Paris, 1794 Ch. 7: The Rally

[Author's note: Have been updating this thread too intermittently, unfortunately. To refresh your memory, the story starts here. Rachel's POV]

Rachel patrols the streets, checking in on whorehouses, taverns, the docks...all the usual hunting grounds for thirst vampiresses. The past few nights have been exceptionally quiet. She followed up on some reports of missing people she gleaned from a madame here, a bartender there, but nothing made her trail any warmer.

Since killing that vapid French vampiress, she hasn't been able to find any vampiric activity. Rachel knows that Erzsébet was in Paris. She feels it. But after tipping her hand, Rachel worries that Elizabeth has decamped, to bleed another town. She knows Elizabeth though: more likely Elizabeth is laying low and plotting. Elizabeth is too vengeful to slink out of down under cover of darkness.

I'll find her. This time, I'll kill her Rachel promises herself.

Rachel circles back to the center of the city. No early activity in the scummier parts of town, maybe I'll find something somewhere else she thinks. She hears loud shouts coming down one of the main avenues. Rachel becomes alert, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. The shouts aren't in fear, they are chanting political slogans. She remembers: a large rally had been called for tonight at the Place de la Révolution. Rachel remembers when it was called Place Louis XV. She's sure it will be called something else shortly.

A revolution that began with the best of intentions had devolved into bloodletting and savagery, and the people were increasingly angry with the progressively more eccentric and unpredictable dictates of Maximilien Robespierre. The Festival of the Supreme Being was likely a step too far. Rachel did not think he would last much longer. And then, on to the next male idiot with more aggression than sense.

As she enters the large public square, Rachel sees a large crowd chanting against the current government. There is a carnival like atmosphere in the well-lit octagon. Half political rally, half party. Such a gathering would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago. He's losing control Rachel thinks.

She walks among the people, momentarily forgetting her mission and just taking in the sites. "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" Rachel cheers along sarcastically, her French accented heavily with Yiddish. I'll free them from inhuman monsters. They need to excise the human darkness on their own she thinks. Walking among the crowd, Rachel loses herself to her own dark thoughts. Despite her best efforts, Rachel often finds herself thinking back all those decades ago to Elizabeth's keep.

Rachel is bound to a bed in the dimly lit cellar. She's naked, shivering on the cold sheets. Her arms are outstretched, tied to bindings wrapping around the mattress. Her feet are spread by a rigid bar. Torchlight dances on the stone walls of the keep. She sees dark stains on the stone walls. It could be blood, but who can tell in the torch light? She hears screams echoing off the stone walls from down the corridor, but they seem distant. They could be a thousand miles away.

Her mother, Rayna, is chained nude to the wall, and gagged. Rachel struggles to hold back the tears. Where is my sister, Sarah? she wonders.

Elizabeth strides into the chamber, two other vampiresses trailing behind her. Rachel doesn't know their names. One of them has a spot of blood on the side of her mouth. They are both pale redheads. They almost look like sisters.

"Ah, our little Rachel is awake" Elizabeth says, turning to the vampiresses behind her. "Should we give her a show?"

The anonymous vampires nod excitedly, fangs bared. Elizabeth approaches Rayna, and drags her fingernail across Rayna's large exposed breasts. Rachel sees a line of red appear, and begin to drip. Elizabeth brings her finger to her mouth. She closes her eyes as she licks the blood.

"Exquisite" Elizabeth moans. "Come, feed with me" Elizabeth says to the other vampiresses. In the blink of an eye, Elizabeth bites into Rayna's throat, sucking greedily at the woman's neck. The two other vampiresses quickly follow suit. One of them bites into the inside of Rayna's elbow. The other bites into Rayna's wrist. The sound of their sucking and slurping echoes off the harsh stone walls as Rayna struggles against her bindings.

"Mom! No!!!" Rachel tries to scream, but she is gagged. Elizabeth turns to her and grins, blood dripping from her fangs, before turning to bite back into Rayna's neck. Rayna's struggles become more feeble as her eyelids begin to droop. She falls slack against her restraints. Exsanguinated. The three vampiresses withdraw their fangs, gasping for air and laughing.

Rachel makes an oath before God then and there: I will kill Elizabeth. I will kill them all.

Elizabeth glides over to the bed, and strokes Rachel's cheek. "There, there, little bird. It will be over soon enough..." Elizabeth says in a mockingly comforting tone. She pinches Rachel's nipple and laughs, walking briskly out the room. The two redheaded vampiresses crawl onto the bed. One bites into Rachel's breast, the other into Rachel's thigh.

Rachel screams.

Rachel is startled into alertness by the sound of screaming. The shouts now are unmistakable. Sounding nothing like the political frenzy of before, these are shrieks of pure terror. She hears pistols firing. A shopfront has caught fire. The pandemonium in the square is ratcheting up. Rachel runs in the opposite direction to the fleeing Parisians, towards the source of the commotion.

Rachel cannot believe what she sees. Three, no four....wait, five? vampiresses wantonly attacking the men and women in the square, tearing throats out and feeding briefly before leaping at the next. Blood covers the square. These vampires are unlike any Rachel has ever seen. Emaciated, animalistic, thoughtlessly tearing at their human prey. Lashing out more than hunting. Their filthy clothes hang in rags from their bony frames. Even Rachel has to admit that Vampires have a certain dark, ethereal beauty to them. Not these, their faces contorted in rage, framing large canines.

Rachel walks forward, as others run away. She makes eye contact with one of the....things. There is nothing there. No thoughts. Just rage. She watches as two of the animals tear a man apart by the arms, biting into the pieces.

Rachel draws a long silver sword hidden in the folds of her dress, and marches forward.