Part of the past

Caitlin sat on a poor unbalanced stool in her home, passing a needle with thread through a worn cloth that belongs to Kyra and she hummed along as she sews. All of a sudden, her hand stopped moving abruptly as her thoughts took her through memory lane…

It was the first week of winter eighteen years ago when she met a noble man dressed in an all-black long dress with his hair neatly set. Caitlin had been sent to Creeksville which was at the east side of Old Vine Town. She was to go gather information about what they might have missed and to know what the other Covens might be up to.

Unlike her own town which was filled with old people and looked as good as dead, Caitlin found interest in Creeksville because of how lively it was and not to talk of how some noble men from prestigious families do visit the place. It was the kind of place she had always wanted to settle down in without having any worry about the kind she was.

On that sunny day, she stepped into the streets of Creeksville and walked like a normal person with her sister, Kathryn, who had decided to tag along. They had split up when they got to the busiest place where people mostly gossip while trading, buying or selling things and Caitlin had pretended as if she were going to buy something when in truth she was listening to the gossips.

After a while, seeing that there was nothing new or unusual, she decided to look for her sister so they can head back home. At that time, evening was already near.

Caitlin rounded the whole place from where they had first split up and her eyes searched frantically as a frown latched on her forehead.

“She couldn’t have possibly left without me,” she muttered as she stood in one place and bent her upper body to rub her aching leg. It was there her sharp ears picked on two people’s whispering.

“Father, I have seen signs, visions and and…I don’t know what to do. This world is not what we thought it was. It is filled with evil and people are coveting it. There are demons from every angles, ones I have never seen before. They take the form of humans but they don’t die. They are the ones who will bring the world to an end while they remain in it. I believe that the words written in that sacred book…is real.”

“Have you opened the sacred book and read through what was written? May God forgive you Aiden!”

Caitlin tried to read through what was on their mind to know what they were talking about but she could only access the mind of one while the other seems to be blocking her entrance. She turned around to see two men, one who looked a bit old and the other was still young, maybe a few years older than her in the human age. Without anyone telling her, she knows they are priests. From their outfit and from what she has heard about people like them. They are the ones who collects the sins of the people and bring them to repentance by a form of divine spirit and deliverance. Caitlin has also heard of how they cast out demons from the possessed but she did not quite believe that. And though they do those things, they are not on their radar because they don’t seem to be a threat to their existence.

The mind of the one she could access was telling her that he knows about what the other man was talking about but he was quite displeased and not a second later, the man started to walk away, leaving the other man whose name she had picked up to be Aiden.

Caitlin does not understand why she is not able to access his mind and for some reason which was quite unclear to her, she felt the urge to want to know more about him and especially what was going through his mind, or about the sacred book he mentioned. There was something about him that catches her attention and she would make sure to unveil it.

“Caitlin!”

Caitlin turned her head immediately to look in the direction of where her name had been called sharply and she saw her sister, but next to her was a little girl who looked pale and unkept. She quickly looked back at where the priest stood but saw that he was already gone and she walked up to her sister immediately.

“I have been searching for you for over an hour now and then I finally found you but with a mystery next to you. Now tell me, who is this girl and why is she holding on to you? Are you not even bothered that her family might be looking for her?” she asked with a stern face and then looked down at the girl who seem to be shaken up.

“Caitlin, look around you and this place, and then at this girl. Don’t you notice anything odd?” Kathryn asked in a low voice but with a serious expression and Caitlin tried to make meaning of what she was saying when it clicked.

Of course, Creeksville is too neat and exclusive for a tattered girl to be wandering about it. It is no doubt she has been taken hostage and the reason for that is not what she is oblivious about.

“Let’s head back home,” Caitlin said and they returned back to Old Vine Town with the mysterious girl.

*

“Is she the result of what I sent you to do?”

“Mother,” Kathryn called and said, “we didn’t find anything suspicious and there is no news for now. But you need to hear this,” she stretched her hand towards where the little girl sat, staring at them.

“From the way I see it,” Caitlin spoke from where she sat, “she seems to have ran away from the clutches of someone holding her hostage. I can’t seem to understand though…Creeksville might have some dirt that we haven’t figured out yet. What if they are taking young bloods and selling them to our kind?” she asked and squint her eyes a little.

“Will you let me talk, sister?” Kathryn said impatiently.

“Fine!”

Kathryn looked back at their mother and said, “I found her at the marketplace, stealing food and about to be stoned to death. And Caitlin is half-right.”

“I am not following,” their mother said.

“They are selling our blood.”

“Our blood?” Caitlin scoffed. “You talk as if it’s really ours.”

Kathryn stood up and grabbed the knife from the table next to her and both Caitlin and their mother watched as she walked to where the little girl sat. Taking her feeble hand in hers, she made a small cut with the knife and showed it to her mother and sister whose eyes widen immediately.

“Yes,” Kathryn confirmed for them. “She is a Blackburn.”

“Baron!” their mother called the house servant and he immediately rushed over.

“Yes, my master,” Baron said when he got to her.

“Take that girl and get her cleaned up immediately. Give her fine clothes to wear and let her fill her stomach with food, until she is satisfied and prepare a room for her,” she ordered him and Baron gave a bow before taking the little girl out of sight.

Caitlin gave Kathryn a puzzled look and then looked at their mother before asking, “Are they trading our blood now?”

“I thought vampires blood are toxic to vampires. Is that not why we drink humans and animals bloods?” Kathryn asked, also looking confused.

“Not our own kind,” their mother said and added, “A Witch must have done this.”