Fatal Mistake

Ranavalona Batory died in her sleep, and "unfortunately," the baby did not survive.

Her funeral was held the following week, the very week our child was supposed to be born.

Even in death, the gender of the child remained ambiguous. Some believed it would have been a boy; others insisted it would have been a girl. In the end, however, it no longer mattered to me.

I had killed it.

And what became of the rest of the Batory family?

They disappeared completely. Even after I dispatched several knights to search their hideouts, every trace of them had vanished.

Perhaps they knew I had uncovered their secrets. Perhaps they understood that, from that moment onward, we were enemies.

Whatever the reason, I told myself there was no point in worrying about them. I had other things to concern myself with.

After all, I had murdered my own wife and child.

I knew perfectly well that I would never be able to sleep peacefully again. Two months had passed since Ranavalona’s death, and I had been plagued by terrible dreams.

No, not dreams.

Nightmares.

In them, I found myself in a place beneath the kingdom. Risorgo had been built upon the ruins of an enemy kingdom conquered by my ancestors long ago.

Yet the place was drenched in blood. Corpses covered the ground, all of them belonging to the people of my own kingdom. Among them were my mother, my father, and even my friends.

And behind all those tragedies stood a pale infant.

Its head was human, but its body resembled that of a spider. Its arms and legs were long, twisted appendages, like the limbs of some monstrous arachnid.

Every night, the creature chased me.

And every night, I was caught.

I always awoke at the very moment it reached me, my heart pounding against my chest.

But the worst part was not the fear itself.

It was the sensation that something had physically touched me, even after I had returned to the waking world.

I could no longer sleep properly.

To others, I must have looked like a dead man walking.

I had expected everything to return to normal once Ranavalona and the child were gone. Instead, nothing had changed. The kingdom remained beneath its endless grey skies, and the paranoia that had consumed me only grew stronger.

Then, one night, while I lay in bed, I was visited by the very people I had spent so long hunting.

The Batory family.

Their patriarch and matriarch stood before me, accompanied by their four eldest sons and their youngest daughter.

Of course, Ranavalona was no longer among them.

For a moment, I believed I was about to die. I was alone, surrounded by vampires, with no knights to protect me and no means of escaping them.

Yet none of them attacked.

Instead, the family’s patriarch stepped forward and spoke.

"What you have done is something beyond forgiveness."

I stared at him.

"You should never have forced your way into our lives," I replied. "You were planning to destroy my kingdom."

"Wrong, child. We were merely reclaiming what was ours, the kingdom that your filthy ancestors stole from us."

His expression remained cold.

"We have already taken care of the Kingdom of Teapa and the Kingdom of Nerella, your allies. With the birth of my grandchild, the Kingdom of Risorgo would have been ours as well."

He paused.

"Unfortunately, after what you have done, that is no longer possible."

"Then why don’t you enlighten me?"

"You murdered your own child, a being born of both human and vampire blood. And in doing so, you took my daughter from me."

I clenched my fists.

"So, what now? Are you going to kill me?"

"No."

He looked directly into my eyes.

"We are going to bless you."

"Bless me?" I scoffed. "You are vampires. Why in the world would I need your blessing?"

The patriarch took a step closer.

"By killing your own child, you have sealed the fate of both yourself and your kingdom."

I said nothing.

"Killing a vampire is one thing," he continued. "But killing a vampire before it has even been born is another matter entirely."

He folded his hands behind his back and began to explain.

"You see, when a human child is born, it must be baptized with water. Vampires, however, must be drenched in blood. Despite being different beings, both humans and vampires must undergo a form of purification to prevent them from carrying the original sin into the world. For humans, this is accomplished through holy water. For vampires, it is done with the blood of a virgin."

He paused, allowing his words to settle.

"A human infant may die during childbirth. Vampires, however, have a far greater chance of surviving their birth. The difference is that they are dangerous from the very moment they enter the world."

His expression darkened.

"The original sin is far more dangerous in a vampire. Such children are unstable, powerful, and capable of destroying anything and anyone in their path. Their will is absolute. Raising one is an exceedingly delicate task, and controlling one is almost impossible."

He looked at me with an expression I could not decipher.

"You must either stay out of their way or kill them before it is too late."

"Then that is why they must be bathed in a virgin’s blood?" I asked. "To wash away their original sin?"

"Precisely."

I frowned.

"Then why are you here warning me? Surely this works in your favor."

The patriarch’s face grew grim.

"You killed your own child. Our grandchild. You killed it before it could be born, sending it to Hell with its original sin unpurified."

He paused.

"And now it will rise."

For the first time since they had appeared, I felt a chill creep through me.

"It will bring terror upon every land it walks. No kingdom will be spared. No life will be safe."

I struggled to comprehend his words.

"What do you want me to do, then?"

The patriarch stared at me, his eyes cold and unyielding.

"You must kill your child before it has the chance to kill you."

He leaned closer.

"If you allow it to kill you first, then every life in this world will perish by your own hand."