Dragged into Hell

Dragged Into Hell

2566 words

On a cool spring evening in 1745, my life as I knew it was wrenched away from me in just a few horrible minutes. My husband, Kalman, and I were sitting in front of the fireplace in our small farmhouse when the front door burst open. A tall, bald, hideous vampire stood in the doorway staring at us. When he opened his mouth and snarled, he revealed two inch fangs. I knew he had come for our blood. Kalman screamed, "Maria, run," grabbed an iron poker, and tried to strike him, but the creature swatted the poker out of his hand. The vampire grabbed Kalman, biting his neck until he was dead. I retrieved the poker from the floor and rushed at the creature. After it dropped Kalman, the vampire struck me on the side of the head, and I lost consciousness.

I awoke to the sight of the vampire sucking the last of Kalman's blood. When I screamed, the vampire turned towards me, his fangs dripping blood, snarling again as he came closer. The creature grabbed my bodice, opened his mouth, and I knew I was going to die. As I crossed myself and started to pray, he stopped, stroked my face with a long, talon-like fingernail, and said, "You're too lovely to kill." He swung me over his shoulder, kicked away the remains of the front door, and carried me into the night.

The vampire walked more swiftly than any human, covering several miles before we reached a cave. He stopped and set me on the ground. Then he stepped forward and put his hands on a boulder that would have taken four strong men to move. But he pushed it aside with little effort.

After we entered the cave, he reached for the boulder and moved it back into place. He put me back over his shoulder and walked through the dark cave without hesitation. I could see nothing, which only added to my fright. Finally, a woman called out to him.

"I've brought you a companion," he said in a deep, guttural voice, and then dumped me on the ground.

When I landed on the floor, I was stunned but not hurt because it was covered in several inches of dirt. Terrified because I couldn't see anything, I tried to move away when the woman's hand touched me. I backed into a wall, remaining motionless and shivering.



When I awoke, I heard no noise or movement. I crawled along the floor until I felt the vampire lying with his arms folded across his chest. He was completely still as was the woman next to him. Neither one of them was breathing. His skin was coarser than anyone's I'd ever felt.

I leaned against the wall and cried, unable to believe the nightmare I found myself in. "Kalman, Kalman," I cried out. I could still see him lying on the floor. "Eventually, I ran out of tears and sat with my back against the wall. Sometime later, I felt disoriented and feverish. There was a throbbing sensation on the right side of my neck. I felt two puncture holes, and I realized that he had taken some of my blood. Because of the blackness, there was no way of knowing how long I lay on the ground disoriented and moaning.

After the fever passed, I knew I had changed because I could see in the dark and felt a craving I couldn't explain. The vampire must have been watching me closely, because a short time later he grabbed my hand and stood me up.

"Come," he said as he dragged me through the darkened cave. I could see his repulsive face clearly, as well as his fangs when he opened his mouth. My body became ice cold.

I cried out but he ignored me. Eventually, he let go of my arm and moved the boulder guarding the cave. Then he dragged me into the night.

"Wait by the tree," he said in his guttural voice.

He walked swiftly into the forest and was out of sight within moments. The cold night air didn't bother me, and I could see clearly as if it were daylight. I heard all the sounds of the forest, especially the vampire snapping twigs as he moved away from me.

Suddenly, the sound of his steps quickened, and I knew he was running. I also heard the sound of small hooves moving softly on the ground. I guessed the animals were deer. Then I heard something that reminded me of when the monster had bitten Kalman. I wrapped my arms around myself and thought of my dead husband. I wanted to cry, but tears didn't come easily. Once again, I heard him walking through the forest, only this time in my direction.

He returned carrying two dead deer, one of which he held in front of my face. "Drink," he said.

I bit into it without thinking. The blood flowing through my new fangs felt natural. After a while, I could drink no more because the copper taste of the blood was revolting. However, I sensed the blood coursing throughout my body and felt stronger.

He drained the remaining blood from the deer, grasped my hand, and then took me back to the cave, carrying both deer under his arm.

After we returned to the cave, he stood before me and said, "You're a vampire and will live forever. I have given you a precious gift." His voice grew louder as he said that.

I didn't respond because I was horrified because I had drunk blood. He hadn't given me a gift, but had transformed me into a dreadful creature.

When I walked toward a corner of the cave, he said, "From now on you stay by my side."

"Why?" I wanted to be as far away from him as possible.

"You belong to me," he said. He grabbed my arm and pushed me to the floor next to the other woman, who was drinking the blood of the second deer.

Now that I could see clearly, I examined the woman. Her hair was unkempt, and she was wearing the tatters of an old dress. Her face and body were filthy, and I didn't need my new sense of smell to know that she stank. Her fangs were in the deer's neck, and blood ran down her chin, but she seemed oblivious of this.



The next night he looked at me and said, "Try to escape and I will kill you." Then he walked out of the cave without saying anything. This was my first time alone with the other woman.

"I'm, Maria," I said. "Who are you?"

The woman looked at me for a moment before responding. "Narice," she said.

I looked at her, waiting for her to say something. But she just stared at me. I guessed that she hadn't had much conversation while she'd been with the vampire.

"How long have you been with this creature?" I asked.

Her mouth moved slowly, as if it took an effort for her to talk. "I've no idea," she said, and looked to the ground as she put her hands on her forehead.

"You don't remember?" I asked.

"I've no memories of the time before I was with Greynar," she said.

"How can that be possible?"

"I have been with him a long time," she said. "Maybe hundreds of years."

Before she could say anymore, I heard the boulder covering the front of the cave being moved.

I don't know how long he was gone, but when he returned, I could see blood on his fangs and knew that he had fed. He was carrying two deer, one of which he dropped in front of me and the other in front of Narice.

She sank her fangs into the deer without hesitating, while I stared at the one in front of me for a moment. However, my hunger overcame any hesitation I felt. For several minutes, we greedily drank the warm blood from the deer.

"Enough," he said, and snatched the deer from us. He drank from one and then the other. When he had drained them, he walked further back into the cave. I heard two thumps, which I supposed were the sounds of his dropping the two deer carcasses in the deeper recesses of the mountain.

After he returned, he stood before me. "I am of the first blood," he said.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"My father was Lilith's son. He was first blood. My mother was the daughter of Lilith's children, so I am a pure blood." He sounded proud of what he called being a pure blood

"Who was Lilith?"

He snorted. "Illiterate peasant." He put his talon under my chin and stroked my face. "But a beautiful one."

"You didn't answer my question," I said. His hand was a blur as it slapped me on the side of my face so hard it knocked me into the wall. Had I still been human, I would have been badly hurt.

He stood above me snarling, his fangs visible.

I tried to move away, but there was nowhere to go. "What did I do wrong?"

"You are my property," he said. "Never question me or defy me."

"I'm sorry." I didn't like him calling me his property, but there was little I could do about it.

"Lilith was Adam's first wife," he said. "But she defied God and was sent away. She put a curse on mankind. Her children were vampires, the first blood, immortal like Lilith. Their children, the pure bloods, were also immortal."

This was the longest he'd ever spoken. I still didn't understand first bloods and pure bloods, but now I knew enough not to upset him by asking too many questions. He had a need to tell me, so it was best to let him talk. I was curious when he mentioned the Garden of Eden. The priest had mentioned the Garden, but he had talked about Adam and Eve. He'd never mentioned someone called Lilith.

"Wasn't the Garden of Eden a long time ago?" I flinched as soon as I asked the question.

"Long ago." He laughed in a way that made me shiver. "It was many thousands of years ago. Man lived in tents and huts, and the first bloods ruled them." His eyes narrowed as he stared at me. "Men and women, mortals, were our cattle."

I swallowed, appalled by this tale. If he was the son of a first blood, why was he living in a cave.

"May I ask another question?"

He nodded

"Where are the first bloods if they were immortal?"

For a moment, his eyes widened, and I thought he was going to hit me again.

"Only a few of us survived the flood. God had his revenge after all."

This was beyond my understanding, but I was glad the evil creatures he described were dead. That was the last conversation we ever had.



One evening, Greynar came to me. "Come," he said. Then he dragged me out of the cave, leading me for several miles until we came to a nunnery. I didn't realize what he intended until he took me to the front door, rang the bell, and quickly moved to the side. The Prioress peered out of a small barred window in the large wooden gate. When she saw me standing alone, she opened a door. He was inside so swiftly she barely had time to scream. He bit her neck, and she was dead before she hit the floor. He ran inside the nunnery, and I soon heard the screams of many women.

I watched the Prioress bleed to death, horrified at what he had done, but there was more horror to see when I went into the building. I followed the sounds of screaming women into the Chapel area where I saw a nun lying on the floor with her throat ripped out. Another nun was seated on the floor with her back against a wall. Her left hand was trying to cover the wounds in her neck, while her right hand touched a foot, long silver cross on the floor. She gestured for me to approach.

"Take this," she said, and handed me the silver cross. At first, the cross burned my hand, but after a few minutes, I felt warmth flowing throughout my body. As I held up the cross, it no longer burned. When I looked down, her head was slumped over, and she was dead.

I entered a small dormitory, passing two more dead bodies. The vampire was inside one of the small rooms drinking blood from a young woman no more than sixteen years old. He turned, sensing my presence and, when he saw me standing at the door, he hesitated momentarily. I lunged forward driving the silver crucifix into his heart. He shrieked hideously and fell to the floor motionless. I killed him for what he did to my husband, what he did to the nuns, and most of all for what he did to me.

I knelt on the floor and drank his blood. I shut my eyes as a feeling of great power surged through my body. Then I watched him turn to dust. I took one last look at the engraved silver cross with Jesus on it and lay it on top of the nun.

I left the room overwhelmed by the horrible slaughter of the nuns and what I had done to the vampire. The smell of blood was maddening, and I needed to get out of the nunnery. I don't have a clear recollection of what happened next, but eventually I found myself in the vampire's cave. His female creature was gone, and I lay down on the cold floor wishing I could die. But death was not my destiny. After several days, I experienced a craving for blood I could not resist. I resolved to take only the blood of animals and never touch a human being.

It was a cloudy night when I walked out of the cave. I immediately recognized the scent of a stag that had wandered into a clearing within a mile of the cave entrance. I walked noiselessly through the forest closing the distance between us. With a sudden burst of speed, I grabbed the deer before he could run. After I broke the deer's neck, my fangs pierced his jugular vein as I drained his body of blood. When I was finished, I looked at my blood soaked hands and was repulsed because I had taken the animal's life.

Sitting against a tree, I was overcome by self-revulsion because I was a vampire. I was evil and deserved to die. I sat waiting for the dawn to end my life, but just before sunrise my instinct to survive took hold, and I ran into the cave. I sat on the floor, thinking about my endless future. I was no longer human, no longer a part of society. This would be my fate forever. I had been dragged into a hell the priest had never described.