by Cameron Jace
Angel said nothing.
The silence was short, but long enough for me to form another thought. “Or did he want to test if I were a vampire?”
“Later, Carmilla,” he dismissed my inquiry and began to climb up the ship.
I have to know. Why would your father think I’m a vampire? I was about to scream after him and demand an answer, when the ship’s usage began to dawn on me. The Demeter was no ordinary ship. A sinister feeling filled my soul as I climbed up after Angel. What was happening on this ship?
“Don’t say a word,” Angel hissed. We had already climbed up. The ship was extremely silent, as if it were devoid of sailors.
We walked on our toes, careful not to get caught. The ship was only lit by the faint light from the moon above. No mists surmounted it like our boat. In fact, the Seven Seas were clear, only disturbed by the heavy tides.
Deeper into the darkness of the ship, I was surprised at its steadiness on the turbulent water. It didn’t even rock to the sea’s waves, it was the strangest of ways.
“I told you, this isn’t a normal ship,” Angel said.
“Then I don’t think it’s a good idea we came here.”
“We need to know what my father is up to,” Angel squeezed my hand. “What if they know how to get to the Tower of Tales?”
It seemed unlikely, but Angel had already dragged me toward the rooms on the lower deck[CB2] . We crawled in silently, still amazed by the disheartening silence. Everywhere we went I felt like we were being watched.
“Where is everyone?” I hissed.
“In their coffins,” Angel looked determined. “Sleeping in blood, milk, and chocolate.” He pointed at the rooms ahead. “The coffins must be in here.”
“Why are we approaching the coffins, Angel?”
“Because there is something I have to do.”
“What is it?” I pulled my hand away. “This is crazy. I can’t understand why we are walking into the lion’s den.”
“You’re the one who couldn’t stay behind, Carmilla,” he said, opening the door. “Don’t you see, Carmilla?” He pointed at the rows of coffins set across the room. Thankfully they were all closed. I didn’t want to see what Night Von Sorrow’s men looked like. “They’re all asleep. This is an opportunity.”
“Opportunity for what?” I stopped, about to leave the room now.
Even in the dark, Angel’s eyes glittered. He turned back to me and said, “To kill my father in his sleep.”
Chapter 5
The Queen’s Diary
I wasn’t quite fond of the idea. I didn’t want to be the girl who encouraged her lover kill his parents. Maybe because I was still so young then. With all that had happened to me so far, I hadn’t realized the cruelty and darkness of the Sorrows.
“That’s why I wanted you to stay behind,” Angel said. “I didn’t want you to be a part of this.”
“There must be another way, Angel.”
“Trust me, you don’t know him. I have to kill him.”
In my silence, I wondered if this had anything to do with Night Von Sorrow wanting to submerge me in blood, milk, and chocolate. Was I really one of them? I knew Angel wouldn’t tell me now. His hatred and determination blinded him.
Paralyzed, I stood watching him open one coffin after another. In each, the vampires – looking incredibly human - sank underneath the liquid. Sometimes the mixture was so thick I couldn’t see them. And they weren’t breathing of course, so there were no apparent signs of their existence.
Those who had their faces slightly floating out of the mixture looked healthy and alive. Only silent and, like Angel had said, in a deep sleep.
“Where is he?” Angel was losing it, pulling up one lid after the other.
I wondered how he planned to kill his father, but I concluded he’d start by emptying the coffin of its liquid and then lock him inside until he rotted and died. I wasn’t sure, though.
“I will not wait for you to turn me into a real vampire,” Angel was talking to thin air. “I told you I don’t want to be one of you.”
Part of me wanted to help Angel, but his anger scared me. He was really going to kill Night Von Sorrow once he found him.
But I had questions I needed to ask. “Who takes care of the ship if everyone’s in their coffins, Angel?”
“What?” He turned around, looking puzzled by my concern.
“I’m worried that someone will come in while we’re looking for your father, that’s all.”
“It’s the hunchback,” he said, continuing to search for his father’s body.
“Hunchback?”
“Some crippled, short monster from Notre Dame in Paris,” Angel said, not looking at me. “An ugly man who fell in love with a beautiful woman. The Parisians made an example of him, so he vowed to seek his revenge and became the vampire’s helper. They usually keep him awake when they are in this sleep.”
“And he knows how to steer a ship?”
“The Demeter doesn’t need a captain. It sails on its own, Carmilla. Damnit, where is my father?”
Then Angel suddenly stopped. I knew why. We could hear footsteps on deck.
“That’s not just one man, Angel,” I said.
“I know, and it’s strange. Why would they need a crew of sailors on deck when the ship steers itself?”
My eyes were locked on the ceiling, as if trying to see through it. My ears followed the sound of the footsteps. They were descending.
“Don’t move,” Angel hissed and pulled out a stake[CB3] he’d made from wooden logs he’d found while hunting his fish. He slowly pulled a sleeping vampire from a coffin and laid him on the floor.
“Won’t he wake up?”
“Waking up from their sleep takes three days,” he said. “That’s why it’s easier to kill my father if I had found his coffin.” He raised his stake, ready to stab the vampire. “If the sailors enter this room, I will threaten them. I will stab one of theirs, and if that doesn’t work, then I will have to fight them myself.”
“Enough with the blood, Angel.”
“Look, Carmilla,” he pointed at the coffins filled with blood, milk and chocolate. “This is all about blood, darling.”
I was surprised by the sailors never descending into our room. Angel and I exchanged a look, noticing the sailors entered the room next to ours.
Angel titled his head. We were both confused.
“They sound like they’re carrying something heavy,” I hissed.
Angel approached a closed door that separated us from the room next door.
“Angel,” I hissed. “You’re not going to open up that door.”
Again, he dismissed my call and knelt to look through the keyhole.
I waited for him to tell me what he was seeing, but then I had to ask again. “What do you see?” I whispered.
“They’re carrying a coffin,” Angel said. “It’s bigger than the rest. Heavier. Eight men are carrying it, the hunchback among them.”
“Are there two hunchbacks?”
“No,” Angel said. “They’re huntsmen.”
“Huntsmen?”
“They hunt for my father. They hide behind darkened cloaks and you will never see their faces, because they die if they show them to anyone.”
“Oh,” I said, having not heard about huntsman before. “So why is this coffin alone in a separate room?”
But then the answer was obvious. Night Von Sorrow was kept in a special coffin, away from the wrath of his own son trying to kill him.
Chapter 6
The Queen’s Diary
“Then we have to really go, Angel.” I tapped him gently on the shoulder.
“You can go, Carmilla,” he squeezed my hand again, letting me know that his anger wasn’t distancing him away from me. “I have to do this.”
But I just couldn’t leave him. And go where? To an isolated boat encircled by a mist in the middle of the sea? And how? I can’t swim or look at the water without fear.
“There
is something strange about that coffin,” Angel said, still looking through the keyhole.
“What is it?”
“I can’t explain it. I have this strange feeling about it. It’s like it’s…”
Suddenly we began to hear sailors approaching the other door to the room they were in, the one leading to our hiding place.
“Angel!” I pleaded, almost raising my voice above a whisper.
“You need to get into a coffin,” he stood up and pulled me toward the empty one. “I will dispose of the body I pulled out so they won’t suspect you’re inside. I will also close all the other coffins.”
“What?” I was shocked at his suggestion. “You said you can fight them!”
“I can fight vampires, but never the huntsmen. They’re made of the black soil of evil itself.” Angel was already pushing me toward the open coffin, filled with a substance I feared more than water.
“What does that mean?”
“They’re made by the Piper himself. True, they’re made to protect the vampires and work for them, but their black cloaks are created by the Man with the Flute.”
I had no time to decipher or argue, as Angel was pressing me into the blood, milk, and chocolate in the coffin. In truth, part of me wanted to know if I would survive it.
Of course you’ll survive it, Carmilla. Angel isn’t going to kill you.
I sunk deep into the coffin, letting the liquid ooze around me. “It will be for only a few minutes until they leave. I will hide in another one.” Angel pulled the lid closed and I descended into a claustrophobic darkness. This was no different from death itself, and in my mind, all I could remember was Fate promising me sorrow wherever I go.
Beyond my darkened vision, I heard Angel close the other coffins. Seconds later, I heard the huntsmen entering the room. From their muffled sounds, I realized they had suspected someone had boarded the ship. One of them mentioned watery foot trails on deck.
The huntsmen looked all over the room. I could hear their sounds, moving everything they came by, even the coffin I was in.
Then one of them suggested they open the coffins. And they did.
I realized Angel’s plan was useless now. They were going to find us eventually.
In my darkness, sinking underneath the sticky liquid, I saw a faint light pooling through. One of them had opened my coffin and was staring at me.
I wondered if the huntsmen knew every vampire on ship. Was it possible that I could pretend that I was one?
But then I realized the huntsman couldn’t see me from the thickness of the blood, milk, and chocolate mixture.
“If they’re not floating, we’re not allowed to pull them out,” I heard one of them tell the other. “Besides, only vampires sink deep into the mixture. Even we will get burned if we touch it.”
A million question piled up in my head, but the desire to live surpassed them all.
The coffins were closed again and I could hear the huntsmen leave. With the sound of the closing door, I realized I had been breathing under this liquid since being submerged. I wanted to cry myself to death. I felt betrayed. I felt stained with an evil I can’t wash off. What did all of this mean? How was it possible I was one of them? A vampire?
Chapter 7
The Queen’s Diary
What Angel promised would be only minutes, turned into three days of sorrow — after so many years of marriage now, I can tell you that I have gotten used to his unmet promises.
The three days began with me being fed up and scared inside the coffin. Even if by some magic I was able to breathe inside, I had to get out. I wasn’t born to sleep in a coffin. I am Carmilla Karnstein. My father’s land had blossomed with apples the day I was born.
It took me a while to pull open the lid. For some reason they were never locked from the outside. And, soaking in the stench of the red, white, and black liquids, I stepped outside the box of death. The room was as dark as before, and none of the coffins had been opened. Now that the huntsmen were gone, I wondered which coffin Angel was inside.
“Angel?” I hissed. “Come out. We need to go.”
But no voice answered me. I was getting impatient. I needed to leave this place. I needed to get out and jump in the water to cleanse myself from this horrible mixture I had been submerged in, even if it meant breaking the curse and jumping into the liquid I feared most – that is until now.
But Angel never answered.
How was that possible? If I had managed to breathe inside the coffin, than he should have too. He was the one who was half-vampire after all. It was the least I expected from him. Besides, I remembered, he had lately acquired the power to breathe underwater when he was hungry and hunting the fish.
“Angel,” I hissed again.
The panic crawled slowly across my skin. All kinds of thoughts crossed my mind. Dark and sorrowful thoughts.
Like crazy, I began opening the coffins again. I reach into each one and pulled out the head of each occupant to check if it was Angel’s. I hadn’t seen him when he hid inside his coffin. Did he find another place to hide and I wasn’t aware?
Was it possible he gave up on me?
In my heart I knew he couldn’t do that. I never knew the reason why I trusted him so much.
Coffin after coffin, I looked for my lover — not the most romantic thing to say.
Then finally I found him.
“Angel!” I shook his unresponsive body. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”
With all my might, I pulled out his large frame up and slid it onto the wooden floor, trying my best not to make a sound. The huntsmen must have been in the rooms nearby still.
For a while I thought Angel had died, unable to breathe underneath the liquid. I pounded on his chest, breathed into his mouth. Prayed. But Angel was still silent.
Then it came to me. I realized that he had told me that vampires needed three days to wake up from the blood, milk, and chocolate combination inside the coffin.
I let out a desperate sigh, staring at the door leading to the outside.
I couldn’t fathom that I was destined to stay trapped in here for three days. How in the world was I supposed to carry a man his weight with me outside? Even if I managed that, how was I to make him cross the waters back to the boat inside the mists? I couldn’t swim and tempt fate that way. Was that destined to be a part of my sorrow? To break my curse in the worst way possible, by submerging myself in another liquid comprised of my fears?
Sorrow, Carmilla. Remember? Fate’s words rang in my ears. And I had a feeling this was only the beginning of my sorrowful life to come.
Pulling Angel to the darkest corner in the room, I sat with my back against the wall. I placed my lover’s head on my lap and brushed his wet hair, humming a song with no words.
As I lay back I wondered: if vampires needed three days to wake up from the blood, milk, and chocolate, and non-vampires were burned by the fluid, what did this make me?
I, Carmilla Karnstein, who was I, really?
Chapter 8
The Queen’s Diary
Angel didn’t need to feed while asleep. I suppose the time he spent inside the mixture fed his body well enough for the two days left in this darkened room. I was hungry, tired, and surrounded by beasts inside their coffins. Hell, Angel and I were inside his father’s boat, the man who wasn’t going to hesitate to kill us when he found us.
Knowing I had no chance to go out and find food, I gave in to sleep.
In my dreams, I found myself watching swans. White ones. They were swimming in a lake. A swan lake, where another melody I couldn’t remember was playing.
I didn’t care to memorize the song. The sight of the swans sent mirth into my heart. A wave of fascination filled with love. The white swans surrounded me. They swam closer, looking dreamy.
I found myself willingly sinking into the lake, the water reaching my waist. This wasn’t just a swan lake, it was more of a heaven I had never seen before.
One of white swans kept comi
ng closer, rubbing its head onto my shoulder, as if it knew me. I felt the same, and I embraced her. Her eyes gleamed when I did. Somehow I knew she was a girl. I felt a certain warmth in my tummy. A warmth I couldn’t explain.
But then the world above us began to darken. A sudden cloud, I thought. A black cloud. One thousand black clouds, promising rain and lightning. I hugged my white swan tighter. The rest of the swans wailed with fear, looking up.
And then I realized it wasn’t black clouds covering the sky. Not even one thousand clouds. They were one thousand black swans flying above us and flapping their wings, sending the world into darkness.
I screamed. So did the white swan in my hands.
And there in the darkness, two red eyes stared at me. They were of a black swan I thought I knew as well.
Flapping my head backwards, I woke up. All sweaty and afraid.
Angel was still sleeping on my lap. His breath was heavy and his eyelids twitched. I wondered if he were having the same dream.
I brushed my hands upon his face again, unable to imagine two more days inside this ship. There had to be another way out of here.
But instead of a way out, I heard the huntsmen talking in the room next to us.
Slowly I crawled to look through the keyhole, curious to know what was going on. They were gathered around Night Von Sorrow’s coffin again. The creepy hunchback was leading them. They were debating about something regarding that special coffin. It was something about the coffin’s destination. Where the ship was going, but they never mentioned where. All they kept saying was ‘the island.’
I wondered for a moment if the ship was truly after us like Angel had told me. Because from what I had heard so far, it seemed the whole ship was devoted to transporting Night Von Sorrow’s coffin to that island. None of them mentioned me or Angel.
But then, in the middle of the conversation, I realized the situation was far more complicated than I had thought. In fact, I may have read into it with all kinds of misleading information. Because all of a sudden Night Von Sorrow walked into the room and spoke to his huntsmen.