4
Meeting
Verona took the child's hand and said, "My name is Verona, what's yours?" The child looked at her and said, "Morgan." Verona smiled and said, "Hello Morgan, welcome to Castle Dracula." Verona moved closer to Morgan and said, "Come, let us go back to my room." Verona helped the child stand and then they walked together back to her room.
Verona and Morgan entered the room and saw Aleera being comforted by Marishka. Aleera was still shook up by the jolt. Aleera just glared at the girl. Morgan and Verona walked to the bed and sat down. "This is Aleera and Marishka. Marishka, Aleera, this is Morgan." Morgan looked at Aleera and said, "I'm sorry for the jolt." Aleera said nothing and left the room. Marishka got up and said, "It's nice to meet you Morgan", and then walked out of the room after Aleera.
"Don't worry about Aleera, she's just a little bitter because of the jolt she'll get over it." Morgan looked away and said, "Well I deserve it. I shouldn't have jolted her like that." Verona put her hand on Morgan's back and said, "It's ok. If some strange person came up to me I would probably do the same thing. Well, not exactly the same, but you know what I mean." This brought a smile to Morgan's face. She was glad to hear that someone wasn't afraid to be near her because of her strange powers.
"Well while you are here recovering you can stay in the room down the hall, it stays pretty warm. I'll prepare it later." "Thank you", said Morgan with a smile. Verona walked over to her wardrobe and grabbed a dark, heavy cloak. "Here this should warm you up. I'm sure you are hungry; I will go and get you something. Come." Morgan followed Verona out of the room and down the staircase into a large room. It appeared to be a great hall of some sort. The room was furnished with extravagant furniture. There was a large fireplace adorned with the figures of gargoyles. The floors were made of a dark polished wood. The walls had huge tapestries hanging from them. It was the most beautiful room that Morgan had ever seen.
"Wow, it's beautiful. You are so lucky to live in a place like this." "Yeah, I think we're pretty lucky." They walked to some chairs that were sitting in front of the fireplace. "Marishka, will you help me find some food?" "Umm…yeah." Marishka had not thought about food. Ever since they had become vampires they hadn't had a use for food. "Aleera you better stay here," said Marishka. Aleera nodded and sat in one of the chairs. "Well, we should probably go", said Verona. Verona and Marishka left, leaving Aleera and Morgan alone.
Morgan sat in the chair next to Aleera and said, "I'd like to apologize again for the jolt." Aleera looked at Morgan and said, "That's ok, I was just a little surprised. I'm sorry for being a jerk. So what happened to you? Who was after you?" Morgan looked away and said, "I'd rather not talk about it." Aleera looked away and didn't know what to do. They just couldn't sit there until Verona and Marishka returned.
Aleera shifted in her chair so she could see Morgan and said, "So, where did you come from?" Morgan was a little more inclined to answer this question. "Well my family lives in France. They are a rich family and have mansions all over France. They even have a few in Italy and Spain." "Really, Spain? You know my family is from Spain. I used to live there when I was a little girl." "Really, that's cool. I've never been there, but I've heard it is beautiful." Aleera smiled. She had not spoken of Spain in a long time. She remembered how her old home used to overlook the sea. "Yes, it was beautiful. Sometimes I miss the warm, sunny days."
"What brought you here to Transylvania?" asked Morgan. "Well…I met some people over here and we became friends. So then we decided to move to the area." Aleera knew that this sounded corny, but she was not sure what to say. She couldn't tell her the truth, and she wasn't sure how to tell the girl about the count. She figured she would leave that up to Verona. Morgan said, "That's cool. So you like it here?" "Yeah, I do."
At that time Verona and Marishka walked in with a sack full of food. It was obvious that they had stolen the food from a villager. Before the girl could turn around to greet them Aleera motioned to Marishka to wipe her mouth. Marishka realized that she still had blood on her mouth. She quickly wiped it off and both Aleera and Verona laughed.
Verona walked up to the girl and said, "We weren't sure what kind of food you like, so we picked up a little bit of everything. "Well, anything would be good right about now." Aleera got up and walked to Verona and quietly said, "Should we make a table or something?" Neither of them was sure. They were not accustomed to feeding mortals. Verona finally said, "Sure, I guess." Aleera took the bag of food and went to set a table for Morgan.
Marishka walked to the girl and asked, "Did you and Aleera get along ok?" Morgan laughed and said, "Yeah, she got over the jolt." "Good. Are you warm enough?" "It's just a little chilly, but I can manage." "Well, lets go and see if the food is ready", said Verona. Morgan followed Verona out of the room with Marishka right behind her.
They walked into the dining room where Aleera had set out the food. Morgan was so happy to see food. She had not had a real meal since before she was taken to the laboratory. She sat down at the table and dug in. "Aren't you going to eat?" asked Morgan. The three women looked at each other; they were beginning to realize that taking care of the girl would be harder than they thought. "No, we ate earlier", said Marishka. The brides all laughed because of what Marishka had running down her face earlier. Morgan didn't know what they were laughing about, so she just kept on eating. "Aleera and I are going to go ready your room. We'll be back later", said Verona. Morgan nodded and Verona and Aleera walked from the room.
The two women walked back up to the room they were going to fix up. They were silent until they were in the room. "Umm…Verona this room is pretty clean. Why did we come up here?" Verona shut the door incase Morgan came up. "We need to figure out what we are going to do when the count wakes up." Aleera had forgotten all about the count. What were they going to do? "I have no idea. Do you think he will let us keep her around?" "Even if he by some miracle does let her stay we still have the little problem of us being vampires." Verona was clearly becoming upset. "Verona, don't worry. I'm sure we'll figure something out. Come on let's go back down stairs. It will be ok."
Verona and Aleera met Morgan and Marishka on the way out of the room. "Finished?" asked Aleera. "Yeah, it was good." "You must be tired. Here's one of the spare rooms." The women led Morgan into the room. "It's not much", said Verona. "It's plenty, it's defiantly more than I'm used to. Thanks." "There's clothes in the wardrobe feel free to use them…we'll leave you to get settled."
The women left the room leaving Morgan alone. Morgan looked around the room. I like it she thought to herself. She walked over to the wardrobe and looked inside. She took out a long gown that looked good to sleep in and changed into it. She then walked to the bed and crawled in. She hadn't realized how tired she was. She was almost asleep when Verona walked in. "I'm sorry but I thought I should let you know where our rooms are. Mine as you know is next door. Marishka's is next to mine and Aleera's is across the hall. If you need anything let us know." "Thanks." "Good night", said Verona with a smile. She walked out of the room and shut the door. Within a few minutes Morgan was in a deep sleep.
So what do you think? I'd like to hear who you think Morgan should be closest to. I'm not sure which. Please let me know. Thanks a lot. (I know the chapter name is dumb but I couldn't think of anything else.)