ON THIS PAGE YOU WILL FIND PARTS OF STORIES AND SHORT STORIES FROM MICHELLE. THEY ARE NOT ALL COMPLETE AND NOT ALL EDITED.
CAINE & LILLITH
I wrote this (or started) a few years ago. I haven't gone anywhere with it yet, but maybe I will, one day...
And the world of man was beset with evil. Darkness covered the land and death stalked the children of Adam and Eve.
Lillith was intent on wholesale slaughter of her husband Adam's spawn. Caine was opposed - perhaps a germ of humanity lingered within what had become the world’s second monster.
They disagreed and their arguments came to blows and soon they waged bloody war each upon the other.
Stalemate ensued – they were both matched in strength and violence and they realised that their dispute would come to nothing but a smouldering hatred.
They parted and it was decades before they again met.
They faced each other in unveiled animosity and violent intentions barely held in check.
“We must come to an accord Caine.” Lillith said.
Caine didn’t reply but stood watching her.
She had expected an agreement from him but when none was forthcoming, she continued, with her eyes narrowed and arms crossed.
“Either we slaughter the whole of humankind or we let them alone.”
Caine continued to watch and just as Lillith was becoming angry, he spoke: “I would suggest neither. I believe that we can live alongside humans...”
Lillith was furious and interrupted. “In harmony I suppose? You are just like your father, weak and foolish!” She spat on the ground before Caine and the earth steamed where her spittle landed.
Caine allowed her the anger and waited a moment before continuing: “We can live alongside humans, hidden in darkness, swathed in bloody violence and mystery. We shall become the terror in their nights and the dark shadow of apprehension as their day grows old and turns to dusk.
But they both had different opinions on exactly how they should live alongside humans and both thought their way would be the one that should be followed. They were treacherous and devious and they each had an idea of an army and went about in the world to corrupt humans to their Blood Lust.
Caine discovered his Black Blood Gift first as he prowled what would become known as Europe in the centuries that followed. He had many failures in his quest and few successes.
It was in Macedonia that Caine’s first real success was accomplished.
A warrior who’s vicious strength and tenacity in battle shone through the blood, mud and beer that his body was caked with survived not only the bite that Caine gave him, but also the brawl that ensued.
Caine had made his first Childe.
Lillith also threw her shadow across Europe and she was watching when Caine took his first protégé – the first of many that would survive.
Lillith saw Caine’s Childe and was worried. She had not yet been able to allow any of her victims to survive and this was obviously the key to that puzzle. She left Macedonia and went north.
In Romania she happened upon a family living in seclusion in the woodlands surrounding the mountains and they were slaughtered.
It was not until Lillith had ended the life of the very last member of the family that she realised through the Blood-Haze that she had a purpose and she wept in anger and frustration at another lost opportunity. In desperation she picked up each body in turn to see if there was a spark of life left. In what she assumed was the elder son, there was indeed such a spark and she grasped at it and forced her Blood between his lips, hoping that it would be enough to revive him.
He lingered between life and death for hours and she was almost ready to give up and kill him again when he reached out to her. She embraced him and again gave her Blood to him – in doing so she realised her mistake. The boy altered as she watched and became something that she was not sure she could be proud of.
It took more than a few decades for her to become accustomed to his features but when she realised that she had created such a ruthless, cruel and utterly humourless creature, she was proud beyond measure.
Sorin was instructed to go as he pleased, to develop his true nature as he saw fit. He went into the forest and he killed and slaughtered and he learned from Lillith and he was touched by an insanity that would have destroyed any human.
But Lillith was not happy in her surroundings and eventually would take to wandering a different continent – she went south. She finally came to a land of sultry heat and bloody war and she felt that she had come home.
Her path crossed that of a young and beautiful man. He was enamoured of her and endeavoured to bring her gifts and to spoil her and she enjoyed him. As the years passed and he realised that she could never age, he wondered how it could be and why she would not tell him. He grew resentful in his vanity and demanded that she divulge her secret and in a fit of impassioned fury, she showed him – and then she left him to grow on his own.
Caine was also enjoying more human frivolities. He and his first Childe were much alike in their Bloodthirst and eagerness for battle. They fought alongside each other – and sometimes against each other - in every skirmish they could find as they crossed European soil.
It was in one such battle, on the shores of the Black Sea that he came across another opponent who he deemed to be worthy of Black Blood. Sibling rivalry was apparent almost as soon as Caine had pointed out the next recipient of his Gift and he had to fight his first Childe to protect his proposed Childe’s life before it could be snuffed out in anger.
Dragomir survived not only the battle that his tribe had lost on the shores of the Black Sea but also the onslaught from Caine’s first and favoured Childe. Caine’s Black Blood seared through his veins and his ‘brother’ hated him.
Lillith returned to the place where she had last seen her first Childe and she searched for him.
Sorin had not wandered far and he was in very real danger of becoming too wild even for Lillith to rein back in. He took prey from villages and hamlets in a wide circle surrounding the forest where he lived and he was stealthy and cautious enough so that he would never be caught.
Sorin supplemented his food source by feeding upon animals but again, never too frequently so as the wildlife became scarce or deserted his killing grounds. Through his insanity he had developed a connection with various beasts. Bears, boars and wolves all knew to keep away when he went out hunting but also knew that the pickings would be rich when he had had his fill.
Infrequently a wolf would partake of his leavings and then would begin to show characteristics of a similar nature to Sorin – not quite human – and Sorin knew by instinct to slaughter that wolf.
In the recesses of his brain Sorin knew what was happening and why the wolf was the only creature to succumb to the same characteristics and he remembered this.
When Lillith returned – as Sorin knew she would – she found him close to where she had left him those many years ago. She was taken aback at his appearance. He was clean and clothed elegantly and did not appear to be too animalistic. He had sensed her arrival and had known that he must be prepared for when she did return.
He also sensed that she had company.
Xerxes had trailed Lillith and had a far different reaction when he saw Sorin. He was shocked and aghast at the creature’s appearance. Fine and elegant clothes did nothing to disguise the Bloodlust in his eyes. Sorin’s teeth were far longer and more lethal than were those of Lillith or Xerxes and Xerxes was still vain of his appearance. He questioned Lillith on the matter of his birthright and could not believe that they had the same Sire.
He became angry with Lillith as he used to when he was human. Sorin watched with cool detachment for a while. When Xerxes looked about to become physically violent with Lillith, Sorin flew to her defence and would have slain his brother if Lillith had not reached out her arm and clasped Sorin’s throat in her powerful hand as he leaped.
Sorin dangled from her arm, limp and docile as a kitten in its mother’s jaws and she allowed him to drop without looking at him.
And so was born hatred between Lillith’s Childe too.
Forced into an alliance, Lillith’s bitter Childe followed her to find Caine in the hope that his success had been as limited as hers.
Caine was having the same problems with sibling rivalry as Lillith. Neo and Dragomir were at each other’s throats at every opportunity.
After the fight which ended in the first death of Neoptolemos, Caine instructed Dragomir to revive his brother with his own Blood. It was a happy accident on Caine’s part. The Black Blood of Dragomir coursing through the veins of Neoptolemos was agonising for both and they decided that the pain and humiliation was not worth the satisfaction of being the victor in a fight.
Though the full benefits of a Black Blood Exchange was not to be discovered for centuries, they realised that receiving Black Blood was beneficial in that they were as immortal as they could hope to be.
When they again met, Lillith and Caine found that their opponent’s Childe were not numerous as they had feared and they were again evenly matched. Caine ordered Neo and Dragomir to slaughter Lillith’s Childe and Lillith sent her own into the fray. None were killed but all were lying at death’s door before they were finished.
Once again they went into negotiation.
“We cannot go on like this! My Childe cannot best yours and yours cannot best mine. There has to be an accord or truce or something.” Caine said.
“I knew you would weaken!”
And the world of man was beset with evil. Darkness covered the land and death stalked the children of Adam and Eve.
Lillith was intent on wholesale slaughter of her husband Adam's spawn. Caine was opposed - perhaps a germ of humanity lingered within what had become the world’s second monster.
They disagreed and their arguments came to blows and soon they waged bloody war each upon the other.
Stalemate ensued – they were both matched in strength and violence and they realised that their dispute would come to nothing but a smouldering hatred.
They parted and it was decades before they again met.
They faced each other in unveiled animosity and violent intentions barely held in check.
“We must come to an accord Caine.” Lillith said.
Caine didn’t reply but stood watching her.
She had expected an agreement from him but when none was forthcoming, she continued, with her eyes narrowed and arms crossed.
“Either we slaughter the whole of humankind or we let them alone.”
Caine continued to watch and just as Lillith was becoming angry, he spoke: “I would suggest neither. I believe that we can live alongside humans...”
Lillith was furious and interrupted. “In harmony I suppose? You are just like your father, weak and foolish!” She spat on the ground before Caine and the earth steamed where her spittle landed.
Caine allowed her the anger and waited a moment before continuing: “We can live alongside humans, hidden in darkness, swathed in bloody violence and mystery. We shall become the terror in their nights and the dark shadow of apprehension as their day grows old and turns to dusk.
But they both had different opinions on exactly how they should live alongside humans and both thought their way would be the one that should be followed. They were treacherous and devious and they each had an idea of an army and went about in the world to corrupt humans to their Blood Lust.
Caine discovered his Black Blood Gift first as he prowled what would become known as Europe in the centuries that followed. He had many failures in his quest and few successes.
It was in Macedonia that Caine’s first real success was accomplished.
A warrior who’s vicious strength and tenacity in battle shone through the blood, mud and beer that his body was caked with survived not only the bite that Caine gave him, but also the brawl that ensued.
Caine had made his first Childe.
Lillith also threw her shadow across Europe and she was watching when Caine took his first protégé – the first of many that would survive.
Lillith saw Caine’s Childe and was worried. She had not yet been able to allow any of her victims to survive and this was obviously the key to that puzzle. She left Macedonia and went north.
In Romania she happened upon a family living in seclusion in the woodlands surrounding the mountains and they were slaughtered.
It was not until Lillith had ended the life of the very last member of the family that she realised through the Blood-Haze that she had a purpose and she wept in anger and frustration at another lost opportunity. In desperation she picked up each body in turn to see if there was a spark of life left. In what she assumed was the elder son, there was indeed such a spark and she grasped at it and forced her Blood between his lips, hoping that it would be enough to revive him.
He lingered between life and death for hours and she was almost ready to give up and kill him again when he reached out to her. She embraced him and again gave her Blood to him – in doing so she realised her mistake. The boy altered as she watched and became something that she was not sure she could be proud of.
It took more than a few decades for her to become accustomed to his features but when she realised that she had created such a ruthless, cruel and utterly humourless creature, she was proud beyond measure.
Sorin was instructed to go as he pleased, to develop his true nature as he saw fit. He went into the forest and he killed and slaughtered and he learned from Lillith and he was touched by an insanity that would have destroyed any human.
But Lillith was not happy in her surroundings and eventually would take to wandering a different continent – she went south. She finally came to a land of sultry heat and bloody war and she felt that she had come home.
Her path crossed that of a young and beautiful man. He was enamoured of her and endeavoured to bring her gifts and to spoil her and she enjoyed him. As the years passed and he realised that she could never age, he wondered how it could be and why she would not tell him. He grew resentful in his vanity and demanded that she divulge her secret and in a fit of impassioned fury, she showed him – and then she left him to grow on his own.
Caine was also enjoying more human frivolities. He and his first Childe were much alike in their Bloodthirst and eagerness for battle. They fought alongside each other – and sometimes against each other - in every skirmish they could find as they crossed European soil.
It was in one such battle, on the shores of the Black Sea that he came across another opponent who he deemed to be worthy of Black Blood. Sibling rivalry was apparent almost as soon as Caine had pointed out the next recipient of his Gift and he had to fight his first Childe to protect his proposed Childe’s life before it could be snuffed out in anger.
Dragomir survived not only the battle that his tribe had lost on the shores of the Black Sea but also the onslaught from Caine’s first and favoured Childe. Caine’s Black Blood seared through his veins and his ‘brother’ hated him.
Lillith returned to the place where she had last seen her first Childe and she searched for him.
Sorin had not wandered far and he was in very real danger of becoming too wild even for Lillith to rein back in. He took prey from villages and hamlets in a wide circle surrounding the forest where he lived and he was stealthy and cautious enough so that he would never be caught.
Sorin supplemented his food source by feeding upon animals but again, never too frequently so as the wildlife became scarce or deserted his killing grounds. Through his insanity he had developed a connection with various beasts. Bears, boars and wolves all knew to keep away when he went out hunting but also knew that the pickings would be rich when he had had his fill.
Infrequently a wolf would partake of his leavings and then would begin to show characteristics of a similar nature to Sorin – not quite human – and Sorin knew by instinct to slaughter that wolf.
In the recesses of his brain Sorin knew what was happening and why the wolf was the only creature to succumb to the same characteristics and he remembered this.
When Lillith returned – as Sorin knew she would – she found him close to where she had left him those many years ago. She was taken aback at his appearance. He was clean and clothed elegantly and did not appear to be too animalistic. He had sensed her arrival and had known that he must be prepared for when she did return.
He also sensed that she had company.
Xerxes had trailed Lillith and had a far different reaction when he saw Sorin. He was shocked and aghast at the creature’s appearance. Fine and elegant clothes did nothing to disguise the Bloodlust in his eyes. Sorin’s teeth were far longer and more lethal than were those of Lillith or Xerxes and Xerxes was still vain of his appearance. He questioned Lillith on the matter of his birthright and could not believe that they had the same Sire.
He became angry with Lillith as he used to when he was human. Sorin watched with cool detachment for a while. When Xerxes looked about to become physically violent with Lillith, Sorin flew to her defence and would have slain his brother if Lillith had not reached out her arm and clasped Sorin’s throat in her powerful hand as he leaped.
Sorin dangled from her arm, limp and docile as a kitten in its mother’s jaws and she allowed him to drop without looking at him.
And so was born hatred between Lillith’s Childe too.
Forced into an alliance, Lillith’s bitter Childe followed her to find Caine in the hope that his success had been as limited as hers.
Caine was having the same problems with sibling rivalry as Lillith. Neo and Dragomir were at each other’s throats at every opportunity.
After the fight which ended in the first death of Neoptolemos, Caine instructed Dragomir to revive his brother with his own Blood. It was a happy accident on Caine’s part. The Black Blood of Dragomir coursing through the veins of Neoptolemos was agonising for both and they decided that the pain and humiliation was not worth the satisfaction of being the victor in a fight.
Though the full benefits of a Black Blood Exchange was not to be discovered for centuries, they realised that receiving Black Blood was beneficial in that they were as immortal as they could hope to be.
When they again met, Lillith and Caine found that their opponent’s Childe were not numerous as they had feared and they were again evenly matched. Caine ordered Neo and Dragomir to slaughter Lillith’s Childe and Lillith sent her own into the fray. None were killed but all were lying at death’s door before they were finished.
Once again they went into negotiation.
“We cannot go on like this! My Childe cannot best yours and yours cannot best mine. There has to be an accord or truce or something.” Caine said.
“I knew you would weaken!”
POLLY
I don't know where this one came from, I don't know where she's going yet...
She stood at the top of the stone parapet, right at the very highest point of the bridge. She looked up at the stars because she dare not look down. Her heart was thumping in her chest, her hair was streaming out around her, buffeted by the wind and sometimes swirling around her face. Once she shook her head in order to get the hair from her mouth and she wobbled on her unsteady legs, she would not try that again.
Her clothes were being tugged and pulled by the wind as though by invisible fingers and gusts threatened to topple her from her precarious perch.
She thought about the reasons that she had climbed to the highest point that she had ever been to and whether they made sense to her still. They had made sense when she was preparing herself, they had made sense whilst she had been climbing and now, now that she was finally at the fork in the road that would send her onto one or another of the two separate paths in her life, she thought again on the reasons that she had decided to put an end to her present life.
Family, she had none. The job she worked at was no kind of career and though it was deemed that she had been very fortunate to secure herself a place as scullery maid without so much as a reference, she found that the other maids were snobbish bullies. The male staff members were lecherous pigs and she had neither the strength nor the energy to avoid or refuse their attentions any more. When she had finally succumbed to the attentions of the younger son of the household, she was held in greater disdain than ever before.
She was fortunate to have escaped without an unwanted pregnancy – that much she knew but she was mortified to find that someone had found out about her dalliances. The younger son, the favourite amongst the staff ‘below stairs’ was sent away so that he couldn’t get into more trouble and she was threatened to be sent packing if she so much as showed signs of being with child.
Her terrible and unbearable situation became worse. The maids blamed her for the son’s departure, as did the cook and the butler. Her colleagues had hardly spoken to her before he had been sent away, now, they sent her to Coventry. She was miserable and as such, her work suffered.
The housekeeper had summoned her into her office and told her in no uncertain terms that she had to pull her socks up or be off and on her way with no references.
That had been a little over a month ago and she had tried her very hardest to please everyone but it was impossible.
A few weeks ago, as she lay on her bed, worn out from the day’s work but unable to sleep for her misery; a thought had popped into her head:
“I’ll show them! They’ll be sorry when I’m dead and gone and they’ll know it was their fault.”
The thought was persistent and though she tried to push it away – nothing was bad enough to wish herself dead over, surely – it came back night after night and then it began to appear when she was being snubbed or told off. Then it would appear when she was working at her usual duties and pretty soon, the thought was there as a permanent fixture, running around in her mind. Her ultimate revenge would be her death, her blood on their hands.
She stood at the top of the stone parapet, right at the very highest point of the bridge. She looked up at the stars because she dare not look down. Her heart was thumping in her chest, her hair was streaming out around her, buffeted by the wind and sometimes swirling around her face. Once she shook her head in order to get the hair from her mouth and she wobbled on her unsteady legs, she would not try that again.
Her clothes were being tugged and pulled by the wind as though by invisible fingers and gusts threatened to topple her from her precarious perch.
She thought about the reasons that she had climbed to the highest point that she had ever been to and whether they made sense to her still. They had made sense when she was preparing herself, they had made sense whilst she had been climbing and now, now that she was finally at the fork in the road that would send her onto one or another of the two separate paths in her life, she thought again on the reasons that she had decided to put an end to her present life.
Family, she had none. The job she worked at was no kind of career and though it was deemed that she had been very fortunate to secure herself a place as scullery maid without so much as a reference, she found that the other maids were snobbish bullies. The male staff members were lecherous pigs and she had neither the strength nor the energy to avoid or refuse their attentions any more. When she had finally succumbed to the attentions of the younger son of the household, she was held in greater disdain than ever before.
She was fortunate to have escaped without an unwanted pregnancy – that much she knew but she was mortified to find that someone had found out about her dalliances. The younger son, the favourite amongst the staff ‘below stairs’ was sent away so that he couldn’t get into more trouble and she was threatened to be sent packing if she so much as showed signs of being with child.
Her terrible and unbearable situation became worse. The maids blamed her for the son’s departure, as did the cook and the butler. Her colleagues had hardly spoken to her before he had been sent away, now, they sent her to Coventry. She was miserable and as such, her work suffered.
The housekeeper had summoned her into her office and told her in no uncertain terms that she had to pull her socks up or be off and on her way with no references.
That had been a little over a month ago and she had tried her very hardest to please everyone but it was impossible.
A few weeks ago, as she lay on her bed, worn out from the day’s work but unable to sleep for her misery; a thought had popped into her head:
“I’ll show them! They’ll be sorry when I’m dead and gone and they’ll know it was their fault.”
The thought was persistent and though she tried to push it away – nothing was bad enough to wish herself dead over, surely – it came back night after night and then it began to appear when she was being snubbed or told off. Then it would appear when she was working at her usual duties and pretty soon, the thought was there as a permanent fixture, running around in her mind. Her ultimate revenge would be her death, her blood on their hands.
DANIK
Danik held out his arms and allowed the strong gusts of wind to pull his hair and wrap it across his eyes. He felt the fingers of the breeze tug at his locks as they tangled and caught on his ears and nose. If he opened his mouth, his hair would be blown past his teeth and his reaction would be to pull it out and he laughed. His laugh was torn from his lips, set free by the oncoming storm. He caught his hair in one hand and looked towards the burgeoning storm clouds. He could feel the storm approaching fast and it excited him to watch as the clouds grew darker by the minute and roiled and rolled towards the cliff that he was standing precariously on the edge of.
“I love this feeling, Hazel! I feel so alive! I feel as though nothing can harm me, nothing has ever been able to harm me.” His voice grew quieter then and he whispered but Hazel could still hear him even over the whistling gale that was increasing in intensity even as they stood waiting for the rain.
“Danik, you’ve been performing this ritual for the past three hundred years, doesn’t it get old?”
He turned to look at her and she saw the wildness in his eyes and she knew the answer... no, to Danik, challenging nature never got old, could never get old. He thrived on the adrenalin and she felt herself thanking some deity or another that he was one of the ‘good guys’.
Hazel looked at Danik as he turned to face the maelstrom again. He was naked and his body was as firm and supple as she remembered it when they had first met more than three centuries since. He had no shame or modesty and she laughed with him.
Then he turned his back to the sea, held out his arms again and leaned backwards until gravity took hold and pulled his body out past the point of no return. His toes gave a little push to send him further away from the cliff face as he tumbled and then he was lost from her sight.
Her heart always felt as though it had been punched when she saw him perform his ritual but she had long ago stopped trying to persuade him not to by words or by force. Danik would either hit the sea or the rocks below. She hoped that it was the sea because it made an awful mess of his beautiful body when he hit the rocks...
“I love this feeling, Hazel! I feel so alive! I feel as though nothing can harm me, nothing has ever been able to harm me.” His voice grew quieter then and he whispered but Hazel could still hear him even over the whistling gale that was increasing in intensity even as they stood waiting for the rain.
“Danik, you’ve been performing this ritual for the past three hundred years, doesn’t it get old?”
He turned to look at her and she saw the wildness in his eyes and she knew the answer... no, to Danik, challenging nature never got old, could never get old. He thrived on the adrenalin and she felt herself thanking some deity or another that he was one of the ‘good guys’.
Hazel looked at Danik as he turned to face the maelstrom again. He was naked and his body was as firm and supple as she remembered it when they had first met more than three centuries since. He had no shame or modesty and she laughed with him.
Then he turned his back to the sea, held out his arms again and leaned backwards until gravity took hold and pulled his body out past the point of no return. His toes gave a little push to send him further away from the cliff face as he tumbled and then he was lost from her sight.
Her heart always felt as though it had been punched when she saw him perform his ritual but she had long ago stopped trying to persuade him not to by words or by force. Danik would either hit the sea or the rocks below. She hoped that it was the sea because it made an awful mess of his beautiful body when he hit the rocks...