Violet Moon

The night wind snaked between the spaces of the huts within the village walls like a serpent, coiling around each home and robbing it of what little heat it had to offer.  The rain that had been pelting the area for hours had finally subsided leaving behind soddened, thatched rooftops and thick sludge where once there were dirt pathways.  Villagers that dared leave the safety of their homes to check on their neighbors were welcomed with extreme bitter cold.  The clouds in the night sky hung low, creating a sound barrier between the heavens and earth that accentuated the slightest of noises.  Faint glows from underneath doorways and through the cracks of shuttered window slits were the only signs that could tell a passing stranger if there was any life left within the tiny hamlet. 

Inside the confines of one such hut was a young woman who could have cared less how intensely frigid or unforgiving the world was at that moment.  She stood in front of an open cabinet, scanning the scarce contents of bread and vegetables for the third time.  Her mouth moved slightly and silently as she ran down the inventory of things she wished to take with her on her journey.  Pushing the aging doors to the cabinet closed, she felt satisfied that she had enough.

In the corner of the tiny room near the fireplace sat a younger gentleman upon a crudely constructed stool.  He stared intensely at the flames as they danced like demons in a ring.  His brows furrowed as he watched them glow brighter and dim once again.

“You shouldn’t go, Valya”, he said to the young woman without looking at her.  “People have been disappearing everyday.  Some say it’s the plague, the Black Death, which is killing them.  I don’t believe that for a second.  It’s something far worse than Black Death, something evil.”

As he spoke the last word, a flame shot up from the fire into the flue and settled back down again, startling both occupants in the room and causing them to stare at the fiery spectacle.  After a few seconds of pause, Valya went back to organizing her belongings.

“You worry too much, Vishnu.” Valya replied as she constructed a crude knapsack from a tattered blanket while sitting upon a hay mound.  She wrapped a few small loaves of bread in cloth and some hardened cheese in a leather sack.  Placing both items in the knapsack, she stood up and turned to grab a dagger lying atop the hay.  She slid the dagger and its sheath behind the belt around her waist. 

“Besides, no one else in this village has the nerve to go look for her.  That leaves it up to me.  If gallantry is lacking from the men here and chivalry refuses to come forward, then love of family will take pursuit where bravery has failed.”

Valya looked over at Vishnu who now had his head in his hands, elbows propped on his knees.  His fingers slid through his hair as he shut his eyes and tried to ignore both the anger and hurt in his heart.  She walked across the dirt floor to his side and knelt next to him, her hand upon his broad shoulder.  Her voice went from that of a woman determined to a soft, gentle caress.

“I’m sorry, Vishnu,” she soothed in a voice just above a whisper, “I didn’t mean for my words to slight you.  I know she’s your sister, too, but you still have your wife who is with child here.  They need you now just as Hati needs me.”

He lifted his head slightly, fingers gliding halfway down his face, smearing the wetness from his eyes.  The light of the fire sparkled within the streaks upon his cheeks.

“I know,” he said, trying to form his words properly, “it’s just that I have already lost my eldest son and my youngest daughter.  I can’t stand watching my family dwindle into oblivion.  And now I fear whatever is gripping this village will take you next.”

Valya felt a pull inside her chest, like ropes tightening around her heart and dragging it into the pit of her stomach.  She, too, was afraid of what laid ahead of her outside the village’s walls, but she was determined to find Hati.  Hati was more than just her sister; Hati was her best friend.

Using Vishnu’s shoulder for stability, Valya silently stood up.  She was of average height for most women of the day and had her hair tied back, keeping it away from her face.  She went to straighten her dress out of habit, but quickly remembered at the lack of cloth that she was wearing men’s clothing.  Being of peasantry class, her clothing was representative of her status: a long, russet shirt to her knees made of coarse linen with woolen tights underneath and linen undergarments.  Suspecting that wearing a dress may slow her down in her journey, she took the shirt and tights from a neighbor’s home, a man that had disappeared a fortnight back.  Around her waist was a crude belt of sheepskin leather and her shoes were made of thick cow’s leather with wooden soles. 

With her knapsack slung over her shoulder and her cloak draped over top, she headed towards the door.  Without turning back, she lifted the wooden bar that acted as a lock and pushed the door open.  She was immediately greeted by the stinging wind, which prompted her to pull her woolen cloak tightly around her neck.  Pausing for a moment, she spoke once more.

“I promise, as soon as I find her, we’ll both come straight home to the village.”

With that, she walked out of her home into the muddy pathway and began her journey to find Hati.

Once past the gates of the village, she headed in the direction towards where the sun rose from the horizon.  That was where the village farms were located, the last place Hati was seen just two days ago.

The moon was full that night; however, the cloud cover made the moonlight glow a dim violet in the sky.  Not wanting to waste burning the only candle she had with her, Valya trudged gingerly through the wet brushland.  As she edged closer to the woodlands that were near to the village, she heard what she thought was a rustling in the brush from behind her.  She stopped and remained motionless.  The rustling noise came again, but this time it was in front of her.  She tried to adjust her eyes to see through the darkness, but the thickness of the brush made focusing almost impossible. 

Fear stole her voice and slowed her breathing to a literal crawl.  Her heart rate began to increase as she now heard the rustling in the brush from all sides of her.  Terrified to even blink, her vision slowly took focus as she saw a dark figure rise up from the brush directly in front of her.  Tremors ensnared her body as all the shadows around her took form and were now surrounding her. 

Remembering she had the dagger secured within her belt, she moved her hand ever so slightly underneath her cape, her fingers barely touching the dagger’s hilt.

The sudden blow to the back of her head knocked her completely off of her feet, sailing her face first into the watery, mud lined ground.  A sharp sting burned through her lower right calf as she felt something bite her, refusing to release.  She felt another sting and burn in her right thigh, then another in her lower back, and still another in her left shoulder.  Something that felt like the wind fluttered in her face as the number of stings increased to almost every section of her body.  The burning sense overwhelmed her as a cacophony of flapping leathery wings filled the air.  Feeling her life slowly slipping away, thoughts of never finding Hati flashed in her mind.  Her fair face, filled with innocence and purity, stood before Valya’s eyes, like an angel from God.  The burning feeling shifted to a numbing sensation as Valya gripped her hands into the muddied ground, allowing failure and death to take her.

“Enough, you wretches,” boomed a voice from somewhere nearby.  “She’s not a feast, she’s a conversion.”

The fluttering sounds dissipated from all around her, flying off into the distance and growing fainter within her ringing ears. 

Then she felt something like hands with long, sharp fingers hook under her shoulders.  Her body, weakened from the assault, was picked up off the ground and suspended in the air.  Looking downward, Valya saw the ground getting further away from her as she flew over the treetops towards the clouds.  The cold air kept her slightly conscious as the smokiness of the clouds gave way to clear skies and brilliant violet moonlight.  The tie that held her hair back fell, allowing her hair to flow in the wind during her flight.  Unable to keep her eyes open any longer, Valya went completely limp as she fell into unconsciousness.

Through the darkness of her lifeless condition, Valya felt pain, but not just any pain.  Her entire body ached; no part of her was spared.  She felt nothing else … no warmth or coldness.  She couldn’t even feel the surrounding air or smell anything.  Worse than that was the feeling that her body was weighted down and unable to budge.  With eyes still closed, Valya reached deep into her soul and willed her body to move; alas, her attempts were futile and she remained little more than a living corpse.

A slight moan emanated from her throat as she wondered if this is what death truly felt like.  If this was what one felt after dying, then she felt cheated by the Church and their talks of fountains of liquid gold, feasts that never ended, and pure eternal bliss.  She didn’t see any of that and she felt completely betrayed.

“Try not to move, Val.  Your body is still going through the final stages of death.  Once that is complete, your limbs will loosen again.”

Though there was still ringing in her ears, Valya recognized the sweet voice as that of her sister.  Happiness mixed with sorrow in knowing that, although she had found Hati, she, too, must be dead.  And if they were both dead and Valya believed that she was not in what the Church had defined as Heaven, then she must have been in Purgatory, or worse … Hell.

Gradually, the pain began to subside as did the weighted feeling.  She could now tell she was lying down on something hard and from the feeling under her hands, it felt like it was covered with cloth.  The air was warm and she could smell something like meat cooking.  The last of the pain was gone and she once again had full command of her body.  The only thing she felt different was an odd pressure inside of her mouth in her upper teeth, like there was something sitting within her gums.

Valya slowly opened her eyes and sat upright.  She was in a small room with a wooden floor and walls of stone and mud, not bark and branches like most homes.  Across from her was a huge stone fireplace with something that she thought was a half a cow roasting within it on a spit.  Whatever kind of animal was cooking, it smelled delightfully delicious to her.  Along the walls were torches that blazed brightly, making the room almost look like daylight.  Looking beneath her, what she thought was a table covered in cloth was actually a bed.  She had heard of them but never experienced resting on one.

“See,” a voice said from behind her, “I told you your limbs would loosen up.”

Valya twisted her body and saw Hati standing before her, dressed in a beautiful dark green dress with a wide leather belt around her waist.  Overcome with joy, Valya jumped off her bed only to stumble to the ground.  Hati quickly ran to her sister’s side and assisted her in standing.  Both let out a small laugh as Valya brought her eyes up to meet Hati’s.  Her smile quickly faded when she noticed something strange about her eyes … something not right.

Reaching out, Hati pulled Valya into a surprisingly strong embrace.  Hati’s arms still looked as thin and delicate as they had all her life, yet she was able to pull Valya into an abrupt hug.  Valya knew her sister well and knew that she never possessed such unusual strength.  Hati’s squeeze grew tighter around Valya, almost constricting her movements. 

“I’m so glad you’re here, Val.” she said through tears in her eyes, “I never thought I’d see you again.  I asked them to bring you and they did.”

As happy as she was that they were reunited, Valya had an unsettling feeling that something was different with Hati … and herself.

Contorting her body slightly, Valya broke free of the embrace and placed her hands on both of Hati’s shoulders.  Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, allowing a long enough pause to gather her senses.  She cleared her throat and spoke slowly and succinctly.

“Who … brought me here, Hati, and where … exactly IS here?”

Hati smiled, her eyes narrowing into half moons, and reached up to grab her sister’s hands, clasping them together and holding them near to her heart.  Though Hati was not wearing any gloves, Valya could have sworn she felt something akin to animal fur on Hati’s hands.

“The others in my clan brought you.  I spoke of you to them, how lost I felt without you and they went and brought you to me, to your new home, our new home … Melania.”

Valya stood unmoving.  She recalled elders in the village telling stories to the children of a place called Melania, a place of unnatural beings that walked the night in search of human victims.  But it was just stories … stories to scare the children to discourage them from wondering away from the village.  The village.  Vishnu.  Valya brought her eyes to meet Hati’s.

“Hati, I promised Vishnu as soon as I found you, we would both go back home … to the village.  He would have been here, but felt it best to stay home with his pregnant wife.”

The ecstatic look in Hati’s face drained, replacing it with one of sorrow.  She let go of Valya’s hands and turned away from her eyes.  Slowly she walked in the opposite direction.  As she walked, she ran her fingers along the top of a polished table, her nails digging into the grain producing a trail of wooden curls.

“We can’t, Val … we can never go back.  Who we are … what we are now … if we dare go back, I … you … we couldn’t be held responsible for what would happen … “

Her eyes fixed upon the damaged wood, Valya spoke without even knowing the words were falling from her mouth.

“Sweet blessed Saints, Hati … what are you … what have you done to me?”

Hati turned, locking eyes with her sister.  Her expression was now that of stone as she spoke.

“The night I disappeared, I was attacked by a lycan … a werewolf.  By miracle or curse of God, I survived the attack.  I wandered the rest of the night only to be found the next day by my attacker.  Seeing that I survived, he brought me here to live amongst his kind … my kind.”

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other.  Her nervousness showed at what she was about to reveal.

“The night you were attacked, Val … it was by a creature of the undead … a vampire … one who lives forever in the darkness of the living’s nightmares and feasts upon their blood.  That is why we can never go back to the village.  What we are now is what the villagers fear the most.”

The room began to spin as the words Hati spoke echoed and reverberated inside Valya’s head.  Steadying herself with her hand upon the bed, Valya tried to absorb the harsh reality that had been exposed to her.  She was a creature of the dead that feasts upon the living.  She was now what the villagers feared the most.  As she thought of the villagers she left behind, picturing their faces in her mind, she no longer saw them as friends, but as livestock.  Her mouth watered and her stomach twinged at the very thought.

“Then if we can not go back to Vishnu, I want Vishnu to be with us.  He is our brother, the male of the family.  It’s only right that he is here.”

She turned her eyes towards the ground at such a selfish thought.  Even so, she didn’t care.  Selfishness is what brought her here, so why not bring it full circle?

“But what of his wife, Val?  Only Vishnu would be allowed back here.  If we were to go get him, his wife … she would be … and their child … “

Valya continued staring at the ground.  Her gaze remained fixed on the wooden slats on the floor.  The longer she stared, the more the thoughts of raiding the village become amusing.  Feeling what was left of her heart begin to harden, she smirked.

“Not to worry.  If he should ever ask, we’ll just tell him the Black Death took them.”