Chapter 18: Passing on The News
4935 Words
Chapter 18: Passing on The News
Trigger warning//This chapter contains violent scenes that may be harmful or traumatizing to some audiences. If you're sensitive to offensive content, do not read this chapter.
Meanwhile, at the castle Dimitrescu. Alcina is already aware that her girlfriend is missing because she can’t sense Tiana’s presence anywhere in her castle. The mistress issues an order to her daughters to discretely search the castle upside-down to see if there’s any proof or evidence that may point out who to blame. Thanks to their fast reaction, they were able to find out the culprit behind this and she’s no other than Mila—The maid that Alcina assigns to attend to Tiana’s need herself.
‘I will make sure that snake gets the most severe punishment, there is’ the tall lady’s burning in rage at that line of thought.
Though Alcina doesn’t want to startle Mila and whoever else is behind this as she wants to caught them red-handed and make an example out of it. As a result, she keeps calm and well-composed while seeing Mila return to her post, using the back door. Only those who have something to hide would use the back door in the broad daylight, a wicked smile creeping onto her ladyship’s visage at that.
“Girls” 3 swarms of flies appear before Alcina at the end of her word. The mistress turns back to her daughters then declares, “Your mama’s fate is in our hands—I give you full authority to use any torturing method you see fit. Make sure you get that serpent’s confession before she’d die”
“Of course, mother” the three answer, their tones are showing no less fury than Alcina’s.
The vampire lady then goes to her desk, dialing someone on her landline. Once the other end picking up, Alcina breaths out in her icy tone, “Heisenberg, I’m calling in for another debt you owe me”
--------------------
“Alright. Your time’s –Huh?” Bill holds his tongue.
To Bill’s surprise, he comes to get an answer from Tiana as Hershel instructs, but the botanist isn’t in the room anymore. As he wanders his orbs around for any sign of Tiana, he sees only an empty chair, cut pieces of rope, and the window was left open.
“s**t! Hershel, we got a situation here!”
Rushing out of the room to his leader, Bill keeps cursing Mila inwardly for not searching their captive thoroughly if she got something to be of use in attempting escape. He also reviles himself for being careless. How can he not see this coming? Damn wench and her flawless acting skill, Bill thinks. His take on Tiana is boiling in hatred once he realizes he and his troop had been tricked.
“We need to send someone after her!” Joel yells as soon as he is informed of the circumstance along with Hershel. Though the grizzled-haired man brings his hand to his chin, he rubs it slightly as he ponders options through.
“We can’t risk the whole plan, sending a lot of people after one person, Joel. First, we need to inform our men that we must carry on with the scheme now”
“Then you’re going to just let her go!? What if that b*tch flees back to warn that vampire—” a loud bang from Hershel stops the brown hair man from pressing on with his word. Hershel then says,
“Didn’t I say I’m done? –Of course, not. I ain’t gonna let her go” Hershel’s face goes rigid in rage from his impulsive partisan. His said rage has something to do with the botanist, likewise. Thus, Hershel forces his order out in detest, “While I’m commanding our men, pressing onward with our plan, you go with Bill to hunt her down. Put your tracking skill to good use rather than uttering nonsense with your mouth for a chance”
“Tsk. Fine” Joel grumbles at his leader’s remark. “Go grab your gears, Bill—If you can keep up, I may let you have fun with her first before drag her back here”
“Hmm, such a tempting offer” while answering, Bill already hoisted his crossbow and quiver on his shoulder, stores a combat knife to his right boot before says, “Lead the way”
--------------------
Biting her lower lip until it bled, Tiana does so to suppress her cough inside in fear it’d give her location away if someone’s after her. Sadly, she’s right. Tiana hears some snapping and crumbling faintly from a distance as Bill and Joel are hot on her trail. Only if I’m not with this bothersome condition, the botanist surmises, blaming her pneumonitis that weakening her health. It’s the main reason why Tiana can’t get far from the place Hershel holds her hostage because she has to frequently stop running to avoid collapsing from the lack of air.
“J” Bill whispers, pointing out a faded footprint on the ground. He’s positive the botanist’s closer than they imagine.
‘Scheiß’ Tiana curses internally. She believes she’s being careful enough not to leave any trace behind but turns out she still unknowingly leaves some.
If the two men catch up with her for real, Tiana would have no other choice, but to fight. No matter what, she has to get back to Alcina and warn her of the upcoming danger. Then how she’s going to fend off 2 grown men with only a pocket Swiss Army Knife though? I have to set up some kind of trap, she comes up with an idea. However, before Tiana can proceed with anything, the violent coughs throw her off guard. The botanist stumbles on the ground, one hand clenching to her chest while brings another to her mouth to keep any sound in. Alas, her exacerbation this time is the most severe yet because she has been exposing to the cold and humid air at the peak of winter for way too long, thus, her coughing can force the weakest sound out of Tiana in the end.
“Did you hear that?” Joel queries his friend and receives a silent nod as an answer.
The two rebels push onward to the source of noise they hear, closing the gap between themselves and the botanist furthermore. By the time Tiana stops coughing and lowers her hand down, she’s met by a mark of blood on her hand from her latest exacerbation. Yet before she can worry about her own body, Tiana sees Joel with Bill in tow are approaching her. Verdammt—I’m screwed, she thinks. Looking around, the botanist tries to find if something would be useful to her at this dread moment.
‘Aren’t those DATURAS?’ the sight of mentioned flora ignites hope in Tiana once more.
So, quickly but utmost cautiously, Tiana covers her hand with the hem of her sleeve, grabs a handful of Datura foliage, and also scrapes some Datura seed, folds them a piece of cloth she tears from her shirt. She then throws a rock nearby to lure Bill and Joel to one side while she creeps to the opposite. Once making sure having enough distance between them, Tiana pestles Datura leaves between rocks. When the leaves were sufficiently crushed, the botanist coat the sharpness of her Swiss knife with that poisonous paste. As for the Datura seed, she crushes them into dust, making it coats that piece of cloth she folds it in thoroughly.
‘I hope this’s enough—Wish me luck, Alci’ Tiana cogitates.
The botanist sincerely hopes she’d survive this, so she’d notify Alcina and the lords of Hershel’s plot. Tiana imagines whatever Hershel and his troop are planning would be some kind of an uprising for sure. If that’s the case and the fight between the lords and the mutiny would break out, many lives will be lost. Including those who do not agree with Hershel’s scheme too. Although the coup has its reason to revolt against the lords, violence couldn’t be the best nor the only option to solve this. There’re other possibilities to try, yet Hershel is dead set on using force only. What would be the difference between Hershel and the lords then?
At least currently under the 4 lords, they don’t run around and murder people left and right. Those lives were taken have a reason for it to be that way. Just like a death sentence in the modern world’s judicial process, so to speak. But if the 4 lords would fall and the power would pass on to Hershel, Tiana thinks no one will be safe anymore. She sees it with her own eyes how the coup’s leader behaves when she mentions who shall rule over the village later on.
‘You’re even worse than those you hate, Hershel’ exhales softly, Tiana leaves the take on the grizzled hair man at that. For now, she shouldn’t be thinking about it as she must focus on the danger that creeping closer to her in every second. ‘I’ll go back to you soon, Alci…girls’
--------------------
Meanwhile, back at the castle Dimitrescu. The mistress moves in haste, yet elegantly as always to the wine cellar where her daughters are working on interrogating the rogue maid, Mila. Variety choices of excuses occasionally mix with endless screaming in pain. It’s getting louder and louder at every step Alcina presses onward to the cell Mila’s in.
“Don’t you have enough, Mila?” Daniela hisses out in rather an annoyance. “We need just one thing. Only one thing—Tell us where you took our Mama and you shall feel no more pain”
“Please, my gracious ladies—I know nothing of what you’re accusing me!” continue pretending to be innocent, little that Mila realizes that house Dimitrescu’s ladies learn of her betrayal already.
“Playing innocuous won’t help you now!” the brunette yells, stabbing her sickle into Mila’s arm that was tied to the chair which makes the rogue maid screeches out distressingly. “While house Dimitrescu’s maids and staffs are forbidden from leaving the castle ground, yet we saw you came back through the backdoor this very morning. What you have to say about that now, huh!?”
“N-no, I’m sure you’re only mistaken! That wasn’t me! I was cleaning by the foyer at the time you—”
“Oh? How did you know when did we see someone coming in the backdoor when we haven’t mentioned it yet?” even when she’s well-composed of all the 3 sisters, Bela’s undeniably having a hard time controlling her anger as well. The blonde then holds her sickle to Mila’s throat threateningly and roars, “Evidently as it appears, don’t you dare to claim you’re innocent!”
“!” only then the rogue maid realizes that the pain decreases her rational thinking, resulting in her made a mistake in her excuse. She gives herself away unintendedly!
Alcina, who arrives at the cell at last, is burning in pure ire and madness. Her golden pupils are piercing through Mila with an unbelievable amount of malevolence. The sound of teeth-gritting fill in the room as her ladyship reels her urge of slicing the rogue maid into ribbons. No matter how much she wants to murder Mila right now, Alcina needs to find out where Tiana is first.
“Step aside, girls” to their mother’s command, the 3 sisters do as be instructed. Alcina then stands in front of Mila, growing the claws of her right hand out, and says, “I gave you food and shelter when you have no one else to turn to…I gave you a job despite being an offspring of those who attempted to raid and burn my castle down. Yet this’s how you pay me back?”
“M-my lady, I—” sputtering, Mila still hopes she’d get through this if she can give out a reasonable excuse. “This is only a misunderstanding! I did nothing as such—”
“Enough with your pathetic excuse, you little snake. I have no patience nor time to play this game with you—Where did you hold Tiana captive?” her ladyship loses her cool in an instant seeing Mila carries on her acting.
The mistress dives the claw of her forefinger down Mila’s knee, reaping a squall of agonizing from the rogue maid as her reward. Alcina then twists her claw that is currently stabbing in Mila’s knee and gradually pulling her hand back as she wants it to be the most painful thing Mila has ever felt while continuing her interrogation.
“What did Tiana ever done to you for you to drag her into this mess, huh!? You can’t answer that, can you? It’s because Tia did NOTHING to be treated this way!” another roar leaves Alcina’s mouth as she throws both Mila and the chair she’s tied to against the wall at the same time.
The chair breaks into pieces, freeing Mila from her restrain in the process. The maid struggles to breathe and takes in her bearing for a second, then elbows herself up to rests against the wall. In the meantime, the girls give their mother moral support through hand-holding and back-patting while Alcina does her best to calm her furor down.
“IT’S ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!” to everyone’s surprise, the maid yells. Finally, she has accepted her fate as is, thus, she decides to give the vampire family pieces of her mind since she’d die anyway. “Since the moment you love that woman, you as well as turn her into our target—How does it feel now to have someone you love taken away, huh!?” her voice breaks with both emotional and physical pain she’s dealing with.
“Do you understand now how much suffering and lonely it is for me to live on my own after you took my parents away? Or was it too much to expect a monstrous like you to get the feel?” Mila spits gore out then carries on, “You’re all nothing but evil, wicked soul. There’re many families you broke, many lives you destroyed—How come your demonic family got to live happily while we’re living our lives miserably!?”
“But Tiana…she does you nothing” Alcina’s tone is so soft that it’s barely audible, heartbreak evidently in it. “Why should it be her?”
“It’s her bad luck for falling in love with you. If you want to blame someone, just look in the mirror! Miss Tiana got tangle in this because this’s just what we want to do in return for what have you done”
Sucking in a shivering breath, the vampire lady loses for words as she imagines the worst that could happen to her lover at the moment. The longer she spends questioning Mila here, the more life-threatening it gets for Tiana. Though, it’s still too fast to give up hope. Alcina tells herself to withstand this to get a lead on Tiana as she intends.
“You called me a monster, an evil, a wicked soul for taking your family away. What do you differ from me then?” the tall lady nods at Bela, wordlessly asks her to brings a package from the other room. Once the blonde brushes out of the room, Alcina pushes on, “You take my lover away, rip the girls away from their loving Mama, so I want to ask you again—What do you differ from me?”
“…” of course, the rouge maid can’t find any comeback in her to reply Alcina.
“I expect as much” her ladyship scoffs. A moment of silence passes by before the eldest daughter comes back with the package Alcina asks for. The blonde then hands it to her mother to unwraps and reveals an antique handheld telescope Tiana orders for Mila to behold. “The Duke dropped this along with things Tia purchased from him. While the other packages were securely wrapped as well as I don’t want to break the trust between Tia and me by unboxing and going through her things—This long, narrow box stands out the most”
The mistress sets the said telescope on the small table to the right side of Mila, meaning for the rouge maid to see, but unable to touch. The 9’6” figure hovers ghastly over the pitiful maid whose sense of guilt has been poked. Mila’s overwhelmed by the gift and the converse she had with the botanist earlier to this, so she breathes something out, “I’m sorry, Tiana” The girls can’t be any angrier at the sight. How dare Mila calls their Mama’s name this nonchalantly when she’s the one who kidn*pped her? However. Before the girls can release their fury out, Alcina holds her hand up to stop them. The tall lady then turns to speak with Mila once more.
“I give it a thought and recall seeing you stay out late for stargazing from time to time. And when taking Tia’s kindhearted and the bond between you two, I just realize she must want to gift this to you as a new year present” the mistress kneels down and roughly grabs the sides of Mila’s face, forcing her to meet Alcina in the eyes and utters, “While those my family and I eliminated had committed countless of crimes or encroached other residents with their selfishness, you chose such a good and righteous person like Tiana. Thus, answer me. Who’s the real monster here?”
Again, nothing comes out of Mila’s mouth in reply to the mistress’s query. Sighs out in mixed emotions, her ladyship let go of the maid’s face and stands tall on her feet. “I’m off to search for you Mama first. Take care of each other while I’m gone, alright?”, the vampire lady addresses her daughters. The three nod and wish their mother the best. But at the second Alcina bending down to get out of the cell, Mila gathers all her breath and says,
“An abandoned hut, West Old Town” the rouge maid is struggling to stay awake because of the great quantity of blood she’s losing. Her ladyship’s claw must have cut through her greater saphenous vein, the largest blood vessel in a human’s leg, when she tortures Mila earlier. Though the maid is still able to mumble something out, “Please tell miss Tiana, I’m sorry” then she slips away to everlasting slumber, leaving only her soulless body behind.
--------------------
“J” Whispers, Bill.
He signals his friend to look forward to the broken twig as well as the fresh track left by Tiana. Judging from the trail, the two can roughly determine which direction the botanist’s going. Joel nods to the other man, eyeing in a symbol that he sees some movements behind the trunk. The two choose to communicate through body language from the point onward because they don’t want to make any sound that would be an advantage to Tiana. Slowly, they round up the trunk from both sides, planning to trap the botanist between them. However, at the moment Joel dashes forward the tree, the botanist thrusts her pocket knife to Joel’s throat!
“Urgh!” automatically, the brown hair man shoves Tiana away while choking on his blood.
Tiana, in the meantime, falls on her back from the push. Though, her pocket knife is stuck to Joel’s gullet when she falls. Therefore, the botanist is unarmed now. As for Bill, he’s shocked that the women he considered harmless would dare to stab a man in through his throat. But he regains his awareness back as fast and shoots Tiana with his crossbow. The botanist rolls to her side, successfully dodge the 1st blow. She quickly flips back on her feet and makes a run for it while Bill’s reloading.
“J! J—Put pressure on your wound! I’ll be back soon” Bill rushes from his friend’s side and chases the botanist behind, bawling, “You can’t run forever, you f_cking b*tch”
Despite feeling as if her chest was being mangled apart, Tiana doesn’t have much choice but to flee. She applies a zigzagging pattern to her run, hoping she’d avoid being hit by Bill’s arrow as best as she can. An arrow missed turn into 2 arrows, then 3. Tiana flicks her head around to see where the chaser is currently and that’s when she was smacked by the buttstock of Bill’s crossbow. He’s the local hunter who knows the forest layout like the back of his hand, thus making him outpace Tiana possible.
“You stabbed J!” Bill shouts, pummeling his kick to Tiana who lying helplessly on the ground.
Tiana doesn’t feel pain from being booted anymore as her coughing is coming back to shred her respiratory system apart again. Bill spits on the botanist’s wounded body while settles down to gather his breath. Taking this as an opportunity, Tiana rolls around on her stomach, crawling away and fighting to breathe.
“Where are you going now, huh!?”
The man pulls Tiana by her hair and throws her on her back. Being in this position, lying flat on the snow-covered dirt, makes it even harder for the botanist to breathe due to her pneumonitis condition. So, she attempts to flip sideways, increases her inhaling performance even by a bit. Howbeit, Bill doesn’t agree to let Tiana does so in peace.
“Who’s acting tough and smart just now!? Aren’t you, wench!?” Hurling yet another swear word, Bill drags Tiana up by her collar, slamming her against the tree nearby. The strike cracks a wound open, red fluid’s leaking from the back of the botanist’s head. Tiana feels extremely weak and numb, but there is enough survival instinct left in her. As a result, Tiana pulls the piece of cloth which is full of Datura dust, and shoves it right to Bill’s face!
“What the f**k!?” Bill’s coughing from the unknown dust to him as the two trip over.
Now, Tiana is on top and Bill down below. The botanist realizes she’d never get any better chance than this, thus, she pushes all her might to keep the hem on Bill’s nose, forcing the man to inhale every speck of dust in. “Get off me!”, Bill snarls before he’d succeed in pushing Tiana off at last. However, the moment he tries to stand up, he loses his balance and staggers backward.
“What?” the man sways his head as he experiences slightly dizziness then asks again, “What did you do to me?”
“Have you ever heard of Datura?” worn out, Tiana doesn’t even bother trying to run anymore. She just leans herself against the tree Bill slammed her against earlier, carries on explaining, “I’m sure you heard of since it’s native to Romania, after all. What does it call in Romanian again? Ciumăfaia, isn’t it?”
“!” Bill’s face is drained of blood upon hearing its name.
“Since I made you breathed it directly, it’d only take 5 minutes for its deadly effect to show off” the botanist pauses as her chest feels like it’d explode from keeping her cough in for all this time. However, she brushes past it and goes on, “Guess you also familiar with its toxicity mnemonic as well—Blind as a bat, mad as a hatter, red as a beet, hot as a hare, dry as a bone, the bowel and bladder lose their tone, and the heart runs alone”
“You!” Fuming in rage, Bill darts forward and squeezes the botanist’s throat within his grip. “If this’s my end, then I’d use my last 5 minutes to send you to hell before me!”
“Urgh!” Tiana tries yanking, beating, and even scratching Bill’s grip to get him to loosen it. Though because of the very little strength the botanist has left, the man doesn’t even budge. ‘Alcina…’ is the last thing Tiana thinks of once she starts to feel dizzy and sees black spots in her vision.
Everything around Tiana sounds muffled. She isn’t certain if she’s still awake anymore at this point. Howbeit, she believes she sees something flying from one side and knocks Bill away from her, sending him soaring to crash with another tree nearby. That flying thing is Karl’s mullet! Finally, the help has arrived. Though the botanist can’t celebrate. Falling on her back, Tiana’s reclining against the trunk once more. She sucks in the air with everything she has got and that’s when she hears.
“Little miss!” / “Tiana!”
Both Karl and Alcina shout out at the same time as the two haste to the botanist’s side. Alcina in her half-beast form, which is her human body plus her study bat-like wings, cradles Tiana in her embrace ever so lightly as if the botanist is made of delicate glass. “I got you”, whispering that out, her ladyship caresses Tiana’s back while the small figure’s wheezing harshly.
"I know you'd find me" the botanist weakly speaks out to her girlfriend. Which Alcina answers with a sad, yet caring smile on her lips.
"How can I miss it when you left your blood around, pointing the path out for me?" the tall lady pats Tiana's head gently at the end of her word.
“He-Hershel…plans something” Tiana recalls she has to warn the lords about the upcoming danger. Therefore, she clings to Alcina’s dress, fighting a word out of her in between her short, rapid breath. “Beware of him”
Another fit of cough seizes Tiana of her ability to speak. This time, it’s more extreme and continues for a minute straight. It leaves the botanist breathless while sprays some blood onto Alcina’s white dress. Her ladyship’s gown was turned into a canvas with a painting of Tiana’s vital fluid on it!
“Heisenberg—” Alcina’s about to give out an order, but Karl cut in.
“I know” the Lycan lord grits his teeth at the sight. This’s not good for Tiana’s health. No good at all. “You take care of little miss while I teach that stupid old man a lesson”
The vampire lady nods sternly in acknowledging her brother’s word. Karl then pops his face near Tiana for a brief to says, “And you—Don’t die before thanking me for going through all these troubles to save your ass, alright?” Though the botanist is barely conscious, thus, she can’t give Karl any response.
Spreading her wings out to their full extent, Alcina sends herself up into the sky with Tiana in her embrace. Upon landing on the balcony on the upper floor of castle Dimitrescu, Alcina quickly gets Tiana inside and warms her up as soon as possible while calling out for her daughters.
“Bela, call Donna and Salvatore—We need to proceed with the Cadou implantation now!”
--------------------
To Be Continued >>
- Writer
