Für Sarah

Waiting

Magda handed the last man a mug of warm cider as he nodded thankfully and turned to face his wife.

Chagal had been gone an hour, but it had felt like an eternity. Everyone had stuffed themselves in the Dining Hall of the Inn as they often did. But a shadowed hush was cast across them as poor wretched Rebecca Chagal wept ceaselessly murmuring through sobs. The sky was as dark as pitch outside.

The maid's body ached, her shoulders tensed. Her tongue felt dry and her stomach was sickening.

Oh, stupid, foolish Sarah.

She was gone. That much they knew. Had His Excellency truly snatched her away as though she was his property to pick up whenever it pleased him? Or had that young woman's fantasies gotten far to out of hand to make her run away?

Magda's temples pounded.
Her dull hazel and eyes reopened themselves after they had fluttered close momentarily. Her gaze snatched on- without meaning to- the young, handsome guest.

His brow was furrowed as his eyes were narrowed on several pages displayed on the table in front of him. Magda couldn't help but notice how in the hazy candle light made his bronze curls looked almost brown, almost a gleamy copper color.

The white haired professor was babbling off about something in his assistant's ear, far to excited at what he was saying than that was appropriate.

Magda sighed (deeply) at the rudeness of it, moving forward to tell the man to stop or she'd have him thrown out in the snow.

"-looks like a five to me, not a seven," she heard Alfred argue in a soft tone once she had come into earshot.

"My boy, if that were the case, Count Nivaldo von Krolock would be three centuries old!" Albronsius chuckled.

Magda struck the table with a rag, shooting both men's eyes up to her. "Don't say His Excellency's name as though he were one of us." she whispered. "He is not human."

"Ah!" The professor squeaked, grinning oddly. Her stomach churned. She had said too much. "Do you know the Graf then?"

"We all do."

"And you fear him?"

"Yes."

"You say he isn't human-"

"You ask too many questions!" she barked in a harsh whisper. "I suggest you leave, go back to whereever it is you came from. Forget us. And pray he never knew you came."

Suddenly, the Professor stood up, his old eyes beading into hers without humor. "My name is Professor Albronius as I have mentioned. That creature- that Count- are what I have spent my life proving are real. Homo Nosferatu Vampiris. And if I am correct, His Excellency is just that. And now he has taken a child from you for what purpose we know not. So I suggest you to sit down and tell us everything you know."

Magda sat.

"They say the von Krolock family has lived in that castle in the woods since the dawn of time." She spoke slowly, recalling every rumor, tale, piece of information that she'd heard over the years. "I suppose we were once tenants or... something else. Servants." Her hazel eyes snapped up to meet the professor's gaze. "No. His Excellency is not human. They call him a-ah.. Vampire."

"Homo Nosferatu Vampiris." Murmured Alfred.

Magda nodded. "Rumors.. Tales... that he... and those like him seduce-" she winced. "Their prey. Before biting. Into the flesh."

"Draining their blood." the young man finished.

The Professor nearly cried out in joy. "More! Does he hunt those in the village?"

Magda swallowed. "No. At least, not really. The Count... chooses a woman. From here. Every... hundred years or so. He has an agreement with Chagal that besides his plaything he won't hurt any of us. So long as we keep silent about his... existence."

"Every hundred years?" Cried Albronius.

"Plaything?" Cried Alfred.

"I suppose he gets tired of the same lover." She whispered bitterly. "The last time he chose was about twenty-five years ago. Elisa Dobler... poor Elisa. She was beautiful. The most beautiful I think I'd ever seen. It wasn't a surprise when one evening His Excellency threw open the door and took her."

"She was happy to go, I think." Magda continued. "It meant she was special. Well, more special than the rest of us. But," her brow furrowed. "She came back nineteen years, almost to this day, weeping. But wholly mortal. Untouched. Human. Elisa was screaming... sobbing... murmuring that the Count did not love her and did not want to Turn her.  That he couldn't stand her. And...."

"Go on." The professor urged.

"That he would wait. He would wait as long as it took. But that a child would be born among us, her spirit already immortal, the most beautiful creature... and he would take her. Turn her... and marry her." the fiery haired woman's eyes dashed between them as she drew a breath. "And then Sarah was born."

"Chagal's daughter?" Albronisus asked, on the edge of his seat. His assistant's face fell.

"Sarah..."

Magda relayed the horrid night when the young girl, not more than six, was found in the frozen woods, giggling like an angel from God as the Count pressed his lips to her hand and winked a promise that no one understood. And of the evening ten years later when Sarah and two young ladies and run from the forest, weeping and crying out. Vampires had almost taken them. She spoke of Sarah's determination and her passion and her confession that His Excellency had chosen her to be his Queen.

They were silent. Alfred looked as though he was going to be sick, his alluring blue eyes brimming with tears. The Professor looked as though he had a million questions but couldn't word a single one.

"And now he has taken her." the former said, his tone so soft she could hardly hear.

"Or she ran off. Sarah used to tell me that he loved her. That he loves her. I don't think she quite understood. Truly, there has never been a more lovely being to grace this Earth, none half as passionate, but she wasn't... she doesn't understand. Or won't. I would watch as she drew circles on the crane of her neck as she looked in the paine of a mirror. Sarah turned to me and asked if I thought pricking a needle into her skin would hurt. As if she knew."

She didn't let either man say a word before she pointed to the paper they had been staring at. "What is this?"

"A pedigree." Answered Albronisus.

"A what?"

"A family tree," Alfred offered weakly.

"Of the von Krolocks."

Magda's worn out finger traced the edge of the page, trailing down to the bottom name. "Ne.... Neva-"

"Nivaldo." Offered the young man.

The maid gave him a quick glare. "Nivaldo von Krolock?" Her eyes snapped to the men. "Wait. Graf von Krolock?"

The professor nodded as if she was stupid for not connecting it before. "Yes. Count von Krolock."

"Why is there no number beside it?" She whispered, her brow furrowing slightly. "Those others..." she tapped beside the list of long names. "They have numbers."

Alfred shifted. "They are dates. Such as birth...." he licked his pink lips. "And death."

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Video: part of Totale Finsternis. Super dramatic and taken off-set/stage.
Why: did this for more comical purposes, like what Magda is envisioning happing. Sarah-runs-away-to-Count-flirts-gets-bitten-death.

And I love this video.

Not as much as I love YOU GUYS THO!!!!!!! And your amazing, sweet, funny, encouraging, emotional comments.
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