L'Antre de Bloodwitch

Affiche du Hellfest 2022

Après un premier weekend bien chargé pour cette édition 2022 du Hellfest, plus gros festival de Metal de France (et non pas d'Europe comme certains médias qui se pensent bien renseignés le disent...), premier weekend pour lequel je vous ai proposé un report de 26 groupes, nous voici de retour pour un exceptionnel second weekend, histoire de fêter comme il se doit son 15ème anniversaire reporté depuis deux ans, mais aussi son retour après deux ans de pause forcée due à la pandémie de Covid-19. Nous entamons donc les hostilités de cette seconde partie du Hellfest 2022 en ce jeudi 23 juin, pour une durée de 4 jours et avec 32 groupes au total !

Affiche du Hellfest 2022

Le Hellfest Open Air, né sur les cendres du Fury Fest, aura vu passer son 15ème anniversaire d'une façon très fortement chahutée. En effet, cette année nous fêtons cet anniversaire-là, mais en réalité, il aurait dû avoir lieu lors du 3ème weekend de juin... 2020 ! En plein confinement pour cause d'épidémie de Covid-19, il a fallu reporter la fête. Pour 2021. Et finalement, pour 2022. Sur le 3ème weekend de juin, mais aussi sur le 4ème du coup !

"Le Prêtre et le Carillonneur", de Bloodwitch Luz Oscuria

Comme le savent déjà celles et ceux qui me suivent, je n'ai jamais tenté ma chance en envoyant l'un ou l'autre de mes manuscrits à des maisons d'édition. Il y a notamment un article que j'ai publié qui en explique clairement les raisons. Mais cette décision pleinement assumée depuis que je me suis lancée en toute indépendance dans le milieu de l'écriture ne m'empêche pas pour autant de participer à des concours.

J'avais déjà envoyé un poème pour le recueil de poésie "Stonewall" dont le message de tolérance envers la communauté LGBT m'avait beaucoup attirée. Le recueil est sorti (vous pouvez vous le procurer direction chez les éditions Abstractions), quant à ma proposition, je vous l'avais publiée sur l'Antre. Aujourd'hui, je participe à nouveau à un concours, et cette fois-ci j'ai jeté mon dévolu sur Les Plumes Francophones, concours annuel organisé par Amazon. Les dates correspondaient exactement avec la sortie de mon prochain roman, c'est donc lui que j'ai choisi de proposer.

"Le Prêtre et le Carillonneur", tel est son titre. Il s'agit d'un thriller fantastique dont l'action se déroule au sein d'un petit village perdu au milieu de nulle part, dans lequel vit une communauté aussi étrange qu'inquiétante, et c'est aux côtés d'un randonneur nommé Nathaniel que vous découvrirez en détails ce qu'il en est précisément. voici la synopsis de ce roman :

Dans un village isolé du monde, l’arrivée impromptue d’un étranger allait remettre beaucoup de choses en question. De sombres énigmes semblaient envelopper ce lieu au mode de vie étrange, et peut-être cela avait-il un lien avec la déité locale, Ianaiozt’ril.

Entre coutumes ancestrales et mœurs incompréhensibles, vous n’êtes pas au bout de vos surprises. Et si le Prêtre et le Carillonneur, qui rythmaient à eux seuls la vie de tous les villageois, n’étaient finalement pas ce qu’ils semblaient être ?

Entrez dans le quotidien curieux des habitants de ce curieux village, et découvrez-en les secrets les plus enfouis.

Ce roman est sorti le 15 mai dernier, et vous pouvez vous le procurer exclusivement sur Amazon (il s'agit de l'une des conditions de participation aux Plumes Francophones, les anti-Amazon pourront le retrouver après la fin de ce concours sur toutes mes plateformes habituelles), en format ebook Kindle à la fois à l'achat et en emprunt, ainsi qu'en format physique broché à l'achat. Comme pour tous mes autres récits, trois extraits vous seront bientôt proposés sur l'Antre de Bloodwitch.

N'hésitez pas à faire passer le message autour de vous afin que mon nouveau roman puisse rencontrer les férus de thrillers et de fantastique ! Il me reste à vous souhaiter une bonne lecture de ce nouveau roman !

* "Le Prêtre et le Carillonneur" est disponible depuis le 15 mai 2022.

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"Fiat Tenebra (Let Darkness be)", by Bloodwitch Luz Oscuria

This is the third excerpt from my novel, "Fiat Tenebra Let Darkness be)", in its version translated by Saleem Rustom.

Only fields as far as the eye could see presented themselves to her. Her only option was to stay at the farm where the naked, lifeless body of Victor's prey lay, for the day. She had no choice. So she pushed open the door to enter. She tried in vain to not look in the direction of the bed. Even though the smell of death was already emanating from the corpse. To protect her eyes and nose, she grabbed a blanket which was lying around nearby, and covered the woman.

She then took a seat at the table. Her eyes riveting on the nearly full glass of alcohol sitting there. There was a bottle a little further away, empty. She took the glass and smelt it. But she didn't dare put it to her mouth. She finally put it down when suddenly someone knocked on the door. She remained dumbfounded. Not knowing whether it was better to open or not. The voice of a man, apparently young, was heard. He was calling his great aunt. Bloodwitch turned towards the bed.

"Of course. She had a family…"

While she was careful not to make a sound, hoping the young man would go. He turned the doorknob and opened. His gaze met that of the Vampire.

- Oh sorry, am I disturbing? he politely apologized.

- Um, no.

Bloodwitch had answered in such a natural way that he entered without hesitating for a second. The Vampire didn't understand why she had given such an answer. And so quickly. She thought of the corpse under the sheet. It was not to be discovered. But the young man did not pay attention to the mass which was on the bed, and took place around the table, facing her.

"I've never seen you before," he began. Have you known my great aunt for a long time?

Bloodwitch's eyes left those of his interlocutor to rest slightly lower. She saw the jugular vein on his almost immaculate white neck. Seeing her lack of response - she was so obsessed with this detail - he sought her attention. When Bloodwitch finally realized that, she stood up abruptly and walked decisively towards the exit.

- Where are you going? asked the young mortal.

She walked silently through the door and ran away. She had had the kind of thought Victor told her about. And that displeased her to the highest point. Yet when she thought of him, an overwhelming urge to be like him seized her. He was the type of Vampire she should have been. And she secretly hoped that in the event that she got to his level, he would no doubt allow her to take further this beginning of the relationship that had settled between them. But this mortal who entered the farm, she didn't mean harm to him. He didn't do anything to her. How could she?

As she moved away from the farm, the pain in her chest grew stronger. The wound inflicted by Elonia hadn't been bleeding for a while. Blood was now leaking out again. The Vampire presumed her strength. Her eyesight blurred as she brought a hand to her wound, desperately pressing on it to stop the bleeding which was getting more abundant. In vain. After a few minutes, she collapsed, exhausted.

When she regained consciousness, she was in a damp cave. Someone had stripped her of her corset and she was stretched out on a makeshift bed. She was covered with a sheet. And her wound which made her suffer so much was healed. The place was bright enough that she quickly realized she was not alone. Someone was busy nearby. She tried to stand up. She didn’t manage to. She was still at the end of her strength. She let out a moan which caught the attention of the person next to her. He approached. It was Victor.

"You could say you got away with it," he said impartially. You were lucky that I came back that way.
- What happened? Bloodwitch weakly implored.

- You saw me disappear. But I wasn't really gone. I was watching you. I saw you let the mortal into the farm. And I thought you understood my lesson. I saw you come out of the place, triumphant. Instead, you left with that cowardice which suited your Sire so well. Now, I wonder if you can change. The habits of that bastard Valek seem so ingrained in you that I doubt it.

- Where did you know him from?

- Whatever. I know what he was. It's enough. You need not know more.

He walked over to her. A clean bandage in one hand. He directed his other hand towards the sheet, which Bloodwitch held back before his interlocutor had time to pull.

"So stop your manners," said Victor. Your corset didn't come off on its own. Would you have preferred that I leave you in the middle of the path?

She released the fabric without a word. And he lifted it up immediately. She looked away. She didn't want to fall into a trap similar to that of their last meeting. And as he busied himself with removing the bandage he had placed on the lesion, he continued his monologue. He explained to her that she mustn't believe he was acting out of compassion for her. That she had to be like him to be led by that sort of thing. And that he only came to the aid of a Vampire in need. Even if the characteristics of this one did not please him. He went on to comment on the stupidity she showed by narrowly failing to be surprised by the rays of the sun.

"It's not the first time," she said finally.

"Fiat Tenebra (Let Darkness be)", by Bloodwitch Luz Oscuria

This is the second excerpt from my novel, "Fiat Tenebra Let Darkness be)", in its version translated by Saleem Rustom.

She left the house and resumed her walk. Trying to forget the events of the day that just passed. She who has already been amply tortured for months. She knew she was going to have a hard time hiding the last few hours. As she walked through a field as unoccupied as it was silent, a new vision assailed her. She heard the words first.

- Yes, my parents were tortured during my human life. I am a Vampire now. But I kept my part of humanity. Even in my darkest times I couldn't torture.

That voice was Satyr's. She arrived in Pandemonia with Hades, to accompany him for the farewell ceremony organized for his brother Angelus. Satyr was little known in the city. However, she could be seen at the tavern from time to time. And it was there that she said the words which Bloodwitch's mind reminded her of. Satyr's anecdote made the Vampire realize she could have transfigured the child she left alone a few hours earlier, next to his parents' corpses. It was now too late to turn around. So she brushed that idea from her mind. Especially since she could not imagine taking a child of such age under her wing. A child whose mother she had savagely emptied of her life. Without the shadow of a hesitation.

"I know who I am. And I don't hide my face. Therefore, I only feed myself at the source. I am not cruel. But we are what we are. I never feed on children. Even if it turns out to be the nicest blood in the mouth."

Bloodwitch put her head in her hands. How could she think so? She then pulled herself together. It wasn't her voice which echoed. It was Wednesday's. She would undoubtedly laugh out loud at the current state of the Vampire who was her lover for a few hours. Those words that just echoed in her mind, on what occasion did she hear them? She was unable to remember. Was it possible that her visions were developing to the point of seeing events she has not yet witnessed?

It was on this existential question that she resumed her journey. Not without wondering if she was going in the right direction. When she was assaulted once again by words.

"Beware, little mortal. I know everything about you. I can already feel the blood beating in your temples. I can already feel in your belly the uncertain eddy of your intestines. I can already feel…"

- Aone?

With that, Bloodwitch turned around. The voice was so real that she believed her son was very close to her. This son she had just heard however, was not the one who now lived far from the creatures of the night. It was the Vampire she had raised. Aone Luz Oscuria. In the distant days when he was in his original form, he never showed his mother that he could exercise any cruelty.
"He got that from me…"

Bloodwitch sighed. She who had always struggled to go against her vampiric nature. She finally realized that whatever she did, she was no longer that young girl carelessly abandoned in a ditch near her hometown. Her mortal life was over. She must get used to it. Centuries may have passed. She had never told herself that she had no choice but to accept her nature. To be attached to the idea that she had kept feelings. Yet she had gone through a period when her morals no longer counted. Or almost. In reality, these sensations always remained. They were just buried deep inside. She knew she could do this tour de force again. And she was beginning to think that things would surely be much easier this way.

Her walk took her to the edge of a small village. She couldn't remember crossing it when she made the trip the other way. But whatever. She stepped forward. The small main street had a few small houses. Most of which were inhabited. And the population seemed to be completely immersed in sleep. The Vampire nevertheless felt observed. And more and more as she went her way.

Suddenly she sprawled out. Her face to the ground. She hadn't tripped. Someone had pushed her. Before she could turn around to see who the man who dared the gesture was, she felt an iron hand grab her hair and pull her head back. All she could see was blood that leaked from the corner of her mouth and stained the spot where she fell.

As she was about to nudge behind her to free herself, her assailant grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back. Bloodwitch couldn't suppress a cry of pain as her attacker makes her bite the dust a second time. She instantly lost consciousness.