by P. L. Kurup
He ascended a winding staircase and entered the first room on the left, where he laid her down on a comfortable bed. Examining her, he found her face ashen and her breathing shallow, but the most worrying thing was that her wounds seeped endless puddles of blood. He pressed his palms on the lesions around her neck and wrist, stemming the flow of blood. His hands were coated in scarlet and the gore’s scent wafted into the air. He bit his lip trying to resist feeding on her, but as more fragments engulfed him, his resolve weakened. Eyes bulging, he lunged at her open mouthed... but remembered himself and stepped back.
To assist her properly he needed to stitch up the wounds. Human help was a phone call away. Samuel resisted since summoning an ambulance would cause questions to be asked of his relationship with her. Hence he searched for the needle and roll of black thread he was certain sat somewhere in the house. Seeming to recall something, he raced up the long winding staircase, and arrived at the attic door. He opened the access and walked into a room littered with statues and antiques from all over the globe. Dust particles filled the air and a hundred cobwebs hung from the beams. His eyes fell on a large walnut chest in the rear, so he marched up to it and threw open its lid. Rummaging deep inside the case, he pulled out a reel of black cotton with a needle threaded through it.
Samuel zoomed back downstairs and arrived at Amelia’s side, where he tilted back her head and sewed up the wound on her neck. It was a delicate task that required the most skillful of hands, yet he performed it as well as any surgeon. Then, he stitched up the cut on her wrist. As he finished the task, he sensed her heartrate decrease. An eighth of a minute slower and she would be dead.
“You need more blood,” he said aloud.
Samuel leapt through an open window and landed in the courtyard with an almighty thud. After which he got inside his car and drove off, tyres screeching.
The road ahead was pitch dark as street lights were absent. Nor were there any buildings in sight. When he was halfway to London, he saw a man and woman trailing him on a motorbike. They were unaware of how lethal Samuel was, and cackled as they pursued him.
“Come on, we’ll race you,” the man shouted.
Samuel groaned, thrusting the accelerator pedal to the floor, but the motorbike followed him, the riders shrieking with laughter. Even Samuel’s expert driving couldn’t rid him of his pests. The chase carried on for five minutes with Samuel hoping they would grow tired and stop. It was not the case and they followed without compromise. He swerved the car right and blocked the road. The bike stopped and the man and woman made eye contact with Samuel. As they do so, their faces paled and blood vessels protruded from their skin. The couple grimaced as the full force of Samuel’s wrath shrouded them and the man begged, “Please don’t punish us anymore.”
Samuel looked away and the couple drew in a colossal breath as the colour returned to their flesh.
“I don’t want to stay here. Let’s just go,” shouted the woman.
The man turned the motorbike around and rode off, giving Samuel the peace he craved. Samuel screeched the car straight and drove into London.
The place no longer bustled with traffic, allowing him to travel at a ludicrous pace. There was no need for a map or satnav device since intuition told him where to go. He passed the café where Amelia worked and noticed broken windows and toppled tables.
At last he arrived at the hospital, the exterior of which resembled a concrete box. As he left the car he sensed Amelia fading further; an hour of life left at the most. He rushed inside St Luke’s hospital, and as with all vampires, nothing registered on the CCTV cameras. Samuel passed the intensive care unit, experiencing the heartache of patients and their families. He was in too much of a hurry to console them. Once again he knew where to go and took the lift to the ground floor where the blood samples were kept. He slid open a metal door and stepped into a room immersed in a misty haze. Despite the temperature being a few degrees above zero, he didn’t suffer.
His feet slipped as he walked on the frigid surface, but he persevered and reached the back wall. Enclosed within twenty glass shelves were hundreds of blood bags, each arranged under a specific blood group. His eyes went straight to ‘A B’ negative blood in the middle shelf, Amelia’s blood type, which he deciphered the moment he met her. Its taste mimicking that of toasted marshmallows. Had she had ‘B’ positive blood it would’ve resembled freshly baked bread with ‘O’ negative emulating brown sugar cookies. He removed several packets from the counter and thrust them into the inner pockets of his coat. The coldness of his body keeping the bags at a perfect +2 degrees Celsius. His senses heightened when he became aware of an intruder. He knew she was blonde-haired and petite, married with two young girls, and her life’s ambition was to go to Venice. He waited patiently and came face to face with a woman in a nurse’s uniform. Her thoughts reeked of fear, yet she failed to flee.
“This area is out of bounds,” she explained. “I’m going to have to alert security.”
Samuel strolled up to her and stood nose to nose. As he looked into her hazel-coloured eyes, her shoulders tightened, goosebumps scattered on her skin, and she couldn’t speak or blink.
“Go home to your children, Christine. They’re missing you tonight.” He sidestepped the woman and took the lift to the top floor.
Seconds later, the woman blinked awake having no recollection of him.
xxx
Samuel got into his car with no one realising the theft, and travelled through the city at moderate speed. It wasn’t until he reached the remote country roads that the car sped up. He felt Amelia diminishing further and realised that even a transfusion of blood might not save her. The thought of losing her again churned his stomach. As the car travelled the last few miles of road, the grim rooftop of Grace-rose manor came into view. Seeing the manor in the distance was bittersweet for he knew that her time was short.
He parked the car in the forecourt, got out of the car, and glided up through Amelia’s window. He found her barely breathing and wasted no time in transfusing blood into her vein through a plastic tube. The dark, red liquid trickled into her body and he knelt beside her.
“Open your eyes,” he murmured. “You have to open your eyes and look at me.”
Her eyes opened and his face lit up, but a moment later her heart stopped, and she ceased to breathe.
“No!” Samuel cried.
He administered chest massage and mouth to mouth, but she remained unresponsive. The resuscitation continued in textbook fashion, but as nothing happened it led him to consider the unthinkable – to transform her into an immortal. It was the same problem he’d faced when Anna had been stabbed through the heart. Rejecting the idea, he attempted to revive her again. His efforts were more focused as it was his last chance to save her. Suddenly, she drew in the first gasp of air she’d taken in minutes.
“Take another breath,” he encouraged her.
She inhaled breath after breath until she breathed without effort. The paleness of her skin vanished, and she regained colour in her cheeks and lips.
“Good to see you again,” Samuel declared joyfully.
Chapter 5
Amelia woke to find herself in an unfamiliar room. It was a large and imposing place and her fingers moved over silk sheets. Her body tensed when she saw Samuel looking down on her.
“Where am I? What am I doing here?” she asked fearfully.
“Stay still. You’re not well yet,” he said.
Her eyes closed again and she stayed unconscious into the night.
xxx
Samuel watched over her and every now and then he believed she would open her eyes and look at him, but it wasn’t to be. Her hair was limp and lifeless, showing none of the finesse from two days ago.
The five bags emptied until there was one left. Despite the constant supply of blood she didn’t come out of her stupor, and to make things worse he felt hungry. The blood in the final bag couldn’t quench his thirst as it had been dead too long. Hence he ne
eded fresh blood from a fresh kill. He felt her forehead and realised that she had a fever. His stubbornness forbade him from leaving her, but it was a dangerous tactic as soon he would find her irresistible. Amelia’s head rocked from side to side and she murmured under breath. He removed the bandage around her neck and was swamped with the smell of her blood. He ripped a piece of white cloth into strips and wrapped it around her neck three times and secured it with a pin. Invisible blood particles drifted through the air and embedded in his hair and clothes. Samuel twitched at the scent and was a moment away from destroying her.
To save her from disaster he tore out the window, landing in the courtyard, and trudged up the steep hill to the side of the manor.
xxx
Shortly thereafter, a tumultuous storm bore down on the mansion. Amelia’s open window rattled and rain drenched her bedclothes. Samuel wouldn’t return for hours and in his absence her body shuddered with cold.
Out of nowhere a woman with waist-length raven hair and adorned in an ivy gown clamoured in through the window. She was barefooted and looked perhaps a year older than Amelia. Her eyes were the same incandescent blue as Samuel’s and her skin was as pale as milk. She moved a piece of wet hair from her cheek and as her eyes fell on Amelia her lips curved into a smile. The woman unfurled a dry blanket from a corner chair and draped it over Amelia, then leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead.
xxx
Deep in the forest, branches sagged under the weight of water droplets and the soil turned to mush. Samuel fed on a bevy of wild creatures. His eyes rolled back in his head and a warm glow radiated through his body as he relished the dark, red liquid trickling into his mouth. Under normal circumstances he couldn’t be stirred from his ecstatic state, but today his head veered to the manor.
“Amelia,” he whispered.
Samuel dashed through the forest and sped down the hill to the manor. His feet lifted off the ground and he floated up to Amelia’s window and stepped inside her room much like the woman had done. Finding Amelia sleeping beneath the dull, grey blanket caused hairs to lift on the nape of his neck. Samuel sniffed the air and caught the scent of the undead, an acerbic smell designed to lure the most resilient of victims. Turning to the window, he was overcome by an overwhelming feeling that something terrible was about to transpire.
Chapter 6
Samuel ripped away the grey blanket and threw it on the floor. Staring at the coarse woollen material, he experienced a fear not felt since the day he was thrown into the Lea prison in Paris. A vampire had been inside the room which meant she knew of Amelia, but the fact that she didn’t kill her indicated she wanted something else. Samuel retraced the day from the time he roamed the hospital corridors to the moment he discovered Amelia. The same weak smell permeated the air, but he was too engrossed to grasp what it meant. He realised she’d been lurking in the background for days, taunting him with her presence. He thrust open the window trying to rid the room of her stench. The wind rushed in disturbing his hair, clothes and bedsheets. His body tensed knowing she would return one day to cause him the greatest pain.
He didn’t leave Amelia’s side for the rest of the day. When dawn broke he’d stayed with her a whole fourteen hours. Her condition remained unchanged and he changed the bandages around her neck and noticed the wound ceased to bleed and that there was no sign of infection. A relieved smile crossed his lips and he kissed her on the forehead.
It wasn’t long before the nagging lure of hunger snuck up on him. It was a gradual process and a snack would stem his cravings for the rest of day. He bid Amelia farewell then leapt out the window without a moment’s thought. Finding no sign of danger his attention switched to searching for food. Unlike the previous day he hunted for nourishment within the manor boundary. Rats and mice that infested the interior of the house and birds and hedgehogs from the outside were exactly what he needed.
xxx
He left the window open and the sinking room temperature cooled Amelia down and lowered her fever. She opened her eyes at midday and found herself in a room sparsely decorated with a bed, chair, curtains and nightstand. The chamber was twice the size of her flat and looked unremarkable. The half drawn crimson-coloured curtains bellowed in the breeze and she longed to see beyond them. Attempting to get out of bed, she felt a sharp pain in her right arm and settled back into bed. Her breathing quickened when she saw blood transfusing into her arm. In her panicked state she touched her neck and felt a soft material sodden with a viscous liquid that could only be blood. Her mouth went dry as she had no idea where she was or how she got there. She needed to leave this place at once, so biting her lip, she eased the needle from her arm and dropped it on the floor. Blood pulsed from the wound and she bent her arm to stop the bleeding.
“Amelia you have to settle down,” she told herself.
Her worries subsided and using a great deal of effort she stood up and staggered to the window. There, she witnessed an extensive pathway flanked on either side by copper trees with a colossal lake in the rear.
“I’m in Prince William’s house,” she muttered.
The manor was immaculate and she couldn’t help thinking it reminded her of something. Like a dream or a place she may have visited long ago. Beautiful though it was she knew she couldn’t stay. Her place was in the tiny flat in London where all her belongings were. Then another realisation crossed her mind; the deadline for paying the university fees was the following day. So she slipped on her shoes and pulled open the door. Stepping forward, her resolve weakened and she felt herself collapse, but before she hit the floor she was caught.
Samuel carried her back to bed and she gulped at the stranger standing near her. She hadn’t seen him since that day in the cafe and she struggled to determine his connection to her.
“It’s you,” she gasped. “You’re the one who brought me here.”
“Do not exert yourself. You’re not well yet,” said Samuel.
“I don’t remember seeing you. All I remember is...”
A flash of light transferred her back to the café and she found herself pressed against the dull, grey wall. Her body dripped with perspiration and her stomach tied into knots as she anticipated her own death. The man in the filthy coat bared his teeth and lunged at her. As he did so she noticed a different set of teeth protruding from his jaws. Teeth that belonged more to an animal than a human being. What happened next was a blur and she struggled to fill in the gaps.
“Don’t worry yourself over what happened to you at the café. He won’t harm you here,” Samuel told her.
“How did you manage to defeat all three of them?” she asked.
“I didn’t defeat anyone. I saw you injured and carried you to safety.”
She stared at him not sure whether he was telling the truth. She also noticed that his skin was as pale as Mr Tristrum’s. Samuel squirmed as she unravelled him.
“How old are you if you don’t mind me asking?” she asked.
“I’m twenty four years old,” he answered.
“How did you get this house? Did someone leave it to you in a will? Did you win the lottery?”
“I think you need your rest.”
He marched out the door, shutting it after him as she raised a brow at his departure.
xxx
He went up a winding set of stairs and mumbled under breath at her inquisitiveness. Her resemblance to Alexandra and Anna didn’t stop with their appearance as she had the same personality and voice. His footsteps echoed with every stride, and he passed several rooms that were bland and unremarkable to reach the attic. His face brightened because her maddening curiosity was a sign that the person he’d been waiting for for over a century was truly back in his life.
Chapter 7
Amelia awoke later to find none of the transfusion apparatus was present and that a plaster covered the needle puncture wound on her arm. She felt better and no longer suffered from the burden of flashbacks. A bundle of clothes, a towel, a hairbrush, toothbrush a
nd toothpaste were placed on the edge of the bed. Her eyes drifted to an ensuite bathroom and she picked up the bunch of items and trekked inside it. The bathroom had ceramic lilac tiles, faded lilac walls, and a decadent copper bathtub. After filling up the tub with piping hot water she removed her clothes and slid into the bath submerging her tired body beneath the warm liquid. She forgot to lock the bathroom door, meaning Samuel could walk in at any time. The realisation made her cower in the water. It dawned on her she was in a strange house with a strange man and that no one knew she was there. She felt as vulnerable as she’d been in the orphanage, a place she detested. Her fingers touched the bandage around her neck and since the wound didn’t ache she assumed it’d healed. Disgusted with her injury, she ripped the bandage from her throat, tore off the plaster on her arm, and stepped out of the bath. She wrapped herself in the flowing towel and longed to see her reflection, but couldn’t find a mirror. Amelia dressed herself in the red blouse and black skirt he provided which were a perfect fit and brushed her teeth and hair.
Stepping back into the bedroom, she observed a note perched on the nightstand which read ‘Follow the green wall.’ Rather than do what she was told, she sat on the bed and tapped her foot on the floor. A smile played on her lips as she disobeyed the order. No one can make me do anything, she thought. She fell back on the bed and closed her eyes.
“You are to follow the green wall at once.” she heard.
The command forced her to stand up and scan the room for signs of an intruder. There was no one about yet his presence was everywhere. Sensing she didn’t have the luxury of disobeying him, she crossed to the door and opened it to find the walls were coloured a dark green. She followed the shade not knowing where it would lead, and her body tensed up, hating being told what to do. Endlessly she roamed the corridors of the mansion. Unlike most people she didn’t test any closed doors to see if they were unlocked. The air felt stuffy meaning the house was in need of a good airing, cobwebs hung from the beams, and pockets of dust lingered everywhere.