Make Your Move Katherine

Dead and Buried

Katherine looked at the large man who rested his butt but standing, at the side of her sofa with his bare ankles crossed, wearing a casual expression on his face. He bent his head slightly and did not fall over like the rest. “My Queen, you are safe.”

“And you are?” she questioned, not even the least bit having the thought he might have been a burglar. She just knew automatically that Oscar was behind the man in her apartment.

She recognized him from her wedding guests. And his voice was indeed familiar although she didn’t recall ever meeting him. But then again, she was drunk on that occasion…and if she was being honest, she had been intoxicated – quite often after that too.

The man folded his huge biceps across his large chest and lifted an eyebrow. She should have known better than to come back here but she hadn’t even been aware she was here till she was in the elevator. She had a slight panic for she thought she had been dreamt up the past two days and was still at the castle but when the doors opened and she saw a woman caring a basket, her mind eased.

The woman was her age and knew her face but nothing else for they had run into each other right here inside the elevator a few times before and once by the pool.

“Eric, I was told to wait for you.”

Hmm, wait. Not kill. She didn’t care, either way, her body and mind were still numb. Walking past him she went into her bedroom and heard him before she closed the door. “You can’t leave.”

It was there the numbness left and terror started making its way inside her head. By the time she took her coat and shoes off, she knew when she opened her front door that something was not right. Kat was a sucker for cleanliness and so she always removed her shoes by her door, however, she walked in wearing it all- coat, purse and shoes. As if she somehow knew she would need to run…but her brain was refusing to function somehow.

She had a gut feeling the man would harm her if she tried to leave. Just look at him- he was bigger than Oscar in height and size. But who cares now anyway if she lived or died-

Her father is dead.

The reality kept hitting her over and over. She had seen the message left to her father by Anthony and then the call that followed within a minute after. But it was not her father but from her stepmother when she answered. To hear of her father’s death over the phone and to know he was already buried- her mind went berserk.

She did not have her passport but then she remembered the mage. Taking out the tattered maid’s dress she had smuggled in some days before she raced out of her quarters and into the mage’s section, knife hidden in the dress’s folds.

She’d gone straight to her father’s house to be greeted by wailing and confirmation that he’d been dead and buried already- almost two weeks now, so she could only visit his grave. Her stepmother wasn’t holding up too well and Kat didn’t know anything about babies- let alone a crying one, so she had hired a helper for her.

Leaving was the only thing Kat could think of to help Miriam sleep, for she hadn’t been sleeping well, her older sister Becky had informed Kat. And Kat was sure Miriam had been stressed out and worrying over her absence and with a newborn baby too, now the death of her husband and her not being there for her father’s burial which again her sister had informed her about.

“She’s not taking care of herself or the baby,“ the woman she called aunt Becky had said in hushed tones. “We’re thinking postpartum depression, for you see the baby didn’t really bond well with her, but that’s not her fault you know, she was stressed out over your father dying and all.” She had mouthed some off the words silently.

“But you seem fine. I heard you got married. Congratulations. When do we meet him?” She had rambled on in the kitchen and followed Kat into her father’s office, where Kat had gone to get her father’s whisky.

Kat had stared at her knowing she meant well but still, she would have preferred silence. Aunt Becky had waved her hands in front of her as if to ward of the awkwardness.

“Oh no, it’s fine. We’re all family here even though you- well you know. Family is family.”

Becky had always been nice to her and was always a talker. Kat knew she meant well so she smiled and nodded although she didn’t answer her. “Listen, it’s been some time and I need to go back home, do you think you can stay a bit with her? I need to check on the kids.”

The kids were in high school that she spoke of but Kat understood she needed to be there for her family too. And aunt Becky had been with Miriam the whole time since her father was rushed to the hospital weeks ago.

But Miriam’s mother thought it unwise for Kat to remain. “Give her some time you know? She sees you and just cries. I’ll take care of her don’t worry Kat.”

But Kat was indeed worried for their mother was barely able to walk, let alone help Miriam with a newborn babe too. So, Kat had asked one of the neighbors to come over and help out with the baby and they had come to an agreed price and her stepmother had accepted. See the neighbor was an elder woman with more than ten grandchildren of her own but vibrant and sturdy.

Kat’s eyes ran like water when she thought of the adorable baby now, who had to grow up fatherless. The prettiest little thing she had ever seen- with such beautiful bright eyes and perfect skin and smell. Probably sister less too, for Oscar will kill her now- she just knew it.

Her brain had taken a jumbled form as it grieved her father and thought of her captivity at the same time. Her nightmares made sense now- Oscar is a vampire King who married her for some reason that had something to do with a merge, according to the mage, Ju. But what merge? Two cities? Countries- what?

A vampire that was real and not in some movie. And the entire nation probably knew too. Kat could feel her brain cells working now like they had not been doing before about the entire Oscar situation of being a supernatural creature.

His father was also one but why is he dying then? Oscar said his father didn’t have long to live- she remembered that, so how does one die if immortal? Weren’t vampires supposed to be undying? She knew so much yet so little about these mythical creatures that had proven to be not so mythical anymore.

So, he drank blood, for she remembered Nuwa’s neck- and not forced to for the woman was engaged in …ahem. Not forced. And she did recall Oscar ate food- so blood and food. Was blood needed in his diet to survive as the stories claimed? His eyes- she had seen them glowing before changing to complete black and then he had looked away. His eyes were their normal deep grey color.  The cut on her finger at her wedding- was that part of ‘the merge’?

Wait- Kat’s mind whirled. Their blood mingled when their thumbs were pressed together but why was everything so difficult to place? She could feel the familiar blockage again… Why is her memory so blurred? As if she was drunk all the time…like in a dream-like state.

They were poisoning her!

Nuwa! She had asked her about her dreams- why? Had she been poisoning her? Her eyes widened…maybe it was Julie for she- no, Kat remembered Julie when she found out about her ginger allergy- Oni! But wait no- Oni was the one who made certain that no food contained even a trace of ginger- although it was always the innocent-looking one that was the culprit.

Kat conjured up her reporter's brain. It couldn’t be the food for Julie watched over the food as it was prepared for her and then delivered by Oni. So, what else? Tea! It was not always brought in by Oni-just why was she given tea all the time…and the sleeping- Kat’s eyes widened.

The sleeping aid. It had been the nurse! Kat needed to get a blood test done.

‘But how with the giant in the room?’

She took her first shower since leaving her place two days prior and let the hot water run through her hair longer than necessary. The heat easing the tiredness from her back and shoulders. Her stomach grumbled- she was hungry. The finger food she nibbled on yesterday was now long gone and hunger pangs plagued her now. Kat decided food was a requirement to think properly in this realistic, horror-fairytale she found herself in.