Behind sad eyes

"Are you sure this is what you want, my dear Aurora?"

Even after all these years, those words still came to Aurora's mind unbidden, every time she fed. And she was wont to feed a lot these days. The hunger had been subtle in the beginning, mostly unnoticed behind her emotions. Her fear, her hate, her envy.

Now it came quick, and like the rising tide, with more and more power behind it. And every time she fed, she needed more and more to satiate herself. Aurora launched into her meal, taking delight in every succulent drop. Though her meals nowadays were far from as succulent as the first few she had taken. She had put passion into them, though now she felt only regret for what she was doing. But the hunger commanded it, such was the ancient power behind it.

Had she known the absoluteness of the power that ran through her, Aurora may have chosen differently. Of that though, she was hardly sure. The grievance that had started her down this path had been severe and malicious enough that she could never be sure anymore, for when she thought of it she still felt a flash of anger. And when she thought back, on how she had remade the wrongs done against her, she couldn't help but to feel a little happiness. And maybe even a twinge of pride as well. She had made him pay for his infidelity, and those he consorted with.

No, for all the warnings her maker had given her, she still chose his gift, his curse, for herself. The power, the hunger, the sickness, the darkness. All of it was now hers as well.

She thought back again to all he had told her that night. "For years the hunger will consume you. It will all seem like a blur when it has finally finished, though when that moment comes, varies by the person. Your instincts will tell you when you must feed, when you must sleep, when you must fight. When you first feed it will be yourself feeding. Once your prey is finished, the hunger will commence, continuously unfulfilled, for the gods know how long."

Her body moved from one dry corpse, to another of her kills, and proceeded to continue the feeding. And as she did so, she spied her once elegant white dress, now red, and tattered. With the hunger having control of her, all she could do was remember more of that night, or watch her body continue along its gruesome task.

"My own maker took three decades. I myself took at least one, with several years passed, before I realized the hunger was gone, and I was once again in control of my faculties. In my considerable time since, I have made many, and not one has returned yet. Whether slain by men or the light, I do not know. Nor do I care. Nor will I care should you never return."

As her body finished with the current meal, she quickly set out for her lair. Aurora would like to call it a home, but there was no sense of it for her. And her body would do little more than sleep, hide, and feed here.

She remembered again the moment that he had turned her. He had fed on her, bringing her within an inch of her life. Before giving her the gift, and with her lying helpless on the floor, he stated "This is your last chance to avoid my fate, Aurora. Know that once you sip from my veins, you shall never be the same again. Should you survive the hunger like myself, though you may look the same, your eyes will forever hold the knowledge of your sins." As she had weakly nodded her assent, she noticed for the first time that his eyes held a great sadness. She had noticed it before, but had always thought it the look of a man with great knowledge, to go along with his regal bearing. He pushed a curled strand from her once immaculate hair, and as he delved his gaze deep into her eyes, he proffered the gift from his veins.

Aurora hated to think what her hair might look like now. It was nearly always plastered to the side of her face, covered in the grime and the blood of her feeding. Though she never felt it anymore.

When the deed was done, her laying helpless on the floor, he offered one last moment. "Should the lovely lady survive the delirium of the hunger, the mind intact after witnessing the animal ravages, you are welcome to seek me out again. Until it happens, thou shall remain a prisoner within thy own mind. A shell of a person, with only an animal's ferocity and instincts. A mind that can do nothing but watch, watch from behind sad eyes."

As she made it to her lair, Aurora lay down to wait out the day. Again she wondered how much time had passed. And how much longer she would feed like this.