Night Ward: Welcome to Amity House

Vlad

The stories,” he began slowly, “that have been told about me are not entirely true. They are merely a collection of half truths that were created by small town folk to scare their children; or told by those few daft romantics who have nothing better to do with their time.” Scoffing at the very idea he continued, “I honestly wish that everything that happened to my family was only that of legends, I wish that I could have been that fanciful creature that women have swoon over for decades.” As Vlad spoke he seemed to go back in time reliving his past.

 “I have not always been the monster people make me out to be. I was once a man; a living, breathing man. Like many of my people in Wallachia, I grew up with a sense wanting. I knew that I was destined for something though I was never aware of what that was. As a young boy, my family lived in several places. My father was in exile for some-time. My brother, Radu and I were traded like cattle to the Turkish Sultan.”

 They all listened silently as he began to relieve the sadness that was his face. As he spoke, every emotion played on his flawless, beautiful face. Closing his eyes to the memories his voice came out a little hoarse. “I will not lie; I have done many things that I am not proud of. I learned to play the political games of others, so that I could live the life that I thirsted for the blood of those that not only turned on my father, but that undermined my right to rule. Then, at some point, like a coward, I fled to Hungary to escape the rule of a Sultan who felt it was his duty to harm my young brother and myself.”

  Vlad began to describe the brutal tortures that he had endured and suffered through. He told days of starvation and whippings that he had to face for trying to come between his brother and the oversexed Sultan. He explained the bloodshed and the feeding the Sultan would force upon him. 

 Drake and the others listened, sickened about the things he described. The worst was yet to come, they learned, when he began to tell how he was finally freed from the Sultans clutches. “Radu, had taken the worst kind of punishment as payment for my freedom. He said, ‘you are the stronger, you can defeat them.’ Oh god,” a tear slid down his face. “They used him, over and over. Treating him like he was….” Vlad couldn’t finish. 

   A few minutes of silence past, as Vlad took several slow deep breaths to calm himself. Deciding change directions Vlad let himself begin to discuss the one he had tried to forget all these centuries.

 “Do you know that I was married twice?” he asked absently. “My second wife and I married after my stay in prison in Hungry. IIona was her name. She was a loyal wife. A good wife, she allowed me to do as I needed.” He shook his head at sudden sadness. “But it was my sweet trusting Elizabeth, that I will forever hold in my heart.”

“She was beautiful; her long chestnut hair would flow around her when she danced. Her cornflower blue eyes would sparkle with her laughter. For her I converted to Christianity. For her I changed and yet, I do not believe I changed enough.” With a bitter laugh he continued to remember his first love. “She a very devote Catholic when I met her. In fact she was planning on joining the convent. Her love for God was stronger than her love for me. Even though I knew she would rather be in the convent, I somehow convinced her that it was God’s will that she be with me.” A small smile touched his lips at the memory, “My sweet Elizabeth was purity and innocence in the very nature. She welcomed any and all in and she kept my heart with her even on her passing. She was so full of life that I actually envied her. She was so naïve and trusting that in one night, I was able to take and destroy her world with my selfishness. And because she loved me she accepted it. I would have given anything for her and yet…” he let that thought trail off as he took a deep breath to calm his now quaking nerves.

 “I should never have taken her to that place. I know that now. I should have stayed with her in Hungary and never given in to my bloodlust that I felt for the deeds done to my family. Instead, I moved her in then began the path of destruction I now walk to this day. I slew so many men, women and children that my poor Lady wife swore she began to hear their cries in her sleep. I began to keep her locked in our home so that I could protect her from the monster I was becoming. I never wanted her to see….. I had her father followed and killed because he turned against me.

“She complained that she could hear the screams of the dying and the dead as she slept. She was unhappy, she said she was suffocating. I played it off, I told her that it was fine, that it was just nightmares.  After some time passed she said she could hear them even while she was awake.” As he let himself think for a moment a single tear slid down his face. Leeza reached out to take his hand only to have him shake his head.

“Please do not pity me. What I relive now is what I have fought with for centuries. It is time that I am able to talk and am able to except the responsibility of what I did. Micael was right many years ago when he said I harbor ill will toward Stoker. I felt that he took parts of my tale and twisted it until nothing real remained. He made this romantic fantasy out of something that should never had been relived. The fact that my sweet, pure Elizabeth did in fact take her life has been something that I have not been able to deal well with. However, it was not because of a letter… It was because I had left her unguarded” as he saw this memory and felt more tears fall “I allowed my wife to stay and face a raid from the Turks, because I was made to believed they were somewhere else. I do not think they would have hurt her, though when I returned there she was laying on the altar dead. I was told she was screaming about the child and voices in her head. To hear the priests report, she had begun to rant and rave calling her me the Devil. She told them, she bedded with the Devil and God will see her as unclean. Try as they might the priests couldn’t calm her. They set her to her room with medicine to make her sleep. Before anyone knew what would happen the Turks invade and my precious Elizabeth jumped.” He gave a bitter laugh at this.

“I don’t believe half of what those people say. But I did know that things I had done had damaged her. I try to believe that she was not running from the Turks so much as from me. After that I truly became mad with power. I allowed everyone to assume I died in battle. I had a double that was willing to do this. I became a wanderer for years just passing in and out of life. And then finally, I came to a small town outside of Bucharest, it seemed that I had come full circle. I was hungry and thirsty and yet I couldn’t make myself eat. I thought that death would be better than being alive. My family already thought me to be dead so what good would I be to them. There was a woman,” he remembered “on the side of the road, a traveler. She looked young and yet her eyes were the color of the sun. Strange really, now that I think of it, I had never seen eyes like that before.” Looking up he seemed to notice his audience for the first time.

“She told me she knew me and that she could make the hurt go away. I honestly can’t remember what happened after that I try but I just can’t get it to come back. All I remember is that I began to wander for more years thirsty for a drink that I shouldn’t have been thirsting for. I went back and attacked those that had tried to kill me in earlier years. I took revenge against my enemy’s. I tore the throats of the priest out. My sweet Elizabeth would have been horrified of what I had become and the things I had done, and yet I felt that it was fitting they let her suffer they left her alone.” Vlad said through gritted teeth.

“Finally, after years of murder, I believed that I would finally die the death I should have years before. It was the early sixteen hundreds when I was approached by a woman with white blonde hair. She said that she could help me. She said she could provide me a place that I could live in peace and be able to continue to live as I had done, or I could chose a different path and learn to live a new way. She was all about me making a choice right then.”

  He turned his gaze toward Drakes looking him square in the eye before continuing, “I was the first to be a part of this facility. I have lived here many centuries. Well, not here exactly we have moved over the years. When the American Government got involved and she enlisted a partner. There have been many to come and go and yet we vampires, as you call us, have remained slowly growing in our numbers. I would like to live again, like I used to. I want to be a part of the world once again to see what there is to learn, though I know it will never happen. But Clara was so sure that we would be accepted for who we are that she continued to watch over us. I wish that if, for no other reason but for her it would happen.” Vlad finished with sigh of sadness.

  Around him there was silence, no one could say anything it seemed. They were all still taking in the story that was his life. Vlad became solemn sinking deeper into himself. He had thought that once his tale was told he would feel relief or even unburdened, yet all he could feel was his once cold heart breaking all over again as he thought of his beloved Elizabeth.

  Drake was sitting there still staring at Vlad. How could someone do the things he had and yet still be able to even discuss it? No wonder he was very prickly in regular sessions. He wondered how many times he had been made to relive his past. Staying true to the bargain that was made he didn’t ask his questions just yet. Instead he took a steadying breath and cleared his throat. “I think,” he began training to remain calm, “that if it is ok with the rest of you that we end here for the day.” Slowly everyone nodded in agreement and just as slowly they all began to make their ways out of the garden until only Drake and Vlad were alone,

“Vlad, I” Drake found himself once again searching for something to say. Vlad gave a sad smile, closed his eyes and nodded.

 “Thank you for listening. I have kept that inside for so many years it hurts still.” Suddenly feeling uncomfortable Vlad shifted in his stance. “Dr. Vent if there is nothing further I feel that I need to be alone for awhile. This has been a trying day and I really need some time.” Understanding what he meant Drake took his leave. As he walked away Drake couldn’t help but feel a kind of strange kinship with the sullen “vampire” and his sad tale. Drake couldn’t put his finger on it but he knew that he was missing something inside himself right at that moment.

  Heading to his quarters he began to make a mental note of the things he needed to write down and the questions that he wanted to ask on their next time together. Maybe he should take another look at those files, he thought to himself as he unlocked his door and step through. But first he needed some sleep; he was almost starting to think that the best place to escape this reality was the normalcy of his dreams. Before he drifted off he thought about Amy.