Breathe Life Into Me

Book I: Spark of Black

"O My God, relying on Thy infinite goodness and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer."

-Act of Hope, prayer

Elena knew right away that something was terribly wrong with her daughter.

She had been distraught for weeks. The laboring pains of pregnancy growing to an impossible maximum. Elena kept thinking back to the ghastly visions she had been plagued with near the end of her pregnancy. She had dreamed the devil himself had taken her beautiful daughter. The King of Destruction told her dream specter that he was to punish her for her sins. In her nightmares, he would grin down at Elena wolfishly, cradling the blond infant tenderly. Elena shared these horrors with her husband and Dimitri had told her not to worry. So, Elena took it upon herself to look in the occult works that Dimitri had been accumulating for a 'friend'. One in particular stood out to her, and that was the myth of a changeling. It was a story she had heard before in her home of Ireland. It was a bedside tale her grandmother would recount nightly. 'If you are not good, the devil will take you and leave behind a demon child in your wake to harm us all.' But Elena was a god-fearing Catholic, and those things didn't exist. Right?

The last dream came much like the others, but now she could see her devil. A handsome, roguish man who held her daughter with sadistic glee. The dream was of him changing her, biting into the soft flesh of her daughter and creating a monster. The child's eyes burned red like the devil who held her. Elena woke from that dream covered in amniotic fluid and had given birth to a full-term stillborn that night. She had created a daughter in the starling image of the very man she loved, but the child did not draw breath.

"Please," Elena gasped quietly up at the midwife, completely disturbed by the silence that followed. The young assistant looked hesitant at Elena's utterance. "Please, tell me she is alive." The midwife frowned and shook her head, raising the freshly born infant for the mother to see. Red, covered in blood and fluid from the womb, but also blue from lack of oxygen. Elena made a choking sound in the back of her throat before crying out to her husband Dimitri in the other room.

Dimitri burst into the room his eyes locking on his distressed wife. Blond hair on end from the ruthless way he mused it for hours during Elena's labor.

"My love?" He questioned, slanting closer. He ran a cool had down the side of his beloved's face. "What is-?" He began, but his eyes soon found the midwife. She had a infant sized bundle in her arms, and a solemn look on her face. To the husband she passed over the freshly washed babe, mumbling an apology. The midwife began to pray.

"No." Dimitri gasped, hands shaking as he held his lifeless young. "NO! This cannot be!" Elena watched, silent tears now falling freely from her eyes. To exhausted to do more than reach her hand out to her broken family. Dimitri took her hand in his, crying with his wife. He knelled down beside her so that Elena could look at their daughter as well.

"She looks just like you." Elena commented softly. "A fair, would-be scholar, to follow in her father's footsteps." Her hand going completely slack. Dimitri looked over and noticed that his wife's eyes were now closed and his panic spiked. He jumped back, clutching the infant to his chest.

"Is she, too?!" He asked, very afraid to know the answer. The midwife promptly shook her head.

"Not at all. The fatigue, my lord, has simply caught up with her." The birthing assistant said. "I will have her cleaned up and resting in a hour or so."

Dimitri nodded, trusting the woman. His gaze went back down to the child in his arms.

"I would do anything to see you alive, my child." Dimitri said, lovingly. Longingly. "There is nothing I wouldn't do, please believe me. But I am no medic. There is nothing-!"

Dimitri halted in his thoughts as his eyes trailed to the stack of books he was supposed to deliver to the isolated friend he had in the woods. Sir Dracul, as he was called, had a very cabalistic taste, and paid Dimitri well to acquire the mysterious works and deliver them to his adobe. Dimitri had long suspected something supernatural about his secluded companion, and though it was a long shot, perhaps that man could bring his daughter back to him. However unsavory that method may be.

With his mind made up, Dimitri bound his daughter tightly and left with out goodbye.

xxxxxx

When next Elena woke, she was cold. And she was alone. She sat up gently in bed, wincing as a jolt of pain raced down her body. Elena through her legs off the side of the bed and aggressively rubbed her eyes. Crying had startled her from her slumber. The crying of an infant. Why her mind would plague her so, she didn't know. She found it cruel and unwarranted. But the crying persisted. Her anger began to rise, and pain be damned, she descended down the stairs for a glass-or bottle- of gin. What she was unprepared for was her husband to be standing there, in the center of their kitchen, with a bundled infant that was very much alive.

"If this is a dream, Dimitri," Elena stared hesitantly, taking measured steps toward him. "Don't you dare wake me." Dimitri smiled softly, looking down at the child and back to his wife. The smile faltered slightly. He cooed to the child to calm her, and it worked.

"It is our daughter, Elena." Dimitri said. "She is alive, my love." Elena chest heaved as she reached out with shaking hands.

"But," Dimitri said tentatively. "Her appearance is different." That made Elena's blood run cold.

"Are her eyes red?" Elena whispered out, that being all she could muster.

"Are her eyes- What?" Dimitri questioned back."No." He said affirmatively.

"Then nothing else matters." And with that Elena scooped the child from his arms. Fear paralyzed her as she looked down at it.

No, her eyes were not red, but they were not sea-green she remembered. That was equally as starling. The now stark yellow shade of her daughter's irises reminded Elena of the brilliance a lightning beetle and seemed to gently glow like one as well. And her hair. The hair Elena had only seen briefly was no-longer the blanched blond that her husband had, it was a glittering copper. The gossamer strands seemed fuller as she ran her hands through them. Freckles dusted over every inch of exposed skin. There was no question, this was a beautiful child. She held the child out to Dimitri.

But this wasn't her beautiful child.

"I reject it." Elena said coldly. "This is not my daughter." Dimitri stared at his wife in horror, quickly swiping the infant from Elena's hand.

"You reject her?!" He said, clearly enraged. The infant in his arms began to fuss softly. "This is her, our child!" bitterness lacing every syllable as Dimitri addressed Elena. Elena remained stoic.

"She is hungry, Elena." Dimitri's voiced lowered, pleading.

"Let her die," Elena replied, growing cold. "like she was fated to."

Dimitri was at a loss. He thought his wife would understand. He thought he could make her understand, if nothing else. Surely she could see Dimitri loved his family more than anything and this attested to that. Rage quickly began to bubble up over the hopelessness. Dimitri held fast to his child. Elena saw the decision in his eyes and her jaw dropped.

"A changeling!" Elena harped, stomping back up to their bedroom. Dimitri followed, trying to soothe the irate infant. "A beast straight from the devil himself to devour us!"

"You are demented!" Dimitri all but screamed back, never mind the detail surrounding the resurrection of his daughter. "Truly, you have." Dimitri, looked down at the beautiful girl in his arms.

"Leave then." Dimitri turned from Elena. "If I see you again before I die, it will have been too soon."

Elena watched Dimitri leave, tears streaking down her face. Hesitating for only a moment, Elena soon turned, gathers her belongings, and left.

xXxXxXxX

The journey had been long, but once Elena laid her eyes back on the rolling hills of Ireland she released a long breath she hadn't realized she was holding. The air felt clearer here in her home land and as she took in the familiar sights of the bustling ports and fisherman, she couldn't remember what had possessed her to leave in the first place. Elena had arrived midday just as winter was settling in, so all the normal green sights were dusted in a layer of white. As soon as Elena's feet hit the cobblestone, her body instinctively turned downhill to head to her family's cottage, but she halted. Elena turned, resting a hand over her empty abdomen. Her first destination was uphill, she remembered, and headed that way instead.

Merely a stone's throw from her family's farm was the Catholic abbey. The church was a home away from home for her and everyone in her devout family. The path was well maintained, the plants that decorated were cultivated with love. Elena smile as she walked, her heart lightening with every step. The echoing laughter of children playing in the courtyard stilled her. How could she forget? The abbey double as the local orphanage. Elena was now unsure of her strength, wavering at the thought of seeing healthy children so soon. Her hands were trembling on the wrought iron gate that separated Elena from the monastery. She had to remain resolute. He needs to know.

"Do my eyes yet deceive me?" A deep, rumbling chuckle followed. "Little Elena, finally in full bloom." Elena turned her head and met a familiar emerald stare.

"Father Anderson." Elena greeted, a soft smile appearing. "Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon, to you as well, my child." Alexander Anderson smiled, walking up to the gate, opposite of Elena. "It has been too long since we've last spoken. Where is the husband I have heard such good things about?" Father Anderson questioned, looking behind her for only a moment. "And a child? I had heard you were with child?" Father Anderson watched as her hand gently caressed her stomach before balling into a fist.

"A lot has happened. I hope God can forgive me." Elena's voice became grave as she spoke to the confessor. Father Anderson gave her a stern look before pulling the gate open and latching a hand to her shoulder.

"If it is penance you seek," He began, smiling down at Elena. "Let me absolve you."

Elena allowed herself to be lead into the monastery, he head bowed down avoiding the curious onlookers. Father Anderson steered her through the Nave of the church and in to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. He ushered her to sit as he closed the doors behind them. Lighting a few candle on the table, Father Anderson came to sit beside Elena.

"Lay out your sins to me, child." Father Anderson probed gently.

"Bless me father, for I have sinned." Elena began the sacrament naturally. "My last confession, well, it has been too long." Elena picked at her fingers, nervous once more to begin in front of the man who has blessed her all her life. Elena took a steadying breath, and clasping her hands in prayer, she unfolded before Alexander.

"These are my sins: Father, I married a mad man who entertains a devil. A far cry from the scholar I met all those years ago. Dimitri, is his name, began to socialize with a phantom of a man that never leaves the forests on the border of Wallachia. This dark person asked my husband to acquire handwritten works depicting the preternatural. Dimitri amassed a collection Pope Paul II would call heresy. At Dimitri's urging, we stopped going to church after I realized my pregnancy. I could not go against my husbands command, Father. Throughout my days of child-bearing, I was plagued with horrific nightmares that Lucifer had my child in his hands. My child was born still. I felt wronged by God, but I knew there must be a reason. My faith was tested. On the dawn of the next morning, Dimitri stood before me with a child he tried to pass as our daughter, but I instantly knew. Dimitri had gone to the demon in the woods. It is only through some necromancy that our daughter lives. I couldn't stay with a husband who went against God to have our daughter live."'

Elena deflated, hands falling in her lap at her long-winded explanation. She didn't notice the way Father Anderson had tensed up the moment she mentioned a 'devil in the Wallachian woods'. She gasped lightly as Father Anderson took up one of her hands and with the other he wipe away tears she hadn't realized had fallen.

"You were right to come home." He began, gently smiling at the crying woman.

"God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Alexander recited the prayer of Absolution. Elena smiled, fresh tears rolling down her face. She replied in kind with the Act of Contrition.

"O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell. But, most of all, because they have offended Thee, my God, Who art all good, and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy Grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen."

"I believe some works of mercy are in order for your penance." Father Anderson said, standing. I will have you help out at the orphanage for a time, but for now. Go home and rest, my child. I will see you on Sunday's service."

Father Alexander Anderson didn't give her room to reply as he made he exit. A gleeful smile adorned his face.

"Of course you are still alive, you fiend." Anderson mumbled to himself, staring up at the stained glass that depicted the 'Sacred Heart'. "And now, you have used your devilry to conjure up a demon minx to accompany you in undeath. That is unacceptable." Anderson bowed his head and prayed.

"O Lord, give me the strength to exorcise that being from existence, and the will to deliver the child from evil."

Alright boys and girls, its alot of set up in these first few chapters, but I hope you enjoy some backstory!

I used creative liberties here, seeing as its very vague on how old anderson is. I hope you enjoy this chapter, next will be from Antanasia's POV!