The Power (3 page)

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When the door closed, I suddenly spun around in search of the woman that had visited my room the night before, but she was nowhere to be found. I had to have dreamed her up, I decided. Yes, the fever had brought the delusions to me, I reasoned.  I shrugged my shoulders and began to dress for the day. I felt like a new person. I smiled. It was going to be a wonderful day, I decided, and I went about getting dressed for it. 

Chapter three

It read like a journal, Nicole thought in amazement as she sat there with the blankets pulled up around her shoulders as a small form of comfort. At fourteen, she had begun to doubt if what she had seen and heard with her own eyes that night when she had been seven years old had been real or not. She had been a small child after all, and she had witnessed her parents being murdered. No one had ever questioned her about that night, deciding not to bring up old, painful memories. They walked on eggshells around her as if sh
e were fragile, as if her mind would snap at the mentioning of her parents. Nicole glanced over at the silver-framed photo of her parents’ smiling faces. In the photograph they were all snuggled together, her parents with their strong, protective arms around her. But, they hadn’t been strong, had they?

“I’ll be back for you, Nicole. I’ll protect you forever.” The strong male voice came to her mind once again as it often had revisited her in the past. It was her strongest memory of that night, that voice so strong, so soothing that it had almost felt hypnotic. He still spoke to her, she thought
, and her heart beat away from her in fright. Who was he? Why had he been there that night to comfort her, then to just walk away? Nicole closed her eyes. The memories came back in shadows. She could hear the terrified screams of her parents, the begging and then that horrid, evil laughter. It had been a game to them, she thought furiously. Her parents had been killed for a game!

“I’ll be back for you…” T
he male voice echoed in her mind once more, and her blue eyes shot open wide in alarm. Somehow, she believed that voice. He would be back for her. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing though. She just knew that it both comforted her and scared the living shit out of her at the same time!

Why had he been carrying this journal? Nicole had never told anyone that the jacket she had been found in that night had not been her father’s. She had never mentioned the journal she had found within the lining either. Yes, it was a journal, a journal of a young woman’s life. Lillian, that was her name. What had happened to her? Why had her journal fallen into the hands of that strange man that night? Why had it fallen into her hand now, Nicole wondered thoughtfully as she peered back down at the old, yellow pages. It was very old, she thought. It read, 1842. At least, that was the year it had all begun in. Quietly, she turned the page and read on.

“It wasn’t until later that evening, that I realized something was incredibly different about me. I had come back to my room to wash for dinner
, and I looked into the broken piece of looking glass that I had mounted on my wall so that I might brush out my hair, but when I looked up I saw that not a hair was out of place. It hung in long, silky, blonde rivets down my back, and it shone as if it had an inner light of its own. I touched the silk-like texture of the sleek, golden hair, and I gasped. My hair had never shown so brightly before. I caught sight of my eyes next. They, too, seemed to have a secret shine to them, so blue and wide upon my paler than usual face. Imperfections that had been there the day before had all but dissipated, and my face was clean from them, as well was the rest of me. I stood there forever it seemed, staring at my reflection in the looking glass and wondering what had happened to me. Was this the effect of my illness? It was all together confusing and upsetting so I turned from the looking glass, and I bathed. I had carted three large buckets of steaming hot water to the old wooden tub that I had dragged into my room. I could see the steam rising, and I could not wait to slip into the water and lavish in the heat as I scrubbed away the day’s dirt and grime. I scrubbed my hair, face, and body, and soaked for a good while, lost in my thoughts and recalling the dream from the night before with such vividness that I wondered if perhaps I was obsessed. I could not shake the thoughts from my mind. Who was the woman who had visited me, and how had I conjured her up in my dreams when I had never set eyes on her in my life?

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I rose from the bath, drying myself on a clean piece of cloth and went to the mirror to brush out my damp hair. Staring at my face, I did not recognize myself. Where once a filthy, little servant girl had stood, now stood a tall, regal beauty. I touched my cheek; it was soft. My lips seemed fuller, more fleshy. My eyes sparkled with color and spoke of things I did not comprehend. I had changed, I realized. Overnight, I had changed. Perhaps had grown into a woman? I wasn’t sure what exactly had happened to me. I just knew that I felt and looked incredibly different as if I had indeed been reborn.

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“After death comes a rebirth.” I could hear her soft-hypnotic voice in my head say.

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Feeling out of sorts and a bit frightened I threw my brush at the mirror, and it came crashing to the floor with a loud, shattering noise. Glass spun out, catching me in the arm and slicing through my skin. I winced at the slashing pain. I saw the jagged cut torn across my forearm. I picked the sliver of glass from it with ease. I watched as the blood slipped from my wound and something within me seemed to come alive in that moment, something unfamiliar and animalistic. It beat inside me, growing and growing as I watched the blood river over my arm. Subconsciously I started to lift my arm to my lips, but then something else inside of me screamed that I shouldn’t. Jumping up in my fear, I grabbed a rag and wrapped it tightly around the throbbing wound and wiped my arm clean. I dressed quickly, and ran from the room and down the dark halls of the basement. I ran not knowing where it was that I was going, but knowing that I could not stay in that demon room any longer. It was possessed, I told myself, or perhaps I was. Whatever was happening to me was so frightening and unsettling that I felt I was losing a part of myself forever.

“
I ran to escape myself. It was futile, but at the moment I didn’t seem to realize it. And then a sound stopped me. It was a familiar sound: the butler’s cat, Tabby. It meowed and came from the shadows, brushing up against my legs. I bent low and scooped up the fluffy cat, pulling its warm body against me and holding it close, thinking that it would aid in ridding me of my fears. But then I heard it again, that strange tune in my head beating to the slow, soft beats of the cat’s heart. I shook my head in denial. I slid down the dirty wall with the cat in my arms, stroking it swiftly and listening to its soothing purr.

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I tried not to listen, but I could hear it beating in my ears, the soft beat of the loving animal’s heart. It trusted me, I knew that it did. The cat had been my only companion since Miss Gail had left me, but the thoughts raging in my head betrayed the animal. I was hungry, but it was a different sort of hunger. Not the kind that you feel in your belly, but something that I felt pulsing within the heart of me. It grew more powerful by the second. I closed my eyes against it. I pulled the cat tighter against me, holding it with a death grip as if I thought the cat could ward off any evil spirits that might try and harm me. Suddenly, the cat hissed as if sensing danger. It clawed at my arms, tearing into my skin, but still I held it there, wanting its companionship and protection. It continued to hiss and growl at me, and I lifted it to speak to it, to calm it, but then my eyes locked with its eyes and something powerful seemed to take over me.

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I didn’t realize what I had done until it was over and the cat, Tabby, lay lifeless in my hands. Its blood was spilt clumsily all over my dress and my mouth. I reeled back in horror, tossing the cat’s lifeless body away from me, and I rose and ran as the insanity tried to take control of me. I had to fight it. I had to fight whatever was doing it’s best to take me over. 

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I ended up outside in the cool moonlight of the gardens, somewhere lost within the maze of hedges that Widow Winter’s late husband had planted years upon years ago. I sank down onto a stone bench and cried into my hands. It couldn’t be! I hadn’t done what I had just done, I told myself. I was insane. I had to be! Widow Winters would surely see me hung for my crimes! 

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“The fear will leave you.” I heard a calm, female voice whisper in my mind. My eyes shot upward, looking for the delusion that had visited me the night before. She was crouched on the bench across from me, examining her long, sharp fingernails as if nothing was wrong in this picture. When she looked up, I gasped and shrank back in terror. Her eyes were no longer blue; they were a startling, glowing white. She was not human, I decided in horror, and I rose to run again, but I stopped short, for I knew that whatever this woman before me was, I was surely to become. I turned, staring at her in wonder, in confusion, and in fear, and she stared right back in shocking calmness.

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“You are a creature of the night now, young Lillian.” She stood to tell me, and she walked toward me with purpose. I took a step back, waiting, wondering what she had meant by her words and fearing for my life at the same time. “You called for me. I came. I gave you what it was that you desired. You are immortal now, all powerful, all strong.” She told me, and I swallowed the new fears rising in my throat.

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“Immortal?” I questioned, not understanding.

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“A vampire.” She said, her lips not moving. “You wanted to die. I assisted you in your wishes, but I also gave you birth. You are my daughter now, Lillian, and I am your dark mother.” She told me. Mother? I thought of my real mother, of her gentle hands and sweet smile. I thought of how warm and safe I had felt cradled in her arms. I looked at the woman before me, tall, powerful, and dangerous as a Viper!

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“My mother died when I was five years old!” I shouted at her in furious denial.

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“Your mortal mother, yes. You mourn her greatly, though you barely knew her. It is strange how your human emotions work, most curious. Soon, that pain will leave you, as will all the others.” She said as if in way of explanation.

“
“How can it leave me? You make no sense! My mother died as well as my father and brother! I have no one left!” I screamed out in anguish, and she moved toward me so that she stood only two feet before my face. She looked down at me and touched my face, but her hand did not burn against my skin this time.

“
“The pain will leave you.” She confirmed. “Seven days of light, Lillian, and then it shall only be the darkness that is your world. You have lived in one of those days already. Six more and you shall kiss the sun goodbye forever.”

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“What does that mean?” I cried out in alarm. “I don’t believe in vampires.” I shook my head in mad denial. How could what she was telling me possibly be true? Vampires? I had read about the creatures once, Gail and I had, in one of her dime store novels. We hadn’t been able to sleep afterward and later had insisted that we had seen shadows against the bedroom walls.

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“That is too bad, young Lillian, because you are becoming one. There are others as well, but you must beware of them. Vampires are solitary creatures. We do not live in covenants like many presume, like the story tellers insist. No, we are creatures that survive on our own, and if we come across each other we are constantly watching our backs. Vampires fear each other far more than they fear the mortals.” She explained, but I was still trying to wrap my mind around the word vampire.

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“I’m not a vampire.” I insisted. I didn’t want this, not any of it. I swore that it couldn’t be happening to me. It was just a dream, a nightmare! I was still lying in my itchy bed, the fever still raging. It was all a delusion! Yes, I was sick again. That had to be it!

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“No, young Lillian. It isn’t a nightmare that you are experiencing, though at times it may feel as such. You are as real as I, and in time you will learn all that you need know to survive. I will teach you.” She promised.

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“But, I’m not a vampire.” I shook my head in denial once more. She turned to me then, smiling a beautiful smile even as her glowing eyes died off like ambers, being replaced with the blue melanin that naturally was there. I breathed in deep though I could not feel the air expand my lungs. Strange. This was all very strange and frightening.

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“I’m sure that you have noticed some changes. The sun felt hotter against your skin today, did it not?” she asked, and I thought about her words. Yes, the sun had seemed to burn against my flesh. I looked at her, understanding a little more as she spoke. “Your face, your eyes, your skin, it is all different. Is it not?” she went on to say, and my eyes widened in understanding.

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“And what of the cat that you just made a meal of? You drank the animal’s blood, Lillian. It fed you. It is not the only creature that you will feed upon.” She promised, and I felt myself gagging. I could feel the bile rising in my throat. I was going to be sick.