Chapter 6 #2
“You can’t just go with him. That’s absurd and unbecoming of a lady.
” Mama paced the floor of the waiting room in a flurry of panic.
She clutched her finest white pearls strung around her neck, continuing to denounce the man—the beast. “For God’s sake, he killed the priest and nearly killed your sister. ”
“But he didn’t,” I argued from the chaise lounge. I clasped my shaking hands together and dug my nails into the flesh, praying this was a dream.
“He could have, and now he wants you! As if it could not get any worse!”
Miriam sat in an armchair. She stared at the ground, picking at her nail beds, processing her near death.
“I don’t have a choice. I either go with him, or you all die.”
Mama slapped her fan into her palm. “We must think of another way out!”
“There is not another way, Mama.” I wiped my clammy hands onto the dress, noting the speckles of blood dotting the bright rose-pink gown—the blood jewel upon my finger twinkled.
“The existence of the man defies every logic, and he will slaughter the entirety of Endovier without fail if I do not follow through.”
Out of the tiny room’s window, night settled in under the cover of darkness. The sun dipped below the horizon, fading into the black sky as the pale moon rose. I was running out of time.
Beautiful and deadly, his phantom touch etched upon my skin, and soon enough, his fangs would be buried into my neck, draining what was left of my life.
I placed my head in my lap as Mama and Miriam hatched a plot despite the warnings.
For the last few months of my life, I’d been told of the impossible, and right then, a new impossible was before me.
I should’ve been repulsed, demanding it was a mistake and fighting to stay here with Mama and Miriam.
Yet confusion lay my mind bare as the memory of the graveyard encounter and our dance clashed with the bloodshed I’d witnessed.
The crushing weight fell as the hour neared to a close, the quiet contemplation driving me mad in every sense of the word.
When Miriam spoke, it was a welcome reprieve from the thoughts clouding my head.
“Mama, I’d like to speak with Valeria,” she said. “Alone.”
Mama’s worried gaze danced between us, her hand going to her bosom as she slowly nodded. “Yes, of course. I need to find Gloria and straighten this up. I’m sure William is just as upset as well.” Mama continued to talk to herself as she exited the small alcove of a room, hatching a futile plot.
Miriam jumped up from the chair toward the window, which served as a mocking timepiece more than a scenic showcase of beauty. “Do you remember the time we climbed the cherry tree and Father was so upset when it was discovered we had done so in our best clothing?”
The memory of that afternoon was a cherished relic, more of a dream than a memory.
“Yes. Where are you going with this?”
She tapped the windowsill, her brows scrunched in concentration and thin lips twisted into a frown. She appeared older, lost in thought and more serious than I’d ever seen her, becoming what I could not.
“You talked your way out of Father punishing us. Father was so mad at us when we climbed down and nearly broke our necks, but you saved our skin. Sweet talking him with such words I had never seen still to this day on how such sweet talking can be done. Perhaps you can talk your way out of this arrangement.”
I shook my head. “There is no talking my way out of this.”
She bustled forward, taking my hands in hers. “Sister, you must. You must try and get out of this horrid arrangement and come back to us.”
I balked at the words. They reverberated against my skull as a tireless joke.
In plain truth, the same truth I hid from her, there was nothing left for me. I was a pawn in Mama’s ruse to ensure our futures, and I would’ve been a ruse for William all the same. None of this could erase the fact I wouldn’t last the season.
At least with this choice, I would be swapping one death for another.
I rubbed at her thumb, the softness of hers under the harshness of mine.
“He would kill me before he ever gives me the chance to come back even then”—I shuddered—“I’m dying, Miriam.
Dying. I will not come back. I can’t come back.
If I go with this man or stay, I will die either way, and there is no changing that. ”
“We can find a cure, and there are ways we can—”
“No. There is no other way. At least this way, I can not be a burden to Mama and to you for the funeral expenses or medical expenses. You will not have to worry about having a sister and, instead, start afresh, worrying about other trivial matters such as finding a suitor.”
Miriam lowered her face into my lap, crying softly into the stained fabric.
I patted her head just like when we were children.
As her cries quieted, something in her shifted.
She snapped her head up, eyes twinkling with dangerous thoughts.
“He is immortal. Perhaps he knows of a way to extend your life. Maybe—maybe you can sweet-talk your way into showing you his secret, and you can come back.” She lunged for a hug, squeezing what little life I had out of my body.
“Yes, that’s it! Ask him to show you his secret and then kill him and come back to us! ”
Kill him.
Two little words that seem next to impossible floated within the space.
Miriam, renewed with hope and inspiration, muttered something indiscernible to herself.
“What possessed you to think it would be possible?” I asked.
“I once read it in a book!”
“Miriam, I don’t—”
“We are going to need a few stakes and holy water.” She stood and paced the floor. “I wonder if we can stake him as he sleeps during the day. Although I am not sure about the whole daylight myth, since he was still walking in the light before the sun was even down.”
“Miriam—”
Miriam rambled on further, oblivious. Her movements became more exaggerated, the wheels turning in her mind furiously as her pace quickened.
“Miriam. Miriam, listen to me.”
Her gaze snapped to me, fervor blazing high in her eyes.
“That man will kill me before I ever can think of killing him. You need to accept that this is the end of the line for me. There is no coming back from this. Ever.”
I spoke softly and slowly, enunciating every syllable with a heavy heart.
It hurt more to see her face fall, the light draining from her eyes.
“No. No, that’s not acceptable. You are supposed to be here, and we are supposed to grow old with our husbands and—”
“Miriam, stop. You know as well as I that there was no way I would survive to the end of the year. I know Mama never told you, but the doctor said I was to be dead by winter’s end.”
“There is hope.”
“There is none. I am out of hope, and I am out of time. These are the truths that I have been trying to contend with for half a year, and now these are the truths that you must bear as well.” I choked back tears, throat bobbing. “Please, understand.”
Tears welled in Miriam’s eyes.
“I can’t. I won’t.” Miriam gathered her skirt and ran out of the room.
I dropped onto the soft cushion, exhaustion weighing heavy on my bones. I desperately wanted to close my eyes and awake from this nightmare.
The ring, a sad glimmering reminder of the losses, was tallied upon my heart.
Shuffling footsteps came to the door. It was neither Mama’s, William’s, or Miriam’s, but a new familiar I had since become tied to—its evidence lay itself upon my finger.
“Are you ready?”
The question gutted me with cruel ease.
Curious eyes shifted beyond the doorframe.
I closed my eyes, summoning the courage to say no—to fight back—but found there was none. My will to fight had depleted, and I was, again, stuck with the all-consuming darkness. This time, it would swallow me whole.
I nodded, reaching out to take his extended, calloused hand.
“Shall we, Little Dove.”