Lou's Life Chap 17 "Death and Betrayal"

Suddenly, the door to the jail swung open. The big-bellied Sheriff and his two deputies crowded themselves into the space in front of my cell door. I turned away from the window, jumped down off the cot and stepped forward to face him. "Your man left town as soon as we released him" the Sheriff said with a smirk as hes was fumbling for the keys. "Maybe he wanted to get away before he had to watch you be revealed for what you really are. I can't say as I blame him. I mean you are a fine little filly, I wouldn't want to leave you, but maybe for him, staying with you is not worth the chance of having you curse him in his sleep.

Luckily for me, you can't curse me with your blasphemy. See this Crucifix around my neck? The Sister's blessed me before I came to get you, so I am protected. Let's go to the river and find out if your Dark Lord will claim you." I let him reach in and pull me roughly out of the cell. I was jerked around, shackled and drug towards the door. I did my best to dig in my heels, screaming, "I'm innocent! Please don't do this to me! I'm innocent." He motioned to his hulking deputies, the ones that had put Quinn and me in the cell They put me between them and picked me up a couple of feet off the ground. I continued to wiggle and kick and scream my innocence, but it did no good against the two huge men that held me.

As we got out the door, it looked like the entire town was gathered in front of the Jail. I spotted Sister Fincana in the crowd and began to scream to her. "Sister! Sister! Why? Why are you doing this to me? You know me, you tended my scraped knees when I fell, you dried my tears when I had nightmares." I was having to practically twist myself around backwards and break my own neck to see her behind us. My captors were steadily marching towards the river, and Sister Fincana, along with the rest of the nuns and the rest of the whole town, were following. She wouldn't look at me, wouldn't meet my eyes, but she was close enough I could see tears were streaming down her cheeks. "Sister Fincana! You were the one who sat with me all night, when Elizabeth and I snuck in the garden and ate to many raw cucumbers and made ourselves sick. You were the one who taught me about the Sidhe! I knew what to look for, how to ward myself against them, you taught me, remember? Why would I let one bewitch me?"

"STOP! By St.Michael's knees, just stop!" Sister Fincana yelled surprisingly loud for a woman who usually spoke barely above a whisper. She pulled herself up to her full height of 5'2" and came to a dead stop in the middle of the path. By this time we were in the woods, and there was a long line of people following. It would have been comical watching the entire village pile up into one another trying to stop themselves without plowing into Sister Fincana and trampling her, if it had been under different circumstances. My handlers and the Sheriff also stopped and turned me around. The Sheriff stepped around us and put himself between me and the Sister. He was standing close enough to me that he completely blocked my view of the crowd, I couldn't see anything but his broad back. "What is the meaning of this?" the Sheriff bellowed like a great bear.

I could hear loud whispering but without being able to see who was speaking, I couldn't focus on any one speaker to try and hear them, the words are all jumbled into one another. Suddenly, the human wall moved out of my way, and Sister Fincana was coming toward me. She looked frail and so distraught, she was being supported by Sister Marguerite and Sister Grace. She came forward and stopped about a foot from me. My handlers let me down to stand on my own, but they both kept a beefy hand on my upper arms. She looked into my eyes, and gently touched my cheek. "Daughter, I find you much changed.

I did care for you like you were my own child, and I do love you like a daughter. It's just that you are not the same girl that has lived with us for the past 11 years. Your hair, your dress, your demeanor is different. Even if I could attribute that to the fact you may now have ladies maids to do your hair, and prepare your wardrobe, your skin is so pale and cold, and you have the "look". I'm so sorry my dear, we must know for sure. You "look" like you are one bewitched, but if you are not you have nothing to fear. Please my child, just let us have this trial. If you are still the Heavenly Father's child, you will be spared.

I just looked at her without speaking, and she seemed to be watching me for some sort of reaction. I had such a battle going on between what was little bit was left of my human side and my new immortal side. On one hand, I had memories of this woman caring for me when I was sick, disciplining me when I was naughty, and laughing at me when I expressed my sense of humor. She was my mother, my older sister, my teacher and my friend. I don't think she would viciously attack me without provocation. She must have a powerful reason for doing this to me. I don't think she would subject me to this unless she believed it was necessary. But then, that train of thought began to war with my vampire mind. On the other hand, how dare these inferior beings judge me. If they only knew how easily I could kill them.

It would take very little effort and I could slaughter every single one of them. The entire town was out here in these woods with me, if they only knew how easily they could all just disappear without a trace. No one would ever know what happened to them, and it would just be a great mystery to go down in the history books. I was not in danger of being killed by them, they were the ones in danger. And yet I had extended control over myself to refrain, I was giving them the gift of life, was letting them live. If these two Hulk look-a-likes holding my arms had ANY idea what feeling their pulses through my biceps and smelling their blood was doing to me, and how easily I could tear them in half, regardless of their size, they would be running away screaming like frightened schoolgirls. And yet I kept myself under control, did not give in to my baser instincts. What a way to be repaid for my merciful restraint!

While my mind was going down this path, my mind snagged on something Sister Fincana had said. "Wait, what did you say? What do you mean I have a "look"? I do not understand your meaning." Sister Fincana got a look on her face like she was remembering something so horrible it would pain her to speak of it. "In order to explain to you what I mean, I would have to tell you about my life before the Church. You should already know that our lives before the Church are wiped clean. Once we take our vows, all our past actions are cleansed away and we are made new in Christ. So in that sense, my past does no exist. But it does exist, and it seems I cannot escape it no matter what I do.

They are terrible, vicious memories, and it took me many years to get over them. I can't stand to remember them again." I disagreed, I just had to know. "But, Sister Fincana" I tried to speak as gently as possible. "Don't you think that you might owe me an explanation? I care for you as my friend, at one time I thought of you and the other Sisters as my family. You, yourself just admitted to loving me as a daughter. You must have a reason. You would not make an accusation of this magnitude lightly." I tried to get her to look me in the eye by ducking my head until it was on the level with hers. I tried to look as innocent and sorrowful as possible. "Please, tell me why your doing this to me."

Sister Fincana began to gently weep. She looked at the heavens, crossed herself, and released a heavy sigh. The she looked at me with a determined look on her face. "I say you have the "look" because I have seen your kind before. It was a long time ago, and I have done the best I can to forget it and put it behind me. When I was a ten year child in Kelso in the Highlands, I remember it was very early in the morning, we were at the table eating porridge and I remember hearing screams out side. My sire pulled his dirk out of his boot, jumped up and ran out the door. My mother gathered me and my brothers and sisters and practically shoved us through the trap door in the floor, down into the root cellar.

Then I remember my Da yelling and my mother left us. She told us to stay down in the cellar and stay hidden. Several moments went by, it seemed like hours to us children, and Ma did not come back. Being the oldest and the bravest of all my siblings, I went to the trap door, and lifted it just enough to peek out. It was a sight I will never forget for my entire life. The front door was standing wide open and the sun had risen, giving off just enough light to see outside. There was a light ran falling, as there almost always is in the Scottish Highlands. My sire lay dead in the front yard of our little house, my dam was dead on the porch. I put my hand over my mouth and bit into my finger to keep from crying out. Beyond them I could see people running, near the well in the middle of our village. At first, I thought it was a battle, we were being attacked.

I couldn't tell who was attacking, but then I saw the blacksmith, Master Ackland, went running by like the Hounds of Hell were chasing him. Suddenly, out of nowhere, this man and woman appeared and attacked him from behind. I didn't even see them run up behind him, they were just suddenly there, one on each side of him. It was so fast he didn't even have time to scream, much less fight back. They were biting him, he was struggling" ... she shuddered and leaned heavily on Sister Marguerite ...... "it was so horrible. After they released him, he crumpled to the ground, dead. It was all I could do not to scream. I know I soiled myself. The man and woman just stood there, blood on their faces, blood on their clothes, looking around. They looked in my direction, and only by the grace of God, they did not see me. But I saw them, and their visages will be seared in my mind forever." Sister Fincana started to weep harder. Her tears were rolling down now and dripping off her chin. "Daughter, you could not look more like the woman I saw that day if you were her twin."

I was floored, I did not know what to say, wasn't sure how to react to that information. Obviously, it was not me, I had only been a vampire for almost a year. But, I guess now I understood why, if anyone had a reason to want to see me tried as a Witch, it would be Sister Fincana. If I was still human, and in the Sister's position I probably would have done the same thing. Maybe she thought that if I was "damned" and I was tried and killed, it would in some way avenge her parents. I made myself hang my head, made myself go limp in my captors arms. We turned back around and continued on our march to the river. Finally, the woods opened up to a bank of small, smooth rocks. The Sheriff had been carrying some rope and a stool, and I had wondered what they were going to be used for. Unfortunately, I was about to find out. All the townspeople gathered at the edge of the woods, spreading out in a wide semi-circle behind the three Sisters. The sisters stood about 10-15 ft from the tree line on the rocky bank, and the Sheriff and my Hulks stood with me at the waters edge. I knew we were facing the Sisters, but I wasn't looking at them. I was just standing there quietly, looking at the rocks at my feet, waiting for what was going to come next.

I had heard of Witches being tested and tried by the Church, but I had never witnessed it myself. I had a good idea what was about to happen to me. I wasn't afraid, I knew they couldn't kill me, but it brought back all the old feelings that I had went through when Quinn turned me. I had lost my family then. I would never again be able to see my parents, my two eldest brothers had been killed by the Gitan, and I would never be able to watch my younger brothers and sisters grow up. Now I had lost my family at the Abbey. The Sisters were very good to me, I had a happy peaceful life there. All in all, it had been a pleasant place to grow up. That was gone. There was no pleading to get out of this, no begging for mercy, no scheming and looking for a way to escape. My extended family had betrayed me and for me to survive, I had to convince them I was dead.