The Man that Bit Me

The Village

    As we make our way through the lush forest I notice Caspian slowing down and staying behind more. I decide to ignore him, because we have made it this far and we will not be turning back now. I make it to the edge of the clearing and turn around to see what it would be like when we come back and it turns into the entrance. It's breath-taking to say the least. The entrance is shaped like a mouth opening and it is littered with black moss and midnight black roses. I take a closer look to inspect everything else surrounding and the tress are so high with plants still unknown to me clinging to them and hanging freely. Everything here is just so exotic and different. These plants don't need attention and sunlight to survive, they live so freely and bloom so openly. As if they're not scared to be picked or stepped on. I take in the whole scenery and go over every color of every plant and where everything rests so that when we go back to the castle, which I know unfortunately we will, I can convert this scene directly into the canvas.

    As time rolls by Caspian has still not appeared. I lay my back against a smooth rock while laying my head back. The light is barely peeking out, but it's light enough you can see the colors and people around you. My eyes have began to adjust to this darker region. I hear a soft rustle and abruptly stand up, waiting for anything to come out. My hands are in fighting position, just as my father showed me. My legs are shoulder-width apart and I am ready for any movement to come my way. Suddenly I hear a whoosh and a shhhhh and I feel a breath tickling my neck, "You know if you were preparing for a fight I believe this would not be completely fair. The King of Vampires against a slow human princess." At that he snickers. "Caspiaaaan," I say in an exasperated voice, "You scared me, you took way too long. Weren't you the one who said I needed to stay with you at all times. I just was trying to prepare myself in case anything happened." He just looked down at me with a sly half smile splaying on his face. I roll my eyes but then I see what he was hiding behind his back. A wild looking bouquet of beautiful flowers. One's that I have never even seen before and I couldn't hold back the squeals that came out of me. "Caspian are those for me?" I ask in a whispered voice and look up meeting his soft green eyes. "Of course, love. I saw how you were looking at all the plants and realized maybe you would like some flowers that you would be able to touch." The tears came falling freely at this point. Nobody has ever done something like this before for me. They're simply gorgeous. I wonder if there's a way to make them last forever. I think to myself and feel Caspian slightly stiffen. I wonder if he heard my thoughts, I hope he didn't. If he did he at least didn't say anything and we began our way towards the village.

    As we make our way there I notice Caspian has his hand on the small of my back, normally that would bother me, but I will let it go since he's leading me to the village. After walking what seemed like hours I stand at the entrance of the village, and what I see before me I never expected to see. The houses that I saw from the balcony are ginormous! They are nothing like what I saw up there, they look to be at least 3 stories tall. They could easily fit like four families inside them, and just look up at Caspian questioningly. He explains without looking down, "We build houses built for many families, because our race likes to stay together. A vampire only births one child normally, to help with population, and so because you only have one child the bond to that child is unlike anything. You never want to leave or part from that child. So these houses house generations of families so they can live together forever. Whenever two vampires mate they decide together which family house to stay at, but they are allowed to travel back and forth freely. But the houses are so big, because they house many generations of vampires." I just shake my head in utter amazement, that's beautiful. The black houses stand so tall and majestic, and the black gravel trail I see leads the way from the beginning of the village to the exit. I look around and notice many people staring at me. Some of them look at me with anger, some look at me with confusion, and there are a very few who look at me with curiosity. I take a big gulp while holding Caspian's black sleek sleeve and take a step inside.    

    As I take a step inside I notice some vampires stiffen and even flinch at my entrance. I wonder what that is about, huh. Caspian takes my hand from his sleeve and puts in his huge hand. My hand compared to his is like a babies hand. He slowly leads me in and I make eye contact with all the villagers here, their clothes look like regular clothes, of course in the hues of blacks and blues. But, what I haven't noticed before even with Caspian is their light complexion. They're not super pale, but because of everything dark around them, they look like they're illuminating. I find everyone here completely mesmerizing, and I can't look away. By now Caspian and I are in the middle of the village and everyone has gathered in a circle around us. Caspian coughs to clear his voice and in a authoritative tone begins, "Everyone, I'd like you to meet the princess of the Human Kingdom," and with that I hear loud gasps and see many shocked faces, "She will be staying with us from now on and I would like you to refer to her as Kitty," I still and slowly look up with a burning gaze and see Caspian is doing everything he can to contain his laughter from spilling out, "She is harmless so please treat her with the utmost respect. She is mine so if you disrespect her, you will be disrespecting me. I will not tolerate it, nor will it go without punishment." And at that he smiled thanked everyone for listening and we turned to leave. 

    Before we made it to the exit I felt a small object hit my heels. I turn around to see a little ball and a small child running after it. Once he realized who the ball hit he stopped in his tracks and froze with the look of fear written all over his face. A small and sad smile barely lifts from me and I slowly bend down to pick up the ball and move towards the boy to hand it to him. Before I even make it halfway to the boy he turns to run as fast as he can. I just stand up slowly and sadness and confusion tugs at my heart. 'Why is that boy scared of me? Have I done something to him to make him scared of me? Maybe I should find him to give his ball back to him.' I think to myself. "No, no, no, no, you are not finding that boy by yourself in the village." I turn sharply towards Caspian and open my mouth quickly, "I KNEW IT! You are listening to my thoughts, you jerk! Stop doing that! It's a total invasion of privacy and if I wanted to ask or tell you something I would!" I yell this as loud as I can. Caspian just rolls his eyes and grumbles something I can't make out. I take this moment of distraction and quickly run towards the direction the boy ran. I ran five steps before I see a very, very angry Caspian in front of me grabbing both of my arms making me drop the ball. His eyes are a blood red and his grip on me is like stone. I try to scramble away, but his grip somehow only tightens and I let out a cry. He quickly realizes what he's doing and lets me go. I just look up at him in total shock from what just happened, and see he cannot even meet my eyes. I take a couple of steps back and lift my sleeves up to already see black bruising fingertips on my arms. It feels like if he were to tighten his hands over my arms anymore than he already did my arms would have both broke. I shake my head not ready to say anything to him. He's just staring at the ground unable to move at all. We stand there like that for quite some time before I make the decision to head back.    

    I turned my back on him and walk back towards the exit. When I make it out of the village I throw my flowers on the ground and keep walking. I don't know how far I made it before somehow I magically ended up at that entrance again. This time it just looks sad with all of those colors, and some of the flowers seem to be dangling and looking pathetically sad. I take note and just keep walking. As I walk by myself everything just seems more gloomier. This once beautiful and charming forest is now just dreary and somber. I want to quickly escape this forest before I am swallowed up by this grief I feel in the pit of my stomach and top of my chest. I feel the vines squeezing out my breaths and I am finding it harder to breath. I am gasping for air now, and slowly my vision is becoming dazed and blurry. I fall to the ground and everything becomes dark.