"Hello!" Eyes adjusting to the dim lights of the inner foyer brought sights of a bona-fide castle. Straight out of a storybook, she took in grand fixtures, tall ceilings and gold filigree. In the entryway, a painting of 3 beautiful girls greeted her as she ascended the short stairs.
Were these Lady Dimitrescu's daughters?
"Hello there! Miss…er…Mrs. Dimitrescu?"
3 blank stares were she had in response.
Alright then.
With doors to the right and left, she reckoned it was just as easy to trespass through either, so she chose left.
Tugging her bag off her back, she rooted for the pistol ammunition she had just wisely purchased from the merchant.
Better not make the same mistake twice. This time she would be prepared. With a click of the clip, Celia pulled open the door, swatting away a few unnaturally large flies buzzing past her head.
xx
The telephone was something of an antique, her mother's. Impressions of delicate lilies and vines trailing up the sides of the onyx body, the gold embossed handset curling around the top like a dark halo. It was priceless to her. Alcina wanted to smash her first through it.
"Must I be so lowered?"
Disgust, fear and old blood filled her stomach as it clenched as solidly as her shaking fist. Alcina stared hard at the phone, willing herself to reach out her hand and pick up the receiver. To dial those numbers. She had been uneasy since yesterday, when she bore witness to mother's terrifying power. When she was handed a piece of that child to keep safe until the ceremony. A ceremony she had always been prepared to herald and yet never really expected to come.
She didn't want to face the truth, though she knew its shape as it loomed over her, threatening to swallow her whole. And she knew Heisenberg knew it too. She could all but smell it on him only an hour ago when he drug that disgusting man basically to her front door. And now she had to face it.
They were obsolete.
She felt it in her bones the second Mother released the Lycans on the village to awaken and feed the black god for the moment her child - her true child - would be reborn. What use did she have for these imitations…these rejects?
Absently tapping her cigarette into the marble ashtray, she eyed the phone again.
Before she had a chance to degrade herself further, the door behind her whipped open to a frenzy of black dresses and blood-stained lips.
"Mother! Mother there is a girl here!"
A girl? "Someone from the village?" Alcina's voice barely concealing her distraction.
Cassandra spoke first, pushing past her sisters. "No. She looks strange. Bela saw her with a gun in the foyer. Oh! Can we play with her, Mother, please?"
Daniela's face lit up with a sadistic grin, spurred on by her sisters enthusiasm. "Oh yes, please! She's much fresher than those old maids strung up in the cellar!"
Alcina considered this. She knew Mother had been attacked in the Winter's home before bringing the child back to them. Perhaps it was someone related, someone who had come to finish what they started? She wanted to see for herself. She had nothing to do now but wait until the ceremony tomorrow at dusk and, if anything, she was a bit hungry. Swallowing thickly, she stood and gestured toward the open doors.
"Let us welcome this guest together."
One way or another, the effort to investigate this girl and her intentions would not go unrewarded.
xx
The castle was just as big inside as Celia imagined it could be. After being able to move no further past the dining room given the locked door to the courtyard, she turned towards the kitchen, trying again to get someone's attention, scanning each area she passed for a phone.
"Hello! I'm looking for some he-"
"Shhh! Miss! Please!" A small, strained voice whispered from somewhere below her. "They'll hear you!"
Moving to plant her back against the wall, Celia fell into a squat to stare into the terrified looking face of a young woman. Looking half-starved and wild-eyed, she frantically held a trembilng finger to her lips in an attempt to signal Celia to stay quiet.
"Who? Who will hear me? Are you one of Mrs. Dimitrescus' daughters?"
At this the girl's glazed, honey brown eyes turned to saucers, and tilting her head made a noise between a laugh and a shriek. "Are you mad?"
"I'm looking for a phone. Please. Do you know where I can find one? I need some help."
As Celia waited for an answer, she studied the girl's appearance. Her face was pallid, bloodless around dark and sunken eyes. Tears glistened in the light now, falling down the girl's face as she shuddered, unblinking. "Are you…are you alright?"
The girl gave no response, no indication that she was listening. Maybe she was in shock?
Lowering her eyes and speaking slowly, she ground out the words. "There is no hope for us, Miss. Not for you, and not for me. Not here. Not within this house of demons. We are damned."
"Are you talking about the monsters outside? Don't worry, I can protect us. I have some weapons and –"
The woman grabbed her arm, weakly pulling her closer as fingernails found purchase in soft flesh. "The monsters…are here."
Celia wrenched from her grasp, moving back towards the wall as the girl climbed out of her hiding place beneath the counter, pots and lids clattering to the ground. She backed Celia into the dining room, her side hitting one of the ornate chairs at the table. "We must pray to the Black God, to Mother Miranda. That she will protect us from her…from the demonesses."
Now standing, Celia could see how bad the girls condition truly was. Seeming starved and dirty, she looked so small in her cotton nightgown mottled with tears and dark stains fluttering just above her bare feet. From beneath the gown the rusted red snake of a snapped leg shackle chain dully scraped the ground. Stringy brown curls spilled around her shoulders, skin raw at the scalp where masses of hair appeared to have been torn out at the root.
"Oh my God." Celia whispered. "You need help. Let me – "
A sultry voice echoed around them, "Mary! My sweet girl there you are! What are you doing fraternizing with the guests?" Doors leading to the main hall swung open, and before she could draw her weapon, Celia watched as three women swept into the room, appearing to glide on the air surrounding the poor girl, grabbing her arms and hair and dragging her backwards through the doorway to the main hall.