14
The pain of loving a monster
Rosa Quasi kept herself busy
preparing the meals when the two gentlemen exit from the so named medical
chamber. She was forbidden to go in at any time, by the strict doctor although
she had attempted sneak peeks into the chamber. It was difficult and she took
the uncanny approach of scaling the building walls to look for the window
opening. There was the window but it was shuttered by the sliding vents there;
operable from inside. She caught a glimpse of the chamber and saw the array of
equipment; in her mind were that for she was not versed in the method of
science but scaling the walls were her expertise.
The wall outside was typical
of any other buildings that was with the height of five levels, with the
balconies and the cracks that offered holds that she could use to climb. She
has done it numerous times on the castle wall which was tougher and with the
assistance of ropes and grapples, she managed it to clean bats guano on the
cracks. It was done the climbing on the building there, not once but thrice
since she was there, and at late night when she may not be noticed.
The Doctor occupied fully
the highest level with a total of six chambers as he had called them. Three of
the chambers were sleeping quarters, while another was the kitchen with the
dining area, and there was living area with the shelves of books on medicine
and related fields. The last chamber was barred from anyone entering unless
authorized by the Doctor. Since she arrived with the Count, only the Count had
been in there, and would not tell her of the interior. She had a glimpse once
when the door was ajar, and saw the hidden side doorway at the other end of the
chamber. She recalled there was a metal staircase there but could not be
reached by the street level unless the portion of it was lowered.
“Ouch!” Rosa felt the cut on
her index left finger when she accidentally cut herself while slicing the
carrot. She sucked on the wound to ease her pain. She had worse injuries, but
that time, she reacted like any others. She placed her finger on the cutting
board and watched the blood seeped out.
Blood.
In her lifetime, she was
told never to speak or reveal any blood in her work at the castle. It was the
taboo in the castle. During the preparation of the meats, the doorway to the
kitchen was locked, and only opened on completion of the task when the blood
stains were all washed away.
Rosa was one of the two
siblings of the Quasi; her brother was deformed on his spine, hence the
hunchback appearance like the grandfather. She was not but maintained that
appearance when she was to go out of the castle and with hood over her head,
she was assumed to be the same hunchback that collected the supplies from the
village. Her mother was from their clan that travelled as gypsies on the
continent. She was the selected one to wed the father who caretake the castle
and the Count. And one Quasi’s sibling will remained in every generation. Rosa
was to leave the castle leaving her brother to take on the task but the Count
had intervened for her to stay. Her father could not object to the command of
the Count. For that she undergoes the same training as her brother in the
survival arts.
Survival was their essence.
Count Vlad Tepes was the
second son of Vlad Dracul, who became the ruler of Wallachia. Vlad
and his younger brother, Radu, were held as hostages in the Ottoman
Empire to secure their father's loyalty. Vlad's eldest brother Mircea and
their father were murdered after John Hunyadi, regent-governor of Hungary,
invaded Wallachia.
Hunyadi installed Vlad's
second cousin, Vladislav II, as the new voivode; the rank of
ruler of Wallachia. Vlad broke into Wallachia with Ottoman support but was
defeated by Vladislav who had returned. Later Vlad invaded Wallachia again with
Hungarian support. Vladislav died fighting against him to strengthen his
position. He came into conflict with the Transylvanian Saxons, who
supported his opponents, taking the captured people to Wallachia, where he had
them impaled. When the Turks ordered Vlad to pay homage, Vlad had the
Sultan's two envoys captured and impaled. He then attacked the Ottoman
territory, massacring tens of thousands of Turks and Muslim Bulgarians. Mehmed
launched a campaign against Wallachia. Vlad went to Transylvania to seek
assistance from Hungary but was imprisoned.
Later upon his release, he
fought in the Hungarian army against the Ottomans with Moldavian troops and
reclaimed his land until the Ottoman returned to topple him once more.
It was all about survival.
The Quasi clan was one;
having being displaced by the wars, but their allegiance to Vlad was absolute.
Vlad Tepes shared the same prison cell with the Quasi’ forefathers who were
imprisoned there on suspicion of being spies. They had innocently claimed that
they are travellers and have no alliance to any King. That last claim was to
get them imprisoned. Vlad Tepes protected them form the gaolers with him
offering them food and taking their turns to do the hard labours for some of
the Quasi members were infirmed or deformed. He earned their respect and
loyalty. They served as his personal aides and guards. The Count had them
trained in the survival skills to protect themselves.
Immortality
It was rumoured that the
forefathers shared the secret of longevity to the Count as their contribution
to his merciful acts. When he was said to have died, they resurrected him from
the grave and hid him in the castle till that day. From then, the myth of Count
Dracula was to surface.
A monster who survived on
human blood.
It was probably for good for
since then, the reputation of the Count had grown far and wide, and even
claimed that he was the Prince of Darkness.
A monster indeed.
“Did you cut your finger?”
It was Doctor Jekyll. The doctor took her hand and looked at the wound. It was
not deep but the blood was still flowing out. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it
around her finger.
“Keep it wrapped. It will
stop the blood soon.” The doctor told Rosa. “I will get a bandage.”
Soon, the doctor had the
finger bandaged and then smiled at the lady.
“It will be fine now.” The
doctor took the bandaged finger and laid it on his lips. “My mother taught me
that. It will heal faster.”
It may had done so, but it
also caused the lady to feel very grateful.
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