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“I forgive you,” she whispered.

The hunger rose.

My pearl white teeth, sharp as daggers, descended into her soft flesh and blood flowed. Feeding as hungrily as a babe at my mother’s breast, I drank in my mother’s life. The shadows roaming the darkened cell pressed close as the wolves’ howls echoed through the night.

In that filthy chamber, my mother held me in her arms and gave me all that she possessed of worth in this dark world: her life’s blood, which flowed in a dark red gush. It became a sacred moment, and I wept as she weakened against me.

“I forgive you,” she whispered again softly.

The hunger would not release me. I fed despite my sobs of anguish and my tears.

“A light is coming,” my mother said.

As the hunger abated and died within me like the last embers of a great fire, the true horror of what I was doing washed over me. Forcing my mouth from the bleeding wound, I glanced about the cell. No great wondrous light filled the cell with ethereal beauty.

My mother smiled, her lips pale and blue. “May, dear May…”

I looked up sharply, but did not see the an angelic apparition of my sister.

“Mother, do you see her?”

There was no response.

“Mother?”

Silence greeted me. Not even the darkness whispered to me.

I looked down at her and saw that her eyes were staring.

“Mother! No!”

I wept into her hair and held her tightly. I do not how it happened, but when I gazed down upon her again, her eyes were closed. She appeared to be sleeping, but I knew she was truly dead.

“Forgive me, forgive me. ”

Cradling my mother’s body, I wept into the darkness. I could not bear this agony, this horror. But the hunger was now gone, and the horrible all consuming desire to feed was appeased.

“You are free, Mother. You are free. ” I covered her face with kisses, holding her. “I will escape. I swear it. I will. ”

As the wolves once more began to howl, I held my mortal mother’s dead body and wept.

Hours later the door yawned open and Vlad Dracula swept into the cell. I rose up before him, my flesh was now rosy from my feeding. Behind me, meticulously laid out, was my dead mother.

“It is done,” I said somberly.

Vlad smiled at me. “I knew you would not disappoint me. ”

My lips spread into a dark smile, not that different from his own. “Oh, but I will. ”

He was startled. “In what way?”

“You will see. Someday. ”

In the hours after my Mother’s death, I had taken upon myself her sacred edict. I would escape. I would be free. Her body had given birth to me. Her blood gave me life. Despite Vlad’s dark power, the power of her flesh and blood gave me strength to endure all that he would inflict on me. He had meant for me to defile my mother by feasting on her. Instead, she had given me a holy sacrament of flesh and blood.

Vlad stared at me for a long moment. I could see he could not read my expression. “I won here, did I not?” He suddenly seemed less sure of himself.

I smiled at him. “I wish to go be with my sisters now. ”