It's a foggy cold night in the town of Kranstein when Carla is sauntering around the markets. The air is filled with a blizzard of fine white powder elevating the usual atmosphere to a rare spectacle of nature. These small ice crystals evoke a feeling of winter nostalgia and childhood remembrance of days long gone when every sensation was new and brought with it endless wonder and food for imagination. Indeed, she feels as though snow could pour down that very instant, covering her every clothes, inviting all sorts of opportunities for play and recreation. People are shaking off the heavy burdens that have stacked up over the day and come together in friendship and understanding. Carla greets a few acquaintances along the way as they share gossip and talk about daily habits with each other. "Carla, dear." one busy woman of wealth with long brown hair and a lean build talks to her. "I was told that you were around when the town was attacked..." A friend of the woman corrects her: "Oh Ludmilla, people were attacked, not the town. We should not be making a big fuss about this and pretend that the whole town should be up in arms and in vengeance. The traders had it coming their way if they disobeyed the order of the agreement." she says. Ludmilla is irritated: "Coming their way? You call a slaughter of living men and women "coming their way"?" Ludmilla turns away from her friend and looks at Carla with a weak sarcastic smile as to signal her to disregard whatever nonsense she just uttered. "Carla, dear, I'm glad you are in good spirits and all. Let's give rest to this talk for now, tonight should be enjoyed and celebrated; at least that's the kind of situation I'd like to have right now." Carla hesitates for a moment and nods: "Sure, if that is what you want, Ludmilla! Let's get right to it then, shall we?" "Oh and..." Carla with a low voice directs her calm yet fast words towards Ludmilla's friend: "I think there's more to what happened that day than just one order disobeyed. People usually don't lose their lives over one fight, not here."
"Carla you know fully well I dare not disobey you, lest your beast of a man comes slaughter me." she laughs. "Oh please." Ludmilla slaps her friend while noticing Carla rolling her eyes uncomfortably. "Carla, what do you think if we just cross through the markets and enjoy the night at my house?" Carla smiles: "I'd be thrilled to do that... however there are some things I wanted to get before I..." Ludmilla: "Oh no, I can't take later for an answer, dear, I'm sorry. Anything you need today you surely might as well get tomorrow, right?" In her mind Carla reviews the food and drinks at home and given Lexandre's little appetite and Gerald eating out often she comes to a conclusion:" You know what, you're right! Fortunately my son will find just about his favorite foods when he'll look for them." Ludmilla grabs Carla arm and takes it under hers: "It is settled then! Let's go, my doves." Ludmilla and her friend fuel down their drinks they had bought and then take leave with Carla. Singing people, hopeless drunkards, romantic couples, lost pups(both cats and dogs), brawling hotheads is the play that define the scenery that unfolds upon them as they walk through the dimly dark orange candle lit roads "You know, Ludmilla, I don't remember coming through this particular road before." Carla looks left and right, turns her back and then back to look at Ludmilla. "How is that even possible, Carla?" she responds with a baffled expression. "Has she left her house at least once since she is together with Gerald?" Ludmilla's friend asks. "I'm not sure... like, right now I'm really questioning the very point you have brought up, dear." "Know what, Ludmilla? Next time we meet Gerald the handsome devil, we are going to ask him if even allows his wife out of the house regularly!" Carla opens her mouth widely and whispers still deprived of words. "have you lost your mind...
….Hey you know that I can hear you, right? Gerald is nothing like that and even if he was I'm making my own decisions either way, alright?" Ludmilla's friend with the green eyes looks with an evaluating expression and Carla for a few moments, and after presumingly having taking into consideration what Carla just said, continues: "You know, maybe she is being forced to say that. You can never quite tell when a man strongarms his wife into saying things that make their relationship look good when beneath the cracks emptiness and hurting slumbers, bursting out at any moment." "I see..." Ludmilla responds in a short breath. She puts her arms on her shoulders: "You can tell us everything, we are here to help, you know that, right?"Carla takes a step back, shakes off her heads and says with agitated sarcasm: "Enough already, I'm fine. Gerald would never... I love him, he loves me, we love our child... we... would you stop giving me that "we feel with the mistreated wife" look?" "Another time, dear." Ludmilla agrees and signals 'okay' to her friend.
The walk continues for several minutes when they pass by a stand with posters, the person running the stand seems to be packing things up. "Wait." Carla says. "I want to take a look at this." "Oh haven't you heard, dear? Are you going?" "Going where..." says Carla still trying to get a better look at the poster. The caretaker of the stand, a woman with short blond hair a nice looking purple and green jacket in bright colours and pointed shoulders and a top hat looks towards Carla. "Well hello, miss. I was just going to wrap things up here. I'll light things up for in you here for your convenience." She takes a candle and holds it next to the poster. The poster depicts a dark blue mask on a black background. Beneath a text in elegant white letters:
~~ ~ One night. One ball. One thousand masks.
A dance in the Castle.
Come when the moon shines its first ray on the Garden's field. ~~~
"Oh, no way..." Carla exclaims with her eyes wide open. "It's a costume ball! There's no way. A ball in the Castle?" The caretaker and vendor of the stand holds her candle towards Carla's face. "Yes way, madame! This year, the Lady Carmilla herself is supervising all preparations. Word of town is that the ball was her idea. Of course, I'm no official spokeswoman of the castle so, mind you, everything I say is merely grounded in speculation. But... getting you a ticket for that event, I can tell by your sparkling eyes that you desire one, that is very much real and true. Let me just see for a second..." she moves the candle and turns around to the back where some boxes are are stored to look for something. Ludmilla and her friend are in amusement with Carla's state of delirium. "Hey, Carla, dear, are you able to talk yet?" Carla's attention is all focused on examining every nook and cranny of the invitation poster, trying to appreciate its unique and modern design, fantasizing about everything from decoration, guests, food, Castle dwellers, supposed Castle monsters... if there are any or just another fantasy of the gullible towns people... and of course...Carmilla herself... her, of whom she had fantasized about so much but realizes so very little. In fact, not much at all is known about the landlords of the Castle outside its very gates, only that Walter Bernhard is the head of the Bernhard clan and that he is as wealthy as he is powerful. But just the thought, the mere thought of an opportunity to meet Carmilla, the fair-maiden of the Castle, has Carla's heart racing in excitement and wonder. The caretaker turns her face back towards Carla and after realizing her vexation, moves her head away and with a painful expression gazing towards the night's sky that has cleared away the fog and looks at the sparkling stars as she says: " Confound it... I'm so very sorry but it appears... the last ticket I sold was but 2 hours ago..." Carla feels a cold shiver engulfing her body, unable to predict the emotion that would brew in her next. Sadness, disappointment, anger, regret? The caretaker, still looking at the countless stars at the firmament, sees a glowing comet drawing with it its shining trail, nearly as quickly disappearing as it appeared, imagines a thousand glowing stars raining down on Kranstein, into her eyes. She smiles. "Your name is Carla, am I right? Look here." She points the candle towards the poster once more and with a fast movement of her hand she tears down the poster and behind it a silver ticket reveals itself to them. She takes the ticket, uses one of her feathers with ink and writes something on the ticket in blue letters. "Very well. The night appears to have taken a liking into you Carla, so have I! This is for you." Carla, still shaking at the rush of emotions takes the ticket and on a silver paper with spangled with dark blue powder she reads the text aloud:
One night. One glow. A thousand stars.
By special invitation, this ticket shall grand entrance to the Castle halls to Carla from Kranstein and one friend.
When the moon shines its first ray on the Garden's field
We Shall Dance
With a smile of gratitude and happiness she speaks the last words of the ticket and looks up the Ludmilla, her friend and the caretaker. "Thank you sao much, I doubt I can even thank you enough for... for... this wonderful kindness." The caretaker returns a gentle and warm smile and bows: " Your presence at the ball in high spirits will fill me with joy more than anything else. This is going to be your night, with all the impressions and experiences you make." She packs up the utensils of the stand on a car while Carla receives congratulations from her friends. As she finishes up and waves goodbye: "I will make my leave now, farewell!" Carla waves back and doesn't hesitate to ask before she is out of reach: "Will I see you at the ball?"
"If you wish for that to come true, you just might!"
The loud rattle of heavy metallic armor is resounding like clockwork with every step she takes while wind and rain mix with the sound of her steady movements to conjure a sound of a walking thunder that would irritate anyone who believes that the storm comes from the sky, not the ground. Merely minutes ago she left the path of a dense forest and is now crossing through a meadow with wet grass reaching to her armored knees. Rain pours down from her visor, like small rivers they flow from the top to the ground and while she is walking at a steady pace the wind makes this a rather arduous task, like an invisible wall it pushes against her as though someone meant to say to her: "Stop. Don't move on. Your path ends here now."
She is somewhere in that wide open field now and only the light of the moon behind the clouds shows her way through the dark. Gray to white clouds dimly illuminated show a setting of exotic forms and shades of towering and interwoven clouds, sometimes appearing like mushrooms, waves, horizons, bushes. Blue lightnings and electrical discharges paint through the firmament like fireworks adding shapes and figures to the night's sky. The grass bends and rises to the wind like watching the hair of a friend flow after a gentle blow to her forehead. As the spectacle of nature continues to unfold a particular strong wind pushes against her, forcing her to stop walking. Slowly, the clouds in the sky move near a bright spot to reveal the shining surface of the moon. She marvels at the moon when in the very same moment its shape starts to change. A sketching of a smiling woman's face is appearing with changing expressions of amusement. In intervals of seconds the face changes to a new sketching, a straight face, a slightly tilted head, a face from the side, her mouth wide open revealing her white teeth... Like pencil sketches the face continuously changes to a new image. The woman in her armor immediately develops a fondness of that face. The storm revealed to her a face that's kind, gentle, caring, loving, soothing. The kind of positive emotions you would associate with a close friend, family, a loved one. "Who is she? She is gorgeous..." she whispers behind her visor. The play of faces goes on as she continues walking, hardly able to release her view off the transforming moon. The longer she looks at the faces the more she feels like she can hear a laughter somewhere originating near the moon yet she realizes that what she hears must come from a place within her head.
"So mysterious... why are you cloaking yourself in your mysterious ways, moon? "A laughing maiden, atop the sky, a rainy night, I ponder why. Dare you seduce me, quickly enchant me, a smile in your light, kindles a light in my heart."
She comes to a halt, raises her hands to her visor to adjust it reaches to the back of her helmet. She removes the helmet and her short reddish-orange hair immediately hit by the rain shines, and she beams with a smile at the moon, then, she continues her walk through the rain.
The storm is hitting the lands near Bernhard Castle with heavy drops of down pouring rain, the Castle soldiers are retreating back into their living quarters, voluminous and puzzling looking clouds are hanging over the rooftops of Kranstein town where the windows are tightly shut, some bottles and kettle are placed within the living chambers to catch the water from a leak. At some spots the river is overflowing and washing away the remains of the day, far away, out of the town. Where once the raging conflagrations of hell laid waste to the land, and the ashes have covered the scene in gray and black at the Lake near Bernhard Castle, nature now has come to force back its earthly colors. The hut near the Lake is muttering sounds of cracking wooden planks, as they bend beyond their elasticity and break forcing the hut to collapse. The contents of hut, books, pages, viols, potions, personal belongings are flowing with the fast winds of the storm, sailing above the lake and through the forests. A single large page of a book with nothing else on it but the initial C. is turning and vibrating heavily and eventually blown away, far off into the distance, not to be ever seen again.
""ARRHHGHGHHH..." "Professor Frankenstein, at this rate he will lose consciousness which will render his body's reactions to surgery unpredictable." one of the assisting doctors hastily informs Victor Frankenstein as he operates with medical equipment on the patient. The face of a pale, strong man is sweating heavily in his fever dream. "Continue... continue! Ahhhh...hahaha, this man is made of iron, perhaps steel even, do you really think a little surgical operation is going to take him out? Hah... HAH!"
"I beg you Frankenstein, reconsider, his condition is becoming ever more dire, his heart might cease to support further procedures if we don't let him rest." Frankenstein slowly adjusts his glasses which look like they could burst any minute and his countenance changes to an expression of sheepish delight. "Too late... too late now... connect the sections and keep the sedatives flowing...hahaha... he will come to with major head...AHAHAHA."
"Fool...!" the assistant doctor mumbles while wiping away the sweat on his forehead with his underarm, yet his insult is drowned by the thunder of the storm and commotion of the patient shaking. Suddenly Frankenstein violently pushes the assistant away and grabs a scalpel. "Let me do this here..." he proceeds with a cut. The patient screams at the top of his lungs in violent pain. "HAHAHAHA..." Lightning. An ear damaging thunder. In another part of the castle a few miles away lies a young man motionless in a bed surrounded by two women and a man in a fine black cloth and his cane. Heavy rain drops are striking against the window of the high north tower. The man with the cane turns his view away from the storm outside and directs his attention to the tranquilized storm within the room.
"Is he still breathing?" Sebastian asks. One of the young house maidens is pressing the back of her hand near Balch's nose. "He is, yet it's a very low, weak breath." Carmilla, who is sitting in a chair near the bed stands up to put the palm of her hand on his forehead. "He is very cold. People usually can't survive with a temperature this low, but he is different. I know of some cases and symptoms that come with a body cold as this, but his condition is different." She removes her hand, sighing. "To be absolutely frank, I don't think I can provide the treatment he needs. Not here, not alone." "Oh Balch, what have you gotten yourself into this time." His facial expression is empty, hard and motionless like stone. "Sebastian?" Carmilla musters him.
Sebastian stomps the floor with his cane. The wall of the right side of the bed rotates, revealing a stove and shaky mechanical arm, extending a mug with a hot beverage to Sebastian. The maiden is visibly surprised. " I think I... I think I've seen all castle devices by now." Carmilla smiles weakly and nods her head as she takes the mug from Sebastian. "Yeah. You technically... probably." She pours the beverage into Balch's mouth. Sebastian stomps the floor again. From the ceiling a large chandelier shaped device appears glowing in red, yellow and green and orange. It lowers itself just a few inches above Balch's body and rests itself in that position. Carmilla notices the maiden's flustered expression. She shakes her head grinning. " Nah, you didn't even see the top of the ice." She shares a taunting expression with Sebastian. "Dark corners, hidden cellars and chambers, deathtraps, torture apparatus'." The maiden gulps. Carmilla puts her hands on the maiden shoulders. " Rest your mind at ease, friend. All of these things exist in rumor only, Sebastian and I wouldn't know... details... right?"
"None... of the kept-alive... subjects... would..." groans Sebastian in a dark voice with a gruel fake display of terror, menace and forbidden knowledge in his countenance. The maiden starts shaking. "Sebastian, I beg thee..." Sebastian shakes his head. "It appears a little liquor is in order, to calm her nerves." Sebastian stomps the floor two times. The mechanical arm extends a mug with a hot beverage to the maiden. She takes it quickly. "Thank you very much... oh, it's very sweet! Tea, I suppose?" She takes a generous sip. The maiden notices Sebastian raising his eyebrows. " Why, yes, tea it is. Freshly pressed orange tea... Blood...orange." The maiden spits and spills the tea all over the floor, just a shaky movement away from Balch's bed.
"You're a cruel human being, you realize that, Sebastian? I assure your Estelle, there are no vampires to be found within the Castle boundaries." Carmilla rolls her eyes at Sebastian and leaves the sickbed room. "That's quite right, my lady. Yet I'm indeed feasting on human produce. The tears of a damsel distressed." Sebastian licks his white teeth. Maid Estelle frowns and glares at Sebastian in agitation and hurries out of the room.
Carmilla descends the stairs of the tower, taking a glimpse now and then out of a small window to see the storm and rain storming to the ground. She passes through a few richly decorated corridors with pompous statues and ornaments, winged angels embracing the ceiling with their back to the walls. Marble knights to the left and right of a gate in one hand the sword stuck in the ground and the the other hand on the head of a horse decorating the door, looking at whomever wishes to pass through. She enters a small, narrow, very bright hallway with a floor of glass, through it shining a warm, bright orange color. The walls are made of a type of high mirror, reflecting some of the light sometimes letting it through, shining it's light on old and new paintings and portraits in the background. Two doors on each side on the walls in the middle of the hallway lead to another section of the Castle. She proceeds further to the hallway where a plain wooden door with a lock terminates the path. She knocks. She knocks again. She knocks three times. The keyhole is illuminated by a green shining glow, and a green key covered in small roots and leaves appears. She turns the key and the door opens. She enters a spacious chamber and closes the door behind. The particularly beautiful wooden floor is the fundament of largely open oval shaped room, with 6 big shelves on the right side stacked from bottom to top with countless interesting and mildly interesting books. On the left side a kitchen furniture is installed with a stove and an oven. Right now, the smell of various foods reach Carmilla's nose, both the oven and a pot on the stove are simmering. Carmilla takes a deep breath and removes her shoes and puts them next to the door. She goes over to the pot and stirs It and takes in a breath of a thick, delicious smelling warm soup. She tastes a spoonful of the soup and changes her expression into a delighted smile. "Mmhhhh..." She takes a bottle from one of the shelves near the stove and pours herself a drink into a mug. She takes a second mug, poors a powder into it and some hot water, immediately a sweet smell reaches her nose. She takes both mugs and seats herself to the table on the opposite side of the entrance. An electrical painted glass lamp with a rich ornament depicting a flower in yellow and red and green illuminates the table as well as some open scrolls, a few weathered books and several feathers and ink viols.
"Yeah, I remember me room quite clearly, nothing seems to be particularly out of order. That's a good sign for my confused memory." Carmilla says with a proud countenance and a sheepish smile and raised eyebrows. "Let's see..." she carefully musters everything on the table and it seems like everything is where it should be. "Ah, there you are..." she picks up a book that's slightly larger then the others and also slightly more hackneyed than the rest. She flies over several pages from back to front. A page, a date and a few descriptive letters. She eagerly studies the pages of her diary with changing expressions of delight and mild confusion. She reaches the first page of her diary. She smiles at the first few words.
"Hi and good evening, it's me, Carmilla. I'm home right now, home with the usual crowd... my lord, father insists now that I have become older that I refer to him as lord... -.- , either way, so I'm here with Bernhard and his beloved wife... ;o;... oh my that sound's too formal now, doesn't it. Ok, scrap that too. Honorifics are for people with too much time on their hand anyways, right? Right! I knew you would agree with me. We are friends after all, diary, aren't we. Sebastian thinks honorifics are important, so people respect each other the way they should. -.-... wayne, who cares?! Like OMG, Sebastian can be such a massive tool sometimes... I like him still, he is a caring tool and my friend...so... Tomorrow will be a special day. Friends of Walter and mother will come visit the Castle and there will be a lot of food and drinks and …. oh I hope they have children so me, Sebastian and the others can play. We have so much to show them, they are in for a very big surprise they won't forget! I had to let you know, I'm so excited to meet them. I don't even know what I shall wear tomorrow. Oh, I hope that they aren't boring farmer's kids who get nothing what you tell them and only want to see the horses …. ughhh... please God, have mercy. ;o;... whatever, I'm going back to bed now, nobody knows how early they are going to arrive... later!
"My very first entry..." Carmilla whispers as she reaches the end of the page. Her handwriting has improved quite a bit since then and she is quite satisfied with the progress she has made. A wave of nostalgia of days long gone engulfs her mind as she conjures memories of her earlier days. She lifts one of the mugs with juice in it and takes a good sip. A lot has changed since then, she, Walter, Sebastian and the people of the Castle aren't the same they used to be. What several years in time can do to a person, Carmilla wonders. She opens up the last page of the diary withn an entry written into it and then one page further. She takes a feather, dives it into the ink and puts the feather down on the paper when in that moment she hears a knocking on a window a few steps away. The knocking originates from her bedroom, next to her study quarter in an oval attachement room that intersects with the main room and no doors in between, to the opposite of the entrance. The bedroom is a glass construct with an open air glass ceiling, usually inviting the stars into the chambers but tonight the rain comes rushing down. The king sized bed with white sheets is in the middle of the room and the windows right behind it. Again, she hears something knocking on the window. She raises her eyes wide open when she opens the window and a grey mist slowly enters the room. The mist slowly completely fills the room and drowns the thunders of the storm with can hardly see her hands before her eyes when very slowly the mist materializes into the shape of a little creature behind her on the bed. Carmilla turns around and the shapes of the creature reassemble themselves like moving brushes of paint running together like rivers into the sea.
"Chupacabras." A golden amulet shines around the neck of Chupacabras as well as the other two amulets tied to the staff on his belt. "It's good to see you again, my little friend." she smiles with delight at him. "Ahahaha... you should thank me. We saved you. I saved you. I did most of the work actually while everyone else merely escaped the brink of death only by a split second... I survived and with my head held high...hahahahahaha." Chupacabras backflips and slowly levitates with his back onto the bed. Carmilla laughs. " Oh I thank you so much Chupa! I do, I really do." Chupa tramples with his feet in excitement. "And because I know you... you'll want something in return. These amulets I gave you will be yours until I come up with... some practical use for them." Chupa jubilates "Iheheheheheheee." Carmilla continues. " I'll also grant you one of your wishes you have held for quite some time now... Walter refused to have you here in the Castle up until now however you helped saved my life and might be too dangerous to be alone in the forest right now so... I shall see to it that you will have your own chambers within the Castle walls." Chupacabras backflips again. "Wohooohhh... aha ha ha ha... thank you. Where... when can I bring my belongings...ha haaaaa... actually don't worry about... I'll just take whatever I can use from this room here...ahaha...ahahaaaaaaahahaha." Chupacabras warps around the room setting various furniture items which are sent spinning into a maelstrom cloud of dust. "Wait... no.. not that... waiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitt... not my clothes!" Carmilla screeches and runs after the wandering mist to catch Chupacabras however she is not fast enough and the mist is rushing towards the window to escape. Carmilla snips with her fingers and the windows closes with a loud bang. The mist repels at the window and clears up and dozens of Carmilla's spinning belongings come falling down everywhere in her bedroom. Carmilla shoves the items off her bed and plunges herself onto the sheets. "In a few days time...Chupa. I'm sorry. I need to find a room and then we need to build the actual thing first." Chupa seemingly unimpressed has stolen one of Carmilla's mug with the hot beverage and it appears he has found a delicious drink for he empties it rather quickly. Carmilla points at Chupacabras, sporting a shocked countenance. "That's my...never mind... enjoy your drink... I'll just open the window...and... drink some rain water or something... or something..." Carmilla sags her head and shrugs. Carmilla stretches her arm and legs lying on her bed, closing her eyes, thinking about tomorrow. At last, the day has come. Final preparations will come to an end by tomorrow midday and then everything will be ready for the big night. She has been anticipating this event for so long now and despite the recent hardships of her friends and hers she is determined to make that event become a reality. In her thoughts she jumps in the air smiling and shouting hooray.