Reflections

[WP] Vampires couldn't be seen in mirrors because they used to be backed with silver. After 1940 mirror manufactures started using liquid mercury to back mirrors. During the 1940s, you are a confused vampire just saw yourself in a mirror for the first time in centuries.

*****

As I entered the work room, Frederick seemed to show little interest. He was pottering about in the back with vials, capturing steam in bottles and muttering to himself. The room itself was stygian, dusty and cluttered. The man should have been living in a cave.

I looked into one of the silvery vials on the counter. I still hadn't completely adjusted to seeing my reflection. In life my hair was black as tar, and yet I sported flowing locks of amber and crimson. Of course, I knew this. I wasn't the only one. But to see it of yourself...

"Moriarty." Frederick said, standing over me as I crouched to look into the bottles.

"Frederick." I returned, straightening my posture and swatting out any creases in my clothing. "You have made a breakthrough, I understand?"

"Yes. Remarkable." He said, gesturing for me to follow as he weaved around the piles of books and towering glass tubes. Occasionally I caught my reflection here and there in the vials dotted around.

I remember when I had discovered it. I was hunting in the woods, feasting near a stream when I caught my reflection for the first time. Slivers of silver ran through the water. Tracing the source, it seemed a spill from a nearby factory, leaking into nature. Corrupting her...

Again. Human progress seemed more damaging to the natural balance by the decade.

We approached the back of the laboratory, a drape of purple hung over the desk. Frederick pulled it back, revealing a mirror. In it I saw my face, again, perhaps in better detail than I'd ever seen before.

It made me cringe.

"We've done it." He said, letting out a relieved laugh. "We've done it!" He grabbed me, forgetting where he was; who we were. His face sunk in realisation as he stepped back. "F-forgive me."

I did. Not that there was anything to forgive. I had learned to expect very little of the Human species. It was better that way.

"I'll need five." I said, procuring a small parchment from my pocket and sliding it onto the desk.

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It was October the 6th, the annual meeting of the Dreuchi.

In any other part of the world we'd be referred to by the derogatory "Vampire" moniker. Not here, though. This was our home.

Deep in the catacombs I sat, where marble and gold intertwined in intricate patterns around the hexagonal room. At each wall sat a throne and behind it, a curtain hung.

I had prepared servants, as usual. They stood to the side of each throne in silk robes, recently bathed and docile. The Council entered one by one after the checks had taken place outside.

"I have always admired how well you prepare the food." Roberto said, running his fingers along the arm of one of the slaves stood beside him. He was the oldest and most powerful. He knew it. He played on it.

Today, I wouldn't let him bother me. I nodded to him, calling out to everyone as they sat. "Welcome, all.'

"Moriarty, I'm confused. I must say." Theodore said, pricking his palm with that silly little needle he carried everywhere. Some kind of prop to scare Humans. "You left early?"

"Yes." I said, clasping my hands together. "I do apologise. I was keen to prepare the chamber. It is often unwise to leave a task solely in the hands of Men." I explained, noting the approval of most members.

"The Angered God does not appear this night. Perhaps because of your absence, Moriarty." Dominique bemoaned.

"I am afraid the Angered God has not appeared in centuries, child. I do believe he is waiting for something special." I said. Dominique wasn't exactly a child, but 100 years was a drop in the ocean in present company.

"On with it." Roberto said, tasting of his slave's wrist.

I sat for a moment as I scanned the room. I could not bring myself to care for any of them. They were all miserable wretches, abusers and sociopaths. Wealth and absolute power produced the most horrendous of creatures. I wanted to drink in the silence for a moment.

"Well?" Roberto looked to me, crimson streaks running from his chin. He wiped at them with his arm. He was always so uncultured.

"Please." I said, giving the gesture. In an instant, the slaves pulled all of the curtains to reveal mirrors at every wall. In each, the reflection of the Vampire sat before them appeared. All except for mine. I had prepared this room for years, every little detail considered. You could not catch even a hair of my head on any of them.

It was perfect.

They turned, looking at their own reflections in confusion, which soon turned to horror as they realised they could not stand from their thrones. Even Roberto, reduced to nothing.

The Slaves in the room removed their robes, their flesh stitched and marked. In truth they were Necromancers of my making, a specific breed that could trap a soul in a reflection.

The Vampires of the room could only speak through their eyes. The pain was exquisite.

"You will die here. You will die without ever understanding what has transpired." I smiled, filled with a joy I had not known since I was a boy.

I had thought about making a grand speech; of waltzing around the room, explaining to each of them in explicit detail the reason I hated them with such passion. The life they had stolen from me. The love, the pleasure...

No.

I decided not to. I was Dreuchi now, not some pitiful creature that needed such satisfaction. Instead I sat, watching the Necromancers carry out their work, slicing at the bodies still alive, still watching with darting, bloodshot eyes.

We would have need of their blood, for the Angered God.

*****

THE END