Für Sarah

A Promise or a Curse?

Two years later...

"Rebecca? Do you have any more of that darker shade?" Elisa asked, glancing up from her knitting.

It was Magda who replied, "Here, I have some left." Elisa smiled and thanked the beautiful woman.

"What a lovely color," Zsa Zsa cooed, and cringing at her own work. "I should have chosen that one. Or even the one you chose, Nadja."

Nadja smirked. "Not that it would have made a difference. Sar's using the very same wool I am and what ever she is making looks horrid."

Rebecca looked over at her daughter who was struggling to knit something with a faded red dyed wool. "Good heavens, Sarah, what in Heaven's name are you trying to make?"

The sixteen year old beauty turned her eyes up from her Catastrophe and to her Mama. "I am making a shawl." She muttered a-matter-of-factly. "Though I wish the color was more vibrant. And the material finer."

A laugh came from the Chagal's maid's lips. "Oh, Sarah," Magda chuckled. "You wish for a different life entirely."

"Perhaps I do...." the fire crackled in response to her words of hidden longing. "Mama," Sarah said after a moment of silence. "What exactly is a Vampire?"

Elisa's eyes snapped up to the girl who'd spoken, her jaw dropped. Magda stopped sweeping the floor beside the hearth. Mama spun and looked at Sarah, unable to speak.

"It's just.. you've always told us- everyone has always told us- to be frightened of them. To be frightened of Graf von Krolock." Sarah's tongue glided over his name so quickly one would not have guessed she spent every night murmuring it like a prayer. "But why?"

Even Nadja and Zsa Zsa gazed up at Rebecca, longing for an explanation. "W-well... a Vampire...." her eyes shifted to a white faced Elisa.

"They are monsters, Sarah." Elisa whispered in a breathy and weak voice. "They disguise their horror in beauty. What truly magnificent creatures they are to beheld. Deathly pale. Dark eyes. Sharp features. They can seduce even the most holy of men."

Sarah swallowed, lips pressing together tightly.

"Vampires live for pleasure and wickedness. They care not who it is, but always have to seek a lover. Preferably a mortal one." With every word, Elisa's tone became more and more bitter with hatred. "Their lust for flesh is not half as powerful as their lust for blood. A Vampire will sink his teeth into your skin and drink and drink and drink.... until you are almost dead. But never to kill. Not unless they wish to turn their mortal lover into the damned creature they are."

Sarah's mind whirled. The poor child felt sick to her stomach.... a strange wave of confusion, hurt, and disappointment swooped over her. "And what if the Count?"

"He is the very worst of them all. Obsessed with beauty he takes for himself one of us women to make love to him-"

"Elisa!" Rebecca scolded, her eyes fearful. "They are children-"

"Old enough to fall victim to him, Rebecca." The woman replied. "They must know."

Sarah's Mama fell silent, unable to argue.