Chapter ten

Will was gone home after the funeral, neither talking nor looking at Elizabeth. He did not need to;
Valeria had made her totally forget about him and his strange behaviour. He had fought a few times
with the wish to turn back and free his beloved from the control of the hated Vampire, but for some odd
reason he did not. Elizabeth seemed saver with Valeria than with him, as strange as it sounded to his
mind. He had locked the doors and windows after he want home, just to make sure nobody from the
streets would come in and bring himself in danger, than he tried to eat something other than blood.

He ate as much as he could of the stuff he had home, bread, meat and vegetables... anything he still
had stored and simply did not feel any different from before. Despite the fact, that the nausea got even
greater with every bite he took. The final result of his dinner was, that he threw up every single bit
again, mixed up with some left remains of the blood he had eaten in the night he had spent with Valeria.

He had spend the rest of the evening, after the throwing up had died down again, with fighting against
himself, a battle against his growing need to nourish his hunger with the blood of an innocent human.
He had even thought about slaughtering his little donkey, but could not do it.

He moved into his room just to make sure not to try and kill his pet anyway, and kept pacing on the
open window, watching every drunken sailor that found his way past it, with hunger in his eyes and
a nauseous feeling in his belly. As closer the morning came as louder the sounds on the streets grew,
he was so close to go hunting that he went back down into his shop and started practicing with one
of his swords again.

He had surprised a few rats that had hid behind a small pile of wood and the idea of satisfying his
hunger without hurting anyone important came into his mind. And so he had spent the following
hours with catching some rats. Or better he was trying to get those grey little animals.

After a few missed chances he finally remembered that he could hear their heartbeat or even try to
manipulate them enough to come out of their hiding on their own will. He had tried to concentrate and
get them out, but it did not work the way it should.

He sat there in the hay and played around with one of his swords full of frustration and anger. Dirt
sticking to his skin and hay everywhere in his messed up hair. The beating from outside was still so
loud that his head was near exploding and the fact that he had absolutely nothing to eat in here to get
his hunger at least satisfied for one second made the whole mess even worse.

His anger grew so much that he simply jumped up with a growl of fury and attacked the spot where he
could trace the heartbeats of some of the rats. The one rat he had managed to catch ended as bloody
mass under a heavy peace of wood, the only result was that he could not stand how good the dead
rat looked for his eyes and got seriously sick.



He tried again after a couple of minutes and managed to get one alive, but he couldn't get himself to
kill the small thing now that it looked at him with the small black eyes and the little moving nose.

He sat there with the rat in his hands for over three hours, close to a total break down and near the
point of giving in to his needs, as the mid of the day was reached. He had pictured the 24th December
completely different, he wanted to give his self made gift to Elizabeth, talk a bit with the Governor and
perhaps he even could have moved himself to a proper engagement with Elizabeth.

But he never pictured this day like the bloody mess it was for him. Why was Valeria so right with what
she had said about his hunger? He was a Vampire for perhaps 4 days or so, he had slightly lost the
track of time after Norringtons funeral, and was so close to doing something stupid since that. His
hunger was so unbearable that he even was fighting with the urge to scrape together the remains
of the dead and slushy rat to eat something.

He took a deep breath and turned to look at the necklace that was lying on a small table, the red
stone glowing in the sun that came in through the slits in the wood walls. He had to think about
Elizabeth, wearing this fine peace of jewellery around her neck, two or three of her blond curls hanging
down to frame the sinful picture. The hunger burned in his veins, and even although his heart was not
beating anymore it seemed to pain him with need and wanton hunger for blood from this luscious
woman in his mind.

It drew him to the house of the Governor. Drew him to the woman who was literally in his blood and
calling loud and clear for him. Valeria had said something about giving him freedom, the freedom he
wanted to have since he had tasted the freedom as pirate and came back to the old boring life he
had before he meet Jack Sparrow.

He could not give in to this; he could not go and kill the women he loved. Even if he did not love
her that way he thought at first he could not do something like this. He could not follow the call. But he
was so hungry, so hungry he could not stand it anymore.

He took the necklace with one hand and jumped up, out of the door of the shop and on the streets.
Not yet knowing what to do or where to go.