by Amy Cross
"You're staring at me," Edgar continued. "Are you scared of me?"
"No!"
"Why not? Don't you know who I am?"
"I..." Mike paused. "I just want to get out of here," he continued, tugging on the chains that held him in place. "I only came to see the castle, and I swear to God, I won't tell anyone about either of you. I'll just go home and get on with my work, and you'll never hear from me, I promise! Please, just let me go!"
"Be quiet," Edgar said dismissively.
"Look at me!" Mike continued, trying to crawl toward the table before the chain tightened and held him in place. "Do I look like someone who wants to cause trouble? If you let me go, I'll forget that any of this ever happened!"
"Humans haven't changed while I've been away," Edgar said, turning to Madeleine. "They're still, for the most part, a whiny, pathetic species. I fail to understand why they haven't died off and been replaced by a more fitting animal. My journey home was uneventful, but I encountered many humans, and without exception they filled me with disgust."
"You see?" Madeleine replied. "Nothing changes. Humans haven't changed, and we haven't changed, and the world still spins just as it always did. We're still Edgar and Madeleine, only this time we're all alone. Don't you see? We have to go back to the way things used to be. Don't waste time being angry. If I took the game too far, I apologize, and I certainly won't do it again, but the important thing is that the game is still so much fun. I want you to get revenge on me, Edgar, and then I shall do the same to you. We can keep playing forever, in-between certain other duties." She paused, waiting for him to say something. "Oh, Edgar. Tell me you understand. Tell me you're not really mad at me. Aren't you even slightly impressed? I mean, think about it. I managed to trap you underground for three hundred and fifty years. That's quite an achievement, is it not?"
Pushing his plate away, Edgar sat in silence for a moment.
"You're still the same Edgar from all those years ago," Madeleine said softly. "You have the same needs. The same desires. I'm the only person who understands you, and you're the only person who understands me. We belong together. We're still Edgar and Madeleine, we're still..." She paused, as if she was considering the perfect word. "You know what we're like together. You know why people always trembled at the mention of our name. Can you walk away from all of that? Think of the possibilities. Think of the world, waiting to fear us once again. If you reject me, you reject power and strength. You reject love. You reject life itself."
She waited for him to respond.
"Can someone set me free?" Mike whined from the corner.
"What do you propose?" Edgar asked eventually, keeping his gaze fixed on Madeleine.
"We must plan carefully," she replied, with a hint of a smile. "We must focus on rebuilding the Le Compte bloodline. There might be some difficult decisions to be made, but..." Standing up, she walked along the side of the table until she was behind her brother, and finally she placed her hands on his shoulders. "We know each other so well, Edgar. I understand that you're angry with me, but this, too, will fade. I know that deep down, in your heart, you're impressed with what I managed to achieve. Now it's time for us to work together again. We need a family, Edgar. A bigger, stronger family. The Le Compte dynasty must continue, and there's only one way for us to achieve a true and noble bloodline." She leaned closer, until her mouth was close to his ear. "We can't dilute our family. Not yet. We need pure children."
"Madeleine -"
"Don't reject me, Edgar. Not again. Don't you remember how sorry you were the last time? Just because you're tired of one of our games, you don't have to stop playing with me altogether. We're a team. We're all that's left of the Le Compte bloodline, but we're enough. We'll start a whole new dynasty."
"You disgust me," Edgar replied darkly, staring straight ahead.
"I don't think so," Madeleine whispered. "I didn't disgust you all those years ago. I seem to recall that you liked me very much indeed."
"You've had more than three centuries to produce offspring," Edgar said. "In all that time, could you not find one human who was willing to mate with you? Were there not others of our species who could be tracked down and persuaded to offer you their seed?"
"Of course," she replied, "but I don't know what happened, really... None of them tickled my fancy, if you know what I mean. A few of them were amusing, but nothing more. I need a real man. I need a man who smells familiar."
"What about him?" Edgar asked, looking over at Mike.
"Don't make me nauseous," Madeleine said with a sneer.
"I must consider your suggestion," Edgar said after a brief pause. Standing up, he walked over to the door, before turning back to his sister. "I've been away for three centuries, Madeleine, and I've returned to find that the world is very different. You might not believe that people can change, but I see the evidence right in front of me. You have changed -"
"No!" Madeleine called out, as if horrified by the idea.
"You have changed," Edgar said again. "We can't simply go back to our old ways. When I've made a decision, I'll let you know. Until then, I must be alone." He paused for a moment. "This whole place has become a symbol of our family's fall, and of your failure to protect our legacy."
"It's still our home," Madeleine said meekly. "It's where we come when we need to be safe, and together."
"Perhaps," Edgar replied. "Or perhaps even this rocky, dead place has changed over the years. Either way, I must be alone while I make my decision."
Watching as her brother made his way through to another part of the castle, Madeleine seemed stunned by this latest development. With tears in her eyes, she looked down at her trembling hands, and slowly her shock began to twist and grow until it became a kind of simmering anger. With pain in her soul and pure venom in her heart, she realized the only way to overcome such sorrow would be to make someone else feel a greater agony. Slowly, she turned and stared at Mike, who was cowering in the corner.
Four
"No!" Mike screamed as Madeleine dragged him across the stone floor. "I swear to God, I won't tell anyone! Stop! I won't do anything! Just let me go! Please, God, get me out of here!"
"Shut up," Madeleine muttered as they reached the conservatory. "Where the hell is he?" she asked, glancing around the room. She'd spent the past half hour dragging Mike through the castle, but Edgar was nowhere to be found. All she wanted was to find him and make him forgive her, but he seemed to have disappeared completely. She'd expected to find him in one of the castle's deeper rooms, probably sulking and brooding, but instead it was as if he'd left the castle. Still, she was convinced that he wouldn't leave without saying goodbye. Despite everything, despite his anger, he was still her brother, and they were still tied together by fate and destiny and love.
"I'll give you anything!" Mike shouted. "There must be something you want! Name it!"
"I want to find my brother," Madeleine said calmly, looking down at him, "so I can kill you while he watches." Out of sheer frustration, she yanked the chain that was tied around Mike's neck, pulling him closer. "Do you happen to know where I might find him?"
"No!" Mike screamed, trying desperately to get free from the chain.
"Edgar was right," Madeleine said quietly, as she impassively watched Mike's continued struggle. "Three hundred years have passed, and humans are still more or less the same. It's a miracle that no other species has come along to take your place as the dominant power. You're just lucky that vampires prefer to stay in the shadows. If we gave a damn about empires, your sorry civilization would have been wiped off the map centuries ago. You're nothing but food to us. Walking, talking, moaning bags of blood and meat."
"Get off me!" Mike yelled, with tears rolling down his cheeks. "For the love of God, just let me go! Why are you doing this? I won't hurt you! Just let me go!"
"I'm doing it to prove a point," Madeleine replied, turning and dragging him back the way they'd come. "My brother seems to be lacking a certain passion these d
ays," she continued, even though Mike was too busy screaming and sobbing to hear her. "He's lost his edge. I'm worried he might become listless and depressed. Hopefully, some fresh blood will be enough to get him all fired up again. Believe me, when he's firing on all cylinders, Edgar's a hell of a sight to behold. I guarantee you've never seen such an impressive sight."
Stopping, she looked down at Mike's struggling form as he tried to rip the chain apart with his bare hands.
"Are you still doing that?" she asked after a moment, with a disinterested tone to her voice. "Can't you just accept your fate? It's not as if your life really means anything, anyway. Your only value is as food, so can't you focus on the fact that you're about to fulfill your true calling?" She paused. "I can't tell you what an honor it's going to be for you to be devoured by us. When Edgar and I fall upon a body and feast, it's such a divine moment. All that blood. All that screaming. I hope you hold on for a while. I'll try not to kill you immediately. You might not have had a very interesting life, but I'll make sure you have a fascinating death."
"If you touch me," Mike said, still trying to get out of the chain, "I'll kill you. I swear to God -"
"Whatever," Madeleine replied, leaning down to him. "Keep struggling, though. All that effort should make your flesh a little more tender when we -"
"Fuck you!" Mike screamed, suddenly looping a section of chain around her neck and pulling tight, trying desperately to cut off her circulation. He was pulling as hard as he could manage, hoping to strangle her, but his sweaty hands were constantly slipping on the metal chain. "You thought you were smart, huh? You thought you could -"
Before he was able to finish the sentence, Madeleine ripped the chain from his hand and let it drop to the floor, before leaning closer and hissing as she bared her fangs.
"No!" he screamed, covering his face with his hands.
Madeleine laughed. "Oh, Mike. You're going to be a pleasure to kill. You're so theatrical and -"
Somewhere deep in the house, there was a loud, ominous groaning sound, like metal straining under some kind of enormous weight.
"What was that?" Madeleine asked, letting go of Mike and standing up. She'd lived in the castle, on and off, for many years, but she'd never heard such a noise, and there was no way she was going to believe that it could be something natural. After a moment, she heard the noise again, except this time it seemed to be coming from a slightly higher part of the castle. Dropping the chain that was wrapped around Mike, she took a step toward the stairs. "Did you hear that?" she asked eventually, turning to look back at her prisoner. "I didn't imagine it, did I? There was a noise. Like a kind of..."
She stood in silence for a moment, listening out for every sound.
Somewhere nearby, there was a brief click.
Silence again.
The floor rumbled.
The wooden buttresses began to split.
A shower of stone-dust fell from high above.
"What's he doing?" Madeleine asked eventually, with fear in her voice.
From far below, there was another groaning sound, and the floor seemed to shudder for a moment. It was as if something was affecting the entire castle, ripping away at its foundations.
Turning, Madeleine saw that Mike was crawling slowly toward the main door. Reaching down, she grabbed the end of the chain and pulled him roughly back toward her.
"Nice try," she said, her voice filled with tension as she heard the noise yet again. Moments later, the floor started to shake, and a deep crack opened in one of the walls. "What the hell is he doing?" Madeleine asked, wandering over to inspect the damage as pieces of rock tumbled down to the floor. "What could he possibly be up to? What kind of crazy idea has he got in his head this time?"
Hearing a sobbing sound nearby, she turned to see that Mike was once again crawling toward the door. Sighing, Madeleine wandered over and grabbed him by the neck, before lifting him up to face her.
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked. "It's over. I've decided what's going to happen to you, and there's no room for argument, so just -" Before she could finish, there was a loud rumble from above, and Madeleine looked over at the stairs just in time to see that more rocks were breaking loose from the walls. "I don't like this," she muttered, carrying Mike over to the stairs as the rumbling sound began to spread throughout the entire castle. "He's doing something. I don't know what, but -"
A loud grinding sound filled the air as the entire castle seemed to shake, and the whole structure started tilting to one side. Small pieces of rock fell from the ceiling.
"It's like..." Madeleine started to say, before she suddenly felt a moment of realization wash through her body. "It's like..." She turned to look back at the stairs. "It's not possible. He wouldn't... Not the whole castle. He's not that angry with me. This is our family home. It's all we have left. Why would..." She paused, before turning to stare at Mike. "My brother," she said slowly, "is a madman. A vengeful madman. A brilliant, vengeful -"
"Please just let me go," Mike whimpered.
"It's -" Madeleine said, before the whole building seemed to lurch and shudder.
"Oh God!" Mike shouted.
"I knew he couldn't give up on the game," Madeleine continued. "I knew it! He said he was tired of playing, but don't you see? All that bluster was just part of the game! All the time, he was planning his revenge, but I never thought..." She looked down at the ground. "I never thought he'd go so far. Just as he underestimated me all those years ago, I underestimated him today. Oh, I can't wait until the next time I see him. He's going to be so pleased with himself and I'll have to do something fabulously terrible to him in return! I knew he hadn't changed! He still loves me!"
"Dear God," Mike said, squeezing his eyes tight shut, "get me out of here!"
Ignoring him, Madeleine hurried over to the main door, just as the floor lurched again. The rumbling sound was getting louder and more persistent, and now that she understood what was happening, Madeleine was filled with the understanding that it was far too late for her to do anything to stop her brother's scheme. Staring out at the mountains, she felt another jolt as the castle lurched, and as she turned to look up at the top of the building, she felt the ground begin to give way.
"Clever," she whispered with a smile, putting her hands together under her chin and starting to clap. "Such a fabulously clever boy, my darling brother."
Seconds later, the ground collapsed completely as the entire castle began to fall away from the mountainside. Madeleine felt herself starting to plummet, but she couldn't stop laughing as she realized that Edgar had found a way to punish her for everything she'd done for him. As she fell, surrounded by the rest of the collapsing castle, she realized that her brother had rejoined the game, which meant only one thing: he still cared for her, and everything was back to normal. It'd take her a while to get herself out of the ruins, of course, but she knew that she deserved this. Besides, being buried in the ruins of the castle would give her time to come up with an even greater plan for getting her revenge when she finally found a way out.
With an ear-splitting rumble, the full weight of the castle came crashing down. The heavy iron bolts, having long supported the structure, had been removed one by one, and the entire structure was now coming loose. High above, a massive section of rock began to fall away. Madeleine was powerless to do anything other than watch in awe as the castle continued to fall all around her, slowly at first but finally gathering speed until it began to plummet down the side of the mountain, eventually tipping over and smashing completely. Finally, her body disappeared into the rubble and was quickly covered by a huge mass of rock and stone. Every part of the building was churned and ripped apart, breaking into thousands of pieces. A huge pile of stone and wood crashed to the bottom of the valley, followed moments later by a massive rockfall as one entire side of the mountain gave way and came tumbling down, landing on top of the castle and crushing its remains. A cloud of dust rose slowly into the air, and finally the scene was stil
l.
All that was left, in the end, was a pile of rubble where one side of the mountain had collapsed on top of the castle. There was no more movement, no sign of life. A few rocks were still slipping down, but otherwise the scene was completely still. If any life persisted, it was buried deep under an enormous pile of rubble. The castle, and all its occupants, were beneath thousands of tonnes of mountain debris.
Nearby, standing on the edge of a rocky outcrop, Edgar Le Compte stared down at the wrecked, buried castle. After a moment, he turned and began to walk away, leaving his sister to begin the long task of crawling out from her latest grave.
Epilogue
"Tell me the truth," Caroline said, her eyes filled with tears. "Is she ever going to be okay again?"
"It's far too early to make a call," Dr. Webber said gravely. "Mrs. Wilson, you have to understand that we still don't know exactly what happened to Eva. The nature of her injuries, the manner in which she disappeared and was found... There are so many variables. I'm not comfortable making too many forward-looking statements right now. I know it's hard, but we just need to wait and see."
"Can I see her?" Caroline asked. "I want to see her."
"You can see her," Dr. Webber continued, "but first, I need to -"
"Let me see her first," Caroline said, standing up and walking over to the door. "She's my daughter. She needs me."
"I understand that," Dr. Webber replied, remaining seated, "but first there's something I have to tell you."
Stopping at the door, Caroline turned back to look at him.
"Eva's undergone an immense level of physical and psychological trauma," Dr. Webber continued. "We can't even begin to estimate -"
"You've already said this!" Caroline hissed, starting to lose her patience. "I want to see my daughter!"
"People in Eva's condition don't always wake up," the doctor explained. "I know that's not what you want to hear right now -"
"You're saying she's dead?"