oldestvampire

[oldestvampire]

Raids and skirmishes sweep through the land, destroying all they touch, and so we retreat further into the wilderness of the mountains.

[oldestvampire]

Mo Hua does not know me for what I am and protests when the villagers whisper about my aversion to sunlight and their missing travellers; his avid defence turns their eyes to him - I cry for the first time in a long time when I find him on the side of the road.

[oldestvampire]

Stricken Memory

While working as a midwife I take dying infants and mothers and feed on them, laying them to rest in the nearby forest. | While I deliver a governor’s child he takes my pearwood scissors - when I go to steal them back I find bamboo scrolls and artifacts hundreds of years old in his collection, all with his name on them. | Qin Da finds me in his office and tells the town of my secrets; Duan Bai, the woman who taught me midwifery, sends her brother to hang me for my deeds - I cut them down and flee to the neighbouring province, settling down in a small hut on the mountainside.

[oldestvampire]

A weaver and her husband come to take Bo from me, and even as he claws and cries for me to do something, I don't.

[oldestvampire]

Art by @Imogen.Sketch on Instagram

[oldestvampire]

The infant, who I have named Bo, I have kept alive and hidden from the village - perhaps once out of bitterness, but now out of love; they have become precious to me indeed.

[oldestvampire]

Cui Jiao and I live as sisters, and I adopt the name Cui Xiuying to keep up this ruse.

[oldestvampire]

The sun comes out while I am still looking for my next meal, I duck in a tea shop and am served by a child who recounts to me tales of their misadventures in return for sweets and tales of mine; though I go home with my belly empty, my heart is full.

[oldestvampire]

I was born in a time of peace and prosperity along the riverbank, but the mountain town's market is full of merchants whispering about corruption and skirmishes between the kingdoms; even after 200 years of life this worries me, for I have no knowledge of war.

[oldestvampire]

Stricken Memory

Zhao Fen dances under the tree while I play the Guqin, I'm doing my best to keep my fingers steady while I shake with laughter. | I grow complacent in the village where we lived, sitting unmoving in the shade of the pear tree we played under while I watch his children and grandchildren grow old and move away. | A withered, wrinkled pear falls from the dying tree onto my lap, cracks open, and I see the seed is replaced with a small pair of pearwood scissors - when I pick them up I can see a thin thread leading from my chest to the grave where Zhao Fen was buried

[oldestvampire]

Cui Jiao comes to me years later, desperate and no longer the delicate woman she once was, thin with ragged clothes and matted hair, thirsty once more, but this time for blood instead of tea; I take her inside when she falls at my feet and put away the few belongings she has - including a small wooden jewellery box I don't dare open.

[oldestvampire]

Qin Da finds me in his office and tells the town of my secrets; Duan Bai, the woman who taught me midwifery, sends her brother to hang me for my deeds - I cut them down and flee to the neighbouring province, settling down in a small hut on the mountainside.

[oldestvampire]

During my travels I encounter Sun Yating once more, he proposes a duel in exchange for my forgiveness, but I give him the candy in my bag in exchange instead; laughing, he hands me a letter that he says will get me out of any unpleasant situations.

[oldestvampire]

A young woman greets me one morning as I play, she claims she is thirsty and when I see the grey pallor of her skin - so similar to mine - I offer her the swaddled infant on my table and she calls me a monster.

[oldestvampire]

I spend my evenings and mornings playing my guqin, plucking my strings in time to the bubble of the creek near my abode, soothing my hunger with the sound of the strings.

[oldestvampire]

While I deliver a governor’s child he takes my pearwood scissors, and when I go to steal them back I find bamboo scrolls and artifacts hundreds of years old in his collection, all with his name on them.

[oldestvampire]

While working as a midwife I take dying infants and mothers and feed on them, laying them to rest in the nearby forest.