Sibyl had been distraught over the breakup for what had seemed like weeks. She could not get over the pain that Dorian had inflicted on her. The bitter tears fell like rain from the sky, leaving dark streaks to mire her otherwise pretty cheeks. A thousand thoughts whirled through her foggy mind. Foremost among them was the confusion and disbelief that her Prince Charming had shunned her. These were followed closely by a terrible emptiness in her heart, and an obsessive replaying of what she had done wrong.
She was so grief struck that it took several moments for her to remember how dangerous it could be to walk home alone in her neighborhood at night. The streets were eerily empty, but she had the nagging feeling that she was being watched. She came to a stop and turned slowly to look behind her. She could see very little from the dimly-lit lamps along the sizable park. She quickened her pace, fear temporarily replacing her wretched sadness. She thought she heard a sound behind her and turned around to look once more. This time, she could just make out two dark-red, glowing eyes. They were watching her amidst the trees and she could see the hazy outline of an enormous, black shape.
The wolf stalked the female silently. He followed her route along the edge of the park. There must be something special about this one for the Master to take such an interest in her. Perhaps it was how small and slender she was, or something about her scent. The wolf drew closer to try and discover the secret. With a start, he realized that the female seemed suddenly aware of his presence. He inhaled the air deeply as the smell of fear unfolded in her.
His blood began to heat at the aroma. The wolf had never before hunted human prey, only animals—for fear of upsetting the Master. But the Master had cast this female out from the pack and now hated her. Even now, the wolf could sense the loathing rolling off her like black waves of mist. She must have greatly offended the Master to make him hate her so. She should be punished. She would be punished. The female turned back, just as the wolf abandoned the cover of trees. She stared unbelievingly at him for a moment, then screamed in a shrill manner and began to run away. The instinct to chase fleeing prey grew too strong to resist. With a growl, the wolf began the hunt.
Sibyl could not believe her blurry eyes. There was a hideous monster in the park and it was staring right at her. She shrieked and her fear spiked as she turned and ran as fast as her slender legs would allow. The terror caused her to move faster than she had in years, since racing with her brother in the open fields as a child. Risking a glance backward, she saw that it was a giant wolf that was rapidly gaining on her. That was impossible, but still she ran. Her house lay on the opposite side of the park, so she turned from the street and took the path of the shortest distance—through the tall trees in the park. Some primal instinct convinced her that if she could just make it to her door, she would be safe.
How different it was to pursue the female than to chase after a simple-minded animal. Wonderfully complex waves of fear wafted off from her as she ran blindly through the trees. The wolf took his time, savoring the pursuit. The female fell over some exposed tree roots and the wolf allowed her the necessary time to regain her feet. The fall had not slowed her down significantly, but she had cut her knee on a jagged rock in the fall. This caused a small amount of blood to flow freely down her leg. Just a whiff of it sent bursts of energy and pleasure through the wolf’s body. So, this is what it meant to hunt human prey.
As they reached the middle of the park, the female foolishly tried to hide behind a fallen oak tree. The wolf felt a growing thrill as he let her believe she had evaded him. He circled around the other side. He could hear her breathing as she crouched in the mud. When he was directly behind her, he leaped out to surprise the shaking female. His massive claws swung out at her, but he was surprised as she dodged the blow and dove away from him, rolling in the mud. This was amusing prey. Two more times, the wolf closed on her, each time scoring minor hits from his claws as they raked the female’s legs. The bloody lacerations slowed her flight down to a crawl. She screamed and wept as she dragged her injured body across the uneven ground. The wolf waited until she was propped against a large beech tree to make his final advance. He could see the fear in the female’s eyes as he rose up onto his hind legs for the killing blow.
Sibyl was in hysterics as she fought against the burning in her legs and the urge to faint away from blood loss. Her breath came in ragged heaves as she struggled to drive oxygen into her lungs. She was barely able to pull herself up against a large beech tree as the beast closed in on her. With horror, she witnessed the animal rise up to its full height on its two hind legs. She realized now that this was not some common wolf, but an abomination out of Hell that was half-man and half-beast.
The creature seemed to take pleasure in her fear and pain. It had a disturbingly intelligent look as it approached her position against the tree. She screamed out for help as the evil animal came within a meter of her. But no one was around to give her aid or to save her from this nightmare. Her Prince Charming had abandoned her and now she was to be murdered by this demon from the Underworld. As the monstrosity’s hot, putrid breath hit her face she half-fainted from the severe shock of it all. Relentless pain, fatigue and increasing loss of blood had taken its toll. She was still conscious, but quite dazed. The world took on a dreamlike, fluid quality. When the wolf finally disemboweled her and the vicious jaws closed on her neck, she was lost in the memory of the last time her Prince Charming had removed her dress to make love to her—kissing her neck in that very place.
Chapter 13.
Romani Secrets
Dorian was in the midst of a leisurely breakfast of buttery haddock and ripened fruit when Sage was shown into the room.
She was breathing heavily as though after a brisk walk. “Dorian, thank goodness I have found you. I called on you last night, but they told me you were at the opera. I knew that couldn’t be possible and how heartbroken you must be about the whole dreadful thing. But where have you been? Did you go and see the girl’s poor mother? She must be besotted with grief. What did she say?”
“My dear Sage, how should I know? I was at the opera with Lady Helena. You should have met us there. Let us not discuss such horrid subjects. If one does not discuss a thing, then it has never happened. Now why don’t you tell me about yourself and your latest paintings?”
“You went to the opera?” said Sage, in a slow-strained voice. “You went to the opera after you heard that Sibyl Vane had been brutally murdered in the street?”
Dorian leapt to his feet and yelled. “Stop, Sage! I will not hear it! What is done is done. What is past is in the past.”
“You call yesterday the past?”
“What does it matter how long it has been? A man can master himself and end his sorrow whenever he pleases. I am not at the mercy of my emotions, but rather I control and savor them.”
“Dorian, this is horrible! What has changed in you to make you so callous a person? You look like the same wonderful boy who used to sit in my studio, but you are no longer simple, natural, or affectionate. The world has spoiled you and you speak as if you have no heart or pity whatsoever. This must be Lady Helena’s influence.”
“I owe a great deal to Lady Helena. She has taught me so much about life. You have only taught me about vanity. Now what is it that you want?”
Sage regarded him sadly. “I want back the Dorian Gray that used to sit for me in my studio while I painted, for all those summer afternoons.”
“You are so unfair Sage. You come here to console me and then you are furious when you find me consoled. I am no longer that schoolboy. I have developed new passions, new ideas, and a new understanding of beauty. I am much changed, but we are still friends—are we not? I am very fond of Lady Helena, but you are so much better and stronger. How happy we all used to be together! Please Sage, don’t quarrel with me. I am what I am and there is nothing more to say.”
The painter felt suddenly moved. She could not reproach dear Dorian any further. After all, he had been a great tur
ning point in her art. “I shan’t speak of it again. I trust your name will not be connected to this horrid affair?”
Dorian shook his head. “No, they don’t even know my name.”
“But surely Sibyl knew your name?”
“Only my Christian name and she never mentioned it to anyone. They were far too curious to learn it and she thought it a fun sport to refer to me only as her Prince Charming. You must make me a drawing of her sometime. I should like to have something more than just broken memories.”
“I will draw you something if it pleases you. But you must sit for me again. I simply can’t go on without you.”
“I can never sit for you again Sage. I am sorry, but it is quite impossible!”
Sage looked at him with shock. “What do you mean? Did you not like the painting of the wolf cub I did for you? Let me see it. Is that what you keep over there behind the screen? It is the finest work I have ever done. Why do you have it covered up in such a way? It is disgraceful to hide my best work like that.” Sage scowled and began walking towards the painting.
A cry of terror came from Dorian’s mouth and he leaped between the painter and her artwork. His face took on a ghostly-white pallor. “Sage, you must not look at it. I forbid it.”
Sage forced an unbelieving chuckle. “Not view my own work? You can’t be serious.”
“If you try to look at it Sage, on my honor, I will never speak to you again for as long as I live. I cannot explain and you mustn’t ever ask me why. I am very serious about this and if you ever touch that screen, all will be over between us.”
Sage was staggered and a look of pain came over her face, as if she had just taken a grievous wound. Her hands clenched and she began to tremble. Dorian had never seen her like this before.
“Dorian. If you don’t want me to look at it, I won’t. But it all seems rather absurd for me to not view my own work, particularly when I will be exhibiting it in Paris this autumn. It will need another coat of varnish beforehand, so I will have to see it eventually.”
Dorian roared in disbelief. “Exhibit it! You want to exhibit it?” An unstoppable feeling of alarm grew in Dorian’s chest. Was the whole world to see his terrible secret and know the most intimate details of his life? Impossible. He had to stop it at once.
“Yes of course. You shouldn’t object to that. Georges Petit will be showing all my best works in a special collection in the Rue de Seze. It is set to open on the first week of October. The portrait will only be away from you for a month. If you keep it constantly covered by a screen, then you certainly can’t care that much for it.”
Dorian put his hand to his forehead and felt beads of perspiration gathering there. He was in horrible danger.
He put his face as close to her as it had ever been and fixed her with a serious stare. “Sage, I do have a secret. I will only tell you mine, if you tell me one of yours.”
She drew back and quickly looked away. “Dorian, if I told you, you would think less of me and certainly laugh at me. I could not bear either. I will not look at the picture nor share it with the world if it will satisfy you. Your friendship is much dearer to me than any fame or reputation it could bring.”
But Dorian was insistent. “No, Sage. You must tell me. I have a right to know the truth.” His feeling of terror had been replaced with one of burning curiosity and he was determined to find out what secrets Sage might be hiding. If necessary, those secrets could be used to prevent the portrait from ever being displayed.
Sage’s face looked troubled. “Let us sit down, Dorian.” They moved to the other side of the room and both sat down in a chair. “Answer me one question. Have you ever noticed anything curious about the portrait?—something that revealed itself to you suddenly?”
Dorian, clutched the arms of his chair with straining fingers. “Sage?”
“I see that you have. Just listen to me for a moment and hear what I have to say first. As a girl, I grew up in a Romani caravan. I will tell you the tale.”
As a young girl, Sage and her family moved constantly from place to place in a Romani caravan. They had a small horse-drawn Vardo with large spoke wheels on the side. It was home to Sage, her mother, and her father. It was cramped but comfortable, with a functioning chimney. It featured a tiny cast-iron stove and a narrow berth that all three shared in the back. Her favorite part though, was the brightly painted wood carvings on the inside walls. Sage’s joy in life was painting the intricately carved designs, which her father made on the inside and outside of the Vardo. He was known as a master woodcrafter—when he could get the work. They were not always welcomed by all communities as they traveled. When work was refused to them, they relied on music and fortune telling in exchange for food or money.
Sage was never very good at either, but she loved to draw and paint. When she wasn’t helping her mother with the cooking and cleaning, or with foraging for wild berries and nuts, she spent her time drawing. She created detailed animals and intricate faces on any surface available and with any instrument she could find. When her father would return home, the two would work long into the night together to paint the carvings of their home by candlelight.
When she was about ten years old, her father returned from seven days of labor in the nearby fields. She ran to greet him as he set down a coarse sackcloth and said, “Da’, yo’ home! Can we paint the carvings t’night? Can we please?”
“Arvah, my Chey,” he replied, “but dikh, I ha’ some drab fo’ tu.” As he said this, he removed a precious gift that was wrapped carefully in the sackcloth. It was a set of charcoal and oil paints. It had cost nearly all of his wages to buy such an expensive gift.
Tears welled up in Sage’s eyes as she hugged her father fiercely. “Thank tu, I’m so baxtalo to have my Da’.”
They set to making brushes themselves with hair delicately plucked from the tail of their piebald Cob horse. Sage had raised the horse from a pony and had named him Buttercup. Buttercup was one of her closest playmates and she would spend long hours riding and grooming the horse.
When the paints that her father purchased ran out, her mother took her deep into the forest at night to gather herbs and berries. She taught her the names and uses for all of them. Together they mixed all the different bright colors needed for painting. As the women worked, they would chant in the old tongue. Her mother forbade Sage from doing so when she was not present. One day, she asked her about it cautiously. “Dya, why can’t I sing the Romani chants without you?”
“My Chey, it’s too dook, ta’ mix the drab and the bol. The spells of making are strazhno—too dangerous. Our power comes from the herbs taken from the earth, an’ our souls is channeled an’ focused thro’ our voices. When I tell fortunes, I use the power o’ namin’, to summon the Mulo spirits. Do no’ use these things lightly, an’ never link all three.”
“I won’t Dya.” But she practiced all of it as often as she could. If her mother hadn’t been so busy with the cooking and cleaning, she would have seen Sage chanting under her breath as she mixed spectacular colors and painted fantastic images.
When she was twelve, Sage began scouring the forest for the perfect color of pink. It could only be found in the rare pyramidal orchid. It was very difficult to find and by the time she had gathered enough for her paints, the sun was hanging low in the sky. In her rush to return home, Sage became hopelessly lost.
Her parents grew worried when their daughter did not return that evening, and set out together with an oil lamp to search the fringes of the dark woods. It was there that they were set upon by a group of local laborers, greatly displeased to have their work taken by the wandering tinkers and who had resorted to highway robbery in the forest. They had been drinking and had worked themselves into a fury over imagined slights and evils at the hands of the Romani people. They seized and beat her parents mercilessly. They spit and cursed at them, before looping two coils of rope around the limbs of a great oak tree. There they hung the husband and wife. The mob exited the forest and
found the family’s Vardo at the edge of the trees. They burned the beautifully decorated wood to the ground. They mercilessly killed Buttercup and urinated over the corpse.
The next morning, Sage eased the stiffness in her joints caused by a night spent under the stars. She stretched and warmed her hands before making her way towards her home. As she set out, she used the daylight to retrace her steps. She moved quickly, fearful of her parents’ anger and worry. The forest was strangely quiet that morning, as if grieving. She reached the clearing where the violence had taken place the previous night. It was the shadows of the two forms swaying lightly in the breeze that she saw on the ground first. She raised her eyes slowly and with a burgeoning sense of dread. At the sight of her dead parents swinging from the trees, her breath was crushed from her chest. She fell to her knees in disbelief and shock. Sobs racked her body as she bawled in dismay and anger. She refused to leave the bodies, but was unable to approach any closer to cut them down.
That was where a kindly old Frenchman named Pascal found her. He had seen the slaughtered horse and burned Vardo along the road at the edge of the forest. He took in the scene and felt a deep pity for the girl, for he was alone in this world as well. He cut down the bodies of Sage’s parents and gave them a proper burial in the forest. The girl stood by silently and watched. He covered the filthy and malnourished girl with a blanket and lifted her to the seat of his cart. He took her back to his small home several kilometers away. For days the devastated girl refused to speak. She would eat crusty bread when offered and put on the clothes that Pascal brought her, but her eyes were dull and clouded.
It was only when Sage discovered that Pascal was a painter, that she resumed living. The paint and brushes brought back the spark to her eyes and provided a much-needed distraction. Pascal had no wife or children and was delighted when the girl awakened from her stupor. He cared for the girl as his own and taught her the many painting techniques of the French masters. The two were happy together, or at least found a certain peace amongst their shared passion for artistry. She grew into an accomplished artist and her work and fame soon brought her to the streets of London.
The Wolf of Dorian Gray_A Werewolf Spawned by the Evil of Man Page 9