Lost Without You

~2~

The woman walked to me from behind the counter, shaking her head sadly.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think you can go back again."

My knees trembled. The nausea, the same as when I time travelled before, was back again, tripled by the sense of loss. Finality. Even though I didn't think I could ever go back again, only now, as she said that, I finally started to believe it. Is this really the end?

"Well, you could always try, right? Next year, maybe. Now come and sit down with me," she said when she noticed my agitation, preceding me to the small table with the postcards.

"Would you like a drink? Something warm, tea or coffee, maybe?" she asked, moving all the things that were lying on the table to one side to make space for us.

Coffee! "A cappuccino, please. Thank you."

She smiled at me kindly and disappeared into the breakfast room.

I looked out of the window facing one of the small town's roads. Breathing deeply, I tried to make the nausea dissipate; I'd had enough of it. As I watched, several groups of people, some dressed in Halloween costumes, strolled by despite the cold weather and the late hour. It was nearly midnight.

"Some of them will walk all the way to the castle, hoping to see... someone, something." Alina reappeared with our drinks perched on a small, red plastic tray, shaking her head disapprovingly. "They think it's amusing."

"What do you think?" I asked her, cupping my cappuccino in my hands as soon as she placed it in front of me, inhaling its delightful aroma. I loved how they served the cappuccino sprinkled with cinnamon in this part of Europe. The scent was reminding me of...

"I think that some things and beings should be left in peace. And that none of these adventure hunters will see those who don't want to be seen or recognized, anyway."

"What do you know about... them?" I asked, looking at her intently.

Her large, brown eyes, looking at me from under the fringe of her perfectly straight, chocolate brown, shoulder-length hair, reminded me of Clara.

She sighed. "I've never spoken about any of this with anyone apart from my own, closest family." Alina sipped her tea and looked outside for a moment before she continued. "I don't know where to start. There is so much I could tell you, but I don't know if I should. My family has been keeping your husband's presence in the castle secret for centuries. Why don't you tell me about yourself first?"

"Fine. I tell you what happened to me but then you'll tell me what you know. I need to understand. I must return to him, I shouldn't have let Junior take me back here in the first place."

"Junior. Would that be your husband's son? I know about him, but I've never met him. He hasn't come out since the times of my great-grandmother. I guess it gets boring for them, coming through the passage just to remain trapped inside the castle. It's just your husband who's been visiting every time. He was sure that you would come back; he wanted to see you. Did you actually walk through the portal? I didn't think it was possible."

"Apparently, Vlad didn't think I'd be able to do that either, but I simply followed him in. He mentioned there had been a few more time travellers coming from this world throughout the centuries, though..."

"Yes, there had been. The writer, for instance," she said, picking up a copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula from underneath the postcards lying on the table. "But none of them ever walked in through Castelul Bran, I'm sure about that. There must be at least one more portal somewhere else. But go on, please, tell me what's on the other side."