Haven’t read Chapter One yet? Click here to read it!
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven

Sarah regained consciousness long before she opened her eyes. She remembered just enough from before she fainted to want to hang on to the comforting blanket of sleep that she was wrapped in. She knew that waking up would force her to remember, and she didn’t want to face everything quite yet.

“Okay Sarah, I know you’re awake. No use faking.” Sarah recognised Hillard’s voice and groaned.

“I don’t want to wake up. I’m happier asleep.” She didn’t want to face all of the confusion she knew was waiting for her when she finally opened her eyes.

“And how are you supposed to help your sister if you’re asleep? I thought you wanted to help her. You’ve been sleeping for two days.” Hillard knew that the last bit would catch her attention.

Two days! Sarah’s eyes flew open and she sat up quickly, and then just as abruptly lay back down. Her head was spinning.

“Okay, settle down,” Hillard was still worried about her. He had considered giving her some of his blood, but waited to see if she would rally on her own. He had to admit though, he had been sorely tempted the night before. “I just wanted to get your attention.  You’ve been pretty sick for the last few days. Last night I even wondered if you were going to make it until your fever broke.”

Sarah had a vague memory of someone holding her hand, keeping her anchored to reality, as she drifted in and out of consciousness. She remembered dreams of being transported to another world, where Thunder Bay didn’t exist and a castle stood at the top of Hillcrest Park. Was that a dream? She wasn’t sure. That part was more vivid than the others. She remembered standing on the shore of Lake Superior, seeing the Sleeping Giant and turning back to see a castle. The castle where Christine was being held! It hadn’t been a dream!

“Hillard? What’s going on? How could any of this be possible?” she asked weakly, not really sure if she wanted to know the answer.

“I’m not really sure how to answer that right now. I mean, I know the answer, but I have to think about this for a bit. I can’t have you fainting on me again. How about you let Adalaide give you some soup, and then you can show me that you’re feeling better before we start throwing any more craziness at you. Okay?”

Sarah nodded. Part of her wanted to know the truth right now, but the other part of her just wanted to crawl back under the covers and pretend that she was at home safe and sound. Hillard looked at her intently for a moment, almost as if he wanted to come back and say something more, but instead he spun abruptly on his heel and left the room.

Sarah looked around the room. She was in a spacious, comfortable bed. The mattress was soft, if a bit lumpy, and there was a homemade quilt covering her. The other furniture in the room was also simple. There was a dresser, made of wood, and a small mirror that hung from the wall above it. A wooden brush and comb set rested on the dresser but nothing else cluttered its surface. There was a shelf on the wall opposite her bed, holding some knickknacks, mostly made of wood and carved to resemble animals. A wooden chair was positioned at the head of the bed, presumably so that Hillard and his friend could take care of her while she had been unconscious. There was also a single window and it had thick, heavy dark blue curtains which were now closed.

A tall redheaded woman entered the room at that moment and saw Sarah staring at the window. “I think you could use some light,” she said, smiling. She laid the tray she had been carrying down on the dresser. Then she walked over to the window. She spread the curtains wide, allowing the bright sunshine outside to stream into the room, then turned and smiled at Sarah. “We were trying to keep things as dark and quiet for you as possible. You were very ill.” The woman, who Sarah guessed was Adalaide, walked back to the dresser and brought the tray with the soup on it over to Sarah. Sarah tried to sit up again, but the dizziness was too intense, and she lay back down, sighing resignedly.

“No problem. I will feed you. You have not eaten anything for two days. I am not surprised if you feel a little dizzy. We shall get some food into you and then see how you are.”

Sarah nodded gratefully. Her stomach was rumbling. Adalaide grabbed some extra pillows from the floor beside the dresser and helped to prop Sarah up into enough of a sitting position on the bed for her to eat. She stood back and looked at Sarah, as if ascertaining whether her patient was really well enough to eat or was going to collapse into unconsciousness again. Finally she nodded to herself, apparently satisfied. She picked up the soup and sat down on the chair beside the bed.

She fed a few spoonfuls of soup to her patient. Sarah ate absently, still trying to understand what was going on. After a moment, Adalaide put the spoon back into the bowl. She looked at Sarah for a moment, seeing that she seemed to be lost in thought.

“Do you need some time by yourself?” she asked, as if she really understood the mess of chaotic thoughts that were whirling through Sarah’s mind.

Sarah looked up at Adalaide gratefully. She really wasn’t in the mood to be talking to anyone. What she really needed was some time alone to think. Adalaide tucked the bed covers around Sarah, making sure that she was safely sitting up in the bed, then handed the soup to her and left the room.

Sarah slowly sipped the delicious soup. It was a delightful vegetable mix – not hot enough to burn her mouth, but warm enough to sooth her still-irritated throat. It wasn’t all that different from something she might have eaten back home when she was sick. Laying here, eating soup, she found it very hard to believe that there was anything out of the ordinary in her current situation.

Sarah finished her soup and lay back on the bed, pushing the extra pillows to the side. Her thoughts were tumultuous and wandering back and forth between worrying about her sister and trying to make sense of the differences between the surroundings in which she found herself and the Thunder Bay she knew. Her thoughts kept chasing themselves in circles and her tired brain eventually could not keep up anymore and she fell asleep.

When she awoke, she found Hillard once again sitting in the chair beside her bed. They just stared at each other intensely for several minutes before Hillard finally spoke.

“What do you know about vampires?”

Sarah was taken aback by the truly unexpected question. That was the last thing she had expected to hear when Hillard finally decided to explain to her what the hell was going on. There was a very long pause while Sarah contemplated how to answer before she finally spoke. Finally, she took a deep breath and decided to just list what she knew, rather than try to figure out where Hillard was going with this bizarre line of questioning.

“Well, I know the stories started in Romania. And there was a book about Dracula, who was apparently the first of his kind.”

Hillard smiled, seeming simultaneously relieved that she had recognized the word and amused at her use of the word story. “Well, I’ve never heard the story of Dracula. Are there any real vampires in your world?”

There it was – out in the open. This was not her world. Sarah focused on those last three words for a moment before actually processing the rest of the question.

“Real vampires? Well, I don’t think so. Of course, there are always those people who read novels by people like Anne Rice because they find the idea of being outcast and undead very appealing. They seem to want to believe. But real vampires? No. I don’t believe in them.”

Hillard stared at her intently for a moment. “Well, that tells me something. What is the ruling structure like in your world?”

The phrase ‘ruling structure’ seemed like a strange way to describe politics. Sarah again had to

“Well, I guess it depends on the country. Canada has a democratic system, as do a lot of countries in the world, to varying degrees. Some still have monarchies with kings and queens, and others have dictatorships with only one ruler. I think there are also a few ruled by various religious bodies.”

“And are there many different countries?” Hillard asked.

“Of course,” answered Sarah.

“And do you know of one called Deutschland?” Hillard spoke carefully.

Sarah paused for a moment. She didn’t know any countries by that name, but it sounded vaguely familiar. It reminded her of her college years, when she was taking courses to be a medical secretary. But it clearly had nothing to do with medical terminology. The only other classes she had taken were her electives in Human Sexuality and her German course. German, of course! Deutschland was the word for Germany in the German language!

“Germany is what we call it in English, but yes, it’s a country in Central Europe.”

Now Sarah recognized the strange accent that pervaded Hillard’s speech. German!

“Are you German?” asked Sarah.

Hillard smiled, “Almost everyone around here is.” He stopped again for a moment, and then stood. “I must think about what you’ve told me before continuing,” he said, “I’ll return soon.”

Sarah just stared after him as he walked out of the room.  She felt more confused than ever now!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Christine just sat at the table and stared at Lord Radek. She didn’t know how to react to his revelation that her sister was in the company of a supposed vampire. She was more shocked and horrified, however, to recognize the resemblance between the ‘dinner’ scene depicted on the tapestry in her room and the scene in which she now found herself.  In fact, aside from the fact that the other guests were missing, she could almost imagine that she had stepped, in true Alice in Wonderland style, into the tapestry itself.

Lord Radek sipped the thick dark red substance from his glass and chuckled.

Christine didn’t know how to respond to him at all. This situation was becoming more and more bizarre.

“A vampire? Are you kidding me?” she asked, unable to wrap her mind around the concept, or around what she saw even now right in front of her.

Lord Radek smiled. “Do you not believe in vampires, my dear?” he asked, his smile becoming a smirk. “Or is it that you have something against us as a species?”

Christine’s eyes widened at his blatant assertion that he was also a vampire. She knew the myths of course, and the stories. She was even a bit of an Anne Rice fan, but to take it one step further and assert that the stories were true? Part of her felt that, after the events of the past few days, it was entirely within this new realm of possibility she was trapped in. A much stronger part of her, however, insisted that she must deny what he was saying, and what she was thinking, in order to keep herself sane.

“At this point,” she admitted, “I don’t know what to believe. And, honestly, I thought I was invited down here for dinner.  I don’t want to talk about these things right now.”

Lord Radek chuckled again. Christine felt like she was a never-ending source of amusement for him and she wanted nothing more than to leave and go back to her beautiful prison, even if it meant that she would be alone again.

Various servants began bringing food into the room. Christine took a small portion of each dish; Lord Radek took none. Whenever he finished his glass of ‘wine,’ a servant brought him another.

Christine ate silently, barely tasting the food. She didn’t want to think about Lord Radek’s vampire comments, but found herself unable to think of anything else. Again, she considered the bizarre events of the past few days. Was the existence of vampires any more ridiculous than the existence of a fog that acted as some sort of gate between worlds? Finally, as she finished the food on her plate, Christine finally looked back over at Lord Radek only to find him studying her carefully – as he had presumably been doing the entire time she had been eating.

“Suppose I did believe in vampires?” She began cautiously. “Shouldn’t I be horror-struck that my sister’s with one? Or,” she asserted, a reckless gleam in her eyes, “perhaps because I’m with one as well?”  She waited to see Lord Radek’s response, desperately hoping that she hadn’t pushed him too far.

Lord Radek’s green eyes, however, lit up with delight and he laughed quietly yet again.

“I knew you had intelligence, my Christine. I have felt how deeply your emotions run, but I fully admit that I have been more curious as to whether your brains match your beauty. Oh,” he sighed, “you are so very tempting to me.”

Christine didn’t like the hungry gleam in his eyes. Even as a wave of indignation began to rise within her, she began to feel a sleepy sense of comfort blanket her. Before she was overwhelmed, however, she blurted out, “So, what, you’re tempted to feed on me? Is that right?”

Lord Radek stood up from his chair and went to stand behind Christine. She felt his hands on the back of her neck, then the brush of his fingertips as he brushed her curly blond hair aside to whisper in her ear. “Feed on you? That I have done many times, and you are sweet indeed. You tempt me to do so much more – things that are forbidden to me.”

Christine wanted to move, to jump up from her chair and flee – flee this room, flee this castle, flee this world – but she was frozen. Part of her was screaming inside, but another part of her waited in eager anticipation for what would come next. It all felt familiar. Then she felt Lord Radek’s sweet kiss on her neck and knew the truth. He had fed on her before; this was not the first time. And … she liked it!

Read Chapter 9 next Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011 . . .

 

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