She had been a beautiful child. A child who knew nothing but laughter and love from a family and a kingdom that would one day be hers.
Her parents watched as she wasted away, her skin turning ashen and her eyes turning dull, and they vowed to do anything to save her. And so, a kingdom wide search started up, with a reward large enough to start a new world.
Late one night a stranger appeared in the castle hallway, promising a recovery for their daughter that would save her life forever.
Desperate as they were, the king and queen did not notice the strangers teeth lengthen as they lead him through their home. They did not see the way he avoided the servants as they carried food around, and seemed to hold his breath as they walked past some women.
âHelp her.â The queen pleaded as they reached their daughters room.
âAre you sure you would do anything?â The man said.
The queen did not even have a second to blink, not as he pulled back, his lips and teeth stained red.
âShe will survive.â He said.
âShe is one of my kind now. She will age slower, sleep less. She will be able to bare the sunlight but night will be her home. She will drink blood and control minds and make people fall in love with her, and she will never die.â
âYou turned her into a vampire.â
âAnd you said you would do anything.â
They could not argue with that. So they only bowed their heads, gave their reward, and watched the stranger leave.
At first, their child, the loved princess of their land, seemed fine. Perfect. Human. To the point that they almost forgot what she now was. She ate when she was told, slept when she was locked into her room, and acted like she had never been ill.
Then, months later, she struck.
She and her mother were playing in the castle grounds and the king was listening from the balcony at their sounds of laughter and life.
When it was cut off by a scream.
He ran down the stairs as fast as he could, but it was not fast enough. His wife and love was lying on the grass, a pool of blood from her neck and her skin lifeless, and above her, their daughter, with fangs white and glistening.
And then, in the sunlight, he finally saw what he had been blind too before. Her skin, once glowing with childhood, was as white as freshly fallen snow. Her lips, once pink, were as red as the blood on the floor.
She was no longer a child. But a monster.
A monster he still adored, for she was his daughter.
And when she looked up and smiled at him, he almost forgot that his queen was dead because of her.
He paid the servants to be silent and asked all but his most trusted to leave for new futures.
He buried his wife and called it natural, and shut himself and his daughter away to mourn.
The king emerged from the castle to carry his kingdom high. He travelled far and wide, befriending other kings in distant lands. Some said he was searching for something. Others side he was searching for someone. Most said he was just searching for peace.
But whatever it was, he returned with a new queen on his arm. A beautiful woman with hair of woven gold.
The kingdom rejoiced when they met her, for they knew she would bring happiness into their land, and back into the hearts of their king and the princess.
But the new queen did not like the princess. The new queen- while not old- could feel age creeping up on her like a shadow in the night. Age that was ready to steal her beauty and looks away like she had never been given them. And the new queen hated the girl- for now, in her twenties, she looked no older than fifteen, so youthful and gentle and innocent that every other person that looked at her fell in love.
And so the new queen plotted. She drugged the king each day, to make him weak and his mind weaker, and she followed the girl wherever she went, ready to kill her and steal that youthful beauty for herself.
That was how she saw what the girl really was.
And that was when her plans came to life.
She killed the king and framed a broken heart, and she offered to help the princess run the country in the aftermath of being made an orphan. And she looked to her most trusted hunter, the man who had killed for her so often she wondered if he even had a soul, and she told him to get her the girlâs heart.
She watched from the high balcony as the man dragged the princess out into the night, and she waited for his return.
The princess knew what was happening. She had felt the discontent, the anger and hate rise in her house, she had heard the whispers that the new queen had given out.
But she had waited. For she had learnt, in the short years, that dead should not come quickly to some, and that while they called her a monster, they were the ones without humanity.
So when the hunter took her out, she placed doubt in his mind. She made him see, not her, the deathly pale vampire, but the child she had once been, scared and lonely and afraid of death.
And she saw his hand loosen around the knife.
She called to her the birds and animals that lived in the forest, and watched his eyes widen- for no one evil could ever care for anything.
She took his soul, broken and splintered, and patched it up so he could find compassion.
And the hunter let her go.
âRun.â He said. âRun and donât look back. I will make her think you dead but you must never return.â
She promised him and she started running.
She was planning to return one day, with the story of the evil their new queen was full of, but she knew it was not time.
So she ran and ran through night and day.
Until she collapsed from the heat and the lack of blood.
The dwarves came across her late in the evening as they were returning home from work. One looked at another as they saw the white hand on the grass, and another glanced at the first as they stepped towards her.
Magic existed, but it was not well known, not even to the beings that were made of it. They were not to know that vampires never died. They were not to know the difference between a vampire and a human dead, when neither had heartbeat or breath.
All they knew was there was a beautiful girl dead on the ground, and she deserved more than to stay there.
So they went back to their mines and found the most beautiful diamonds and crafted up a coffin to place her in.
And as they were placing her inside, a stranger walked into their clearing. A crown on his head and cloak around his shoulders, he looked down at the girl and fell in love.
âLet me say goodbye.â He said, unable to see her go with nothing but dwarves around her. The dwarves all stepped back and the prince stepped forward, biting his lip as he brushed the hair off her forehead.
âSomeone so lovely should have had a lovely life.â He said softly, wondering if the princess he was going to visit would ever compare to this girl. âI hope whatever lies before you is perfect.â
And he kissed her on the lips.
But he had bitten too hard, and a drop of his blood landed on hers, and with that, she opened her eyes.
And starving- staving and parched, she did not see who it was before her, but only grabbed his arms before sinking her teeth into his neck.
Gasps, a scream, and she looked up. To see a prince she was killing.
She stopped- but it was too late. Not for him to die but for him to change, and he did so before her eyes.
Her father had hidden her away for being a monster, and she had just created another.
âIâm sorry.â She whispered. âSo sorry.â And she poured her grief and sorrow into him, her own hate at what she was and what she had done.
But he only smiled. âWhy?â
The dwarves fled, seeing the sharp teeth and pale skin and understanding what they were. But the prince stayed and listened to her story, and took her hand.
âCome.â He said. âWe have a queen to sort out and a kingdom to take back.â He smiled. âAnd my own kingdom as well. Two kingdoms, forever. It doesnât seem too bad now, does it?â
And the princess, the girl, the monster, the vampire, smiled back at him, and they went to kill a queen.
