Ninety-Six…

Ninety-Six: Miracles & Final Destinies

Contains disturbing content. Sorry guys.

It was one of those nights. Mist drifted over the property like a bad omen.

A bad omen of what? Aubrey hated to speculate; or to ‘see’ what was right in front of her.

Reznik and Lauren left the country; gone to Paris for two weeks. Azura and Cody stayed with Kat and Hunter. Aubrey was too far along in her pregnancy to deal with too many babies. In fact, she only had four more weeks left until her due date.

Vaclav drove to Leesburg to speak with Dr. Hatcher. Apparently there’d been a shortage of blood packets delivered to Shadowvale. He’d already been gone for a few days. Aubrey was left on her own, which was nice. She enjoyed the privacy.

However, certain worrisome thoughts were never far from her mind.

She descended the stairs to the basement. Exhausted, all she wanted to do was take a nap. A very long nap.

She halted. Odd twinges radiated throughout her abdomen. It wasn’t painful. Felt like the baby moving, yet there was something different…

A sharp, agonizing pain seized her. Aubrey clutched her stomach. The urge to vomit followed and she heaved.

This was not labor pains. This was… worse.

She screamed, collapsed onto the stone floor.

The pain ceased, only to start again seconds later.

She reached into her pocket, weakly grasped her cellular phone. Once another gut-wrenching, twisting spasm claimed her, she clenched her phone so tightly it snapped into two pieces.

Now it was useless.

She cried out. It felt as though her baby was trying to tear his way out of her uterus. Ripping, shredding.

Vaclav… can you hear me? Can you feel my pain? Please come home… I’m dying…

A lump on her stomach protruded, then enlarged…

I’m dying. I’m dying. I’m dying.

Vaclav didn’t get home until around five hours later. He’d driven as fast as he could.

Terror gripped his heart. Aubrey had tried to tell him something about the baby, and for a second he was in her body feeling her agony.

He hurried down the stairs.

“Aubrey!”

A broken cellular phone. Tattered, bloody shirt, and crimson trails.

Jesus. There was no time to think.

Another ghastly trail led to their bedroom.

“Aubrey! What happened?” He raced into the room.

“Aubrey… Jesus… all the blood.”

She raised slightly up.

“Vaclav,” she rasped. “I think the baby’s dead.”

“I don’t give a fuck about the baby! What the fuck happened to you?” He rushed to her side.

“He tore his way out of my body… out of my stomach… hurts so bad. Can’t stand it anymore. Six hours… of agony… please…”

“Please what? What are you trying to say?” Vaclav asked, losing his mind.

“Aubrey,” he whispered. His hand went to the comforter. Slowly, he pulled it down.

Her mid-section was obliterated; a bloody mess that looked as if a bomb had imploded within her.

He covered her back up. Horror, shock, numb. Those emotions came in waves. Over and over, and in that precise order.

“Jesus Christ.” He couldn’t stop grasping his shirt just over his heart. A heart that hadn’t beaten in over 300 years, but was still breaking; shattered, obliterated as badly as Aubrey’s body.

His hand brushed her cheek.

“I want to die… please kill me… it hurts so bad,” she breathed. “Please, Vaclav.”

His chin trembled, along with his hand.

He kissed her.

“I love you, Aubrey. I will do anything for you…” Vaclav sobbed. “Even if it means…”

Vaclav couldn’t stand seeing blood everywhere. He called a cleaning service and ordered them to hurry and clean the mess.

It didn’t really help. Aubrey was still going to die.

Vaclav called Hunter. He arrived not long afterward.

Hunter tried to comfort Vaclav as he cried.

“I don’t understand. What exactly happened?” Hunter asked, nudging him away.

“My son tore his way out of Aubrey’s… body. It looks like—there’s nothing left of her stomach. Her body’s nearly ripped in half.”

“And she wants to die?”

“Yes.”

“Aubrey’s a vampire. She cannot go into shock. Shock would’ve allowed her a way out of the pain,” Hunter said. “I can give her something for the pain but it won’t help much.”

“Hunter, why did this happen?”

“I can only speculate. She’s been pregnant a few times, so her uterine wall is likely thin. That probably made it easier for the baby to… claw, kick or chew his way out; though he wouldn’t have teeth. He may even have supernatural powers like Reznik, which could explain his supernatural strength and abilities. Also her body might’ve finished sustaining the pregnancy, though it’s a little late. He should’ve died, but never did. He couldn’t get nourishment any longer, so he tore his way out of her, ruptured her uterus. Don’t ask me why her body just didn’t go into labor. I won’t have an answer for that.”

“I have to honor her wishes. She’s suffered enough.”

Hunter nodded.

“I… brought a syringe with me. It’s filled with morphine. I’ll overdose her until she goes to sleep. That way she’ll be comfortable, and won’t feel anything when…” Hunter looked away.

He headed for the bedroom. “I cannot and will not be the one to perform the decapitation. You’ll have to do that.” Hunter’s voice quaked and his shoulders heaved.

Yes. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I must kill my own. Vaclav stifled further sobs of grief.

Hunter gazed down at her.

Stroking her forehead, he tried to remember the wonderful things that happened between them so long ago, instead of focusing on the current tragedy.

Then he got the needle ready.

Gradually, the serum entered her arm and her bloodstream. Since her heart didn’t pump, it would take extra long for the medication to take effect. It was just enough time to tell her good-bye.

Hunter gently cradled her head and pulled her up.

“I love you, Aubrey. I love Kat.” His voice broke. “I promise to take good care of her and treat her right. I’ll raise Tristan and Justin to be good boys, and good men. You would be proud of them.”

Crying, he lowered until their lips met.

“I love you Aubrey.”

Vaclav came in a few minutes later.

Someone unexpected also arrived.

“Hunter? Dad? What happened to Mom? Is she okay? What’s going on?”

“Please! Tell me what happened!”

“Get her out of here. Now,” Vaclav said.

Hunter strode toward her.

“No! Let me see her! What’s wrong with my mother! God dammit, Hunter!” She struggled as he held her wrist.

“She’s gone. Let her go, Kat. The baby… her body’s torn up. She’s been in pain for several hours.”

“No…” Kat cried. “No, no, no.”

Hunter enclosed her in his arms.

“My mom… my mom…”

“I know, honey. I know.” Hunter tightened his embrace.

Once again, Vaclav was left alone with his eternal love.

Or so he thought she’d be his eternal love. Fate was a cold, cruel bitch; along with irony. Vaclav had transformed Aubrey into an immortal to save her, and in the end that’s what killed her.

Of course Aubrey would always remain his eternal love, deeply within his heart, soul and mind.

He sat on the edge of the bed.

I got you pregnant. I planted the seed inside you that ultimately took your life. I will never forgive myself.

“Once again, I have royally fucked up. This time it cannot be reversed. Ever.”

One more kiss for Sleeping Beauty before she succumbs to her perpetual slumber.

One more tear falls.

Vaclav raised the knife. “I would rather turn this blade on my own flesh than to touch yours, my essence, my Aubrey, my love, the one I could never live without…”

The blade touched her throat. Vaclav closed his eyes. Using one swift motion, it was over in seconds.

His beloved was no more.

A special mortuary service was contacted. Vaclav didn’t remember speaking to them over the phone, or what he said.

Aubrey’s memorial would be held in a few days. A silk choker would be fastened around her neck to hide the decapitation. A few superficial stitches would be sewn into her flesh to ensure everything stayed in place.

Once he made those arrangements, Vaclav trudged into the next room and noticed something the cleaning lady forgot. A piece of clothing still littered the floor.

But wait. There was a lump beneath it in the shape of a baby. A dead baby.

The fabric moved. Vaclav raised an eyebrow.

He crouched down and removed a section of the fabric.

“Oh my God. You’re alive.”

He kicked, squirmed, made soft noises with his lips. An angel, he was. But freakish with the dark hair and blue eyes. He did not resemble any vampire or dhampir in Shadowvale.

An angel.

Or was he the spawn of Satan? A tiny demon who only looked angelic?

Lucifer. That’s your name. He picked up the infant.

Vaclav’s broken heart softened.

* I used the music from the Kill Bill soundtrack because the song fits (somewhat) well with this chapter, not to mention it’s lovely. Anyhow, I was planning to enable comments on this chapter but I chickened out. 😉

As for that baby, though it looks real (and maybe creepy) it is a doll, a picture I found off the ‘net. Someone was selling it on Ebay. 😛 The thing is, I did not want a wrapped-up baby for that scene. I wanted a child with legs and a stomach. A realistic looking baby, but not too realistic. It was the only thing that possibly made sense. Again, it wasn’t a real baby, it’s a doll, and I cut/pasted it onto the screenshot and tweaked it. The baby inherited his looks after his mother. Vaclav thinks of it as a freak, because 1. it killed its mother 2. it doesn’t look like any of the dhampirs/vampires in the story (because of its blue eyes). However, the infant is different because he is the only child ever born from two full vampires (in my story). That is also why the tragedy occurred. Aubrey was meant to miscarry the baby but did not.

As for the child being immaculately clean after ‘tearing’ its way out of its mother’s body, no I didn’t want to splatter fake blood all over him. Normally I like gore, but… not this time. Seemed too tasteless.The blood smeared all over the floor was a different matter. I just didn’t want to put blood on the baby.

I am sorry about the violence in this chapter and the way Aubrey suffered. I just try to make my stories as close to real life as I can, and real life sucks, and real tragedies happen every day (yes, I know there’s no such thing as vampires IRL, or babies who rip out of their mother’s womb). But in this chapter one good thing came out of it. Vaclav’s son is alive. But if he treats him badly and blames him for Aubrey’s death (which he already does blame the infant, and blames himself as well), the boy might grow up and become evil like Jakub. Maybe Vaclav will stop making mistakes in raising his sons.

And no, Reznik could not have healed Aubrey. And NO, I didn’t copy any shit from Twilight.

/rambling

Reminder: female vampires in my story cannot carry babies after a few weeks. They always end up miscarrying because their bodies cannot sustain a pregnancy. That’s why Aubrey was so freaked out whenever she didn’t miscarry Lucifer.