Chapter One: Blood Moon by Rosaline Saul
SILHOUETTED AGAINST THE dark afternoon sky there stood a church. The massive tower of the church loomed over the poor and desperate crowd in the street down below, throwing shadows across the roofs of grim Victorian tenements, dark alleys, and lanes.
Nearby, several girls stood about, and among them, there was a beautiful young girl with long auburn hair and large sad eyes. Every now and again, she moved the weight of her body from one leg to the other, waiting for a trade to come along so she could start earning some money, the only way she could. She wiped her hand across her tired eyes and felt her stomach spasm with hunger.
Then she noticed the girls around her change their stance, standing up straighter, they stopped talking amongst themselves and she saw a man walking along the street in their direction. He looked well to do, a gentleman.
All the girls here needed the money, so she prepared herself to sell her body as best she knew how.
The man looked the girls up and down until his eyes focussed on her, and then he walked closer to her.
“You seem new,” he said, with a smile.
She said softly, “I’ve been here only a couple of days.”
“How much?” He asked.
“Eightpence,” she replied, with a tiny hint of hesitation.
He smiled slowly, knowing she was charging him more because he showed an interest in her above the others. “How much for straight up? In the alley?” He asked
“Three pennies,” she suggested.
“There's a lane 'round the back,” he said, waiting for her response.
She nodded her head in agreement. “We can do it up against the wall.” She saw him hesitate, and scared she would lose the trade, she quickly added, “It looks dark enough.”
Without saying anything, he started walking toward the narrow lane and she followed him. They moved through the shadows behind the tenements. There were several passageways branching off the narrow lane, and it was a labyrinth of deserted alleys, broken down hovels and towering walls.
He led her deeper and deeper into the maze, and when he turned back to face her, he had a knife in his hand. Without warning, he slashed the knife straight across her throat.
She tried to scream but the sound only gurgled from her lips. Keeping her eyes on him, trying to memorise his face so she could describe him to the police, she noticed he was a young man, with dead eyes.
As she slumped into his arms, he leant closer and with the flick of his tongue, he licked the blood from the wound in her neck.
As the life ebbed from her body, she heard him drinking her blood greedily.
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