Meet Nerine de Thana
Nerine de Thana was a young lady from a wealthy family, raised with proper tutelage & etiquette.
From an early age, Nerine displayed a natural talent for singing and vocal performance. Overjoyed at their only child’s beautiful gift, her parents enrolled her in choral training at her local church. There, she learned to use her voice to praise God in hymnal and in practice.
She had hoped to transition to opera training, but sadly her life was forever altered on the night of the Great Conflagration of 1871.
Nerine was at home in Chicago when the fires started. She was, as always, practicing her singing lessons. Her parents — her father, a renowned shipping magnate; her mother a socialite from old world wealth — were away when the fires broke out.
When the fires came to her home, she fled alongside the servants to the river but became separated from her ladies-in-waiting during the chaos. She remembers nothing of the encounter that turned her into what she is now… but she awoke a few miles down shore from the north pier, drenched and confused.
For an agonizing few hours following the fires, Nerine wandered in a daze, stricken and in shock. It was by pure happenstance that she encountered a lovely couple — Jonathan & Mary Williams and their two children — a local family who lived just outside the city.
The family comforted the poor wretch and treated her wounds as best they could, feeding her and taking care of her until she regained her strength. The Williams’ did not have much to offer except a kind heart, which was more than Nerine could have asked for. It was with them that she slowly returned to health.
One day, while recovering from her terrible ordeal, she found herself humming and singing to herself for comfort. It wasn’t a song, per se… perhaps a bit of Tin Pan Alley-inspired half notes. A trill, at most.
But what occurred next surprised her more than anything she’d experienced since that fateful night when the fires came.
The dulcet sounds of her voice seemed to weave their way throughout the small ramshackle house, manifesting in shadowy form, moving like a worm floating through air! It danced on the winds as it worked its way through the currents of the house. She watched in fascination as the melody seemed to flit around her, like a ribbon caught on invisible wires.
And then she gazed in horror as she watched as Mary entered the room unexpectedly and the thin line of dark shadow slipped into her ear and disappeared.
How like a worm, indeed.
When Mary turned to face Nerine, her expression was blank; empty. She was slack-jawed and stunned. When Nerine asked her what was amiss, Mary could only respond with that same blank stare. Mary began to drool.
“Stop it!” Nerine had scolded poor Mary… and Mary obliged. Unconscious, Mary fell to the floor with a terrible thump.
At the sound of it, Jonathan entered the room only to find his wife laid out. In his shock, he began to yell, accusing Nerine of harming her. That is… until she cried out again, “Leave me alone!”
Like a switch, Jonathan’s tirade became silenced. He turned around promptly and walked directly out of the house. He did not return.
The room was still and quiet. All that remained was a gnawing hunger Nerine could not satisfy. At the back of Mary’s skull, where she had hit her head upon collapse, a dark pool of red was starting to form.
Nerine licked her lips.
Her hunger grew.
But suddenly, as if slapped across the face, Nerine receded in terror. This desire shocked poor her to her very core. Unable to stand the sight of her deeds and wracked with guilt, Nerine fled back to the city, finding refuge with many of the other displaced people of the fire, hoping to return to her home once the terror was over.
But, she never came back.
