Dimitrescu's Daughter (Completed)

Chapter Six: Beats Two in the Bush

In the morning I wake slowly. No one is waking me. It's quite bright and a little cold.

When my eyes adjust I look around and find something blurry and dark looking at me. My head is humming and buzzing. There's a voice beside mine inside my skull chattering on and, crying, but it's almost too faint to hear.

Finally I really see what I've been staring at. I scream.

"Shh! Shh shh shh darling, it's alright. It is only me dear."

Eventually all the wits and daylights that were scared out of me gather back to form a human being. I sigh and shudder, curled into the fetal position in the middle of my bed with mother Dimitrescu sitting beside me stroking my back.

"What the hell? How long have you been sitting here just watching me sleep?"

"Actually something came in the window. I've been sitting here seeing if it was coming back so I could destroy it. How do you feel dear? You don't look well," Mother Dimitrescu cups my face with her bare palm.

Her nails scrape along my skin and I'm suddenly very aware of why she wears her gloves. Despite the rest of her looking so human her hands look like a classic vampire with sharp, piercing claws tipping every finger. They're embedded into deceptively powerful fingers.

"I'm not entirely there."

"What is wrong?"

"Dizziness, I think? It's hard to tell."

"I haven't told the maids what to prepare for breakfast. Does anything in particular strike your fancy this morning?"

Conversations from the night before comes back. When mother Dimitrescu hands me my glass of water and the little caplets I look at them in my hand for a long time.

"Should I put it in your drink to mask it?"

I sniff one before breaking it in half.

"Iulia," Mother growls viciously, "Take your medicine."

Never in my months of living in the castle have I seen Dimitrescu's eyes look so hellish and orange. There is something savage and unhuman behind them. The curl in her lip alone would have sent a shiver down my spine. Seeing her rigid posture and pure ire I quickly down both pills and the water.

"Good girl."

At breakfast I can't help but notice the extra bustling of the maids through the corridors.

"Did something happen last night?" I ask.

Mother smiles, "Don't concern yourself with it."

With some solid food in my stomach to fight off the cold that sinks deep into my body more than ever I can think more clearly. I can also hear that voice, this woman in my head.

Ugh, she's soft. Mother must be desperate to waste time trying to groom her. She'll never be as strong as any of us.

"Mother," I use it when I want something, and she hasn't seemed to catch on yet, "I need some time to think alone. May I skip my first lesson this morning?"

"Of course dear. Keep the windows closed, at least until I find who or what was watching you sleep."

In the library I find complete silence and solitude. Being alone, truly alone, after so long is odd. It's almost uncomfortable if I didn't know mother Dimitrescu could reach anywhere in the castle in a matter of moments ready to obliterate anything wishing me so much as ill will.

I sigh, sitting on a table and feeling ridiculous for what I'm about to do but willing to try anyway.

"Hello? I-I can hear you. Can you hear me?"

Silence.

"What is your name? I'm- Well my name is Iulia now."

More silence.

I laugh and rub my face, "Stupid." Sliding down from the table my head spins and I start for the doors to the lounge where my new violin is waiting.

You can hear me?

Now it's me who replies with silence.

Oh please, you spoke to me first I know you can hear me.

"I can hear you," I murmur, "What is your name?"

Beside me footsteps shuffle across the carpet.

Daniela.

"Daniela. As in, Daniela Dimitrescu?"

Yes.

Now I lick my lips, "You were one of the lady- One of her daughters first?"

Yes, and you will never replace my sisters and I!

"I never intended to. I'm different. I don't think she brushed your hair or dressed you all every morning."

No. Daniela's voice is quiet, dare I say jealous.

"Miranda, she plans to use me to bring you back."

We know. But mother gave that up to keep you instead.

"All things are fallible," I murmur, mind buzzing with ideas, "Tell me, what exactly she planned to do with my blood to bring you three back. Do you know?"

Why would you help us? If we come back mother will surely hand you over to Miranda.

"Truth be told I think I could fight Miranda. I don't want to hurt her, your mother. She's been kind to me. She's obviously suffered enough. If I bring you back then I could leave and castle Dimitrescu would be back to its former glory. Now will you help me or not?"

For a long time I think I've lost her. The buzzing in my skull becomes so loud I almost miss the sound at the window. Something dark flies away. Before I can walk over to see what it was Daniela returns.

You regenerate, whatever that means. Miranda used you to grow hearts. She tore yours out so it would grow back. She grew three hearts, one for each of us. She put it in our ashes and dust to make new bodies. Now she needs your blood to feed us. Enough to feed us strong enough to come back.

Looking down I claw at the neck of my blouse until I can see the blackened, gnarled scar that still oozes pus and gross. There is a beating there, and now I fear that this blackened thing I'm looking at is all that is keeping me alive.

"How much blood does she have?"

Enough for one of us.

"Does it have to be mine? Can't we just get anyone's fresh blood to feed you?"

I don't know! How am I supposed to know everything?

For a long time I sit brooding, thinking, and scheming.

Something changed Dimitrescu. Something made her immortal, ten feet tall, and bullet proof. Could it be the same thing that is apparently making me regenerate? Is it all just Miranda's magic? Then something even more pressing occurs.

"How do I know you're really Daniela? Not just me slowly descending into insanity?"

Quiet.

It's quiet for a long time with the buzzing becoming louder and louder until I stumble off balance and fall.