DRACULA: A VERY SPECIAL FLAVOUR

The Conflicted Soul - Part 1

notes 1: For those who have been patient.

notes 2: some text lifted from a previous story for the introductory tale. 

EPILOGUE

ST MARYS CONVENT 1885

The very old Sister Mary was on her death bed as she clawed on to the much, much younger Sister Agatha. The older nuns grey eyes looking desperate...

"There was a dream I had, that Dracula had a son. He was born in the future and to keep his boy safe, he was inexplicably spirited away here to the past. Count Dracula is an intelligent individual. But he overlooked the fact that he actually put his son in mortal danger. Overlooked the fact that his past self was here too...

I met the boy. The boy was adopted by gypsies, and his name was Fitz..."

Sister Agatha was fanscinated by Count Dracula. She had always have been. This illegically immortal creature living for so many long centuries and not changing or aging at all.

In the soft candle glow, she looked down to Sister Mary, "tell me...tell about this dream..."

And the old nun shook her head and began...

1842

The baby was in the basket and wrapped in a white sheet at the gates of the convent. A nun heard the baby cry and was running to the iron gates and pointed and raised the alarm.

"What in God's holy land is this? An infant left for us at the gates?"

"Sister Jeanette, take the baby inside it is freezing out here"

The nun gathered up the infant from the gates, "yes, Sister Mary"

The infant was soon in front of the warming fire of the convent, and a crowd from the holy order wanted to make a fuss of the young one.

One of the younger nuns looked down at the baby with a hand across her heart, "What heartless woman could have left him here? He could have died of exposure"

Sister Mary was warming up some milk for the child, "we are not here to judge sister, we are here to keep this baby safe in our care until we are guided of what to do about him"

Sister Jeanette had a warm smile, "poor thing...all I will say that the mother must have been desperate...surely she is not heartless, after-all, she left the infant at our gates...rather than abandoned in the woods to be ravaged by wolves. The Mother must have known we would take care of him"

Sister Mary gave the baby the milk and realised how dark his eyes were. It unnerved her a little, but this was a sweet innocent child.

"tomorrow, we will go down to the village and speak to the people...we will get to the bottom of this..."

"OF COURSE NOBODY DOWN IN THE VILLAGE KNEW ANYTHING ABOUT THE LOST BABY. AND AS FAR AS THE VILLAGE SQUIRE SAID, HE DIDN'T KNOW OF ANY GIRL THAT HAD BEEN PREGNANT"

Sister Mary placed the child into the crib and looked up to the cross, "Guide us oh Lord...help us find a loving family to place him in their care..."

"AND MY PRAYER WAS ANSWERED, ONLY A FEW DAYS LATER, A COUPLE CAME UP TO THE CONVENT WANTING TO ADOPT THE CHILD. THEY WERE GYPSIES FROM THE NEARBY TRAVELLING CIRCUS. A YOUNG COUPLE WHO WERE NOT BLESSED WITH A CHILD OF THEIR OWN..."

The gypsy couple stood at the convent gates and watched Sister Mary bring forth the child in his crib.

There was a sense of watching eyes from the woods and she hoped it wasn't those of hungry wolves...