Chapter 12
The infection
Rosaline is currently kicking my leg under the table because I told her I'm not sharing my ice cream and like everybody else, she should know that greed is the root of every evil! This time with a glower etched on her face, she stamps on it with her heel and I let out an almost quite "ahhh", earning myself a death glare from the mad King and my head drops to the table like a soaked tea rose. Stupid Rosaline abusing me for my ice cream!
His attention is however whisked away from me when Jonathan approaches him, whispering something in his ear and from the way he knits his eyebrows with his hands balling around the white table cloth, it's obviously something unpleasant and now more than ever, I wish I had a dog's hearing.
Paying heed to the two vampires before me and trying to pick up on whatever Jonathan is saying, I didn't even see the opportunistic Rosaline eat my dessert, I just found a clean bowel in front of me and one look at her grinning face told me who the culprit was. Pig!
"All of them? How is that possible?" The mad King bawls and smashes his fisted hand on the table, all eyes in the room travelling to him but he cares not because he continues.
"You need to find the source and soon Jonathan! Don't let them die. They can't!" He hisses with a finger pointed at Jonathan and tramples out of the hall, his heavy footsteps slowly waning. You would think that by now we'd be used to his outbursts but a dense mass of fear hovers over our heads as our eyes dart around the table from face to face, unlike the Queen who's maintaining her everyday calm look, not at all fazed as she digs into her plate, chowing whatever it is that was served to her.
It's true that the royal drama never ends but the matter seemed too important to ignore. Who was he talking about?
"They are different Rosaline!" I spar.
"It's the same thing Adinah. I'm telling you." She argues, her head upside down due to the position she's in. With her legs lying unceremoniously against the wall in a handstand, Rosaline's miniskirt has risen up to her waist, leaving her in... nothing but she still has the audacity to argue with me, saying that there is no difference between a skirt and a miniskirt. The view is not at all pretty from where I stand though and that scares me less than the fact that she doesn't seem to care about the appearance she's portraying to me.
"Who raised you?" I ask tilting my head to the side because I want to know which matron gave her so much freedom.
She chortles. "She would kill me if she saw me doing this. Now that I think of it, I believe the poor woman hated being assigned to me." She steps down and fixes her dress when we hear a knock.
"Come in." She answers, in my room.
"Hey!" Sola greets cooly and walks over to her, kissing her cheek and I just smile at how endearing they are. "Did you talk to Matilda?" He addresses me with a hand snaked around Rosaline's waist and I shake my head 'no'.
It's only now when I realise that I've been selfishly absorbed in my own guilt from that night so much that I never passed a message to her through Sola or Rosaline, I would occasionally ask Sola if she was fine for the past seven days.
I just didn't know what to say to her after so much but yet so little happened that night.
"You have to make sure she's fine Adinah, they are- they are dying." He says apologetically avoiding my gaze, like he'd rather be anywhere but here, saying anything except this.
"Wh-what?" I stutter, eyes twitching like those of a Blepharospasm patient. "What do you mean they are dying Sola?"
People just don't die! Besides, he'd told me she was fine last night.
My whole body heats up and sweat builds up in my hands. What is Sola talking about?
"So many deaths have been reported in the colony, more than hundred people this week alone and I think it's some sort of infection. All of them have the same symptoms, a high fever for a day or two which is shortly followed by nausea then sudden death." He explains and my mouth goes dry. There is no way Matilda is dying, I'm not allowing that. Matilda can't die. How can she die?
"Ar-are you sure?" I ask him and he nods.
"Adinah, I'm absolutely sure. They are all dying and whatever it is that's killing them, it's moving too quick to be treated."
"We have to do something then. I can't just let myself be confined in here like a grounded kid when my sister's life is in danger out there." I say pacing around the room, nibbling at my index knuckle. I know I look and sound ridiculous when the two just stare at me. There always is a way.
"Do you know if the doctors are already working on it?" I ask Sola who nods.
"There is no way they'd let everyone in the colony die. How can they live without us when we're basically their meals? They've been working on it and today people were advised to at least boil the water before drinking."
"I have to see her." Rosaline and Sola shake their heads simultaneously.
"You can't Adinah, it's an infection." Rosaline instructs.
"So what you're saying is that I should stay in here and cross my fingers, hope that she doesn't die?" My voice sounds harsher than I'd intended.
"Of course not! We'll do something but we need to think hard and be smart about it. You can't just jump out the window and hope to save the world from something that will kill you too!" A cheesed off Rosaline says, like it was obvious from the very beginning but to me it still isn't.
"But what if I can? What if I can just jump out the window and save my sister? Maybe she's not even infected yet and-"
"And what? You'll bring her here? Sneak her in and keep her under your bed? Is that your master plan or will you leave her hidden somewhere under a tunnel out there? You can't be rash about this Adinah, we need to think it through." Rosaline warns again but she's given me so many ideas in that short speech and I look at the clock.
If it's only 14:40 now, there's still time before sunset.
"Yeah, you're right Rosaline. We need to think about our next step carefully but for now I'd like to be alone and rest for while? Say we'll meet in the hall later for dinner?" The uncertainty in her eyes is as clear as day as she shakes her head.
"Nah, I think I'll just stay in here with you." She suggests.
"No, I really need to be alone now Rosaline,"
"I don't think-" She starts to say but Sola interjects.
"Let's go love." He pulls her arm but she keeps her narrowed eyes on me until she's out.
Thank you Sola, just a few minutes outside won't hurt.
YOU ARE READING
The vampire's incubator
مصاص دماءShe is born in a new world where the King's only aim is to have his heir and he will do whatever it takes to leave to kingdom under his son's rule. But what happens when his fate is dependent only on her? The one born to destroy him? #1 in oppressi...
