Dimitrescu's Daughter (Completed)

Chapter Ten: Sibling Rivalry Pt. 2

Taking the scalpel up off the floor I wipe it on my sleeve. Looking around I try to find a bottle or some soap. Something to clean the blade before I use it on myself. But my luck holds and I find nothing.

"Alright, you're next Cassandra," I sigh, "Please don't kill me."

Like any sensible person not in a horror movie or trying to attract an infection, I cut horizontally on the inside of my forearm much closer to my elbow. Not the smack dab middle of my palm where the nerve endings are the densest they are anywhere in the human body.

Blood flows but it's not enough. My teeth grind together and I shake as I cut deeper, making sure there's easily enough of my life dripping from the wound to feed her.

With my other hand I gather the blood from Miranda and drip it into the stomach churning mixture of blood, flesh, and crystal. Like her sister before her Cassandra takes a moment to rise and consolidate. She grins, "Nice to meet you in person."

"Which is odd considering part of me is in you. A lot of me in fact," I gasp out.

My legs fail when I try to stand. Cassandra grabs the back of my head, twisting my hair around her fingers.

"We still need Bela."

"I can't give anymore-!" I whimper and claw at her hand. The fresh blood makes my fingers slippery and I gain no purchase.

Cassandra brings the box to the floor and opens it, exposing the still heart and completely crystal and ash remains. Then she retrieves her scythe and forces my face near to it.

"What are you doing?" I ask but in my blackened heart I already know.

She's going to slit my throat.

Like everyone else I am a tool to her. A means to an end. And with me out of the way she and her sisters can go back to their mother happy and alive.

With my eyes screwed shut and already beginning to lose consciousness the pain isn't so bad. Almost instantly my vision darkens and tunnels. Only because I try to breathe through my mouth do I wind up spitting up blood. It runs down and coats my chin and lips.

"Iulia! I brought mother!"

In my hair Cassandra's hand jerks. She hisses, "Daniela what are you doing outside?"

"I'm warm! It's great!" Daniela chirps.

"Stand back girls," Mother Dimitrescu says.

The entire cottage shudders under the force of her blows. Then the door is ripped off its hinges and tossed aside. Mother barely fits through the door with her shoulders.

"Cassandra what are you doing?"

"Bringing Bela back!"

"Stop!"

What happens now I'm not sure. More than ever before I'm deep in the darkness. It's comfortable. Not warm, but not very cold. There is the odd pressure, like a far off touch here and there. I wonder, very seriously, if this is death. If this is what is left when we all fade from the land of the living. A sort of limbo awaiting judgement or reincarnation.

Then, came the tugging. It was uncomfortable and I wound up tumbling and wet and half drowned. After that was an unpleasantly, routine prickling. Little by little I realize I'm not dead at all. My body is just taking a very, very long time to heal. Remembering what I do of how deep Cassandra cut it comes as no surprise.

I've never been so glad to hear mother Dimitrescu's voice.

"Be gentle."

"I am!" Daniela whines, "I like her."

It's usually Daniela although occasionally Bela comes to sit on my bed and talk to me or tend to my wounds. More often though Daniela just comes to complain about her sisters or ramble about things going on about the castle. Even when she makes very little sense the sound of her voice is a welcome change from the lonely quiet.

I wake from one of my many short naps when the door opens. Fuzzy blurs greet me and I smile. My head swims so I close my eyes, but I smile.

"Iulia you won't believe what Cassandra did now. She-" Bela groans. She's started to vent to me too. But she stops. "You're smiling. Can-Can you hear me? Can you hear us?"

Her fingers are neither warm nor cold as she takes my hand.

"If you can hear me squeeze my fingers."

With all the strength in the right side of my body I manage. Bela's hand flies away, "Mother! Mother she's awake!"

Daniela arrives before mother. Bela is confused by this, "Were you waiting?"

"No, I just didn't want Cassandra to attack her again."

"I did not attack her, I was saving Bela," Cassandra growls, "She's alive?"

Bela growls, "Cassandra I swear-"

"What? You're barely on your feet as it is. You couldn't stop me from pushing you down."

"Girls," Mother growls, "If your sister is awake this is no way to greet her. Now leave, no doubt she's very tired."

Those footsteps I had listened to for months now leave out the door. Before it closes I hear Daniela gasp, "I wonder if she's hungry!" To which I assume it's Cassandra who snorts or scoffs, it's hard to tell