The Red Rose

Chapter XXV

We were there for a moment, dumbfounded by the revelation. I only knew the creature from movies, but it didn't resemble the depiction in them at all. Carmilla was looking around, and I kept staring at the corpse, so I couldn't help but ask him:

"Was it you?"

He looked at me with an embarrassed face and simply replied:

"Yes, but the lady had already lost her life when I found her."

"How long have you been here, trapped?" Carmilla asked.

"I don't know, I don't even know how I got here, miss," he responded, visibly confused.

Something awoke in me, that feeling seemed familiar, the tone of voice, and I asked:

"What do you remember?"

He paused and began to recount:

"I remember that fateful day. I knew Count Dracula was coming to claim his failed experiment, but I wasn't going to perish without a fight. The demon had betrayed me and condemned me to a life in the limbo of the living and the dead, and as we passed through a fog..." He paused and continued. "Suddenly, I found myself in an incomprehensible place, with an indescribable entity. Oh, young ones, it was something that defies all comprehension. A vast and incomprehensible presence, like a sea of luminous spheres pulsating with infinite knowledge. Its shifting contours extended beyond the limits of my perception, encompassing past, present, and future in an eternal instant. I felt my mind tearing apart as I tried to grasp its nature." He froze again for a moment, almost processing and touching his head as if he had migraines.

"The mere vision of this entity showed me how insignificant my existence is, how limited my understanding of the universe is. Is this the fate that awaits those who dare to challenge the limits of creation? And while all those questions hammered in my mind, it all vanished, and I appeared in this gloomy place, the same place where all my torment began to take a darker turn than I had imagined until that fateful day, until I met the demon, Dracula."

Whoa. Whatever he's smoking, I want some because the story seemed very interesting to me. Could it be that the experiments on him and his experiences traumatized him or made him lose a screw? How long has he been in this place without eating or drinking water? I remember the story was set in ancient times, and perhaps this guy is immortal, but I had a doubt, something didn't add up.

After reflecting on everything for a bit, I kept thinking and asked him, "What year is it?"

He looked at me confused, almost as if I had insulted him with such a question, but he still responded:

"1795"

Carmilla and I looked at each other again. He began to notice, looking at our outfits, the corpse's, and comparing them with ours, he immediately knew something was wrong.

"My dear friend, it is the year 2021, well, almost 2022."

"It can't be... Good God! This must be a joke..." he murmured aloud.

"Nope, my dear friend, it's not. And you're not the only one this has happened to, here you have another one." I smiled, pointing at myself.

"But, but... this is impossible! It must have been that being, that cosmic entity... but... why?" he reflected as he looked at me.

By that moment in the conversation, the three of us were already standing, while I was doing everything I could not to vomit, the smell of the corpse, plus the shit covering my shirt, was starting to make me gag.

"Miguel! I think this gentleman could give us more clues about how we met, our journey, or even who we already know is behind the Dragon."

"Dracula," I replied.