Tales from the Crypt

A Father's Legacy

Her breath came in short sudden bursts, quivering and weak.  I tried my best to ignore her hand reaching out to me, but what was left of my empathy told me to help her.  On my knees, I bent over her, and turned her around to face me.  Her eyes were glazed and fixed on my face.  I hadn’t meant for this to happen. It was an accident, but one driven by my new primal urge to feed and kill.

Disgusted with myself, I turned my face away from her, hiding the shame that was slowly engulfing me inside.

“You made me do this!” I shouted at her. Trying to convince myself that my actions were not my fault, I refused to accept the truth.

“Why?” she hoarsely whimpered, as blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.

Turning my head to face her, I watched as tears leaked from her eyes, and ran down the sides of her cheeks, mixing with the blood that had been smeared across her neck.  Choking noises came from the back of her throat. Frantically, she grasped my hand as she struggled to breathe, and in a panicked frenzy I pushed her away from me.  I didn’t want to look at her, and witness her demise.  This wasn’t who I was.

“Helena.” She whispered my name. “Hel…”

Then silence fell around the room. An eeriness that crackled under my skin spread throughout me, and as I held my breath, the missing sound of my own heart resonated through my head. Looking down at my hands, I cried at the sight of her blood on them and felt regret race through my veins.  How had such small hands done this? What was I becoming?

The rain outside began to pelt hard against the stained glass window of the library, lifting my mind from my inner turmoil.  I soon became aware of my own fate, and struggled to understand what had just happened.  Gazing over at the lump on the ground, I screamed.  Her dress was torn, her hands were bloodied and her face was as white as snow.

“Ma’ma!” I wailed.

In desperation, I crawled over to her and shook her still and lifeless body, but she had gone.  Instead of her warm and loving eyes staring at me; a cold hard gaze met mine, and the deep darkness that had fixed over them fuelled my incessant grief.

Pulling at my hair, I screamed in sorrow, “Please God…forgive me.”

“Your God abandoned you a long time ago.” A voice echoed in the room.

Through tear filled eyes I looked around the room and saw nothing but shadows. Outside a crash of lightening lit up the room and illuminated a tall figure standing by the door.  His eyes bore holes through me and I felt my very core perish under his control. What had been left of my earthly existence was now gone and in its replace I became the monster he had wanted all along. I was now a pawn in his game of death, another anomaly amongst the living; a prisoner in his living hell.

My father did this to me; my father bred me to kill. I am my father’s legacy.

The End