Harmony Dartwood was once a beautiful woman, inside and out. She was fair in looks, and more than fair by kindness. Her eyes were a light blue-gray color, her elbow-length hair was a fine golden brown, and her face was pleasant, with a captivating smile. As a gentle soul, she cared for those who had troubles, and her husband both enabled and encouraged her to do so to her heart's content. She fed and nursed injured travelers, cared for children when they stopped on their way home from school, and hosted events to raise money for charity.
On a particularly dreary, rainy day, on the sixth of October, while her husband was at work, an ill traveler found his way to her doorstep. Pale and cold, he introduced himself as Bram, and she took him in. She supplied him with a blanket and tissues, as well as a comfortable chair. She handed him a cup of coffee, and at that moment, Bram grabbed her arm and violently pulled her closer. As he sunk his teeth into her neck, she realized he was not being overly friendly—he was a vampire. Harmony flailed her free arm and grasped at a silver cross with which she decorated her mantel. She jabbed it into Bram's side, causing him to drop her and flee. Although she was astonished that her wound was half-healed already, she bandaged it and went to bed, terrified but thankful. Harmony lived through Bram's attack, but one could say that she did not actually survive.
The next day, she was too terrified to tell her husband what happened. But while they were watching the next sunset together, her new-found desire for blood, insatiable and selfish, overtook her. She slaughtered her lover with more than just a tinge of regret. As her teeth tore his flesh like a ravenous wolf, her heart was filled with sorrow and remorse. She had become a creature of uncontrollable avarice, her decisions dictated by her body rather than by her soul. The following morning, her once plain but pretty hair had been transformed into a white crystalline crown; her placid eyes had become a deeper and fiercer blue. Her face remained beautiful, but in a powerful, rather than peaceful, way.
Over a short time, her most beloved people, those whom she previously gave every effort to helping, were destroyed by her powerful desire, or perhaps by her lack of willpower. Surely she could overcome the bloodlust if she tried hard enough, she thought. Still, her corrupted body drove her actions, compelling her to consume those who lived with purity and love, those whom she cherished. This made her blue...not merely emotionally, but visibly. Her now blue-gray, cold skin, visible only in the moonlight because she stayed inside during the day, no longer seemed human.
Over time, as the townspeople realized that Harmony's visitors never returned, people quit coming to visit her. Her foul cravings carried her out the door to hunt nightly. Occasionally, in her loneliness and hunger, she paused to stare at the full moon. She saw only emptiness, like the moon was a mirror into her heart. And yet she knew her heart was not empty, that her actions were uncontrollable. This fact gave her no comfort.
Each time she went out and devoured a new victim, her tears, like sparkling stars, fell to the ground, even as she was still licking the life off of her lips. Each sunrise began anew with her shrieks of despair echoing through the sky. This lamentable Baroness of Darkness could not overcome her bloodlust, but she did not give up hope. When she was not driven by her hunger, she began to experiment with herbs and foods, cooking them in different combinations and with different methods, praying that she could find a cure, or at the very least, a deterrent.
Harmony discovered that garlic powder caused her pain, and seeking to punish herself for her actions, she tried it with every recipe she invented from then on. After several years, the Baroness discovered a way to end her path of destruction: she was able to best her hostile nature by eating garlic pizza, baked on a silver sheet. The combination of ingredients tormented her treacherous body, but the effects on her mind were minor. The recipe relieved her hunger and restored control to her true self. She was able to safely go outside during the day. It was to her dismay, but it was not at all unexpected, that she had to expend a lot of effort in order to calm the fears of the townspeople and regain their trust.
Despite her constant condition of halitosis and the terror and grief she had spread, her newly regained fortitude allowed her to continue serving the downtrodden and needy for the next thirty years.
From Ashley's word list: vampire, sunset, wolf, blood, blue, moonlight, full moon, sparkling stars, darkness, sunrise, garlic pizza.