This is a Vampires SMP based fanfic, some lore aspects may not be exactly as they were in the SMP or in cannon but this fanfic links in with both Owen’s and Cleo’s lore. Blood after scars I hear the echoes of distant screams, a mother calming her crying children. Crammed in the corner of a town hall, the flames from the town light up the once dark night sky. I can feel the weight of my sister’s palm on my shoulder. ”He won't come here, darling,” my mother whispers under the darkness, though we are both unsure of that. The door opens and his footsteps fall heavy. Fathers and other men step forward trying to defend their families and the town, but they hit the floor one by one. A mother cries as a child is ripped from her arms. I can see him so clearly now. It’s the lumberjack. The one that lives on the outskirts of town where no one dares to go. The one with the strange, debilitating disease. He went missing three days ago. I remember the adults raising a pire, questioning the mayor and raiding his manor only days later, finding evidence of an assault on his person. The bonfire in the centre of town and the scent of burning clothes. His screams, his pleas, protests…ignored. He was a vampire. Our own mayor was a vampire. They assumed he did something to the lumberjack. Funny, really, the irony. How they only cared about him when he went missing. They would always shy away from him on his visits to town, flinch and jerk their hands away as any time he got close, avoiding eye contact. His skin was always coated with blisters wrapped in thick bandages. The mayor must have been nice to him or something, if he kept coming back to visit him every day. Well, that is, until he went missing. I notice he looks…different. He was still lean, still had bandages wrapped around his arms, hands, and legs, he still had his axe, but his eyes were blood red and a pair of velvety bat-like wings had sprouted on his back. He had fangs. And a thirst for blood. Our blood. The lumberjack was a vampire now. The mayor must have changed something in him. That must have been why he disappeared. I see the manic look in his crimson eyes, but beside the rage, there was a flash of grief, of pain. He must have really cared about the mayor, massacring the whole town when he appeared at the sight of the mayor at the stake. I hear the lumberjack’s pleased laughter echo through the town hall as he sets it ablaze, the fire licking at the walls and floor, eating through wood. “You killed him,” I hear the lumberjack snarl. “You burnt him at the stake. And now he’s gone. He promised a life with me! I joined the ranks of the undead to be with him for all of eternity. But now he’s gone. He’s gone!” The lumberjack lets out another piercing cry, just like the one he did when he awoke, stumbling out of the manor, seeing the townsfolk and the horror of the night. The same cry he let out before cutting down everyone within reach, then coming to the town hall. We run, we hide but nothing is enough to satisfy his taste for blood, for revenge. I watch as my mother runs and my sister pushes me behind her. Tears fall to the floor mixing with blood, lingering hope and despair. I glance behind me at the endless woods, the only sanctuary. My eyes are foggy and the fire is spreading into the once grand building. I start to run but fall to the ground, cutting a deep wound into my wrist. The pain is agonising but my hope to survive is stronger. I sprint faster. I hear my sister’s cries fall silent but I don’t turn back. I can't. The taste of smoke fills my lungs as I reach the edge of the treeline. I glance back, fire in my eyes, and I see the giant flames engulf the last part of the building. He just stands there, in the rubble staring out in the direction of what was a cheerful town, where children played, an old man sat on his porch and there was a local Sunday market. But that was no more, Oakhurst was gone and so was everyone in it, I was the only one left. I run further into the trees, the branches and leaves lashing at my face and arms, but I don’t care. I have to get away. Soon I find myself in a nearby town stumbling into concerned townsfolk. I tell them everything, the screams, the bonfire and the lumberjack who murdered the whole town. Before long I’m sitting next to a fireplace in the house of a kind carpenter, warm and welcoming. I clutch my wrist, the deep cut still untreated. I can feel the weight of the possessions I was able to save in my pocket and reach in, an extra button, a necklace I was given at birth and a spool of silk ribbon. “This will do” I say to myself, wrapping the ribbon around my wrist, covering the cut before making my way up to a spare bed in the attic. I hear the howl of a wolf in the distance, somewhere spirits gather to their final resting place, and I know when it’s time, they will send me a sign to show they’re okay.
This was a fanfic with @Dragonstar156 and they were such an amazing person to work with, big shoutout to them for helping me to write my first fanfic!
