A Slave for a Vampire

Chapter Twenty

CONFRONTING

IT WAS JUST AFTER SUNSET when Richard and Mindy decided to go and confront her father, to see if he would give her, his blessing to marry. They got ready along with four guards and got into the car and started their journey to the house she was raised in.

They drove in silence, not speaking, the wind pushes on the car to no avail. We are going forwards and nothing but the thought of the tragedy that changed my childhood. Mindy looked out the tinted windows to see nothing but fields, seeing this choreographed dance but without the soul, it should have. One of the guard's riddles with the radio to fill our ears with some music, her hands beside her felt the plush of the fabric seats. Mindy then closed her eyes; she could feel the gentle rise and fall of the road beneath them. She couldn't imagine what was in store for her, but she knows it couldn't be a good thing. Then somewhere at the end of this road was going to be the answer, where her father would be.

The car come to a stop and that's when Mindy opened her eyes to see the house. It seemed abandoned but there in the front window was a dim-lit light. She took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, and that's when Richard straightened out his arm and softly grabbed her hand insurrection.

He gives her a soft smile and let her hand go as the guard opened the passenger door and Richard stepped out into the night air, Mindy slowly followed behind him.

She looked at the house and stood there in front, as this weird fog started to rise in the sky. The fog dragged a cold breeze, that sent a chill up her spine, the house has been forever and nothing like it had been in her childhood. Then there in the lilted window was a shadow of her father, she stood there for a few seconds just looking until she felt Richard right behind her.

Mindy then closed her eyes tightly for a moment, then decided to walk up to the house, every step felt wrong, she got to the porch and when she stepped up on the wooden floor it made this loud creak, she looked back into the darkness to look at Richard. He gave her this courageous smile and that's when she knows that he would keep her safe.

She could hear Richard's voice in her head, "Let's just get it over with, my love." And she knows that this was going to be the day she broke free from the man that called himself her father. She slowly walked up to the faded red door and reached out and softly knocked. This house had no love anymore, yet she was driven out of this place because of her father, she heard the echo of footsteps coming close, knowing deep inside it was her father.

The door cracked open and there in the dim light was her father looking down at her in surprise. He cleared his throat and said, "Min-dy, is that you?"

She was quiet for a moment or so, then replied in a muffled voice, "Yes."

He didn't step forward or anything but looked at the men that were behind her. His eyes widen and a small shiver upon his lips showed a little fear. "Please, come in!" her father told her and stepped away from the front door.

The house had this awareness to itself, the history of the echoes come to her that stayed in the walls. Somewhere within the walls was the mixer of the pain, of the horror that only these walls could tell. She slowly stepped into the house along with Richard and two of the guards followed behind. The other two guards started on the porch.

She slowly followed her father into the Livingroom, where a small tv was on a black and white movie, she looked around noticing that it was all the same. It looked like a museum of her childhood, there in the far corner was a small bookcase with all the books she once owned still there, a small round table in the center of the room that still held a vase with dried dead roses and a small couch and her father's favorite chair in the same spot right across from the tv stand.

He held out his hand to the small red couch, Mindy looked at Richard as she reached down and grabbed his hand, and they walked over to the couch to sit. Her father sat down in his chair and looked over at them.

Richard cleared his throat and started talking to her father, "Mr. Rose, I am Richard and of course, I am here to get your permission to marry your daughter, Mindy!"

Her father didn't say anything but meanly looked at Mindy for a moment before Richard continued to speak, "Please do not look at her in such a way, my wife-to-be is her out of respect to you and would like to be able to marry and have a family one day."

Her father reached down and grabbed his beer and took a long drink before speaking, "So, you're getting married, and you thought that I would just what let you go. You ran away from home and never returned even when your mother was sick, you thought that it would be alright to come here with this – this man, and everything will be alright-"

Mindy quickly stood up cutting off her father, "I was there at the hospital when mother was dying, I went to see her when you won't around because you know why. I ran away because of the horrible things you did to me, I ran away from you Dad, not Mom," she told him with this argument and tears running down her father. "You think you owe me, but you don't. I was your child, you were the one person in this world that should have protected me but instead, you did these bad things to me, to the point where you raped me, Dad. You raped me and took my childhood away from me. And Mom couldn't do anything to help me because she was sick and dying," she yelled out at her father.

At that moment, Richard stood up beside her and reached one arm around her shoulders, "It's alright, my love, please calm down." he asked of her.

Mindy looked up at him and took in a deep breath trying to calm herself down, and then she reached up and wiped her tears away from her cheeks. Her father just sat there with this shocking look on his face, noticing that Richard had this angry look on his face and his fangs, his fangs were showing.

"Look here, Mr. Rose," Richard started off by saying, "You may think she abandoned her mother and maybe even you, but you hurt the one person in your life that you should have protected through her whole life as a father, but you didn't. So now you have a chance to do good for your daughter, to give her the life she truly deserves. She has a new life, a life that is wonderful and full of love and hope. Your daughter is a beautiful and wonderful woman and I want your blessing to make her my wife."

"And how much those that mean to you?" her father replied with this jerk look on his face.

"What do you want?" Richard replied, looking down at her knowing that her father wanted money, he wanted to pretty much sell his daughter to him.

"I want money, of course," he smirky replied.

"How dare you ask him for money, Dad. How dare you think you can sell me to him, just to get your permission, your blessing to marry him. Can't you just give us your blessing, mostly to do right by me," Mindy told her father with anger.

"Oh Mindy, you are worth so much more. I will never give you my blessing to marry this monster, this vampire," he started off by saying, "What do you think I don't know what he is, do you think that I didn't know where you have been for the last few months? In this monster's house being a slave to him."

He stood up and took a step forward, "I know what and who and where you been, knowing every single move you have made. You're my daughter and I will always know where you are hiding at, or been sold to," he took other drink of his beer and then continued to say, "I know his father is the King of the Vampires, so he has money and he will now buy you from me."

She couldn't believe all of what her father told them, she couldn't believe that he never tried to save her or anything like that but then again, she wouldn't have wanted him to or to return to this house.

The two guards were now standing closer to us, at the ready to attack her father if he tried anything. Mindy thought that maybe they should just kill him, to finally be free of the real monster in her nightmares. The thought of her father being killed, finally being dead brought a smile to her lips.