Authors: Romina Nicolaides
The bolt lock was pulled back from the door and he let her in.
“What time do you call this?” He asked angrily. “This better be important, child!”
She growled at him without meaning to and grabbing his hands, she ran them over her face taking care to point out her fangs to his tentative fingertips. Realizing instantly, he pulled away with a gasp.
“Do you think that’s important enough?” She asked with tears in her eyes.
“Oh no, no, no, no…” He pulled up his chair and sat down in disbelief, the dying embers of a fire barely illuminating his form.
“Say it!”
He faced her and though he had no eyes, she could still see the sorrow in his expression.
“I’m so sorry Katalina, this is my fault.”
“Yes it is! I would’ve been a million miles away if I’d left when I read those journals, but you made me go back!”
“I never for a moment thought she would do it to you too, you need to believe that!”
“You knew about the others and still put me in danger?” She was livid now. “Look at me, I’ve become a monster!” She knew what she’d said was impossible but he understood. He was holding his head in his hands, his sparse hair flying through his fingers.
“I’m sorry Katalina,” he was repeating as if in prayer.
“Where is the help you promised? Where? I can’t believe I was stupid enough to believe she would let me be or that I could be a useful assistant to that mad woman.”
“You have to believe me, I didn’t think she’d be so brazen as to endanger another local girl. She’s been warned by the Pastor repeatedly that he would notify the authorities and we thought that at least the locals were safe. Too many have gone missing from this area and she knows that people have started asking questions, people much more important than myself.”
“What happened to the others?”
“We didn’t exactly know what she’d done with them, but we suspected she’d hurt them. After the warning I was certain she wouldn’t dare do it again. I hate to tell you this, but you need to be even more careful now.”
“What do you mean? I’m in more danger?” She could sense fear in him. Fear of her? Fear of Erzsébet?
“There were other Afflicted girls before you. She seems to study you girls and watches what her disease does before being done with you, to avoid too many of her kind being around as feeding competition. Whatever changes you feel happening to your body don’t tell her. Try to be as quiet and unassuming as you possibly can and do not divulge your gift!”
Kati stood mesmerized and terrified by all that she’d heard. “My gift?” She asked in confusion.
“Each of the other girls seemed to develop some kind of ability after she bit them, besides the enhanced senses which all you Afflicted appear to have. One of them grew crow-like claws of incredible strength, another knew how to be extremely quiet and dextrous in the dark, while the third and fourth, a pair of twins from Moravia that were sold to her by their father, could speak in an animal tongue with each other. If you haven’t already, you too will soon develop some sort of ability that will interest her. Whatever you do, don’t tell her what that is because I fear it might lead to your untimely end.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Whispers and castle gossip mostly, except for one case. One of the other girls found my hut one day when she was out hunting and it was in my interest to feed her, something Báthory frequently neglected to do. The only reason she didn’t bite me was fear of your mistress for which I am eternally grateful. As she sat drinking the live deer I had provided her with, she told me a lot about her Eminence without meaning to. That was when the Pastor became involved too, but without solid evidence we didn’t feel confident enough to move against her. Until you came along with your discovery of the journals. Have you read them all?"
“Yes I’ve read them,” she said resigned. “They can't help me now though, my life is ruined!”
He approached her and tentatively put his arms around her. She buried her face in his chest and cried.
“I’m sorry child, I’m so sorry.”
“She pulled her face back from his wet shirt and asked in desperation, “Oh Papa, what will I do now? She’s going to kill me, I know it."
“Nothing I can say to you will offer you much comfort, I know that, and I’d understand if you didn’t believe me, but the one thing that I can guarantee is that she will kill you if you try and run away.”
Kati didn’t know what to make of all this information, the sordidness of it all, the scale and the level of organization frightened her to her core. She stood in the hut staring into the dying fire, its crackling sounds the only thing that could be heard in the room. She had never felt so small and so alone in all her life and the pure evil of it all was impossible for her young mind to fathom. The fragility of her position made her head spin and she rushed outside unable to stop herself from vomiting by the side of the door on top of a beautiful pink rose bush. The old man sighed and grabbed his head with his delicate aged hands and wondered whether it might have been better to have her reach her inevitable end without this knowledge.
Wiping her mouth she left the hut hoping the Countess wouldn’t realize how long she’d been gone. She played back the conversation with the old man in her mind and though she knew that going back was just as dangerous as running away she once again thought of her mother, Miloš and Oriana.
***
She returned to her room and prepared to undress but before she had undone her bodice the Countess appeared at the door visibly worn-out, in a linen chemise saturated with blood. She was no longer keeping up appearances with Kati. The blood trickled down from her mouth to her breasts, clinging to her skin and continuing in irregular stains all the way down to her feet breaking the whiteness of the dress. Her eyes were distant as if she was drunk and she held herself lazily with none of her regal composure. “No time for that. There is work for you in the dungeon. Get rid of the body and then you can clean yourself up. Oh and watch out for the sun, you’ll find it a little unpleasant from now on," she said with a smirk.
The sight that greeted Kati in the dungeon was beyond gruesome and she immediately looked away, hoping it would all magically disappear, but she knew better. The girl she had drunk from the night before was completely naked and hanging by her hands, by two metal chains attached to the ceiling which culminated at two rusty cuffs. Her wrists were cut and bruised from her attempts to free herself and blood had run all the way down to her elbows and was still dripping to the ground in slow, thick drops. She was cut, burnt and mutilated in several places on her body.
So this is what the Countess has been doing while I was finding my way back from the forest.
Is this what my future holds too?
She approached the girl's lifeless body and put a finger in the thick streams of blood that were starting to congeal on her skin. It smelled good and she inadvertently remembered its taste from last time. She put the finger in her mouth and licked the blood off.
Stale blood doesn’t taste as good as live blood.
She wiped the excess on her skirt.
Beyond the obvious signs of beating and torture, the girl’s torso had also been cut open from her neck to her crotch the way a skilled butcher did with his pigs. Her entrails lay in a heap on the ground while her heart and lungs were placed on a wooden block and appeared to have been carefully dissected. A little knife with a sharp blade lay on the ground covered in blood and traces of dark red flesh the consistency of cottage cheese. On a table away from the carnage lay a case of fine knives of different shapes and sizes all with elaborately decorated handles and she could see there was one missing from the set. They appeared to be made of silver and were well crafted.
These are the priest’s knives like in the journals
, she realized. She picked up the one that was on the ground, rinsed it off in a bucket of clean water and after drying it off she returned it to its rightful place in the wooden case, briefly entertaining the thought of plunging it into her heart, but she didn’t have the courage. She looked at her fingertips and saw that they were irritated where the knife had touched the skin. The case’s lid was intricately carved around the edge and decorated in mother of pearl inlay depicting a hunting scene with a woman and a stag. The box and the knives impressed Kati and she carefully closed it before turning around to face the fact that many hours of work still lay ahead of her before she could rest.
When she returned to the body, she realized that she had no way of releasing it from the iron cuffs that held it in place. She would have to cut her free and take her out in pieces.
Just think of her like the pig we killed at Christmas back home,
she told herself in order to deal with the carnage. The sun had well and truly risen by now. She could feel it smarting her eyes as it shone through a grate near the ceiling. She looked around for something large and sharp enough to cut through ligaments and bone hoping that she wouldn’t need to use those beautiful but painful knives. In a corner near the fireplace she saw a rusty old axe which would more or less work. Pulling down on the corpse as much as she could in order to absorb the blows, she hacked at the taut wrist with tears in her eyes until it came away from the hand, which fell on the ground with a mild thud. Doing the same for the opposite side, the girl fell to the ground. She looked strange and unreal in her deconstructed state. Kati stood staring at her, unable to bring herself to continue. The sun was beginning to rise and the castle seemed to groan at the light. Eventually Kati managed to chop the girl into chunks which she could transport to the forest for disposal.
She emptied a bucket of water on the last pools of blood on the floor she put the body parts in it and covered them with hay, plenty of which could be found in the dungeon. On pulling the door open a little she was greeted by a hint of light, the cool breeze and then traces of birdsong. Her eyes watered a bit but she paid no attention. Opening the door fully she was faced by an insurmountable sheet of white light. She closed it again and leaned against it waiting for her eyes to adjust from the shock of the glare and her skin to stop tingling.
…You might find the sun a little unpleasant
, the Countess’s mocking words came back to her and she cursed her under her breath. She looked around the room and found one of her mistress’s night shawls which she draped over her head, hiding as much of her face and skin as she could, she opened the door again and closed it immediately. She hoped that the light intolerance would eventually pass and that it was part of her ever-changing symptoms, but every single time she opened the door the same impermeability faced, burned and blinded her. Realizing she had little other option she took a deep breath and went outside. The courtyard was quiet as usual but she still had to make sure that no one had seen her.
By late afternoon she was finished and returned to her room hoping to rest only to find the Countess waiting on her bed all clean, refreshed and clearly sober. “You faced the sun…”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“And how was it?”
“It was fine, Your Grace,” she lied, and the Countess knew it like a mother knows when she asks her toddler if he ate cake and he answers no, though there are crumbs on his shirt.
“Very well,” she said as she got on her feet and sashayed towards the door in another of her sumptuous gowns and a smirk on her face. As she reached the doorway she turned and said, “I nearly forgot, the dresses on the chair require immediate mending, so get to it; and when you are done, go out and get me a new girl for tonight.”
“A girl?” Kati was horrified.
No more dead girls please!
“Preferably yes, unless you would like to take her place.”
A crestfallen Kati looked at the ground distraught at the prospect of what she would have to do.
“That’s what I thought too,” said the Countess before placing her thin hand into the folds of her skirts from where she retrieved a large metal key. "Incidentally you’ll be needing this for the restraints. Put it with the others and keep them on you at all times,” she said and threw it in Kati’s direction.
Kati stared at the ring in defeat, but said nothing as she watched the Countess leave the room. She wondered if she might be better off letting the Countess kill her than live a life of eternal torture in this new condition but her nerve failed her again. By the end of the night which would be spent repairing torn seams and loose pearls on expensive silk and velvet gowns, she would have to go out and find a new victim for the Countess to torture and bleed. She was exhausted and collapsed on the cold stone floor where again she sobbed uncontrollably for a long while. Eventually, after she was done crying, she sat up and wiped her face from the tears that were starting to sting her skin. She changed her filthy dress and, with the heat and light of a few candles, she got to work repairing the clothes.