Matilda Mae Lochehart (Vital: An Advanced Vampire RPG)

Title: Matilda Mae Lochehart
Description: Independent

Arnem Iribel - June 1, 2008 02:30 PM (GMT)

Name: Matilda Mae Lochehart

Nicknames: Maty, Maty Mae, Loche, depending on how close you are with her.

Gender: Female

Age: 568

Apparent Age: 20

Place of Birth: A small forgotten village in England

Species: Vampire.

Coven: independent

Appearance:

Matilda is a very small lady. At a grand total of 5’4’’ and weighing in at 95 pounds, she wouldn’t appear to be much of a bother to anyone. She’s got long brown curls and large, deep brown eyes. Although the scars of her mortal hardships have long been erased by her vampirism, her compact body is a clear sign that as a mortal she did work quite hard.

Now, in the modern days of hair dye and cosmetics, Matilda keeps a lot of her hair a deep shade of red, and is often seen wearing red contacts, in an attempt to stay in touch with the youth of the big city.

History:

(I know what you're thinking. 'Gracious Arnem, could you make this ANY longer?' and I truly am sorry for the person who has to try and approve this character, but 568 years is a lot of time to sum up...maybe I should have made it point form?)

When she was just six months in the womb, Matilda’s father was turned by an unknown vampire and disappeared. At eight months, he returned to collect his wife. He turned her, and almost instantly Matilda was rejected by her mother’s body. Her parents ran off together, leaving there crying baby in Matilda’s maternal grandparent’s house while they slept. They didn’t want to be burdened by a baby in their new found after life.

And so, Matilda was raised as a peasant, or serf, in the harsh and unforgiving world of feudal England. She knew nothing but loyalty to the lord who owned the land which she worked so tenderly, and the dreams she’d have of her parents. She was sure that they had just run off to make a better life for themselves and they’d return once they earned there fortune in the big cities of France, or maybe even Italy. Matilda didn’t know much about these lands, other than the fact that they were far away, much farther than she could ever hope to get in this lifetime. Her grandparents always told her this was nonsense, however, and that she shouldn’t get her hopes up because her parent’s had probably died long ago.

It would seem that they were right. With every passing year Matilda’s hope faded. She began to resign herself to the sad life of a peasant and grew to resent her mother for leaving her like this. A small seed of hatred began to blossom in her heart, but she refused to let it come to fruition. She couldn’t let herself get down, not when there was hard labor to be done. But she found herself dreaming of a better life. A happier one filled with riches and luxury.

When Matilda turned 20, however, her mother did return. She came to her in the dead of night and explained to her daughter about what she had become. She told Matilda that as a baby there was no way for her to join her parents in the night, she would never be able to grow, her body would never mature. But now she was at the age that her mother had been when she was turned and would be joining her parents. Matilda was turned that night and told to kill her grandparents, the only parents she’d ever known, as a sort of initiation.

“You don’t need them anymore!” Her mother told her. “You have your real parents now, and these feeble old mortals mean nothing to a vampire like yourself!”

And so Matilda killed her grandparents under the watchful eyes of her mother. She felt a sharp pang of regret as she sunk her fangs into her grandfather’s neck. It was true that he didn’t have many years left in him, and she was probably saving him many years of suffering to come, but it still hurt her. It was her grandmother, however, that made Matilda know how strong and true regret could be.

The old woman was roused from her sleep by the sound of the struggle beside her. Her eyes were failing her and in the dark she could barely make out the scene before her. She called out to Matilda for help, feeling that something awful had happened to her husband, and Matilda hesitated.

“Do it now! Before she draws the neighbor’s attention!” Matilda knew no neighbors were near enough to them to hear this raucous, but she moved in on her grandmother anyway, not wanting to disobey her mother on their first night together.

“Matilda?” The old woman’s voice sounded sad. “Is that you? Dear you sound so much like your mother!” Matilda looked into her grandmother’s eyes. One had long ago been clouded over by a cataract, and Matilda could clearly make out every wrinkle on the woman’s face with her new eyes. “I think something’s happened to your grandfather, he was putting up an awful fuss just now.”

She reached over to shake the old man but quickly withdrew her hand when she felt the warm blood seeping from his tattered neck. “Oh dear! Why…what’s this?” She tried to see what the liquid was on her hand but couldn’t quite make it out.

“Mother, you always were such a fool!” Matilda’s mother laughed behind her.

“…Matilda” The old woman frowned. “Is…is your mother here?”

“Come on Matilda! Do it now, I’m growing bored of this.”

“I…I’m sorry.” Matilda closed in on her grandmother, who looked even more confused now, and bit sadly into her neck. Matilda just managed to muster up enough strength to hold down her grandmother’s pathetic attempts at fighting against her attacker, all the while pushing out her screams with her old dreams for a better life. As she sucked the blood of her adopted mother she could see nothing but glorious jewels and endless amounts of gold. She could hear only the laughter of party guests, the wrinkled skin under her hands turned into the finest silks from China. Finally the woman stopped fighting and fell limp. The laughter of party guests faded into the cruel cackle of her heartless mother, the silk grew rough and cold.

Matilda never cried though, she couldn’t let her mother see that sort of weakness or she may very well get abandoned once again.

Matilda’s mother brought her out into the forest, there was a small shack sitting in a tiny clearing where her parents had been living for twenty years. It was even smaller than her grandparent’s house, with barely enough room to breathe once she and her parents were all inside.

“Home sweet home!” Matilda’s mother motioned to a straw mat on the floor, “That’ll be yours then.”

Suddenly all of her dreams of the glorious life her parents would bring were crashed. This was an even worse life than she lived on her Lord’s land. She killed the only people who had ever loved her to come to this mess! She couldn’t believe it. She hated her parent’s even more for doing this to her, and she knew she’d have to do something about it.

She lived with her parents for only a week before she decided to escape. She explored the forest to find a small, abandoned cave, and then one night, just before dawn, she tore down the boards from the windows, and tore the door from its hinges just after her parents had fallen asleep. She then covered her body with her straw mat and ran for her cave.

She could feel her flesh tingling as she ran, and just managed to dive into the darkness of the cave as the sun finally broke over the horizon. She passed out almost immediately, sleeping the day away underneath her mat, just as a precaution against the sun.

That night she went back to the shack to find her parents burned and twisted bodies, she brought in the axe they used for chopping wood and cut off their heads to be sure they wouldn’t recover.

Matilda then fled to London, where she heard of the rebirth of the old Greco-roman ways that was happening in Italy. It was called the ‘renaissance’ and it sounded so romantic, but did she dare to actually go to Italy like she had dreamt of doing on so many long and lonely nights as a mortal? Well why the hell not!? She was a vampire now; she could do what ever she wanted! It wasn’t like she had a master now, or even a family to hold her back. And so she set off on foot, traveling every night, and sleeping in barns or church basements by day. Although her new power did make the trip much quicker, it still felt like it took her forever to get to Italy. But finally she had arrived and she set out bringing her dreams of an insanely wealthy life to reality.

She arrived in Italy in the year 1460, and for nine years she moved around non-stop. She wanted to experience all that these fabulous city states had to offer before settling for just one to live in permanently. She would take different artists as her mortal lovers, they would be commissioned by wealthy merchants and heads of state to paint beautiful pictures, most of which were inspired by her beauty, and then she would most often kill them, take their money, and disappear.

She was passing through the Florentine Republic in the year 1469, when she met a man by the name of Lorenzo de’ Medici. He had just been named his father’s successor as the leader of the republic, and he found Matilda to be quite the gorgeous woman indeed. She quickly weaseled her way into his court. She seduced him, allowed him to lay with her in exchange for untold wealth, and even befriended his wife who remained blissfully unaware of what was going on in her own palazzo.

The young and cunning vampiress even managed to seduce Medici’s co-ruler brother Guiliano, who also bestowed upon her fabulous silks and glorious jewels in exchange for her company in his bed behind his wife’s back. She took so much money from the Medici brothers that Florence’s glory seemed to be in an unexplainable decline. The people simply tried to reason that perhaps Lorenzo wasn’t so skilled at managing the bank? Who knew?

During her time in the Medici’s court, Matilda met a young papal banker by the name of Francesco Salviati. She was absolutely blown away by his beauty and quickly took him as her third mortal lover. She always found herself back in his arms, even after she had just been with one, or even both of the Medici brothers.

She also came to hear of something glorious. One of the rival families of Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Pazzi, had in their possession such a fantastic stone that she knew immediately that she must have it, it was a stone from the very tomb of Jesus Christ himself! She knew it would be worth quite a lot if she could only get her hands on it, but how?

When Francesco was named the Archbishop of Pisa, due to some complications between Lorenzo and the reigning pope of the day, Pope Sixtus IV, Lorenzo denied Francesco the power he rightfully deserved as Archbishop.

This enraged Francesco, and he came running to Matilda for her help. He knew how much power she held over both of the Medici brothers, and he wanted her to set things right. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to get exactly what she wanted. She turned Francesco, it was her first time doing such a thing, but she needed to convince him that she did in fact have the answers to his problem, and she could think of no other way to do so then to bestow upon him instant power in the form of physical strength and immortality.

The two power hungry lovers immediately came to contact the heads of the Pazzi family, she told them that they should rightfully be ruling Florence, she made them as drunk with the prospect of power and riches as she was, and finally, when they seemed to be salivating over her words, she told them that she knew a way for them to get this done. All she asked in return for their help was that stone.

After much deliberation, these few members of the Pazzi family decided to take Matilda up on her offer, but to keep their misdeeds from the rest of their family. And so on April 26, 1478, Easter morning, their plan came into action. With an audience of 10 000 people, a gang hired by the Pazzi family was to kill the Medici brothers.

When Matilda awoke that night, she felt instantly satisfied, she went directly to Palazzo Pazzi to collect her reward, but when she got there all she found was disarray. Her co-conspirators seemed quite distraught, and they refused to hand over the stone.

“Lorenzo did not die!” Cried Jacopo de’ Pazzi. He told her since she did not deliver on her promise, he was not going to give her the stone, and that was that.

Matilda was sent out of the Palazzo, she was so furious she went directly home to get her revenge. She collected up all of the letters the Pazzi family members had written to Salviati during there planning and went straight to Palazzo Medici with them.

She quickly conjured up some misleading tears and tore into the Palazzo, she found Lorenzo’s wife Clarice first. She quickly ran to comfort the grieving woman; she wrapped her strong little arms around her and smoothed her hair, hushing her hysterical sobs.

“I know this is a horrible time for the two of you, but please, I must see Lorenzo.”

“Absolutely!” Clarice nodded furiously “You were so close with them both, I’ll take you myself.”

Matilda followed Clarice to the bedroom, pretending all the while to not already know the way by heart. Outside the door Matilda stopped Clarice, she placed a cold and delicate hand on Clarice’s face and whispered gently, “You go rest; you don’t need to hear what I have to say.”

Although Clarice wanted nothing more than to go into that room with Matilda, for some reason beyond her comprehension, she nodded and moved off to another part of her home. As soon as Lorenzo’s wife had disappeared down the hall, Matilda burst into the bedroom without even so much as a knock.

Her weakened lover lay shrouded in shadows as the dim candlelight seemed to refuse to grace his pallid, blood starved features. He barely managed to raise his head from the pillow as Matilda entered the room and threw a thick handful of paper onto his bed.

“What is this Matilda?” He nudged the papers with a weak hand. “I’ve no time for your games; I wish to be left alone to grieve the loss of my brother.”

“Evidence!” Matilda hissed and Lorenzo looked confused. “Evidence of the guilt of both Jacopo de' Pazzi and the Archbishop Salviati in a plot to murder both you and your brother.”

Lorenzo’s face instantly turned to stone. He picked up the letters and leaned into the light of his bedside candle to read over them quickly. “Why…why this cannot be!”

“It can be, and it is!” She shook in mock rage as she raised her voice slightly.

“How did you come to possess these letters?” Lorenzo skimmed over one more as he spoke.

“Never mind that for now.” Matilda’s voice softened and she sat on the bed next to Lorenzo, strategically placing her hand in his lap as she did so. “The important question in this matter is, what do you intend to do about it!?”
--
Matilda watched gleefully from the sidelines as the citizens of Florence formed an angry mob to punish those who conspired to kill their leader. They broke into the locked room that Salviati usually reserved for slumbering during the day time and hanged him from the town hall. They threw Jacopo from his window, and she laughed as they dragged his dead and naked body to be thrown into the river.

The horrible acts of the people of Florence, caused Pope Sixtus IV to send the King of Naples into battle with the city state, but Matilda was not there to witness this. She had fled her home of many years to do some traveling. She was quite content with the havoc she had caused for now.
--
Matilda had seen most of Europe and eastern Asia before 1492. Her fortune was growing nearly everyday and she felt she couldn’t nearly be any happier when she heard the news. Lorenzo had passed away, and she felt what she could only assume was a pang of loss. She hadn’t allowed herself to feel such things in so long she could barely tell, but what ever it was she decided to go visit her once lover’s grave to say goodbye.

The night that she finally arrived in Florence, she discovered a crest fallen young man outside the Chapel where the Medici brother’s were buried. He confided to the dead men that he did not feel himself to be nearly strong enough a leader to follow in their large footsteps. Matilda realized that this man was Lorenzo’s young son Piero, she hadn’t seen him since he was a boy, but it must be him if he had taken over as the Gran maestro. She could sense his weakness of character and instantly moved in to play her game once more.

Matilda was quite right to assume that this man would be an easy pawn for her plans. She managed to take quite a bit of money from Florence’s bank and easily set Piero up for a horrendous downfall before she heard of Cristoforo Colombo’s journey to the new world in early 1493. It seemed to spark her sense of exploration once more, so she set out for more stories of this magical new land, so rich in gold and glamour, and maybe even to find safe passage across the ocean to see it for herself. Not long after she left, Piero’s failure came about as the loss of his lover turned him down a slippery slope, his people lost their faith in him and he finally gave in to King Charles VIII of France in 1494.
--
Matilda spent more than a century traveling from country to country, searching for a way to cross the ocean. She went to Spain, hoping to find a ship to board to get to Mexico. She spent some time in France, where she had heard that Francis I was searching the new world for a passage to the Pacific Ocean. She met and seduced several different explorers while she was on her mission, but none of them ever wanted anything to do with taking her aboard their ships for the long voyage across the sea. She was getting angry, she was getting frustrated, and finally she decided to return to England in the hopes of finding a way to Virginia.

It wasn’t until the early 1600’s, after the death of Elizabeth I and James I came into power that Matilda finally found a way across to the new world. She worked her way slowly up the social ladder of London until she somehow found her way into parties at the palace. She started on members of the new king’s court, and then eventually was invited to an audience with the king. He grew fond of her sense of exploration, and even fonder of her money. She offered to finance a trip to the new world in search of gold and riches, England could use the economic boost, and she was just the woman to get the job done.

And so she finally sailed, the trip was not nearly as fantastic as she had hoped it would be, many of the settlers aboard her boat died on the sea, some from diseases like scurvy, some from what could only be assumed to be a mysterious flesh eating disease that attacked the necks of its victims.

“…vampire…” One of the older settlers finally piped up one morning after discovering yet another member of the crew that had been affected by the disease. However illogical this may have seemed to a sensible person, after so long at sea not many people aboard seemed to be thinking very logically. They banded together and tried hard to figure out who among them could be the vampire. It wasn’t until somebody pointed out that their mysterious benefactor was never seen out of her cabin during the day that they finally realized it was in fact Matilda who had been terrorizing them for so long.

The men on the ship plotted out what they would do, they broke down her cabin door at midday, once inside they tore a struggling Matilda from her bed. She fought hard, managing to throw back several of her attackers and even killed a couple, but her strength quickly waned as she was exposed to the sun. She tried desperately to shield her exposed face with her flowing nightgown, and while she was distracted the sailors threw her from the deck into the open ocean, cheering as they watched her disappear into the waves.

Little did they know, vampires don’t require oxygen to survive like humans do. Matilda swam as quickly as possible to the salty depths of the ocean, trying desperately to escape the sun. At first she swam underneath the ship, but it quickly proved to be too fast for her so she found herself seeking refuge in much deeper water. During the day she would swim many miles under the surface to avoid the sunlight, and at night she’d come to the surface where she could swim much faster without the crushing weight of tons of water surrounding her.

She was lost in the sea for months, every time she nearly felt as though she was about to waste away because of her lack of food she would finally find some sort of sea creature to feed on. She rarely got much sleep during these months, but when she did it was actually at night, when she could float along the surface of the water. Because of her accelerated healing ability she found that her skin didn’t get water logged like that of a mortal, and she even noticed that while underwater she had quite an incredible sense of smell, much stronger than her already heightened ability anyway.

She began to loath her immortality during these long days at sea. She found herself wishing for death, but never could bring herself to swim to the surface when she knew the sun was up, she knew that land couldn’t be far and if she only kept swimming for just one more day, maybe she’d find it.

But oh the beautiful things she’d see while lost in the ocean. She knew she’d always remember the sights, such magnificent and efficient creatures called these depths their homes, she felt inspired by their very survival, and the hope of finding a new one everyday was all that kept her going.

Finally she noticed the water beginning to grow warmer; this seemed like a hopeful sign so she began to swim faster. She found that she could no longer go as deep as she would like to as the earth came rushing up to her. One night she came across such a plethora of life it simply astounded her! Such brightly colored animals and what she could only assume was plant life. But when she raised her head above the water! Land! She was swimming at such a speed she was nearly running across the surface of the water.

Once she reached the sandy shore she nearly collapsed. She was so exhausted and excited to be on dry land that she just wanted to sleep a decent day’s sleep for once. But first she’d have to find a place to hide from the sun before it rose. She quickly dug herself a hole and buried herself in the strange forest of this new land and slept all day, she slept through that night even and then through another, and another. She slept for a week straight before finally crawling out of the ground.

Matilda scoured the small island all night before finally coming across a European settlement. She quickly began knocking on doors, looking for someone who might explain a few things to her. When someone finally answered their door, it was a young black woman who called herself Octavia. Octavia took one look at Matilda’s disheveled appearance and opened the door wide for this strange guest to come in and clean up.

Octavia told Matilda that she had come to the island of Hispaniola, Matilda came to understand that Octavia was a house servant at a french tobacco plantation just over the hill, and although all the vampire wanted to do was feed, she couldn’t bring herself to kill this Octavia. It had been so long since she last communicated with anyone that she didn’t want it to end.

Octavia finally told Matilda that she was going to bed, and if Matilda needed a place to sleep for the night she could stay in the chicken coupe. “It’s not much, but you’ll have your privacy.” Octavia had a very strange accent; it was almost musical to Matilda. The vampire graciously accepted the offer, and on her way out stopped to ask.

“What year is it by the way?”

Octavia laughed her hardy African laugh “Why it’s 1612! You must know that now dear.”

Two years. Two years Matilda had spent at sea, she nearly dropped to the ground in shock but just managed a weak little “of…of course.” She half smiled and went out to the chicken coupe where she drank the blood of two chickens and buried there bodies in the forest. By the time she was done the sun was soon going to rise so she climbed back into the chicken coupe, blocked off the door, and slept comfortably through the day.

Over the next few weeks Matilda stayed with Octavia. She met the woman’s young daughter Libby, and learned about Vodou, an African religion that Octavia’s grandmother had taught to her and that Octavia had taught to Libby. It seemed to be such a magnificent religion, Matilda wanted to learn more! Sadly, before she could, Octavia’s master discovered that the woman was practicing her Vodou and set about punishing her. He tied her, naked, to a post in the middle of the plantation. The rest of the slaves were made to watch as she was whipped repeatedly until the flesh on her back was peeled clean off. Octavia didn’t scream once during her punishment, in fact she showed no emotion at all, even as the whip began cutting into her muscles. She was left hanging on the post all day, and died sometime before sunset. When Matilda woke that night, it was to the sound of Libby’s sobs.

Libby came running to Matilda when she saw her come from the chicken coupe. She explained what had happened and Matilda’s face went blank. She was angry, and Libby knew it, the young girl backed away, so frightened to see such anger, but Matilda merely looked down at her and forced an insincere smile.

“Don’t worry Libby, I’ll handle this.” She said and sent the girl back into the house as she headed for the hill.

Matilda reached the plantation in no time flat, she kicked in the front door and stormed into the house, several slaves noticed her and tried to stop her but she easily struck them down, looking for the master of the house.

She climbed the huge stairs very slowly; her eyes wide and fixed on the landing of the second floor. It was as if she was no longer in control of herself, she simply followed some sort of inner instinct telling her what to do. She opened the first door she came across and discovered a young child sleeping in a bed that was far too large for him, in the blink of an eye she was beside him, he stirred and looked up at her, but before he could say a word her hand was clasped over his mouth.

“Hush now little one.” Matilda’s voice was flat and emotionless, the boy struggled, kicking off his sheets and punching at the air, but he was no match for the vampire. She pushed so hard against his mouth and nose she felt his skull crack under the pressure. Then she lifted his limp body by his neck and threw him out his bedroom window.

She then moved back into the hallway and on to the next door, in this room she found the master of the plantation and his wife slumbering soundly. She moved quickly, so quickly even she could barely comprehend it. She closed and locked the door, then tore the blankets from the bed. The middle aged French couple stirred in their sleep but before their eyes were even open Matilda had the woman tied to one of the tall posts of the canopied bed using the soft cotton sheet, and she had her hand held tightly over the man’s face.

“I hear you’re not a fan of Vodou.” She said calmly, reveling in the fear painted across the man’s face. She cocked her head to one side and lifted the man from his bed, hurling him across the room into his huge and gaudy armoire. It smashed under his weight and his wife screamed in fear.

“What..? Who?” The man climbed to his hands and knees, too shocked to form full sentences, and in too much pain to stand up erect.

Matilda simply hushed the man and smiled. “Don’t worry about that know.” With one strong swipe of her lightning quick hand she ripped off the nightgown of the plantation master’s wife, leaving her hanging from her wrists, naked as the day is long, and crying. She moved her legs helplessly, trying to cover her shame but Matilda climbed up onto the bed and wrapped her arms around the woman’s body from behind. Matilda fondled the aging woman’s sagging breasts, the woman only sobbed louder.

Matilda’s mouth opened, revealing her sharp fangs, and she laughed a strange and crazy laugh. It sounded small and childish, almost like the tinkling of delicate glass as it shattered on the ground. She moved closer, allowing her hands to explore the woman’s body as she put her full red lips on her ear. The man protested, but still couldn’t quite get himself to his feet to stop the mad woman who had broken into his home.

“You don’t have to worry darling, you’re not who I’m after.” She licked the woman’s cheek and nibbled her ear. “I’ll make it as quick as possible for you.” she continued happily.

The woman cried silently now, her eyes closed so tightly she was sure they’d never open again. Matilda opened her mouth wide now and bit a huge chunk from her play thing’s neck, she was so satisfied to be killing again that she almost bit the poor dear’s head clean off.

The man screamed from his position on the floor, he yelled curses at Matilda and threatened her life in horrible ways. He called for his servants, and could hear them trying to break down the locked door.

Matilda laughed again, it echoed off the walls of the large room and she wiped he lips, smearing blood across her cheek. She wrenched her fingers into the dead woman’s torn open neck and picked out pieces of her muscles, she grabbed at veins and threw them at the man, who screamed and cried pitifully for help. Matilda’s laugh continued to get louder and she smeared the blood over her face and in her hair before jumping gracefully from the bed. She moved to the door and kicked it down; the servants on the other side were socked by her frightening appearance and ran away as she screamed at them. It was an inhuman scream that frightened them right out of the house and into the fields.

“Now…where were we?” Matilda turned on her heels and looked down at the man who was now crawling away from her as if he could hide from her in a shadowy corner. She furrowed her brow and took a step towards him. “Where are you going? Aren’t we having fun?” Her voice was still flat and emotionless as she took another step towards him but by now he’d reached the wall. He pushed against one of the panels, it moved aside and he fell out of sight.

Matilda was confused at first. Where did he go? She stepped closer and noticed the missing panel and discovered that he had gone down what appeared to be a hidden shaft. “Well gee mister, I hope you didn’t think it would be that easy!” She called down into the darkness, her voice echoing against the close walls. She climbed head first into the shaft and slid right on down, falling through the wall of the first floor into a pile of dirty laundry in the basement. The man was nowhere to be found.

“Hmm…I wonder where you could have gone.” She looked over towards a huge, empty washing basin and smirked. She peered over it and there was nothing there. A door slammed behind her and she spun around quickly and went right through the door without even bothering to open it. The man was crawling up the stairs trying desperately to escape. He still had some of his wife’s arteries stuck in his wispy salt and pepper hair.

“Oh come on, do you think it’ll be that easy to run from me?” Her emotionless tone finally snapped, replaced with such wrath the man instantly stopped where he was and wet himself.

Matilda sniffed the air and smiled. “You filthy coward!” she appeared beside the man on the stairs and grabbed hold of his wrist, dragging him the rest of the way up. She threw him onto the large couch in the parlor and grinned.

“Those wet pants must be awful uncomfortable for you.” She ripped the urine drenched cotton pants from the man’s body and forced them into his face. “Do you smell that?” She whispered furiously. “That’s the smell of pure fear! That’s the same fear that drove away your slaves before they could save you, the fear that prevented you from saving your wife!”

“ENOUGH!” The man managed to yell through his sobs. “What is all this about!? I demand to know!”

Matilda smirked and threw the pants aside. “Well, since you’re demanding.” She picked up the half naked man, who was nearly twice her size, and carried him over her shoulder out the front door and down into the tobacco fields. She threw him at the base of the post, where Octavia’s cold, dead body still hung. “Recognize this handy work?”

The man looked up at Octavia and a cruel grin split across his face. “Oh yes, I sure do.” He kept his eyes on Octavia as he pushed himself up off the ground. “That nice round bottom, those full breasts!” He placed a hand on the naked body and cupped one of the dark, lifeless breasts before turning to look at Matilda. “She sure did serve me well for years, it was a pity she had to be practicing that satanic religion of hers, but I suppose I’ve always got our daughter to take her place…I’ve already started breaking her in.” He laughed and went to grab himself but Matilda was on him in an instant.

She slapped his face so hard it ripped open the flesh and sent him flying backwards. “You’re lying, you just hope that if you piss me off enough I’ll finish the job quicker.”

The man tenderly touched his bleeding face and laughed again. “Haven’t you seen the girl? Have you noticed how pale skinned she is?” He cocked a brow and Matilda kicked him in the ribs, she heard one or two crack as he flipped through the air and landed face down in the dirt. He only laughed some more and looked up, torch carrying slaves had formed a circle around the sight. “You’re in for it now girl! They’ve come to protect their master.” He looked around at the twenty or so slaves who had come to his side, but none of them moved.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” The man demanded and looked around at the dark faces staring down at him. Matilda looked at them and began to recognize some of the man’s facial features quite a few of them. She looked down at their master and growled a low, disgusted growl, the moved to the post where her dead friend was hanging. She gently untied the ropes and held already stiffening body in her arms as if she was a giant baby. Matilda touched Octavia’s face gently with one hand, pushing the bloodied dark curls out of the way.

She then turned back to the slaves and walked towards them, they tried to get out of her way but she was much too fast for them. She grabbed hold of one of the torches and walked right on past them “He’s all your’s now.” She said satisfied as she continued up to the house.

She could hear the man’s screams as she passed through the tobacco plants, she would have smiled if she weren’t so angry. She climbed the stairs of the house, still carrying the fiery torch, and Octavia’s body, and came into the master bedroom. She stared at the dead woman’s body and then with one hand gently lay Octavia on the bed. She wrapped her friend in the fine silks of the mistress of the house and then threw the torch onto the bed with her. Almost instantly the bedding caught fire and Matilda turned to leave the house. As she made her way back to the shack where Libby waited patiently for her, she could hear the flames engulfing the large manor and she finally felt pleased with the job she’d done here.

Matilda entered Octavia’s shack and Libby screamed at her frightening appearance. “Don’t be frightened Libby, I don’t want to hurt you.” She walked over to the large barrel in the corner filled with water and began to clean the blood from her face and hair.

“What…what happened?” Libby’s small voice asked from behind Matilda’s back. The vampire turned around gently and looked down at the little girl. She instantly recognized her eyes as the frightened eyes of the plantation master and felt sick to her stomach.

“Don’t worry about it Libby, go get your things, we’re leaving this island.” Libby did as she was told, just as she always had, and ran to collect her things. But she stopped abruptly and turned back to Matilda.

“Matilda…” She bit her large lower lip and looked up at her mother’s friend. “I…I don’t have anything to bring with me…”

Matilda took this bit of information in and scratched her head before getting down on Libby’s level. “Well…I don’t think I do either…so we’ll just have to get things when we get to where we’re going I guess…” Libby came a little bit closer and Matilda held out a hand for her. “And you can call me Maty.”

Libby smiled and grabbed the outstretched hand. The two walked out of the little shack and out into the darkness, where several of the slaves stood waiting. Matilda instantly hid Libby behind her back and hissed at the slaves, who backed down and lowered their heads to her.

“We don’ mean you any harm.” And older woman stepped forward with a bundle in her hand. “We jus’ come tah make damn sure you take care o’ tha’ lil girly there.” She held out the bundle and Matilda grabbed it with her free hand.

“I’s food for the lil one.” Said another slave, “an’…an’ a change o’ clothes fer tha both of ya.”

Matilda nodded her head; she picked Libby up into her arms and disappeared into the dark jungle.
--
Matilda and Libby came to settle in North Carolina. Matilda instantly took to the beds of any rich man she could find, not only trying to provide for herself but also for Libby. She never thought she’d possessed a maternal instinct, but something about that little girl stirred some powerful feeling in her.

Libby started to stay up all night with Matilda and sleep during the day, a strange habit for a little human girl, but Matilda never thought anything of it. She was being raised by a vampire after all. Matilda showered all the things onto Libby that she had dreamt up as a child. She gave Libby the finest dresses and the most beautiful jewels any girl her age had ever seen. Libby quickly began to ask Matilda about what she was, Matilda spoke openly and honestly about being a vampire and it wasn’t long before the girl was asking for Matilda to turn her into an immortal.

“You’re still far too young Libby,” Was always Matilda’s reply. “But when you’ve matured, if you still want it I’ll give it to you.”

In return for teaching her about being a vampire, Libby taught Matilda what little she had learned from her mother about Vudou. Matilda loved to hear everything about the African religion, and often found herself listening to the same lessons over and over again just to try and pick out things she hadn’t caught on to before.

In the year 1626, On Libby’s 20th birthday, Matilda sired her second vampire. She had already taught Libby much of the theory of being a vampire, now she was excited to teach her the hands on, and in death as in life, Libby was an excellent student.
--
In the late 1700’s, Matilda met an elderly man from Texas, his wife had passed away many years ago, and they had no children. Quickly snatching up this delicious opportunity, Matilda took Libby to live on the man’s cotton plantation. Libby was disgusted by the way the slaves were treated here, but Matilda continued to remind her just to stick it out until the old man died and then they could make what ever changes they wanted. And sure enough, within the year, the man was gone. The plantation and all the slaves were left to Matilda, and she promptly freed half of them, and gave the other half a small wage, just enough to make Libby happy.
--
In the 1850’s Matilda heard of a gold rush up north in a place called “the caribou”. She left Libby in charge while she promptly went up to take advantage of the opportunity. Rather than do any physical labor, however, Matilda simply killed many of the young prospectors and took what gold they had found for herself. She continued this for many years, before finally returning to her plantation in 1865 a much richer woman than she was when she left. Unfortunately, she came home to a barren skeleton of her once glorious home. Her plantation had been destroyed during the civil war and Libby was nowhere to be found.

Matilda assumed her adopted daughter had died in the attack and began a very long mourning process. She wondered the burnt out hallways of her home for many years, until in 1897 she caught wind of yet another gold rush and quickly returned to her old self at the prospect of enlarging her fortune.

She took off to the Klondike and repeated the same process she had undergone during the last gold rush. When the gold began to run low and less and less miners were coming, Matilda decided to settle in Dawson City, wanting nothing but to be left alone with her treasures.

She eventually caught wind of a city called Demaitre, it was described to her as a sort of vampire Mecca, and a small bit of hope resurfaced in her. If Libby had somehow survived the attack, maybe she would have gone to this Demaitre? Matilda had to see.

When Matilda arrived in Demaitre, she took up residence with a silly mortal who called herself Patricia, much to Matilda’s dismay Patricia soon took in another mortal named Arnem, what a ridiculous name, she thought.

She planned on killing both these mortals soon enough, but as long as they didn’t bother her, she thought she could survive. She didn’t know if she was to stay for long in this city so she didn’t want to spend much money to live here.

Just as she was beginning to get bored of the city, she discovered Arnem’s fortune and sired her third vampire. She didn’t care about Arnem nearly as much as she cared about her daughter though, and kept him locked away from the world. All she wanted from him was his money, and the longer she could keep him in the dark about what he was, the more of it she could steal.

Lilla - June 7, 2008 01:57 AM (GMT)

I’m going to have to disagree with her surviving for months at sea. It’s not so much that she couldn’t swim down to where the sun couldn’t reach her; it’s that eventually she’d need to sleep. A vampire cannot go months without sleep, whether they sleep like a mortal or they just pass out at sunrise. She might manage a night or so without succumbing, but she would sleep eventually and then she’d just float back up to the surface and be killed by the sun. If you want to adjust and only have her lost at sea for one or two days, not two years, I would find that more acceptable.

Also, please read through it again, I noticed a few little typos. For instance, “there fortune” should be “their fortune”, and “there planning” should be “their planning”.

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