Bathory Blood

Finding Bathory

Mike was an oversized, heavily overweight Nigerian who didn't usually sleep on the job, but this night he was just so exhausted that, while sitting at his desk near the main door, he fell into a deep slumber and was snoring - surprisingly softly for a man of his bulk.

As usual, Mike's dreams were filled with the love of a pale white woman. Although he knew she was a witch of some description, he was happy enough within the dream to make love to her every night. She had a strange name that was neither Nigerian nor English, and, as such, he could never quite remember it. She had told him once that the English version of her name was Elizabeth, so that's the name he used whenever he thought of her. Which was often also during waking hours.

The dreams Erzsebet induced within Mike pushed him into a sleep so deep even Glen's awkward fumbling in retrieving the keycard from his neck did not disturb him. His head was so big that it took her some time to lift it over without waking him. Not that she could have woken him, but Glen didn't know that Erzsebet was in control of his mind, and this was the reason she'd remained silent in Glen's mind, save for some specific instructions.

Erzsebet was weak and had no idea how the humans would revive her from her own deep sleep, let alone how she was meant to do it herself.

For Glen, everything still felt surreal, as though she wasn't actually there, perhaps even dreaming. She couldn't be precisely sure. It had been a strange night. The mansion, drugs, consuming blood, leaping through the air, the feeling of utter power coursing through her made it all seem too crazy to be true. As much as she believed the reality she was presently in, she, at the same time, had no problem believing she could also still be on the bathroom floor in Anna's mansion, dreaming everything. Yet, still, Glen felt a sense of responsibility in this dream world, and it was this that steered Glen. She could feel the power available in her muscles, and she feared it. Glen feared what she might be capable of. This was why she kept out of the way of everybody along the way. There was also another reason.

The river of blood. It was a vision that assailed her intermittently. Glen had no craving for blood, so couldn't understand the significance of it.

With the keycard in hand, Glen moved along the squeaky, white tiled floor that had been installed at great expense throughout the clinic. The walls were a brilliant white, making it look just like any other place where you might find sick people. Only Glen had never seen any sick people. She had assumed it was a place that perhaps contained patients, but she never saw them due to them being sick. Like, contagious sick. That's also why she had never asked questions - she'd rather not know.

As Glen was a cleaner who arrived early, she assumed the offices and desks she polished would soon be filled with workers not long after she had left. There was, after all, a strict finish time. Anna would walk around dinging a little bell when there were ten minutes to spare. Of course, with so little to do, the girls mostly spent their last hour at work chatting.

Glen would never have imagined that the offices and desks she maintained were never used by anybody, ever. If Glen had been so inclined to investigate, she would have wondered why the waste-paper baskets never needed emptying? Or, perhaps why the computer monitors were never warm? Indeed, why was there never anything out of place or much to do in the way of cleaning? She dusted and polished the floors as she had been trained to, collected her pay, and then went home. Why would she question something that pays the rent?

The keycard worked almost too efficiently, Glen thought, as she bypassed a multitude of security doors which were all clearly signposted with warnings that she was about to enter a restricted area. As one restricted area led to another, she wondered if each was more restrictive than the other, but then Mike had a passkey, so it was probably a one-size-fits-all thing.

Erzsebet's room was set deep within a labyrinth of corridors and empty spaces. It all seemed such a lot to maintain just one person, but perhaps necessary considering who she was. Not that Erzsebet was a person. According to her, she was a separate species altogether.

The power of the keycard slid back the solid titanium panel like a door from Star Trek, and there she was, looking as beautiful as the day they had first incarcerated her, Erzsebet Bathory. She was lying in a long glass tube which provided all of the support Erzsebet needed to sustain her, along with a constant milking of blood which Glen could see traveling from Erzsebet's body and through slim translucent lines. She followed the lines to its collection point, a two-liter thick glass fluid jar.

"In the fridge." Came Erzsebet's voice in Glen's mind, but it was pained with significant pauses before each word because she was so weak. It had taken Erzsebet a substantial mental effort to hold the night together. Mike, the security guard, was the most difficult as it took such a long time to get him to sleep.

The fridge was hard to discern as it was just as white as the walls, but Glen eventually found and opened it. Inside were a bunch of test tubes filled with blood.

"Bring it to me," Erzsebet urged. She knew it was the only thing that would give her enough energy to wake from the coma and escape. It was not something she relished. The drinking of blue blood would make a vampire ill eventually, but one could sustain themselves with it in case of emergencies. Of which, this was definitely one.

Almost on automaton, Glen carried the tubes of blue blood to the glass encasing around Erzsebet.

"Break it!" came the command, and Glen did as her mistress bid, hitting the glass with her elbow, shattering it completely.

"How?" Glen asked, wondering how she was to administer it. And then, something disturbed her. A chill traveled the length of Glen's spine.

"With a kiss," Erzsebet replied mentally. "And quickly, there are others here." With a kiss? Glen repeated in her mind and then was unable to get rid of Prince Charming kissing Sleeping Beauty. "Yes," Erzsebet responded, reinforcing what Glen must do. “Quickly” Erzsebet urged. Glen removed the stopper from one of the tubes, swallowed a mouthful, and then bent to kiss Erzsebet, forcing in her tongue and with it the blue blood into Erzsebet's mouth.

"Well, well, well," Lucius said. Glen turned to face him. "Looks like we get to have some fun after all." To Glen's horror, she realized Lucius had three friends with him, all high on Bathory blood.