CHAPTER EIGHT: Dracula Doesn't Love
ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN YEARS AFTER LAST CHAPTER
I felt so young, and yet I was still so young. A hundred and eleven years had changed the world. A hundred and eleven years had taken friends and all the people I cared about. But it hadn't changed me. It hadn't taken me. I currently resided in the city of Columbus, in the American state of Ohio, and it was the year 1911. The only regular thing in my life was my profession. Now that the world of myths and monsters was a world forgotten and replaced by a world of logic I could freely work as a steady doctor without suspicion. As for my self-control, centuries of practice had blessed me with such control as was unbelievable. Naturally I was known for my good work, because the past year had been filled with nothing but medical learning and discovery and experience.
The Denali clan still lived in Alaska, as was my knowledge, and I still did see them from time to time. Eleazar had returned from the Volturi and with him he had brought a young female vampire, Carmen. Carmen was a long, willowy woman with darkened hair and a strange olive complexion. The two mates had met sometime during Eleazar's journeys with the Volturi and were almost immediately married and inseparable. Although Carmen was beautiful, as all vampires are, and although I was happy for both of them, my romantic notions struggled with a small pang of jealousy. I had searched this vampire world for my whole, for my beloved, for a Juliet. How was it that Eleazar, who had not even been looking, had stumbled upon what I longed for most. Maybe that was the key. To find love, you must not be looking for it. After too many years, I had given up looking.
One beautifully dreary afternoon I was returning from a house call in one of the more unfortunate parts of Columbus. The houses were all a rural wooden structure, and most lacked any real windows or doors. I was just within the part of town in between the lesser neighborhood, and the expensive side of the city, when I heard an abrupt yell that sounded like the person had caught her loud fa paux and was trying hard to stifle it. I walked at a human pace in the direction the the sound had come. Then the human scent hit me, but I didn't even register the venom flow, or the way my throat tightened, because crumpled on the ground was a beautiful young woman clutching her leg. I immediately ran over, maybe a little too fast, to attend to her. She looked up at me startled, and then her eyes clouded over in a look I often received from women, only the look had a sweeter edge to it. Flustered, she began to speak.
"Oh, thank you sir, I believe I'm just fine. I'll be just fine." with these words she attempted to rise, but only got about an inch off the ground before she faltered. I caught her before she could fall.
"I beg to differ" I said, smiling. She returned a beautiful smile back at me.
"It may be a little more serious than I expected then, but I should be at home right now, my poor young sister has a cold" she hastily explained.
"You're in no fit state to walk, my lady" I said, worried at how she kept trying to stand on her obviously broken leg.
"Oh" she said, and winced as she incessantly attempted to walk.
"It will be fine, I'm a doctor" I reassured her "Would you mind sitting still for a while so I may examine it?"
She grimaced but nodded. I knelt down and felt the bone, I was certain I had distinctly heard a crack but I wanted to be sure.
"Regrettably it is a break. I'll have to take you to my office to brace it" I told her.
"Sir, would you escort me home first possibly? It isn't far and I would not leave my sister unattended for so long" she asked, and how could I possibly refuse?
"Certainly...err?" I asked her name unnecessarily.
"Esme" she said with a quick smile.
"Esme" I repeated. "Pretty name" I said. She smiled the smile that I was involuntarily committing to memory.
I supported her effortlessly down the street and around the corner to her home. It was a narrow attached house with wooden steps leading to the door. The walls were a fading white, and despite being wedged in between two more cramped and unkempt houses or similar style, it was contrastingly neat, with plants decorating the entryway. I walked inside, and she hobbled in leaning on me, and tended to her sister Elena. Elena was very amiable and shared many of her sisters flattering features. Eventually I persuaded Esme to sit and rest while I tend to her sister, and she agreed only because she felt me more qualified. I waited while Esme said a quick goodbye to her sister. I tried not to hear, but inevitably I heard the conversation.
"Goodbye Elena, I'll be home shortly..the doctor just needs to fix my leg" I smelt the blood that must have been flowing to her cheeks. Her sister laughed. "Silly me, always falling" Esme said.
"He is such a gentleman , bringing me all the way here to tend on you, before fixing my leg." I heard her say.
"Gentleman...very handsome to is he not?" Elena said.
"Yes..yes he is." Esme said in a tight voice. They giggled and I instantly felt horrible. I had barely checked myself this afternoon, being so enthralled by this simple human girl, and I could feel the same lift in heart, the same desire as with Chiori. Was there no end to my audacity?
I insisted on paying the carriage for her to go to my office, and when we got to my clinic I payed more excruciating attention and time to preparing the plaster just right, and to spreading it in the right amount, just to covet more time with her, my new obsession. I was postponing the time of her departure because I knew that after this I was going to be avoiding that area of town, and avoiding her because of my ridiculous but dangerous adoration. When I was eventually finished she started to dig in her bag for something.
"How much would this cost?...not to mention helping me so diligently.." she muttered, embarrassed.
"Nothing at all Esme. It was my pleasure" I said.
"You're too kind" she said, it sounded as if she meant as a small insult.
I smiled at her.
"Now, let me escort you to a carriage back home, make sure you rest, I don't want you hobbling after your sister twenty-four hours of the day now okay?" I laughed. Her musical laughter joined in.
"I'll do my best" she said.
"Goodbye" I said with a small nod as I helped her into the carriage car.
"Goodbye...oh I have not even learned your name!" she exclaimed.
"Carlisle" No need for a last name.
"Well thank you Carlisle, truly I'd most likely still be crawling down the street without you" she laughed. I hid a grimace at that image.
"Goodbye Esme. Have a good day." I said smiling and waving as the carriage set off.
"Goodbye Carlisle" she waved.
And I waved back. It felt to me, as if I would not be able to avoid attaching myself to the humans I met along my years. Wherever I could run, there would be a poor lady, a small child, a kindly elder, that I would become attached to and not be able to ignore them as a monster like me should. Compassion was more than a part of me, It was me. I could not rid myself of the images of the graceful woman, Esme.
Adieu Esme.
