Zora was seated in her shop, the afternoon stretching out before her in a long, quiet hum.
It was another hot and lazy day in the town of Lardin. The sun was high, and the light that poured through the front windows was bright and heavy. She sat quite still, listening to the distant sounds of the market and the occasional chirp of a bird outside.
After everything that had happened recently, she had half expected people to come visiting her for "justice." She thought the noble girl from the week before might have sent someone to demand an apology or cause a scene.
But as the hours turned into days, Zora realized that the little miss must have had at least a small heart, or perhaps enough of a brain to realize she had been the one in the wrong.
In the immediate days after that confrontation, Zora noticed that many people were avoiding her shop. The villagers and townspeople who had observed the fight stayed on the other side of the street.
They would glance over at her door with wide, curious eyes, whispering to one another, but they did not step inside. They were likely waiting to see if a storm of trouble was going to hit her before they risked being near her.
Zora didn't really care about their behavior. She knew that people would always act this way, it was human nature to be cautious around power and conflict. She simply wanted to live her normal life for as long as she possibly could.
When the town noticed that no one was coming to cause trouble again, the customers slowly started to return.
They began coming back to buy her fabrics and look through her handmade trinkets just as they had done before the incident.
Today had actually been quite busy, and she had made several good sales. Because the heat was so thick and she had made enough money for the day, Zora decided to go home early.
She stood up and began to arrange her store with care. She smoothed out the rolls of fabric on the shelves, making sure every color was in its right place. Once the store was neat, she stepped outside, pulled the heavy wooden door shut, and turned the key in the lock.
As she moved through the streets of Lardin, the heat of the sun felt like a weight on her shoulders. She turned a corner and started down a path she took every day.
As she passed a narrow, dark alleyway tucked between two tall stone buildings, she heard the low sound of voices. To any human, the sound would have been nothing more than a faint mumble, but Zora was a vampire, and her hearing was incredibly sharp.
She caught the conversation with ease and slowed her steps to listen. Two men were standing in the shadows, talking in hurried, hushed tones about news that had come all the way from the capital city of Eanvyne.
Her heart skipped a beat when she heard them talking about supernaturals. The men were saying that more and more of them were being spotted in towns and villages across the empire.
Zora kept walking so she wouldn't look suspicious, but she moved very slowly. She reached down and pretended to fix the leather strap on her bag, keeping her ears tilted toward the alleyway to catch every single word they said.
One of the men sounded truly frightened, his voice shaking. "Is that really true?" he asked. "I find it so hard to believe. We have been living in such peace for a long time. Why would they be showing up now?"
The other man answered in a sharp, urgent whisper. "I swear to you, I heard it from my brother who just came back from the capital city this morning.
He says the sorcerers are going to be on the search for them. It won't be long before the word spreads everywhere. They are going to weed them out, one town at a time."
At that point, Zora wasn't listening anymore. Her mind felt like it had gone completely blank for a moment, and her breath felt tight in her chest.
She forced herself to keep moving, but her pace was much faster than it had been before. 'What supernaturals could they mean?' she thought to herself.
'This town has been so quiet and peaceful for years. I haven't seen anything strange here at all.'
She felt a cold prickle of fear on the back of her neck that had nothing to do with the summer heat. If what those men were saying was true, her quiet life was in great danger.
She reached the border of the town in record time, her legs moving with a strength she usually tried very hard to hide from other people.
She found a cart that was heading back to her village and hopped on. She barely noticed the bumps in the road or the dust that kicked up from the wooden wheels.
Her thoughts were a total mess. Was she going to get caught? How could she possibly get out of this if the sorcerers really did come to Lardin? She knew that sorcerers had magic that could sniff out the truth. If they came to her home, they would find her secret stash and see the reality of what she was.
Before she even realized how much time had passed, the cart had reached her village.
She hopped down and started walking toward her house, keeping her head down so no one would see the worry on her face.
As she moved through the familiar dirt paths, she saw a group of village kids playing a game near the old well. Usually, Zora loved to stop and play a quick game with them or tell them a short story.
The children always looked forward to seeing her and would run toward her with big smiles. Today was no different, they saw her coming and rushed over, calling out her name.
"Zora! Zora! Come and play with us!" one little boy shouted, reaching for the fabric of her dress.
Zora tried her best to smile, but it felt forced and wrong. her mood was far too heavy, and she was too worried to play games with children.
"Not today, little ones," she said in a soft voice, reaching out to pat the boy on the head. "I have something very important that I must do at home right now. I promise I will play with you next time, okay?"
The children looked a bit gloomy and disappointed. They could tell that she was not her usual self. They let her go, but they stood and watched her as she walked away toward her house.
Their small faces were full of confusion because Zora was usually so happy to see them. Zora felt bad for turning them away, but she simply could not pretend to be happy when her heart was beating so fast with fear.
As she turned the corner onto the final path toward her house, she saw a figure she knew very well. It was an old woman named Madam Lucille, whom everyone in the village called Grandma Lucille.
She was an old woman, but she was still very healthy and agile for her age. She was carrying a heavy basket of vegetables that looked like it was a bit too much for her to handle alone.
Zora knew she could not just walk past her without offering help. She sighed quietly to herself before she even reached the woman.
She knew exactly what Grandma Lucille was going to want to talk about. It was the same topic she brought up every single time they met: marriage.
Zora stepped forward and gently took the heavy basket from the old woman's hands. "Let me help you with that, Madam Lucille," she said with a polite nod.
The old woman smiled brightly at her, her eyes twinkling. "Oh, thank you, Zora! You are such a helpful and sweet girl to an old woman like me."
Zora matched her pace to the old woman's walking speed. She couldn't walk as fast as she wanted to, so she had to be very patient and move slowly.
As they walked along the path, Grandma Lucille cleared her throat, a sound that Zora knew meant a lecture was about to start.
"Dear, have you thought any more about what I told you?" the old woman asked, looking at Zora with a very serious face.
"You are no longer a very young girl, Zora. You are now past the age when most girls in this village get married.
A young lady like you should be leaving all the hard work to the men. You really should have had your second or even your third child by now.
My grandson is a very talented and smart young man. He is well educated, he has a very good heart, and I think he is perfect for you. You should take the chance while you still have it, dear."
'There it is', Zora thought to herself. The same marriage talk again.
"I hear you, Grandma, I really do," Zora said, trying her best to keep her voice calm and very respectful.
"I have thought about it a lot, but I am just not ready for marriage right now. Maybe it is just not the right path for me.
I am sure a talented man like your grandson can find a much better match than me in the village. I still need some more time to focus on my shop and my own life."
The old lady sighed very deeply and shook her head. She made a tutting noise with her tongue. "I have tried my very best to help you, dear. After all, I cannot force you to be happy if you do not want to be."
As Zora handed back the basket at the woman's wooden gate, Grandma Lucille started muttering to herself about impulsive youngsters who did not know what was good for their own future.
Zora heard every single word because of her sharp hearing, but she just smiled and said her goodbyes. She knew the grandma would bring it up again. The woman never gave up on her plans.
Finally, Zora reached the safety of her own home. She went inside and locked the door quickly, leaning her back against the wood.
The house was silent, but her mind was full of noise and worry. Now she could finally think about what she needed to do to stay safe.
She went quickly into the kitchen and knelt down on the wooden floor. She opened the secret cabinet and reached into the cold mist of the magic ice box her father had built.
She took out a pack of blood and tore it open, drinking it down quickly. She needed the strength that the blood gave her.
Once she was finished, she began to count exactly how many bags were left in her stash.
She looked at each one, thinking about how long they would last her. If the rumors she heard in the alleyway were true, her life as she knew it was in great danger.
She had to find out more tomorrow. She had to know if the sorcerers were really coming to search the towns for supernaturals.
If they were coming, she would have to find a way to get rid of all the bags of blood she had left in her house. She could not risk having any evidence for the sorcerers to find.
She sat on the kitchen floor for a long time, her heart heavy with worry. She had to find a way to stay hidden from the King's men.
She could not get caught. If she was found out, all the effort her parents had made to keep her safe would be for nothing. She would not let their sacrifice be in vain.
She would find a way to survive this new threat, no matter what happened. She had lived as a human for so long, and she was not ready to let that life go.
Zora looked around her small, quiet kitchen, wondering how much longer she would be able to call this place home. She knew that she had to be ready to act fast if the danger came any closer to her village
.
Zora stood up and began to clean the empty blood bag, making sure not a single drop was left behind on the floor. She had to be more careful than she had ever been before.
Every choice she made from now on would be a matter of life or death. She would spend the rest of the night thinking of a plan, hoping that the peace she had known in Lardin would not be broken forever.
She felt a deep weight in her heart as she looked at the remaining bags of blood, knowing that her secrets were becoming harder and harder to keep in a world that was looking for her.