Now You're a Stensen

“Archibold, shut up and drink your blood!” came the shrill voice of Shavina from the other room. The young, pubescent vampire looked glumly down at his blood porridge. Shavina was a strict health addict who always made his blood curds, lovingly known as porridge, without sugar.

Most vampire children grew out of their universal disgust for the taste of blood. Like how young human children despise most vegetables but eventually grow into liking them, vampire children dislike blood but eventually grow into it.

Not Archbold, though. He was almost 200 years old, which is when a vampire child should hit puberty and taste blood. He couldn’t stand the smell, feel, and taste. He believed blood tasted like excrement.

Shavina, his stepmother, was cleaning up from preparing lunch. Snapping his fingers, Lucia, his best friend, came fluttering down towards him from the rafters. She was a small, black, furry bat with wide eyes and a curious smile. The little bate gleefully sat on his hand and began slurping up his porridge.

“Hurry up!” he urged her in a low whisper. The bat shot him a glare but kept quiet and kept eating. Just as Lucia slurped up the last drop, Shavina turned the corner and entered the dining room. Unable to make it back to the rafters without being caught, Lucia hid inside Archibold’s sleeve.

“See?” Shavina scolded him as she gathered his dish. “Was that so hard?”

Archibold simply smiled in return but kept quiet. As soon as she turned the corner back into the kitchen, Archibold jumped up and ran out of the house. Lucia clung to the inside of his cotton shirt as he pushed through the massive iron gates and dashed out into the courtyard.

His family was the rich and powerful Stensens. A family of vampires who’ve ruled the local region for the past millennia, the Stensens prided themselves in order and diplomacy. The massive estate owned by his father was larger than most cities. It was made of monumental gothic architecture with spires swirling up into the skies.

There were rooms Archibold had never even set foot inside of before. In particular, he was forbidden to enter the southern tower. That was his father’s tower. No one entered, and no one except his father ever came out. Archibold shuddered as he gazed at the massive spires of the South Tower as they pierced the skies and disappeared into the clouds.

Choosing to ignore the towers, for now, Archibold brushed away some leaves under the bushes beside the family’s fountain. The water fountain hadn’t flowed in years. Archibold only had vague memories of standing beside the fountain as his mother held his hand. There was a scream in the distance in his memories, causing his mother’s face to crease with concern.

“Momma, what was that?” he remembered asking his mother. She glanced down at him and sadly smiled.

“Don’t worry about it, for now, child,” she told him. “You’ll understand someday soon.”

That was the last thing he could remember of his mother. The memories go blank after that. He wished he could remember more, but it was as if his memories were lost entirely, except for that one episode from the past.

“Meow,” came a soft cry from beneath the leaves. The small cry brought Archibold back to the present, and he gently reached inside the warm nest he had made for the tiny creature. He pulled out a small, meowing, furry creature with wide eyes and a sweet mouth.

“I think the humans call it a cat,” Lucia told him. Archibold laughed when he heard the strange word. He nuzzled the little creature with his nose and brushed it with his hand.

“I think that’s a dumb name,” Archibold answered Lucia while gazing into the small cat’s eyes. “I’m gonna call you Tatiana.”

“That’s a better name,” Lucia nodded in agreement.

Archibold fed the small creature some dead grasshoppers he managed to catch, thanks to Lucia teaching him. Tatiana sniffed them and devoured them. Archibold grinned when he saw how satisfied Tatiana was with the food.

“Archie,” came his father's grim, cold, and piercing voice. Archibold hated that nickname, Archie, and asked his father several times to stop calling him that. But his father ignored his request, stating firmly that he’d call him his proper name once he earned it.

“Yes, papa?” he answered his father, attempting to hide the kitten before he saw her. It was too late, though. His father reached down and picked the small creature up in his massive hands.

Archibold looked up at his towering father. Father’s fangs protruded from his mouth, shimmering like pearls in the late morning sun. The cold, dark eyes of his father judged him.

“Look how small you are, son,” he could hear papa’s voice in his mind.

“What is this?” Papa asked him as he stroked the creature’s fur. Archibold knew that his dad could crush Tatiana with a single stroke of his massive hands. He gulped, hoping his father would simply put the small creature down.

“That’s Tatiana, Papa,” he mumbled.

“I see,” father answered, his eyes unmoved and his face inexpressive. “I hear you did not drink your blood this morning. You’ve been eating grasshoppers?”

“Yes, papa,” Archibold stated. “I don’t want to drink blood anymore.”

“Hmph,” father answered. Without taking his eyes off of his son, the Lord of the Manor crushed Tatiana with a single movement. The tiny creature cried out in pain before crumpling to the Earth.

“NO!” Archibold screamed as he looked helplessly at the crumpled pile of bones and flesh. Tatiana was dead.

“You will be the next Lord of the Manor, son,” Papa scolded him. “You must drink blood and show cruelty. That is the Stensen way.”

Without hesitation, without delay, and without thinking, Archibold lifted the wooden cross that his mother had planted in the garden. He tore it up from the ground and drove it through his father’s chest. The mighty vampire’s eyes lit up in shock. He choked on his own blood as he struggled to say something.

“Good boy,” he whispered as he gurgled on his blood. “Now, you’re a Stensen.”

With that, his father crumpled to the ground in a massive heap of blood. For the first time in his life, Archibold wished to drink it.