And the Fates Laughed

This is a repost of a story called "Fate Is An Ugly Bitch" that was originally posted in 'Loving Wives'. I received too many comments about it being in the wrong category and or, not having the MC get revenge. That being said I've made a few minor tweaks and have rewritten the ending. Please enjoy this updated version.

And the Fates Laughed.

A story by R.C.PeterGabriel: All rights reserved.

Into every life comes challenges, strife, and even pain. To be clear I'm not talking about the stubbing your toe kind of pain. Physical pain either goes away because you've healed or you die. Either way, you stop feeling it.

Emotional pain never truly goes away. You either drown in your grief or you become numb to it. If you become numb and you think the pain is gone, you've tricked yourself into missing out on joy.

Granted, feeling joy in the first place, elevates the trauma felt as your joy is crushed under the boots of reality.

You can hide from joy but that isn't truly living. In a twisted way, living requires us to seek out pain. And it could be said that I have lived a very full life...

I had a wonderful childhood, surrounded by a loving family, and friends, and lived in a prosperous village. I was taught the benefits of hard work and grew into a strong man. The love of my life was two years younger than me. She grew up on the other side of the village longhouse from us.

I thought my joy had been perfected when I eventually left my parents and took my bride home to our new house for the first time. I was wrong. My joy had only begun. My wife had just blossomed into the perfect woman and only improved from there.

My joy increased every day and was multiplied with every child. We had four strong sons and two fine daughters at the start of my twenty-seventh winter... The winter that they came. The winter my joy first carried a cost.

They could have easily taken us all with very little fight. They had chosen instead to cull their numbers and test our will to live. They ensured we knew we were under attack as some form of sick game.

The grotesque creatures seemed as though they had once been human. They had emaciated-looking limbs capped with disease-riddled claws. They moved with surprising agility and possessed amazing strength. Their eyes were sunken red coals and they wore leathery skin showing wherever their tattered clothes allowed. Their black mouths gapped impossibly wide, filled with needlelike teeth. Their continuous drooling of rancid spittle threatened disgorgement from even the stoutest of our warriors. Their snake-like tongues flung the putrid goo about with seemingly no purpose but to cause disgust. That was until it landed on open skin and began to bubble and blister as it ate into you.

Even so, the fighting seemed somewhat even at first because we were armed while they were not. We managed to kill at least one of theirs to each loss of our own. Little did we know... we were being herded.

The women, children, and men too old to swing a weapon had gathered in the longhouse as the men of fighting age fought on. I almost faltered seeing my own father's head partially torn from his shoulders before a creature clamped its maw onto his neck and drank his fountaining life's blood. I don't know if it was terror or a desire to protect my remaining family that renewed my strength. Probably both, but I pressed their numbers with a berserker mentality.

Eventually, the carnage was nearly complete with only five of us left. Friends I'd known from birth lay in broken and bloody heaps. With bodies torn limb from limb, disemboweled or decapitated, and intermixed with the equally gruesome corpses of the disgusting creatures.

We lost two more as we took down their last... or so we thought.

three more appeared as we stood panting at the door to the longhouse. They were different than the rest, seemingly human. I could somehow tell that they were not. Two females and a male with power emanating from them like a physical thing.

The three of us backed into the longhouse and tried to bar the door but it burst open and flung us far into the room. The women and children were screaming as the creature's masters calmly entered. But a sudden calmness settled as the male quietly uttered: "Be still".

We all stared as the male surveyed the room and gave a slight nod.

A strange sense of foreboding washed over me as the women reached behind their necks and released the buttons holding their garments together. As the dresses fell, exposing magnificent bodies I heard most of those in the room gasp.

The two females grinned and strode forward to stand nearer to the closet fighting men. They were the blessed ones, as I had been thrown farther into the room by the doors having burst open. The Fates had blessed them with a quick death.

I watched as the men freed their growing cocks in hopes of receiving their unearned prizes. The women simply waited while the egger men moved forward to press against them. They were completely oblivious to the strangeness of the situation and to the danger the women presented.

Regaining my feet, I shuffled forward as if to join them as the women turned my friend's necks to the side and sank their fangs into them. All four moaned in bliss as the women fed. I knew my friends were as lost as all the other men in our village. I was the only one left to defend the elderly, the women, and the children. Seventy-four lives depended on me.

With a chilling sense of destiny, I swung my sword with every ounce of remaining strength. To this day, I don't know how I managed it. Cruelty of the Fates, I suppose. But my wrist came to a bone-breaking stop, just before I was flung the entire length of the longhouse.

When I came to, I had been stripped bare and hung from the ceiling by my wrists. One of which was broken. Fortunately, I could keep most of the weight off them by reaching a tabletop with my toes.

The physical pain was nothing compared to what I saw. I had a clear view of the room where all the elder men and children except mine were lined up on one side and all the women on the other. To my horror, my wife and children had been separated and were kneeling on the floor facing me. They were lined up behind the remains of what I had done. Four headless bodies lay in a pool of blood seemingly large enough to fill a horse trough.

A voice I didn't know vibrated in my mind. It took me a moment to realize that I wasn't actually hearing it with my ears. When I recognized its source, the man stepped out of the shadows to stand behind my wife.

"I was worried that I had hit you too hard. It would have been a shame to destroy you so quickly and without our having gotten to know each other."

"Who are you? And why are you doing this to us?"

"My name is unimportant. You will know me as 'Master'. As to why... To feed, of course."

"Why eat people? Why not sheep or cattle or fish, like everyone else?"

A grating sound rasped across my brain causing an instant headache. The sound continued for several moments before I realized that he was laughing. Almost a minute later the sound slowed and then stopped. When it did the man spoke out loud.

"You believe that I am an ordinary human? If I was, would I be able to do this?"

Screams of terror tore from my throat as I watched him grab my youngest son by the hair and hoist him off the floor. Whatever trance he had been in broke the second he was lifted and he met my eyes with panicked pleading. His lungs filled in preparation to scream but he wasn't given the time.

Fangs extended as the man's mouth opened and he twisted my son's head to the side. Less than a second later he bit into his neck with an explosion of blood, much like biting into an overripe fruit. I could do nothing but scream as I watched my son's body pail and then shrivel. Within a matter of a few seconds, there was nothing left but skin-wrapped bones.

The man grinned at me with bloodied teeth and I watched his fangs recede. "Innocent blood is always sweet. It also carries the most power. But to be honest, I prefer drinking from my wives." With that, he unceremoniously tossed my son's corpse away to splat in the puddle of blood.

When I could no longer scream through my grief, the great racking sobs began.

Minutes later, I glanced with teary eyes, at my beautiful wife as the man moved behind her again. It was then that I noticed the anguish in her eyes and the slight tremble in her limbs. She had known what was happening! Her mind was awake but her body was unable to move. I could see in her eyes that she was suffering as much as I was.

The man... thing, brushed her hair gently with his fingers and waited for me to look up. It took several minutes to find the strength. It was with pure rage that I finally met his eyes and he laughed again.

"You killed my brides, so I'm going to take yours." With that, he drew my wife to her feet and began to undress her.

"NO! Just kill us all. We'd rather die than be made into those things!"

He just smiled over my wife's shoulder at me as he continued with agonizingly slow progress and spoke into her ear. "If I release you from your paralysis, will you cooperate?"

I watched my wife shudder before turning her head away while grabbing at her clothes to prevent further exposure. "Never! You killed my son!"

He let her pull herself away from him. But, she seemed to want to protect the rest of our children and only moved to position herself between them and the monster.

"Not even to save your own life?"

"No!"

"Not even to save the life of your husband and children?"

I knew her love of family would be her undoing. The moment the question was uttered, I knew she would sacrifice herself for us. She would endure any form of torture for even the hope of saving us. I knew this because she and I were the same and I would do it without thought.

"You will let them live?"

"With your cooperation, I give you my solemn oath that I will let your remaining children and husband live."

"You won't harm them? You promise?"

"I will never lay a hand on your husband, nor any of your children. But only with your full cooperation. Your husband took my wives from me and I will most definitely destroy him utterly and make you watch as I feed from your children if you do not. You will give up your relationship with him to become my wife. Only when you are completely mine will my vow become sacrosanct."

My wife's resolve waivered momentarily and she looked at her feet while considering her situation. Although, it didn't take long to find her strength. Turning she glanced at our children and then up at me. "I love you! I love you with my whole heart! I will never stop loving you but you know I must do this."

I knew her heart and that her sacrifice wasn't an attempt to hurt me but rather save me and our children. I had no choice, so I freed her of judgment on my part. "I do know, my love! This isn't how things are supposed to be but I would do the same."

With that, she turned back to our destroyer. "I will cooperate."

His smirk grew as he looked towards me speaking loud enough for everyone in the longhouse to hear but was obviously aiming his comments at my wife. "Do you remember how you were a few minutes ago? You could hear and see all that was taking place."

In a whisper that was difficult for me to hear she nodded and replied, "Yes".

"Louder. Everyone here must be witness if you want my promise to bear weight."

"Yes," she screamed in disgust.

"What do you remember?"

She lowered her voice from a scream to a loud speaking voice. "I remember being paralyzed but also being able to hear and see what was going on."

"Do you acknowledge that everyone here can see and hear you?"

"Yes."

"Are you cooperating of your own free will and without my abilities currently forcing you in any way?"

"I am cooperating of my own will, in exchange for your promise and for no other reason!"

"It matters not that you dislike the choices available to you. It only matters that you are cooperating of your own will. If you renege during the process, you will become a mindless thrall and your family will die. Do you wish to continue?"

She looked at me for the longest time, allowing several tears to fall without attempting to hold them back. I believe she was again trying to build up the courage to say what we both knew she had to say. Eventually, she turned away from me and spoke defiantly.

"Yes, I freely disavow the relationship I have so completely enjoyed with my husband. I also remove myself from my relationship as a mother to my children whom I love beyond words. And although I despise your very existence, I accept my new role as your wife."

The man that we would know only as Master simply nodded and motioned the love of my life to stand near my table. After she slowly made her way to where she was told, he informed the room that he would consummate their new union.

While cruelly grinning up at me, he told my wife to complete the removal of her clothes and then lay back on the table.

He looked up briefly into my eyes as he continued to explain, only he had gone back to speaking in my mind. In the meantime, once my wife had complied, he set to work on her body with his hands and mouth. Licking, kissing, and caressing in ways that had been practiced over an unknown number of centuries.

"I want no doubts that I am doing this simply because I can. I could have fed from your whole village or allowed my thralls to consume you. Although there had been a time when I would have needed to feed daily, the truth is that I need very little sustenance. I am very old and very powerful.

"That wasn't the case with my wives. They were turned a mere two hundred years ago and still required fresh blood. Very little to be sure, but enough that we still needed to raze a village from time to time. And the thralls were becoming too numerous.

If one was allowed to exist too long they could eventually develop the ability to create more of their kind. That would draw too much attention. Because of that, I allowed you to kill them off for me. But, truthfully, I hadn't expected you to survive.

"You are surprisingly strong of will. If not you wouldn't have been able to move under the weight of my power. Nor would you be about to endure what I will bring upon you. You will suffer for taking my wives from me.

Although, because of your strength, if I were in want of male companionship I could transform you into a master like myself. But neither of us has those particular appetites. At least I haven't sensed any in you. Not that it matters, because I will find far more pleasure from your suffering than through friendship.

"So, here we are. I am going to take your wife and change her into a being like myself. You, however, are going to suffer through all of existence. I will start the change in you but deny you enough blood. You will exist and hear the thoughts of those who are near but will be unable to interact. Forever impotent while your former wife draws the life essence from her new lovers. Over time she will fuck thousands of men and women but will ache to make love to me above all others. This too is unnecessary. I could simply make her into what you know as, a vampire. But by beginning the process while in the throws of orgasm, she will crave sex as much as blood. It will also have the added benefit of causing you additional pain."

While he spoke, I was provided a close and unobstructed view of all of his ministrations. I had little choice but to watch as her body slowly betrayed both of us. My wife's will was almost strong enough, but after five or ten minutes of expert attention, I could tell she was becoming aroused.

For the next thirty minutes, I was shown exactly how inadequate my lovemaking had been. My wife was brought to the edge of orgasm and kept there until she was pleading to be fucked. Even then, Master continued to tease her for many long minutes before removing his clothes and offering himself to her. By then she was so desperate for release that she immediately grabbed his cock and pulled him to her opening. Only then did he smirk up at me while driving himself forward to the accompaniment of my wife's very vocal expressions of pleasure.

She was driven to eight or ten orgasms over the next hour, most of which lasted several minutes each. The last one was the most intense and vocal of them all.

It was during that orgasm, that the view of my wife's body was finally partially blocked as Master leaned over her.

When she eventually guided her new mate from her neck to her mouth, I realized he had been feeding from her. They kissed for several minutes before she became lethargic and he allowed her to drift into sleep.

Without a word to me, he lifted her from the table, glanced at my children, and left.

My children seemed to come out of their trances but followed him without complaint. It was several hours later when he returned and walked straight to me, hopped up on the table, and looked me in the eye.

"Your former wife is sleeping peacefully. I have begun the process of changing her. It will take several days to complete but you can't stop it. She will be utterly mine.

"Your children are where she is and are safe from me as promised. You are about to start the process also, only you won't be allowed to feed. Oh, did I forget to mention to you that when she wakes her desire to feed will overpower even a mother's love? When I said your children were safe from me, that didn't include their mother. The last thing they will know is her betrayal."

With his words, I put everything I had into an attempt to get at the man and was instantly stopped with a single blow to my solar plexus. My ability to breathe was completely interrupted as my entire complement of air exploded from my chest.

I gasped in desperate attempts to inflate my lungs as Master cut me down and bit me.

I was left with the strength of a newborn kitten and was unceremoniously dragged from the room by my ankle. I found myself in a cramped box and just before the lid was sealed, he squeezed a single drop of blood from his finger to drip into my mouth.

That one drop was enough for me to know that life as I had known it was over. I spent the next twenty-four hours feeling my humanity leak away. About the time I thought I would die for real, the lid opened and I was yanked out. It was then that I realized my wrist and bruised organs had healed but it did me no good. I felt the sting of fangs almost instantly before being fed another single drop of blood and being returned to the box.

The process repeated itself a day later, leaving me torturously thirsty. I knew that blood would fix everything for me. If I could only get blood I would be as strong as Master.

That wasn't going to happen.

What seemed like months later I finally heard her. The voice was disjointed and faint but strangely feminine. I didn't recognize her until weeks later when her words had become clearer. My former wife sounded different in my head instead of hearing her with my ears. By then I had figured out that I couldn't die of thirst or starvation but it certainly felt like I could. The lack of blood was simply leaving me impotent, as Master had put it. I was too weak to move, call out, or even scratch at the box I had been bound into.

It was explained to me that I would be forever encased below Master's sleeping chamber. It having been described as being similar to a coffin gave my imagination hope, although, it didn't last long.

The voice would speak to me from time to time. I found her words both comforting and agonizing. She told me how sorry she was for betraying our covenant and how she hated her new life. She also mourned with me after admitting that she had been too weak to keep from feeding on our children. Our oldest had survived but was now a thrall to her. We spent years grieving for all of them, especially our oldest.