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Alcina made good on her word and had the maid brought out into the courtyard. From there she was chained to ensure she didn't try to flee. The maid was already shivering uncontrollably. The merciless wind blowing down upon them and bringing with it snow.
"Have a lovely night," Alcina chuckled, turning away from the young woman and heading back into the castle.
"You will pay for this one day," the maid boldly proclaimed.
Alcina stopped, turning halfway to look at her.
"I beg your pardon?"
"You will pay a heavy price for your cruelty. You will find yourself eventually all alone."
Alcina was pitch kettled, not from the maid's boldness, but her words.
Alone.
That single word cut her deep, opening a wound that did not spill blood, but memories.
Dark memories emerging of a different life. When she had not been Alcina Dimitrescu, but Alcina Stanislav. A wife and a mother to two daughters…
Alcina staggered, feeling ready to throw up.
"No," she groaned.
'You will eventually find yourself alone!' the damn maid's words echoed in her head.
No, she was wrong. Stupid, little human pest. If that piece of filth holds out and survives the night, Alcina would take her down to the basement and teach her respect.
And yet a nagging little voice in the back of her head would not leave it be. She could torture the maiden, but that would not bring her much comfort. For in a strange way, Alcina sensed there would come a dark day when she would indeed lose all three of her girls.
Just as she had lost them…
A heavy sigh passed from her lips, entering through the Entrance Hall and making her way in the direction of her private chambers. The dizziness she had felt outside growing worse.
'What is happening to me? Is it possible I did not consume enough flesh tonight?'
'Mother?'
Alcina stopped and turned to look back down the hallway.
"Josie?" she said, breathing shakily. "Helena?"
Silence.
She started to walk forward again, when she heard children giggling, and just caught a glimpse of two girls disappear around the corner.
She reached out and used the wall for support. Uncertain if she was going to make the trip to her private chamber, or collapse where she stood.
"Mother."
Alcina swallowed thickly, unable to see her first-born.
"H-Helena…"
"Mother, it hurts. It hurts so much. Make the pain go away, please. I-I feel so cold. Everything is so cold…"
"H-Helena," she closed her eyes, when she then smelled blood and heard Josie speak.
"He killed me. He pulled the trigger twice. I was only trying to protect you."
Alcina hadn't noticed when her legs buckled and she was now on her knees. Panic seizing her. She could barely catch her breath.
"Why am I seeing you now? Why now?"
"Alcina."
Alcina shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself at the sound of /his/ voice. His loving. Warm; beautiful voice.
"Alcina…"
"You are not here. None of you are. Y-you all died many years ago. Please. Go back and rest. Sleep, my loves, sleep in peace."
"We cannot, Mother, our deaths were far from peaceful."
Tears welled in her eyes.
"Enough," she could hear the gunshots; the knife slicing into flesh over and over again; the sound of a car crashing. "ENOUGH!"
"Mother!"
Alcina blinked rapidly through blurring vision, feeling someone touching her shoulders.
"B-Bel-a…" she gasped before blacking out.
{…}
Alcina slowly came to at the sound of her daughters' voices. They were bickering as usual. Bela telling Cassandra to be quiet while Daniela persistently kept asking what had happened.
"You idiots!" Bela hissed. "You jabber mouths woke her up."
"It was not I!" Cassandra snarled. "All your shushing was the cause of it."
"Mother?" Daniela scooted past her sisters, who were staring one another down and looking ready to kill each other.
"Daniela," Alcina tried to rise, wincing as a sharp pain jabbed into her temples. She groaned, relaxing back into the bed.
"Are you feeling any better?"
"A little, yes," she smiled at her youngest, reaching out and stroking her hair as she glanced over at the other two. "Bela."
Bela swiftly turned upon her mother's call, abandoning Cassandra in the middle of the room and going straight to her mother's side.
"Mother, apologizes for waking you. I tried to keep them out, but Cassandra snuck in."
Cassandra growled at her.
"It is all right," Alcina said, reaching out and caressing her daughter's cheek. "You brought me in here, did you not?"
"Yes, Mother," Bela smiled, placing a loving kiss to her palm. "I gave you some of my blood as well."
"So did I," Daniela chimed in.
"You are so good to me, my darlings," she whispered.
Cassandra remained where she stood, arms crossed and refusing to engage with her family. Her jealousy of the other two receiving all the love and affection clearly irking her, but she rejected participating with them. Well, until she met her mother's eyes and was motioned over, did Cassandra slowly make her way to them.
She stood beside Daniela, who was purring contently at her mother's touch. Cassandra started to growl in an attempt to intimidate Daniela to step away. Normally this tactic would always work, but with Bela and their mother present, she couldn't care less about Cassandra.
"Daniela, you are taking up all the space," she used her body to try and push her sister aside, but Daniela stood her ground. "Daniela!"
"Enough, Cassandra," Alcina said, the girl's whining not helping her headache.
"Just stand here, Cassandra," Bela spoke up, not having the energy to deal with her either.
Once the girls had rearranged themselves and settled, Alcina took the time to get a little more rest. The sound of her daughters gentle breathing; the warmth of the fire filling the room; the breeze whistling passed the window. Calming. Soothing. She woke only once at the feel of Cassandra getting off the bed, allowing Bela to scoot right up next to her and rest her head on her shoulder.
Alcina donned a smile.
Bela sleeping on her left shoulder and Daniela fast asleep on her right. As carefully as she could, she wrapped her arms around them and pulled them in.
"Sleep well, my darlings…"
{…}
Many years ago:
The two young girls scampered around the room. Laughing during their game of 'cat and mouse'. They being the mice and their older maid, Phoebe, the old cat trying to catch them and get them ready for bed.
"You little diavols! You were meant to be in bed fifteen minutes ago!" She continued to bark at them in Romanian, but the girls continued to laugh and laugh. Jumping up and down on the bed, leaping away as soon as Phoebe attempted to snatch them.
"Let's go, Josie!"
"Right behind you, Helena."
The two sprinted straight for the door when it burst open. Helena came to a sudden halt, which Josie had been unprepared for, and slammed right into her sister's back. The two toppled over and stared up at the imposing figure of their mother standing in the doorway. Hands on hips; blue eyes narrowed in disapproval.
"What is the meaning of this?"
The two siblings went straight to blaming one another. Pointing fingers and then arguing heatedly.
"I am going to count to five and if you are both not in your beds, I will see to it you shall not have dessert for the next two months. One!"
The girls shoved one another in a mad dash for their beds. Both diving in, pulling the blankets all the way up to their necks and closing their eyes. All this happening before Alcina got to the number three.
"You may leave, Phoebe," she said, the old maid bowing her head to Alcina (continuing to curse under her breath) as she left the room.
Alcina quietly walked over to the window and closed the shades, feeling her daughters' eyes following her every move. She glanced over her shoulder, unable to fight back a grin when they quickly averted their attention off her.
"You two are getting too old to be acting like this." Alcina approached her eldest's bed first. "Especially you, Helena."
Helena pulled the blanket down away from her face, expecting to receive a kiss from her mother.
Alcina's grin stretched further across her face.
"You must do better. No daughter of mine will act like a rascal, understood?"
"Yes, Mother," Helena said, those mirroring blue eyes staring up at her with sweet innocence.
"Good," Alcina said, elegant digits stroking through Helena's thick, black hair before she kissed her cheek. "And the same goes for you, Josie." Alcina walked over to her youngest, her grin fading when the child pulled the blanket completely over her head. "Or perhaps someone would like to miss out on her riding lessons as well as her dessert?"
Josie quickly pulled the blanket down from her face, her curly reddish-brown hair bouncing wildly as she rigorously shook her head.
"As I thought," Alcina said, placing a kiss to her forehead and lightly tapping her on the nose. "Sleep well, my darlings."
"Mama," Josie called out, just as she was about to turn the light off. "Can we keep the light on?"
"No," Helena groaned. "If she is to have the light on than I want to go back to my old room."
"Sadly you cannot just yet, Helena. The remodeling is still underway. In the meantime, you must accept where you are now and live with it. So, I will dim the lights some," Alcina answered, allowing there to be just enough light to appease Josie, and dark enough to grant Helena some much needed sleep. "You both know where to find me if you need anything."
Alcina's bedchamber was just down the hall from her daughters. Josie was constantly sneaking inside and snuggling up with her. The last time she had done so was because Helena had told her a scary story.
Oh, Helena.
She could be the sweetest child one day and the devil the next.
Alcina knew the reason may be the fact Fredric had been forced to go away again. He was now a commander leading the Fourth Army on its campaign against the Red Army in the Eastern Front. Not a day went by where she didn't think of him. Wondering if she would receive the news he had been killed in the line of duty.
'I'll be home soon,' he had promised her the night before his departure. The two having made love and were tangled together, Alcina laying on top of Fredric who had his arms securely wrapped around her waist.
'I know,' she had answered, kissing his hairy chest. 'The girls will miss you terribly, especially Helena. I have never seen a child so possessive of her father.'
He released a rumbling laugh, surprising Alcina with a firm smack to her bottom.
"Bastard." Alcina smirked at the memory, her attention drawn over to the door to see Phoebe standing there. "Enter," she said, not having to direct her old and experienced maid on what to do. Phoebe got straight to work helping her prepare for bed. "Apologizes, Phoebe. My daughters have not shown you much respect lately."
"Oh, it is nothing I haven't dealt with before, my lady," she said, a knowing twinkle forming in her eyes. "I recall a certain child who would act just like them, and have a very similar conversation with her mother."
"I am nothing like my mother," Alcina said, staring at her reflection from her vanity mirror. "She was a far greater woman they I could ever hope to be…"
"Nonsense," Phoebe said, brushing through Alcina's hair. "You were your mother's whole world. You have become just as great as she in your own way, and wherever she may be up there, she is looking down upon you with pride."
Alcina sucked in her lips, swallowing down the emotions threatening to burst forth. Time had healed her sorrow after her mother's passing. Alcina only having been nineteen at the time had spiraled into a deep depression. Luckily she had had Fredric and Phoebe to pull her out of it, but even so. To this very day her heart still act for her mother. Wishing she could have lived to meet Josie and Helena…
Releasing a shaky breath, she mustered a weak smile.
"Thank you, Phoebe…"