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The Curse of the Baron of Blood
- The Curse of the Baron of Blood -
Cold was the wind that blew from the north, and unto the very westerly climes that in ancient days all men believed was where the dead did dwell, in places unseen and unknown to mortal eyes. It was in the autumn season, the leaves going from their vibrant colors to the browner deathly shades that one sees in the days leading up to winter's first frosty kisses. No ships set sail in such a season, for winds blow and seas are rough, and cause much malice to those bound over the water. This was the sort of day in which the wind blew through the skeletal branches of the knotted oaks and majestic pines that stood to either side of the road upon this particular passage through the Carpathian mountains. A party of riders taking it slowly along that way, along with those who marched behind them in an attempt to keep up could be seen making their way along this small hint of humanity's attempts to forge a civilized path through an ancient and forsaken forest. Their tall steeds and smaller mules were used to bearing their riders, but oft not in such conditions as this! None who ventured that way knew the month, for they had not been of a mind to keep track ere they set out upon their journey. The chill in the air took one's breath away at the worst of times, and at the best it was cool and crisp, and the skies were blue and cloudless, stark in the heavens. It was just before afternoon, and night was still many long hours away. Snowflakes as delicate as lace drifted down from the heights of the peaks that loomed above, mountains that lorded it over the land like giants. Those who were journeying hither along this route were led by a certain gentleman of no great renown but of much distinction regardless. He was a member of a secret society of gentlemen, and had titles of nobility of which he never spoke. He was far from his homeland, which was in the far west, in distant France... and was by chance elected to lead those who followed him across this stretch of the land because he knew this part of the world far more than many did who dwelt there. He came, it was said, from stolen wealth but none could ever prove the truth of such scandalous claims. To hear his version of the story, he had inherited his money from his father who had at first thought to grant it to his brother... but when his brother turned up dead in mysterious circumstances, their father had no one left to leave the family wealth to. Lucky for him, but unlucky for his brother! The rumors said he murdered the man in order to be the chosen inheritor. He never said that was untrue, but never said it was true. In this way, he cultivated the aura of mystery that made people regard him with suspicion at times. But, it was not for nothing he was chosen as the guide for this particular party of travelers! His father owned a castle that he had been gifted from a nobleman who once lived in these mountains, beyond this forest... near the farthest reaches of this very road. And his father gifted it to him, though before he left France to journey hither to claim the property, his father said that it was no true gift for the castle was cursed in ways he dared not speak of. This weighed heavily upon his mind as he neared the place increasingly, as the party he led there slowly made their inexorable way along this remote stretch of road. At his side, on a mare much smaller than his own far mightier steed, did ride his daughter who was about eleven years of age, though his wife... her mother... had been gone for a very long time. She had left him... unable to reconcile with the man's dark and mysterious past. Their divorce was absolute, and their only child was left in his care. Her name was Mirabeau, and her father's name was Sebastian. Many of the people who were in their party were contracted to be servants of theirs when they got to the castle. Some were just people who wished to travel along this road for a time but who did not know the way and needed to be guided. One of the servants, a man several years older than Sebastian himself, was complaining about the chill air in between coughing a bit. He glanced over a Sebastian and thought to himself that the man he had agreed to serve did look just a bit like a dandy. He was not one to judge a man by such things... but neither could he quite get that impression out of his mind. Sebastian wore his hair long, and kept it back with a red ribbon tied with a neat bow. Upon his head he was wearing on this occasion a hat with a wide brim that had a blood red feather decorating it. His collar was the finest white lace, his gloves as velvet as his vest, his boots of soft but sturdy leather. His baggy breeches were of a fine, crimson, silk.
Sebastian dressed for comfort and style first and foremost, though at the moment he was wearing over all that finery a black coat and a fur cloak for warmth. It was hardly ideal, but better than freezing in the cold on the way to the castle! The man's daughter was likewise dressed for comfort and fashion. A dress of the softest silk, lacy and frilly and of the finest quality money could buy. The dress was the same sort of crimson color that her father was fond of wearing, with white trim and full, baggy sleeves with frilly cuffs at the wrists. The sleeves, like the trim, were as white and spotless as snow. She wore her hair up for the trip, and upon her head was a hat of the fashionable sort the ladies in Paris were all wearing that year. She did not have any riding clothes, normally... so under the skirts of her dress she was wearing a pair of silk breeches meant for boys her age rather than for girls. But the fit was comfortable, so she did not mind this! A pair of warm boots kept her feet from being chilled, and like her father she wore a fur cloak over her attire and kept clutching it to keep it about her more securely as the journey continued in earnest. Both she and her father had jet black hair with a somewhat bluish tint to it... the darkest shade of black that is possible for human hair to naturally have. The man had grayish blue eyes and his face he kept clean shaven. His daughter had her mother's deep brown eyes, and she inherited her mother's more dusky skin tone compared to her father's pale white skin. White with a hint of yellow to it, under certain lighting conditions. Some said he had far eastern blood in his veins, for his sallow skin, and his almond shaped eyes and aquiline nose had lent him... some said... a somewhat exotic look that many of those who made his acquaintance simply could not quite place. He had a small mouth that either looked somewhat amused or slightly sorrowful. His daughter had full lips like her mother, though she had her father's nose and high cheekbones. People always asked her if she had “gypsy blood” as they put it oft rudely to her, and her father would almost jump to her defense and tell them it was none of their affair to be asking such questions, and if he was angry enough he would threaten to either run them through with his blade, or shoot them to death with his pistol. He defended her zealously and was, or so it was claimed about him by some, far more fond of her in certain ways than he had ever been of her mother. Any who had confronted him about that, however... had a habit of disappearing, never to be seen again. It was the eighteenth century, a time of enlightened thinking, but some people still had their minds in the traditions, morals, and mores of the past. Sebastian was a libertine, and had his own code to follow. All of this, the servant was aware of and mindful of, for he had already been acquainted with the man and his daughter prior to the embarkation of this journey. He would serve in the capacity of a butler of sorts, and as such he was aware of all of Sebastian's secrets and he know how best to keep them secret. He still thought the man was a dandy, but he had the utmost respect for him and would die for him if it came to it. This servant's name was Louis, and he was as ordinary a man as his name was common. But in his time he had seen things... things no common man could ever imagine the likes of. Louis coughed a bit more, then stopped complaining about the cold and gazed over at one of the maidservants who did ride a mule further back. He found that maidservant most comely and pleasing to look upon, and soon... he found that he felt the cold that much less for taking his mind off of it and focusing on more pleasant things. Sebastian noticed Louis' discomfort and shouted over to the man in a friendly tone... it was only in a shout because the wind was blowing at the time: “Louis, my friend! Worry not... even at this pace, I daresay we should reach the castle long before any of ice become frozen to the saddles of our mounts.” And the party divided at the next crossroads... those so bound for the castle took the northeast branch of the road, and the rest took the most southerly branch. Those southbound, had a decent enough idea of the direction the southern route took, so they did not need to be guided beyond that point. Which was good, because Sebastian was bound for the castle, he and his daughter and their servants including of course Louis. Naturally, Sebastian was paid for his work as a guide, though in truth he needed not the extra coin though he was never one to refuse such rewards either. And though the road was rough and the weather hardly ideal, at least the crossroads was an indication of just how close the castle was now.
“As much as I love the autumn, Father, I will be glad to be at our new home and off the road! I prefer my comforts, as you know, compared to the difficulties of such travels.” He looked at her lovingly and with warmth in his eyes, and remarked: “It isn't far along the present branch of the road... just along and up this winding route and we shall be seeing the castle's walls before too long. Then, daughter, I will be of a mind to see to your comforts personally!” he winked at her, and she knew what that meant. That in turn made her smile, a mischievous smile filled with naughty promises and wicked delights. So onward they rode, slowly and steadily winding their way up into the foothills of the mountains that lay just past the thickest part of the forest through which the present path wound its' way. The crossroads was soon far behind them, and for his part Sebastian was glad for it! There had been a large oak tree in the middle of the crossroads from which criminals were hung by the local officers of the law, the corpses of those criminals on full display as their decaying forms swayed in the breeze from the ropes that secured them to the tree's most sturdy branches. Naturally, there was a certain odor to the corpses, and on the ground all around the oak were bones of former victims of the law's wrath, and piles of organs and bits of flesh that feral animals and birds of prey had torn from the bodies of those strung up for their crimes. It was said that this was one of the safest roads in the region, and it was because of the zealousness with which the law was administered that crime was not as rampant here as it was in some other places. Sebastian had the local law enforcement well and deeply in his pocket, that mostly because they were secretly as corrupt as they were zealous in their performance of their duties... and so anything he did that was less than legal they would overlook. This doubly because he was a nobleman... though the coin he had given them had been substantial and thus served as a reminder to them that in service to such nobility one had the bonus of rewards to consider. He could slit a hundred men's throats or cut their bellies open, and the officers of the local law would simply blame it on someone more easily believable as a criminal. A local drunk, or someone fallen out of favor with this noble or that... someone they could hang from a tree like that one, or behead in a public spectacle in some town square or another. It was actually comforting to be reminded of this, but even so the smell from that tree was atrocious... and Sebastian was happy to as swiftly as possible leave the crossroads behind. He was no stranger to death and horror, but still he was a gentleman and as such he did not like the stench of death, and how it reminded him of one's mortality. “Father, what title comes with being the master of the castle to which we are bound?” asked Mirabeau to her father, and he said in reply: “I believe that as master of that castle I possess the title of Baron, but these days such titles are not as meaningful as they may have been, in ages past.” Her dark eyes had in them a certain sparkle as she said in answer to that: “Then I shall consider myself your baroness, for am I not already entitled to such a presumption?” He said to her after that: “You are, though because of you being my daughter that can never be official... so... let us just keep you being my baroness between us.” They chuckled a bit and for her part the young girl was pleased with the current way things were going. She did not know how they came by such nobility, and never delved too deeply into the how or why of such things... like all that her father achieved for the two of them, she was grateful for it and so content. The servants continued to chatter among themselves to pass the time, and it had been some time since the nearest village had been passed through... and there was little to do upon the road save to talk. Or to sing or tell stories, to pass the time... though the howling of the wind, which was getting worse, made it difficult to hear anything over the sound of it. Wolves howled in the distance, their cries carrying upon the wind as the animals ranged on their way through the rugged high country all around. The castle was not far off by this point, and it had according to all knowledge been deserted for at least two or perhaps even three centuries by the time Sebastian was given ownership of it. Mirabeau listened to the cries of the wolves, a sinister smile playing upon her face as she said to her father in a delighted tone of voice: “I love their songs so much, Father! It is like a wild melody, a sad and mournful song... but one I find so delightful to my ears!” She always spoke like that about such things. He smiled... loving that, about her.
At last the rough stone walls of the castle could be seen, the large form of the fortress sitting as it was atop a hill that was nestled beneath the side of the mountains in the distance. Its' towers and spires were majestic and forlorn, and it appeared that more modern additions had been added to the place since first it had been built in times now long past. The road ran up the base of that hill... and there where it ended was a stable for the horses and several cottages and outbuildings, for stable hands to make use of. Right away, the stable hands among the servants could get to work and tend to the animals as they themselves settled in to begin performing their duties. A winding paved pathway led from there to the castle's gates, the pathway becoming steps in certain places. All was in excellent repair indeed, and nothing about the castle or anything else appeared to be run down despite its' long abandoned state. Clearly, it was kept up even if no one was living here and making use of the place. Sebastian's father had likely been behind it being in such good condition, and he had likely also been the one who had seen to the modern additions to the castle as well. All around and about the hill, the woods of the forest were at their thickest. For as soon as they had left the previous woodlands behind, these began and here they were at the heart of the woods, even as these second woods gave way to the rocky face of the mountains. Forests such as these covered many of the foothills in this area, and there was snow upon those hills already despite it not yet being winter, though not thick snow quite yet. It took some time to get everything in order, and it was a good while before Sebastian, his daughter, and all their servants were finally settled in and ready to start their new life in this place. It took several months, in all, but at the end of those months everything was perfect and everyone was settled into the daily routines of their lives. Mirabeau's birthday was not until summer, and it was early spring only. The winter had been a ferocious one, though they had weathered it well. There was plenty of food in storage... something also that Sebastian's father had likely seen to in advance and had even mentioned elusively to Sebastian at one point in passing prior to the embarkation of the journey to the castle. And there was plenty of wood for the fire to be harvested from the forests, a task which fell to the servants whose task that was to undertake. All in all, everything they needed for a long winter, they either already had or had the means of acquiring easily. Winter lingered a bit into the spring months, and the melting of the ice and snow came late in the season when it finally did come. At the moment it was still early spring and the snow still lay upon the ground, the ice only just beginning to melt in places. Icicles hung from many of the towers, and to Mirabeau this was like something out of a fairy tale. Dark fairy tales were the sort she personally preferred, and all of this reminder her of how a great many such stories always began. One day, one of the servants rushed in to report that as he was in the process of cutting some wood in the forest he beheld a frightful apparition. “It was a shadow... but it was also I could see in form like unto a woman! It had wings of shadow, and those were like a great bat in their appearance. Everything about this... thing... was indistinct and yet with my eyes I swear to you on my very life that I could make out certain details, certain features about it. Almost as if it was half in this world and half in some other!” The man had not been drinking, and he was not known for being at all prone to flights of fancy or bouts of lunacy either. Sebastian said unto him seriously: “I do not doubt that you beheld something, though calm down and fear not... it is assuredly something of this world, in all likelihood a large animal that frightened you and caused your mind to imagine the rest about it.” At the moment Mirabeau was elsewhere, so she was spared this particular conversation. The servant was a bit hysterical and sweating profusely, and smelled of that sweat born from hard and laborious work. A colder sweat born of fear was present about the man also, and he was stuttering and stammering even as he attempted to calm himself down and regain his composure. Sebastian then said to him: “There! That is better, try to steady yourself man. I will tell you what... take me to where you saw this apparition and I will personally look into the matter. If there is nothing to be discovered of it... then, you will be free to return to your work without fear. Is this well with you?” and the servant nodded his head in agreement. But then Louis walked into the great hall where this was going on, and he insisted on looking into this.
“You stay here, my Baron! I will go and investigate this man's claims. In fact, it would be a fine bit of an adventure for me since I've been cooped up in the kitchen all morning overseeing the work there. As well, if there is danger involved it is better that you not put yourself at risk. I've skill with musket, pistol and saber as well... and though naturally your skill with those things is without equal, your life is far too dear to waste should things turn deadly and this prove not to be merely some ghost or trick of the mind. For even a wild animal can be dangerous! And you've a daughter to look after.” That made sense, and it was agreed upon for Louis to go with the servant to the place in the woods where the apparition had so been seen. Meanwhile, whilst they went off to see to that, Sebastian had a mind to check in and see how Mirabeau was doing... she was supposed to be in the playroom he had furnished for her enjoyment, and normally she was very loud and energetic with her games but at present all was silent and that did make her father quite concerned. Especially with this talk about ghosts and wild animals. He knew no animal could get in the castle, but spirits had no such boundaries and limitations. On the remotest chance that a thing of evil was at large nearby, it was best to ensure the young girl was safe and sound. He hurried up the steps to the tower where the playroom was, and knocked upon the door. “Mirabeau! Oh darling, are you alright? You've been far too quiet for far too long methinks.” and there was no answer, so he did as any decent person would do... he pushed the door open to see if she was well. But she was not there to be seen! The room was empty, the toys it contained were untouched. “Damn it! Where has she gone off to?” he exclaimed as he ran down the stairs and through the halls calling for her. But she was nowhere to be found! He asked any servants he encountered, and they all claimed they had not seen her all day. Several said they actually saw her going up the stairs to the playroom and that she was heard going in. But no one had seen or heard from her following her doing so! Sebastian rushed back to the playroom and searched it for clues to his daughter's whereabouts. The window was open, and evidently Mirabeau had been looking outside. The window of this particular tower afforded one a commanding view of the forest-covered hillside and all the lands beyond. Sebastian gazed downward and was relieved to see that the girl had not fallen out the window to her death. But that only added to the mystery of what seemed to be her disappearance. And she was the one he loved more than his own life, and the reason he did so many wicked things in order to secure a comfortable life for her. She, was more than a daughter to him, she was his beloved... she had replaced his abusive former wife in his heart even before the woman had left him, and sometimes he wondered if his former wife had known the full extent of what he and their daughter did feel for each other and the truth of all that they engaged in together. “I hope you two will be very happy together! I personally will be pleased to be away from you both.” the woman had said as the last thing she had ever said to her husband prior to the ending of their marriage. He had wasted little to no time in ensuring that indeed... he and his daughter would want for nothing. He had to find her! He needed to know she was well, and that she was not in any kind of danger. He proceeded to get some of the servants together who could be spared from their current tasks, and he had each of them begin a full search of the castle and its' immediate grounds. “She could not have gone far! And there is yet snow on the ground outside, so if she managed to somehow get outside with no one knowing... it stands to logic and reason that there has to be footprints in the snow. Tracks we can follow, to wherever she may be!” Thus Sebastian spoke as the servants set about this new task. Everyone liked the girl... and no one could bear the thought that anything terrible had befallen her, or that she had placed herself in danger of some kind. Sebastian went outside to check the grounds personally with four servants at his side. No tracks, no footprints of any kind could be discovered in the snow. Relieved, he went back inside whilst those servants who had been with him decided to investigate the grounds more thoroughly anyway just in the remotest chance that Mirabeau had managed to hide any traces of her passing through the grounds. But Sebastian was becoming frightened, his hands shook as he tried to control his fear. “Where is she!” he demanded as he struck a stone pillar in the great hall with his fists, bleeding his hands upon doing this.
They searched for the entire day, and equally strangely... neither Louis nor that one servant, ever came back from their investigation of that apparition in the woods. Sebastian was in a mix of fear and rage as he pondered what to do. Then, he took a musket into his hand and decided to go into those woods so he could discover what was taking Louis so long. The servants tried to stop him but he insisted, saying in an angry tone of voice: “Listen, you may come with me if it pleases you, but I intend to go in search of Louis myself... but your efforts would be better spent continuing to search for my daughter. And if she is not found, you can be certain I will skin at least four of your number alive to discover what actually happened to her! For at that point, my suspicions will turn to darker places and if someone is guilty for Mirabeau's vanishing then I will begin meting out... punishments... until someone tell me the truth. And you know how inventive I can be when it comes to such punishments!” that last part he said with such a viscous hiss that it caused at least one of the maidservants to make the sign of the cross with her hands. The let the Baron go alone, and they got about the task of redoubling their efforts to find the young girl. Whilst they got about that, Sebastian made his way across the snowy ground and felt the crunch of that snow beneath his booted feet. He drew his cloak about him as he entered the woods, his musket being held tightly in his terrified hands. “Louis! Where are you? Answer me, man!” he called out repeatedly, as he followed the signs of the servant's work, the remnants of the trees he had cut down. The wood had been left where it lay, no efforts had been made to gather it up as of yet so clearly whatever it was Louis and him were involved with doing, they had yet to get back to the task of harvesting the wood. After a short bit, Sebastian spied a long and winding trail of blood that as he followed it... it seemed to actually be getting thicker and a good deal worse. An indication that whoever it was that had been bleeding, had continued to bleed more severely as they went off in the present direction. A direction that went deeper into the forest, which was the opposite of where someone seeking help for their bleeding should go. It would have made sense had the blood trail led back to the castle even by roundabout means, but it did not. After some time of following it, Sebastian came to a place in the woods containing a ruined chapel. The blood trail ran up to its' still intact doors, and without a moment's hesitation the Baron kicked the doors open and stormed into the chapel. Inside were the splintered remnants of wooden pews long since fallen apart from their great age, and the windows of the chapel were empty of their stained glass, some of the shards of which could still be seen upon the chapel's floor. A large cross could be seen, at the far end of the worship area, and in front of it was a rough stone altar upon which was draped the dead and very bloody corpse of Louis. His blood covered the altar, and some of it had been used to draw upon the great cross various diabolical symbols of darkly arcane meaning. Upon the cross was the skinless body of the servant, whose hands and feet had been nailed to the stone cross with iron spikes. His skin lay in a squishy pile at the cross's base. Louis had not been skinned, but his chest had been torn open and his rib cage broken apart... and most disturbingly of all, his heart had been removed but itself was not to be seen anywhere thereabout. Someone had clearly murdered the two men and stolen Louis' heart from his dead body. And not just his heart! His eyes were missing as well. Sebastian had seen much in his life... and he had done some truly ghastly and horrific things... he had flayed men alive and beheaded people, he had tortured people using truly inhuman methods and means. And he had relished doing so! But this, this was beyond his most cruel imaginings... if it had been just the skinned servant he would never have been nearly so horrified, but the fate of Louis and its' implications affected him so that he did vomit just as his mind began to try and process what had happened in this place. “They took his heart and his eyes and... why would anyone do such a thing!” he exclaimed aloud, his sanity slipping just a bit. It had to be more than one person to do something like this, and one of them had to be ridiculously strong... to drive those spikes into stone as thick as the stone that cross was made from. This was not the work of a ghost but that of a monster of a man, surely! He needed to get back to the castle and rally the servants. For it was possible that whoever had done this had found a way to kidnap his daughter as well. He was afraid.
As soon as he entered the great hall of the castle, Sebastian was screaming for the servants to come to hear what he had to tell them. Some of the kitchen servants came at his calling, but no one else did. He asked them where the other servants were, and they told him the others had searched the castle from top to bottom for his daughter and upon not finding her they had decided to go out to search the forest in all directions. He tearfully told the assembled kitchen servants everything about what he found in the awful chapel in the woods, and all the woman present crossed themselves. “There is surely at least two men at large who are responsible for those murders! Anyone going out into the forest right now is in danger but we must do something.” Sebastian explained nervously, his hands shaking with visible fright. “If she is not out there... then my daughter has to be still within the castle somewhere. Whether it was searched in entirety I cannot be certain, so you will search again but this time I want everyone to look for any kind of hidden places wherein Mirabeau could have gotten into without meaning to. I do not care even how unlikely a place might seem! Search it anyway. I will be doing the same thing as you.” And as soon as everyone set about to begin the search, the Baron decided it was wise to begin by searching once more the playroom for any signs of secret side rooms that could be accessed from it. Such chambers were oft added to some castles, and used to be made use of by the castle's inhabitants in times of siege to hide the woman and children if no proper means of escape could be utilized by them. Some, particularly on a castle's lower levels, could even link to tunnels and passageways that ran outside for a quick exit. Up in a tower's room like the playroom there would be no such links to the outside possible, but there could still be a secret adjoining room, chamber, or space meant for hiding within. Sebastian rushed up to the playroom and threw open its' door and to his shock and relief sitting on the floor playing was Mirabeau. She had all her favorite toys scattered about her, and she smiled brightly to see her father enter. “Father, you look so worried! Is something the matter?” she asked him, and he told her everything that happened all throughout that day. It was early in the evening by this hour, and the day's light had already departed. He was shaking, nervous, and his heart was pounding so loudly he could hear it in his ears. He slumped to the floor in front of his daughter, and she placed her hand upon his knee lovingly to try and steady his nerves. “It is alright, Father! As you can see I am right here and in as good of health as ever.” Her hands were covered in so much blood that bloody hand prints... all of them her own... were all over the floor in places. Her toys had blood covering them also. Upon noticing this, Sebastian screamed. Mirabeau's tender smile turned into a maniacal grin, as she said to her father: “I can see you were not expecting to find me with blood on my hands! I always tried to keep some of my nighttime activities a secret from you and mother, but apparently this time I went just a little bit too far.” Then, her body morphed into a shadowy shape the size of a grown woman with wings like a bat's also made of shadow. In this shifting, she became less distinct and yet Sebastian could see her quite clearly even if he did not know quite fully what it was he was seeing. “So... you flew out the window and went hunting in the woods.” the Baron said to his daughter, his lips quivering a bit as he tried to compose himself enough to try and swallow his fear. She giggled childishly, and said in answer to that: “I did! And I decided it was time to put an end to Louis and since I could not have any witnesses the servant with him had to die with him.” And this perplexed the Baron, and so he asked his daughter curiously: “But why Louis? He was always so kind to you, and a good friend to me.” and Mirabeau thereupon explained: “During the winter, I heard him talking to himself when he thought no one else was around... but in my shadow form I was there to spy upon him. It was in the cellar, on a day when you sent him to fetch some wine. He said that he was growing tired of living in this place but that he was too afraid of displeasing you to ask you for leave to depart your service and go. He muttered that if something were to happen to you by way of a 'fortunate' accident... then he could be free to leave without such guilt to weigh upon his conscience. He planned to murder you, Father! Because to him, that was preferable than incurring your displeasure.” She killed Louis to protect her father, because he was not just her father but the love of her unholy life. It was true.
And what was more, Sebastian knew his daughter never lied, and he had to accept the truth of what it was she revealed to him, even though she was clearly a creature of dark supernatural power. But what he did not comprehend was how she became this way! “When did you become... like this?” he asked of her, and she confessed that to him also, telling him: “I once was reading out of one of your occult books that you always kept hidden in your private library, back in our old chateau in France, and I did so but without truly comprehending what it was I was reading... I was only six years old at the time, too young to know about dark sorcery's power. That was the year when I first knew I loved you in ways a daughter is not supposed to love her father... and I prayed for something, anything to make it so we could be able to be together forever in just the way my heart desired. And something must have heard me because not three nights after I uttered that prayer silently... that was the night when I first found I could transform, into the shadowy thing that is a reflection of my immortal spirit. And on the fourth night, that was when you and I first acted upon our lusts and desires for each other! Six nights later, you changed too but you lost all memory of it because it was not your desire that called for your transformation... rather, it was in truth my own because I wanted you to be able to experience the power that now was mine to command. And you did! Whenever I went out in the night to hunt for prey, you came with me and hunted as well. Together we drank the living blood of humans, in order so that we might live forever... I was permitted to age only to my present year of life that I am right now, eleven years of age, but not beyond that. Since the dark powers that granted me all that my heart desired, and more, knew that you preferred children to grown women so they ensured that I would remain a child eternally. Just as you shall never age past the year that you were when first you took my virginity from me! Every murder I have ever committed, you aided me in even if you remember it not... even as I always aided you in all the ones you committed. We are partners in crime, you and I! And I was not alone when I took Louis' life, his eyes, and his heart... it was you, who flayed that servant alive and your hands that did nail him to the stone cross with spikes, and a hammer, that you took from the cellar, along with the medical blade you flayed him with, in order to do so. There were no visible tracks, no footprints to be found, because we left in shadowy forms that are immaterial, and not of this world. When I went out the window, you were compelled to follow after me because the part of you that is now... what I am... it knew, even if your conscious mind blocked out everything that happened after that. We had so discussed the hunt just one week ago, but you forgot we talked about planning it out! I had discovered that chapel, and it was your idea to lure our victims there so we could take their blood there. The eyes, were to be an offering to the dark powers to represent the material world that we can see! And the heart was to be a sacrifice that is a representation of the soul. Everything has a meaning, Father! Beloved. My Baron. Everything... and we did burn the eyes and the heart, in one of the chapel's forgotten braziers. Even as we defiled the sanctity of that place by etching what we did upon the cross that is the very symbol of a faith we abandoned so very long ago.” Then, he remembered... the veil was lifted from his fleshly eyes, and he knew that all that his daughter had just confessed unto him was the undeniable truth. His hands were only not bloody like hers, because he had washed them out in one of the cottages before entering the castle. He then got rid of the washcloth that he had used by burning it in the cottage's fireplace. It was easy enough to clean the murder weapons, to place them in the stable after that so it would look merely like some misplaced tools, the sort of thing the servants would be easy to blame for. How was he unable to recall doing these things? But now, it was as if something had changed inside him, and he knew he would be fully conscious and aware of it the next time his transformation came upon him and the thirst for blood returned, as it always did and always would. There would be no more forgetting and lack of remembering for him. “I... I should have known, it looked like the work of two rather than one.” he muttered, and Mirabeau changed back into her beautiful child form once again. She placed a bloody palm on the side of her father's face and she kissed his mouth passionately and with an undisguised ferociousness containing unbridled devilish lust.
He knew there was blood upon his face, and did not care. He was seized with a sudden madness born of no less great a lust than his daughter had coursing through her. In that state, he unlaced the bodice of her dress and tore the bodice open after that, tearing it open and downward violently... exposing all of her upper body. She slid her arms out of the sleeves of her dress, and went to work helping Sebastian to undress. Once he was naked, his hardening manhood could not be disguised, and he proceeded to push his daughter unto her back. “Fuck me, Father! Fuck me hard, fuck me like a whore!” she exclaimed in a voice that was a little girl's despite the very adult words she was speaking. He pulled her skirts up to her waist, ripping and tearing at them as he did so, reducing them to tatters. Then, he ran his hand over the soft and frilly undergarments that she wore, which made his erect cock all the harder by his doing that. He tore them off of her, and spread her legs apart before thrusting his cock into her eleven year old cunt with as much force as one might use upon a wanton harlot. She was used to his manhood being inside of her by now... they had been doing this ever since she was six years old, and the pain and tearing that once happened during these intimate moments had stopped a long time ago, just as her first bleeding in between her legs had stopped. The night when her father delivered her from her virginity. Such things, they are passing things, and where it used to be a great deal tighter of a fit for him when he thrust into her... she was much looser now than in the past, so that she could experience all of the pleasure of their intercourse with none of the pain that used to come along with it. The dark powers had strengthened her body, made her more able to endure things than of old she used to be... and this too made it possible for her to enjoy and savor delicious things like this despite being so very (perhaps shockingly) young of an age for one to be having an adult male's cock shoved into and out of them in this manner. She did grind her hips, getting into the rhythm of the lover's dance they once more began. He moved in and out of her, his kisses falling upon her face like a soft pleasant rain on a hot summer's day, the sweat of their bodies reminding her of summertime in a way so delightful as to put thoughts of the last vestiges of winter far from her mind. She thought of nothing else, lost in the moment and not caring about the passing of the time... they had hunted early today, when still there was sunlight out, and so they had the whole night to spend together in this and other ways. And how they both so loved the night! When finally she felt his orgasm shooting into her, filling her up with his heat and his lover's warmth... she nearly fainted from just how intense it felt this time. She moaned and cried out loudly, so loudly that it was like when first she had lost her maidenly virtue. Sebastian was giggling with delight, and saying to his daughter things such as: “Oh, my sweet little slut! This time, it was much like the first with you... and that made it all the more delicious to savor my ravishing of your young body.” Her hands had been about his waist as he fucked her, as if she could help push him along in his efforts, and his back was covered in the blood that had been on her hands. They had blood on both of them from the floor, from her hand prints, and now there was blood all about them. Somehow, this aroused them both to even greater levels, and they were sure that within the next couple of hours or so they would be fucking again. The price they paid for their immortality was that they could never make or bear a child. In that way he was sterile and she was barren, and so they could enjoy all the lover's intercourse that they liked without ever having the fear of Mirabeau getting pregnant to worry about. The night passed pleasantly, and because they did not necessarily need to sleep or eat, the two demonic creatures clad in human flesh were ready for the day as soon as dawn had arrived. They cleaned up the playroom themselves, not trusting it to any servants, and Sebastian gathered what servants as still were about the castle to show them that Mirabeau was safe in his company. The pair lied, concocting a story about the little girl accidentally getting trapped behind a secret panel that led to a hidden chamber near the top of the tower. There actually was such a chamber there, one once used in bygone times for the confinement of “special prisoners”. One could conceivably get stuck in it, if they entered the chamber and mistakenly closed the panel from the inside, since it only could be opened from the outside. Mirabeau was never that foolish... but the servants did not know that.
In time, it became necessary to dispose of all the servants, because as Sebastian and Mirabeau noticed they did not either of them age as time went on, and as years passed and decades passed well after years did... it became increasingly obvious something was amiss when neither of the pair aged. The little girl remained a child forever, and her father never entered into old age from adulthood. He remained middle aged, just as he had been when he had first claimed his daughter's virginity. Neither would ever age, and neither would ever die! It was only needful to kill some of the servants, always in ways that were made to appear accidental... or, in the case of the ones that worked in the forest it was a simple matter to do it in ways that made it look like the work of animals or bandits. Even though no bandits would dare to ply their trade in those particular woods, and the animals that did dwell there had no taste for human blood. Bandits had likewise been blamed for the death of Louis and the servant who had been with him when he was killed. Eventually, after a certain number of deaths had taken place the remaining servants were of a mind to think the castle and its' surrounding lands were cursed. Sebastian and Mirabeau often fed them this idea still further, and the power of suggestion can go a long, long way. Once this rumor so got around enough that it was deemed the likely, and credible, truth... the remaining servants left. After all, not one of them wished to risk having the curse fall upon them next! They took the horses, mules, and mares with them, all except the two animals that belonged to the Baron and his daughter. Those, it was decided, would serve better if they were made undying... and so Sebastian and Mirabeau used the dark arts at their disposal to transform the creatures into forms wherein they would no longer need to be fed or watered. They now had the castle all to themselves, and the rumors of the place being cursed made it so that no one went anywhere near it any longer. They stayed there for about sixty years... during which time they ranged far abroad to hunt for their prey and find fresh human blood to drink. Once those sixty years had come and gone, they faked their deaths by setting the castle on fire and departing in the night upon their deathless steeds with their saddlebags carrying enough wealth to purchase a brand new home in some other land far from the Carpathian mountains. They had abducted a one hundred and nine year old man who was near death, as well as... separately... a seventy one year old woman. And, they killed both of them with poison and left them in the castle as it burned so that people would think it was them and that they had aged normally during the past sixty years. Every natural lifetime or so that thus passed would require a fresh start in a very similar manner as this... and, in this way, no one ever even remotely suspected either of them was anything other than a middle aged man and his eleven year old daughter. Their skills at deception were equaled only by their depravity, their passion, and their thirst for blood... skills they eventually passed on to their disciples when at length a dark cult formed around them. Down through all of the coming ages throughout human history, that cult would continue to serve them, and to serve other beings like them. Always in the shadows, out of sight of the doings of mortals, these deities of the night would continue to lord it over those they viewed as little more than cattle fit to provide the unholy couple with their desired and much needed sustenance. And, to the lucky few, they granted unto them the gift of unholy immortality that only they could bestow! Those same would go on to grant this dark gift to others in turn, and unlike the vampires of some other bloodlines these could walk about by day as well as by night, and they had far fewer weakness and a great many more strengths. Children, it seemed, were those most favored to join this particular bloodline, children taken and defiled prior to the act of transforming them into their new, immortal forms. For whilst, yes, just as many adults were made members of this same perverse bloodline... it was always the children, who were revered as the leaders of the various vampire clans that sprung up from it. Often, in their blasphemous scriptures, the cult that served them all would state that: “For, just as the Baron Sebastian so loved his child bride Mirabeau, it shall be within our numbers the children who are most beloved and revered in every way... and it is the children who ever and always shall lead us, even as it was the Baroness Mirabeau who led her beloved father and lover to his full awakening unto his true self.” Such was writ in blood, bound in a great tome.
Cold was the wind that blew from the north, and unto the very westerly climes that in ancient days all men believed was where the dead did dwell, in places unseen and unknown to mortal eyes. It was in the autumn season, the leaves going from their vibrant colors to the browner deathly shades that one sees in the days leading up to winter's first frosty kisses. No ships set sail in such a season, for winds blow and seas are rough, and cause much malice to those bound over the water. This was the sort of day in which the wind blew through the skeletal branches of the knotted oaks and majestic pines that stood to either side of the road upon this particular passage through the Carpathian mountains. A party of riders taking it slowly along that way, along with those who marched behind them in an attempt to keep up could be seen making their way along this small hint of humanity's attempts to forge a civilized path through an ancient and forsaken forest. Their tall steeds and smaller mules were used to bearing their riders, but oft not in such conditions as this! None who ventured that way knew the month, for they had not been of a mind to keep track ere they set out upon their journey. The chill in the air took one's breath away at the worst of times, and at the best it was cool and crisp, and the skies were blue and cloudless, stark in the heavens. It was just before afternoon, and night was still many long hours away. Snowflakes as delicate as lace drifted down from the heights of the peaks that loomed above, mountains that lorded it over the land like giants. Those who were journeying hither along this route were led by a certain gentleman of no great renown but of much distinction regardless. He was a member of a secret society of gentlemen, and had titles of nobility of which he never spoke. He was far from his homeland, which was in the far west, in distant France... and was by chance elected to lead those who followed him across this stretch of the land because he knew this part of the world far more than many did who dwelt there. He came, it was said, from stolen wealth but none could ever prove the truth of such scandalous claims. To hear his version of the story, he had inherited his money from his father who had at first thought to grant it to his brother... but when his brother turned up dead in mysterious circumstances, their father had no one left to leave the family wealth to. Lucky for him, but unlucky for his brother! The rumors said he murdered the man in order to be the chosen inheritor. He never said that was untrue, but never said it was true. In this way, he cultivated the aura of mystery that made people regard him with suspicion at times. But, it was not for nothing he was chosen as the guide for this particular party of travelers! His father owned a castle that he had been gifted from a nobleman who once lived in these mountains, beyond this forest... near the farthest reaches of this very road. And his father gifted it to him, though before he left France to journey hither to claim the property, his father said that it was no true gift for the castle was cursed in ways he dared not speak of. This weighed heavily upon his mind as he neared the place increasingly, as the party he led there slowly made their inexorable way along this remote stretch of road. At his side, on a mare much smaller than his own far mightier steed, did ride his daughter who was about eleven years of age, though his wife... her mother... had been gone for a very long time. She had left him... unable to reconcile with the man's dark and mysterious past. Their divorce was absolute, and their only child was left in his care. Her name was Mirabeau, and her father's name was Sebastian. Many of the people who were in their party were contracted to be servants of theirs when they got to the castle. Some were just people who wished to travel along this road for a time but who did not know the way and needed to be guided. One of the servants, a man several years older than Sebastian himself, was complaining about the chill air in between coughing a bit. He glanced over a Sebastian and thought to himself that the man he had agreed to serve did look just a bit like a dandy. He was not one to judge a man by such things... but neither could he quite get that impression out of his mind. Sebastian wore his hair long, and kept it back with a red ribbon tied with a neat bow. Upon his head he was wearing on this occasion a hat with a wide brim that had a blood red feather decorating it. His collar was the finest white lace, his gloves as velvet as his vest, his boots of soft but sturdy leather. His baggy breeches were of a fine, crimson, silk.
Sebastian dressed for comfort and style first and foremost, though at the moment he was wearing over all that finery a black coat and a fur cloak for warmth. It was hardly ideal, but better than freezing in the cold on the way to the castle! The man's daughter was likewise dressed for comfort and fashion. A dress of the softest silk, lacy and frilly and of the finest quality money could buy. The dress was the same sort of crimson color that her father was fond of wearing, with white trim and full, baggy sleeves with frilly cuffs at the wrists. The sleeves, like the trim, were as white and spotless as snow. She wore her hair up for the trip, and upon her head was a hat of the fashionable sort the ladies in Paris were all wearing that year. She did not have any riding clothes, normally... so under the skirts of her dress she was wearing a pair of silk breeches meant for boys her age rather than for girls. But the fit was comfortable, so she did not mind this! A pair of warm boots kept her feet from being chilled, and like her father she wore a fur cloak over her attire and kept clutching it to keep it about her more securely as the journey continued in earnest. Both she and her father had jet black hair with a somewhat bluish tint to it... the darkest shade of black that is possible for human hair to naturally have. The man had grayish blue eyes and his face he kept clean shaven. His daughter had her mother's deep brown eyes, and she inherited her mother's more dusky skin tone compared to her father's pale white skin. White with a hint of yellow to it, under certain lighting conditions. Some said he had far eastern blood in his veins, for his sallow skin, and his almond shaped eyes and aquiline nose had lent him... some said... a somewhat exotic look that many of those who made his acquaintance simply could not quite place. He had a small mouth that either looked somewhat amused or slightly sorrowful. His daughter had full lips like her mother, though she had her father's nose and high cheekbones. People always asked her if she had “gypsy blood” as they put it oft rudely to her, and her father would almost jump to her defense and tell them it was none of their affair to be asking such questions, and if he was angry enough he would threaten to either run them through with his blade, or shoot them to death with his pistol. He defended her zealously and was, or so it was claimed about him by some, far more fond of her in certain ways than he had ever been of her mother. Any who had confronted him about that, however... had a habit of disappearing, never to be seen again. It was the eighteenth century, a time of enlightened thinking, but some people still had their minds in the traditions, morals, and mores of the past. Sebastian was a libertine, and had his own code to follow. All of this, the servant was aware of and mindful of, for he had already been acquainted with the man and his daughter prior to the embarkation of this journey. He would serve in the capacity of a butler of sorts, and as such he was aware of all of Sebastian's secrets and he know how best to keep them secret. He still thought the man was a dandy, but he had the utmost respect for him and would die for him if it came to it. This servant's name was Louis, and he was as ordinary a man as his name was common. But in his time he had seen things... things no common man could ever imagine the likes of. Louis coughed a bit more, then stopped complaining about the cold and gazed over at one of the maidservants who did ride a mule further back. He found that maidservant most comely and pleasing to look upon, and soon... he found that he felt the cold that much less for taking his mind off of it and focusing on more pleasant things. Sebastian noticed Louis' discomfort and shouted over to the man in a friendly tone... it was only in a shout because the wind was blowing at the time: “Louis, my friend! Worry not... even at this pace, I daresay we should reach the castle long before any of ice become frozen to the saddles of our mounts.” And the party divided at the next crossroads... those so bound for the castle took the northeast branch of the road, and the rest took the most southerly branch. Those southbound, had a decent enough idea of the direction the southern route took, so they did not need to be guided beyond that point. Which was good, because Sebastian was bound for the castle, he and his daughter and their servants including of course Louis. Naturally, Sebastian was paid for his work as a guide, though in truth he needed not the extra coin though he was never one to refuse such rewards either. And though the road was rough and the weather hardly ideal, at least the crossroads was an indication of just how close the castle was now.
“As much as I love the autumn, Father, I will be glad to be at our new home and off the road! I prefer my comforts, as you know, compared to the difficulties of such travels.” He looked at her lovingly and with warmth in his eyes, and remarked: “It isn't far along the present branch of the road... just along and up this winding route and we shall be seeing the castle's walls before too long. Then, daughter, I will be of a mind to see to your comforts personally!” he winked at her, and she knew what that meant. That in turn made her smile, a mischievous smile filled with naughty promises and wicked delights. So onward they rode, slowly and steadily winding their way up into the foothills of the mountains that lay just past the thickest part of the forest through which the present path wound its' way. The crossroads was soon far behind them, and for his part Sebastian was glad for it! There had been a large oak tree in the middle of the crossroads from which criminals were hung by the local officers of the law, the corpses of those criminals on full display as their decaying forms swayed in the breeze from the ropes that secured them to the tree's most sturdy branches. Naturally, there was a certain odor to the corpses, and on the ground all around the oak were bones of former victims of the law's wrath, and piles of organs and bits of flesh that feral animals and birds of prey had torn from the bodies of those strung up for their crimes. It was said that this was one of the safest roads in the region, and it was because of the zealousness with which the law was administered that crime was not as rampant here as it was in some other places. Sebastian had the local law enforcement well and deeply in his pocket, that mostly because they were secretly as corrupt as they were zealous in their performance of their duties... and so anything he did that was less than legal they would overlook. This doubly because he was a nobleman... though the coin he had given them had been substantial and thus served as a reminder to them that in service to such nobility one had the bonus of rewards to consider. He could slit a hundred men's throats or cut their bellies open, and the officers of the local law would simply blame it on someone more easily believable as a criminal. A local drunk, or someone fallen out of favor with this noble or that... someone they could hang from a tree like that one, or behead in a public spectacle in some town square or another. It was actually comforting to be reminded of this, but even so the smell from that tree was atrocious... and Sebastian was happy to as swiftly as possible leave the crossroads behind. He was no stranger to death and horror, but still he was a gentleman and as such he did not like the stench of death, and how it reminded him of one's mortality. “Father, what title comes with being the master of the castle to which we are bound?” asked Mirabeau to her father, and he said in reply: “I believe that as master of that castle I possess the title of Baron, but these days such titles are not as meaningful as they may have been, in ages past.” Her dark eyes had in them a certain sparkle as she said in answer to that: “Then I shall consider myself your baroness, for am I not already entitled to such a presumption?” He said to her after that: “You are, though because of you being my daughter that can never be official... so... let us just keep you being my baroness between us.” They chuckled a bit and for her part the young girl was pleased with the current way things were going. She did not know how they came by such nobility, and never delved too deeply into the how or why of such things... like all that her father achieved for the two of them, she was grateful for it and so content. The servants continued to chatter among themselves to pass the time, and it had been some time since the nearest village had been passed through... and there was little to do upon the road save to talk. Or to sing or tell stories, to pass the time... though the howling of the wind, which was getting worse, made it difficult to hear anything over the sound of it. Wolves howled in the distance, their cries carrying upon the wind as the animals ranged on their way through the rugged high country all around. The castle was not far off by this point, and it had according to all knowledge been deserted for at least two or perhaps even three centuries by the time Sebastian was given ownership of it. Mirabeau listened to the cries of the wolves, a sinister smile playing upon her face as she said to her father in a delighted tone of voice: “I love their songs so much, Father! It is like a wild melody, a sad and mournful song... but one I find so delightful to my ears!” She always spoke like that about such things. He smiled... loving that, about her.
At last the rough stone walls of the castle could be seen, the large form of the fortress sitting as it was atop a hill that was nestled beneath the side of the mountains in the distance. Its' towers and spires were majestic and forlorn, and it appeared that more modern additions had been added to the place since first it had been built in times now long past. The road ran up the base of that hill... and there where it ended was a stable for the horses and several cottages and outbuildings, for stable hands to make use of. Right away, the stable hands among the servants could get to work and tend to the animals as they themselves settled in to begin performing their duties. A winding paved pathway led from there to the castle's gates, the pathway becoming steps in certain places. All was in excellent repair indeed, and nothing about the castle or anything else appeared to be run down despite its' long abandoned state. Clearly, it was kept up even if no one was living here and making use of the place. Sebastian's father had likely been behind it being in such good condition, and he had likely also been the one who had seen to the modern additions to the castle as well. All around and about the hill, the woods of the forest were at their thickest. For as soon as they had left the previous woodlands behind, these began and here they were at the heart of the woods, even as these second woods gave way to the rocky face of the mountains. Forests such as these covered many of the foothills in this area, and there was snow upon those hills already despite it not yet being winter, though not thick snow quite yet. It took some time to get everything in order, and it was a good while before Sebastian, his daughter, and all their servants were finally settled in and ready to start their new life in this place. It took several months, in all, but at the end of those months everything was perfect and everyone was settled into the daily routines of their lives. Mirabeau's birthday was not until summer, and it was early spring only. The winter had been a ferocious one, though they had weathered it well. There was plenty of food in storage... something also that Sebastian's father had likely seen to in advance and had even mentioned elusively to Sebastian at one point in passing prior to the embarkation of the journey to the castle. And there was plenty of wood for the fire to be harvested from the forests, a task which fell to the servants whose task that was to undertake. All in all, everything they needed for a long winter, they either already had or had the means of acquiring easily. Winter lingered a bit into the spring months, and the melting of the ice and snow came late in the season when it finally did come. At the moment it was still early spring and the snow still lay upon the ground, the ice only just beginning to melt in places. Icicles hung from many of the towers, and to Mirabeau this was like something out of a fairy tale. Dark fairy tales were the sort she personally preferred, and all of this reminder her of how a great many such stories always began. One day, one of the servants rushed in to report that as he was in the process of cutting some wood in the forest he beheld a frightful apparition. “It was a shadow... but it was also I could see in form like unto a woman! It had wings of shadow, and those were like a great bat in their appearance. Everything about this... thing... was indistinct and yet with my eyes I swear to you on my very life that I could make out certain details, certain features about it. Almost as if it was half in this world and half in some other!” The man had not been drinking, and he was not known for being at all prone to flights of fancy or bouts of lunacy either. Sebastian said unto him seriously: “I do not doubt that you beheld something, though calm down and fear not... it is assuredly something of this world, in all likelihood a large animal that frightened you and caused your mind to imagine the rest about it.” At the moment Mirabeau was elsewhere, so she was spared this particular conversation. The servant was a bit hysterical and sweating profusely, and smelled of that sweat born from hard and laborious work. A colder sweat born of fear was present about the man also, and he was stuttering and stammering even as he attempted to calm himself down and regain his composure. Sebastian then said to him: “There! That is better, try to steady yourself man. I will tell you what... take me to where you saw this apparition and I will personally look into the matter. If there is nothing to be discovered of it... then, you will be free to return to your work without fear. Is this well with you?” and the servant nodded his head in agreement. But then Louis walked into the great hall where this was going on, and he insisted on looking into this.
“You stay here, my Baron! I will go and investigate this man's claims. In fact, it would be a fine bit of an adventure for me since I've been cooped up in the kitchen all morning overseeing the work there. As well, if there is danger involved it is better that you not put yourself at risk. I've skill with musket, pistol and saber as well... and though naturally your skill with those things is without equal, your life is far too dear to waste should things turn deadly and this prove not to be merely some ghost or trick of the mind. For even a wild animal can be dangerous! And you've a daughter to look after.” That made sense, and it was agreed upon for Louis to go with the servant to the place in the woods where the apparition had so been seen. Meanwhile, whilst they went off to see to that, Sebastian had a mind to check in and see how Mirabeau was doing... she was supposed to be in the playroom he had furnished for her enjoyment, and normally she was very loud and energetic with her games but at present all was silent and that did make her father quite concerned. Especially with this talk about ghosts and wild animals. He knew no animal could get in the castle, but spirits had no such boundaries and limitations. On the remotest chance that a thing of evil was at large nearby, it was best to ensure the young girl was safe and sound. He hurried up the steps to the tower where the playroom was, and knocked upon the door. “Mirabeau! Oh darling, are you alright? You've been far too quiet for far too long methinks.” and there was no answer, so he did as any decent person would do... he pushed the door open to see if she was well. But she was not there to be seen! The room was empty, the toys it contained were untouched. “Damn it! Where has she gone off to?” he exclaimed as he ran down the stairs and through the halls calling for her. But she was nowhere to be found! He asked any servants he encountered, and they all claimed they had not seen her all day. Several said they actually saw her going up the stairs to the playroom and that she was heard going in. But no one had seen or heard from her following her doing so! Sebastian rushed back to the playroom and searched it for clues to his daughter's whereabouts. The window was open, and evidently Mirabeau had been looking outside. The window of this particular tower afforded one a commanding view of the forest-covered hillside and all the lands beyond. Sebastian gazed downward and was relieved to see that the girl had not fallen out the window to her death. But that only added to the mystery of what seemed to be her disappearance. And she was the one he loved more than his own life, and the reason he did so many wicked things in order to secure a comfortable life for her. She, was more than a daughter to him, she was his beloved... she had replaced his abusive former wife in his heart even before the woman had left him, and sometimes he wondered if his former wife had known the full extent of what he and their daughter did feel for each other and the truth of all that they engaged in together. “I hope you two will be very happy together! I personally will be pleased to be away from you both.” the woman had said as the last thing she had ever said to her husband prior to the ending of their marriage. He had wasted little to no time in ensuring that indeed... he and his daughter would want for nothing. He had to find her! He needed to know she was well, and that she was not in any kind of danger. He proceeded to get some of the servants together who could be spared from their current tasks, and he had each of them begin a full search of the castle and its' immediate grounds. “She could not have gone far! And there is yet snow on the ground outside, so if she managed to somehow get outside with no one knowing... it stands to logic and reason that there has to be footprints in the snow. Tracks we can follow, to wherever she may be!” Thus Sebastian spoke as the servants set about this new task. Everyone liked the girl... and no one could bear the thought that anything terrible had befallen her, or that she had placed herself in danger of some kind. Sebastian went outside to check the grounds personally with four servants at his side. No tracks, no footprints of any kind could be discovered in the snow. Relieved, he went back inside whilst those servants who had been with him decided to investigate the grounds more thoroughly anyway just in the remotest chance that Mirabeau had managed to hide any traces of her passing through the grounds. But Sebastian was becoming frightened, his hands shook as he tried to control his fear. “Where is she!” he demanded as he struck a stone pillar in the great hall with his fists, bleeding his hands upon doing this.
They searched for the entire day, and equally strangely... neither Louis nor that one servant, ever came back from their investigation of that apparition in the woods. Sebastian was in a mix of fear and rage as he pondered what to do. Then, he took a musket into his hand and decided to go into those woods so he could discover what was taking Louis so long. The servants tried to stop him but he insisted, saying in an angry tone of voice: “Listen, you may come with me if it pleases you, but I intend to go in search of Louis myself... but your efforts would be better spent continuing to search for my daughter. And if she is not found, you can be certain I will skin at least four of your number alive to discover what actually happened to her! For at that point, my suspicions will turn to darker places and if someone is guilty for Mirabeau's vanishing then I will begin meting out... punishments... until someone tell me the truth. And you know how inventive I can be when it comes to such punishments!” that last part he said with such a viscous hiss that it caused at least one of the maidservants to make the sign of the cross with her hands. The let the Baron go alone, and they got about the task of redoubling their efforts to find the young girl. Whilst they got about that, Sebastian made his way across the snowy ground and felt the crunch of that snow beneath his booted feet. He drew his cloak about him as he entered the woods, his musket being held tightly in his terrified hands. “Louis! Where are you? Answer me, man!” he called out repeatedly, as he followed the signs of the servant's work, the remnants of the trees he had cut down. The wood had been left where it lay, no efforts had been made to gather it up as of yet so clearly whatever it was Louis and him were involved with doing, they had yet to get back to the task of harvesting the wood. After a short bit, Sebastian spied a long and winding trail of blood that as he followed it... it seemed to actually be getting thicker and a good deal worse. An indication that whoever it was that had been bleeding, had continued to bleed more severely as they went off in the present direction. A direction that went deeper into the forest, which was the opposite of where someone seeking help for their bleeding should go. It would have made sense had the blood trail led back to the castle even by roundabout means, but it did not. After some time of following it, Sebastian came to a place in the woods containing a ruined chapel. The blood trail ran up to its' still intact doors, and without a moment's hesitation the Baron kicked the doors open and stormed into the chapel. Inside were the splintered remnants of wooden pews long since fallen apart from their great age, and the windows of the chapel were empty of their stained glass, some of the shards of which could still be seen upon the chapel's floor. A large cross could be seen, at the far end of the worship area, and in front of it was a rough stone altar upon which was draped the dead and very bloody corpse of Louis. His blood covered the altar, and some of it had been used to draw upon the great cross various diabolical symbols of darkly arcane meaning. Upon the cross was the skinless body of the servant, whose hands and feet had been nailed to the stone cross with iron spikes. His skin lay in a squishy pile at the cross's base. Louis had not been skinned, but his chest had been torn open and his rib cage broken apart... and most disturbingly of all, his heart had been removed but itself was not to be seen anywhere thereabout. Someone had clearly murdered the two men and stolen Louis' heart from his dead body. And not just his heart! His eyes were missing as well. Sebastian had seen much in his life... and he had done some truly ghastly and horrific things... he had flayed men alive and beheaded people, he had tortured people using truly inhuman methods and means. And he had relished doing so! But this, this was beyond his most cruel imaginings... if it had been just the skinned servant he would never have been nearly so horrified, but the fate of Louis and its' implications affected him so that he did vomit just as his mind began to try and process what had happened in this place. “They took his heart and his eyes and... why would anyone do such a thing!” he exclaimed aloud, his sanity slipping just a bit. It had to be more than one person to do something like this, and one of them had to be ridiculously strong... to drive those spikes into stone as thick as the stone that cross was made from. This was not the work of a ghost but that of a monster of a man, surely! He needed to get back to the castle and rally the servants. For it was possible that whoever had done this had found a way to kidnap his daughter as well. He was afraid.
As soon as he entered the great hall of the castle, Sebastian was screaming for the servants to come to hear what he had to tell them. Some of the kitchen servants came at his calling, but no one else did. He asked them where the other servants were, and they told him the others had searched the castle from top to bottom for his daughter and upon not finding her they had decided to go out to search the forest in all directions. He tearfully told the assembled kitchen servants everything about what he found in the awful chapel in the woods, and all the woman present crossed themselves. “There is surely at least two men at large who are responsible for those murders! Anyone going out into the forest right now is in danger but we must do something.” Sebastian explained nervously, his hands shaking with visible fright. “If she is not out there... then my daughter has to be still within the castle somewhere. Whether it was searched in entirety I cannot be certain, so you will search again but this time I want everyone to look for any kind of hidden places wherein Mirabeau could have gotten into without meaning to. I do not care even how unlikely a place might seem! Search it anyway. I will be doing the same thing as you.” And as soon as everyone set about to begin the search, the Baron decided it was wise to begin by searching once more the playroom for any signs of secret side rooms that could be accessed from it. Such chambers were oft added to some castles, and used to be made use of by the castle's inhabitants in times of siege to hide the woman and children if no proper means of escape could be utilized by them. Some, particularly on a castle's lower levels, could even link to tunnels and passageways that ran outside for a quick exit. Up in a tower's room like the playroom there would be no such links to the outside possible, but there could still be a secret adjoining room, chamber, or space meant for hiding within. Sebastian rushed up to the playroom and threw open its' door and to his shock and relief sitting on the floor playing was Mirabeau. She had all her favorite toys scattered about her, and she smiled brightly to see her father enter. “Father, you look so worried! Is something the matter?” she asked him, and he told her everything that happened all throughout that day. It was early in the evening by this hour, and the day's light had already departed. He was shaking, nervous, and his heart was pounding so loudly he could hear it in his ears. He slumped to the floor in front of his daughter, and she placed her hand upon his knee lovingly to try and steady his nerves. “It is alright, Father! As you can see I am right here and in as good of health as ever.” Her hands were covered in so much blood that bloody hand prints... all of them her own... were all over the floor in places. Her toys had blood covering them also. Upon noticing this, Sebastian screamed. Mirabeau's tender smile turned into a maniacal grin, as she said to her father: “I can see you were not expecting to find me with blood on my hands! I always tried to keep some of my nighttime activities a secret from you and mother, but apparently this time I went just a little bit too far.” Then, her body morphed into a shadowy shape the size of a grown woman with wings like a bat's also made of shadow. In this shifting, she became less distinct and yet Sebastian could see her quite clearly even if he did not know quite fully what it was he was seeing. “So... you flew out the window and went hunting in the woods.” the Baron said to his daughter, his lips quivering a bit as he tried to compose himself enough to try and swallow his fear. She giggled childishly, and said in answer to that: “I did! And I decided it was time to put an end to Louis and since I could not have any witnesses the servant with him had to die with him.” And this perplexed the Baron, and so he asked his daughter curiously: “But why Louis? He was always so kind to you, and a good friend to me.” and Mirabeau thereupon explained: “During the winter, I heard him talking to himself when he thought no one else was around... but in my shadow form I was there to spy upon him. It was in the cellar, on a day when you sent him to fetch some wine. He said that he was growing tired of living in this place but that he was too afraid of displeasing you to ask you for leave to depart your service and go. He muttered that if something were to happen to you by way of a 'fortunate' accident... then he could be free to leave without such guilt to weigh upon his conscience. He planned to murder you, Father! Because to him, that was preferable than incurring your displeasure.” She killed Louis to protect her father, because he was not just her father but the love of her unholy life. It was true.
And what was more, Sebastian knew his daughter never lied, and he had to accept the truth of what it was she revealed to him, even though she was clearly a creature of dark supernatural power. But what he did not comprehend was how she became this way! “When did you become... like this?” he asked of her, and she confessed that to him also, telling him: “I once was reading out of one of your occult books that you always kept hidden in your private library, back in our old chateau in France, and I did so but without truly comprehending what it was I was reading... I was only six years old at the time, too young to know about dark sorcery's power. That was the year when I first knew I loved you in ways a daughter is not supposed to love her father... and I prayed for something, anything to make it so we could be able to be together forever in just the way my heart desired. And something must have heard me because not three nights after I uttered that prayer silently... that was the night when I first found I could transform, into the shadowy thing that is a reflection of my immortal spirit. And on the fourth night, that was when you and I first acted upon our lusts and desires for each other! Six nights later, you changed too but you lost all memory of it because it was not your desire that called for your transformation... rather, it was in truth my own because I wanted you to be able to experience the power that now was mine to command. And you did! Whenever I went out in the night to hunt for prey, you came with me and hunted as well. Together we drank the living blood of humans, in order so that we might live forever... I was permitted to age only to my present year of life that I am right now, eleven years of age, but not beyond that. Since the dark powers that granted me all that my heart desired, and more, knew that you preferred children to grown women so they ensured that I would remain a child eternally. Just as you shall never age past the year that you were when first you took my virginity from me! Every murder I have ever committed, you aided me in even if you remember it not... even as I always aided you in all the ones you committed. We are partners in crime, you and I! And I was not alone when I took Louis' life, his eyes, and his heart... it was you, who flayed that servant alive and your hands that did nail him to the stone cross with spikes, and a hammer, that you took from the cellar, along with the medical blade you flayed him with, in order to do so. There were no visible tracks, no footprints to be found, because we left in shadowy forms that are immaterial, and not of this world. When I went out the window, you were compelled to follow after me because the part of you that is now... what I am... it knew, even if your conscious mind blocked out everything that happened after that. We had so discussed the hunt just one week ago, but you forgot we talked about planning it out! I had discovered that chapel, and it was your idea to lure our victims there so we could take their blood there. The eyes, were to be an offering to the dark powers to represent the material world that we can see! And the heart was to be a sacrifice that is a representation of the soul. Everything has a meaning, Father! Beloved. My Baron. Everything... and we did burn the eyes and the heart, in one of the chapel's forgotten braziers. Even as we defiled the sanctity of that place by etching what we did upon the cross that is the very symbol of a faith we abandoned so very long ago.” Then, he remembered... the veil was lifted from his fleshly eyes, and he knew that all that his daughter had just confessed unto him was the undeniable truth. His hands were only not bloody like hers, because he had washed them out in one of the cottages before entering the castle. He then got rid of the washcloth that he had used by burning it in the cottage's fireplace. It was easy enough to clean the murder weapons, to place them in the stable after that so it would look merely like some misplaced tools, the sort of thing the servants would be easy to blame for. How was he unable to recall doing these things? But now, it was as if something had changed inside him, and he knew he would be fully conscious and aware of it the next time his transformation came upon him and the thirst for blood returned, as it always did and always would. There would be no more forgetting and lack of remembering for him. “I... I should have known, it looked like the work of two rather than one.” he muttered, and Mirabeau changed back into her beautiful child form once again. She placed a bloody palm on the side of her father's face and she kissed his mouth passionately and with an undisguised ferociousness containing unbridled devilish lust.
He knew there was blood upon his face, and did not care. He was seized with a sudden madness born of no less great a lust than his daughter had coursing through her. In that state, he unlaced the bodice of her dress and tore the bodice open after that, tearing it open and downward violently... exposing all of her upper body. She slid her arms out of the sleeves of her dress, and went to work helping Sebastian to undress. Once he was naked, his hardening manhood could not be disguised, and he proceeded to push his daughter unto her back. “Fuck me, Father! Fuck me hard, fuck me like a whore!” she exclaimed in a voice that was a little girl's despite the very adult words she was speaking. He pulled her skirts up to her waist, ripping and tearing at them as he did so, reducing them to tatters. Then, he ran his hand over the soft and frilly undergarments that she wore, which made his erect cock all the harder by his doing that. He tore them off of her, and spread her legs apart before thrusting his cock into her eleven year old cunt with as much force as one might use upon a wanton harlot. She was used to his manhood being inside of her by now... they had been doing this ever since she was six years old, and the pain and tearing that once happened during these intimate moments had stopped a long time ago, just as her first bleeding in between her legs had stopped. The night when her father delivered her from her virginity. Such things, they are passing things, and where it used to be a great deal tighter of a fit for him when he thrust into her... she was much looser now than in the past, so that she could experience all of the pleasure of their intercourse with none of the pain that used to come along with it. The dark powers had strengthened her body, made her more able to endure things than of old she used to be... and this too made it possible for her to enjoy and savor delicious things like this despite being so very (perhaps shockingly) young of an age for one to be having an adult male's cock shoved into and out of them in this manner. She did grind her hips, getting into the rhythm of the lover's dance they once more began. He moved in and out of her, his kisses falling upon her face like a soft pleasant rain on a hot summer's day, the sweat of their bodies reminding her of summertime in a way so delightful as to put thoughts of the last vestiges of winter far from her mind. She thought of nothing else, lost in the moment and not caring about the passing of the time... they had hunted early today, when still there was sunlight out, and so they had the whole night to spend together in this and other ways. And how they both so loved the night! When finally she felt his orgasm shooting into her, filling her up with his heat and his lover's warmth... she nearly fainted from just how intense it felt this time. She moaned and cried out loudly, so loudly that it was like when first she had lost her maidenly virtue. Sebastian was giggling with delight, and saying to his daughter things such as: “Oh, my sweet little slut! This time, it was much like the first with you... and that made it all the more delicious to savor my ravishing of your young body.” Her hands had been about his waist as he fucked her, as if she could help push him along in his efforts, and his back was covered in the blood that had been on her hands. They had blood on both of them from the floor, from her hand prints, and now there was blood all about them. Somehow, this aroused them both to even greater levels, and they were sure that within the next couple of hours or so they would be fucking again. The price they paid for their immortality was that they could never make or bear a child. In that way he was sterile and she was barren, and so they could enjoy all the lover's intercourse that they liked without ever having the fear of Mirabeau getting pregnant to worry about. The night passed pleasantly, and because they did not necessarily need to sleep or eat, the two demonic creatures clad in human flesh were ready for the day as soon as dawn had arrived. They cleaned up the playroom themselves, not trusting it to any servants, and Sebastian gathered what servants as still were about the castle to show them that Mirabeau was safe in his company. The pair lied, concocting a story about the little girl accidentally getting trapped behind a secret panel that led to a hidden chamber near the top of the tower. There actually was such a chamber there, one once used in bygone times for the confinement of “special prisoners”. One could conceivably get stuck in it, if they entered the chamber and mistakenly closed the panel from the inside, since it only could be opened from the outside. Mirabeau was never that foolish... but the servants did not know that.
In time, it became necessary to dispose of all the servants, because as Sebastian and Mirabeau noticed they did not either of them age as time went on, and as years passed and decades passed well after years did... it became increasingly obvious something was amiss when neither of the pair aged. The little girl remained a child forever, and her father never entered into old age from adulthood. He remained middle aged, just as he had been when he had first claimed his daughter's virginity. Neither would ever age, and neither would ever die! It was only needful to kill some of the servants, always in ways that were made to appear accidental... or, in the case of the ones that worked in the forest it was a simple matter to do it in ways that made it look like the work of animals or bandits. Even though no bandits would dare to ply their trade in those particular woods, and the animals that did dwell there had no taste for human blood. Bandits had likewise been blamed for the death of Louis and the servant who had been with him when he was killed. Eventually, after a certain number of deaths had taken place the remaining servants were of a mind to think the castle and its' surrounding lands were cursed. Sebastian and Mirabeau often fed them this idea still further, and the power of suggestion can go a long, long way. Once this rumor so got around enough that it was deemed the likely, and credible, truth... the remaining servants left. After all, not one of them wished to risk having the curse fall upon them next! They took the horses, mules, and mares with them, all except the two animals that belonged to the Baron and his daughter. Those, it was decided, would serve better if they were made undying... and so Sebastian and Mirabeau used the dark arts at their disposal to transform the creatures into forms wherein they would no longer need to be fed or watered. They now had the castle all to themselves, and the rumors of the place being cursed made it so that no one went anywhere near it any longer. They stayed there for about sixty years... during which time they ranged far abroad to hunt for their prey and find fresh human blood to drink. Once those sixty years had come and gone, they faked their deaths by setting the castle on fire and departing in the night upon their deathless steeds with their saddlebags carrying enough wealth to purchase a brand new home in some other land far from the Carpathian mountains. They had abducted a one hundred and nine year old man who was near death, as well as... separately... a seventy one year old woman. And, they killed both of them with poison and left them in the castle as it burned so that people would think it was them and that they had aged normally during the past sixty years. Every natural lifetime or so that thus passed would require a fresh start in a very similar manner as this... and, in this way, no one ever even remotely suspected either of them was anything other than a middle aged man and his eleven year old daughter. Their skills at deception were equaled only by their depravity, their passion, and their thirst for blood... skills they eventually passed on to their disciples when at length a dark cult formed around them. Down through all of the coming ages throughout human history, that cult would continue to serve them, and to serve other beings like them. Always in the shadows, out of sight of the doings of mortals, these deities of the night would continue to lord it over those they viewed as little more than cattle fit to provide the unholy couple with their desired and much needed sustenance. And, to the lucky few, they granted unto them the gift of unholy immortality that only they could bestow! Those same would go on to grant this dark gift to others in turn, and unlike the vampires of some other bloodlines these could walk about by day as well as by night, and they had far fewer weakness and a great many more strengths. Children, it seemed, were those most favored to join this particular bloodline, children taken and defiled prior to the act of transforming them into their new, immortal forms. For whilst, yes, just as many adults were made members of this same perverse bloodline... it was always the children, who were revered as the leaders of the various vampire clans that sprung up from it. Often, in their blasphemous scriptures, the cult that served them all would state that: “For, just as the Baron Sebastian so loved his child bride Mirabeau, it shall be within our numbers the children who are most beloved and revered in every way... and it is the children who ever and always shall lead us, even as it was the Baroness Mirabeau who led her beloved father and lover to his full awakening unto his true self.” Such was writ in blood, bound in a great tome.
Published 29th Oct 2023
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