killed to quench the mad thirst for blood she was experiencing.

Perdita stopped moving for a while as she dropped the last dead cat on the floor. Her breathing came out fast and labored as she tried to hold on to the last shred of consciousness and self-control left in her. But the more she tried to hold it back, the more the aching of her fangs came at full force.

Marco was still struggling to keep himself and his sister sane, but everything proved futile when suddenly Mrs. Perkin let out a gasp at the scene that was displayed in front of her by Perdita.

Mrs. Perkin’s eyes fearfully stared at the siblings in horror, wondering how and why the siblings started behaving abnormally. And why were there so cats in their room? And they were drunk dead by Perdita! How horrific to experience something as this in the sixty-seven years of her human life.

The sound from Mrs. Perkin made the attention of Perdita to be drawn on her. Perdita turned quickly in the direction where Mrs. Perkin was tied together with the chair.

Her dazed red eyes swept past the shaking body of Mrs. Perkin before they landed on her neck. Her gaze remained on the neck of Mrs. Perkin, staring at it as if it was the only thing in the world.

The shaking body of Mrs. Perkin made the last shred of self-control that Perdita was holding onto, slip from her hands. The veins of Mrs. Perkin where the warm blood flowed and the loud thumping of Mrs. Perkin’s heart were enough to invite Perdita to take a sip.

Even Marco was attracted to the older woman’s neck, but his self-control was still intact as he held himself back.

Perdita took a step forward in a daze towards Mrs. Perkin and the older woman’s heart skipped a loud dangerous beat that echoed in the ears of the siblings.

A second step taken by Perdita was enough for Mrs. Perkin’s heart to jump out of her heart. Forget wanting the siblings to die, she was finally going to die at the hands of these vampire siblings.

Perdita’s legs continued to move forward until she reached where Mrs. Perkin was terribly shaking, and in the heat and fear that clouded the mind of the older woman, she dirtied herself.

The stinking water that dripped on the floor of Perdita’s house that was caused by Mrs. Perkin urinating on herself made a frown to appear on Perdita’s brows. But this didn’t deter the bloodthirsty lady as she swarmed in and held Mrs. Perkin’s neck in a tight grip.

Her fangs were quick to peek out of her mouth as she bared them at the neck of the older woman who was now at her mercy.

Marco was too weak to hold Perdita back. When he saw her hold Mrs. Perkin’s neck with her hand tightly wound around her, he knew there was no going back.

”Fuck!” An irritated curse escaped Marco’s lips at their inability to stop the predicament that befell them. There was no going back. But was this the end?