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vampire finishes feeding and comes out of the bedroom while I’m
distracted looking to see if the hearth spirit has changed into
something else. He lets out a low growl upon spotting me, worried that
I’ll reveal what he is or that I’m a vampire hunter. He rushes towards
me, but I came prepared for this; I use the wind spirit inside of me to
blow out a gust of wind so strong it stop vampire in his tracks so that
I can shove a stick of hawthorn into his mouth before he can get a hold
of me.
There
are many kinds of vampires, each with their own weaknesses, and while
this particular one isn’t killed by hawthorn or rosewood, it is
paralyzed by them when the wood is put inside his mouth.
The
most notable feature on a vampire are the teeth, long and thin, like
little needles they inject a mild toxin that relaxes their victim so
that those who are asleep won’t wake up and those who are awake will
stop struggling. The biggest danger from a vampire, however, comes from
the fact that they spread disease. Because they are dead their mouths
begin to grow filthier than any humans, so that most of the people they
bite will grow ill. Moreover their saliva, which has developed healing
cells in order to prevent them from leaving a mark on those they bite,
also accelerate the growth of bacteria Those who study the “Other
World” will see that this sort of disease spreading is common among
magical creatures and before medical science allowed us to learn about
bacteria and viruses it was presumed such creatures caused the diseases
themselves. This isn’t the case however; they are simply carriers of
them.
I
lay bough of dried hawthorn flowers on the vampire's chest and smile
cunningly at him. I have found that a gentle smile can be more
terrifying when one is faced with death than any scowl, especially
since I discovered much to my dismay that my visage isn’t very
terrifying.
You’re
mine I tell the vampire as I lay the curse binding his will to mine.
Whenever I call, whatever I ask, forevermore must you do..
Finished
with my curse I pull the hawthorn from the vampire’s mouth and it bolts
up and runs off. It is important for me to impress upon you how
dangerous it is to kill anything in from the “Other World” for long ago
their rulers stated that humans were not to know about them, that any
who did would have to suffer. And while the chaotic nature of the world
means that few pay much attention to this edict few of the denizens of
the “Other World” can be obvious when they interact with the human
world and we can’t be obvious when we interact with theirs. Plus taking
control of vampires means that I can use them later should something
come after me.
With
the vampire gone I take a quick look around the house wanting to see if
anything remains of this fairy. At last I find the fairy I’m looking
for, a boggart. The twisted little man is in the bedroom sitting at the
head of one of the apartment’s occupants, tying small knots in her
hair. The twisted little man growls at me as I enter the room and I
allow his warning to give me pause, so he continues to put knots in the
girl’s hair.
The
boggart was once a hearth fairy, most likely a brownie, but it has
since grown extremely nasty because of the condition of the house.
The
boggart’s body is filthy and covered in scabs. At one time it was
presumed that perhaps the bacteria in a house affected brownies more
than they did the humans, causing the scabs and their transformation
into a boggart. Boggarts tear at their own flesh in frustration as they
find themselves trapped in a home they no longer want to live in.
Brownies
and other hearth fairies are neat freaks; they choose to inhabit
beautiful homes. The size or cost of the home isn’t the issue. What
they care about is that the house be warm and inviting, if its not
they’ll begin to go crazy or leave. Looking at the boggart and a
brownie side by side one would never think they are one and the same,
for when fairies change they don’t simply become messier, or alter
their style. Their face and body warps, in some cases fairies that were
hundreds of feet tall have become smaller then six inches thanks to the
changes in the modern world.
The
boggart jumps off the bed and runs through the wall. I follow it.
Boggart’s are dizzyingly fast and can pass through floors, walls, and
other household objects as if they weren’t there. They can also close
any door in the house without having to be near it. Its rarely human
dead who haunt houses, at least not in the form we tend to anticipate.
In reality it’s more likely to be a fairy. Hearth fairies and other
similar fairies can grow close to people, so when a person dies
suddenly they become wild, just as this boggart has. They are also
prone to creating glamour’s of the person they once loved, all of which
creates the illusion that the being haunting the house is the person
that has passed on.
I
catch up to the boggart as it licks at the milk in the fridge with a
long, filthy tongue. A boggart living in your house means that your
food goes bad faster and is more likely to carry food poisoning, even
if it escapes the general mess of the rest of the house because the
boggart will lick at it for his sustenance.
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