The grey of twilight was dwindling into darkness. The December night filled the weary travelers with bitter cold air and hit them with relentless winds. The elder traveler clutched her youngest sister's hand, which shied away until submitting defeat in her sister's grasp. Children they yet were, voyaging homebound on foot. The day had passed normally, quietly, and so it seemed as though the noises burst forth at the coming of sundown. It put the elder sister, Esther, on edge. Crickets chirped, nocturnal animals lurked in the skies and barren wasteland, and the sway of the trees against the merciless wind became more sporadic than before. Nights such as these were not uncommon; nevertheless, Esther increased her pacing as she dragged Haley behind.
The forsaken appeared. Their demonic voices cut short and indiscernable by the blur of memories, yet it mattered not. Their motive was clear. The children fled, screaming; all in vain. The eyes of the vampiric demons glowed red and lustful as they pinned Esther to the ground. They cackled, fangs elongated, as they made her bear witness to their atrocious act. How far out Haley's screams of mercy reached Esther could not tell; what transpired before her eyes left her frozen and empty. Each vampire took his turn, drinking her, taking her, and with each passing participant the cries grew higher and full with utter desperation. Perhaps it was disbelief or fear but as the light began to vanish from her eyes, a flame was lit within the elder sister. Resolve coursed through her veins, however fruitless her actions may have been. She pushed beyond the pain of the wounds inflicted by her assailants and it seemed more than adrenaline that caused their limbs to break under her hands.
The struggle lasted an eternity. Their deed now proven too cumbersome, the injured and the fallen departed. And onward until daybreak did young Esther, adorned in hundreds of horrid and deep bite marks, function as a crutch for her broken sister. Hours it seemed, though minutes at best, before the children reached the sanctuary they had set to journey to before the day was done. The haze weighing over the sisters left Haley indisposed and Esther unconscious as she succumbed to her wounds, as their sister Fey frantically called for help upon seeing them. The bright of the sun could not have been a more bleak color as the life fled from Esther's eyes, with nothing but the frightened cries of her sister and their caretaker filling the last sounds ever to be heard by the dying child...
"Hey, I think she's awake."
Esther's eyes opened, groggily, which at once laid upon the form of her youngest sister who appeared relieved. She was in her room, with the curtains drawn to conceal the her chambers from the sunlight. Both Fey and the caretaker, Laura, stood anxiously while Haley sat at the foot of the bed. For one hopeful moment, Esther had wondered if what had happened transpired only in her dreams but the grim faces of her family members told her otherwise and this truth seemed to harden her heart.
"How do you feel-"
"How long have I been asleep?" Esther asked, her voice husky and rough. She cleared her throat, feeling a sharp pain accompanying the action. She sat up, with Haley outstretching her arms in discouragement, and she turned to face the mirror placed opposite her bedside. Her raven black hair, though short, hung heavily on her head and the emerald of her eyes glimmered as the most noticeable feature, though she noted their vigor seemed to have dissipated since the event. What truly caught her eye, however, were the numerous scars, small, but prominent that embellished almost the entirety of her person.
"You were near dead from blood loss when you came home," piped in Fey, arms crossed as she surveyed her elder sister. "... You've been unconscious for almost a week."
A week... could such a horrifying night have occurred naught but a week ago when the memories were as vivid as though they'd happened yesterday?
Haley shifted anxiously. "Laura says the scars will fade... but not completely disappear." Esther said nothing, gazing on like a statue at her reflection in the mirror. "... Listen, Esther-"
"I should've been stronger," she finally said, her voice no longer hindered by sleep but now with a building resolve that eventually boomed and echoed within the walls of her room. "I let fear cloud my mind... and you paid the price because of my weakness."
"Esther-" chimed the caretaker.
"Haley," Esther interjected, rising her voice slightly over Laura's. "I know you nor the others will blame me... but I know I will never forgive myself. I had the opportunity, I had the power... to stop them sooner." She clenched folds of her blanket in her hand, remembering the immense power that left her opponents cowering in fear. If she could harness that power... if she could become stronger... "Nothing like this will ever happen again. I'll make sure of it."
They each remained silent, their focus entirely upon the eldest Lotus daughter, knowing the resolve resounding in her voice would never truly erase the pain of the past... A past that would lead for darker sunrises yet to come.
