The Red Rose

Chapter XLII

There was almost nothing left. All the ghouls were beginning to disperse, and nothing remained but ashes of the rest who fell in the great battle. Carmilla observed me attentively with her deep crimson eyes, adorned with thick eyelashes. Franky separated to "speak" with some ghouls that were feeding on what was left.

"How do you feel now, after Dracula has healed your obsession with me? I imagine you'll now be free from my presence."

Carmilla looked at me with a more serious and frank tone, responding:

"I didn't drink his formula. I am who I am, both because of my nature and because of what I've done, I won't take the short path. My thirst for your essence goes beyond a simple vampiric reaction to you, it's also a reminder of the price I must pay for having hurt you, and I prefer to live with it for the rest of my immortal life."

I looked to one side, and then I told her:

"Dorian told me about the girls, the ones Dracula brought you. He told me they didn't make it."

She looked at me with complete frankness and said:

"I admit it, I tried one. But as soon as I bit her, I pulled away and requested them to leave. Unfortunately, they were intercepted by Varney and Ruthven, who were at the door standing guard. They punished me by making me watch, what they said was my mistake. That's why I had to kill Ruthven, I saw myself in the girl who fell to his fangs."

I sighed and asked her again:

"And the nightclub?"

She looked to one side, then turned her gaze back to me saying:

"It's true. I went with the intention of buying or obtaining a blood bag, but she had other intentions and I fell. I just told her I would feed and that's it, no other games."

I smiled and replied sarcastically:

"Feeding, for a vampire, doesn't only have connotations of food, and it seems that for your victim, it wasn't at all an offering of charity." I emphasized "victim" and "charity" by making quotes with my fingers.

"I already told you, I'm sorry. Do you want me laying on my knees? Do you want me to beg for forgiveness? I'm a vampire.."

After a long pause, we suddenly saw something move. The painting of the original "crying boy," which had survived the catastrophe, lay a few meters from us, and began to move until we could see Griffin emerge from the rubble.

He walked towards us, panting. His head wasn't visible, as his bandages had been destroyed. There weren't any on his hands either, but one of his hands had blood and could be seen.

"This?" Griffin said. "I guess I'm mortal again, Dracula's spell broke." He looked around and added. "Well, this is a mess. I imagine Dracula is finally history. And the others?"

"Just us three and Franky," Carmilla said.

"And the weirdos over there." I pointed towards two ghouls that were feeding on the leg of a vampire that was beginning to turn to dust.

"Weirdo is your sister, you son of a b****!" shouted a ghoul with a peculiar guttural tone of voice.

"Wow! These things can speak!" Says Griffin. Then he takes the broken glasses, which seemed to be suspending on the air for me, and puts them on asking:

"And now, what will you do?"

"The ghouls are more civilized than you think, they have their own culture and society. In my time I visited them and they saw me as one of their own, but we must take care of eliminating the invisible ghouls and the monstrous ghouls, these unnatural species," Franky interrupted.