Marcella

  Mari wasn’t sure what she was expecting behind that door, but the sight of a long, dim hallway filled her with relief.

  She’d half anticipated to find a pack of vampires waiting for her, but it was just further darkness.

  That almost unnerved her more.

  Elaine gestured for Mari to continue following her, and she studied the hall as she did.

  There were several chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, although unlit. The only light in the room, just as within the dungeon, shone from the moon that peeked through the windows.

  It was much warmer up here despite the lack of torches. Mari allowed herself to curl into it, relaxing her frozen limbs.

  Shadows gathered in the corners and atop the chestnut-colored carpet that led them to the end of the hall.

  Elaine turned right and a round, onyx staircase greeted them. Mari warily ascended it behind her, feeling the cold metal of the railing beneath her fingers.

  They passed several landings that opened into darker halls, and Mari tried to steady her breathing as all sorts of ideas as to what may have been lurking within filled her head. She pulled herself closer to the stone wall for comfort.

  It felt like an eternity had passed until they finally arrived at a large singular door at the very end of the stairs.

  To her surprise, Elaine reached into a pocket and withdrew a small key, using it to unlock the door…

  To yet another, albeit small hallway.

  Only seven doors lined the dark walls inside this one, three on each side and one at the end.

  “Here we are! This is where you’ll be staying.”

  Mari looked between the doors. “Which one?”

  “All of them,” Elaine said, handing her the key. “They’re all empty bedrooms. You can choose whichever one to be yours.”

  “What about the rest of the manor?”

  “Unfortunately I can’t stay for long so we’ll have to delay the tour.” She gave Mari a smile. “But I’ll be back tomorrow.”

  “Is there… is there anyone else?”

  “A few other humans, mostly. You have nothing to worry about, this entire wing is yours. Tomorrow we can charm it so that no one but you or whoever else you choose can enter,” Elaine explained.

  “Charm it?”

  “Ah, my apologies. There’s still so much I have to tell you but I’m afraid duty calls. Please, make yourself at home.”

  She turned away and Mari blurted, “Am I going to stay inside here for the rest of my life?”

  “Of course not,” she said over her shoulder. “This isn’t a prison.”

  But as Elaine left through the same way they entered, Mari thought that she wasn’t so sure.

  A great wave of sadness washed over her.

  She’d long outgrown any childish delusions of life being fair, but this seemed too cruel a joke even for fate to play.

  Yes, she grew up knowing that she’d never lead a normal life let alone the one of her dreams. Obviously life wasn’t fair. She’d accepted that.

  But did it really have to shove its injustice into her face? Did it really have to kill both of the only family members she had in front of her?

  When she was young, her mother taught her to read by bringing her all sorts of children’s books home. It seemed like their pages contained a different world, one where karma ensured that good deeds would be rewarded and bad ones punished.

  She knew. Of course she knew, how could such a world be the very same one that imprisoned her? She’d always been good. Tristan was the rambunctious one, the one who gave their mother a hard time. Mari was the one who always did the homework their mother assigned, the one who was always careful not to hurt herself, who kept her mouth shut when they went days without food during the winters.

  She was good.

  And, most of all, she never dared to really consider the possibility of ever going outside. No, she was perfectly happy to live and die in that cottage.

  At least until that day, when she allowed herself to really see it for the first time: the clear skies and seas of Rhovandy, the flowing robes of scholars as they leaned over their books.

  But all she’d done was blind herself- that was the sin she bore.

  Not so easy to see your dream through the darkness, is it?

  Was that what life thought when it sent a liege of vampires to her home?

  Mari fell onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. It was pitch black in her room and the tears that welled in her bloodshot eyes burned.

  I understand now, she thought. This is my punishment for ever thinking I had a choice.

  Now she had even less freedom. Her prison may be grander but so was the horror of her wardens.

  Now she’d never return to her hometown, let alone the capital.

  And that was entirely her fault. But their blood…what did she and Tristan do to deserve that? Why was everyone else allowed to be normal?

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  She chided herself for asking such a pointless, childish question, but it suddenly made her so angry that she shook with it. She blamed the cold.

  As if she had run out, both the sadness and the tears stopped.

  And an endless pool of nothing filled their wake.

  Mari hadn’t realized she’d fallen asleep until she slipped back into consciousness with an unrelenting disappointment.

  Her sleep had been a calm, dreamless one, and reality was anything but.

  She had not a clue as to how much time had passed, and the darkness beyond her window seemed eternal.

  A faint sound drifted in as she sat up in the bed and studied her room more closely, the memories of the past couple of days once again threatened to break free.

  Only this time she was numb to their onslaught, not even trying to push them away as tears spilled of their own volition.

  This was it, this was her life now.

  She couldn’t find the strength to do anything but sit and stare at the gothic decor of her room, at the moon shining outside the giant window, the even larger bed she found herself glued to.

  Then she realized the faint sound was music, that of some kind of instrument.

  She didn’t know which, but it sounded so…melodic. Not at all like the lute that had been played at the festival. It was either one exclusive to her captors or people who could afford not to live in Danethal.

  Her stomach grumbled.

  Right, Mari thought. I haven’t eaten in ages.

  She allowed herself a few more moments of staring at the wall before she dragged herself out of bed and into the hall, holding her breath as she slowly trekked down the spiral staircase. The music grew louder as she did.

  Surely she would be allowed to eat, if she was here for her blood then they would to keep her fed and healthy.

  Although seeing another one of them was not something she thought she could handle at the moment.

  Luckily, the passageway the stairs led to was completely empty. Mari’s shoulders sagged with relief even as she followed the music and whatever beast it was leading her to.

  But as she came to a large, open room (seemingly some kind of parlor), she was surprised to see a perfectly human-looking girl sitting at a grand piano, her long ginger hair slightly moving as she bobbed her head from one end of the piano to the other.

  Mari was filled with awe as she watched her play, leaning against the giant doorframe with no door. She’d only seen the instrument in pictures, but it was so much more beautiful in person. And she had no idea what a “good” player was supposed to sound like, but she’d be willing to bet that girl was-

  A squeak left her mouth as her hand slid off the doorframe and she had to grab onto the wall to stop herself from falling.

  When Mari looked up, the girl’s blue eyes met her own. She’d stopped playing.

  “Uh, hi,” she said meekly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to spy on you.”

  The girl gave her an equally shy smile. “That’s okay, we weren’t sure when you’d wake up.”

  Mari paled. Was this…was this girl a vampire, too?

  “I’m not one of them!” She clarified quickly. “My name’s Ginny. I live in this manor.”

  Right, Elaine said there were other humans here. “I’m Mari.”

  “It’s nice to meet you!” She turned to fully face her. “You’re from the outside world, aren't you?”

  Mari’s breath was caught in her throat.

  It was Ginny’s turn to look horrified. “Oh my- I’m so sorry! I forgot what happened.”

  “It’s okay,” Mari assured her even as Zohar knows what stirred in her stomach. “I didn’t know you knew.”

  She gave her a look of pity. “Elaine told us.”

  “The vampire?”

  “So you’ve met her!”

  “Yeah.” Mari chose her next words carefully. “So she’s- so you like her?”

  Ginny nodded. “She’s the caretaker for all the humans in the community. Whatever you need or have questions about, she’s there to listen.”

  “And you, are you not from the…outside world?”

  “No. I was born and raised in Valoria.”

  Mari’s eyes widened. “Humans live here?”

  “Well, some of us. I’m Glysi.”

  Glysi, Mari thought, turning the word over in her head. Why does that sound so familiar?

  “It’s alright if you’ve never heard of us. Even people who aren’t shut in from the outside world rarely have.”

  Just how much did the vampire tell her? “Glysi…isn’t that an ancient tribe? One said to be lost?”

  Ginny’s eyes sparkled. “So you have heard of it!”

  “I, uh, just read about it somewhere,” Mari answered shyly. “That’s mostly how I passed the time.”

  “Well, you’re right. Except that we obviously aren’t lost, we just sided with the vampires in the great war almost one thousand years ago. And now we live here.”

  So the war was against vampires, not bandits.

  Mari wondered if the writers of the books, those scholars in Rhovandy, knew that. “What’s it like?”

  “I’ve never lived in your kingdom so I can’t compare it to that, but I have no complaints. I was born and raised in this community, and all the vampires I’ve met have been nothing but kind. There’s going to be another party tonight, lots of the regulars will be there.”

  “The regulars?”

  “Elaine is from a famous noble family, so a lot of them are other famous nobles.” She leaned in. “I’ve been eyeing one of them- Lord Frederick. He’s so dreamy...”

  Mari tried not to let her disgust show on her face as she asked, “Why have a party in a manor full of humans?”

  “We’re entertaining to them. Sometimes they’ll even hire you- I’ve been training,” she said, gesturing to the piano. “Working for a noble is very cushy, and on rare occasions, they’ve even taken humans for marriage!”

  Mari decided she’d rather die than face a fate like that. “How many live in the community?”

  Ginny looked up in thought. “This is a rather small one. There are only two other manors, and they’re not as big, with anywhere from seven to twelve people in each. Fourteen live here now, including you and I. So excluding a few vampires, maybe about thirty-three people?”

  “Is everyone else Glysi like you?”

  “Most of them, but there are some people who were captured from your kingdom.”

  Excitement stirred within Mari. “Really?”

  It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Ginny specifically, but she had to be careful. If the rest of the humans in the community were anything like the girl, they might not be sympathetic to Mari’s opinions of the vampires. At least there would be someone she could be herself fully with.

  “You’ll meet some of them tonight!”

  For the first time since she’d been in that cell back in Frostwood, Mari felt a glimmer of…of something.

  She didn’t know if it was hope, or joy, or something entirely else, but she was here. She was alive.

  And all she had to do was make it through the day in one piece. Again and again.

  Her stomach grumbled.

  “Oh my- forgive me! You must be starving,” Ginny said, jumping up from her seat and grabbing Mari’s hand. “I can give you a tour of the place after you eat! Then we can get ready for the party together!”

  Mari almost let a small smile make its way to her lips as she was pulled away.