Page 25 of Crimson Born

Feeling dizzy, I rolled onto my back again and stared up at the wooden rafters of the barn. Up in one corner, a spindly red wasp hovered over its nest, nurturing a new generation of vicious pain-inflicting creatures.

Iwas one of those now—only much worse. A wasp sting would hurt, but unless you were particularly allergic, it wouldn’t be deadly. Vampires were.

Josiah was.He killed his own parents.

He’d been right. Weweremonsters. There was no place for us in this community. No place among decent, innocent humans.

The hysterical woman went on, pleading now with her husband. “We have to leave this place, take the children out of here. None of us is safe. Brother Yoder should have done as Brother Byler did and expel his demon child from our midst. Josiah will come for all of us tonight.”

Demon child? It took me a second to comprehend.

She means me.

Dull pain spread in my belly, making its way upward to surround my heart.

“It’s all right, Rebecca. There’s no danger any longer,” I heard the minister say. “The boy has taken care of it himself. Look there.”

That had me rolling toward the loft opening again, squinting into the bright sunshine to see what he was talking about.

Holding his wife close with one arm, the minister pointed with the other. I followed the line of sight from his fingertip to the spot in the Yoder’s yard where he pointed.

There, near the swing set where we’d played together as children, was a pile of ash.

What is that?

Even as the question popped into my mind, a dry heave rocked my belly.

Youknowwhat it is.

When Kannon had warned me to stay out of the sunlight, he hadn’t spelled out exactly what would happen if I didn’t.

Now I knew.

One of the village men stated the obvious as he inspected the charred vampire remains. “He exposed himself to the daylight.”

“It’s for the best,” one of the others said, and several heads nodded in agreement.

“He alwayswasa good lad,” the minister said, giving an impromptu eulogy. “Perhaps a part of his soul still remained alongside the demon. He was still capable of remorse for the violence he committed. Now he is at rest.”

And now I was well and truly alone.

I had no family, no home. No community. No mode of transportation, no money. No job prospects for making money. I didn’t have even a high school diploma.

How was I going to live? A thought rose to the surface of my mind.

Maybe I shouldn’t.

Maybe I should do as Josiah had done. In my case it would be a preemptive measure instead of self-inflicted capital punishment. I hadn’t killed anyone—yet—but in a way, I was just as responsible for the deaths of his parents as he was.

If I hadn’t turned Josiah, they’d still be alive, and he wouldn’t have killed himself out of guilt.

I tried to imagine stepping out of the barn into the sunlight. There was no one who would miss me. When they found my ash pile, at least the members of the community would say I’d done the right thing.

Slowly, I extended one hand toward a ray of sunshine slanting inside the hayloft. As soon as the light fell on my skin, it sizzled—much more painful than it had been when I’d emerged from the culvert a few days ago.

Snatching my hand back into the shade, I watched in amazement as the bubbling skin repaired itself and the pain dissipated.

How had Josiah withstood it? How had he forced himself to stand in the sunlight until his body incinerated?

---