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| Matthew & Hope arrive in Scotland |
The Ceres docked into the harbor after a long stretch of sea storms and waves as large as mountains. It had been a treacherous journey but finally the crew and their two paid passengers, Matthew and Hope, made it to the strange rock-lined coast of Goodwick -- an unexpected stop for the fisherman who were surprised by the change in direction from the captain.
As the two siblings grabbed their seabags and suitcases happily, a fisherman grabbed Matthew by the arm just before they disembarked on to the old, wooded dock.
"What's 'ere mate? What's 'ere that ye need? Dis old sea village has nothin for the likes of ye." The old fisherman with an eye patch wondered.
Matthew did not want to draw anyone else into the dangerous world he was living in and patted the man on the shoulder "It's a very long story, friend, one that I wish to end soon."
"Cryptic, ey." The fisherman smiled, his teeth, the ones he still had, grimy and stained. "Listen ‘ere, I donna know this Goodwick, but I know these parts, see? Dublin is my home, just over the straight there. Just a warning from me to ye…double be sure you keep away from the folk who eye ye sideways. Those be the ones who wish ye harm. They'll cast something on ya, something dark if they don't like the sight of ya."
Hope sighed heavily "We should go." She said.
"Thanks for the warning." Matthew told the fisherman as the ship's horn blew signaling, they were ready to set sail again to a different part of the British Isles, their intended spot.
"It not be a warning, boy, it's a fact. Beware them sideways looking folk, now, beware!"
The fisherman's voice trailed off into the early morning gloom of the Scottish sky. Hope looped her arm through her brother's almost locking herself into him. She was worried, she could feel the energy of the village like it was an electrical current going directly into her veins. A shock-like sensation that made the tiny hairs on her arm stand on end.
As the two walked through the small cobble stone streets of Goodwick, it felt like they were walking along the streets of Welshport, only 80 years back in time. Same foggy mornings, same little cottages and shops, same narrow streets.
But the people seemed different. Those that were awake so early in the morning had eyes that felt distant, cold. They stared at Matthew and Hope with an intensity that made the newcomers stomachs knot. It was almost as if they were telling them to go back, go back to your ship, you do not want to be in this place. This is not or you. It is not safe.
Even the screeching seagulls floating above in the gray sky seemed to send a warning as they circled above.
One man even lifted his chin to them pointing to the large hill with the Castle Cyfrinach atop it. An overwhelming symbol of the Doshall's power and control over Goodwick.
"Beware the folk that eye you sideways." Hope whispered, the words of the fisherman ringing in her ears telling Matthew these were the people the fisherman warned about.
"We just need to get to the Inn so that we get settled and then plan a way up to the castle." Matthew said surprising his sister.
“You’re sure that’s the place they’re being help?” She asked, thinking her memory of the visions they saw at the caves could have been wrong after all.
Matthew smiled at her and squeezed her trembling hand.
“You don’t have to do this, you can stay and wait for me at the Inn.” He replied attempting to calm his sister just before someone stepped in front of them blocking their way down the rest of the cobble stone street.
Hood gasped.
It was an older man, pale in every sense of the word. He had no shoes, his eyes sunken into his face looked like to black dots surrounded by a white moat of beard and hair. His hands, incredibly boney and thin with fingers nails long and cracked. He put his hand up in the air blocking Matthew and Hope's passage forward and mouthed the word "STOP".
Hope hid behind Matthew, "Sir?" Matthew asked "May we pass please?"
"You may not." The man whispered back. "What are you?"
The Winterborns were confused "Travelers." Hope said from behind her brother.
"We're only here to stay the night. We're traveling through --- to Edinburgh." A lie, Matthew answered.
The old man's eyes narrowed in an untrusting glare, they were far from the capital, too far, he thought. "This place is not for you. Take yourselves and be gone."
"We only need one night here, sir. If we can be shown to the Inn, we'll stay one night and then be off." Matthew replied, a lie again.
"Back away old Fitz, back away!" Another voice said, this one a younger man, just as pale, but healthier looking. "Don't pay any attention to him. He's the town drunkard, see? He'll tell anyone who eyes him sideways to leave this place. Go on, now Fitz, back to the pub withya, that'll make ya happy." The man said, Fitz, the older man grabbed the waist of his falling pants and quickly made his way off looking back every few seconds to watch Matthew and Hope.
"Will he be alright?" Hope asked.
"Americans?" the man asked ignoring Hope.
Matthew nodded trying to keep the encounter short, the less info the better. "We're only traveling through; we won't be here long. Can you point us to the Inn?"
The man, strapping, red hair and beard, sharp green eyes that were a bit sunk in, stepped aside and pointed down the street they were already on. The fog almost lifted like a curtain for his pointed finger revealing a small building on the corner of one of the tiny cobble stone streets.
"Goodwick Inn." The man replied. His eyes almost sparking like two emeralds. "Enjoy your stay, stay safe."
Matthew thanked the man and the two quickly made their way down the street.
The redbearded man, pulled out a knife from his side satchel and removed it from a sleeve. Its blade caught a bit of sunlight that peeked through the Scottish sky. This was no ordinary man, this man was Doshall spy that roamed the village streets keeping order. They called him Kildare.
And Kildare, was prepared to kill anything and anyone who threatened the order the Doshall's had set up in their tiny little enclave. Newcomers -- were not welcome.
Kildare watched as Hope and Matthew made their way into the Inn. He followed, his knife ready at his side.
****
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| Evie finds the Count |
Evie awoke in her room. She had finally found away to sleep. Her body exhausted from days and days of little to eat and no rest had finally taken it's toll. She turned over in the large bed with the ruby red comforter. She lifted herself up on her forearms realizing she had not gotten into the bed, just slept on it. Odd, she thought, as she had distinctly remembered pulling back the thick comforter and slipping in to the white sheeted bed.
Yet, she awoke on top and the bed was fully made.
She lie back down and stared up at the red-tasseled canopy and wondered who'd been in this bed before her. She wondered of the castle, it's thick walls of stone seemed ancient, centuries old. And most of all she wondered about the family that seemed to preside in the castle like royalty.
The Doshalls.
As Evie lie there trying to piece together any fragment of information she could from Sebastian and Roman had given her, she glanced over at her bedroom door and, to her shock, it was left ajar by someone.
Evie left caution and the mystery of her benefactor to the wind and leaped off the bed. Her skirt swooshed around then tangled on one of the dark-wooded bed posts yanking her back. Evie yanked on the skirt back, freeing herself, and slowly walked over to the open door tip-toing every single step of the way.
She pressed her face up against the opened door, the line of the wood marked between her eye and nose like an invisible marker splitting her perfect face in half. She looked out onto the dawning hallway and saw nothing. Heard nothing. Felt nothing.
"They're all asleep." She thought as she stared out in of the hallway.
Evie easily made a dangerous decision with her good fortune: She had to find Gabriel.
With her mind now square on searching for where Sebastian had put Gabriel, she set out down the thick carpeted hall and put her ear up to random doors linked together by the long "L" Shaped corridor. Ever room was silent. Every room felt as if there was something in it, but her heart instincts told her "Don't open that one."
Evie continued down the corridor and found herself at a staircase that went three levels. A level below her, and one above her. She began to up the stairs, slowly and methodically hoping she'd find no one that lived in the castle, only Gabriel.
As she came to the top of the staircase, the corridor there only led to one room with a large stone molding around it's double doors. Evie slowly made her way there passing large potted plants, vases similar to the one she almost smashed over Roman's head. Portraits of more strangers hung on the walls. The men in them looked angrier and colder as she got closer to the door.
And just like that, there she was, hopefully at the door of where Gabriel was being held.
She grabbed the rose shaped doorknob. The room was dark. Evie could make out a bed. Large. Enormous. She could make out the windows that were covered completely in black sheets. This was no where for a child, not for Gabriel. But her curiosities were stronger than her fears. Someone was in the bed. Sleeping. Breathing loudly in the dark, but the breathing seemed labored and strange.
She stepped closer, the light from the hall guiding her path in a triangle formation. She followed the light to the edge of the bed.
Evie's eyes narrowed trying to make sense of what she was seeing there in the shadows. A man, something like a man, his face obscured by darkness. His hair was white, his face a blur. There was almost a gloom to his whole aura. A smell of burning incense filled the room as Evie began to notice this man was very, very old. She could not tell his age but he seemed older than anyone she had ever seen.
She began to reach for him, to feel if he was alive. Silly, she thought, as she could hear him breathing but oddly she did not see his chest moving up and down. As she reached, her arm lifted and the light from the hallway that was blocked by her lowered arm suddenly touched the skin of the man's hand.
It began to sizzle and in a split second the old man, sat up in bed. He's dead eyes met Evie's. His mouth agape with vangs. The light, from the sun, hand burned his hand.
He reached over and swatted at Evie fell back onto this bedroom floor. She could not breath. She could not scream. She only stared at the ancient Vampire struggling to move in his bed. Suddenly, two small arms looped around Evie's as she tried to get up and yanked her back out into the hallway slamming the door shut and leaving the old vampire alone again in his dark room.
Evie got up quickly and turned to find her savior was a young boy with skin pale, his hair a dark brown that had red strands when the candle light hit it. His cheeks were oddly blush as if he'd come from winter. His eyes gray, his lips pink and plump.
"Come!" He said, grabbing her hand and pulling her back down the hallway and into the part of the Castle Evie had come from. All the way back to her room. She tried to pull away she did not want to go back, but the boy's grip was tight, so tight she felt as if it were a grown man holding on to her.
Back in their room, the boy closed her door. And stood in front of her as Evie caught her breath by the bed that was made.
"Who are you?" She asked, "What is this place? Who was that?"
Her panic clear, her mind a scramble.
The boy put his hand on his chest "Jean-Marc." He said.
"How did you know where I was?"
He shied "I accidently left your door open. I came back to lock it and realized you'd left. You must never, ever go to that room again." He said.
"Why? Who is that?"
The boy gulped "Count Alexadre. He's very ill. He's dying. But, you know that."
"No, I don't know anything about him. Why were you in my room?"
He shied again "I'm sorry, I've just never seen anyone like you before. I was curious. I swear, I did nothing wrong. I would do nothing wrong, I just watched over you." He answered.
Evie felt exposed and odd. Was it Jean-Marc who'd taken her out of the bed, made it, and placed her back on it? How? He was but a small child, how could he be capable of lifting a grown women and doing all of that without her knowing?
"What do you mean a person like me?" She asked backing away.
"A mother." He said, his voice softening.
"Yes, I'm Gabriel's mother. Do you know where he is? Will you help us leave?"
"NO! No, you can't leave! Gabriel is the one who will help Count Alexandre. He's the only one who can." The child said.
"What? How??” She asked.
“You don’t know?” Jean-Marc questioned.
“Please you have to listen to me: Gabriel and I were brought here against our will, we don’t belong here. Whatever you’re talking about, the Count and how Gabriel can help him—he can’t Jean-Marc. He’s just a baby and in his mother. I need to protect him. But being locked here I can’t. That’s why I need you to help me.” Evie explained.
Jean-Marc shook his head. He knew this was impossible. “Gabriel will save us.” He refuted. “That’s just how it goes.”
Evie sighed, she wasn’t getting through to him but thought about what the young vampire had said when they first spoke, the way his eyes lit up when he said the word mother.
“Where is your mother, Jean-Marc?" She asked.
"I have none. Well I did have one, but no more. I never knew her. Or my grandmère." He said in his charming French accident. "None of them. Not any of my family. Father too. I was left alone and Dominique took me ...in." He explained, his eye lifting towards the portrait of Dominique Doshall.
“That’s very sad. I’m so sorry for that. And you’ve been here all this time?” She asked.
He nodded.
"And the Count? He's dying you said, of what?" Evie wondered. "And how can Gabriel help?" She needed to know.
"I— I've said too much. You must not leave this room or this place." Jean-Marc said as he began to turn and leave her room. "I won't bother you anymore."
"No, wait! Don't leave yet. Please. I just need to understand what is happening here and how I can get to my little boy. He's probably scared, and wondering where I am. I'm all he has." Evie said. "You can understand that, can't you? Being so young as you were when your own mother left."
"SHE DIDN'T LEAVE!" She shouted back.
"Oh."
"She died."
"Yes. Of course. Im sorry. But still, she left. Not of her choice, but she left, and you were just a baby. Just like Gabriel. And I need to see him, Jean-Marc, please." Evie replied.
“It’s too dangerous.”
“Yes it is, but wouldn’t you want to see your mother if someone could help?” She said, pleading to his young motherless heartache.
"I can check on him for you, not you. You cannot go." He replied.
As he turned the doorknob to leave, she rushed over to him and grabbed his arm and pulled him around so that they were facing each other. His gray eyes furrowed at her forcefulness. He pulled his arm out of her grasp and asked what she wanted.
"Are you like them?" She asked.
He nodded that he was.
"And yet you walk in the light?" She asked.
"Dominique saved me. She helped me not be like all of them. I need the things they need; I live the way they live, but she made me lucky. She made me able to see both the day and the night. I'm lucky. She always says that. She always says that I am lucky." The boy repeated.
Evie wasn't sure to make of young Jean-Marc. Something told her there was more to this boy that even he knew. Something strange that might be a way to get her out. She could sense in him still the living presence of his own young humanity but yet he was one of them, at least that's what this Dominique Doshall told him. Perhaps there was truth to what Dominique told him, that he was lucky and was able to see both day and night but that still seemed reckless to allow.
And yet, he walked the halls in the sun without the slightest scold to his skin.
"Please come back." She said to him. "With news of Gabriel, please."
He agreed.
"Be careful." he said to her. "Never leave this room." He said as he closed and locked the door behind him.
Evie went back to the bed, the daylight now brighter than it was when she woke. She thought for a second and realized perhaps this little vampire boy could be an important key to her freedom. He had access to the castle in both day and night, he knew it inside out and she could not ask her cousin Roman to put himself in danger in an escape plan, not now, not knowing how entrenched he was with the Doshalls.
No, Roman was in to deep.
Jean-Marc would be the perfect one to help her and Gabriel finally escape.
****
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| Matthew & Hope explore Goodwick |
Later that afternoon, Matthew and Hope ventured out from their shared room at the Inn for some food, and a bit of investigative work. The woman at the front desk of the hotel was helpful in pointing their way to a pub but they noticed she never turned her face towards them, she never looked them in the eye, and it seemed as if she wanted nothing more than to pretend, she never saw the strangers in the first place.
Matthew tried to pull her into his gaze to see if she'd crack, her strange behavior was more than just something a shy young woman would do. "You said just out this way and to the left down the road?" He asked hoping she'd finally look him in the yes.
"That's right sir." She said shuffling papers and envelopes for no reason other than to keep busy and distant from the strange newcomers.
"Thank you." Hope replied, pulling Matthew away. "Leave her." She whispered.
The two exited the Inn, there were a few citizens of Goodwick standing across the small road staring. A woman with a basket of bread, another woman holding a child that played with it's mother's necklace and a man whose face was sunken and expressionless. His beard long and hangered. They stared at the Winterborns without saying a word just as a harsh rain began to fall.
"Come on." Matthew said grabbing hold of his sister's arm as they rushed off on the muddying roads of town.
"I don't think we should stay here," Hope said as they walked. "We have to find a different place."
"Where? We're so close and we have to get to Evie and Gabriel. I don't know where we'd go!"
"Its too -- odd here." She added. "I think we may not be safe, the man on the ship was right."
Just as Hope finished her sentence, Kildare stepped out from behind a small opening where two building's walls almost touched stopping them cold in their tracks. The rain fell, the water puddled at their feet and Kildare stared at the two siblings with an intense coldness that they could feel almost to the bone.
"Is everything alright?" Matthew said, slowly moving Hope behind him.
Kildare said nothing but removed a knife from his side and swung it in Matthew's face almost slashing him across the left cheek but missed.
Hope screamed and Matthew grabbed her by the hand as they ran. Kildare began to chase them through the village streets. People in their homes opened their windows and begin throwing things down at the couple hoping to stop them to help Kildare. A woman tossed scolding hot water out of her narrowly missing Hope. A man around the corner tossed a Molotov cocktail out if his window, stupidly, and missed. The fiery blast shook the entire building it hit but caused no fire. The rain took care of that.
The siblings continued to rush down the street, Kildare's murderous feet stomping behind in the sloshy mud this small storm had brewed. He was gaining on them and was now only inches from Hope. He reached his arm back and swung slashing her in the arm but luckily only getting snagged on her sleeve.
She screamed and Matthew turned her around, her arm yanked to far she flew off onto the street and Matthew, his fury building in his body stood up to Kildare with a fire in his own eyes. He would not see another sister killed.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT? WHY DO YOU CHASE US?" Matthew shouted, his chest full and strong filled with air, the veins in his body throbbing with the intensity of the beat of his strong heart.
Kildare said nothing but began to walk around Matthew in a circle, like a shark casing his new prey. He smirked a but, revealing his yellow teeth, stained from cigarettes and coffee. His eyes, dark and vacant, his mind under complete control by the treacherous Doshalls that lived above them all in Castle Cyfrinach. The vampire clan, a cult, had done it's duty and found a way to control the entire village to protect their hive. Though others would enter the village, none left alive.
Kildare swung his knife missing Matthew, Matthew swatted the would-be murderer's arm away and with his left-hook bashed the bearded Kildare in the face. A tooth shot out from the man's mouth in a long string of blood and saliva.
Kildare, shellshocked at first, smiled a bloody smile and spit the red liquid out and swung again. The knife lodging into a wall right behind Matthew. Matthew kicked the man in the stomach knocking the air out of him. He fell to the floor allowing Matthew to leap over to Hope who'd gotten up out of the mud. He grabbed her hand and ran off into the rain while Kildare caught his breath.
The siblings ran around the village. Without Kildare's encouragement, the other town's people shut their windows again and hid in their homes. Matthew and Hope saw a church. The bells began to toll the 7:00 evening hour and they rushed over realizing someone was in there.
The burst through the door to find a lone nun standing at the bottom of a long rope that led up to a single bell tower. She turned to her left where a statue of the Madonna and child stood in darkness. The nun quietly lit a candle below it and turned back to drenched Matthew and Hope.
The silent nun did not seem surprised at her visitors. She only smiled and replaced her hands inside the large front pouch of her habit and slowly approached them.
"You've caused quite the disturbance in town." The nun said.
"What's going on in this place? Why does it have such heaviness??” Hope asked, the vibrations of evil and darkness quickly vanishing while in the church's sanctuary. Only her echoing voice remained in the air.
"Can you feel it?" the nun asked. "You can see without using your eyes, am I right?"
Hope nodded, she was gifted. She had the special gift all her people did, even Matthew - if only he could get back to it.
"Well, I know not from where you come, but I can tell you both, that this is not the place for you. It’s Nov safe for outsiders who do not know their way.” The nun said vaguely.
"We're here to help my friends. They're trapped here. In the castle." Matthew explained.
The nun's face froze and she shook her head. "I'm afraid you must leave without them, go back where you came from and never, ever return."
"I can't do that." Matthew said.
"We've come so far and we think they're in danger, sister....?" Hope added, hoping to get the sister's name.
"Anna Bernadette , most people just call me Anna." She answered.
"Anna, what is this place?" Matthew asked again.
Anna motioned for them to sit in the pews with her. She in front of them. She turned back, her face very round, her cheeks pink as a spring rose. Her eyes were green, greener than anything the two Winterborn siblings had ever seen. She did not know where to start, or how it even began. Goodwick had been this way since the day she was born. It had always been this way. She found herself drawn to the church to keep her from the strange allure of the Doshall family. She knew nothing of them, or what they even looked like, but knew that most of the village, if not the entire village by now, was locked under their spell. Something they'd given to the town that no one could ever give back. It was as if they'd paid off a debt that would last for eternity.
The Doshalls did indeed hold power of Goodwick, but it was a power that was corrupt and sinister and only the Church could save Anna. There was no priest. There was no other nuns, Anna wasn't even truly ordained, she just came here, alone, and found her peace.
The Doshalls found it impossible to take her -- the Church walls protected her.
"They never saw me as a threat -- I've been allowed to carry on here with no intrusion from them. But that may change if they know you are here. I cannot harbor you for long." Anna said.
"All we want is to get to our friends and free them. We cannot leave without them." Matthew said again.
"They could kill you where you stand, do you understand that? They would now qualms about it." Anna added.
"Gabriel," Hope began "is only a child of three years. A baby. He is being held captive there. This is not something his mother, the other person we seek to save, would want. We believe they've been kidnapped and are being held here against their will. A child, Anna, imagine that a little child."
Sister Anna got up from the pew. The Winterborns got a better look at her home-made habit and realized she really wasn't an actual nun, just a woman who sought safety in the church walls away from the pressures and corrupt evils of the Doshall vampire cult. They could see the express on her face shift, the idea of a child among the creatures worried her. Bothered her. Made her sick, in fact.
"There's a service entrance but it's dangerous." She said.
"Its all dangerous at this point." Hope said. "But we have to do this."
"I can take you to the mouth of road that leads up to that place, but not now. The sun is going down soon and the rain has darkened what's left of the day. We will have to go when it's good and bright under the protection of day." She warned.
"Of course." Matthew replied.
"What do they do up there?" Hope asked.
The nun turned back around to face them. The sustained glass windows sparkling dim fractals of light on her freckled face like a rainbow puzzle. A single tear fell down her round moon shaped face. She licked her lips and whispered the word "Kill."
"Why?" Hope asked.
The nun lifted a brow "Because they can."
"We can't go back to the Inn." Matthew said. "Not with that maniac out there."
"You can stay here. There's room. I have food too. They don't bother me, but again, we can't do this for more than a few days. If they break the sanctuary of this place and enter here to kill you, then all is lost for the world." Anna said.
"They can still break the sanctuary? Wouldn't that kill them?" Matthew wondered as the glass windows showed thunderclaps of light in the face of various old saints from a thousand years ago.
"To keep the secret of Goodwick a secret, they will. This is all I have, and I need to be safe here, I need to be here. I NEED to be safe!!!" The nun said, the sound of her voice raising with the thunder outside.
"We want that too, of course! But our friends need our help. Their safety is paramount." Matthew reminded.
"Yes, the child." Anna replied. "Come," she added "you both must be hungry."
Matthew nodded as Anna began her to the back of the abandoned church to a small door that led into the sacristy. Hope pulled her brother back and whispered, "Should we trust her?"
Matthew grabbed Hope's hand and squeezed, "I think at this point, we have to."
Hope took a breath and agreed then the followed the nun into the sacristy where she'd prepare a meal for hew to guests--- temporary guests.
****
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| Roman meets with Kildare |
Over in the ballroom was being prepared by working villagers for the awakening of the nocturnal inhabitants. Chandeliers were being cleared and shined, floors waxed, tables set. Goblets wiped and spot-checked for the crimson liquid and life force that would come.
Roman paced the outer corridor that was still lit with the late afternoon sun. He looked up towards the grandfather clock. He knew soon Dominique would awaken, and she would want to know more of the mixling. It was getting closer and closer to finally using the child to revert Alexandre back to his ever-living self, and thus safe the Doshall dynasty.
All these years Roman paid his debts back to Doshall family by keeping the order in Cyfrinach. All this time he worked and toiled and did all he could to keep himself in good graces with the family that took him in and saved him from what would have been certain death had he never found them. He vowed to forever keep their secret, protect them, and do as they wish.
The prophecy of the mixling seemed unfeasible. He always expected to be free of his debts once Alexandre was dead and gone and the entire Doshall world collapsed in his death. What he did not expect was for the child to be real and what's-more actual be part of Roman's own family.
He could not allow Gabriel to be used this way, he could not stand by and see it happen no matter what he vowed. He had to stop it.
Roman slowly made his way back towards his own room and as he went he passed a large drawing room that had a fire lit in it's heart. Almost instinctively, he went in knowing exactly what was hanging on the walls. Several old medieval weapons from days gone by. One in particular sparked his interest a long dagger like ranseur: a large knife attached to a wooden pole.
He took the ranseur and removed the dagger that was made a pure silver and broke the wooden pole into a sharp wooden stake and took it to Alexandre's room.
The new day was coming; he would stake the prime vampire in the heart ending the power and control of the Doshalls once and for all.
Roman entered the room. It was as Evie left it. Alexandre lie in bed, his hand still scolded by the light from earlier. He closed the door quietly and walked towards the sleeping monster. Closer and closer he got, the stake in his hand, he slowly lifted above his head to drive down deep into the chest. He was sweating. His heart pounding and then with one full strike the stake came down but suddenly stopped inches from piercing the heart by someone's hand.
"I thought you'd turn back." The voice said from the dark room.
Roman turned toward the person speaking, he knew the voice, it was Kildare.
"I...I don't know..." Roman began before Roman interrupted.
"You don't have to say anything, I know what you wanted to do. We've all thought about it time and time again, but doing this would not end it. I promise you this." Kildare said.
Kildare took Roman by the arm and led him out of the room into an antechamber where there was more light from several candelabras.
"Will you tell Dominique?" Roman asked the older more stronger Kildare.
"What would that solve? She'd have you killed and another sad soul would take your place. Why on god's green earth would I do that? Let us all be the end of what the Doshalls have brought to Goodwick."
"But we won't be the end. Don't you see? If Alexadre actually retains his life force from the mixling, he'll go on forever. We'll die off, they'll enslave others. It has to end somewhere. Why not now?" Roman explained.
Kildare understood where Roman was coming from but the danger was too much, they'd been indoctranated far too long, their lives destroyed for too many years to just suddenly decide it should be over.
"We cannot." Kildare pushed back. "It would only worsen, I know it. I've seen something you should know." The brawny man said to Roman.
"What is it?"
"There are strangers in the village. They've come from afar and we must keep them out of here for their own good."
"How do you know they're not just passing through?" Roman wondered.
"They've asked questions about the Castle. They've wondered about the people here. We tried to frighten them away, I even chased them but them but they've taken refuge at the church. Anna will most likely do the rest for us."
"I wonder who they are." Roman said.
"I enquired at the Inn after I chased them off. A man named Matthew Winterborn and his sister Hope." Kildare said.
"Perhaps they're here for Evie." Roman replied.
"Roman, I'm telling you do not do what you are thinking of, do you understand. If you try and save the woman and her child from what they are meant to do here we will all suffer. This has to happen, and we cannot allow them to leave with these American strangers." Kildare warned.
"We're talking about a child's life here. How can we stand by and allow this ridiculous fantasy of a prophecy to go on. Alexandre is old and dying, we should let it happen." Roman expressed.
"Fantasy? Do you think this is a fantasy? You have seen the awful deathly things I have seen. You have heard the monstrous screams in the night when they kill, when they hunt. None of what we have witnessed has been part of a fantasy, or a dream -- only a living real nightmare that we all have to suffer through. They've warned if we interfere, Roman, that not only will we pay but our children and our children's children and their children after that. I believe they will, I believe in the awful things they can be capable of -- the Doshall must life for us to live. I need your word you will not interfere with what is about to happen in the coming days."
Roman stared at Kildare's strong face. He did not fear him, they were friends after all, but he did fear the other mortals who would not understand his plight of removing the venomous vampires once and for all. The other's had families. Children. Homes. They had futures that they would rather live with the Doshalls above them, giving them a bounty of good fortune of seas filled with fish, fat cattle, plenty of grain and greens to keep them fed and happy for centuries to come.
Removing the Saints from power would seem like a death sentence to them all. They lived in a world that felt almost perfect -- nowhere else in Scotland was like it. No where else in the British Isles was so perfect and serene despite the deadly truth of it all.
The power of allowing these monsters to live in the castle above the village was the reason for this, a blood-thirsty quid-pro-quo. You scratch our back; we won't bite yours.
"Promise me!" Kildare shouted taking Roman by the shoulders.
"I promise. I won't do this again." He said, a half lie.
Kildare took his leave from the antechamber and went back to sit in the dark of Alexandre's room. Roman followed and took off into the outer corridor back down into the main rooms and the ballroom that was still being set up. He wondered if he would be found out, if his half lie would be exposed. Although he would not try to kill Alexandre again, he surely would do all he could to free his cousins and free himself.
The end was indeed near, but not in the way he hoped. Perhaps the strangers from America would find them and they could all escape together.
Roman took to his spinning mind and continued to repeat the names of the strangers back in his head:
"Matthew/Hope/Matthew/Hope/Matthew/Hope." He needed to remember them to ask Evie.
Finally -- A plan was forming.
