Michaela's Story

...Michaela Radulescuwas born to a well to do Romanian family. Her mother was a gypsy and a rather powerful psychic, a talent she inherited. Her father was a wealthy business man. They met in an event which they looked back on rather fondly when Michaela's mother tried to fleece her father. Her father found the gypsy woman irresistible and instead of turning her in to the authorities, he took her into his household as his wife.

...As a child her vocal talents were of some note and as she grew up, she sang in front of many townsfolk and even some wealthy nobles. She was pursued by many of the young men in town but spurned them in favor of her budding career as a singer. One of the nobles who attended her shows, a Countess Irina Szekely, fell in love with her and her voice. As it turns out, Countess Szekely was a vampire.

...Shortly after one of her many performances for the Countess, the Black Plague swept through Michaela's small Romanian town. Unknown to her at the time, the disease was brought to the town by a ghast. With her entire family succumbing. Countess Szekely took pity on her and on her deathbed he gave her an option, eternal life or agonizing death. She chose life eternal. As her teeth punctured the soft skin on her throat at first she thought she had chosen poorly. She could feel the blood well up out of the artery in her neck and some overflow the Countess's lips to trickle down her neck onto the pillow beneath her head. It was warm and strangely comforting but the longer it went, the colder she got as the life fled her body. Eventually darkness crept over her vision and she fell into the sleep of death.

...When she awoke, all she could think of was how thirsty she was. The Countess was there with a goblet filled with a warm, red, salty, metallic tasting liquid. She assured her it was fine and that she should drink. The smell was intoxicating and she drank deeply. The taste was overwhelming and was followed by a flood of sensation. Memories and emotions overwhelmed her and she fell asleep again.

...This time when she came to, she was not so thirsty. She was alone however. She got up from the very plush bet she was lying in and looked around the room she was in. It was very lavishly decorated. Heavy, well-polished wooden furniture and embroidered drapes adorned the room. At the foot of the bed was a black dress of such a fine make as she had never seen before in all of her 18 years. On it was a note written in red ink on a vellum card, it read: "Michaela, please wear this to dinner tonight, I have some people I would like you to meet.". It was signed by the Countess.

...Michaela bathed that evening in lavishly scented water, something she had never done before, and her grooming was attended by a servant. When the servant knocked again, he told Michalea that dinner was ready and she should follow him to the dining hall. She was nervous but excited at the same time as she followed the servant through the mansion halls. The dining hall was overflowing with fancy meats and fruits and vegetables, something relatively rare even for her family in those times. There were a number of other guests in the dining hall when she arrived. The hum of voices died quickly as she descended the stairs and all eyes fell upon her, eyes that had the intense gleam of predators stalking their prey.

...Countess Szekely came to meet her at the foot of the staircase. She took her hand and led her to the dining table. Everyone waited for her to be seated before they themselves sat down. Michaela thought this was a little unusual but was in no position to ask questions. At her place setting, and everyone else's too, was a goblet of that same warm, red liquid the Countess had given her before. She noticed it had a distinct smell now and she could sense her mouth beginning to salivate because of it. The Countess took her goblet in hand and stood up at the table. She asked Michaela to rise as well. She did so rather sheepishly.

..."Welcome to my family Michaela." said the Countess. "You have been deemed worthy to join a most esteemed and secret organization as has ever existed on Earth through all-time. We are the Hades Council and it is and always has been our job, no our duty, to keep the rogue forces of the supernatural from overtaking the mortal population of the world. A toast to welcome Michaela Radulescu into our fold." She held up her goblet and everyone else in the room stood as well, picking up their goblet and holding it aloft. As the Countess placed her goblet to her lips so did the rest of the room. Michaela fumbled clumsily for her goblet and picked it up with both hands. Her hands shook as she drank deeply causing a small trickle of the red beverage to trickle down the corner of her mouth. The drip ran down her jawline and down the smooth pale skin of her neck. A cheer went up from the room and Michaela suddenly became keenly aware that no one in the room was human, all facades had been dropped. Wings burst forth from some members backs, horns from their heads, some sprouted coarse hair and canine snouts as they transformed into were-creatures, others bared their fangs and revealed their vampiric nature. Michaela was strangely less taken aback than she would have thought she might have under other circumstances. All manner of creature of the night swirled around he in a dance macabre. Her senses reeled, hands and claws, fur and scales touched her and caressed her body. Michaela's vision seemed to spin, almost as though she were drunk. She danced with the other guests in a joyous if not black joy. The party carried on until the very wee hours of the night, when the guests suddenly vanished almost mystically, leaving only her and the Countess alone in the castle.

...The Countess stood there, facing Michaela, eyes as blue as the sea. She seemed to be searching for something. Michaela scanned her face for a clue. Suddenly the Countess leaned forward and kissed her. The Countesses full lips pressed against hers with a passion none of the boys in her small town ever even came close to exhibiting. Irina's powerful arms embraced Michaela and lifted her off of her feet. She carried Michaela to her bedchamber professing her undying love for the new vampiress. The pair made love until sunrise when they both drifted off into the deepest sleep Michaela had ever experienced.

...When she awoke, the sun was already in descent in the sky. She had slept almost the entire day and the Countess was gone. Michaela rose, dressed and set out to find the Countess and explore the castle. The moment she opened the bedroom doors the servant girl was there to address her. "Madam Michaela, the Countess requests your presence in the laboratory." she said as she beckoned her to follow. The servant girl led her through the castles twists and turns, down many flights of stairs and through many doors and halls until they came, at last, to a thick, iron-bound door with a mighty lock on it. The servant knocked upon the door firmly yet the weight of the door made it an almost noiseless rapping. The servant excused herself and exited the way they came.

...Michaela turned back from watching the servant depart and was startled to see the Countess standing before her and the iron door open. She hadn't heard even a whisper of the door opening. Irina beckoned her to enter. Michaela stepped inside the room and was amazed. All manner of laboratory equipment, beakers, bottles, tubes, cannisters, vats and vials littered the room, not messily, but they were everywhere. The Countess explained this was where much of the science of their job was performed here in the Romanian branch of the Hades Council. The research was performed in the library. Each branch had their own laboratory and research library and that information was shared between the different branches of the organization. Michaela would be expected to learn how to utilize all of the resources available if she was going to become a good huntress.

...After a month of study, the Countess decided that it was time to test Michaela in the field finally. She brought Michaela to the study where she explained that the cause of her family's death, not to mention her own and that of her entire town, was due to a ghast that had brought with it the plague. A ghast is not unlike a ghoul, a non-quite undead thing that was once a human. It had come to it's present condition by eating the flesh of the dead. How the creature came to feed off the dead is unknown, perhaps a mental illness, perhaps a curse, perhaps sheer depravation. A ghoul was said to have sharp claws and teeth so as to be able to dig tunnels under cemeteries, rend it's way through wooden coffins and rend mail of cemetery guards. Their bodies tend to be emaciated and withered though stronger than several men. A ghast is even more powerful, the aura of death and decay that follows them can cripple a man's will to fight or even continue living. It was obvious that aura is what cause the town to decay so rapidly. A ghast is also known to frequently be the leader amongst a pack of ghouls and is even capable of creating more ghouls through it's bite or claw. That same ghast was still living in the tunnels under the now dead town and would come up at night to feast on the rotted corpses of the dead. The town had not been razed to the ground yet as the living were afraid to even get close to it because of the plague and the ghast was being saved for Michaela's vengeance. Michaela was to enter the town at dusk and slay the creature before sunrise as she would not be able to follow the creature into it's burrow at sunrise. Fighting a ghast would be difficult enough for a fledgling vampire but impossible in it's lair.

...Michaela arrived in the Countess's carriage just before sunset. The coach would arrive again at sunrise and wait for no longer than five minutes. After that, Michaela would be on her own. Michaela was outfitted with snug-fitting, thick, leather clothing designed to give some protection against attack and prevent tears and snagging in the tight confines of ruined buildings, a sword and a heavy tight-woven, wool cloak. The sun dipped completely below the horizon as she watched the carriage pull out of sight. She pulled the cloak tightly about herself and pressed on into the town. It wasn't cold, but there was a preternatural chill in the air and a sense of foreboding and dread. She scarcely recognized the town now even though she had lived here for 18 years. The buildings were in shambles. The wooden ones seemed rotten beyond their years and she had only been away a month. Stones had crumbled from their mortar and there was a distinct smell of death and decay in the air. There were no bodies visible in the street but there were distinct drag marks all over the dirt and cobblestone streets. black trails of dried blood and gore led into many of the buildings which were all dark, not a light was to be seen anywhere. Even though it was very dark, Michaela seemed to have little difficulty making out the objects and even the colors what little there was left that were withing her line of sight. Her vision seemed remarkably acute considering the creeping darkness around her. She continued into town, her eyes searching for any movement, any sign of her quarry.

...After some time, Michaela strangely found herself standing at the steps to the town church. One of the wooden doors had been partially torn from it's hinge while the other remained attached. Great claw marks rent the stone and wood in may places. "So the beast indeed has claws." she murmured to herself. The smell of death and decay seemed particularly heavy wafting from the opening. This bore further investigation. She pushed the damaged door open. It slammed open and tore the rest of the way off of it's hinge with a loud crash. Michaela jumped with a start. The door was obviously decayed but shouldn't have come open so easily. It seemed she didn't yet know the bounds of her newfound vampirical powers. However, any chance of surprise was now gone. With a whoosh, she stepped over the wreckage of the door and into the foyer. It was darker here than outside but she could still see well and what she saw was awful. The pews had all been shredded and corpses piled as high as a man's chest littered the floor of the church. The massive cross which once dominated the far end of the church above the priests's podium was destroyed, leaving nothing but a sharp wooden stump sticking up from the iron mount in the floor.

...A sudden skittering from behind a stack of corpses caused her hand to fly to the pommel of her sword. She wrapped her gloved hand around the steel grip of the blade and tried to slowly and quietly draw it from it's sheath. A spray of rotting, diseased flesh and gore exploded from several of the corpse piles near her as sharply fanged and clawed beasts leaped from their hiding place. As the maggot-ridden gore splattered her face she was momentarily blinded then the impact of the beasts bodies threw her to the floor. Their claws were like razors and the leather she wore did little to blunt them. She felt claws rake her side and teeth sink into her shoulder. Pain washed over her. At least she could still feel pain in her undead state. That revelation shocked her into action. The fall had knocked the sword out of her grasp and a short distance across the floor. She scrabbled to reach it while attempting to fend off the ghouls continued bites and claws. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, her fingers grasped the crosspiece and pulled it close enough she could grasp the handle. Teeth sank into her outstretched arm as she tried to pull the sword to her side. Michaela winced at the pain and flung her arm wildly, the ghoul sailed across the room striking the wall with a sickening thud as it's head cracked open from the impact on the stone. Her strength now rising, she managed to pull her feet up under herself and rose. The ghouls continued to claw and bite at her, tearing cloth and flesh. Michaela raised her sword and brought the pommel down on one of the ghoul's heads. With a crack the steel ball sunk deep into the skull, only her gloved hand stopped it from going in all the way to the crossbar. Gore welled up from the wound but the thing continued it's relentless assault. She grasped the creature by the neck with her other hand and pulled it away from her body. It flailed wildly as she yanked the sword from it's skull. Thick black blood and rotted gray matter clung to the steel. With her left hand she squeezed the thing's neck as hard as she could her fingers first crushing then rending the rotting flesh. The ghoul's body fell away from it's head and neck, black gore spewed from the rotten stump of it's torn neck. The body on the floor twitched and was still. The mouth continued to gape and shut over fanged teeth in it's final death throes. The second ghoul leaped onto her back and tried to bite at her exposed throat. Michaela's vampiric reflexes were extremely heightened at this point and she reached behind her, grabbed the creature by it's face and flung it over her head onto the floor in front of her. As the thing tried to right itself she ran the blade of the sword through the front of it's face. Almost a meter of steel came out the back of it's skull, severing all major nerves and killing the thing instantly.

...A flash went through her mind, she saw the ghoul that had bitten her arm rise up and leap at her when she came around a broken pew. She had heard it's skull crack though and wasn't anywhere near a pew yet. Was this some trick of her mind, shock setting in, a hallucination? She had no idea but had to press on, there was still much work to be done. She swung around the back side of the pew instead and found the ghoul with the cracked skull crouching behind it, facing away from her. The split in the back of it's head was wide enough to show it's white skull that had been fractured. In a move almost faster that the human eye could follow, she swung the sword overhead and down onto the ghoul. The whistle of the blade made through the air made enough noise to cause the ghoul to turn it's head, just enough to avoid the main impact of the sword blade. Instead, the things ear was sheared off and the bladecaught the beat where the shoulder meets the neck. The weight of the blow cleave the ghoul from neck to waist, almost splitting it in two. It crumpled to the floor, instantly dead. Michaela pulled the blade from the gore and wiped it on a rotted piece of drapery nearby.

...The vampiress searched the rest of the main assembly area but there were no other ghouls to be found. She decided to check the priests quarters in the back. The door was open and the room dark, not even moonlight penetrated here her vision as strong as it now was still had a hard time penetrating this pitch darkness. She went back into the main area and headed for the storage closet. Once she got there, she opened the door, which was suprisingly still closed. She guessed the ghouls sensed nothing living was in here. Inside she grabbed a broom and snapped the handle in two, grabbed a linen towel, once used to swath babies in during baptisms, some lamp oil, a flint and steel and a bottle of holy water. That's why they avoid this place, oil and holy water. She wound the linen around the end of the broken broomstick and doused it in oil. Taking out the flint and steel she struck it hard and got a spark on the first try. The makeshift torch sprung to life illuminating a large area around her. She pocketed the vial of holy water and headed back to the priest's room. Upon her rearrival, she found a large hole in the floor of the room, partly under the old priest's desk. Holding the torch close, she found it led under the church oin the direction of the graveyard. It was too small for her to crawl into and still be able to hold the torch while defending herself so she decided to head to the cemetary above ground.

...The cemetary was perpetually encased in fog. The rotting corpses buried underneath created a small amount of heat from decomposition that caused a fog any time the air was cool as it was now. She saw several small mausoleums whose stone doors were still intact. Apparently the ancient stone they were made of hadn't decayed enough yet to allow the ghouls to break into them yet. She had no idea how much longer they would last under these conditions though. The only wooden structure she saw was the caretaker's huse in the back of the cemetary, she headed that way.

...As Michaela had expected, the door was torn off to the caretaker's house. Knowing it would blow any chance of suprise, but it was dark inside even for her enhanced vampiric vision, she thrust the torch inside. A flurry of claws and fangs assaulted the torch accompanied by a loud hiss and the smell of burning, rotted flesh. The torch was ripped from her hands and flung across the room. It landed in a heap of combustible materials and immediately ignited them. A tall gangly shadow filled the doorway between her and the fire. It's long arms hung nearly to the floor. It had a thick chest, but the waist was overly thin and emaciated. The legs were haunched, almost like an animal. Very little hair remained that she could see and the ears were ragged and pointed. It was the feral, gleaming eyes that struck her the most. They were filled with a malevolence she had never experienced. She new in an instant this thing had no mercy, no compassion, no remorse. Her death would be swift if she hesitated ot made even a single wrong move.

...The creature placed both hands on the opposite sides of the doorframes and tensed to hurl itself at Michaela. She saw it happen an instant before it actually did. Not several seconds in advance like with the lesser ghouls. Apparently the more powerful her opponent the shorter the delay between her precognition. The ghast flung it's bulk at her with a strength not of this world. Splinters flew from the heavy wooden beams that comprised the doorframe as the thing's claws raked them in pushing off. Michaela shifted her weight and twisted just enough to blunt the impact so her spine wasn't snapped from the impact. Instead she felt several of her ribs crack as the weight of the beast impacted her. She flew to the ground some feet away from the ghoul and felt the earth beneath her hands. The sword she was holding had sailed off into the fog somewhere. The flames engulfed the caretakers house quickly behind here, illuminating the night but not the dark thing that had attacked her. The ghast was upon her before she could rise, it's slavering jaw snapping the air. It easily pinned he , it was larger and stronger than she was and she had no formal training as a warrior. She had no sword, no torch, she was completely weaponless and the beast was salivating on her as the jaws closed on her face. In a panic she did what any young girl would have in this situation, she screamed. She screamed as loud as she could in a desperate hope that someone, anyone, anything would come to her rescue, yet knowing no help was near. She screamed at the ghast with all the fury that a doomed person can muster.

...It's head exploded like a melon dropped from a parapet.Rotted blood and gore sprayed in all directions in a fine mist covering her face in slime and bone chips. The thing's bulk fell fully upon her. The weight was crushing. She tried to push the headless corpse off of her and found it easier than she would have expected. As she rose, she felt the heat of the flames on her face. The caretaker's house was completely engulfed in flames and the cold wind had already spread cinders to the other nearby buildings rooftops. The whole town would be a blazing inferno in only a few minutes. She grabbed the hulking corpse by one overly long arm and dragged it to the church and pulled it inside. The ceiling had already caught fire. It wouldn't be long before the flames consumed all trace of the infection of the town of Polesti.

...The Countesses carriage arrived promptly at sunrise and Michaela wearily climbed aboard. As the carriage pulled away, she looked back to see the flames having fully engulfed the entire town. By nightfall nothing but ash and cinder would remain of her birthplace. Vengeance was hers though and although it could not undo what had been done, it made her feel better. Like she had accomplished something. Her soul felt lighter.

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