Read or Listen the Previous Episode: Episode 1
Blood and Shadow
The years passed in blood and shadow. Wherever General Elias Monroe and the Lady in Black marched, kingdoms fell, empires crumbled, and men whispered their names like a curse. He was the tactician, the warlord, the conqueror. She was the harbinger, the devourer, the nightmare that crept in the wake of his blade.
They did not fight for a nation, nor for a cause. They fought for power, for dominion, and for the endless hunger of the Lady in Black.
She fed on the dying—those whose souls teetered on the edge of the abyss. With each battlefield, Monroe ensured there was always a feast. And as the Lady consumed, her strength grew. Her beauty deepened. The black void of her eyes became more vast, her presence more intoxicating.
She had become his wife in everything but name. Not by words, not by ceremony, but by blood. By death.
The Feast of the Dying
Monroe stood in the ruins of a city, his fingers slick with crimson, his sword heavy in his grip. Smoke curled in the cold night air, the scent of charred flesh thick enough to choke on. The moans of the dying echoed through the streets.
He turned and found her, kneeling over a wounded soldier. The man gurgled, his breath shallow, his body broken beyond repair. His hands trembled as he reached for something—his mother, his God, perhaps. But none would answer him now.
The Lady in Black leaned close, her lips brushing the man’s ear. A thick, otherworldly mist seeped from his mouth into hers, siphoning every last drop of his existence. His body convulsed—then fell still, hollowed out, empty.
Monroe watched, his chest tightening. Even after all these years, the sight of her feeding sent ice through his veins.
She rose gracefully, wiping her lips with the back of her hand. Her eyes, deep and endless, found his.
“You hesitate, my love,” she murmured.
He exhaled, shaking his head. “Not hesitation. Just… remembering.”
Her smile was cold. “And what do you remember?”
He stared at the lifeless body at her feet. “What I once thought war was.”
Her fingers trailed along his jaw, her touch like silk and ice. “War is whatever we make it, dearest.”
The Blood-Red Moon
But time is cruel, even to those who have defied it.
Decades passed. Monroe, once a man of iron and fury, felt his body weaken. His hands, once steady with a blade, trembled. His hair turned silver, his breath grew short. Even in the presence of his Lady, death was patient.
One night, beneath a blood-red moon, Monroe sat before her, his strength failing. He gripped her wrist with what little power remained in him.
“My love…” His voice was a whisper. “It’s time.”
She tilted her head. “Time for what, darling?”
He swallowed. “For you to take me. To drink my soul, as you have so many before. I am yours, and I will not waste away like a common man.”
For the first time in years, the Lady in Black was silent.
Then, slowly, she smiled.
“Oh, Elias.” She knelt before him, cradling his face in her cold hands. “Did you think I would simply let you leave me?”
His pulse quickened. Something in her voice—something he had never heard before—unsettled him.
He tried to speak, but her lips found his.
Not in love.
Not in hunger.
In dominion.
Bound in Death, Bound in Eternity
A terrible force ripped through him. He gasped, his soul wrenched from his body—but she did not drink. No, she held it. Twisted it. Bound it.
He screamed as agony unlike any battlefield tore through him. His vision blurred. His body collapsed.
And yet—he did not die.
His breath ceased, his heartbeat stilled, but he remained. Cold. Weightless. Shackled.
His own voice echoed in his ears, but it was not his own. It was distorted. Hollow.
“W-what have you done?”
The Lady in Black stroked his cheek, her smile widening.
“I have made you eternal.”
He tried to move, to run, to breathe, but his body no longer obeyed him. The weight of death pressed against him, yet he remained standing.
A puppet. A phantom.
Her guardian.
Terror clawed at him. “No… No, this—this is not what I asked for!”
She leaned close, whispering against his ear.
“My love, you were never meant to leave me.”
A broken, strangled sound escaped him. “Please…”
She only laughed, brushing her fingers over his cold, lifeless lips.
“I will take many lovers, Elias,” she murmured. “I will drink from kings and warlords. But you… You will always be mine.”
And as the world faded into darkness, as his mind shattered beneath the weight of undeath, General Elias Monroe realized the awful truth.
He had not married the Lady in Black.
He had been claimed by her.
And he would serve her—forever.
To be continued…stay tuned evey week for a new episode.
If you enjoy Horror Stories in Episodes, don’t miss the finished episodic series of the Lake Lady.
