Nocturnal

by David Paul

  I was twelve years old when my father took ill, and I watched him go from a strong proud patriarch to that of a shriveled frail man. Father must have had some kind of a cancer, and it ate him alive. He died shortly after my thirteenth birthday. I was devastated. He was my world. His last words to me before he collapsed were, “I love you, my son, but now you must go and be a man by yourself.”

  Fiona gets misty eyed. Tears form in her eyes. David wasn’t expecting a reaction so soon. In his mind, he hadn’t told her anything that sad. The vampire had gotten over the death of his father many years ago. The father completed the natural cycle of life. The vampire could live with that. Fiona is learning things about her lover that he has never shared before. The vampire has more to share. He is thrilled that her stone face has eroded.

  With my father gone, Uncle Tomassino and Auntie Viola took me to their house in the province of Menfi. I worked on their farm producing olive oil. Uncle Tomassino was my father’s older brother, and his wife was a kind loving woman. They had no living children of their own and were thrilled to have a younger soul around. Having me around was exciting to them. I spent most of my teenage years picking and pressing olives day after day. It was a simple life, and I enjoyed the simple things like a glass of wine, good food, and spending time with my aunt and uncle.

  I worked fifteen-hour days in the sun for most of my stay and loved it. I really had no other interests besides working, eating fresh foods, and spending time with my family. Uncle Tomassino was a wealthy man whose business had flourished. His farm had grown to encompass quite a bit of land. His farm was one of the biggest producers of olive oil in Sicily, and we supplied the mainland as well. I was very grateful to have a place to live, and I obeyed whatever demands they had asked of me.

  Uncle Tomassino had become the father figure in my life, and his views on life were very similar to his brother’s. Auntie Viola had become like the mother that I never knew. They raised me in a similar manner to that of my father. We all went to the chapel on the weekends and listened to the word of God. I never knew my mother, and lost my father, but I had a very good life with my aunt and uncle. It was a better life than my father could have ever given me.

  The main house on the farm was pretty extravagant. The grounds always smelled of fresh growing basil and other pungent herbs. His garden was filled with a variety of vegetables and herbs. The grounds also had trees that bore fruit. Tomassino had just enough livestock to use for food and to make a small profit from. The farm was practically self sufficient with pure well water and an endless supply of grown foods. Auntie Viola used to make such wonderful meals for us with fresh ingredients from the farm. Life was very good.

  I wore all of the fashions of a wealthy Sicilian of that day, and I had unlimited access to a wealth of books and writings. Tomassino was an educated man, and this was uncommon for a farmer. Uncle Tomassino made sure that I was educated well and could converse intelligently. He taught me to read. He taught me to work. They didn’t need me to work on the farm, but they did it to teach me responsibility. To be honest, I really didn’t mind working in the outdoors under the sun.

  I had my own room to sleep in, and that one room was bigger than the entire house that I had lived in with my father. I really had no complaints at all because I was deprived of nothing. I had friends roughly my own age that were the children of his farm-workers that lived on this large villa. I was more of a loner type, and I really only cared about my family.

  Over the years, Uncle taught me the olive oil trade from the most menial tasks to the most crucial. Uncle’s business was doing very well. After years of manual labor, I was asked to overlook the entire operation. At that point, uncle was too old to work all day long. In many ways, I had taken the place of his dead son, just as he had replaced my deceased father. I just thanked the Lord daily that I had someone to look after me when my father had died.

  Auntie and uncle had provided me with the stable family life that I lacked as a young child. They raised me with love and compassion up until I was a grown man. They were my entire world, and I loved to spend time with them when my duties on the farm were satisfied.

  By the time I was twenty-five years old, both Uncle Tomassino and Auntie Viola had passed away. Uncle Tomassino had died from unknown causes early in the summer before my twenty-fifth birthday at the age of seventy-two. He had lived a rich, long, and fulfilling life.

  Auntie Viola was the first to discover him dead in their bed. She described the disturbing look that he had on his face. The description that she gave was horrifying.

  Tomassino looked like he had seen a ghost just prior to passing away. His eyes were wide open. It hurt for me to see my uncle like that as well. I think Auntie Viola actually died from a broken heart because she passed almost exactly two weeks after burying her husband. She couldn’t handle life without him, and it killed her inside. Being the first to find him expired in that manner didn’t help her situation. That vision didn’t help any of us.

  David has lived a rather tragic life that he buries deep inside of his soul. She doesn’t understand the extent of the tragedies that he has experienced. Fiona is scratching away at the surface, but she has no idea of what David is about to tell her. She doesn’t know what to expect. The story is affecting her emotionally.

  With no other living heirs to the Tomassino estate, I had now inherited the farm, the business, and all of Uncle Tomassino’s surrounding lands. Uncle was grooming me for this day all along, but I hadn’t realized it. I had to carry on the name and keep the torch burning for the business. With a broken spirit, I pressed on with the business and my shattered life. A large part of me wanted to crawl into their graves with them.

  Time without my aunt and uncle began to take a toll on me immediately. I felt very lonely on the huge farm even though I was surrounded by at least a hundred workers on a daily basis. Things just didn’t seem the same without my aunt and uncle. They were two dynamic people that brought such life to the farm. Almost instantly, the farm started to feel like a prison of solitude. With them no longer in my life, the nighttime was very quiet and lonely.

  My uncle and I used to pass the time playing chess at night while my Auntie Viola would read the Bible. Now, the house felt empty and depressing, and this really tested my sanity. I read books by the candlelight in an attempt to pass the time. The Bible became my backbone as my faith was being tested. I was alone in the world again.

  I mourned for Tomassino and Viola more than I did for my own father. Strangely, a part of me always felt guilty for that at the time. My aunt and uncle gave me such an all around richer life than my father ever could have. Besides, I always thought that after losing my father and never knowing my mother, that nothing could really hurt that much again. I was wrong. Out of respect for my family, I wore black for an entire calendar year.

  About a year after the passing of my aunt and uncle, I was walking through the fields on the north end of my property and came across a peasant walking down a dirt crossroad adjacent to my land. She was wearing tattered clothes and was filthy from the day’s work. Our eyes locked onto each other, and my virginal body seemed drawn to her. I asked her name, and she responded, “Katerina.”

  She was very quiet and shy, but after a few moments, she warmed up and became very friendly. Once she lowered her guard, we found a strong chemistry between us even though we came from different social statuses. Katerina was very poor and worked on the Parodi’s farm as a slave laborer.

  Katerina was the long lost love that David had only hinted about to Fiona. She was never able to get much information out of him. David only alluded to having a true love in his past that he had lost, but he never elaborated any further than that. David could talk to Fiona for hours on end, but when he was asked more intimate questions about his past life, he closed up like a clam-shell. Fiona knew that was his way, and she accepted it. Although, the woman inside of her yearned to know the truth about her lover.

  We sat in the shade, and we sp
oke for several hours. Dressed in dirty work clothes and worn boots, she had no idea that I was the owner of the property. I invited her to dine with me, and Katerina graciously and quickly accepted. For the first time in over a year, I had something to smile about. We hit it off pretty well to say the least. I walked her to where she lived, a dilapidated barn. She wanted to clean up before she had dinner with me. I sent a rider over to her place and had her taken to my estate.

  When she finally arrived, I was awestruck by her true beauty that was hidden well under her shoddy garments and several layers of dirt. Katerina went from that of a slave girl to that of a princess. The transformation was amazing. Her long brown hair had a natural wave to it, and her soft hazel eyes sparkled wildly. It was if she was Cinderella herself, and I prayed that she wouldn’t turn into a pumpkin before I could enjoy more of her company.

  Fiona raised an eyebrow after his description of Katerina, and David caught it. She noticed the way that his mood perked up slightly when telling this part of his story. Although her perception is not as sharp as David’s, it is very keen, and she notices little things like that. David hadn’t slipped up, and he did not reveal some dark secret accidentally. Fiona is a woman, and she is human. Fiona doesn’t hide from who she is. Her reactions are the true way that she feels about David loving someone else before her.

  He preferred the straightforward approach from Fiona. It is an important dynamic in their relationship that helps them both get along. Every nuance of action and emotion from Fiona reveals more about how she feels. The gift that he has that allows him to read minds is both a blessing and curse. She isn’t purposely trying to deceive David.

  The vampire thinks that she is still trying to sort out what she is feeling within her own mind. Regardless, Fiona cannot hide her true emotions from the vampire. In the past, the vampire found that there was nothing worse then when someone’s spoken words contradicted their true inner thoughts. Luckily, the vampire doesn’t encounter that with Fiona very often. Fiona is usually very straightforward with her words and actions. She isn’t afraid to speak her mind. Despite her feelings, she still listens to David’s story.

  In the past, I never had given much thought to love because I was always so busy on the farm. If there was ever such a thing as love at first sight, then this was it. Something special was there between us. It went far beyond attraction and compatibility. We ate, drank wine, and laughed into the late hours of the night. I prepared a bed for her and let her stay at the farm.

  The next morning, I bought Katerina’s freedom from old man Parodi. Parodi believed in slave labor, but my uncle believed in wages for work. She was more like an indentured servant, and Parodi’s price was very cheap. I prepared her a permanent room in the main house on my villa and spent all of my days with her from sunrise to sunset. Happiness had come into my life again. It was like a romance novel. She was such a woman. Katerina was everything that I dreamed of in a partner.

  Each day was better than the last. Everything was so fresh and new. Even after almost a year, our love remained strong. In that span of time, a healthy bond was formed. Katerina was a beautiful, loyal, and loving girl. There is nothing better than innocent love, and she was my first love.

  We were best friends, but there was an undeniable growing lust between us. A strong sexual tension became obvious as time progressed. My father had given into lust, and it had cursed him. The curse affected me when I grew up without a mother. Sleeping in separate beds began to frustrate me. I had remained a virgin for all of this time, as did she at nineteen years old.

  For the first time, resisting temptation was extremely difficult. I had spent most of my time around olives, grapes, and rocky soil for almost all of my life. Never in my entire life had such a beautiful creature caught my eye and stirred up emotions like this. I felt things inside me that I never felt before.

  Fiona sighs ever so softly. David senses that he may have hurt Fiona’s delicate feelings. First, it was the eyebrow raise, and then she came out with the sigh. She hasn’t really said anything to denote her feelings on the matter, but it is evident that she is hurt. The words were brewing inside. Fiona can be very possessive at times. Her possessiveness is not of the psychotic variety, but she is a one-man type of woman. Hearing about the feelings that he had for another woman bothers Fiona. Every woman wants to feel like the love that they share with their significant other is unique and second to no other. Fiona is no different.

  Fearing the same fate as my father, I asked her to take my hand in marriage. She and I had a special connection, and I wanted her to be by my side forever. Secretly, I sought out the finest jeweler in town to hire to make her a unique ring. Signore Porcini was an old world artisan, and he produced a ring of simple distinct elegance and beauty. Porcini had selected an impressively sized, near perfect diamond for the stone. The ring took some time to make, but it was worth it because I knew Katerina would melt when she saw it for the first time.

  I awoke early one morning while she slept and prepared a romantic picnic on the far northern corner of my property, which was very close to where we had originally met. Under the shade of an uncannily large tree, I set up a brunch for us. The trees roots formed a large basket-shaped nook for us to sit in. I laid down a woven blanket of wool and covered it with white rose petals. A slight breeze made the petals flutter, but they stayed in place. It seemed like God was smiling on me as I tried to create the perfect moment. I wanted her to remember that day for the rest of her life.

  “Wake up my dear, I have a surprise for you,” I whispered in her ear. I admired her beauty and enticing scent.

  She asked, “Is it morning already?” She wore a sleepy, but adorable smile.

  “Beautiful,” I said, “I’ve got something planned for us. Please wake up and get ready.”

  “Ready for what? Where are we going, Davide? Tell me.” Katerina sounded inquisitive. She gave me a quick, but satisfying kiss on the lips, and she pulled me onto the bed with her. I looked deeply into her gentle eyes.

  “Just wear something that you feel beautiful in, my love.”

  “I guess I’ll follow along with you, Signor Secretive,” Katerina said. She giggled playfully. I loved her way. “Well, are you going to leave the room while I bathe?” She asked.

  “Do I have to?”

  Katerina stood up out of bed and disrobed slowly and playfully as she walked over toward the bathing area. Her gorgeous naked body and smooth skin drove me wild as she offered me a brief sexy peek at her. Katerina’s statuesque physique and olive colored tan was a product of many years of manual labor in the fields under the sun. That was the first time that I saw her like that. I wanted her.

  “Well, get out of here!” She covered herself with a towel to block my wonderful view.

  “Meet me downstairs when you are finished, my dear.”

  “Get out of here, you pervert,” she said. Her beautiful smile lit up the room. I was so in love with her, and everything that she did put a smile on my face and touched my heart.

  I lounged around while waiting for her to clean up. She finally came downstairs. Katerina looked amazing as always in her pretty flowing garments. I motioned for her to come over to me.

  “Are you ready, my love?” I asked.

  “I’m ready when you are, my prince.”

  “Good, then let us go, but first, you have to put this on.” I handed her a white silken blindfold.

  She played along.

  “How will I get around blindfolded?” Katerina asked.

  “Take my arm, and I will lead you to where we are going.” She complied with my wishes and took me by the arm. I walked her out the front door, and away we went to our secret rendezvous.

  “C’mon, tell me where we are going.”

  “Good things come to those who wait.” I said.

  I wanted to tease her playfully. Katerina just smiled and played along with me. We had this powerful unspoken chemistry between us. We said so much more to each other with our eyes an
d gestures than we could ever say with our mouths. Everything was just understood between us. There was no jealously or petty insecurities in our relationship. I loved her, and everything was so perfect that I had to marry her. I walked the farmlands with Katerina blindfolded, and we kept on flirting and joking like always. Finally, we had arrived where I had prepared the secret brunch for us.

  “We are here, beautiful,” I said. I took off her blindfold.

  “You are so sweet, Davide!” Her eyes grew wide, and it was evident that she was surprised. She hugged me with excitement, and we both sat down on the strategically placed blanket under the tree. I waited for the right moment. It had to be perfect.

  It was a beautiful day with the Sun shining strong. We ate a variety of aged cheeses with freshly baked bread, and we washed it down with delicious red wine. Sitting there in the lazy shade, we just held each other closely in contentment. After we were done eating, I asked her to stand up. Katerina stood up puzzled, and she did a funny little dance until she noticed that I was serious.

  “What is it, my love?” She asked. I got down on one knee. Katerina looked almost confused. She didn’t realize what I was about to do.

  “Katerina, you are everything that I’ve ever wanted in a woman. You are my best friend, and I am so in love with you. I adore everything about you, and I would love to wake up next to you everyday until I die. Will you marry me?” From a smooth velvet pouch, I took out her ring, and it sparkled wildly, even in the shade.