Chapter 9: Kill The Monster!!
Esther walked through the dark forest. She desperately looked for her mother. "Mother…" She called quietly. A familiar whinny was her answer. She looked into the darkness and saw Philippe. "Philippe!" She gasped and ran to him. She hugged him. "Where's Mother, Philippe? Oh, you must take me to her!" She climbed on his back and rode into the dark thickness of the forest.
The forest was just as dark as that night when Esther ran away from the castle. Only this time, the forest was not as cold. "Mother!" She called out. She had to find Laura. She just had too. "Mother!" Philippe marched around a bend in the path. A crow squawked and flew right passed Esther's noise. "Ah!" She screamed and pulled her head back. She took a deep breath and let it go. "That scared me." Philippe continued around the bend. When he came around it, Esther saw it: A body lying in the road.
"Mother!" She gasped and dismounted Philippe. She rushed to her adopted mother's side. "Mother, are you all right?" She asked in complete worry.
Laura opened her eyes a bit. "Esther…" She whispered before she fainted.
"Mother!" Her adopted daughter cried out. Esther picked up her mother's thin, sickly body and placed her on Philippe's back. She took a hold of his reins and led him home.
Once inside their home, Esther put Laura in her bed. She had gotten a bowl of cold water and a rag. She dipped the rag into the water and rung it out. She folded it neatly and placed it on her mother's forehead.
Laura slowly opened her eyes. "Esther?"
"Shh."
Laura sat up and hugged her daughter. "I was so afraid, Esther! I thought that something happened to you when Philippe back alone."
"I was sort of captured." Esther said softly.
"Captured! Who did this to you?"
"A monster in the castle in the forest." She told her slowly.
"A monster! Like a vampire in rumors we heard?"
" No! Well, sort of. His servants were vampires but…"
"How did you escape?" Her mother asked worriedly.
"He let me go." She smiled sweetly. "But he isn't really a monster. He may look it, but he's really kind and funny. And he has the biggest sweet tooth I've ever seen." She giggled at her memories at the castle."
"Is he really that way?" Her mother asked, calming down.
"Yes." Esther replied, then she told her mother all about the curse on Abel, Seth, and their friends.
Laura noticed the spark in her eyes as her adopted daughter spoke about Abel. "Esther, I'm so glad you're home, but you love this man––Abel––don't you? You should return to him."
"Love him? I don't love him. I don't think I do…"
A knock on the door interrupted her. "Coming!" Esther called as she stood up from her chair. She walked over to the door and opened it up. She saw a man standing there. He was taller than her and he was slender. His skin was pale and he had long black hair. His outfit was black and his eyes were narrow. "May I help you?" She asked surprised. She had seen that man before. He was a worker in the church and he was rumored to be a sweet talker man, but he was cold.
"Your mother is being arrested for the crime of being a witch." He told her as two bulky men walked into the house passed her and took her mother from the bed.
Laura coughed wickedly as she was dragged from her bed and out the door.
"Mother! Unhand her! She hasn't done anything wrong!" Esther ordered as rage built up with in her.
"She has been practicing the arts of black magic. Just the other day we saw her calling forth the creatures of darkness! We saw her buying Red Clover from the market and she was gathering cat hair!" Porter said as he stood outside with the rest of the village (each of the men stood with torches and pitch forks). "Am I right?"
"Yeah!"
"We saw her!"
"Burn that witch at the stake!"
"No, no! You can't do this, Mr. von Kämpfer!" Esther cried. Tears were at the corners of her eyes as she watched the men drag her mother away.
"Esther!" Laura cried in a weak, tired voice.
Dietrich had wandered up behind Esther. "You know, Esther. I could save your mother."
"What?" She asked as she turned around to face him.
"I could clear up this little misunderstanding, if…"
She looked at him oddly. "If…
He smiled. "If you marry me, my dear sweet Esther."
"Never, Dietrich." She snapped at him. She would never marry such a cruel and selfish man as him! She turned to the crowd. "Listen! My mother was never a witch! She never was!" The redhead ran to her mother and feel to her knees at her mother's feet. She wrapped her arms around her mother waist and buried her head in her mother's belly.
Dietrich clicked his tongue. "She had a spell cast on her to brain wash her."
The crowd murmured between themselves.
"How horrible!"
"She'll probably trick our children into doing her bidding too!"
"Esther had been gone for quite a while."
"That wicked Laura was probably practicing black magic on that poor child!"
"No, no! Esther went on a journey and was captured by a monster and his vampire helpers!" Laura blurted out as two strong men held her by her arms.
That got the crowd scared. "The witch had summoned evil creatures now!"
"No! I did not summon him! I don't even use magic!"
"Then you are liar." Dietrich said in her face. "Maybe you should be condemned for lying too?"
Esther took action. She could not just watch her mother be taken away from her. She stood up and ran to the house. She grabbed her leather pack and took out the mirror from within. She held it to her chest. She hoped that this would work.
Meanwhile, while all this was taking place, two certain young vampires were watching from the trees in the woods. "Ion, what are were going to do?" Seth asked.
"Shh." Ion shushed.
"But we must help Esther!" Seth squeaked.
"Be quiet! I'm working on it!"
"Fine…" Seth continued to watch the seen before her eyes.
Esther run back out of house as the crowd was shouting at her mother. "My mother is not lying," She told them, "and I can proove it." She lifted up the mirror and looked into it. "Show me Abel." She asked. It glowed a bright green. She showed it to the crowd. They screamed jumped at the mirror's presence. Abel was in the mirror. His silver of halo of hair was a mess. His long teeth were showing mincingly. His clawed hands were held in front of his face. His eyes were normal. They were peaceful blue, only they showed sorrow. Bloody tears slid down his checks in which her licked when they reached his mouth.
Dietrich's eyes grew wide at the monster in the mirror. It was familiar to him. He had seen that type of beast before.
"Is it dangerous?"
"No, no! He won't hurt anybody." Esther reassured them. "Please, I know her looks vicious, but actually he's really kind and gentle." She looked at his sorrowful face with such love and pity.
Dietrich looked at the monster in the mirror again. He really did look familiar to him.
"He's my friend." Esther said with a smile.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you had feelings for this monster." Dietrich told her.
"He's no monster, Dietrich. You are!" She narrowed her eyes at the man in front of her.
"She's a witch just like her mother! Just look at this mirror!" He said as he took it away from Esther. "It's a magical mirror!" He cared no more for this girl. He wanted first to kill this monster in the mirror. He took away the heart of his woman. He was an old enemy. "The monster will make off with your children and his minions will suck the blood from you. They'll come after them in the night!"
"No, Abel wouldn't do that!" Esther explained as she reached for the magic mirror.
"We are not safe until he is dead! Who will it be? Us or that monster?"
"Stop it, Dietrich––Ah!" Dietrich had slapped Esther so hard that she had landed in the ground beside her mother.
"I say it shall be us! We shall kill the monster!" He explained.
"Yeah!" The villagers exclaimed.
"We're not safe until that monster is dead." A villager, named Petro, spoke.
"He come and raid us of our blood in the shadows of the night." Another one, named Francesco, explained,
"He will kill our children!" A mother, named Paula, exclaimed with her little three-year-old girl in her arms.
"If we let him wander free, he'll wreck havoc on our village!" A man, named Virgil, said.
Dietrich took a torch from the man next to him. "It's time to take action! It's time to follow me! Let's kill that monster!" He threw the torch into the pile of hay near him. It burst into flames.
"The monster has fangs! Razor sharps ones!" Petro said.
"Killer claws!" A woman, named Vanessa, said.
"Hear him roar!" Virgil cried out.
"But we've not coming home," Dietrich exclaimed, "until he's dead! Good and dead! Kill the monster!!"
Esther ran up to Dietrich. She grabbed the mirror from his hand. "I won't let you do this!" She told him.
"Just try and stop me, dear Esther. Just try." He told her as he took her by her wrists over to her mother. "Lock these two way." He told the two men. They took the two women and brought them over to the wooden door to the basement. "We can't have these two running off and warning the monster." They threw them inside.
"Ah!" Esther screamed as she fell inside. The door slammed shut behind them. "Let us out!" She said as she banged of the door. It was locked from the outside.
"We'll rid the village of this monster! Who's with me?" Dietrich asked as he mounted his black horse. The crowd cheered him on. His horse whinnied and reared up on his hind legs. "We'll lay siege to the castle and bring back his head!" The horse settle down and Dietrich and his group of men trough the woods to the castle.
"We've gotta do something!" Seth exclaimed.
"Seth, you go back and warn the others! I'll stay here and help Esther!" Ion instructed as he stood up on the tree branch.
"Why do you get to rescue Esther?" Seth asked as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
Ion ignored her and jumped from tree branch to tree branch toward Esther's house.
"Ion, you are such a jerk!!" Seth yelled and ran back toward the castle.
Esther tried to get the small window open in the basement for that was the only way out now because the villagers had blocked the door. "I have to warn him." She said. She noticed the way opening the window the way she was doing was useless. She could never open it that way. She slumped to the floor. "This is all my fault. If only I never left home."
"Now, now. Don't say that, dear. You are happy that you met Abel, right?" Her mother asked as she went to her side.
Esther looked into her mother's eyes. "Yes. Yes, I am. But now he is going to die! Or Dietrich and all the innocent villagers are going to die!! Oh, Mother, what are we going to do?"
"We'll think of something." Her mother said as she embraced the young red headed woman.
Ion neared the house. He had seen where the villagers had locked Esther and her mother up. He quickly ran (as almost as if he was flying) to the door. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed around him. He ripped the door to shreds with his long claws. Splinters of wood flew into the air. He burst through the door. "Esther!" He shouted as he entered the basement. He looked for her. There she was, sitting on the floor looking alarmed at his sudden entry.
"Ion!" She gasped as she stood and ran to hug the boy. "How did you know?"
"Seth and I followed you back home, but Seth returned to warn the others."
"Oh, we must save Abel!" She said as she broke their hug and rushed to the door.
Ion grabbed her hand. "Wait, Esther. Why did you leave us? Don't you like us?"
"Oh, Ion. It's not that… I just had to help my mother. I missed her."
Ion let go of her wrist. "Yeah, I understand." He said as he looked at the dark ground as he remembered his own mother.
"Quickly, we must go, Ion!" Esther said as she ran out the basement.
"Yeah." Ion said and ran after her with Laura following behind.
The group of villagers tromped through the woods with touches, axes, and swords in hand. They chopped down a larger pine tree and cut it into a battering ram. They carried it up the path toward the castle. They were going to kill the monsters living inside that castle. They knew that they could take out any monster in that castle.
"I knew it." William said as he paced back and forth in the dark room. "I knew it was foolish to get our hopes up!"
"Maybe it would have been better if she had never came at all." Leon muttered bitterly.
Thunder rumbled outside as rain poured heavily. "Now, now. I know something good will happen in the end." Catrina told them.
"She's right." Noélle said wisely. "I did sense hope around her."
"Yeah. Esther will come back." Kate added.
"I doubt it." Leon spat. "She was just dieing to get out of this damn place!"
"Hey! Guys!" A voice called. Each of the servants turned their heads to the door to see them burst open as a drenched Seth flew into the room.
"Princess Seth!" They all gasped.
"What are you doing out of your room?" Leon asked sternly.
"And why are you clothes drenched? Where you outside?" Noélle asked.
"Never mind that! Terrans! The Terrans are coming! They want to kill us and more importantly they want to kill my brother!" She explained as she caught her breath.
"Terrans?" Catrina asked.
"Why would those damn humans want to come here for?" Leon asked.
"It seems one of them likes Esther so he wants to kill my brother! We must stop them."
Catrina left the room. "I'll go warn Abel."
Dietrich, with the mirror in his hands, walked up the roadway to the castle door in the pouring rain. "Take whatever you find, but remember the monster in mine." He instructed his men. With a battle cry, they took the battering ram and rammed it into the wooden door.
Catrina entered Abel's room. "Pardon me, Abel." She said as she approached him.
"Leave me alone." He said. His voice sounded so depressed and worthless. He looked at the rose in the glass case. There were only three more petals on the rose. His time was running out. He only had until sunrise before he would be forever a monster.
"But, Abel, the castle is under an attack. By humans! Aren't you going to do something?"
"What does it matter?" He asked. "Just let them come."
"We can't kill them, Leon, remember that." William said as he and the others gathered weapons.
"Yeah, but we can scare them." Leon told William. He picked up a rope and a knife.
William looked at him oddly. "You just better not hurt any of them with that."
"You know damn well that I won't!" Leon snapped as he gathered more weapons.
Then all of them quickly headed to the entrance hall to greet their "guests".
The townsfolk continued to ram the battering ram into the wooden door. Countless of times they rammed it into the door. Rain was pouring on them. With one last hit the door flew open. Dietrich was the first to go inside. The palace was dark and empty so far. Other men entered after him. They slowly walked up the red carpet and to the grand case of marble stairs. Dietrich was the first to walk up them. He reached the top and when he turned around his army of villagers were gone. "I knew I couldn't rely on such helpless people." He muttered to himself and walked down the dark hallway in search to find the monster.
Where exactly did those villagers go? Leon, William, Kate, Catrina, Tres, Vaclav, Hugue, and Seth captured them all and tied them up with rope. Leon threaten them with the knife if they were to shout or budge. They obeyed them without any problem.
Dietrich, with a bow and arrow ready in his hands, kicked open a door in the dark hallway. He lunched inside and pointed his arrow. No one was in the room. He noticed that the room was fairly feminine. He saw on the table a blue ribbon. He walked over to it and picked it up. He knew that ribbon all too well. It was Esther's ribbon. Now he was sure that that beast was still alive. Even though he had tried to avenge his master, he had failed. But this time that beast had even touched his precious woman. Even though Dietrich had tons of money and had tons of women, Esther was the only one he would truly "love", if that cold-hearted man could truly love.
Abel sat looking at the rose. His time was running even shorter. Only two petals hung on for dear life.
Dietrich opened the door softly. He slipped inside and saw Abel––his back facing toward Dietrich. He pulled back his arrow and aimed straight for his heart. He let go and the arrow soared. It soared until it hit its destination.
Abel stood and roared with pain. His eyes turned red and his wings appeared.
Dietrich ran up to him and pushed him through the glass window next to Abel. It scattered as his body went through it. Abel landed onto the balcony. Rain poured onto him, making him wet.
Dietrich smiled. He leapt through the window.
Abel stood to his feet and weakly fell onto the railing of the balcony. Dietrich pushed him off the balcony.
Abel didn't care. He knew that his life would be even worse without Esther. He'd rather die then stay a monster forever. So he didn't fly. He just rolled down the roof of his castle. He stopped rolling at the end of a ledge. Dietrich jumped down and followed him over to the ledge.
"Get up." Dietrich told him.
Abel looked at him sorrowfully. He did not wish to fight. This was the end for him.
"Get up!" Dietrich kicked Abel. "What's the matter, Abel? Too kind and gentle to fight back?"
Abel looked away from him. It was all over for him. He would die here.
"NOOOOO!" A voice yelled.
Abel looked down at the castle entrance. There was Esther, Ion, and Laura all riding Philippe. "Esther?" Abel whispered.
Dietrich took a knife out from his belt and went to stab the monster with it. At that moment Abel rose up. He used his own blood to create his scythe. He growled at Dietrich. His once peaceful blue eyes had gone red. His wings were opened proudly.
"Let's go, Philippe." Esther told her horse as she made him canter. They entered the caste.
Lightning struck Abel's wings. Blue electricity swam within them. Abel swung his scythe. Dietrich dodged it. Dietrich ran a bit and broke off a rod like object off the castle. He faced Abel.
Abel swung his scythe again this time Dietrich swung the rod. Both weapons clashed. They both leaned into their weapons. Abel was stronger and pushed Dietrich off of him. Dietrich rolled down the roof and landed onto another flat part of the castle. Abel took this chance to hide.
"Come out and fight!" Dietrich yelled. "Were you in love with her, Abel? Did you honestly think that she'd want you when she had someone like me?" He asked. "It's over, Abel! Esther is mine!"
Abel, who was hiding in the shadows, was getting angrier every second. This man who had followed his brother did not deserve to live. Abel growled softly before jumping out at him as he swung his scythe. This time Dietrich wasn't as fortunate. Abel stabbed him right it the heart with his scythe. Dietrich fell to his knees and slowly began to die. Abel retracted his scythe from the body and it disappeared.
"Abel!" Esther cried as she entered the balcony that led into Abel's room.
Abel turned around and saw her. He flew over to her. He stopped at her and continued to hover next to her. "Esther?" He reached out a clawed hand and cupped her small face. "You came back?"
Meanwhile, Dietrich lay at his death. "I have failed you again, Mein Herr, but please grant me your power so that I can finish him."
I will grant you your wish.
Abel looked into Esther's eyes. "You really came back."
"Of course I'd come back." She said.
Suddenly a thud was heard. A hole was made in Abel's chest. Blood oozed out from his wound. He roared it pain. "Abel!" Esther squealed.
Dietrich laughed as he fell backward. Only it wasn't Dietrich's voice. Abel knew whose voice it was. It was his brother's. It was Cain's. The power that Dietrich had used was Cain's. But no one would ever see or hear of Cain ever again.
Abel became weak. His life was almost up. Esther pulled him up onto the balcony where he immediately fell onto the floor.
All of his servants ran from his room to the entrance of the balcony where one could see the rose in the glass case. One petal still clung of all of its life.
Esther turned Abel onto his back. She looked into his eyes longingly.
He panted deeply as the life was slowly grained from him. "You… You came back, Esther." He said.
"Of course I came back. Abel, oh this is all my fault." She said as she hugged him.
"Maybe… maybe it's better this way." He told her as he choked on his words.
"Don't talk like that." She told him. "You'll be fine. Look I'm here now. Everything is going to be all right."
"At least I got to see you one last time…." He said as his breath left him and he died.
Tears slid down Esther's face. She clung to his body and cried, "Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!! Abel! No! No!" Her body shook with each sob. "Abel, I love you! You can't leave me! I need you! Abel…"
At those words, the last petal fell. All hope was gone.
