Chapter 4: Hannah and Magda's Curse

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Chapter Four:

They were beautiful if you didn’t know what they were. Reza supposed this was why the vampire chose them. One had hair as dark as a raven’s wing and eyes greener than the forest leaves come spring time. And Reza remembered her.

Her name had been Magda. She once had the kindest eyes Reza had ever seen. She had lived in the town with her father selling hot pies and cakes. Once, Magda had been kind enough to give Reza a latke when she was five. It was the best potato pancake she had ever tasted. Reza had said as much causing Magda to blush with pride.

Now she is pale and thin and her eyes are no longer kind.

Petar the blacksmith had been desperately in love with her. It was said by the other towns people that he had been planning to ask her father for permission to marry the girl just before Magda disappeared.

There had been rumors that she had run off with some man from the city, but the Nans had never believed it. Neither had Petar. He had begged the people in the town to search the woods for her, to go to the nearby castle and demand her back. They told him he was a fool to even say such a thing. Even Magda’s father had given her up for dead.

Petar went to the woods to retrieve his love, stopping at their camp to speak with Old Nan. He had begged for any talismans or trinkets she could offer that would aid him. Old Nan did what she could but warned him he would not be successful in his quest. He would be too late. He would be killed. But Petar had the light of vengeance in his eyes and it burned through to his very soul. He left with Old Nan’s gifts and made his way to the monster’s lair.

He never came back.

The other girl—Hannah, her mother called her—hissed at Reza. This one was even paler than Magda, her complexion before death naturally light and her eyes as grey as an overcast sky.

She had once looked after her mother when she was just a child. Reza had never met her in life but her mother had told her about the woman after she caught Reza jumping in the lake. Mother was terrified of the water because her friend had drowned in it—at least, that’s what everyone had said. She would scream if Reza so much as put a toe in the water fearing her daughter would suffer the same fate.

“But mother,” she had tried to explain. “Water can not kill me. You know that.”
No amount of reasoning would make her mother understand.

“Such a little thing,” Magda crooned.

“Not enough for a meal,” Hannah said forlornly.

“Perhaps the master will allow us to feed on the other if we are good.”

The two exchanged empty glances, nodded, and turned those dead hungry eyes onto Reza. They inched closer. Reza raised her left hand.

They froze, mesmerized by the dripping blood from her palm. Hannah licked her lips.

“Is this what you want you evil bitches?” Reza called to them.

Magda was the first to pounce. Teeth bared, clawing hands came at Reza faster than she could see, but she didn’t back away. She didn’t run. Her palm struck the dead girl in the face, sending her reeling.

Hannah was close on Magda’s heels and Reza almost missed when she slammed her bleeding palm into the girl’s exposed chest. She tumbled to the ground landing next to Magda. They were both marked with her blood.

“I curse you Magda,” Reza said staring into the dead thing’s eyes. She turned to the other. “I curse you Hannah. I curse you both.”

There was pity in her voice. She told herself that she was releasing these creatures from pain, sending them to their final rest as she recited the stipulations of the curse she would place upon them.