Luck Be With Me - A Halloween Mini Series

[sakura_inverse]

Emma stumbled down the road, crickets chirping in chorus with tree frogs in the moonlight. There was no question she was drunk. She thought she’d be responsible by walking to the party and getting a ride with whoever she hooked up with. But there was a slight complication with her plan. No guy, or girl, caught her fancy. Even the warm, content feeling that came with being drunk couldn’t fill the void in her love life. She knew she didn’t want to lower her standards but what could she do in small town America?

As fate would have it, she found herself walking by a river. She couldn’t help but shine her phone’s flashlight on the bank of its gently flowing current. She knew it’d be dangerous to go for a dip, given how cottonmouths prowled the tall grass at night. But they didn’t call booze liquid courage for nothing. Plus she didn’t exactly mind making a mess of the low cut tank top and the cutoff daisy dukes she was wearing. Still, she had to sigh knowing that she could attract attention… just not the right attention.

“Luck be with me!”

Emma didn’t know why she yelled that. She always figured it was some weird thing she uttered in her childhood and it stuck. But it was her way of saying “Geronimo!” right before doing something bold. In this case, it was her bolting off the road and leaping off the riverbank. She plunged into the water and felt the cold current carry her downstream. She stayed under the surface for a few short seconds before swimming upwards and surfacing. She took a deep breath of the night air and scanned the surface of the water.

The decision to jump in the river wasn’t entirely reckless. Her home was a couple of miles downstream and she was accustomed to using the river as a way of getting home. But this was her first time doing this drunk at night. With her phone in her hand, she said to herself “Now let me see when I’ll get home… Oh dammit!”

No matter how hard she tried, her phone wouldn’t respond. “Ugh! Why did I jump in this stupid water?!” she cursed. “Stupid drunk me…” She lay back and let herself float downstream, the current babbling around her. “Actually, you know what? I need to upgrade my phone anyway.” With that, she carelessly dropped it into the water. “Screw it, all my stuff’s backed up to the cloud.”

Emma lay back and let herself float, letting the water fill her ears. She closed her eyes and focused on the sound of her beating heart, noting the slight irregularity that came from drinking heavily. She felt content, drifting in peace. “I’ll find someone special” she said aloud to herself. “Someone out there has to sweep me off my feet and get me out of this Podunk backwater. I’ll live in a nice big city with a nice big house.”

She heard the sound of a truck driving by, prompting her to roll over and scan her surroundings. She saw a set of headlights cross a bridge that ran across her river, causing her to say “Damn, I’m home already? I must’ve lost track of time…”

She swam towards the bank. It was here she realized she should’ve thought about the cottonmouths that could very well be lurking near the bank. But she still had enough liquid courage to think she could keep her eye open for any slithering scales in the moonlight.

Anti-climactically, she never found any.

Emma trudged her way onto the shore where she found a familiar dirt road that led to her home. As she walked down it, the moon disappeared beneath the canopy of trees that arched over the road. Now completely in the dark with only the chirps of crickets and frogs to guide her, she bemoaned “Damn, why did I destroy my phone? I could’ve used that flashlight… stupid Drunk Emma…”

Emma took a brave step forward into the darkness. But little did she know the peril in front of her. She lurched forward, hearing an audible squelch as she found herself trapped knee deep in something wet and thick.

“Oh what the fuck?!” Emma exclaimed. “What am I even…” She tugged at her legs, but they wouldn’t budge no matter how hard she strained. As she reached down to her knees, she felt the surface of what she was trapped in. “Ugh, is this mud? This high up on the road?”

Deep down, she knew there was something off about this mud. She’d been stuck in mudholes on the river before and the river’s silt would always let her go. But whatever she was stuck in held onto her like glue. She grunted and screamed in frustration as she twisted and turned. But was stuck fast.

She only stopped when a mysterious voice called out to her. “You shouldn’t struggle, love. You’ll only sink faster.”

Emma froze. She looked around for the source of the voice. “Who’s there?” she called out. “A little help?”

“A little help?” the voice repeated with a noticeable English accent. “Now why would I do that after setting such a nice trap for you?”

Emma heard a pair of fingers snap in the treetops above her and she looked up. A bright yellow flame appeared in the air which hovered above an upturned palm. The flame illuminated a pale face framed with raven black hair accented with violet highlights. To match, the face was accented with purple eyeliner and lipstick. But the most striking feature of this face was a pair of red eyes that glowed with sinister intent.

“Is this a joke?” Emma shouted. “Get me out of here!”

“Let me think…” The mysterious woman in the tree replied, her finger pressed on her lips as she looked up towards the night sky. She then directed her glance down towards Emma, replying with a short “No.”

The mysterious woman smiled and to Emma’s shock, she saw two sharp fangs poking out where her eye teeth should’ve been. This prompted Emma to ask “So what are you? Some kind of emo goth bitch? The nearest Hot Topic’s like… two hours away!”

The mysterious woman chortled. “Two hours? Now why do you bloody Yanks refer to every distance in time? Why can’t you use kilometers like the rest of the civilized world?”

Emma glared at the woman in the tree, folding her arms in front of her chest as she felt the mud ooze up her thighs. She opted not to answer her captor’s question, replying instead with “What the hell do you want with me, Twilight?”

“Now there’s a good question” the woman answered. “And by the way, my name’s not ‘Twilight.’ I don’t exactly sparkle in the sun. My name’s Catherine and I can assure you I’m a real vampire. Now to answer your question…”

Before Catherine could finish her explanation, Emma laughed. “You’re a fucking vampire? You crazy bitch…”

“Language!” Catherine snapped. “You’d have been lashed and hanged for talking to me like that back in my day!”

“Back in my day” Emma mocked in a fake English accent. “What are you? Some kind of princess?” Before Catherine could reply, Emma snapped “Well get your royal ‘arse’ down here and pull me out!”

Catherine responded with a smile. She snapped her fingers once again and caused several more fireballs like the one in her hand to appear. They fell around the edges of the mud and illuminated the scene around her, causing Emma’s eyes to wide with shock.

Emma could easily see she wasn’t simply standing the middle of a mud puddle. Black lines stretched across the mud’s surface, forming a pentagram she was standing the middle of. Then to add to her horror, she saw Catherine floating down to the ground. She watched as her captor’s glossy black heels touched the surface of the mud. But instead of sinking, she simply stood as if she was atop solid ground. The mud rippled like water with her ever step as her stocking-clad legs flashed through the hem of her black gown.

Catherine stopped just out of reach of Emma. She smugly grinned while she said “I believe I’ve brought my ‘royal arse’ down to your level. What will you do now?”

Again, Emma defiantly refused to answer her captor’s question. Booze kept her from being overwhelmed with fear but she still knew better than to lash out. She looked up at Catherine, asking “So what are you going to do with me?”

Catherine brought her finger to her lips as if to think once again. “Well I could tell you… but only if you promise not to interrupt me.”

Emma rolled her eyes before locking her gaze on her captor. The mud lapped at her cutoffs but it didn’t concern her. “Fine.”

“Good. Now to million quid question. What Am I going to do with you? Well I was going to feed off you but…” Catherine paused to sniff. “You just absolutely reek of booze. I’m going to be sloshed if I go in for a drink.” She tapped her foot, folding her arms in front of her. “Hmph, what rotten luck!”

The wheels turned in Emma’s head. Normally she’d be a little more tactful to ask this question but with liquid courage being filtered through her liver, she took her chance. “Does this mean you’ll let me go?”

“Let you go?” Catherine asked, while politely stifling a laugh. “I’m just going to wait for you to sober up a tinge. Having a little bit of drink in your blood is like having a goblet of wine. But biting you now would be like chugging a bottle of gin.”

Emma gave an irritated sigh. She felt herself settle just a little deeper until the enchanted earth wrapped itself around the waistband of her cutoffs. “So… am I just supposed to sink in this… quicksand until I sober up?”

Catherine perked up, her smile taking a more inquisitive look. “Ah, you’re not afraid of a little mud?”

Emma shook her head, her right palm turning upwards as if to bring up an obvious point. “I’ve been playing in this river all my life. Quicksand ain’t nothing new to me.”

“But not like mine.”

“Not like…” Emma caught herself before she got herself too wrapped up in the conversation. “You mind telling me what the hell is this stuff?”

Catherine arched an eyebrow. “Curious, are we? Very well, I’ll humor you.” She slowly paced around the pit, ripples spreading in the mud with her every step. “Do you believe in magic?”

“You mean the magic quicksand I’m obviously trapped in? I guess I do now so get to the point.”

“Well!” Catherine said raising her eyebrows. “You’re certainly full of vigor! I haven’t come across anyone like you since my chambermaid was alive. But I suppose it’d be rude if I didn’t show you a few spells.”

With that, Emma’s captor snapped her fingers and watched as Emma yelped. Something warm and slimy snaked through the mud and wrapped themselves around Emma’s legs. She screamed in both shock and disgust as they worked their way up her body.

"What the fuck is this?!" Emma's voice sharply pierced the darkness around her. It briefly echoed through the trees and cross the flat grassland plains. It briefly filled her with hope that someone would hear her and save her from this crazy vampire woman. She even took a slight pleasure in watching Catherine jolt in surprise.

But a smile returned to Catherine's lips. "Oh good, I'm glad you stayed still. An experienced mudder like you would've probably found a way to break my spell. But now that I have you tight..."

Emma completely ignored Catherine's musings. All of her attention was on the tendrils mummifying her body. They wrapped her arms tight, stopping short of the tops of her shoulders. She jerked as if she could somehow fly out of her bondage. But alas, she was only left with one act of rebellion. She screamed "You bitch! Let me go!"

"Temper temper" Catherine playfully scolded with a wag of her finger. "Do I have to gag you?"

"You'll have to kill me!" Emma screamed while baring her teeth.

Catherine sighed in response. She snapped her fingers and made a tentacle slink around Emma's mouth to gag her. "That fiery temper of yours reminds me of someone I used to know. She was my favorite chamber maid. She..." Catherine paused to gracefully wipe a tear away before it could well up in her eye. "She always pushed back against me whenever I lorded my status over her..." Catherine looked down at Emma who was glaring at her. To pass the time while she waited for her prey to sober up, she asked "Would you like me to show you what she was like?" She paused for a second to give the gagged and bound Emma a moment to seethe. "Of course you do, you don't have much of a choice."

Emma briefly saw the sinister red glow in Catherine's eyes flare before falling into a trance-like dream. She found herself laying in a dark chamber lit by candles and lamps. She felt silken white sheets pressing against her skin on a pleasantly cool night. Then she heard a knock at the door. Her body moved on its own. She sat up and got out of bed, walking with delicate steps in a darkened room before opening a weathered wooden door. There she found an eerily familiar-looking maid in a grey gown carrying a silver tray with a single cup of tea. But instead of taking the tea, she nervously glanced down the hallways. She then turned her attention back to the woman and planted two kisses on her cheeks, feeling a sense of mischievous satisfaction as she watched her blush.

For Emma, the vision had a tinge of familiarity she couldn't explain. The vision showed her kissing the woman but at the same time, she swore she could feel being kissed. She also felt her cheeks flush red and her eyes involuntarily widened in shock.

Emma's involuntary reaction wasn't lost to Catherine. "Did you like that? I could show you more if you wish..." Then she mused out loud "It certainly would help pass the time..."

But then somehow, inexplicably, the tentacle gagging Emma slipped. She could've screamed, swore, or threatened her captor in a futile act of defiance. But what she said would shock the both of them.

"Are you fucking crazy?! They're going to see us!"

The mood shifted in an instant. Emma fell silent once again, unsure of what she said or why she said it. But Catherine's eyes locked onto her prey. A shocked glare painted her expression, as if she was staring at a ghost. "What an odd thing to say..." But soon an assured smile crept across her lips. "You know, I'm jealous of your generation. You can be so... open with who you are."

Emma, who was getting over her shock, replied "Yeah, it's great. It's better than being shipped off to marry your own cousin."

Instead of retorting with a comeback and re-establishing her dominance, Catherine let the glare in her eyes melt into a heavy sense of melancholy. "Such is the fate of every princess, I suppose..." She loosened her magic tentacles and let Emma sink again. She watched her prey's hips settle into the mud which immediately began swallowing her midriff. "Since you're so clever, I don't think I have to tell you about how I ran away and hooked up with a vampire?"

Emma noticed that her arms were still bound. Any sense of freedom she might have enjoyed was replaced by a dreadful sinking feeling. She still smirked and with a tinge of curiosity, asking "Did you at least bring your chamber maid along to kiss you goodnight?"

Catherine smirked again to let Emma know who was in charge, but that smirk failed to meet the cold eyes of someone who was deeply insulted. But instead of saying anything, she placed Emma under another hypnotic trance. This time, Emma found herself crouched in a stone tunnel. She was peering through slits in the wall which gave her a view of her torch-lit castle. But the sight she saw horrified her. She saw her chambermaid tied to a chair while a man in a hooded mask struck her repeatedly with a whip.

"Where is Princess Catherine?" The man growled.

"I don't know!" the maid cried. "Please, believe me!"

Emma felt herself turn away from the slit in the wall. She quietly scurried through the passage way as she heard the echoes of her maid's anguish echo through the halls.

Emma snapped out of her hypnosis. Tears filled her eyes as guilt and regret drove themselves deep into her chest like a knife. She looked up at Catherine to see what her captor had planned. But to her horror, the smirk she wore had disappeared. Emma could feel the anger radiating off of her. She knew she should've been scared, she knew she should have been begging for her life. But she couldn't help but feel a tinge of sympathy for the monstrous woman who wanted to end her life. Without thinking, she said "It's okay, Princess. I forgive you..."

Upon hearing these words, Catherine aggressively stepped closer to Emma. The tentacles around her prey's arms tightened themselves enough to elicit a squeal of pain. With an angry growl, she shouted "What the bloody hell would you know?!" The mud parted beneath her feet to sink herself down to Emma's level. She didn't care that her dress was ruined or that Emma was still a little too drunk for her to feed. All she cared about was seeing Emma expire in front of her. She leaned forward to sniff the artery in her prey's neck. It was here she growled "Do you have any last words? I'm going to savor ending you..."

There wasn't enough liquid courage in Emma to muster any bravado. Feeling Catherine's breath on her neck, she knew she was about to die. She knew her captor wouldn't be gentle or quick about it either. She shut her eyes, squeezing tears out as she whimpered the phrase she always loved to say.

"Luck be with me... Luck be with me..."

Emma braced herself for the pain of her flesh being torn asunder. Seconds passed as if they were each their own cruel eternity. She felt Catherine's hot breath on her skin. Every exhale felt like a cruel tease from her captor like a cat toying with a mouse. But instead of feeling fangs pierce her neck, she felt the tentacles around her arms loosen. They let her go and disappeared into the mud, letting her settle to her chest. She cautiously opened her eyes and found her captor still poised to end her.

But instead of a bite, Emma heard a breathless whisper.

"Emily? Is that you?"

Somewhere in Emma's mind, an island of confusion rose from a sea of fear. She knew that her next answer could mean the difference between life and death. She didn't know how to bluff her way out of her predicament, so she told the truth.

"Um... yeah? But I just go by Emma and..."

Catherine dove into Emma's neck. But instead of plunging her fangs in for a drink, she buried her face into her prey's skin. After a brief moment of silence, she squealed "Oh my god! It's you! It's really you!"

Emma felt Catherine's tears on her neck. She didn't know what was happening. All she knew was the fear and confusion in her mind was slowly being replaced by an urge to comfort her captor. She gently returned Catherine's embrace and said "It's okay Princess..." She had to pause. Without thinking, she said aloud "Wait, why am I calling her Princess?"

Catherine felt Emma freeze in place. Being an experienced hunter, she learned to read her prey and she knew Emma realized she made a mistake. But rather than take advantage of the situation, Catherine pulled back to look into Emma's eyes. She radiated a warm smile as she excitedly said "Dear me, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about..." She paused, pondering how to explain what she knew. "Do you believe in reincarnation?"

Seeing Catherine smile instantly put Emma at some sense of ease. She still didn't know what to think of her captor's rollercoaster of emotions, but she replied "I... guess?"

"I could spend hours telling you who you were in a past life but I think it'd be easier if I showed you... that is, if it's okay with you."

Emma could only nod. No sooner had she done so, Catherine's red irises glowed once more. Emma found herself back in the castle. She experienced Catherine's most cherished memories with her. Conversations they had while she fitted Catherine for dresses, the sarcastic quips she would give every time Catherine brought up her status as a princess, the hushed arguments they would have every time Catherine wanted to sneak out of her castle at night, and of course sneaking out at night. Every act of mischief Catherine cajoled Emily into always elicited a familiar phrase that the princess grew to love.

"Luck be with me."

Catherine once again squealed with excitement as the memory ended. She held Emma tight and rocked her side to side. "Five hundred years! Five hundred years! I thought I'd be alone! I thought I..." A drop of pain spilled into her chest and spread like a ripple in a still lake. Guilt gripped her heart and tore out any joy she felt from being reunited with her long lost chambermaid. She stopped playfully rocking Emma and with a sudden shift in tone, stated "It's all my fault. My last memory of you, I... I just left you to be tortured. I should have stayed. I could have begged father for mercy and had him spare you. I..." tears stole her breath away, causing her words to come out as a whisper. "I'm so sorry."

Emma held Catherine in her arms. She didn't know why, but she felt the memories of her past life slowly creep into her mind. She remembered the last night she saw her princess and the turmoil she witnessed. "Weren't we supposed to run away together? I think I remember something about a wedding."

The pain from that night flooded Catherine's mind like a bad thunderstorm. Every terrible moment that led to her fateful decision flashed through her psyche like a bolt of lightning striking her. "I was to be wedded to my first cousin in Austria. Father wanted an alliance between our two kingdoms and he wanted to keep the family bloodline pure..."

"Hey, I don't blame you. That shit's kinda fucked up. I'd have gotten out of there too."

Catherine gripped Emma tighter. "I won't blame you if you hate me..." Her voice cracked. She knew what she wanted to say next needed to be said. But at the same time, she knew it would break her heart in two. "I'll get you out of this mud. I promise you'll never see me again."

Hearing Catherine promise to rescue her reminded Emma that the mud was lapping at her collar bones. But instead of being worried, she gently let her embrace loosen which caused Catherine to pull back. It was here Emma saw a mixture of fear and guilt in her captor's eyes. Even a veil of tears couldn't hide the turmoil she couldn't control. With a smile, Emma replied "I'm just glad I was a ride or die bitch in my past life."

Catherine blinked. She couldn't believe what she just heard. No sooner had a smile crept across the corners of her lips did she burst out laughing. Every laugh sent small ripples across the mud that Emma was all too aware of. After a few seconds, Catherine just had to know "So you're not mad at me?"

Emma shrugged, or she would've had if she wasn't well and truly stuck in the mud. "I guess I've had a few centuries to get over it. Now do you think you can get us out of here?"

Emma's concern seemingly bounced off Catherine. Rather her face lit up with an excited idea. "Ooh! Let's go see the bloody world! Just pack your things and we'll head out at sunset tomorrow. Just the two of us!"

Again, Emma would've shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

With a tinge of shock, Catherine replied "Wait, you're just fine with leaving everything you have behind?"

Emma looked Catherine dead in the eye and replied "Princess, I've spent my whole life in a Podunk backwater where the only opportunities I have involve being a manager at the Walmart three towns over. I'll gladly be your maid again if it means leaving this place and never coming back... Oh and don't drink my blood."

"About that..." Catherine trailed off. But before she could say anything else, she pulled Emma close and planted a kiss on her lips. She kept the kiss, feeling no resistance from Emma. Catherine broke the kiss and pulled back, noting how Emma's eyes had gone wide with shock. "Two things, actually. First, I don't want a maid. I want the life we should've had in England all those years ago..."

Hearing Catherine pause begged and baited Emma to nervously ask "...And the second thing?"

Another brief silence echoed across the mud. It poured over the tops of their shoulders like wet cement and pooled around the base of their necks. The smile disappeared from Catherine's face as she said "I'll need some of your blood."

Emma scoffed "You can't be serious."

"Emily!" Catherine pleaded, her voice awash with desperation. "Please, I can't let death separate us again... I promise it'll only hurt for a moment."

Seeing how she couldn't move, Emma gulped and silently consented to Catherine's request. She knew she should've been scared. She knew she should've been screaming for her life. But instead, she merely winced as if she was waiting for a vaccine. She felt Catherine plant a fatal kiss on her neck which was followed by two sharp fangs plunge themselves inside her flesh. She sharply inhaled and held her breath as the pain Catherine promised flooded her being. Her fingernails instinctively dug themselves into Catherine's back as if her body was putting up one last futile act of defiance. But then she felt something she didn't expect. The pain melted away by a feeling she could only describe as serene. She closed her eyes and moaned, keeping as still as she could while her Princess fed.

Meanwhile the mud coldly swallowed the two of them. It rose over Catherine's lips and quickly cupped Emma's chin. Emma meanwhile dwelled on the idea she was going to disappear. She imagined search parties combing the river and how they'd eventually come across a stretch of lonely dirt road where her scent would vanish. Then she sank past her lips and to her nose. The thought of taking a final breath never crossed her mind. Her survival instinct, the one that should've told her to fight for her life, was silenced. Here she was about to sink into a bottomless pit of magical mud with a vampire's fangs in her neck and she never felt safer in her life. She felt the mud rise over her closed eyelids.

All that remained of the pair were two tufts of hair placed precariously in the middle of a magic pentagram. No sooner did they disappear did the fireballs that illuminated the mud snuff themselves out. The pentagram disappeared and the mud which claimed the pair had reverted to a dusty old road. Emma was gone to the world and she would only appear at Catherine's pleasure.

[GTaggert]

Great story, especially for the current season!

[ghostofmyeyes]

A delectable, character-driven convergence of kinks. As a QS drama fan, I'm starving for this kind of thing these days - thank you.

[sakura_inverse]

Emma opened her eyes. Wherever she was, it was dark. She felt as if she was standing in a black void, unsure if she should scream or look for a light to guide her out. But before she could decide, she heard a thick cockney accent call out "Took yer bloody sweet time, didn't ya?"

Emma spun around. In the sea of black she found herself drowning in, she saw an eerily familiar woman standing up to her bare collar bones in creamy brown mud. Emma eyed her curiously, asking "Have I seen you before?"

The woman rolled her eyes. "Have I seen ya before?" she replied in a mocking tone. "You bloody well should've. I'm you, ya mangy trollop!"

Emma crossed her arms in front of her chest. But much to her horror, she found her chest bare. She looked down and saw she was completely naked. She moved to cover herself, asking "What the fuck did you do?"

"All ye need to know is none of this is real. Now get in the bloody mud if yer feelin' embarrassed."

Obediently, Emma took a few tentative steps forward. Her bare foot was effortlessly swallowed by the warm mud down to her ankle. Another step brought her leg down to her knee and soon she found herself sinking. As the mud slid up her legs, she tried making small talk with the sunken woman in front of her. "When you say me, do you mean me from a past life?"

"Well!" the woman exclaimed with an intrigued expression. "Looks like the new me's got some brains on 'er. Shame yer drownin' em in drink."

Emma eyed the woman curiously, noticing how similar some of her features were to her own. "You saw me drunk, didn't you?"

"I see everythin' ya do" Emily retorted. "Ya got drunk at the party hopin' ta shag up with the first bloke who grabbed yer fancy and then my Princess Catherine tried to end yer life."

Emma had settled past her thighs when she heard Catherine's name. "You gotta tell me everything you know about her."

Emily smiled and scoffed. "Of course ye'd bloody like that. Ya coulda let her court ya a little before giving her yer neck."

"Are you going to help me or not?!" Emma half shouted as the mud rippled around her hips.

"I'm just havin' a bit of fun with ya" Emily replied. "Ya got a long eternity with my princess so ya better listen close. First thing, she's a pint of spoiled milk."

Emma nodded "I figured, she is a princess after all."

"Ya don't know the bloody half of it" Emily added. "She's also persuasive. I can't tell ya how many times she roped me into some crazy scheme."

Looking up at nothing, Emma once again found herself nodding in agreement. "And I just let her fucking bite me... Oh luck be with me..."

"Ya mean 'Be with us?'" Emily interjected. "We'll need more than luck to deal with 'er. She'll kill ya if yer not careful."

Emma curiously eyed Emily, asking "You mean kill me in a 'off with her head' kind of way or kill me as in poisoning my tea?"

Emily's next breath came as a melancholy sigh. "Let me tell ya about the last night she saw me alive. She just turned 18 and the king 'ad a bloody feast to celebrate the occasion. 'Member told ya 'bout the weddin' she ran away from? That was the night when she got the news. They were barely gonna give her time to say goodbye before they'd ship her off ta Austria."

Emma, who was searching her memories as her midriff was taken by the mud, replied "And that's when she wanted to run away with you?"

"Not at first" Emily answered with another melancholy sigh. "She talks me into sneakin' out the castle. We'd done it a 'undred times before so we knew our way 'round the guards. She takes me to a tidal mudflat an' says somethin' 'bout disappearin'. Next thing I bloody know, she dashes off 'cross the muck 'til she gets herself half mired."

Emma covered her mouth and gasped. "But you got her out, right?"

"Of course I bloody did!" Emily retorted. "She showed you that vision with her hypnosis. You know how my life ended."

Emma politely coughed into her hand to excuse her slipup. "Sorry, I just..."

"It's bloody fine. Since ya ruined the endin', yes I got her out. But she only let me save her when I promised we'd run away and build a cottage in the middle of the forest somewhere..." Emily once again let a melancholy sigh escape her lips. "She almost pulled me in a couple 'a times. Then we'd 'ave both disappeared. Don't think she meant it to go that way but knowin' her, she'd prolly like it that way."

The mud kissed the bottoms of Emma's breasts, causing her a slight moan she hoped Emily hadn't noticed. "Oh to be a fly on the wall for that conversation."

Emily flashed Emma a mischievous smirk as she answered "You'd 'ave gotten more than an earful. The Princess couldn't keep her hands off me once I pulled her free."

Emma's face flushed crimson. She didn't know what to say, so she replied "Oh wow, that's..."

"Liberatin'" Emily said, satisfied at the distress she caused her future self. "I always knew the Princess was a sapphic. She had me sneak her a book on the Greek poet Sappho an' she read the bloody thing 'til the spine fell apart... Ya know the King would'a killed me if he knew 'bout that book?"

Emma felt her breasts being pushed up by the surface of the mud before they too were swallowed. Between the sensation of warm mud on her skin and hearing about Emily's night with Catherine, she found it hard to concentrate. So instead of talking about the Princess, she switched the subject back to Emily. "At least you got away with the book, right?"

Keeping her smile, Emily replied "If yer talkin' about the night we tried escapin'... let's just say the castle was thick with guards. If someone didn't have eyes on the Princess at all times, it was big trouble. The bloody King knew we were close so he let me watch the Princess for a time and that's when we made our move..." Emily closed her eyes, taking a deep sigh as she contemplated what she'd say next. "You saw from that body vision she gave you how she was sneakin' through the tunnels? I was supposed ta follow her in but a bloody guard she'd gone from her room. Next thing ya know, I have an inquisitor tryna beat answers outta me."

"I saw him hitting you. I'm sorry you had to go through that."

Emily responded by closing her eyes and rolling her head across her shoulders, feeling her neck stretch as she relaxed in the mud. "I'm just glad the Princess got away before she saw the inquisitor tearin' out me fingernails... Speakin' of which, what's that thing ya called me? A 'ride or die bitch?'"

Emma froze. With embarrassment giving her another reason to blush, she shrugged "Hey, it's a compliment."

With a casually incredulous tone, Emily mocked "A bloody compliment? I'd have slapped ya fer that if I was alive." Her gaze towards Emma sharpened with a glare. "Honestly, who'd have thought of a drunken trollop speakin' like that to anyone?"

Emma squinted, determined to reciprocate the disrespect she'd been given. "Aww, is someone jealous I took their Princess?"

"Jealous of what? I'm bloody dead, remember? In fact, I'm you. I can't believe I turned into someone so disrespectful!"

Emma opened her mouth to retort but Emily's reminder of who she was did cause her to shrink back into herself. "I'm... sorry. I shouldn't have..."

But a laugh interrupted Emma's apology. "I'm just havin' a bit of fun. Heaven forbid I crack a bloody joke once every 500 years."

Emma politely laughed as she sank to her bare collar bones. Matching Emily's depth, she probed downwards with her toes to see if she could find a bottom. "Hey um... I'm still sinking."

"Of course ya are" Emily replied with an assuring tone. "Ya ever try dreamin' 'bout quicksand? Yer never in control."

Emma felt the tops of her shoulders sink under and she reached out for Emily. "A little help here?"

Emily reached out to take Emma's hand and pulled her close. "Just promise me somethin' before ya go. Take care of my Princess."

Looking down at the quicksand rising around her neck, Emma promised "Uh, sure. But anyway..."

Emily cut off Emma by interjecting "Listen real close 'cuz I don't have much time. The Princess... I don't know what she's become. All I know is whatever she is, she's bein' held together by her scars..." She locked eyes with Emma as she sank lower. "Help my Princess... Our Princess heal."

Seeing the tears well in Emily's eyes made Emma forget she was sinking. She nodded, even as her chin dipped into the quicksand. "I'll do whatever it takes."

With that, Emily watched Emma disappear. The last thing Emily said before her world went dark was "Luck be with us both. I'll always be there with ya."

[sakura_inverse]

Emma's eyes shot open. "A dream" she thought to herself as she felt the bedsheets draped over her body. "A fucked up dream about quicksand, vampires, and... more quicksand."

She quietly sat up as she scanned the room. "Why is it so dark?" she thought. "It's like... pitch black. What the hell?"

She stared in silence at the pitch blackness. She let her eyes drink in the complete lack of any light to assure herself that she was indeed seeing what she was seeing. Her mind raced to piece together the events from the night before. She ultimately thought "God I must've gotten blacked out and took something. That's why I'm in some..." She paused her thoughts to clutch the sheets around her. "Some weird ass bed in some weird ass room..."

Now that Emma thought about her surroundings, everything around her felt unfamiliar. Her sheets weren't as soft as she remembered, the air around her had an overpowering smell of dampened earth, and she could feel her mattress was unreasonably hard. She intended to keep her next words a thought, yet they somehow came out as a groan "Luck be with me."

A soft squeal of excitement broke the blackened silence. Emma jolted and screamed as her attention shot towards the source of the sound. It was here she saw the only source of light to be had, which was a glowing pair of red eyes hovering next to her. Without thinking, she asked "Princess?"

"Good evening love" an eerily familiar voice sang in the darkness. "Did you sleep well?"

Emma's hand rose up to her neck without thinking about it. Her fingertips brushed two round scars where she remembered Catherine planting her fatal kiss. "No, I'm dreaming!" Emma whispered. "Tell me I'm still dreaming!"

A hand rose up to stroke Emma's cheek. Emma dared not to move but the voice it belonged to said "Just take your time, Emily. I know it's a lot to take in. But you'll come around. Can I get you something to drink? Some b negative perhaps?"

Emma didn't answer. Instead her tongue probed the inside of her mouth and she found two sharpened points where her eye teeth should've been. With a complete sense of disbelief, she asked "Princess?"

"Just call me Catherine" she replied. "I haven't been a bloody princess in five centuries."

Keeping her hand on her neck, Emma had a good idea as to what happened to her. But she still needed to hear it from Catherine. "What the fuck did you do to me?"

"Language!" Catherine playfully chided. "I just made you bloody immortal, is all. Here, let me make you that drink."

With that, Catherine snapped her fingers which caused a ring of fireballs to light up the room. Through their rich orange glow, Emma was allowed to drink in her surroundings. The walls didn't have any windows or a door. Rather they seemed to be made of nothing but dirt. Tensely, Emma asked "Princess, where are we?"

Catherine, who was in the process of throwing her covers off and jumping out of bed, answered "We're a few meters underground. Nobody will find us here."

Emma stared in disbelief. She slowly turned her gaze towards her surroundings where she noticed all the dirt that surrounded her. The ceiling, dirt. The walls, dirt. She felt the mattress beneath her and felt its surface crumble into dust. Without thinking, Emma asked "Do you live like this?"

Emma's eyes immediately widened at the realization of how rude her question was. But Catherine cheerfully replied "I know my home's rather spartan. But it is rather troublesome to keep furniture in a muck hole..." She paused to open the zipper of a small bag where she pulled out a single tea cup and a plastic container filled with a dark red liquid. "I'm also a vagabond so I only keep what I can carry."

Emma's expression changed to a mixture of pity and disbelief. "You can live with me if you want. I'll just get you on my lease and..."

"That's sweet of you" Catherine said, cutting Emma off. "But I'm afraid that's not possible."

Emma blinked, taken aback at how cheerfully Catherine replied. Instead, she watched Catherine pop the lid off her container and pour its contents into the teacup. Curiously, Emma asked "Why not? It's gotta be better than being buried alive."

Catherine excitedly handed the cup to Emma and said "Just drink, you'll understand."

Emma cautiously took the cup. She looked down at it and the dark liquid whose surface looked pitch black under the flickering orange fireballs. She looked back at Catherine expecting to find some hint of mischief in her expression. However she only found eager anticipation for her drink, so she brought the rim to her lips. Her eyes widened the moment the liquid hit her tongue. She felt every synapsis in her brain come alive, compelling her to tilt the bottom of her cup upwards. She drank as if she was learning to breathe for the first time. Its rich flavor left an impression on her palate she could only describe as an orgasm in her mouth. She swallowed its contents and exclaimed "Oh my god, what is this..." She paused when she felt a hint of copper on her tongue. "Is this blood?!"

"B-negative" Catherine chimed with a smile. "Sourcing it's a little problematic so I have to be a bit of a vagabond."

As Emma eyed Catherine, she felt a strange mixture of anger and disappointment rise inside of her. She didn't know where it came from and she felt as if she was having an out-of-body experience. Rage filled her as she shouted "A vagabond?! A fucking vagabond?! You're a homeless serial killer who lives in a fucking hole in the ground!"

Tears begun to well in Catherine's eyes. Any joy she felt from serving Emma her drink faded and her eyes drifted downwards. "Emily, I..." she paused with a deafening silence. "I..." She meekly answered "I should have told you it was blood."

"You should've told me?! You turned me into a soulless killing machine and you think you should've told me I was drinking blood?! You should've stopped before you became... what you are!"

"What I am?" Catherine replied, her tone gradually rising with indignation. "What I am is someone who dared to choose my bloody fate! What I am is someone who chose not to marry someone I never wrote as much as a bloody letter to! What I am is someone who chose not to birth sickly children who'd be treated as nothing more than political pawns... as I was!"

Unrelenting, Emma squinted and sneered "And you chose to be a fucking monster!"

With a scream, Catherine shouted "Do you bloody think I wanted this?! I was taught to recite poetry in five languages and none of that mattered when I left!" She turned to glare at Emma with tears streaming down her face, dropping her tone to an aristocratic growl. "Do you have any bloody idea what it's like to walk into to a brothel just to have a bed to sleep in? I cried myself to sleep every bloody night out of shame. Then one night... one bloody night... I met the bloody vampire that turned me. I knew he recognized me for who I was and I knew he wanted the status of having me in his thrall..." Rage squeezed tears out of her eyes as she shook with anger. "But him tearing my humanity away was the best bloody thing that ever happened to me." Her next words were carried by the pain she kept inside for five hundred years. "You're bloody right I became a monster! What more do you want from me?!"

"I want my fucking princess back!"

Emma covered her mouth as soon as those words left her lips. She didn't know where those words came from. It was as if she'd been possessed. But for Catherine, hearing those words pierced the veil of anger that shrouded her heart. Neither of them said a word. All Emma could do feel a terrible guilt as if she allowed the tragedies of Catherine's life to occur. Tears welled in her eyes as her lower lip trembled behind her hand. Catherine would be the one to break the silence by whimpering "Emily... I need you..."

Catherine dove into Emma's arms. While Emma cried with the guilt of leaving her princess alone in her past life, Catherine shattered into a million pieces. She wailed as if she was screaming out five centuries of pain. For several minutes, the two cried as they held each other. With her arms starting to tire, Emma laid back to put Catherine's body in a position of comfort as she sobbed. But instead of her head coming to rest against a pillow, it lightly bounced off their earthen mattress. Her tears stopped just long enough to let her see the pillow on her side of the bed and not Catherine's. The thought of Catherine sharing what few sources of comfort she owned struck a tender cord that wallowed in her mind.

Once Catherine's sobs slowed and she cried herself to exhaustion, Emma said "I'm sorry I called you a monster. A monster wouldn't have given me her only pillow and let me drink from her only cup."

Catherine blinked more tears away from her eyes even though she didn't have the willpower to move. "I am a monster" she bemoaned. "I should have given you more time to think about the life I pulled you into."

"It's okay" Emma replied, taking a sniff of her own. "I always wanted to leave this place and see the world. I guess it took a vagabond to show me I could just pack my stuff and walk away."

Catherine whimpered "Just go... leave me alone... I deserve it..."

"You don't" Emma replied with a melancholy tone. "Emily wouldn't want to see you alone. She wants to to be the Princess she knew."

"What the bloody hell would know?"

Emma sighed. "I know that you turned me into an undead blood sucker and I'm your responsibility. You're getting me out of this backwater and showing me how to be a vampire."

Catherine took a deep exhale and even through her tears, she cracked a slight smile. "The sun's setting. We'll pack up and leave in an hour. Whatever you want to take with you, pack light."

"I'm packing an extra pillow and a few plants to decorate your 'muck hole.'"

Catherine's smile spread as she nestled herself deeper into Emma's embrace. "They'll die underground."

Emma in turn deepened her embrace. "I have plastic ones."

"Emily?"

"Yeah?"

"There's something you need to know" Catherine paused to choose her words carefully. "Will you promise not to be angry?"

"No promises" Emma replied with a tone suggesting she wouldn't get mad.

"It's about what I do for a living."

Emma sighed "Now what kind of job would a vampire do? Do you run a blood bank or something?"

A brief silence overtook Catherine before she said her next words. "I'm an assassin."

Emma groaned "Of course you are. You murder people for their blood, might as well get paid for it."

"We're heading to New Orleans. I'm teaching you the trade. You'll need it to survive."

Emma knew she'd eventually have to find a way for Catherine to exist without taking anyone's life. But she also knew the process for healing her Princess would come one step at a time. She knew she had her work cut out for her so she subconsciously said the one thing that came to her mind.

"Oh luck be with me."

[sakura_inverse]

In the middle of a bustling French Quarter street, the hem of a black gown twirled around a pair of black boots. A pale woman with raven black hair spun on her heels and exclaimed "Welcome to New Orleans! What do you think, Love?"

Emma, who saw her Princess dance, replied "It's a little grimier than I thought."

Catherine stopped twirling to give a playful pout. "Grimy? I bring you all the way from your 'Podunk backwater' and all you can say is 'grimy?'"

"It's great and all, but I didn't think I'd have to step over so many piles of puke."

Catherine made her way back to Emma and said "You should've seen New Orleans when it was a French colony. It had so much charm and culture and..." she paused to look at a nearby trash can. "No rubbish bins overflowing with cheap souvenir cups."

Curiously, Emma asked "No shit, you were here?"

"Of course!" Catherine replied with a nostalgic smile. "I made my way to the Colonies as soon as they were settled. I needed a fresh start after..." She paused after a pang of sadness spread through her chest. "Enough about the past! Let's remember why we're here!"

Emma smiled, taking the hint to change the subject. "To kill some guy we've never met, right?"

"To teach you how to be a creature of the night!" Catherine chimed. "Now for your first lesson, you're going to find the one we're here to kill."

"About that..." Emma replied. "Say we don't kill this guy and we rob a blood bank instead? We're immortal, we can just bury ourselves underground where nobody will find us, so why don't we just... I dunno... find some place quiet where we can settle down?"

"If only it were that simple..." Catherine gently grabbed Emma's shoulders and said "Now close your eyes and focus your vision like you're trying to read the fine text of a book. I'll tell you when to open them."

Emma sighed, remembering Emily's words about how persuasive the Princess could be. So she closed her eyes and imagined herself squinting as hard as she could. After what felt like a full minute, she received her cue.

"Okay Love, open them."

Emma opened her eyes. She immediately scanned the street around her and found every person who walked by bathed in a gray aura. She stared in amazement as she asked "What the fuck?"

"I take it by your profanity that it worked. What you're seeing is the presence of every living being around you. You can find a lone mortal in the middle of nowhere if you wished... that's how I tracked you when you jumped in that river."

Something about the idea of casually being hunted made Emma crack an incredulous smile. "So what? Do I just find the one gray blob that's somehow more special than the other ones?" As she said this, she turned her attention back to Catherine and found her glowing a much different color. Without thinking, she blurted "Why are you red?!"

"Because I'm a vampire, Love. Same as you." Catherine replied with a smile. "Now look for any auras that stand out."

Emma scanned the crowd once again. "The only thing I see are 'mortals.' Are you sure he's even here?"

Suddenly every voice on the street was drowned out by the screech of a loud engine. Dozens of eyes turned to see a white car with led lights glowing underneath its chassis. Its stereo rattled with the sound of pulsating speakers and its windows were tinted black. But even the tint couldn't hide the driver's aura from Emma's new eyes.

With her attention fixed on the car, Catherine asked "What color stands out to you the most?"

"Orange?" Emma answered.

"You're learning so quickly!" Catherine stated with a hint of pride. They both saw the car fly past them before coming to a stop down the road. She grabbed Emma's wrist and said "Time for you to learn how to work your charms."

With that, Catherine sprinted towards the car with Emma in tow. Emma meanwhile retorted "Wait, what the hell?! Slow down!"

The two vampires stopped in time to see the car door open. A pair of suede shoes stepped onto the pavement which were accompanied by a cheap suit and a sports jacket that seemed intentionally too small for his muscles. But his most striking feature was his face which seemed chiseled from marble like a Greek statue.

As Emma stared, Catherine nudged her and murmured "Look at him intensely. Imagine yourself undressing him with your eyes and pouncing on him."

Emma looked to Catherine as if to ask what had gotten into her. But her Princess's attention was firmly on her target. She saw Catherine's red aura flare. It trailed behind her as if she was standing fiercely against the wind. Her eyes, focused with intent, were painted with a blend of hunger and lust. When he made eye contact with her, she smiled. She walked like a model to him, causing Emma to follow a few steps behind.

Catherine, with a husky purr, said to him "That's an interesting car you have."

"You like it?" the man asked, his gaze fixed on Catherine.

"I love a tiger that roars. My friend and I would love to take a ride."

"Your friend?" He asked as he looked Emma head to toe. "Sure, I guess. You wanna grab a drink first?"

Catherine gave him a slight look while keeping her smile. "I'm bored here. I want to have some..." she arched an eyebrow to say "Fun."

With a cocky smile, he opened his door and said "Hop in."

Catherine didn't hesitate. She climbed into the passenger's seat leaving Emma to meekly slide into the back. No sooner had her door closed did the car's acceleration pin her to the back of her seat. He swerved, his tires audibly squealing as he turned a corner to leave the French Quarter. With empty road in front of him, he asked "So... who are you two?"

With a husky tone, Catherine calmly purred "You first."

He smiled "Hey, you're the one who got into the car without knowing my name."

Catherine slowly blinked and smiled. "Very well. I'm Catherine and this is my friend, Emily."

He looked in his rearview mirror at Emma and said "Emily, huh? You wanna go fast?"

With uncertainty painting her voice, Emma replied "I guess..."

"You guess?" He looked back to Catherine and said "Your friend's gotta lighten up."

"She will..." Catherine assured. "You know our names, now why don't you tell us yours?"

He turned his attention back to the road and said "If you really want to know, it's..."

He smashed his gas pedal to the floor, causing his engine to scream in protest. Emma once again felt herself pinned to the back of her seat as the car accelerated. Catherine meanwhile squealed with joy as if she had forgotten what to ask. So enthralled with his speed, she seemingly failed to notice that they had left the city's limits and quickly found themselves on a darkened interstate. He zipped by cars, saying "Watch this" as he passed mere inches from them. Every pass elicited joyous laughter from Catherine while Emma grabbed a seatbelt and strapped herself in.

But eventually his car had to slow down to take a nameless exit. Emma panted with anxiety, thankful that he hadn't wrapped them around a light post. Meanwhile, the man looked back at Emma and said "Holy shit, your friend really needs to relax."

"Oh just mix her a drink and she'll be okay" Catherine said with a smile. So... how big is your place? Are we going to a mansion or somewhere more... modest?"

"Yeah, about that..." he said while desperately trying to hide the cracks showing in his facade. "I'm kinda... between places right now. They're remodeling my high rise downtown so I'm just renting a place right now."

The car finally came to a stop in front of a mobile home at the end of a dirt road. Rows of twisted trees ominously sat behind the home, dimly illuminated by the full moon. Emma, careful not to be heard, couldn't help but whisper "Are you fucking kidding me?"

She looked to Catherine who let herself be taken aback. But to Emma's disbelief, Catherine said "I wouldn't believe you if you hadn't shown me such a good time. Why don't you... take us inside and make us some drinks?"

Somewhere between leaving the car and walking up to the front door, Emma found herself questioning every decision that led up to this moment. What if she settled for someone at the party before she jumped in the river? What if she granted Catherine's wish to be left alone? What if she simply hadn't gotten into the car? Even though her Princess was an immortal vampire, Emma hardly felt safe with her anymore. She felt alone in a strange place with a man who was a walking red flag.

He opened the door and revealed that his "rental" was anything but temporary. While Emma hesitated, Catherine boldly walked in. Emma eventually scurried inside, but she noted the dark stains that covered his cheap and worn furniture. Worst of all, she smelled something that perked her instincts as a vampire. She suddenly felt hungry even though she was on edge. She knew many poor souls had met their fates in this remote home and the smell of their blood danced in her nostrils.

Their target walked a few steps from the front entrance to his kitchen, where dirty dishes piled in the sink. He opened an old refrigerator stained yellow with humidity and age and pulled out a bottle of cheap vodka. He handed it to Emma and said "Here, drink up while I talk to your friend over here."

"What's wrong?" Catherine playfully chided. "Are you not man enough for the both of us?"

His cocky smile returned as he replied "Oh I'm man enough. But tell me something. You've ever been tied up?"

Catherine subtly raised her eyebrows just enough to be noticed. "Have I been tied up?" She made her way to her target and gently brushed his chest. "I love being tied up."

He walked a few steps to pick up a nearby coil of rope which only served to raise another red flag for Emma. She clutched the bottle of cheap vodka with both hands in front of her as she watched Catherine willingly sit in a nearby chair. He uncoiled the rope and wrapped it around her, binding her chest tightly until she was immobile. He tied a tight knot behind her before turning his attention to Emma. "Take a good look. What's about to happen to your friend is going to happen to you..."

With that, he pulled a folded knife out of his pocket and flicked the blade open. Emma could only scream as he plunged it into Catherine's abdomen. Catherine gritted her teeth, shutting her eyes in intense pain. Every plunge of the knife met Catherine's flesh with a spray of blood and every extraction caused a crimson stream to streak across the room.

After a dozen stabs, he looked at Emma and savored the terror etched into her face. She looked back at Catherine hoping that she'd magically spring back to life. But she found her princess slumped over, held up only by her bindings. She glanced over at the door and knew she had precious little time. She dropped the vodka bottle as she bolted for the door. She twisted the handle as hard as she could and pulled it inwards as she heard the pounding of his footsteps racing towards her. His lunging grasp missed her by mere inches as she bolted out the door and into the darkness.

"Help!" Emma cried as she bolted towards the swampy woods. She ran as quickly as she could with the moonlight guiding her between the trees. She could hear her would-be target's footsteps hot on her heels and she knew a single stumble meant a fate similar to her Princess's. She could feel him getting closer. She saw every turn she had to take to avoid a tree and imagined branched hands reaching out to slow her down. But when she started to lose hope, she found a clearing in front of her. Hope briefly welled in her. Maybe if she didn't have to dodge trees in the night, maybe she could put some precious distance between herself and her pursuer.

She hadn't made it halfway across the clearing when she splashed down into a bed of thick mud. Her pursuer, following too closely, couldn't avoid the trap either. They both sank to their thighs. Emma, tired from her exertions, desperately pulled at her legs to free them. If she could pull one leg up, maybe she could inch her way forward. But her pursuer was fortunate enough to get one of his legs free. He struggled and twisted until he heard the squelch of the mud's suction around his other leg being broken.

Emma looked back in horror as she saw her pursuer crawl across the mud. She saw his orange aura crawling across the surface of the mud with his knife in his hand and all she could do was struggle against her trap. She couldn't get away and worse, she knew she couldn't get away. She still struggled uselessly as if she was hoping beyond hope for a miracle. All she could whimper was "Luck be with me. Luck be with me."

As if on cue, tentacles rose from the mud and caused Emma's pursuer to look back and shout "What the fuck?!" They wrapped themselves around him and held him in place. Two tentacles wrapped around his legs and pulled them down into the mud. Now firmly trapped, he shouted "Hey! Let me go!"

But a voice above the mud said "Let you go? Now why would I do something as silly as that?"

They both looked up and saw a pale woman in a black dress. Catherine immediately shouted "Princess?!" Her mouth hung open with a mixture of shock and relief. "What the... actual fucking hell?!"

Catherine, who was standing on a tree branch above the bog, smiled and flashed her fangs. "Do you think I'd let myself be killed by someone who wouldn't tell me his name?"

Emma's pursuer, the target of Catherine's wrath, asked "You survived? Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Language..." Catherine growled as she glared at her target. "Jeremy Forrest, you tried to hurt my Emily."

With a look of shock and disbelief, Emma's pursuer asked "You know my name?"

Catherine responded by making a glowing red pentagram appear across the surface of the mud. Fireballs illuminated the clearing to where both he and Emma could see the tentacles rising out of the mud. "I know you're a serial womanizer who's responsible for the disappearance of nine people. You stole their money to fund your vanity projects. Your face, carved by a scalpel. Your body, shaped by a needle." She sharpened her glare with murderous intent to say "I'm going to savor ending you."

Emma, who felt herself sinking past her thighs, interjected "You could've fucking told me you were planning this! I thought I was going to die you fucking bitch!"

Changing her tone, Catherine playfully replied "Relax Emily. You know I'd never let anything terrible happen to you."

"Oh really?!" Emma shouted with tears in her eyes. "You used me as bait to catch a fucking serial killer! I can't even feel safe around you!"

Jeremy, sensing the tension, said "And she's calling me a psychopath."

"Shut up!" Emma screamed, turning her attention back to her pursuer. "Just shut the fuck up!"

Catherine mused "Silencing him would allow you to feed in peace. But luckily for us, he's the only mortal for kilometers."

Jeremy turned his attention back to Emma and said "Get me out of here. I'm sure we can get away if we work together."

"Get away?" Catherine scoffed. "Not with Petey wrapping you up."

Nervously, Jeremy asked "Oh you pet has a name? That's cool. Can you tell it to..."

"Jeremy, Jeremy, Jeremy..." Catherine taunted. "I'll let you in on a little secret since you're about to die. Petey's not my pet. He's an Eldritch abomination I've come to an arrangement with. I give him bodies to eat and he disposes of them for me..." She turned her attention back to Emma and said "Did you know Petey was supposed to eat you the night we met? He seems rather upset he missed out on his meal."

Emma meanwhile crossed her arms as she stared into the darkness ahead of her. Angry tears streamed down her face as she felt the mud lap at her hips. But rather than sob, she elected to maintain an air of stone faced silence.

"Hey, you're her friend, right?" Jeremy pleaded. "Maybe Petey will listen to you. Just have him release me and pull her into this stuff. Then we can get out together. I'll turn my life around. I'll..."

Something in Emma's mind snapped. Without thinking, she twisted her body around and swung as hard as she could. A loud pop filled her ears and she recoiled back in disbelief at what she had done. Meanwhile Jeremy head whipped back and snapped forward. There was a second of stunned silence before he screamed in pain. "You bitch that was my fucking nose!"

Emma stared in disbelief at seeing Jeremy's carefully sculpted nose sitting crooked on his face with blood streaming from it. With nowhere else to turn, she looked back up at Catherine and mouthed "What the..?"

Catherine gave Emma a reassuring smile. "Surprised? Seeing auras isn't the only perk that comes with being a vampire." With that, she stepped from the branch and floated down to the mud as she had when she first met Emma. "You're already stronger than most mortals."

Emma, who had sunk down to her midriff in the mud, said "You could've told me."

But before Catherine could reply, Jeremy shouted "Do you have any idea what you've done? My face cost more than..."

But before Jeremy could finish, Catherine snapped her fingers and made Petey wrap his mouth shut with tentacles. "As I was about to say, you did want me to teach you everything I know about being a vampire and I know that experience is the best teacher."

Emma grumbled while keeping her gaze turned down and to the left. "Anything else you want to tell me, Princess?"

Catherine knelt down and gently placed her hand on Emma's cheek. She wiped away a tear which caused Emma to look at her. "You're not trapped in a bog with a serial killer. He's trapped in a bog with a vampire."

Emma had settled to her chest when she looked up at Jeremy. Petey drug him down to her level, uncoiling most of his tentacles to give her access to her prey. Jeremy glared at her and bitterly growled "You ruined my face! You ruined my fucking face and now you're going to kill me?!"

"It's what I was paid for" Catherine stated, looking down at her target. "Do you have any last words? Perhaps you'd like to make amends with your victims before you meet your end."

Jeremy glared at her, saying "Just tell me who paid you to do this."

Sparing a sad smile, Catherine replied "I'll give you nine guesses. Nine families broken by your insatiable greed..." She glanced over at Emma and said "Emily, it's time to put those fangs of yours to good use."

Emma's tongue subconsciously probed the tips of her fangs. She opened her mouth and leaned in closely enough to smell the sweat on Jeremy's skin. But she froze when it was time for her to bite down. An invisible barrier in her mind stopped her from pronouncing Jeremy's fate. Whatever this barrier was, it screamed to let her know that there would be no turning back once she drank his blood.

"You can do this, Love" Catherine assured her. "The first kill's always the hardest."

With Catherine's encouragement, Emma pushed past her mental barrier and bit down. She knew she could've put more force behind her bite and she expected to do nothing more than prick his skin. But her fangs slid through his flesh like a fork slicing through cake. Blood gushed into her mouth. In the back of her mind, she knew she had killed him. Yet her hands gripped him tighter as she fed. One gulp became two and two gulps became three.

Emma heard a dull splash behind her victim. She looked over and found Catherine had sunk herself chest deep in the mud. "Do you mind if I have a drink? I'm practically famished."

Emma pulled her fangs back and allowed her Princess to have a drink. She looked at Jeremy and clearly saw that the life had left his eyes. What was left was the wretched husk she created, which Catherine drank from as if he was nothing more than a container.

Eventually, Catherine pulled her fangs free and snapped her fingers. Petey drug Jeremy's body deep under the mud. Catherine stared at Emma and Emma stared at Catherine. Sinking to her collar bones, Emma broke the silence. "I... I killed someone."

Catherine gently grabbed Emily and pulled her close. She wrapped Emma in a comforting embrace, stating "I can't begin to describe how proud of you I am..." She softly squealed "Oh your very first feeding! My Emily's a proper vampire!"

Emma stared straight ahead into the darkened swamp as Catherine rocked her. She didn't know how to feel about what happened. Her mind searched through every emotion she felt as if she was flipping through a picture album. But she couldn't find guilt. She expected to feel terribly for what she'd done. She expected to hear her conscience scream at her, demanding to know how she'd be able to sleep after what she'd done. But instead, she felt two emotions play for control over her mind. The first was denial because she wasn't sure she was ready to come to terms with the second.

"Princess?" Emma asked tepidly. "Why don't I feel bad for what I've done?"

With a joyous tone, Catherine answered "Because a lioness doesn't feel bad for hunting a gazelle. She feels the satisfaction of a successful hunt."

Catherine's words eroded Emma's doubt enough to let a smile creep across her lips. The word "satisfaction" dwelled in her mind and painted the emotion she was feeling. She pulled back from Catherine's embrace just enough to look into her eyes. Then, without a word, she brought her lips to Catherine's. The two wasted no time in melting into the kiss. They kept their lips locked even as they sank to their necks. But when their chins touched the surface of the mud, Emma broke the kiss to ask "Before I forget, what was up with the orange aura?"

"You mean Jeremy's? You have to be particularly evil to get an orange aura."

"That's it?" Emma replied, giving her head a curious tilt to the side.

"Anticlimactic, I know."

Emma would've shrugged if her body wasn't firmly encased in bottomless mud. She leaned back in for their kiss and held it as they continued to sink. The mud crept over their lips and the two took their final breaths through their noses before they sank under. Two tufts of hair remained above the surface, the fireballs flickered out, and the pentagram disappeared. Darkness returned to the swamp as if nothing had happened.

[sakura_inverse]

Emma opened her eyes to a familiarly black void. She briefly wondered where she was before turning around to see the only light in her world. She looked down and saw a familiar face seemingly floating in a familiar pit of quicksand.

"Emily" Emma said with a hint of warmth in her tone. "Good to see you again."

Emily in turn glared at Emma. "Get in the bloody pit. We need to talk."

Emma, aware she was naked, nervously made her way to the mud. She approached with the same dread she'd approach someone who was ready to read her the Riot Act. She kept her eyes downwards to watch her bare feet disappear into the mud. It swallowed her calves and greedily took her knees. She paused just outside of Emily's reach and let herself sink to her thighs.

Emily locked her gaze on Emma's face towering above her and said "So ya like killin', do ya?"

"I..." Emma looked away in shame. "I don't know how to feel about what happened."

"Ya don't have to lie ta me" Emily replied, keeping her judgmental tone. "I go where ya go, I see what ya see..." She sharpened her glare to finish "I feel what ya feel. The only reason yer feelin' any shame for it now is 'cuz I'm judgin' ya for it."

Emma took a deep breath, feeling the mud cup her rear in its wet embrace. "I liked it..."

"Ya liked killin' him" Emily retorted.

"I liked knowing that I hunted and fed." Emma argued. "I liked that made the Princess proud."

"Ya liked enablin' her! Ya liked bein' her plaything."

Emma raised her voice "He was a bad guy! He was never going to stop killing! Nine people got justice because of what we did!"

"One got justice!" Emily raised her voice as well, keeping her eyes locked on Emma. "One family with the coin to exact their revenge. But what of the other eight? Will they ever get the closure of seeing the monster who harmed their loved ones punished?"

The guilt Emma desperately searched for when she saw Jeremy's body being drug away by Catherine's Eldritch partner flooded her heart. She felt incredibly small at the moment, as if her eyes were the windows of a skyscraper and she was staring out of them.

While guilt drove itself into Emma's heart, Emily smiled "It's okay, ya mangy trollop. I liked it too."

Emma looked down at Emily and saw the fangs in her teeth. The guilt she felt subsided to make way for shock. "You're a vampire!"

"Ya mean 'We.'" Emily reminded Emma. "Everythin' that happens to ya happens to me. We're both bloody vampires, like it or not. I feel the same instincts too. I know any bad feelin ya have goes away when the blood hits yer lips."

Emma dwelled on this revelation as the mud sucked at her hips. Then she felt a sudden spike of anger rise in her. "Then why'd you fucking judge me?!"

Emily scoffed while keeping her smirk. "Because I'm countin' on ya to help our Princess and yer just lettin' her do whatever she bloody pleases."

Emma shrunk back down. She looked away in shame as she meekly said "I shouldn't have raised my voice."

"Damn right ya shouldn't have." Emily took a sudden gulp to keep her own emotions at bay. "Can't you see what she's become? A bloody assassin? A killer for hire? That's not my Catherine. That's someone strugglin' to cope with their own miserable existence."

Emma watched as the look in Emily's eyes changed from a judgmental one to that of desperation. "Then how do I help her?"

"I don't know" Emily replied as she watched Emma sink to her midriff. "Yer the one with control in the outside world, not me. You'll have to come up with a solution."

Emma sighed, keeping the mosaic of desperation that was Emily's face locked in her sight. "But you know her better than I do."

"You've known her fer all of bloody three days! No shite I know her better than ya! I can only come to ya in yer bloody dreams and try to set ya straight!" She reached forward to grab Emma's hands but found she was just out of reach. "Please!" she pleaded. "Ya have to help me help her!"

Emma reached forward to take Emily's hands. She held them tight and said "I'll do it... But how do I keep a fucking vampire from killing anyone? It's kinda what we do to survive."

Emily exhaled as if she knew her next breath would fill her lungs with relief. "No... we drink blood to survive."

The wheels turned in Emma's head as she remembered "She poured me that cup of blood..."

"From a bloody container" Emily stated. "Ya mentioned something last night about blood banks. Ya have to figure out why Catherine won't just bloody rob one!"

Emma sank past her midriff and her chest hovered a mere inch above the mud. "Better yet, what if we owned one?"

"Owned one?" Emily repeated.

"All the money Catherine's getting. I don't know how much she's making, but it can't be cheap to kill someone. Plus she's a 'vagabond' so it's not like she's spending it on anything."

Emily smiled, this time without a hint of judgement. "Don't go givin' me any bloody hope now. Ya let me down and I swear I'll never forgive ya."

Emma returned her smile as she felt the bottoms of her breasts kiss the mud. She couldn't help but moan as she said "It's a promise."

Emily's smile turned into a mischievous grin as she asked "Do ya like mud?"

Emma suddenly turned beet red. "What?"

"Whaddaya mean 'what' what? I can tell yer gettin' off on this."

Emma tried to find some sort of distraction to change the subject. "You mean the same as you?"

Undistracted, Emily painted her face with an amused yet serene expression. "Same as Catherine. The best memory of my life was pullin' her outta that mud flat and I get the feelin' that was hers too."

Emma blushed even harder as the mud pressed up her bare breasts. "I... suppose there's a reason why I never got scared when I got stuck in my old river's quicksand."

"Get comfortable..." Emily pulled Emma closer and Emma let herself get wrapped up in Emily's arms. "Ya kissed our Princess while sinkin' under a bog. I think yer already on yer way to lovin it as much as I do."

A mischievous thought flashed across Emma's mind as she felt herself nestle into Emily's embrace. "You want to have a little fun before I wake up?"

"It'd be a little strange lovin' yerself like this" Emily replied. "Besides, I have a request."

Emma moaned "Anything."

"Ask her about the night on the mud flat. I wanna see how much she remembers."

Emma closed her eyes and replied "She'll probably hypnotize me so she can show me..." No sooner had those words left her lips did an idea occur to her. She pulled back to look Emily in the face and ask "Tell me something. When she hypnotizes me, what does that do to you?"

Emily blinked "It's almost like our thoughts merge when that happens..." She quickly put two and two together to guess what Emma was proposing. "Ya can't be thinkin' what I think ya are."

Emma smiled "You're coming with me."

"Like bloody hell I am!" Emily protested as she felt Emma wrap her arms tight around her. "That's not even how this bloody works!"

"You want to hold her again, right?" Emma tightened her grip as she felt her shoulder slip under. "You know me so I know you. Besides, she's just as much your Princess as she is mine!"

"Emma..." Emily paused as she felt herself slipping deeper. "I don't even know what I'd say to her."

They both sank to their necks as Emma replied "Whatever you say, just get some closure. You need to heal as much as she does."

Emily would've retorted, but the mud rose over her lips before she could. All she could do was protest with her eyes, which too sank under. Her last thought as she disappeared was "Oh bloody luck be with me."

[sakura_inverse]

"So... what did you get?"

Catherine greeted Emma cheerfully by the clearing where the two had established their dwelling the night before. Fireballs illuminated the darkness once again as a pentagram appeared on the mud's surface.

Emma, who was holding two plastic bags, set them down to hug her Princess. "Oh just some things I'll need for the next four years."

"Four years?" Catherine asked with an incredulous laugh. "That's an oddly specific time frame to plan for."

Emma picked her bags up and held them open for Catherine to see. "Four years to earn a degree."

"A degree?" Catherine incredulously repeated. "Are you planning to be a scholar?"

Emma shrugged "I got to thinking. If you hadn't saved me from my hometown, I'd spend my life working minimum wage jobs and struggling to make ends meet. That's why I want to do something with my life."

Catherine looked down at the bags and pulled out one of the items inside. "And you're going to do it with this large rectangle?"

"That's my new laptop... or, new-ish. That's how I'm going to be taking my classes."

Catherine arched her eyebrows, replying "Unless this thing's a magic portal, I don't see how you'll be attending your lectures."

Emma looked up at Catherine, staring in disbelief. "You don't know what the internet is."

"I've heard of it" Catherine replied. "It's not very bloody useful to me." She rummaged through Emma's bags and pulled out an even smaller rectangle. "A phone?"

Emma arched her eyebrows. "You know what a phone is."

With a slightly annoyed tone, Catherine replied "Of course I know what a bloody phone is! I just don't see how you're going to charge it where we're going."

"That's the neat part" Emma said, as if she was waiting for her Princess to spring her verbal trap. "I got a spell book on electricity. Since I'm a vampire, I should be able to use magic, right?"

"Oh I have to see this!" Catherine pulled the final item out of Emma's bag and eyed the old tome in her hand. With a smile, she said "Now this is the only thing you need to be studying. Where did you even find it?"

Emma smirked "I stopped by an old voodoo shop. New Orleans is full of them."

"You should have brought me with you! We could make a night of shopping for old books!" Catherine replied as she pulled out a waterproof dry bag. "Here, we can't risk the pages of that tome getting wet."

Emma carefully packed her items inside and said "Don't forget my laptop."

"Of course, your..." Catherine paused. "Now what are you going to study?"

"I don't know..." Emma trailed off. "I'm just getting the basics out of the way. I'll decide what I want to major in later."

"Well surely you have a goal in mind. It'd be quite silly to have a degree for the sake of having a degree."

"I do actually..." Emma briefly hesitated, wondering how Catherine would react to her ambitions. "I want to work at a blood bank."

"A blood bank..." Catherine eyed Emma. "Please don't tell me you're harboring fantasies about being an 'ethical' vampire."

Innocently, Emma asked "What's wrong with that?"

Catherine sighed and turned her back to Emma. "Just unzip me and I'll tell you why it's not that simple."

Emma blinked. "You're getting naked?"

"I don't feel like washing my laundry" Catherine replied plainly. "That goes for you too. Strip down and pack your clothes. Dawn's coming soon."

Emma obediently unzipped Catherine's familiar dress and watched her pull it down her body. She quickly followed suit, hastily folding her clothes and stuffing them in the dry back before holding it open for her Princess. When Catherine placed her dress inside, she sealed the bag shut and tossed it into the mud. She took only a few moments to watch it sink before stepping in.

Emma quickly followed. She noted how the mud felt cool in the night on her bare feet as they plunged through the mud. But she kept trudging past Catherine just far enough to turn around and face her. She asked "Princess, is everything okay?"

"Forget your plans for university" Catherine replied. "You're wasting your time."

"But this is what I want to do" Emma protested.

"What you want is foolish" Catherine said with an unwavering tone. "Perish the thought of a blood bank. You'll be doing us both a favor."

Curiously, Emma asked "What's gotten into you?"

"Reality" Catherine replied with an even colder tone. "You're a vampire standing at the peak of the food chain. You should act like it."

"But that doesn't mean we have to..." Emma paused, wondering how to get through to Catherine. "Can't we try something new?"

Even though the two of them had sunk just past their thighs, Catherine still glared as if she was looking down at Emma. "Alright, Emily, I'll entertain your idea of 'something new.' But before you do, tell me one thing. Will any of your professors lecture you on what to do when your employer notices the bags of blood that go missing?"

Taken aback, Emma replied "I..."

But Catherine interrupted "And will they lecture you on what to say to a doctor who's about to perform surgery? 'Sorry about your patient's life saving blood transfusion. I was feeling a bit peckish.'"

Emma felt herself shrink back. But she remembered her promise to Emily and defiantly said "I'm going to do this."

Catherine folded her arms in front of her bare chest. "I suppose I can't stop you..." She tilted her nose slightly upwards and said "I wish you the best of luck in paying your tuition."

Emma exhaled through her nose while keeping her lips shut. Her gaze never once left Catherine as she asked "Well I'm sure Emily would like what I'm doing."

Catherine's eyes narrowed slightly as she sneered "Ah yes, my old chamber maid... I remember being a naive fool prattling to her about all of the things I wished to do outside of my castle's walls..."

"Oh I would've loved to have been there" Emma interrupted.

Catherine's eyes glowed as she fixed her gaze. Emma suddenly found herself in a dream where she saw herself in Catherine's royal bed chamber. There she sat in front of Emily in her maid outfit, who sat patiently as she said "Wouldn't it be lovely if we could find a nice cottage in the woods? We could live as if we were in a fairy tale, just the two of us..."

As the vision ended, Catherine said "Can you imagine a pair of sapphics in 16th century England pretending as if they hadn't escaped a castle? We didn't know the first thing about building a cottage. We'd have died of exposure long before we had our 'happily ever after.'"

Emma closed her eyes as she felt Emily's presence in her body. A smile crept up to the corner of her lips as she said "I miss the old Princess. At least she wasn't afraid to dream."

Catherine glared as she asked through her teeth. "I beg your pardon?"

Emma opened her eyes, feeling completely different than she had a moment ago. "Where's the Princess who had me read her favorite poems at night? And why am I looking at a cold shell of her now?"

"And what the bloody hell would you know of those nights?"

Emma softly cleared her throat, watching Catherine's reaction as she recited "Oh soft and dainty maiden, from afar. I watch you as amidst the flowers you move, and pluck them, singing. More golden than all gold your tresses are. Never was a harp-note like your voice, my love. Your voice sweet-ringing."

Catherine couldn't hide her shock even though she desperately wanted to be in control of this conversation. Her eyes widened, her pulse quickened, and her voice trembled as she asked "Who are you and what have you done with my Emily?"

Emma laughed to herself, shaking her head in a mixture of amusement and disbelief. "You've called this girl by my name ever since you met her and you don't recognize me? You truly have changed for the worse."

Catherine's eyes glowed once more. As if she was staring at a ghost, she said "This is impossible! Whatever you've done to my Emily, return her this instant!" She kept her gaze on Emma's body as she said "Emily, if you can hear me, come out!"

Emma stood unwavering as the mud kissed her down below. "Do you remember the night on the mud flat?"

The glow in Catherine's eyes intensified as she shouted "Don't you dare!"

"And how I used my dress like a rope to rescue you?"

Catherine sharply inhaled knowing she was stuck fast in the same mud Emma was. "You can't know! You can't bloody know!"

"Am I wrong?" Emma asked, arching an eyebrow. "Then show me. Show me what happened that night."

Catherine couldn't help herself. Emma felt herself plunge deep into her Princess's memories to that fateful night. She found herself staring at a full moon with tears in her eyes. She could hear Emily's voice shouting "Grab the bloody dress before ya sink from sight!"

But no matter how Emily shouted, Catherine kept her eyes on the night sky. She felt the cool English mud around her hips holding her legs fast. She sadly smiled and said "Is this what it means to be free? No matter where I go, I'm trapped."

"No shite you're bloody trapped!" Emily screamed. "Now grab the dress! I'm naked freezin' my arse in this mud!"

Catherine couldn't help but look over to see her chambermaid in her underwear sprawled flat on the muddy ground with her dress extended as far as it would go. "Emily, you'll get your dress dirty. You'll be punished if they find it in such a state."

"They'll bloody kill me if I let ya drown!"

"Then bring me tea in the afterlife!" Catherine retorted. "Just leave me alone!"

"I'll bloody join ya in there ya rotten bitch!"

Catherine looked over at Emma and saw the determination burning in her eyes. She knew her chambermaid wouldn't hesitate to join her in her bottomless death trap. "You have a chance at life! You have skills! You could a noble family far away and live a comfortable life! Just go before the guards come looking for me!"

"I'll bring ya your tea in our cottage!"

Stunned, Catherine repeated "Our cottage?"

"I'll build the bloody thing from twigs if I must! I'll do it for us! Just grab the dress!"

Catherine grabbed the dress. She wrapped her wrists around the fabric to secure her lifeline. "I'm holding you to this promise!" she shouted as she began to pull.

"Bloody shite!" Emily cried as she felt herself slide forward. "Are ya tryna pull me in?!"

"Sorry" Catherine sheepishly replied.

"Oh luck be with me!" Emily growled as she slid herself backwards. Catherine saw Emily cautiously stand up and dig her heels into the soft mud. She briefly wondered if she too was about to fall into her muddy trap. But as fate had dictated long ago, Catherine felt the mud's suction break around her body. She found herself laying next to Emily exhausted, filthy, and alive.

Catherine was the first to move. She softly stirred, saying "Emily, I'm sorry I made you go through this."

"Sorry?" Emily breathlessly replied. "That's the first bloody time I ever heard ya say that."

Catherine crawled on top of Emily, saying "You must be cold. Let me keep you warm."

"Princess?" Emily asked with a sense of shock. "What's gotten into ya?"

Catherine pressed her body as closely to Emily's as she could. "Emily, I..." she knew this confession would change everything. "I love you."

An air of silence followed Catherine's confession and a sense of mortifying fear overtook her. She wondered if she'd spend the rest of her life regretting this single moment. But she heard Emily laugh "Of course ya do. I'm the only bloody person in the Kingdom who'd put up with ya."

"So..." Catherine asked with uncertainty painting her breath. "Does this mean you feel the same way?"

"Of course it does. Now kiss me!"

With that, the vision ended. Catherine and Emma found themselves back in the present day sinking past their hips in their swampy clearing. But not a word was said between them for what they wanted to say was locked between their lips. With their eyes closed, they kissed as they had on the mud flat. An invisible spark of passion burned between them and only intensified as Emma deepened her kiss. She pressed forward, barely aware that the mud had swallowed their hips and was subtly massaging her below. She reached down and grabbed a handful of mud before pressing it into Catherine's bare breast.

"Do ya know how long I've been waitin' for this?" Emma asked with a slightly Cockneyed accent.

With a moan, Catherine asked "Emily?"

"Ya finally know it's me" Emily answered in a sultry tone. She reached down with her free hand and began rubbing her Princess with a slow, deep strokes. "Five hundred years, Princess."

Between her gasps and moans, Catherine asked "What about the other Emily? What does she think?"

"She's me and I'm her" Emily replied. "I see what she sees, I feel what she feels..." She picked up the pace of her strokes and said "And her name's Emma."

Catherine cried out as she felt Emily's intensifying touch. But she still managed to reply "Emma..."

"I pity the poor lass. She fell for the charms of a Princess she barely knew because of me..." She stopped her strokes causing Catherine to cease moaning. "A poisonous Princess who wants to snuff her out."

Frustrated, Catherine took a glob of mud and smeared it into Emily's breast. Then she reached down to stroke her former chambermaid, replying with a husky rasp "I'm teaching her how to find her place in this world. She's above the mortals she feeds on and she needs to act like it."

Emily moaned yet she kept her gaze fixed on Catherine. "She's alone and the only person in this world she can talk to is isolating her."

Catherine replied by intensifying her touch. "It's better she learns not to entertain her fantasies now instead of wallowing in misery when she fails to make them a reality."

Emily tried to scoff but it came out as a moan. "Ya won't let her... Ah... Ya won't let her spread her wings. Ya want to keep her caged underground."

"I want to keep her safe..." Catherine shifted herself in the mud as the two of them sank to their midriffs. "Even if it's from herself."

Emily responded by reaching out and resuming her strokes on Catherine. "Safe as a painting locked in a vault, never to be seen."

Undeterred, Catherine replied "And what do you..." She paused to close her eyes and moan. "What do you suppose will happen when... When every plan of hers falls apart and she's left with nothing?"

Emily fought to concentrate as Catherine's touch found its way deeper inside her. "Then let her fall. But be there to catch her... Ah... Be there to catch me."

With a determined moan, Catherine replied "Believe me, I'll be there when it happens."

Neither of them could speak anymore. Every ounce of energy they had went into their euphoric assaults. Neither wanted to be the first one to relent. They knew that surrender meant loss and neither of them would back down. Ripples rolled across the mud as they felt their breasts be kissed by the surface. With one hand, they stroked and probed. With the other, they held each other close. They moved and shifted to try and gain leverage over each other. But the mud always ensured they failed. Instead, their slick bodies slipping against each other only served to heighten their pleasure. Their moans intensified, their cries for release grew more desperate, but neither would relent.

Catherine's body was the first to break from her torture. But Emily's victory only lasted a second as she too found rapture in the mud. Spent, they leaned against each other, basking in their afterglow.

"Looks like I win" Emily wearily said.

Catherine, catching her breath, replied "This means nothing. Reality will prove me right in the end."

Emma sighed and smiled. "What's wrong? Are ya afraid of a little change?"

"I don't see the purpose of entertaining futility."

Emma rolled her eyes. "It'll be fun."

"Fun..."

"For me..." Emily replied, gathering her strength enough to push herself back and look her Princess in the eyes. "I want to see what Emma does with her life and I don't want to see her spend it inside of a muddy tomb."

Reality dawned on Catherine as she realized Emily was saying goodbye. "Will I at least be able to see you again?"

"Not for a while" Emily replied. "At least not 'til Emma gets to be happy with ya."

Emily's words stabbed into Catherine's heart and twisted themselves for good measure. Whatever euphoria she felt from holding her chambermaid was replaced with a rotten, festering wound. "You do know I can hypnotize her to summon you. That's how I discovered who she is."

"And I'll tell ya to piss off if you're lucky..." Emily wrapped her arms around Catherine, stating "My time here is done. This voice I'm talkin' to ya with, this body I'm holdin' ya with, it belongs to Emma. This is her life to live. I have no claim to it."

Catherine wrapped her arms around Emily as if she could stop her from leaving. Sobs choked her voice into a whisper as she said "I can't remember the last time I cried for you and it hurts. At least stay long enough to let me cry for you one last time."

Softly, Emily replied "Leave your bloody tears in the past. Think of the life ya wanted to live with me, ya have a second chance to do it now. Just do me one favor..." Emily let go of Catherine and gently pushed her back to let her see the tears welling in her eyes. "Promise me you'll smile for the future."

Catherine watched as Emily's presence left Emma's eyes. All she could see was Emma's softening expression with Emily's tears streaming down her face. In a final desperate act, she asked "Emily?"

Emma, in the voice she always used, replied "She's still here if you want to cry for her."

Catherine looked down and blinked hard to squeeze the tears from her eyes. She looked back up and said "She's right... Emma... I'm... I'm sorry."

"That's the first time you called me by my name" Emma replied, her voice breaking.

"I should have said your name in the beginning..." Catherine sniffed away her tears as she looked in Emma's eyes. "Thank you, for letting me speak to Emily one last time."

Emma sniffed away her own tears. "She'll always be here for you. I'm sure she'll come out again if you really need her."

Catherine shook her head. "I need someone I can live for, someone who can free me from the hell I've made for myself."

"I'll do everything I can" Emma smiled through her tears. "Looks like I have a lot to study for."

Catherine sighed, her expression subtly changing as her eyes drifted downwards. "I'm afraid your goals will be rather difficult to achieve. Even if you graduate university, I doubt any blood bank will agree to interview you in the middle of the night."

Emma herself looked down, feeling her sprits sinking as she was. With the mud rounding her shoulders, she murmured "I see..."

"You don't" Catherine replied. "I'm an assassin. My line of work brings me into contact with all kinds of people..." She looked back up at Emma and let a slight smile curl the corner of her lips. "I know a nurse... well, a former nurse. She was caught selling medical supplies to cover her gambling debts. They may have taken her license but she still practices for ruffians who can't be seen at hospital. She owes me a loan so I'll see it repaid by having her teach you what she knows about using a needle."

With grateful tears falling from her eyes, Emma whimpered "I don't know what to say."

"Have your belongings packed. We leave after sunset."

"Where are we going?" Emma asked, smiling through her tears.

"The only place a gambling addict would be. Las Vegas."

Emma chcukled softly, musing "Where else indeed..." The wheels turned in Emma's head and a sudden realization pushed her tears aside. "I bet a lot of people there are desperate enough to sell their blood for gambling money!"

Catherine blinked as the mud closed around her neck. Then she laughed. She didn't laugh in a polite way to affirm a joke. An uncontrollable laugh sent heaving waves across the mud. Emma laughed too. Neither of them cared how much they sank. They only stopped when mud swallowed their chins. "Emma... luck be with me."

"You mean us" Emma replied before leaning in for a kiss. Locking their lips, they felt a familiar spark burn between them. Their hands wandered as they sank into the depths. The two had disappeared, the mud went still, and sunlight broke through the swamp. The dawn of a new day shone for the two vampires.

[sakura_inverse]

With only a full moon to guide her, a young woman carefully stepped across an abandoned cemetery. Kat had specifically dressed for the occasion. She wore a raven black dress, dyed her hair a matching shade of black, and caked her face in pale white makeup. Anyone watching her from afar would almost certainly mistake her for a ghost floating in the darkness. But fortunately for her, she was alone. She carried with her a matching black bag drawn shut with to strings. She found a particularly flat patch of grass near the edge of the cemetery underneath a large tree.

She made her way to the middle of the clearing and knelt down. She opened her bag and pulled out a flashlight and a cheap spell book with a red pentagram emblazoned on its cover. She opened it up to a particular page and said to herself "A ritual for the dead... perfect for tonight."

She read the spell's words aloud. Her words were meant to summon spirits around her. But as she read, the ground softened around her knees. She paused when she felt the wetness on her skin. She stood up and shouted "What did I just step in!"

She quickly found out when she sank to her knees. She clutched her book close as she frantically illuminated the ground with her flashlight. The grass around her undulated with slow waves.

"Is this quicksand?!" Kat shouted. She pulled desperately at her legs and shouted "Stupid boots! Ugh, I have to untie them."

But then a voice called from the darkness. "I wouldn't struggle if I were you. You'll only sink faster."

Kat's attention shot to the tree and her flashlight followed. There she saw a woman with red hair, pale skin, and wearing a set of purple nurse's scrubs. She sat with her back against the tree and her elbow resting on her raised knee. She asked "A little help?"

The woman snapped her fingers and blue sparks flew from her fingertips. Kat's flashlight died in an instant and no amount of frantic button pressing could bring it back to life. With a sinister red glow in her eyes, she asked "Don't you think it's rude to shine a light in someone's face?"

But Kat wasn't scared. She stared transfixed into the woman's eyes as her black lipstick formed an o on her face. She asked "What are you?"

"What am I?" The woman repeated. "You normally ask someone 'who' they are, not 'what.'"

Kat immediately straightened her posture as she sank to her thighs and gave a polite bow at the waist. "I'm terribly sorry. But may I know your name?"

The woman arched an eyebrow. "Now that's much better. If only more of my victims were like you... My name's Emma."

Kat tilted her head curiously. "Weird question, have we met?"

"I'd know your name if we had" Emma replied.

Kat once again straightened herself. "My name's Kat. I do apologize if I'm trespassing in your cemetery. But I came here to practice some magic under the full moon."

Emma found herself lost in thought as she heard her prey's name. "Kat wouldn't be short for Catherine, would it?"

A chill ran down Kat's spine. "Well... yes... Are you sure we haven't met before? You just seem really familiar somehow."

"I doubt it" Emma replied. "The last Catherine I knew died a hundred years ago."

Kat gulped at seeing Emma's unchanging expression. Even though she felt the grassy mud lap at her thighs, she asked "A hundred years? That'd make you immortal!"

"Yeah, no shit" Emma replied. "A little secret though, immortality doesn't mean much when someone drives a silver stake through your heart."

That must make you a vampire!" Kat said, her eyes going wide with excitement. "Please, make me your thrall!"

Emma scoffed with an incredulous smile splashing across her face. "You can't be serious."

"You can have my blood!" Kat replied, tilting her head to offer her neck. "I'll do whatever you want! I'll be yours for all eternity!"

Emma's incredulousness turned to amusement as she said "Do you know how long an eternity is? You try watching all your friends and loved ones die. You do that and realize that's just the beginning of forever. It gets pretty fucking lonely after that."

"It's okay, I like being alone" Kat said, undeterred as her dress spread across the surface of the mud. "As long as I have my spell books... Speaking of which, can you show me what you did with your fingers earlier?"

"You mean this?" Emma replied, snapping her fingers. But instead of making a single spark appear, she made several balls of electricity appear in the air above Kat. Arcs of electricity weaved themselves high above Kat's head like a lethal spiderweb which in turn illuminated a pentagram drawn around her sinking body. "It's basic electricity. Child's play when you learn magic... not that you'll ever get on my level."

But Emma's taunting words never registered with Kat. Overwhelmed by the magic around her, she longingly said "I think I'm in love."

Emma meanwhile lazily got up. She slowly made her way to Kat as she sank to her hips. Using more of her magic, she walked across the surface of the mud and uncaringly on the hem of Kat's sprawled dress. "Too bad you won't remember any of this."

Kat looked back at Emma, her heart beating hard and hollow as she stared into the sinister glow of her captor's eyes. "I'll cherish this memory until I die."

"About that..." Emma teased with a sly smile. "I'm gonna get you out of here. I'm only going to take a pint of your blood and let you go. But..." she reached into her pocket and pulled out a clear vial. "I'm going to wipe your memory. You'll wake up with a headache thinking you had a bad hangover."

"You can't do this to me..." the wonder and blood drained from Kat's face. "Please, you must teach me everything you know. I live for magic!"

"Oh you do?" Emma knelt down on Kat's dress as if it were a common floor mat. "What kind of magic am I using?"

Without hesitation, Kat replied "You're using electricity to illuminate my surroundings and scare me into not attempting an escape. You have to keep it high in the air to avoid shocking the ground water you brought forth to mix with the earth and make mud."

"That's... exactly right" Emma found herself admitting out loud.

"But why don't you use fire?" Kat asked, feeling her sense of hope rising. "You wouldn't have to worry about electrocuting your prey."

"Fire?" Emma mused. Without thinking, she thought aloud "My Catherine loved fire magic..." Then the realization of what she said struck her. She looked down at Kat, who politely waited as she sank deeper. "Would you like to see some more magic?"

Emma didn't wait for an answer because she knew the answer would be yes. A sinister glow burned in her eyes as she took Kat deep into her memories. Kat found herself sitting at a table made of hardened dirt illuminated by orange firelight with an old spell tome sitting in front of her. After reading a few words, she looked at her hand and snapped her fingers. A dull spark followed the snap and she immediately heard a woman with a British accent say "No, no, no. You're not concentrating enough."

Kat found herself turning her head to see the source of the voice. She found a pale woman with raven black hair and striking red eyes standing with her arms crossed. Kat replied "Sorry, I just don't think fire's my element."

"Of course it isn't" the pale woman replied. "Fire won't charge those devices you insist on bringing with you."

Kat felt herself roll her eyes. "Would you prefer I spend my time reading the same English novels you got tired of 200 years ago?"

"As if I'd ever tire of Jane Austen!"

Kat covered her mouth as she scanned her surroundings. She found herself sinking to her midriff in the cemetery, unsure if those words had come out of her mouth.

Emma meanwhile eyed Kat in astonishment. "No way..." she said to herself.

Curiously, Kat said "If you don't mind me asking, what was that spell? Was it mind control?"

"That was a simple hypnosis spell..." Emma stated, staring straight at Kat. "You were only supposed to dream whatever I projected into your mind."

"Did something go wrong?" Kat politely asked.

A smirk found its way to the corner of Emma's lips. "I'm gonna tell you something even the best magic user I knew didn't know. When you use this spell to show someone a memory of their past life, they'll relive it as if they were there..." Emma shifted herself to get more comfortable as she watched Kat sink even deeper into her trap. "That comment you made about Jane Austen... I remember it as if it happened yesterday."

Kat's eyes went wide with shock. "That means I knew you in my past life..." She squealed with excitement, almost shouting "I can't believe it! I know a vampire!" She would've jumped for joy had she not been so thoroughly mired. "Does that mean you're going to turn me?"

"Turn you into a vampire?" Emma asked before inhaling to give her answer. "No."

A wave of devastation swept through Kat's chest, deflating any joy she briefly felt. "But... why not?"

With a sad smile, she sat backwards with her rear floating above the hem of Kat's dress. "Have you ever thought about what you want to do with your life?"

"Well..." Kat paused to gather her thoughts. "Yes."

Emma softly scoffed, asking "And what dreams and aspirations does Catherine have?"

Kat nervously gulped as if she was ready to give an elevator pitch to a potential business partner. "I want to open a curio shop."

"A curio shop?" Emma asked, clearly expecting more than a single sentence.

"I want to sell spell books, tarot cards, voodoo dolls, everything a witch needs to practice magic" Kat said as she sank to her chest.

"You do?" Emma asked her eyes turning to the spell book Kat was holding. "Toss me that book of yours."

Kat obediently tossed her book into Emma's lap. Emma opened the book to a random page and glanced at it before tossing it away. "That's mass produced garbage marketed to rebellious teenagers."

"I'm in my third semester of college!" Kat retorted, forgetting the cordial tone she wanted to carry with her vampire. "I'll have an associate's in business administration next year!"

"Good for you" Emma said, half-sincerely congratulating her. "And you're going to finish all your coursework while being an undead blood sucker of the night?"

"All of my classes are online" Kat replied.

Emma sighed through a long exhale. "You know what I wanted to be? A nurse..." Emma paused to tug at the corners of her scrub top. "The closest I ever got to a formal nursing education was a shadowing a gambling addict who was in crippling debt to the mob. The only way I could learn was by pulling bullets out of gang members and harvesting human organs..." Emma closed her eyes and exhaled a sigh once more. "I wish someone would've warned me about all the opportunities I'd lose before becoming a fucking vampire."

Undeterred, Kat replied "I know you're not going to believe me, but I've known all my life that being like you is what I was meant to be."

"All your life? Tch, you're barely a twenty-something. I'm doing you a favor by telling you to live and achieve your goals. I'm giving you the fucking chance I never got!"

Kat sank past her chest. Her dress, having fanned across the mud as far as it would go, pressed against her skin as she sank deeper. "I've had dreams of being more than human..."

"Tch, dreams" Emma interrupted.

"It's true!" Kat protested. "I need to find someone named Emily. That's a name I've always heard!"

Emma sat stunned at hearing the name Catherine used to call her. "Emily's long dead..." Emma stood up, stepping away only to pick up the hem of Catherine's muddy dress. She carried it back to Kat, dropping it so her feet could find unfettered access to the soft earth underneath her. She reached down to take Kat's arms and said "I'm going to get you out of here. Don't come looking for me. "

Kat meanwhile struggled to pull her arms free. "I'm not getting out until you promise to turn me!"

"You're the same pint of spoiled milk you always were..." Emma tightened her grip, ensuring Kat couldn't break free. Her eyes glowed as she said "I'm going to show you one final memory of mine. It's the last time I ever saw my Catherine. You watch it and tell me being a fucking vampire is going to be a dream come true."

With that, Kat found herself pinned down on a concrete floor by four huge men. She watched as four more held Catherine's arms and legs as if they were trying to pull her apart. She heard herself shout "Let her go! I'm the one who fucked up, not her!"

An old man in a suit, who glowed with an orange aura, coldly looked down at her. "That was my son. You let him die on your operating table."

"He was shot six times!" Kat heard herself scream. "He bled out before I could get the first bullet!"

The old man looked down at Catherine. "You took the most important thing in the world to me. It's only fair I take the most important thing to you."

Catherine meanwhile struggled. She looked over at said "It's okay, Love. I don't blame you."

"I'll get you out of this!" Kat heard herself shout. She then saw another large man hand the old man a silver stake.

The old man held the weapon in his hand, saying "You're lucky you're still valuable to my organization. From this day forward, you're mine!"

With that, he plunged the stake into Catherine's heart. Kat heard herself scream in absolute hysterics. She saw Catherine's blood flow out of her wound. She saw her Princess's head turn her way, leaving her to stare into her lifeless eyes.

With that, the vision ended. Emma used the time Catherine was under her spell to pull her free from the mud. "Five years... Emma said as she fought her tears. A single one rolled down her cheek as she repeated "Five years. They kept a shock collar on me and if I even looked at anyone funny, I caught a hundred thousand volts... I replayed every lesson Catherine taught me about magic and I practiced them whenever I wasn't harvesting organs for those bastards..." She tightened her focus she looked into Kat's eyes. "You should've seen the looks in their eyes when I mastered electricity. I savored every single one of their deaths, including the old man..." She finished dragging Kat to solid ground, watching her wearily sit up. "Just focus on opening that curio shop of yours. Goodbye."

With that, Emma turned to walk away. She just about to pass the tree that had concealed her presence from Kat when she heard boot-laden footsteps race towards her. She turned around just in time to see Kat run up to her. Before she could react, she felt the sting of Kat's palm striking her cheek.

With angry tears smearing her mascara, Kat shouted "Goodbye?! Bloody goodbye?! This is the first time you see me in a hundred years and all you can say is goodbye?!" Emma stood stunned as she saw an all-too familiar look in Kat's eyes. "How many bloody times did you chastise me for being a vagabond with no sense of wonder?! Now you've been handed a bloody bookworm who wants to learn everything about magic from you and you want to toss her away like rubbish?!" With a bitter growl, she finished with "You've changed for the worst, Emily!"

Emma held her cheek in her hand. She saw the angry presence leave Kat's eyes which was soon replaced with the stunning realization of what she'd done. Right as Kat was about to beg for forgiveness, Emma gave her a warm smile bathed in her tears. "You always were so persuasive, Princess."

Kat, still stunned, said "I am so sorry! I don't know what came over me!"

But Emma didn't need to hear Kat's apology. Taking her hand and leading her back to the pit, Emma said "This is your last warning. A lot of doors are going to close to you if you choose to go down this route, never to open again. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Kat sniffed as a smile spread across her face. "More than anything! I promise I won't be any trouble!"

With that, Emma led Kat to the spot where she sank. Emma used her magic to stay atop the mud but Kat struggled to trudge through. She reached the disturbed spot she was pulled free from and instantly sank to her chest. She looked up to Emma, confused. "If I may ask, what does quick mud have to do with being a vampire?"

"You have to be able to hide somewhere nobody will think to find you."

Kat shifted to make herself comfortable as the mud poured over the cleavage her dress left exposed. So we're hiding in quicksand?"

"Exactly" Emma said as she positioned herself in front of Kat. With a slight hop, she bounced up in the air before plunging into the mud. She too sank to her chest while splattering mud all around her. She couldn't help but be amused at the specks of mud she splashed but she kept her composure as she finished "Catherine was an expert when it came to magic. Every pit of quicksand she made was an entrance to a safehouse deep underground."

"Earth magic!" Kat halfway shouted. "Did Catherine left any notes on her techniques?"

Emma grabbed Kat's shoulders as they sank to their collar bones. "Probably not, she was a bit of a minimalist. But I did collect a small library of everything magic."

Kat's eyes sparkled. "And I get to read them?"

"All of them... but I do have two conditions..."

Kat quickly nodded "Anything!"

"First, you get that degree. You're going to learn how to run that curio shop of yours."

Kat again nodded. "You don't know how badly I want this."

"And second..." Emma locked her eyes onto Kat's. "You're learning how to use a needle."

A shiver rushed up Kat's spine. "Needles?!"

Emma reached into her scrub pocket and pulled out the vial she showed earlier. "We don't kill for our blood. We'll take a pint from our victims and wipe their memories away."

Curiously, Kat asked "What is that stuff anyway?"

"Oh just a memory-wiping potion I cooked up from an old potions tome... I have that too if you want to read it."

Kat squealed in excitement, but stopped when she felt the mud around the base of her neck. "So... is this the part where you bite me?"

Emma gave her a reassuring look "It'll only hurt for a second, I promise."

Kat excitedly offered her neck. An aura of anticipation emanated from her as she felt Emma move in. Emma meanwhile planted a kiss on Kat's neck, delighting in the moan she elicited. Then, as the mud reached her lips, she struck.

Kat let a brief cry of pain escape her throat. But by the time she inhaled, a serene feeling spread throughout her body. "It's happening" she moaned. "It's really happening."

Memories of Emma's first night with Catherine flooded her mind. Nostalgic tears landed on the mud as she took a mouthful of blood. "Princess..." she thought as she felt Kat's body change underneath her fangs. "Thank you... for not making me wait five centuries to see you again... and saving me from the loneliness you suffered with..." The two sank even deeper and deeper until they both had long disappeared. One final thought crossed Emma's mind before she settled into caring for her charge.

"Princess... If you can hear me... Please... Luck be with me..."