Copper. All I smelt was this. No more florals. No more Catherine. I stirred around still in Catherine's study. The fireplace's coals were cold with flicks of amber flying up the chimney's shaft to the outside world. It was more cold than last night, I shivered in my nightgown. I arose to find Catherine. However, that was easier said than done. Catherine could be anywhere. Places I have yet to uncover. I felt I was running but it was a mere saunter. I checked the master dining room, the smaller dining room, making my way to the kitchen. I heard faint clashes of pots. I scurried in to catch Catherine off guard. Roman stood tall on the counter peering over at Catherine in the cold cupboard. It was a strange sight indeed to see Catherine in a blue dress, but, stranger occurrences have unravelled.

  "So, since I slept in your study, you have taken it upon yourself to make me breakfast?" I yawned petting Roman's head.

  "You? Ha! Girl, if I start making you food then Valeria must pay double." A strong woman arose to stand straight to meet me. Her hair was as long as mine but black as night. I was always judged for my rather tan skin tone, hers would startle the masses. The shade of burnt brick. An orangish-brown colour. Honey. That's it. Her skin was the colour of freshly made honey. "Oh! Excuse me. I thought you were the lady of the house."

  "Catherine Valeria? I am aware. You must be servant. I am Vadoma. I clean castle. Ce mai face?i." Vadoma wore heavy extravagant gold necklaces and bracelets. They banged against one other once she raised her arms above her head. "It seems you two could not pick up broom while I was away? Or clean pots?"

  "I beg your pardon? I will have you know I have cleaned the dining room, the silverware the windows, the banisters and the floors on countless occasions. Perhaps you cannot see that with all of your shiny jewelry!"

  "Huh...a fiery one. Valeria must have kept you long for that purpose. Usually, I find her young servants rotting in the earth by spring."

  "Haha! You too believe all this vampire nonsense as well? What are you anyway? You look rich enough to not clean the castle." I smirked as my brows furrowed upon further inspection. Her dark locks were braided into two thick entanglements, with baby hairs curling upon her forehead. She wasn't the same age as Catherine, not even 30 I would say. She certainly wasn't my age. Though, if it is spring then my birthday has passed. I am 18 finally. The winter solstice. I just wish we celebrated it. Celebrated Christmas even.

  "Where in the hell did she find you huh? Never seen Roma before? Found you under rock?" Her Romanian accent caked thicker than Catherine's. Every auxiliary verb is slashed for both of their vocabularies, even more so with Vadoma. "Roma? Is that a type of noble status? I'm from London originally, I moved here to Transylvania with my father. Now, you did not answer my first question. Why do you believe Catherine is a vampire?"

  "Because I seen it. Her change," Vadoma slams the cold cupboard doors rag in hand, running the white cloth over the counter where Roman sat shooing him away. "I was there that night. I was young. The night she and her family held their yearly ball for All Hallows Eve. All of the important families. The Thomases, the Popa's, and even the Romanov family. The Valerians upheld the embodiment of Romanian wealth. When a stranger came with Catherine's son, David. The stranger devoured Catherine's husband and daughter...Carmilla...she's...was beautiful. Prin?es?. The stranger came for Catherine. He did not kill her." Obviously. I would not have a job, would I?

  "Well, what did this murderer do to her? She seems psychoneurotic after." I tried to offer my services to aid Vadoma in any way I could. I was denied on multiple occasions. "Ha, that is understatement. No, not just a murderer, a vampir. Creature of the night. Blood drinking suave."

  "Haha! And what? You supposed this suave vampire turned our dear lady of the house, Catherine Valeria into one of them?" I leaned over on a counter. "And how are you such an expert on the matter? Just because you were supposedly there then how are you so special to stay with vampire Valeria?"

  "Perhaps because I am a gypsy, people do not want me. So Catherine allowed me to stay."

  "Gypsy? Does that not mean you read palms and magic? Often we would see Gypsies selling oils and bracelets. Very nice sort. Nothing the likes of you may I add." Vadoma sneered as her hand smacked my hip. "Perhaps in your eyes were are colourful and people pleasing, in these eyes of Romanians were are seen as less than. Vermin. Less than rats. Lady Valeria and you young girl."

  "Young? I suspect we are equivalently the same age?"

  "What are you not 18? I am 20. Married to my husband for 7 years."

  "Good god. 7 years? You were 13 yes? That is ridiculous."

  "It is not so bad," Her accent trailed on as she threw the grey water out the backdoor. "The dowry was a lump sum. My father was given 50 shillings and a goat. I thank god my husband was decent-looking." She kissed her knuckles as they lifted to the sky. My brows lifted into my hairline in shock, to hear this woman 2 years older than me brush it off as if it were normal! My father has spoken about people not as fortunate as us not to marry girls young but this was preposterous. "That is it? 50 shillings and a damn goat! For your beauty, I hope the goat was the size of a horse!" My voice boomed through the kitchen as I was in utter disbelief. I had to amuse myself in such a serious conversation.

  "Haha! My beauty? Hardly...but thank you for the sentiment. That must be why Valeria has kept you so long. You were born in England correct? Women from wealthy lands must be wildly knowledgeable and beautiful as you." Vadoma ushered me out of the kitchen to the common area. Perhaps I was pestering her from completing her work.

  "Hardly, my father taught me to read when he grew older. He is a doctor." I was pushed out the door and spun around to be sat on a long red couch in front of the fireplace. "Wait? Why do you say Valeria kept me this long? You answered that question." Vadoma was much taller than me, not as tall as Catherine but still towered in stature. Vadoma smelt of honey even, as if I would touch her skin and sweet nectar would leave a residue on my fingertips. She huffed blowing a bounced strand away from her forehead. "Questions, questions. You are worse than my children. Mama, what's this? Mama who's that? If you must know, every couple of 100 years Catherine Valeria grows bored. She either has me lure a young woman up to this castle to become her 'servant'. The servant does small menial housework. Complaints about gut-wrenching horror-filled dreams then poof! I go to clean Lady Catherine's room by morning and there, the poor servant is naked in her bed drained of all blood. By the following night, she is left in the woods outside castle walls. To rot. In other words, Miss, lock your door, lock your mind and your legs."

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  "Huh?! I beg your pardon?"

  "You heard me girl. She is not only after your blood. She has other tastes she must satisfy. The sexual satisfaction. Over the years we tried to lure men but none were gullible enough to venture. She slept with one girl and that was that. Face it, to Catherine Valeria, you are just tits and blood. Which comes first well, she decides."

  "Haha! You are a riot! You and the villagers are quite humorous! Then why may I ask, hasn't she swung your way?" My laughter burst at the seams. To think everyone in Transylvania thinks she's a woman-loving vampire is the peak of my stay in Romania. "Oh laugh now, until Valeria has you under her thumb."

  "You both are under my thumb." I jumped to my feet to see Catherine standing at the top of the staircase. Her fingers tapped the decorative railing. Her nails rang throughout my ears as if that was the only sound I heard. "If you are finished scaring Bella Donna then there is cooking that must be attended to correct Vad? We haven't eaten a decent meal since you left."

  "U-um...yes my Lady..." Her overly confident stance grew small as her head lowered. She nodded her head to me as her feet scuffed to the kitchen. Catherine came down the stairs not taking her eyes off me. "Don't pay her any mind. Gypsies normally exaggerate and scare people, Vad on the other hand gets jealous." Her hands held out to cup my cheeks in her palms softly, not even grazing the skin. "Jealous? Really? She told me the same vampire story about you."

  "Haha! Really? That figures. Her husband is the butcher's only son in Media?. He was disowned by his father for paying Vadoma's dowry to marry the young Vadoma. It figures they conformed to that preconceived notion. They are trying to fit back in. Not working very well."

  "Who in the hell would want to 'fit in' in Media??"

  "People who want a normal life Bell, not like us." My neck cocked as my cheek fell into one of her palms. "Like us? How so?" Catherine's hand was chilled, but once my skin grazed hers it warmed her bones.

  "You choose not to marry, you rather to read books. I, well, I choose to live alone. Away from civilization and men for that matter. The one thing were have in common." Catherine's nails drug along the side of my cheek brushing my earlope. "Now, come upstairs. You must attend to our beddings. They must be washed." Her hand left my face as if it was still there. Funny, isn't it? Our body remembers faint touches even as they disappear.

  ?───? ??? ?───?

  I stripped mine and Catherine's bed carrying our sheets out the door. Catherine had indoor plumbing yes, but no such invention such as cleaning clothes and bedding inside. I unboxed a bar of soap into a mesh cover to scrub the bedspread.

  I slammed the back door shut as our bedsheets dragged along in the tall grass to the lake. Our white sheets were scuffed with dirt and stains from the green grass. I plobbed down on a bed of rocks to heave one of the many sheets in the water. With one hand in the lake and the other withholding a firm grasp of the bar of soap lathering the white fabric. Once the cloth was completely soaked, washed top to bottom I laid it over a makeshift string from one tree to another. So all my hard work is for not, I find it strange one must wash their bedding outdoors to make it clean but drape it over a damn dirty rock. My methods are more clean and save me a headache in the future.

  Hunched over on a rock did my back something fierce. The pain crept up from my hips to my neck. I stood to my feet walking around the perimeter of the lake to soothe the pain. Stumbling around on pebbles and leaves. A small hill met me going down to the edge where the fence around the castle stood. I followed along the tall metal fence surrounding us in this false sense of security we call life. I looked out beyond the fence to the gate leading to the front of the castle. It was strange the say the least, but in some weird way, it almost felt surreal, as though the outside was different in any way. However, it wasn't. The only different thing was the fence buried in the earth.

  "Bella Donna! Thank god! I found you!" Arthur Thomas spooked himself coming to the gate. "What in God's name are you doing here? I would suspect Daddy to crawl up here but you? Surely you have some barbaric hunt to sit on your ass and watch hm?" I was aghast to see the very man-child I despise here in my little paradise. "Oh heavens no. I do not condone the slaughter of animals for sport." Well, we have one thing in common. Only one.

  "Whatever, what brings you here Arthur Thomas? I would not imagine a man of your stature would dare venture up this mountain without purpose?" I grew tiresome just looking at the pathetic being in trousers standing on the opposite side of the gate. "I have a purpose if you must inquire. I have come to see you."

  "Me?! Why in hell's name would you do such an idiotic thing?"

  "Excuse me? I thought ladies think it is very chivalrous to come to their aid?" He scoffed wiping his mouth with his linen sleeve. His newly grown sideburns tasselled in the breeze like Romans whiskers. Though, Roman was more handsome.

  "Has it occurred to you that I do not need your assistance or your aid? I'm quite content where I am. I need nothing from you."

  "Some lady you are! You would rather live with a damn vampire than to live among your own kind!"

  "I would! Even if she is a vampire or not! Rather to be here than married to you! To be your footstool! At least she knows me as an intellectual and not a pair of tits on a stick!"

  "My father was correct! You are a wild child bent out and needing proper adjustment! You need to be put in your place! That is why we need to be married, Married to me!" His voice grew loud growling under his breath. His anger was nothing compared to mine built up over the last 18 years.

  "Haha! I will not water myself down to make me more digestible for you! You can choke." I scoffed, my eyes rolled to the back of my head awaiting for Catherine to save me from Arthur. "An adjustment?! You and your up-tight family full of inbreds need to be adjusted to think women have brains like a man! You might think I'm weak without a sword between my legs, but if I had one, it'd be bigger than yours! Now fuck off!" I pivoted my bare heels kicking dirt in his general direction.

  "Oh-..my god! You will burn in hell for your sinful ways! Laying with that homosexual blood feeder!"

  "If I let the vampire fuck me, then I surely promise I will take you to hell with me!" I spat back as I headed back to the lake retrieving the bedding.

  ?───? ??? ?───?

  I burst into the backdoor with the newly clean sheets in hand. My face burnt with rage. How dare the boy I truly hate come up to the top of the mountain to say I have to be 'adjusted'! Every thought replaying in my mind of our conversation grew me furious.

  "Goddamn-...stupid fucking man...I'd give him an adjustment alright! Shove coal up his tight ass! That'll be an adjustment!" I barked out leaving the kitchen to go to our bedrooms. I threw Catherine's sheets before her door pounding the wood. "Good for nothing...spineless, caterpillar-sized cock mommy's boy!" My teeth gritted stomping my feet to my room.

  Catherine's laugh broke my mutter. "What has your feather-ruffled Belly?" She unlocked her door leaning in the doorframe. "Nothing. I'm fine."

  "Bella, I know you. You only get this angry when you speak of that man-child."

  "Arthur Thomas! Yeah, got it!" I shouted back turning my body around to find Catherine standing in front of me. "Calm down. No need to get bitchy with me. I think if you told me then I could help in some way or another." Her smirk appeared lifting a strand of my hair away from my face. "That stupid boy came here!"

  "Here?! Where!?" Both of her hands locked on either side of my cheeks. Her grip tightened, barely lifting me onto my tip-toes. "Outside the gate. He came up to reason with me to marry him."

  "Impecile. He came all this way to persuade you. Why can they just realize we do not need them? Did you tell him to piss off?"

  "Of course," Catherine's grip loosened on my cheeks allowing my feet to rest. "You know, if it was true you were a vampire, I would let you eat him." Catherine giggled covering her mouth. "Ha! I suppose you would. I do not think that would be fair. He's your issue."

  "Well if that was the case I would ask you to turn me into a blood-sucker then I would eat him. Let him feel what it's like to be dominated over." I turned my back to my room.

  "No! Never! I would never do that to you!... I mean-....in an imaginary world I would think about it." She followed behind me. "I help you. That bed is too big for you. Plus I do not want you to tear the sheets in anger."

  "Oh shut up."

  "Watch it little girl or I'll make you shut up." Catherine muttered.