Chapter Text
It was just past midnight on Christmas morning. There was a fresh layer of snow outside, muffling any sound and making the night deadly silent. Ashton, a 5-year-old child, woke to an odd sound from downstairs.
"Santa?" She spoke softly as she crawled out of bed. She walked out of her bedroom, blanket in hand and trailing on the ground beside her as she made her way down the stairs in hopes to catch Saint Nick in the act.
She could hardly contain her excitement until she reached the last step. The blanket dropped to the floor, fear quickly replacing her excitement. Laying on the ground throughout the living room were the bodies of her father and brother. She took a small step forward toward where she saw her mother standing in the center of the room.
"Mamma?" She whimpered softly, reaching out to the woman. Suddenly her mother's body slumped down to the ground, making a soft thud as it landed, revealing a man she'd never seen before. His eyes shone red like rubies under the light of the Christmas decorations around the room, blood was smeared around his mouth and trailed down his chin. The man grinned as he saw Ashton, showing two pure white fangs.
Ashton let out an ear-piercing scream as she turned to start running. She made her way up about 5 steps up the stairs before she slipped on the blanket she had dropped and fell. The vampire laughed as he stocked the girl, easily making his way over to her, like a sick game of cat and mouse he was playing. She screamed again as the vampire picked her up and she began kicking and clawing at him, trying to get away.
"Shhh little lamb, you'll be with your family soon." The sound of his voice caused Ashton to relax, her body going limp as she lost her will to fight. She didn't understand why her body wouldn't listen to her, why she couldn't scream or cry for help anymore.
She felt tears roll down her cheeks as the vampire bit her and began to feed. Her eyes flicked over to her parents' bodies on the floor. The vampire was right... she would see them soon...
Suddenly the front door burst open causing the vampire to drop the child. Several people ran in wearing all black. They were armed and had several protective layers that looked almost like armor. At the sight of the group the Vampire quickly dropped the child to the floor and ran off. The group of new strangers ran after him, leaving one of their own, a tall man, behind.
The man kept his weapon drawn as he looked around the room, nudging each of the bodies with his foot. "Three casualties." He spoke into a radio before continuing to look around. This was when he saw Ashton who was now curled up hiding on the steps in pure fear, blood running down her neck and staining her pajamas while tears continued to fall down her cheeks.
"One survivor" the man spoke again before putting the device away and walking toward the girl. "I promise I'm not going to hurt you." He spoke softly as the girl flinched back from him. "My name is Dawson. I'm here to help, okay?" He slowly held a hand out to the girl.
She stared at his hand for a moment before she ran over and hugged tightly onto him, her body shaking as she cried. Dawson wrapped his arms around the kid as he tried to comfort her. "There, there little one, you're going to be okay, I promise you. No one is ever going to hurt you again."