Chapter 58: A Tale of Two Siblings
Whatever Valentine was expecting when returning home, a locked door wasn't it. But that's, nevertheless what he got. Checking the time, he wonders if he's just too early. It's 8 PM, sunset in Tartosa, but in Forgotten Hollow the sun dips behind the mountain far sooner than that. Even with the door bolted shut during the day, it should be open now. As knocking gets him no where, he heads off, uncertain of where to go, or if he can return at all. Has the count really thrown him out? Without saying anything? And what will he do if that's the case? He has things he wants, possessions that he's brought with him that he cares about. And while he can always spend a day or two at Helenas, they just started seeing each other, it's not like he can just ask if he can move in. Can he? No, no, he can't, it's far too soon.
For a while he wanders the town, but then he remembers that Caleb told him he could always come see him. And so he decides that's what he'll do. He wants to talk to him anyway, and so he heads over to the big house, opposite the park from where he used to live with Louis and Lena.
Caleb seems pleased to meet him, and greets him enthusiastically in a home that is far brighter than any other Valentine has seen in Forgotten Hollow.
As they sit down, Lilith joins them. It's the first time Valentine meets her and he tries to have an open mind and not only think of her as one of Helena's exes.
"We grew up in Tartosa," Lilith begins. "A generally happy childhood. We were a rather tight family, smaller than was the norm at the time, and so our cousin, an only child, spent almost all her time at our place. It was a happy childhood. The three of us were as tight as anyone could be, and our home was filled with laughter and love."
"Then our father died," Caleb fills in.
"That changed everything. Our mother took his death hard, and I never saw her wearing anything but black afterwards. Her mood changed, she grew tired, gloomy and distant."
"Financially things went downhill as well. Without our father to bring in money we had to rely on what was there. I was set to start university, and my mother wouldn't hear of me working instead."
"The staff was let go first, then items started to disappear, things no one but we would notice."
"But we had one asset more valuable than any other."
"What was that?" Valentine asks.
"Me," Lilith says with a sardonic smile. "I was beautiful enough to be a catch, even if we were poorer than we had been. I was from a good family, well behaved, well educated for a girl. My mother said I was too strong willed, and my aunt always said I was too drawn to darkness, but those were sides I was smart enough never to show someone outside of the family."
"We all knew Lilith didn't really want to marry, but somehow that was easy to forget when it meant that our lives could continue without change if she did. Lily and I knew it more than others, and we knew how deeply she resented the man our mother had chosen, but none of us felt that we could do anything about it."
"We had just aged up, my wedding was set for the next day, the guests were invited, the food arranged for, the back yard decorated. It was to be a small wedding. Intimate, my mother called it. Cheap, my fiance's family said. To be honest I couldn't care less about the entire thing, I just wanted to run away, but you don't do that when your entire family is counting on you. Either way, I was determined to enjoy my last night of freedom, so I persuaded Caleb and cousin Lily to stay outside with me that night, watching the stars and listening to the fountain. If I turned my back I could pretend the wedding set up wasn't there."
"I never heard or saw them coming, but I think Lily did. Maybe it was when Lilith cried out or perhaps it was me that screamed first, but Lily ran and hid in the tunnels underneath the house."
"She got away, we did not. When we woke up again we were in Forgotten Hollow."
"My first reaction was to fight our captors, but those first few days were more about getting through the pain and hunger than anything else. We were both put in what I assume is your room now, and there we watched each other transform and looked at our last sunset together."
"You always struggled with what we were, but I loved it. No, it was true that I had not asked for this, but had I known to ask for it I would have. The sheer feeling of power, of strength, of having control over others... It was intoxicating. Perhaps more so to me than you. Being a girl back then, there were so many rules, so many things that were expected of you. Being a vampire was my first taste of what freedom might be like. Not that we were entirely free, but for me - at that time - it was freedom enough."
"And let's be honest, we were comfortable too. No more need for water bottles in our beds at night because there were no money for the wood that could keep us warm. No watching our mother grow thinner as she ate less and less. No watching our possessions dwindle."
"Instead we were showered with money, with clothes, with jewellery, with everything we had ever wanted and it was great. The sacrifices we made seemed reasonable."
"Sacrifices?"
"Our mother and cousin. The Count persuaded us that we could not make any contact with them, said that we'd be unable to stop feeding off them, that we might kill them," Caleb answers.
"We told ourselves that without us our mother would be fine on the finances left from our father, that she'd be better off. Only later did we learn that she died a few years later from her broken heart. But by then we were too distant to take it in. We met Lily again once or twice, much much later, but well she changed in her own way, and that didn't work," Lilith fills in.
"So for the better part of a decade it was just the four of us. The Count, Marybelle whom you have never met, and the two of us. And we were for the most part... I won't say happy, but content."
"I was the first to feel the strain," Lilith says. "I felt stifled by the rules Vlad made for us. I'd had my first taste of freedom and I wanted more, but you know how he is, he's not one to give freedom willingly, and were were his toys, his playthings, and I was tiring of performing for him. Sometimes literary. He could make me play that piano for hours on end, because he liked listening. And the dresses I wore were of his tastes, not mine, and from the era of my mother rather than mine."
"I was more content," Caleb continues. "I loved the house, the comfort, the things, but I struggled in my own way. I hated feeding, I hated taking what was not given freely, and the Count kept telling me it was the only way. But I still fought Lilith's desire to walk away, I was still too complacent to see. Even when Marybelle rebelled and left, I couldn't. It took time for me to reach a decision, but when I did things got ugly fast."
"Vlad was not happy to see us go. We made the mistake of trying to explain, but it ended in a duel. Caleb didn't stand a chance and badly injured when we ran. For months I had to nurse him back to health in shady hotels and back alleys."
"But I did get better, and we found our own ways of making money."
"The jewelry the count showered me with for all those years helped. They were easy to sell, and we used the money to invest in things that could make us more money." Lily smiles a bit. "We toured Europe first. Berlin in the 20s... such an experience. Women were cutting their hair, showing their skin, it was so easy to move in the night in a town that lived for its pleasures."
"But then came the 30s, the depression, the rise of dictatorships around Europe. When the war broke out we left. We spent several decades in the Americas, touring the entire continent from south to north. Ended up in the US in the 60s."
"That's when you met Helena."
"1967 and she was beautiful as a day, " Lilith says with a smile. "Oh don't look so upset, she must have told you. And the end of the 60s was a wonderful time to be alive."
"Fact is, we were happy for a long time. But that's when we realised that the world was not ready for us yet. People simply could not accept two women of different color skin in a relationship. I do not know what upset them most, the color of our skins or the fact that we were both women."
"It was not our first brush with the danger that is humans with limited understanding. Our vampirism only made it worse. So we slowly found our way back here."
"The world is a fantastic place, but it's not vampire friendly. So that's when we bought this place. It's a place to feel safe, even if we still roam the world from time to time."
"Helena moved with you?"
"At first, but she's a jealous woman, and I can't stand being tied down by anyone. Oh she tried to go with the ideal of free love that I loved so much, but it tore her apart. In the end we could see the writing on the wall, we could break up and stay friends, or stay together and grow to hate each other. So we helped her get her own safe haven here. She tells me you introduced her to your parents. She liked that."
"I like her a lot."
"You'd better. Hurt her and I'll hurt you." It was said with an easy smile, yet Valentine didn't need to wonder if it was a real threat. It very much was.
"So that's our story," Caleb said, interrupting the tension. "Make of it as you will."
Valentine frowns. "But I still don't understand," he says. "Yes the Count is controlling, and I can see the need for independence, but nothing you've told me says that he's a bad guy. Over protective, a bit old fashioned, a bit too controlling, but not really a bad guy. Just someone who suffered a lot of loss."
"I thought so too for a while, and in truth it wasn't until until the day I ventured down into the basement myself, and saw what he keeps there that I knew we had to get away before we were as corrupted as he is," Caleb answers.
"But what does he keep-"
"Don't ask. See for yourself. Only then will you know for sure," Lilith breaks in.
"Know what?"
Caleb smiles. "If you can continue to live under his rule, with his ways of life. Either you can, and we part ways, or you can't, and then we will help you if you need it."
"Will I need it? I mean I don't even know if he'll let me back into the house."
"He will," Lilith says confidently after they've moved to the sofas. "But likely not until after the sun is up."
"He's punishing you," Caleb adds. "And he'll want to scare you, but he won't let you go like that. He likes his toys, and he intends to keep you."
"But why?"
"Because you are young and malleable," Lilith says. "His aim is to control all of Forgotten Hollow, possibly more, and to do that he needs other vampires. People like Louis and Lena who are prepared to do almost anything he tells them. They believe in his power, and that makes them useful. You hesitate, that makes you dangerous."
"Dangerous? Come on! Now you're making fun of me! I'm not even two in his way of seeing things."
"A vampire becomes both weaker and stronger with age," Caleb explains. "As you learn you get more skills, take on new powers, but also new weaknesses. When you are new, you can watch the sun without burning for example. The speed comes fast, so does the strength, while mental powers take longer. You are physically the strongest now, in a few years you'll get weaker, before building your strength up again." Caleb explains.
"It doesn't really matter, though, you don't have to take the risk Caleb did, leaving doesn't have to be a confrontation," Lilith points out. "You can just not return one night. That's how Marybelle did it. She just left everything behind. Went hunting in the night and never returned. Vlad was furious but there was little he could do."
"Where did she go?"
"Not sure. We heard rumours that she joined a little band of rebell vampires, believing their powers give them the right to take what they want from others. They move from house to house, pray on the people living there, living off their finances, then move on when they tire or the money runs out. We don't know how much of that is true. We do know she's taken the name Miss Hell, which seems telling enough. We stay clear, and so does she. It works."
"So what are you expecting me to do now?"
"Nothing." Lilith says. "Unlike Vlad we prefer when people make up their own minds. Go back - don't go back. Go looking in his basement - or don't. It's all up to you. We just offered our story, use it as you will."
As he looks outside, Valentine can see the sky grow lighter.
"I should head back, see if the door is unlocked."
"Good luck," Caleb says as he walks him to the door.
For a while he wanders the town, but then he remembers that Caleb told him he could always come see him. And so he decides that's what he'll do. He wants to talk to him anyway, and so he heads over to the big house, opposite the park from where he used to live with Louis and Lena.
Caleb seems pleased to meet him, and greets him enthusiastically in a home that is far brighter than any other Valentine has seen in Forgotten Hollow.
As they sit down, Lilith joins them. It's the first time Valentine meets her and he tries to have an open mind and not only think of her as one of Helena's exes.
"We grew up in Tartosa," Lilith begins. "A generally happy childhood. We were a rather tight family, smaller than was the norm at the time, and so our cousin, an only child, spent almost all her time at our place. It was a happy childhood. The three of us were as tight as anyone could be, and our home was filled with laughter and love."
"Then our father died," Caleb fills in.
"That changed everything. Our mother took his death hard, and I never saw her wearing anything but black afterwards. Her mood changed, she grew tired, gloomy and distant."
"Financially things went downhill as well. Without our father to bring in money we had to rely on what was there. I was set to start university, and my mother wouldn't hear of me working instead."
"The staff was let go first, then items started to disappear, things no one but we would notice."
"But we had one asset more valuable than any other."
"What was that?" Valentine asks.
"Me," Lilith says with a sardonic smile. "I was beautiful enough to be a catch, even if we were poorer than we had been. I was from a good family, well behaved, well educated for a girl. My mother said I was too strong willed, and my aunt always said I was too drawn to darkness, but those were sides I was smart enough never to show someone outside of the family."
"We all knew Lilith didn't really want to marry, but somehow that was easy to forget when it meant that our lives could continue without change if she did. Lily and I knew it more than others, and we knew how deeply she resented the man our mother had chosen, but none of us felt that we could do anything about it."
"We had just aged up, my wedding was set for the next day, the guests were invited, the food arranged for, the back yard decorated. It was to be a small wedding. Intimate, my mother called it. Cheap, my fiance's family said. To be honest I couldn't care less about the entire thing, I just wanted to run away, but you don't do that when your entire family is counting on you. Either way, I was determined to enjoy my last night of freedom, so I persuaded Caleb and cousin Lily to stay outside with me that night, watching the stars and listening to the fountain. If I turned my back I could pretend the wedding set up wasn't there."
"I never heard or saw them coming, but I think Lily did. Maybe it was when Lilith cried out or perhaps it was me that screamed first, but Lily ran and hid in the tunnels underneath the house."
"She got away, we did not. When we woke up again we were in Forgotten Hollow."
"My first reaction was to fight our captors, but those first few days were more about getting through the pain and hunger than anything else. We were both put in what I assume is your room now, and there we watched each other transform and looked at our last sunset together."
"You always struggled with what we were, but I loved it. No, it was true that I had not asked for this, but had I known to ask for it I would have. The sheer feeling of power, of strength, of having control over others... It was intoxicating. Perhaps more so to me than you. Being a girl back then, there were so many rules, so many things that were expected of you. Being a vampire was my first taste of what freedom might be like. Not that we were entirely free, but for me - at that time - it was freedom enough."
"And let's be honest, we were comfortable too. No more need for water bottles in our beds at night because there were no money for the wood that could keep us warm. No watching our mother grow thinner as she ate less and less. No watching our possessions dwindle."
"Instead we were showered with money, with clothes, with jewellery, with everything we had ever wanted and it was great. The sacrifices we made seemed reasonable."
"Sacrifices?"
"Our mother and cousin. The Count persuaded us that we could not make any contact with them, said that we'd be unable to stop feeding off them, that we might kill them," Caleb answers.
"We told ourselves that without us our mother would be fine on the finances left from our father, that she'd be better off. Only later did we learn that she died a few years later from her broken heart. But by then we were too distant to take it in. We met Lily again once or twice, much much later, but well she changed in her own way, and that didn't work," Lilith fills in.
"So for the better part of a decade it was just the four of us. The Count, Marybelle whom you have never met, and the two of us. And we were for the most part... I won't say happy, but content."
"I was the first to feel the strain," Lilith says. "I felt stifled by the rules Vlad made for us. I'd had my first taste of freedom and I wanted more, but you know how he is, he's not one to give freedom willingly, and were were his toys, his playthings, and I was tiring of performing for him. Sometimes literary. He could make me play that piano for hours on end, because he liked listening. And the dresses I wore were of his tastes, not mine, and from the era of my mother rather than mine."
"I was more content," Caleb continues. "I loved the house, the comfort, the things, but I struggled in my own way. I hated feeding, I hated taking what was not given freely, and the Count kept telling me it was the only way. But I still fought Lilith's desire to walk away, I was still too complacent to see. Even when Marybelle rebelled and left, I couldn't. It took time for me to reach a decision, but when I did things got ugly fast."
"Vlad was not happy to see us go. We made the mistake of trying to explain, but it ended in a duel. Caleb didn't stand a chance and badly injured when we ran. For months I had to nurse him back to health in shady hotels and back alleys."
"But I did get better, and we found our own ways of making money."
"The jewelry the count showered me with for all those years helped. They were easy to sell, and we used the money to invest in things that could make us more money." Lily smiles a bit. "We toured Europe first. Berlin in the 20s... such an experience. Women were cutting their hair, showing their skin, it was so easy to move in the night in a town that lived for its pleasures."
"But then came the 30s, the depression, the rise of dictatorships around Europe. When the war broke out we left. We spent several decades in the Americas, touring the entire continent from south to north. Ended up in the US in the 60s."
"That's when you met Helena."
"1967 and she was beautiful as a day, " Lilith says with a smile. "Oh don't look so upset, she must have told you. And the end of the 60s was a wonderful time to be alive."
"Fact is, we were happy for a long time. But that's when we realised that the world was not ready for us yet. People simply could not accept two women of different color skin in a relationship. I do not know what upset them most, the color of our skins or the fact that we were both women."
"It was not our first brush with the danger that is humans with limited understanding. Our vampirism only made it worse. So we slowly found our way back here."
"The world is a fantastic place, but it's not vampire friendly. So that's when we bought this place. It's a place to feel safe, even if we still roam the world from time to time."
"Helena moved with you?"
"At first, but she's a jealous woman, and I can't stand being tied down by anyone. Oh she tried to go with the ideal of free love that I loved so much, but it tore her apart. In the end we could see the writing on the wall, we could break up and stay friends, or stay together and grow to hate each other. So we helped her get her own safe haven here. She tells me you introduced her to your parents. She liked that."
"I like her a lot."
"You'd better. Hurt her and I'll hurt you." It was said with an easy smile, yet Valentine didn't need to wonder if it was a real threat. It very much was.
"So that's our story," Caleb said, interrupting the tension. "Make of it as you will."
Valentine frowns. "But I still don't understand," he says. "Yes the Count is controlling, and I can see the need for independence, but nothing you've told me says that he's a bad guy. Over protective, a bit old fashioned, a bit too controlling, but not really a bad guy. Just someone who suffered a lot of loss."
"I thought so too for a while, and in truth it wasn't until until the day I ventured down into the basement myself, and saw what he keeps there that I knew we had to get away before we were as corrupted as he is," Caleb answers.
"But what does he keep-"
"Don't ask. See for yourself. Only then will you know for sure," Lilith breaks in.
"Know what?"
Caleb smiles. "If you can continue to live under his rule, with his ways of life. Either you can, and we part ways, or you can't, and then we will help you if you need it."
"Will I need it? I mean I don't even know if he'll let me back into the house."
"He will," Lilith says confidently after they've moved to the sofas. "But likely not until after the sun is up."
"He's punishing you," Caleb adds. "And he'll want to scare you, but he won't let you go like that. He likes his toys, and he intends to keep you."
"But why?"
"Because you are young and malleable," Lilith says. "His aim is to control all of Forgotten Hollow, possibly more, and to do that he needs other vampires. People like Louis and Lena who are prepared to do almost anything he tells them. They believe in his power, and that makes them useful. You hesitate, that makes you dangerous."
"Dangerous? Come on! Now you're making fun of me! I'm not even two in his way of seeing things."
"A vampire becomes both weaker and stronger with age," Caleb explains. "As you learn you get more skills, take on new powers, but also new weaknesses. When you are new, you can watch the sun without burning for example. The speed comes fast, so does the strength, while mental powers take longer. You are physically the strongest now, in a few years you'll get weaker, before building your strength up again." Caleb explains.
"It doesn't really matter, though, you don't have to take the risk Caleb did, leaving doesn't have to be a confrontation," Lilith points out. "You can just not return one night. That's how Marybelle did it. She just left everything behind. Went hunting in the night and never returned. Vlad was furious but there was little he could do."
"Where did she go?"
"Not sure. We heard rumours that she joined a little band of rebell vampires, believing their powers give them the right to take what they want from others. They move from house to house, pray on the people living there, living off their finances, then move on when they tire or the money runs out. We don't know how much of that is true. We do know she's taken the name Miss Hell, which seems telling enough. We stay clear, and so does she. It works."
"So what are you expecting me to do now?"
"Nothing." Lilith says. "Unlike Vlad we prefer when people make up their own minds. Go back - don't go back. Go looking in his basement - or don't. It's all up to you. We just offered our story, use it as you will."
As he looks outside, Valentine can see the sky grow lighter.
"I should head back, see if the door is unlocked."
"Good luck," Caleb says as he walks him to the door.
Simstober challenge:
- Creature of the Night - Stay Out from 8PM - 6AM
- Local Legend - Create a Spooky Character, Myth, or Local Legend
- Witching Hour - Use an Occult Power at 3 AM
- Kiss an Occult - Kiss a Ghost, Alien, Vampire, Mermaid, Spellcaster, Werewolf, Fairy or PlantSim!
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