Under the moonlight's curse
(A Vampire AU)
Ascella was once a normal girl living in the village. She lived in a small orphanage with other kids. She didn’t have a lot of friends, but has always been on good terms with everyone. One night, she suddenly disappeared and didn’t return until several moons passed.Back then, she was already quiet and didn’t socialize often, but after returning, her demeanor has changed so much that the once bright Miqo’te had become so cold and distant. She has closed herself off from the rest, except for a young Viera boy.She didn’t go out much during the day, saying she’s always feeling sick. However at night, she would escape the orphanage only to return before the sun rises in the morning.During those times, villagers would start noticing more and more that their farm animals would be found dead every morning. A few summers pass and even wild animals would often be lying dead in the forests surrounding the village.And then, one by one, people started disappearing; some would return as lifeless corpses– drained of blood and with bite marks on their necks, and some of them never to be seen again. It was then that the people knew a vampire was hiding within the shadows and preying on them.The people had gathered a group of hunters to end the vampire’s reign of terror, spreading news to nearby villages as well and warning them of the danger should this vampire escape to another place.
By this time, Ascella has already grown up into a fine young adult who lives by herself at a small cottage house just outside the village. Villagers would often visit her and give her food or supplies, as she has always been a sickly girl. She also had a vast garden outside where she grows her flowers and vegetables to sustain her independent life.But unbeknownst to everyone else, underneath all the colorful flowers they see lies the bodies of every single person she has taken blood from all these years. And every night, Ascella takes one more person to feast on.Apparently, the night she disappeared as a child, she was gathering flowers just outside the village; she had wanted to make a flower crown as a gift to her friend. A cloaked stranger suddenly approached and offered to show her a wonderful field of flowers to help with her gift.Gullible as she was, Ascella followed the stranger, her thoughts already preoccupied with how happy her friend would be if she could make him a gift that can’t be easily found in their village.As they reached deeper into the woods, and the sky had grown darker, Ascella’s last memory of that night before losing consciousness was a faint smell of lavender and sandalwood. The next time she opens her eyes, she’s locked inside a dimly lit mansion, with her hands and feet tied together.
There, she meets an old woman who introduces herself as the cloaked figure she had encountered. Ascella learns that the woman was a vampire who wanted to feed on her that night. However, as Ascella struggles in her last moments, she grabs the woman and begs to let her live. She begs for her life, wanting to at least see her friend one last time and give him her gift.The vampire obviously found it ridiculous, but entertained the thought. An apprentice didn’t sound too bad after all.Before Ascella could take her last breath, the woman offered her blood. With her thoughts muddled and her survival instincts suddenly kicking in, the young Miqo’te doesn’t hold back and consumes the vampire’s blood.The woman then recounts how Ascella had suffered from excruciating pain for days as she turned. She had to tie her up as she was hysterical and bloodthirsty— leaving her on her own would expose them both to the people. By the time Ascella had come back to her senses, it had already been a week.At first, Ascella only wanted to go back to the village and continue living her life there. But the woman warned her that as a newly turned vampire, she would only wipe the whole place out of life with her bloodthirst. And so, out of fear of herself, Ascella decided to stay with the woman until she adapts to her new life and her new identity— how to hide the monster that she has become.