The Long Night

Ch. 4: The Early Days

-Flashback Continued-

It was days later when she finally came to. She could barely remember small moments of various members of her family and their servants bending over her, tending to her or making her drink bitter medicines. This time she was more truly awake and tried to sit up, but her small body ached and a sharp pain in her shoulder made her cry out.

"Young Miss, please! You must lay back, you're still too wounded to get up," Madelyn, her caretaker, insisted as she stood up and urged Sarah to lay back. Sarah looked up at the woman who she loved more than her own mother and noticed the dark circles under her eyes. The exhaustion in her features seemed to exaggerate her wrinkled skin and her silver hair, typically tucked up in a neat bun, was frazzled and unkempt. "Miss Madelyn, what happened?" Sarah choked out, her voice raspy and strained. Even just the few words she spoke and the attempt at sitting up was enough to exhaust her and leave her slightly winded. "Hush, child. You must rest. You were attacked in the woods by a pack of wolves. I'm not sure how you survived, but we thank God for it," the older woman said gently as she soothed Sarah's dark hair back.

Sarah whimpered, the pain from her shoulder was intensifying and she started to tilt her head to ser what was wrong when the cool, soft hand of her caretaker touched her cheek and made her look forward again. "No, no. No need to see what has passed. It hurts now, but God is good and it will heal. Just look forward my sweet girl. Does it hurt?" She asked, her voice calm and smoothe as silk, lulling Sarah back to a more calm state. "Yes ma'am. It hurts terribly," Sarah answered, her bottom lip wobbling as her blue eyes filled with unshed tears. "Oh I know, my darling. Hold on just a moment while I make you some medicine. I'll be right back. You won't look, will you?" She asked, only turning away to a table in the center of the room when Sarah promised to not look at her wound.

True to her word, Sarah kept her eyes on Madelyn as she muttered the steps to mixing the medicine to herself. It was a thick drink meant to be swallowed in one gulp anf the bitter taste made Sarah gag until Madelyn brought her some water. This same exchange happened each day over the next few weeks. The doctors could provide the tincture needed to reduce pain and some of the inclination, they could clean it and monitor for signs of infection, but the healing process was left to God's hands. And so the two would pray each morning and night and before every meal for a quick recovery. After about two weeks Sarah was permitted to assist in the care of her wound and was encouraged to take small walks in the garden in the early morning to aid in blood circulation and to get fresh air.

Things were progressing smoothly and slowly falling back into a comfortable rhythm of taking meals with Madelyn, exceptnfor dinner which was the only time Sarah and her brother were allowed to interact with one another and their parents, and approved lessons from her tutors a few times a week so she would be well versed in topics befitting a lady all resumed as usual. Not until the week of the full moon did things begin to change. Things that she would normally be able to ignore or forgive, per the rules of high society, now grated on her nerves so intensely that she would snap at those around her. Her tutors began to report her to her parents- worried that the once mild mannered little girl was exhibiting such outlandish behavior. The heavier the moon got the more intense her reactions. The day of she was confined to her room, a snarling, feral mess unfit to take any visitors or company, the night of odd howling and barking and scratching could be heard. When the next day came, she was back to her normal self although her room was thoroughly destroyed as if by a beast though Sarah had no memory of it. Stranger still, her wound was entirely healed leaving behind a jagged scar where a scarcely scabbed over wound had been the day before.

Her parents were hesitant to declare the quickened healing a miracle, but did so for the sake of their family image. It wasn't until weeks later when her troubled behavior and the feral growling started again that they called on the priest for the first time.

Being the daughter of a Knight of the King Sarah had met Father Ovscheck before, she'd even had dinner with him when her parents invited him. Never before had she been the sole subject of his attention, though. In the days following the full moon she didn't respond negatively to prayers or crosses- she even indulged the Holy man by reciting the prayers she knew with him. He was ready to believe that whatever happened had passed until Sir Edward came into the church with his wild daughter the following full moon. If he'd not seen the sweet girl growling and spitting and yelling at anyone who bothered her with useless prayers and dirty looks with his own eyes, he would never have believed it to be happening. "Do you see it now, priest? What are we to do with this rabbid best as our daughter?" her father demanded. Father Ovscheck was speechless, quite a sight since he always had something to say about everything. After taking a few moments he looked around and frowned at all the people watching. "Follow me, Sir Lewis," he replied before leading the Knight, still holding onto his young daughter, back to his small office.

"Tonight, we stay and see what beast comes for your daughter. This... This can't be Sarah, there has to be a demon taking control," he insisted. Edward Lewis agreed and so the two decided to lock Sarah in a cell in the dungeons with a door made of iron bars so they could monitor her from the opposite side. Sarah seemed to have endless energy and rage. She screamed and yelled as she ran at the bars and reached out her little arm, ready to rip at the clothes of the men who held her captive. "OUT! I WANT OUT!" She screamed.

It wasn't until late that night, when the moon was at its highest point, that the two men watched in absolute horror as the body of the young Sarah Lewis slumped forward. The cell was silent for a long moment before a series and snaps and cracks could be heard as her bones began to break and rearrange, fur sprouted from her body and her face and teeth began to elongate. The girlish growling started up again only to deepen and became the unmistakable growling of a wild wolf. She stood up on two feet, the perfect, horrible mix of man and best and rushed for the bars again, this time crashing into them with such force that the door broke free from the rusted hinges so she could run up the stairs and out of the church.

"What... what in God's name was that?" Edward demanded when he finally found his voice before looking to the priest. "A... A demon! It must be the work of the Devil himself, there's no other explanation," Father Ovscheck was quick to reply. "C'mon, we have to make sure she doesn't hurt anyone," Edward snapped before drawing his sword and rushing up the stairs so he could track down his daughter, the priest not far behind him.

It wasn't until well after sunrise that they finally located the missing girl, miles outside the village and asleep in the clearing she'd originally been bitten in. Edward carefully picked up the naked little girl, her clothing having been ripped away when her body changed and grew in size, and the men walked in silence back to the village and to the manor that Sir Lewis and his family lived in. The damage, though, was done. A few villagers had seen the beast and Edward knew it was only a matter of time before they figured out it was Sarah.

In the coming months Father Ovscheck began trying everything at his disposal to cure the girl, even sending away to the archbishop in the capital gor additional texts and guidance. To deplete her strength and keep her from getting out of confinement she was given small amounts of less nutritious food, she was put out to dor laborious chores to tire her mind and body and keep her out of the eyes of their high society contemporaries. When she was ten her problem was well known and he finally pointed the finger to Madelyn, the only person who had remained steadfast at her side to support her in her hardest moments, as the cause of her curse. After a small series of useless tests she was declared a witch and burned at the stake- the smell and her shrieks still haunted Sarah's worst nightmares all these years later. But still, the curse remained.