A Tender Hand from a Violent Crest

I don't wanna clean the Corpse Garden!

"Nooooo, Mama, I don't want to!" Shouted an angry Daniela. Stamping her feet in a bratty and frustrated manner as age stood before their lady mother, her face was puffed up and, had she the blood proper to do so, likely would have been ablaze with a reddish glow from her fierce indignation. A behavior that earned a snicker from Cassandra, who nearby was exsanguinating the latest piece of food that she had brought home. A simple cut in the carotid artery that was then fed into a tube towards a few jugs made the process less messy, and better for storage into the coming winter where going out to hunt would be detrimental to the daughters.

She had snagged the man thing about 4 miles up the road. A farm hand, a white and gangly thing, midway into a rather deranged act on a young girl, ensured that they kept him alive through the entire process. While a method of death that is not particularly filled with pain, the expression of the struggling man delighted Cassandra in that special way. Filled with fear, panic, and desperation, all while his quickly weakening muscles tussled against his tight rope bounds with little hope of escaping. It was a struggle fought out of a need to be fought for death was an unacceptable, even when inevitable, endpoint for the squirming man thing that had dared hunt within their borders. She suspected his feast would be of particular delight come December, or perhaps as late as January, due to his terrible aptitude. Something about those more terrible men with even more appetites that just made the blood all the sweeter to Cassandra and their struggle against her appetite, even more so.

Still, she was having a hard time enjoying the gagged whimpers and frantic, whining gargles of the manthing's struggles as Daniela had only escalated her temper tantrum. Their lady mother had simply asked her to clean up the corpse garden for the new additions that would be planted just before winter, a newer edition to the castle built in secret. It had been Bela's idea after they had been revived and restored following the incident with a certain mold made man, and she had taken great care to transform each grotesque piece into an almost eldritch kind of horrific art within the garden's walls. Charging Daniela with such a vital task was ill-advised in her perspective, but based on their lady mother's playful smile, this was likely a means to try and place some manners into Daniela, or at least some structure.

Of the three, Daniela had the worst response to the resurrection process. She had regressed even more so mentally and often felt more like a teenage girl than a crazed adult woman. Their lady mother had survived on but a few of her cells and spent years both reconstituting and collecting their remains. She never explained how she had revitalized them from such sparse parts, but Cassandra considered it in poor taste to really ask. Anytime the topic emerged, the look on their lady mother's face was enough to break their hearts, or, well, whatever one might call their hearts.

Whichever way one felt about it, however, Daniela was certainly not thrilled. After around 10 minutes, and an expired meal was done draining, she grumbled and marched off towards the corpse garden to begin removing the old and rotting pieces to prepare for the newer editions. Cassandra hoped to potentially convince Bela to let her top one of the trees with the heads to prepare for their winter solstice celebration. Lady Mother had gotten back into true witchcraft and had begun celebrating a few old holidays in the castle. The daughters were showered in both food and presents during each, or even last year during the spring season, allow them to turn an entire church upside down. She could still remember how beautifully the pastor had screamed when she slowly forced him to eat his entire bible page by page before ripping the entire thing from his belly page by page with her claws. Apparently, he had been quite a big name, though the public reaction that Bela inquired on seemed quite mixed. Whoever this Joe man had been, he sure was a controversial figure.

A thought crossed through Cassandra as she watched Daniela stomp out with a fiercely unladylike demeanor. She couldn't recall seeing Bela this morning. In fact, when she had woken up, she recalled seeing Bela's bed empty. It hadn't been the first time either. Once she finished cleaning off her equipment, she went to knock on the lady's mother's door. After Daniela had stormed off, she had retired to her office.