Monster

21. Charlotte

1832 March 1st

Midnight

Charlotte

Elsa felt the wind only through the billowing of her hair and dress hems. Tree roots seemed to reach out of the ground like gnarled fingers, dragging her back to where she belonged. She stumbled and dashed toward the gate at the back of the cemetery, maneuvering around tombstones. The same angel she had seen upon entering followed her, judging her. All the while the flickering torch one of the SKS members had held beamed in her mind's eye like an insistent wound. All she could think of was escape, and then once she found that, she'd huddle some place to mull over Ronan's predicament—despite herself, her eyes stung with grief. Shouts from behind propelled her even faster, and soon she darted over the back gate and into the trees, out of sight.

She felt her throat burn with hunger, but she ignored it and moved at a brisk pace, looking over her shoulder to make sure they had not caught up. Shafts of moonlight fell in broken patches through the canopy of naked tree branches above her. Spider webs twinkled in the frost, owls moved from tree to tree, watching her with their wide yellow eyes. She made it to a clearing but did not stop there. Moonlight filtered in; she'd stand out like the only candle in pitch darkness.

She started to continue on when she heard a tree branch snap behind her and spun around, lips curled back to reveal her canines. Her heart leaped when she saw the woman in a red cloak; it rippled and snapped like a flame in the icy breeze, and she lifted one hand to beckon Elsa over.

"What do you want?" Elsa hissed, her back pushed to a tree trunk.

"We are not here to harm you," the woman insisted. "We are here to help you. We can keep you save. Sheltered. Fed."

Elsa peered into the darkness behind her, where she saw a cluster of more women in red emerge, their cloaks whispering in the breeze, the hoods pulled over their heads. Copper eyes assessed her; her ruined gown, tangled hair, bruised eyes, and trembling frame. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"We have all been hunted down. We stick together so we can protect one another. We understand you, because we are one of the same. You are our sister. Please, come with us." She held her hand out again and Elsa shook her head.

The woman reached up and pulled the cloak from her head. She had curls of hair, blue black under the moon, and her large, indifferent eyes shone copper. Elsa narrowed her eyes. "So you show me your face? It makes no difference to me if I can see your face or not. I do not know you."

The woman's face remained placid. "We see loyalty in you," she said in her deep, warm voice. "We offer a safe haven for vampyres like yourself. Won't you please join us?"

Elsa started to turn away and make a run for it, back to Nicholas, when she heard the relentless boots of the SKS and saw with a pang in her heart the bobbing torchlight. She bit her lip and considered only briefly before she nodded at the woman, who in turn dashed at Elsa, took her hand, and together they darted through the trees.

Elsa looked over her shoulder to see the other women in red following. Elsa's hair tangled in her face and she looked forward again, stumbling over tree roots and piles of snow.

Later, the gathering of women stopped on a street in Torun, one that Elsa had rarely walked down, as her father always told her to stay on the main stretches. But there was no worrying of that now. The woman pulled a key from her pocket and unlocked the door of a building, one that advertised antiques. Stunned, Elsa wondered what they planned do to, and how they had access to this building. But before she could utter her concerns, she was ushered inside. The last woman in red closed the door, bolted the locks, and turned to face the rest, who, as candelabras suddenly burst with candlelight, started up a flight of stairs that quivered in the shadows that followed. Elsa was amid them, moving along like a lost bonnet in the ocean waves.