"Lambs For the Slaughter" (The Past) Belmont Clan/The Sacred Order Blog

Maria’s POV

Maria sat in the quiet of the Belmont Estate Garden under a Willow Tree. It’s shade providing her with some protection from the winter sun. On her lap she held a leather journal, bound by a leather string. Its pages made from parchment with her scribblings inside that as a child were almost eligible.  Except for one date. A date that would never be forgotten, a date that as a young child, held so much guilt for her. She opened her journal to the page and looked at it, with no feeling or thought going through her mind. It was a blank page. And thereafter for many days there were no written words to remind her of how she felt. In some ways this made her feel rotten. Surely even vampires had feelings. In her memory banks as a human, she could have remembered but now being a nocturnal creature those days, those feelings, were just like the page in front of her. Empty. In some ways she felt free, free of all feeling. But. It came at a willing cost. A selfish cost. And now she was one of them. Those fiends that killed her family that made her do the actions of that night, which were in essence the very reason she became what she detested. 

Her eyes began to well and a blood tear trickled down her cheek. But they weren’t tears of sorrow or anything in relation to her family. They were tears of hatred for herself. If only Katerina would let her turn to dust. Then perhaps she would find some peace. 

But in that moment of hatred for herself and the blood tears that she wept so suddenly; her journal now became stained with blood that spelt relief. Maria was not prepared for what came next. She let out a scream. Memories of that wintery night came flooding back like a tidal wave, her sobbing continued. Maria hated herself so much she would put herself through the pain of that terrible night. Feelings of guilt hit her like a sledgehammer. But it didn’t stop there and so she ran. Ran out of the garden, her journal dropped on the ground near where she had sat, she ran into the forest, never wanting to stop, never wanting to feel. But in her hatred, she had opened a door. Enraged she ran into a tree headfirst, only to dent the tree trunk but enough to make her stop. No breath released from her and her emotions felt off kilter. She wanted to get some semblance of control back but it was too late. There was no point in fighting what was to come, Maria let herself slump down onto the forest in a crumpled heap, still, lifeless, her eyes closed as if asleep. 

Silence of the Lambs...

Maria’s landscape changed, she was inside her mind, she was a child again, sat on Katerina’s bed, darning. Needlework had been one of Maria’s past times back then. Most noble women would darn or do things that were deemed as ‘lady-like’.

Being born into an aristocratic family, Maria was home educated. Her mother insisted upon it, regardless of how males viewed women in those days, her mother saw something in Maria that would later confirm her suspicions. Both parents had power and wealth beyond measure along with hidden secrets, and so Maria had a slightly different upbringing to others. Unfortunately for her parents it was too late. They were killed by vampires and after that, Maria remained in the family home of the Belmonts. Distant cousins to the Renard’s. She was only young herself, ten and two and by all accounts Maria had already felt a disdain towards such evil. And regardless of what her new family warned: she began to train as a huntress. Revenge was what she wanted. And one day when she were old enough, she would join her brothers on a hunt and get her revenge. But that wasn’t to be. 

Her landscape changed yet again, and she was staring out of Katerina’s bedroom window, snow had begun to fall, Winter was in full swing. Katerina made a joke about throwing snowballs at their brothers, echoes of giggles spun in her mind, but they were cut short. The scene changed as a feral vampire burst into Katerina’s room. Katerina pushed her out of harm’s way. A mistake that Katerina would pay for. Maria watched in silent horror unable to scream, as the vampire held Katerina up by her neck, strangling her. Gurgles of screams came from Katerina and Maria hid beneath her bed where her kitten was. She cuddled it tight as the screams were replaced by silence. From beneath the bed, Maria saw Katerina’s lifeless body in a pool of blood, the vampire still there, making a hideous noise. Her heart raced. Where was Leon? where were her brothers? Were they all dead? She waited until the vampire left the room and crawled out from under Katerina’s bed. She stood over Katerina’s body, tears formed in her eyes, she began to sob quietly. Down the hallway she could hear shouting from her brothers. More screams of agony. She did not understand why the vampire left her alive. 

Leon entered Katerina’s room and Maria looked up at him, scared, sobbing, holding onto her kitten. “She’s gone”, her heart was broken. Leon ordered Maria to hide in Katerina’s closet where she remained until everything was silent. She no longer heard the cracking of their whips, and them fighting for their lives, everything was silent as though time had stood still. Her heartbeat fast and she opened the closet door, peering outward. The kitten escaped Maria’s arms and she whispered, “NO! Come back!”. She followed the kitten out into the hallway, where it stopped. The group of vampires that had attacked her family had left. She looked back at Katerina. There was nothing she could do to bring back her family to life, not to their former selves anyway. There was only one thing that assured their longevity. 

She swooped her kitten back up and into her arms, she had to make them into vampires. She had no choice. The very thought of losing her family outweighed the fear of them being vampires. But what if they came for her? What if they became feral like the vampire that killed Katerina. His face an illusion staring back at her, his eyes black like coal, menacing with rage, his fangs sharp like wolves. She closed her eyes, grimacing at the illusion that presented itself to her and the image faded into the recess of her mind. 

A tear formed and she placed a small kiss on her kitten’s head. “I’m sorry for what I am about to do, please forgive me”. The kitten simply meowed back at her as if she knew. The decision made, a decision that would lay guilt upon Maria for the rest of her human life, all for her own selfish gains. After the slaughtering of her own parents, she did not want to lose her adopted siblings. But this was the only way. 

She went back into Katerina’s room and sat by her side. For a moment her eyes glazed over, she took out the pin that held her hair up. She shook her head, letting her blonde waves fall down either side of her face. Taking her kitten’s paw, she pierced it. The kitten meowed retracting her paw but Maria firmly held it over Katerina’s mouth, drop by drop its blood trickled upon her unmoving lips. Maria hoped that it would sustain her enough to bring her back. She waited. After a few minutes she saw Katerina’s fingers move. She moved back, heart racing, she ran to each of her brothers to give them the remainder of her kitten’s life. Hoping, praying that they would forgive her for bringing them back as vampires. But in her selfish thoughts, it was better that than being dead. Poor Maria, such a heavy weight to have on her shoulders for all this time. 

A blood tear trickled down her cheek and she opened her eyes, relief swept over her, she had faced the past and the door now closed. What now for Maria? Revenge for her parents’ death and revenge for what the Serafan Nine did to her beloved Belmont siblings. She understood that her actions were just that of a confused child. And in her own understanding she began to forgive herself.