Final chapter. Again I want to give a big thank you to all who stopped by to view. Alcina finally gets her long awaited revenge and after speaks with Mother Miranda about creating daughters of her own. The creation of who will become Cassandra, Bela and Daniela. Thank you everyone again. Please enjoy!
Chapter 18:
Roderick awoke screaming.
"Another."
More ice cold water was poured over him. He screamed out again, attempting to move, but his arms were chained to the wall. His teeth chattering uncontrollably. His thoughts disoriented as cold air seeped through the crack in the wall behind him. All he could think was the cold. So v-ve-rrryy c-c-c-c-old.
"Cold, brother-in-law? Oh, do not worry, I shall see to it you are warmed up." She snapped her fingers.
Roderick released from the chains was dragged to the opposite side of the room where the overwhelming smell of blood met his nostrils. He could hear cries of pain and pleas for death coming from another room. Women.
"L-eona?" he mumbled.
"Put him up!" Alcina's voice shattered the chorus of despair and agony.
Chain cuffs were placed around his wrists and then he was raised off his feet.
"Bring it in."
He could hear wheels and watched as it took five people to push a large black cauldron into the room and right underneath him. The water boiled and bubbled; continuing to get hotter as one of the cloaked figures fanned at the embers to keep the heat rising.
"No," Roderick wiggled frantically, his wrists beginning to bleed as the metal dug into his skin.
"Uncomfortable? Here allow me." Alcina used her claws to slice the chains.
Roderick screamed as he dropped.
Splash!
Alcina took a step back. Roderick's thrashing causing water to splash out, she could already smell his skin burning. Sizzling and bubbling.
"Please!" he wailed. "Help me!"
"Can you feel it now?" Alcina said.
"PLEASE!" Roderick was now in tears, trying to get out of the cauldron only to burn his palms each time and fall back into the water.
"You are a nuisance…" Alcina nodded to one of the cloaked figures, who clicked a button and caused the cauldron to tip. The water spilling out on the floor along with Roderick. Once the water had cooled some, Alcina walked up to the half-conscious man, his naked body trembling in his agony. "Can you begin to understand what you put me through, Roderick? There is one specific word I want you to understand. The one word that I felt when you imprisoned my daughters' and I. Do you know what that word is?"
Roderick curled further into a ball.
"Yes, the position you are in. Every single day was like this for us. Do you remember, Roderick, the day you had beaten Josie? All because I had forgotten to put your feathered pen back in its proper place. You grabbed the baton and said to me, 'I am going to beat some sense into that thick cranium of yours. Perhaps I will crack it and allow some of that overinflated ego out. Then just maybe you will become a little more self-effacing!' It was then did Josie enter the room to stop you from hurting me again. You decided my punishment would profit better if you hurt one of my girls instead." Alcina paused, taking in a deep breath to control herself. "You broke two of her ribs and refused for a doctor to be called. She had to endure that agony for two whole days' until you finally summoned the doctor… after our deal. The deal that I would share your bed."
"Revenge," Roderick's voice was hoarse, but still strong; defiant. "You want revenge for Josie and my brother, huh? Teach a rotten bastard like me a lesson?" he laughed harshly. "You are just as foul as I, Alcina."
"No, I am not," Alcina said, calmly. "Because I have love in my heart. I loved my daughters. Fredric. My home. The vineyard. You have never felt love for anything. You are far too selfish to love anything or anyone, but yourself."
"You are wrong," he spat.
"Am I? You mean to say that wife and child of yours have changed you that much? I find that impossible to believe." A twisted smile stretched across her face. "But I am willing to put you to the test. You two!" she pointed to two of the hooded figures. "Fetch the wife."
The figures bowed, heels clicking away loudly.
"What are you going to do?" Roderick snarled, hissing in pain from his injuries.
"I want to see if a man without a heart can still shed a tear…"
The sound of the heels was returning and with it a scuffling noise.
"Leona," Roderick swallowed, the scent of honey wafting about the air upon his wife being dragged in by a chain wrapped tightly around her neck. She had deep cuts across every inch of her partially naked body, her eyes and face swollen from what appeared to be bee stings.
"R-Roderick? Wh-where are you?"
"My god…" Roderick dragging himself over to his wife, reached out and touched her outstretched bloody fingers to see her finger nails were missing. "You sadistic bitch!" he roared, attempting to rise to his feet, only to be knocked back down by one of the figures wielding a club.
Coughing harshly, he glared up at Alcina.
"You will pay for this."
"I have already paid more than my share and so much more," Alcina answered. "And now your time to pay has finally arrived. String her up!"
"No! Wait!" Roderick attempting to stop the figures from dragging his wife, he was sent flying across the room by a swift kick from Alcina.
"Now," Alcina gracefully spun around to stare up at Leona, who was strung up just the way Roderick had been before he plummeted into his boiling bath. Only there would be no boiling bath for Leona. "Tell me, Roderick, you must have played the game called, Rite of Words and Rites? No? Oh, well, I think you are going to enjoy it. You see I am thinking of one word. One single word. Not a sentence, understand? You must guess each letter for the word I am thinking of, and if you guess incorrectly I will remove a limb from our hangwoman here, but if you guess correctly your wife gets to keep her limbs…"
"You-"
"No, I am afraid there is no 'U'," Alcina sneered, extending her claws and slicing off Leona's foot.
She screamed in agony, wiggling like a landed fish.
"Next!" Alcina laughed. "Hurry or she is going to bleed to death!"
"A!" Roderick bellowed.
"Incorrect!" Alcina sliced away Leona's other foot. "Keep going!"
"S!"
"Ooh, lucky guess. Yes there are two. Give me another!"
Back and forth the game continued.
Roderick desperately calling out letters and watching as his wife's struggling slowed until she was not moving at all. She had lost both legs now along with both her ears.
"These are the letters you have, Roderick," Alcina spoke up. One 'H'; one 'P'; two 'Es'and two 'Ss'. Care to buy a vowel? I must warn you it will cost one of your own limbs."
"L," Roderick said, shakily.
"Good."
"H, P,E, L, E, SS. Care to guess the word now?"
Roderick swallowed, looking over to Alcina with despair in his bloodshot eyes.
"Hopeless…"
"Yes, Roderick," Alcina's tone deathly serious. "Hopeless. That is the word I meant. The one thing you made me feel all those years ago. Do you understand? I am not so sure you do." Faster and quicker than a bullet, Alcina used her claws and sliced Leona in half from the hips down.
Roderick made no sound, staring at his wife's upper half still hanging from her chains.
"Hopeless," Alcina whispered. "And yet you still have not shed a single tear. Well, no matter, your wife had wept plenty for the both of you when I removed your daughter from her arms. The way she fought so admirably as inane as it was, she fought much harder than you."
"Rena?" A spark appeared in Roderick's eyes. His senses slowly returning. "What have you done with her?"
"Oh, Roderick," Alcina said in an overly dramatic voice, placing her hand up to her forehead and pretending she were about faint. "I am not sure I want to tell you." She was grinning. "The wiggling little thing just would not cease its wailing. I finally had no choice but to silence her, but I then considered what I could do with such young; fresh blood."
"No," Roderick whipped his head around at the sight of a young woman enter into the room with a glass filled with red liquid.
"My lady," the young woman bowed, offering out the glass to Alcina.
"A toast!" Alcina said, taking the glass and raising it. "To you Roderick, and to Alcina Stanislav. The past shall die here and birth a new future. A new beginning for I, Alcina Dimitrescu…" she drank the entire glass in one gulp, tossing it across the room where it shattered against the wall. "Take him to the table, my pets, it is time we find out how 'hollow' this man really is…"
{…}
"… I must say the gods were smiling down upon you, Alcina. To have the one person you have been endlessly searching for show up on your doorstep."
"I do hope I did not cause you any trouble with sending the Lycans to scourge the village."
"No, in fact, I had plans of doing that anyways. I want more people to come into our village."
Alcina understood exactly what she was referring to. More bodies meant more experimentations.
The morning sun had just risen over the horizon and brought with it some warmth from the cold. They were standing on the road and observing a new scarecrow to protect Alcina's vineyard from the crows. The man had been completely hollowed out. His organs removed and being prepared for a succulent lunch later on.
Alcina smiled at it, she knew she would find some use for him. Everyone no matter how dim had its uses, and Roderick was no exception.
"What do you plan to do now that this chapter has finally come to a close, Daughter?" Mother Miranda said, starting to walk further down the path.
"I have some things in mind," Alcina said, walking beside her.
"Oh?" Mother Miranda looked at her. "What would that be?"
"I wish to continue the Dimitrescu line," Alcina said. "I thought after killing Roderick this hole would be filled, but it has appeared to have only grown in size."
"As women we have a constant need to give affection. To nurture. Perhaps in a way that may be a curse. You and I, as I may have said before, share that in common where we have had our children taken from us. Is it your wish to try and bring Helena and Josie back?"
"No, Mother Miranda," Alcina said. "As much as I wish to see them. To hold them in my arms again, I just cannot bring myself to do it. Instead, I rather have daughters who carry my blood and just my blood through their veins. I do not want the Dimitrescu noble blood tainted."
"Very well, I sense Rednic will have his hands full with finding specific individuals for your experimentation."
"It is good that a man be constantly busy," Alcina said.
Mother Miranda chuckled.
"I look forward to see what the fruits of your labors yield, Daughter. Call if you need anything…"