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The Unholy Brides of Kalin Dragos
- The Unholy Brides of Kalin Dragos -
When the little girl saw the castle in the far distance, approaching swiftly as the carriage brought her closer and closer to its' towers... she chanced to look up at the sky and did notice that the morning was slipping away, its' bright and cheerful colors replaced by a certain grayness when the sky grew cloudy, and dark, as if a storm was nigh. But no storm was at hand, and none came. Thus was it that a kind of strange gloom was upon the countryside and dense pine forests of the area through which the carriage traveled. The rugged hills and rough peaks of the mountains were frightful to behold for a young girl of a sort who was used to pleasant green fields and flowered meadows... all of the world that her parents had ever allowed her to see, before their untimely deaths took them away from her. To her imagination, they represented a reminder of mortality that she did not wish to have brought to mind. The peaks of the mountains were very high and the skies all about were filled with thick looking clouds that filled all the spaces that once were such a lovely shade of blue. The distant horizon all about was itself was a varied mixture of endless trees, distant hills, and tall mountains. But none of them seemed to her to quite be the equal of the frightful majesty of the towering peaks that loomed before her. It was a world of large things, and she was so small at only ten years of age. She could not fall asleep throughout the trip, no matter how many times she tried to. Fear of the unknown kept her awake and wariness gnawed at her thoughts, preventing her from feeling at ease. “I shall sleep later, if I may.” she mused silently whilst every so often the cracking of the coachman's whip startled her and made her shake nervously. It was good of the lord of yonder castle to take her in when her parents perished, and the messenger who did come to tell her the good news at her parents' funeral seemed a decent enough person. Though she had never met the lord of the castle to know if he too was equally a good sort. She was frightened of even a slight suggestion that her life might have just gone from difficult to worse... but all the same, she tried not to dwell on such baseless fears, preferring to accept the lord's generosity for the good gesture that it genuinely appeared to be. The child had eaten well before the coach came for her, and she stayed in the best of lodgings prior, with the lord's messenger having left her in the care of a kindly innkeeper who treated her as sweetly as one may please. The food at the inn was fantastic! The best she had eaten in a very long time, seeming ages really. Bacon mixed with onions, peppers, and chunks of beef along with eggs and sliced potatoes brought over from Ireland. Which had to have been somewhat expensive given this was Transylvania! The innkeeper was very wealthy, however, and could well afford such imported goods. She had her first taste of wine whilst staying at the inn, and she had spat it out at first... not truly expecting it to be as it was. She was only allowed a small taste, however... due to her young age... and, she was of a mind to give it more of a chance when she got older since the flavor of it was much to her liking. She would never be able to put out of her mind, the innkeeper's words to her when the time had come for her departure... he said unto her with concern in his voice most evident: “When you get to the castle, young one, just remember to keep your heart mindful of bright memories past. For there is much darkness in that place, though in my interactions with him the lord of the castle is not himself a wicked or terrible man. I... may have said something I should not have! Try to enjoy the ride out there, alright?” And she recalled that as he spoke to her of the castle, he clutched the cross pendant that he wore about his neck as if the holy symbol might protect him from some dreadful spiritual harm. “Is the lord really a good man?” she had asked him, and the innkeeper had said a very strange thing to her. He had stated: “A men are equal parts good and bad, even I! The lord... and we only ever call him 'lord', we no longer speak his name... he perhaps knows the truth of this better than most.” It was a strange thing to hear the man say, and she could not wrap her brain around the meaning of those words. It was autumn, and those trees that were not evergreen that she had seen in the forests all about were rich in the colors of foliage that the autumn season is renowned for in certain places. This place was no exception, and the beauty of those colors stayed with her once the gloom had descended and those colors seemed to be muted by it.
So dense were the forests and woods surrounding the road on both sides of it as the rough terrain of the road... more like a glorified wide path or trail really, ill suited for carriages to ride upon... that it was easy to imagine all manner of magical spirits both of good and evil nature dwelling in the deepest parts of them. She had dreams and nightmares of such things in the past, and still suffered from the worst of the night terrors that had seemed to come more often than the little girl should have liked. There was no pass through these mountains, only this straight road from the nearest village up to the castle itself. Her own home village was itself many winding and more well paved roads distant from that one... and she felt glad that the carriage had not stopped for the night. She was not homesick, was tired of the village life and the hardships she had come to associate with it, and was looking forward to settling in at last at the castle. Like a princess from a fairy tale! That is what she imagined living there was going to be like for her. She kept looking away at the slopes of distant hills, sometimes seeing one or two that had old ruins on the heights of them... and she wondered who might have actually dwelt in those ruins before they became as they now were. Snow capped the tops of the mountains, she noticed, and the air felt a lot more crisp the closer the carriage drew to the castle. Nearby was a forest of birch trees, and the girl had remembered seeing birches like those at a park when she was very little. In England it was the age of Queen Victoria, a time of civilization and the expansion thereof. But in this place, civilization was a bit farther off than it was in England and though the little girl's family had come from England a good many years before she had been born... she herself had never been there, never seen the civilized places that her parents had spoken of so fairly at times. And so, to her, birch forests were a magical place, for in her mind magic had replaced the science that was becoming increasingly the order of the day. Those trees held a certain fascination for her, and she never really understood way. They just did, and that was enough! “How much farther until we are there, driver?” she asked the coachman, after rolling down the sliding panel that separated the interior of the carriage from where the driver sat at the reigns of the two horses that drove it onward. He looked as drab as ever in his long gray coat and his wide brimmed hat, his face pale and almost skeletal in appearance. She hadn't the will to look into his eyes to tell what the color of them was. He replied: “In a hurry, are we? I wouldn't be if I were you! But well and good, we will be arriving shortly enough. Shortly enough indeed!” and he chuckled in a very sinister manner that caused the child to slide the panel back down and return to her silent thoughts. Wolves were howling in the distance not long after that, and the sound of them was mournful... it should have been frightening to the little girl but instead it felt soothing to her. Had she not been so excited and nervous all perhaps at the same time, she would have been lulled to sleep by the music of the wolves' cries. Was it that far past morning that wolves were crying in the hills and woodlands already? It could not have been that close to nightfall, the child reasoned, and accepted that the wolves were only this active here and now due to that strange cloudy gloom that hung over all the land hereabout. It may as well have been night! Or late afternoon... with such a darkness covering the countryside. The driver has spoken true, and a great deal sooner than she had expected, the girl could look out the window and crane her head just enough to see the mighty fortress where in the lord the surrounding countryside lived. The carriage crossed a bridge over a deep chasm, and passed through the open gates of the castle's large gatehouse. They did, at last, disembark in the courtyard past the gatehouse where the driver took the horses away to the stable house to be cared for. The little girl noticed only blackness within the windows, save for those that held faint candlelight or lamplight. The walls were high, the battlements rough and rugged, and the towers so tall! Though the towers themselves were dwarfed by the mountainside that rose up behind the castle like a mighty wall built by huge giants in a time before mankind was quite so numerous upon the face of this world. If it was still day, it was impossible to tell for the gloom was thickest here and save for the lamps attached to the outside of the main keep and other important buildings of the castle... it would have not been wrong to say that there was the distinct feel of twilight about everything here. It looked so lonely!
The child looked nervously towards the dark archways that led away from the courtyard, and it felt as if something watched her from the shadows therein. The driver returned shortly to fetch the child's bags and he gave them to some servants who emerged from one of the archways. They took the bags into the keep by way of a servants' entrance, and the driver instructed the little girl to wait in the courtyard for a bit whilst he went to fetch the lord of the castle. There was no door knocker upon the keep's main gates and no bell to announce visitors. Nor was there a window or a hatch in them. Only thick wood that was reinforced by iron in places to make it stronger. After an intolerably long wait, the child cried out in the direction of the keep's gates: “Hello! Is anybody there? I hope you have not forgotten about me!” And, as she might have expected, there was no answer to her cry. Already, she missed the inn and its' warmth and prompt service. “Just a moment, little girl! Pray, be patient. I am coming!” called out a soft man's voice from behind the keep's gates. He must have moved quietly indeed, for she had heard no footsteps of any kind prior. He unlocked the gates, by the sound of it, and then ordered some servants who were with him... who had moved with equal stealth and silence... to cast the rugged portals open. With many a creak and groan, the gates were cast wide and the lord of the castle strode forward to greet the child who was now in his lawful custody and keeping. He was middle aged, fast nearing fifty if not already at that age, and he was clean shaven. Not only was his face shaven, but so was his head, and the girl saw that the man had no eyebrows to speak of. His eyelashes were as long as hers, and there was a certain feminine quality to this man's features despite his high cheekbones, aquiline nose, and high forehead... all traits bespeaking of many a nobleman. He was average of build and average also of height, and his hands were slender rather than strong looking. They were the hands of an artist rather than a man used to laborious work or activity requiring great physical exertion. He kept his fingernails neatly clipped, it seemed, and the man smelled a bit like lavender scented perfume. He wore a pair of black pantaloons of the Turkish fashion, and had tucked into them a black blouse with billowing sleeves over which he had on a black leather vest that looked very fashionable and which was buttoned in the front. He had a pair of shoes, also black, upon his feet and a black cloak kept him warm amid the cold air of the mountains. The man was pale, with a hint of yellow about his skin that gave it a sallow appearance. She wondered what bloodline produced this man, where his ancestors had hailed from originally, and what blood did course through his veins, carrying with it the history of peoples strange and foreign to the girl's limited knowledge. She had never seen someone quite like him before... and his almond shaped eyes looked at her kindly, unlike her father's eyes which had always seemed cold to her even when he was trying to be kind. His somewhat smallish mouth and naturally reddish lips parted as he said unto her after doing a slight bow once he was standing fully in her presence: “I bid you welcome... my dear, sweet child! My name, though it is to my displeasure that no one in all these lands seems of a want to speak it aloud any longer, is Kalin. And my full name is Kalin Dragos. My family is an old family, an ancient one, and its' lineage reaches very far beyond the borders of this country. I inherited my parents' wealth and the title belonging to my father before me, though I also inherited their misfortunes to a certain extent. But we shall not speak of misfortune today! Pray tell me, what is your name again? It was told to me, but I fear with all of my pressing duties I must have forgotten it. I assure you though, that upon hearing your lips speak it, it will never flee from my mind again!” And he regarded the little girl eagerly as he waited to hear her tell him her name, in her own sweet voice. She was stocky of build, very dusky skinned, and evidently of a variety of middle eastern descent. She had long curly black hair, dark brown eyes, and broad features that complemented her full, plump lips quite nicely indeed. She was a big girl, but not overweight at all. Rather, she was large boned. She wore a long red velvet dress with adorably puffy looking sleeves, had on a pair of warm looking boots of a matching color, and over her dress she had on a maroon colored cloak for added warmth. Her face was round, innocent looking, and pleasing to look at, as was this girl in her entirety. Though her family originated in England, their blood was not of there.
She curtsied and then bowed, just like her parents had taught her to do in the presence of the nobility, before saying in a meek tone of voice: “My lord, my name is Rahsheda. And my full name is Rahsheda Neylan. I thank you for taking me in.” He wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace, and said to her soothingly: “Oh, delightful Sheda... for I believe I shall call you Sheda henceforth... you need never call me 'my lord' or anything of the sort! Hearing you say that sounds far too formal when you are to be my daughter henceforth. Also, think nothing of me taking you in! How could I refuse, on learning of the plight your parents' deaths left you in. A flower such as you should not be left to wither on the streets of peasant villages and cold, cruel city streets.” She smiled, and replied: “Thank you, Kalin! Forgive me if I dislike calling anyone father though... my own father was not very nice to me, after all.” He ran a hand through her hair, caressing the tresses of it as he answered: “I understand, child! I understand far better, I suspect, than you might think. Come on! Let us get inside and out of the cold air. I've a warm hearth, and when you are ready to sleep tonight, an equally warm bed awaiting you.” She was not tired yet, not even now. Lord Kalin had made her feel very comfortable, very much at home, and she could not wait to see the inside of this place which was now her home. He took her by the hand, and now she could so clearly hear his footsteps as they walked along that she wondered what had obscured their sound before. The servants went about their business, leaving the pair to themselves... once the gates had been closed once again, that is. Passing through the entrance hall and its' cozy wood paneled interior with a layer of thick carpeting on the floor, it was easy to see why such carpeting would muffle any footsteps, which it became apparent was what was happening now once again. If the outside of the castle looked medieval, the interior was more modern, by Victorian standards, then one might have expected. Many candles and lamps kept the castle's various rooms bright and cheery looking enough, at least in the keep, and it had to have been hardly an easy job for the servants to keep all of them lit, yet they seemed to be managing it well. But once she was past these more familiar areas, the larger sections of the keep looked a great deal more medieval in comparison, at least to the little girl's mind. Tall columns and high archways did line many of the halls, and there was a level of ostentation and opulence to rival the palaces of princes in many nations the world over. But the past was evident in many places, a past in which war and blood had been visited upon the land, and during which brave knights and valiant warriors fought to protect their country from foreign invaders. Suits of armor decorated some hallways, lining the sides of them, armored gauntlets made to appear as if they were still clutching the swords that were propped up to so look as if the suits of armor held them tightly. Sheda's eyes widened at the sight of these, and it felt very much indeed like something out of a fairy tale, just as she had hoped it would. Soon, just off one of the hallways, the pair entered a rather small study room containing a modest library of bookshelves, a fully stocked writing desk, a study table, and some chairs that looked very comfortable to sit in. This room, was warm and comfortable thanks to a fireplace that had crackling wood and roaring flames within it. The lord seated himself near a wall from which hung various elaborate tapestries depicting some sort of medieval hunting excursions. He motioned to his lap, and the little girl seated herself upon it whilst his arms enfolded her. They discarded their cloaks beforehand. “After such a long journey, you surely must be tired... try to rest in my arms if you are able, and when you wake up we shall see about a late supper. If you do not wish to sleep just yet, I can always tell you stories until you are ready to... or until the hour for supper is come. Whatever pleases you the most, we shall do!” Kalin told her. She felt secure in his arms, and as she listened to him telling her wild and grim stories about the castle's past... his breath on her hair felt good to her. She must have been more tired than she thought, because soon she was asleep in his arms, there upon his lap, with her her eyes too heavy to keep open any longer. She had some very strange dreams, but no nightmares that she could later recall. However, she could have sworn that she had felt hands touching her in places no father normally would are to touch his daughter... and as soon as she awoke, she noticed her legs were straddling the lord's lap in an almost indecent sort of manner.
Her undergarments were laying on the floor nearby, and she knew that indeed Kalin had touched her whilst she slept. She asked him why he had done this, and he told her: “It is how men show women that they are in love with that they are attracted to them, that they love them in a physical sense. I did not a thing that could be considered a defilement, however, rest assured! I would never engage in certain acts with you, without your permission. At the worst, this was a molestation... not a ravishment. It gave me pleasure to do this, and when you are older it will give you pleasure as well.” She could not deny that it felt... interesting... and she admitted to him: “I never said it was not pleasing! But you just said it was a thing men only do if they are in love. Are you in love with me?” She had never been in love with a boy before, and this boy was a man old enough to be her grandfather. Yet, she felt something profound when this thought crossed her mind... something wonderful... he was initiating this, not her. Yet, it was not in the least bit displeasing to her that this was happening. When he told her: “Yes, child! Yes, I am in love with you, and I have been since first I learned of your life and what you suffered from your father. And, how your mother did nothing about it. I heard about your beauty, your grace through all you suffered at that odious man's hands and that rotten woman's neglect, and of your desire for a life just like a princess from one of those fairy tales I hear you are so fond of. Knowing your need, and seeing your beauty with my own eyes at last, and having you so close to me... upon my very lap, in my very arms... how could I not fall deeply and madly in love with you!” she felt elation at hearing him say all of this to her. He had learned of the things of which she had told no one, and with him she need not hide anything any longer. She said unto him happily: “I love you too, Kalin! Does this mean I get to be the princess of this castle? I always wanted to be a pretty princess.” And the man stroked her hair once again and smiled at her in a contented way as he promised: “Yes, Sheda! You will be my princess forever, and you shall have all of the things you lacked before in life. I will make you a goodly husband, and you shall make me a lovely bride. When you are ready... we shall, together, consummate our wedding night following a ceremony that will be just between you and I, with no priest presiding over things to get in the way of what we do. I am the law here, and the only law you and I need follow together is the law of love, and pleasure. All that is not done in civilized lands, we may do... and all that is done here, is done for the sake of pleasure and only for pleasure's sake. Nothing is forbidden for us to savor and enjoy, like a banquet filled with a goodly diversity of many delightful delicacies! We may partake as we desire.” And with that he leaned in and kissed the little girl passionately upon the lips, his hand reaching up her skirts to feel her in the most intimate of places between her legs. She gasped at that fondling, and withdrew from the kiss to do so before his mouth was upon hers again, and this time she allowed their kiss to deepen as their tongues entwined playfully. What his did, she copied with hers, and thus she learned how to kiss romantically. He taught her how to give his manhood pleasure with her hands and her mouth after that... and once she had done all that pleased him... the two of them put on any clothing that was taken off during such sport as they had engaged in and made haste to the dining hall for supper. Supper had come late, for it took a while for the little girl to master the lessons that her husband to be had taught her... but her father once told her to always perform perfectly at any lessons that needed to be learned in life, anything at all that an adult might need to teach her. And that demand... for it was a demand on her father's part rather than proper fatherly advice... had prepared her well to excel at everything Kalin required her to do. The lord had to explain to her what the stuff that had suddenly and quickly emerged from his cock was when he did orgasm into her mouth... warning her that it was going to happen beforehand and thereupon giving her the choice to swallow it or spit it out as she liked. She chose to swallow it, thinking it was gross to spit, and though it was hardly sweet to the taste she kept it down knowing it would please Kalin more if she did not show any signs of disliking the experience. For her, disliking it was simply not an option as this was a man of wealth, nobility, and power... and she was from a far less grand background. She had to please him, and she had to like it. Her father had oft told her such was the way with nobles, after all.
Supper was already laid out for them at the dining hall's long table, the servants hastening to make all things in perfect readiness for their arrival. It was a spacious hall with a warm hearth and more splendid tapestries, and a few paintings, hanging from the wood paneled walls. The carpeting here was soft, and it covered the tiled floor almost to every corner of the hall. The hall was in a section of the keep where one could look out the windows and get a good view of the thickly wooded landscape outside. Elegant draperies and curtains kept the place from becoming drafty, and the windows were kept securely closed. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and wooden pillars supported the ceiling beams all the way up to the rafters above. It was like the modern incarnation of an ancient northern mead hall, and Kalin and Sheda were the king and queen of this domain. The little girl barely hid her delight when she saw the feast as was prepared for them to savor. Never had been presented with such a dinner before in her entire life! It consisted of roasted chicken and cooked meats of various types, along with cheeses and salads and all manner of vegetables, fruits, and delicacies. Wine was served, and flowed freely as the servants joined in the meal once all was laid out... whilst Kalin and Sheda took their seats together at the head of the table, which at either end was wide enough to seat two people comfortably. And, a large number could be seated along the length of the table on both sides of it, so that there was quite the gathering present. “You mean the servants here are actually allowed to eat with us?” asked the child, which caused quite the chuckled among the servants. Kalin explained to her: “Of course, they are! We are all equals here no matter what our jobs or tasks may be that are required of us. It is wrong, that a servant should not break bread with their master or mistress, and so why should the servants not share in our company!” The girl replied to that with: “I see!” and with no one standing on any ceremony, everyone dug into their meal with relish. “The silverware is the finest quality, and I believe some of it is imported from Spain.” said Kalin, showing his fork and knife to the little girl, whose eyes went wide with surprise at hearing this. “May I have some water? I am not supposed to drink wine, since I am only a child.” said Sheda, and the lord told her in answer to that: “You may drink wine if it pleases you to do so, but remember my love... you must only ever drink it in moderation. I will demonstrate.” and he showed her how to have only so much and not too much for one so young. He had called her “my love” and this filled her with a great deal of excitement she could barely contain. Better than “daughter” any day, the sound of those words! He was so gallant, gracious, and well mannered... very much like a prince for certain, and this made it all the more dreamlike, this experience of living like a princess. Of being a princess! There was jesting and revelry, and singing and fellowship aplenty at this table, and it had the atmosphere of a gathering of friends and family. It was a late hour for supper, well into the night, and yet it appeared that all who sat at this table had if anything more energy than they had when it was still daytime. “Night is the time for celebrations, here!” Kalin told the little girl at one point, explaining the festive atmosphere so that it did not puzzle her. She had merely accepted it, however, and was not as puzzled as the lord has assumed. It was, rather, that she had never been in such a joyful company before, and found it wonderful and just a bit overwhelming. Once the meal was finished and everyone began to retire for the evening except for any servants who had nightly duties... Kalin took Sheda to his chambers, where her bags had been fully unpacked and her belongings put in their proper places. She had her own closet for her clothes, next to the lord's closet, and a chest for all her favorite toys, as well as a beautiful jewelry box to keep all of her finest jewelry in. She had only a few necklaces before, but now the box she saw was filled with many more, along with bracelets and other baubles fit for a noblewoman. Or in her case, a noble child. There was only one bed, and she knew that she would be sleeping with Kalin henceforth. But since they were going to be married, it was only right in her thinking that they should share a bed together. She did not know if society would have thought this was right or not, and she did not care. She felt it was right, and so in this place, with Kalin at her side, it was very right indeed. They had their wedding night that night, and she was a virgin no longer when it was through. It was painful, and yet it brought her such pleasure!
Upon the morrow, they dressed themselves for the day... the lord in attire similar to what he had worn the day previous only scarlet in color instead of black. Sheda was presented by her beloved lord with a long gown of the softest silk which she immediately put on. It was mustard yellow in color with white lacy trim, and it had elegant white underskirts that gave the gown a puffy look to it. The bloomers she was given to wear for undergarments were of white silk, and felt far more comfortable to wear than her old ones ever had. The sleeves of the gown were puffy at the tops but straighter in the arms, and all the whole look of it was like something from the previous century. She was given soft gold colored slippers to put on her feet, and the wide neck of the gown allowed for her to choose a beautiful gold necklace to wear which had upon it a pendant shaped like a small Egyptian Ankh with a red ruby gemstone set into the loop of the Ankh. Kalin slid a ruby ring upon the ring finger of the little girl's left hand, and showed her that he wore a similar ring upon his left hand as well. “With this ring, we be wed!” he exclaimed on seeing the bright smile playing upon his little wife's delighted face. They had washed extensively, most especially after the previous night's activities... and he had been tender with her when it was time at the last to clean the blood from when she lost her virginity to him. Washed and perfumed, the child looked radiant in her new clothes and felt radiant in her new role. She still hurt a bit between her legs, and her husband had explained to her why, and for how long she could expect to feel like that. Pain, she finally realized and understood, was the gateway to greater pleasures! And greater rewards. This was not truly a corruption of a young person's spirit... rather, it was instead that she was giving in to desires she never had the chance to realize she harbored before. And she was enjoying doing so, even if many might have said that it was wrong! It was not wrong to her, nor to her husband... and so... it was permitted, that she be allowed to savor and enjoy each new experience that she found herself indulging in. Apparently, all of the servants knew that the lord had a deep affection for and attraction to little girls, and girls in their teens as well, and sometimes they spoke of his previous brides and when they did so they spoke of the children quite fearfully. Whilst the lord was busy with some tasks about the keep that demanded his full attention, that is when Sheda so chanced to hear the talk about those past brides... as she explored a bit on her own. “What happened to them?” she asked one of the servants who had been chatting about this to another. And the old woman told her only: “We don't speak of that, my lady! And aye, we were made fully aware that you are to be addressed henceforth by a proper title that is befitting you now being our master's bride.” But the little girl would not relent, she inquired further asking: “Come on, tell me what happened to those other girls! Did something awful happen to them; did they die?” And the old woman told her in a hushed tone of voice: “Some things are much worse than death, my lady! Much worse. So much so, that it cannot be put into simple words. At the second hour past midnight tonight, go down to the under chambers of the keep, to where the original chapel used to be before it was abandoned when the new one was built on the grounds. Enter the chapel, and you will see for yourself. But make certain that you go there alone, and do not let the master know what you intend to do. It is not kept locked, but it is so deep under the keep that no one ever goes there any longer.” Then, Sheda asked the old woman: “Why do you call him 'master' when he said that everyone here is supposed to be equal?” And this was what the old woman told her in reply: “We call him that not because he insists upon it... he hates it!... in truth, we call him that behind his back because we fear him. I shall say no more about it! Be off, and be careful my lady. Lest you end up like those who came to the master's bed before you.” And with that, it was needful for the little girl to take her mind off of such dark and forbidding words. She tried to play with her toys back in the chambers that belonged to her and Kalin... but found that with this matter so heavily weighing upon her thoughts, she could find no joy in such play. She could not wait until it was so late to know what was happening down in that chapel! Or what had happened there in the past. She had to go there at once, to see for herself what was within. Besides that, she had no desire to lie to her husband and sneak away from their bed in the middle of the night. She planned to go to the chapel now.
It was difficult to find her way below, and she had to ask some of the servants many times for more exact directions in order to know how to get to the chapel. She lied to them and said she had the lord's permission, and upon hearing that the servants made the sign of the cross with their hands before telling her what she wished to know. All of them acted as if she was going to her doom. Whatever lay below, it could surely not be something as terrible as they were all making it out to be! Could it? Such was what she was thinking as her feet padded along the cold stone floors of the under chambers with only a small lamp held before her to light the way in this domain of pitch black darkness. She passed through many storage chambers, wine cellars, and strange rooms that almost looked like cells for keeping prisoners in. When she spotted the occasional torture chamber, she reasoned that after all this had been a castle built back in the medieval era, after all... it stood to reason that it should have a dungeon. She saw at times a fresh bloodstain here and there, and convinced herself that it was only wine spilled by the servants. But then she remembered what they had told her... that no one goes down this way any longer. No one save for the lord of the castle and, of old, the child brides who had been his wives before Sheda came along. The servants only ever went as far as the wine cellars, and by the time the blood stains became evident to the little girl's inquisitive eyes she had already left the wine cellars far, far behind and several levels up above. How many stairs and steps had she descended, anyway? Too many for her liking. Her legs... how they ached from walking down and down, deeper and deeper, and walking on and on for so long by that point without taking a single break! But she dared not rest even briefly in such a place, with a fleeting light that could go out on her if she lingered for too long. So she quickened her pace and chose not to slow it, and soon she arrived at a set of ornate looking metal doors within an elegant archway that was flanked on both sides by roman style columns that had the images of snakes entwining them like a garland from their base to their heights, carved so realistically that the sight of them frightened the child at first when she beheld them. The door had etched upon its' surface a depiction of a subterranean place wherein the spirits of countless children... all of them girls save for only a handful of boys who had a beauty akin to that of the girls... floated about like disembodied ghosts, wearing long diaphanous gowns that only added to their spectral appearances. “What a very strange choice of decoration for the doors of a chapel!” She mused to herself whilst contemplating whether or not to try and cast those doors open. They looked so heavy to her! And she was so young, and hardly strong in any way. Then... she spotted a lever next to the doors on the left hand side, and she thought that perhaps the doors were able to be cast open using that lever. There were no door knobs, no knockers, nor any other way possible after all. And upon attempting to push the doors inward, the child found them to be totally immovable even when she attempted unsuccessfully to slam herself against them with all her might. “I do not know what made me even try to do that! That really hurt my shoulder, badly.” she thought to herself, deciding to try to pull the lever next without any further delay. It wasn't locked, she had been told. And sure enough, when she pulled the lever the sound of unseen gears turning and mechanisms working resounded with an echo all throughout the underground. But not far enough to ever reach the surface. Upon entering the chapel, the little girl saw it was decorated on both sides of the vast chamber before her with tall columns exactly of the same sort that she had beheld flanking the chapel doors. There were stone benches in place of what normally in most chapels might have been wooden pews, and the central aisle between the rows of the benches was decorated with a long blood red carpet that was covered in dust. Dust was thick in the air, and there were cobwebs in every corner and upon many of the benches as well as some of the columns. Sheda coughed a bit on inhaling the dusty air, and it was like walking into a tomb that had been sealed up for centuries. Instead of statues of saints, there were statues of demonic creatures of a sort that was grotesque, alien in appearance, and terrible to behold. She screamed at the sight of those statues, at first thinking them to be real. And she was grateful to see that they were not! She felt nervous as she walked along whilst exploring this forbidden place. When she reached the altar place, she gasped in true fright.
The altar was a stone square the height of a table and covered in arcane symbols of every sort, all of diabolical and satanic purpose and meaning. Old blood stains so covered the top of it, and parts of the front and back and sides of it also. Behind the altar was a massive mural depicting a hellish domain of the sort that sometimes the child had beheld only in her very worst and darkest of nightmares. A large inverted cross made of metal was suspended from the ceiling by thick chains right in front of the mural, and the skeletal remains of a long dead priest was shackled to the cross. Bloodstains on the cross told a gruesome tale of how the man had met his end. Piles of adult sized skulls were heaped about below the cross, some covered in old dried blood. Upon the altar, were the skeletal remains of a long dead child, a little girl judging by the remnants of the child's dress which looked to be from the medieval period. A tattered scroll that looked as if it might fall apart at any minute was with the girl's remains, and from the state of the bones the child had not died violently. So then, where did all of the blood that was covering the altar come from? The whole place had the odor of rot to it, and something terrible had happened in these halls long, long ago. Sheda decided to attempt to read the scroll, only for it to fall apart as soon as she had picked it up. Suddenly, the sound of singing resounded from several hallways beyond shadowy archways in between the statues on both sides of the chapel. It was the singing of little girls, and it was as harmonious as it was unnerving. The singing stopped, and it was followed by hissing whispers and mutterings. None of the children sounded any older than fifteen years of age, and most sounded much, much younger but none younger than eight years old. Were they the brides that she had heard about? At once, she decided to cry out to them and attempt to talk to them. She cried: “Hello! Sisters, is that you? I say sisters because I am Kalin's wife now just like you all are. Why do you live down here in this dark and awful place? Come on out so I can see you! Let us talk, we can be friends.” And then, the children came forward, from the shadows... and the little girl could see why they chose to thus keep themselves hidden away. All of them had skin as white as snow, abnormally pale in fact. And they were of Turkish ancestry just like she was by their facial features and the color of their eyes and hair, although she never talked about that much to anyone. She had yet to even tell Kalin about it, in fact. But the biggest way of telling was their style of dress, which was uncommon in Transylvania but quite common in Turkey and certain other middle eastern countries. Some spoke mostly in Turkish, but with fragments of what they said being in languages Sheda could actually understand, for though she was indeed of Turkish descent she never learned the tongue of that country. The children did not walk upon the floor... but rather, they glided several inches above it, and their movements had a grace on par with that of skilled dancers. The girls all had wild hair that was long and cascaded down to their lower backs, whilst all the boys had hair either cut in a pageboy style or which hung about their shoulders in wild manes. Only the girls sang and spoke at all, whilst the boys remained totally silent. They were all barefoot, and each and every single child had fingers ending in sharp looking claws rather than normal fingernails. Equally bizarre was how instead of teeth the children had sharp fangs... as if they had filed their teeth to points. They looked very feral, and whatever they had become was no longer human. The oldest of the girls glided forward, she being a splendid looking fifteen year old in a beautiful wedding outfit that was consisting of a pair of very baggy white pantaloons and a silky looking white blouse with long billowing sleeves over which was worn an ornate velvet vest decorated with diamonds. A sash was belted about her waist, and she had ribbons further decorating her vest. She had been wearing a veil at first, as well as a headscarf in the Muslim fashion, and she cast both away when she approached Sheda. “We cannot leave this chapel, sister, for we are bound here now, and shall remain bound here by our own willing choice until our very first of all sisters... she whose bones sit upon the altar... is finally able to find peace. Her spirit refuses to come and play and sing with us, and every night after the second hour past midnight... she comes forth to haunt these halls and bemoan her tragic fate. We remain here in order to keep her company, and thus we shall not venture into the part of the keep intended for the living until our sister is in pain no more.”
Once the fifteen year old bride had finished talking, that was when Kalin walked into the chapel, and he said to his wife, within the presence of all his brides past... both the girls and the boys whom he had wed himself to: “Her name was Latifah, and she was the daughter of a nobleman from Turkey... back in the medieval days when I was much younger than I am in this day and age. She was but ten years old... yet I fell deeply in love with her, when the nobleman came to my court to visit me during a matter of trade between our two nations in one of those rare spans of time when there was no war between that country and this one. We were both but petty nobles, minor lords at best, and yet we acted as if we had all the authority of princes! When I asked that man for the hand of his daughter in marriage, he refused me what I desired... and when I offered him fabulous treasures if he would but consent to our marriage, he again for a second time refused me and spat upon all I brought before him. I vowed that she would be mine even if I had to invade his country and abduct her! And so when he returned to his native city, I gathered my army and laid siege to it... sacking it and setting it all ablaze. I slew the nobleman before his daughter's very eyes, and I took her back with me to my castle where I commanded the priest of this chapel to perform the ceremony to marry Latifah and I. All whilst my soldiers had their way with that city and all its' womenfolk, committing unspeakable atrocities there. The priest refused to do as I asked, and he said that for what I did in Turkey I was damned... and that I was acting not out of love at all, but out of animal lust. I responded, by confining the priest to one of the cells in the dungeons, and ordering the most skilled of all my artisans to come to the chapel and remake it after the image that you see all about you now. It took many long decades to complete this chapel's renovations, and in all of that time I noticed that my child bride did not age even one single day. The priest was an old man, by the time the alterations to the chapel were completed... and I was nearing fifty years of age by then. I asked the now quite elderly priest why it was that Latifah remained ten years of age and showed not a sign of growing up anytime soon... and he told he that because so many innocents had died for our love to be, that she was cursed to not ever die. And if one person more should perish in our love's name... then I too would become damned in just the same way as she was. I asked him why it should be that eternal life could be considered damnation, and he laughed and told me that some forms of immortality come with a cost to our very souls. I told him that I had already abandoned God and renounced my formerly Christian faith in favor of something more ancient, primal and real to me than some distant uncaring deity in the sky... and that now he would see the altered chapel and behold the proof of my words. I had him brought into the chapel where I and my beloved Latifah stood before him and she did mock him along with me. She, for she was Muslim rather than Christian... and I, because I now worshiped dark powers from worlds of a sort that are beyond the universe we exist within. Despite her pious devotion, to Allah, she saw in my dark faith a kindred spirit in our mutual disgust with Christianity and it's countless hypocritical lies and misdeeds. For the enemy of one's enemy can be more than a friend when two kindred spirits are wed as one, even if that marriage is enacted outside of the traditions of any church or mosque. At the last, I had ordered that the priest be shackled to that cross you see over there, and put to death slowly. As he knew the torments of torture and the agony of impending death, I kissed my child bride before the dark altar... and we both renounced the faiths of our birth, as we embraced our love with greater devotion than ever we had in the decades previous. With his dying breath, the priest cursed me to live forever... and he did just to spite me curse my bride to perish in some way that would make her immortality meaningless. He implored his precious God to visit this upon us, and to spite him Latifah ran forward and grabbed from around his neck the cross pendant that he always wore. As soon as she tore it from him, she died on the spot as if struck by some unseen force. I laid her upon the altar with a scroll containing a poem I wrote in her honor. The chapel was closed and no one was permitted to enter it again after that save for when we placed the skulls of our soldiers who had perished during the sack of that city beneath the cross on which hangs the priest's corpse. The chapel had become a tomb, and thus it remains unto this very day.”
And upon hearing this sad story, Sheda asked her husband: “But... what caused these other children to end up becoming as they are now?” And Kalin explained to her that each time he fell in love anew, and tried to take to his heart a new bride... be they a girl or a boy... within three nights following the night of them consummating their union, they were transformed into something no longer human. Whilst he too was no longer human, but remained human in appearance regardless. He always tried to find a child of a sort that reminded him of Latifah, and so that is why all of these children were of a similar type. That was also why he was so infatuated with Sheda herself, he confessed. “What would allow Latifah's soul to rest, my love?” she asked of her husband as she realized just how much he needed to be told that he was her love. “The chance to live again and be reunited with me.” explained the lord of the castle. As soon as she heard that, Sheda knew exactly what she needed to do. She walked over to the altar, and she placed her hands upon the remains of Latifah... and she reached out the spirit of the long dead girl with her mind, her heart, her soul and all of her spirit. “Come to me!” she voiced within her thoughts, as she likewise said that same aloud. “Come to me, and live again through me.” She said with a tone of voice that sounded like a monotone chant that she repeated many times. Finally, she spied the cross pendant on the floor nearby and she picked it up and clutched it to her breast whilst saying over and over in the same chanting manner: “Latifah! I implore you, though it be not the hour you normally favor... to come forth and come into my body so that you might live again through me.” And out from the altar, did rise up and float forth the spectral, wraith-like form of the long dead child that despite being ghostly looked exactly as she had when she still lived. “Do you know how many people they killed in here, my beloved and his brides... over the centuries since my death... in vain attempts to raise me from the dead? Always during the second hour past midnight! The screams of those victims kept my spirit restless during those hours of the evening that followed, their blood defiling the altar on which my bones repose. Yet he was always careful, my beloved was, never to allow the blood to taint my remains. If any blood so much as touched me, he cleaned it away immediately so that my corpse stayed pristine. Promise me, sister, that if I agree to enter into your body and live once again through it... with our souls and spirits so becoming one, with my memories joining with yours forevermore... promise me that no further blood shall defile this unholy place on account of my having died here.” And Kalin cried out, upon hearing this: “That is an easy promise to keep, my dearest one! For it is only because you died that I attempted in so clumsy a fashion the undertaking of your resurrection through such terrible means.” The ghost smiled on hearing her husband make that promise, and she said as she merged herself fully into Sheda's body, and thereon made it her own: “Thank you! Now, I can live once again... freed from the pain of the death that caused me to be separated from my soul's very mate.” Once she had entered into her new body, Sheda passed out as if she had suddenly fainted, and when she dropped the cross pendant unto the floor it shattered into countless pieces. The bones of the priest also crumbled apart, as centuries of that corpse being so mercilessly shackled finally took its' toll whilst at the same time... Latifah's skeletal remains crumbled into dust, to join all the other dust in that dark and forsaken place. Kalin rushed forward to make certain that his beloved was alright, and was relived to see that Sheda was still breathing. Her body had a series of convulsions and seizures going through it, and when those were all through... her eyes snapped open. Her skin suddenly became as white as is snow, her fingers were now like unto claws, and her teeth had become fangs. But, she was as beautiful as she ever had been! She would not have to wait three nights to transform... for, the power of Latifah's rebirth had caused Sheda's transformation to occur early. She embraced her beloved Lord Kalin and it was Latifah combined with Sheda who basked in his adoration of her. Following that embrace and the kiss that followed it, the lord of the castle and all of his brides... did come forth from that underground place of darkness and despair, having sealed the chapel forever. It was empty of occupation now, and though the brides no longer needed to eat food or to drink beverages to remain alive and healthy, the servants all the same prepared a great feast to celebrate this joyful hour.
When the little girl saw the castle in the far distance, approaching swiftly as the carriage brought her closer and closer to its' towers... she chanced to look up at the sky and did notice that the morning was slipping away, its' bright and cheerful colors replaced by a certain grayness when the sky grew cloudy, and dark, as if a storm was nigh. But no storm was at hand, and none came. Thus was it that a kind of strange gloom was upon the countryside and dense pine forests of the area through which the carriage traveled. The rugged hills and rough peaks of the mountains were frightful to behold for a young girl of a sort who was used to pleasant green fields and flowered meadows... all of the world that her parents had ever allowed her to see, before their untimely deaths took them away from her. To her imagination, they represented a reminder of mortality that she did not wish to have brought to mind. The peaks of the mountains were very high and the skies all about were filled with thick looking clouds that filled all the spaces that once were such a lovely shade of blue. The distant horizon all about was itself was a varied mixture of endless trees, distant hills, and tall mountains. But none of them seemed to her to quite be the equal of the frightful majesty of the towering peaks that loomed before her. It was a world of large things, and she was so small at only ten years of age. She could not fall asleep throughout the trip, no matter how many times she tried to. Fear of the unknown kept her awake and wariness gnawed at her thoughts, preventing her from feeling at ease. “I shall sleep later, if I may.” she mused silently whilst every so often the cracking of the coachman's whip startled her and made her shake nervously. It was good of the lord of yonder castle to take her in when her parents perished, and the messenger who did come to tell her the good news at her parents' funeral seemed a decent enough person. Though she had never met the lord of the castle to know if he too was equally a good sort. She was frightened of even a slight suggestion that her life might have just gone from difficult to worse... but all the same, she tried not to dwell on such baseless fears, preferring to accept the lord's generosity for the good gesture that it genuinely appeared to be. The child had eaten well before the coach came for her, and she stayed in the best of lodgings prior, with the lord's messenger having left her in the care of a kindly innkeeper who treated her as sweetly as one may please. The food at the inn was fantastic! The best she had eaten in a very long time, seeming ages really. Bacon mixed with onions, peppers, and chunks of beef along with eggs and sliced potatoes brought over from Ireland. Which had to have been somewhat expensive given this was Transylvania! The innkeeper was very wealthy, however, and could well afford such imported goods. She had her first taste of wine whilst staying at the inn, and she had spat it out at first... not truly expecting it to be as it was. She was only allowed a small taste, however... due to her young age... and, she was of a mind to give it more of a chance when she got older since the flavor of it was much to her liking. She would never be able to put out of her mind, the innkeeper's words to her when the time had come for her departure... he said unto her with concern in his voice most evident: “When you get to the castle, young one, just remember to keep your heart mindful of bright memories past. For there is much darkness in that place, though in my interactions with him the lord of the castle is not himself a wicked or terrible man. I... may have said something I should not have! Try to enjoy the ride out there, alright?” And she recalled that as he spoke to her of the castle, he clutched the cross pendant that he wore about his neck as if the holy symbol might protect him from some dreadful spiritual harm. “Is the lord really a good man?” she had asked him, and the innkeeper had said a very strange thing to her. He had stated: “A men are equal parts good and bad, even I! The lord... and we only ever call him 'lord', we no longer speak his name... he perhaps knows the truth of this better than most.” It was a strange thing to hear the man say, and she could not wrap her brain around the meaning of those words. It was autumn, and those trees that were not evergreen that she had seen in the forests all about were rich in the colors of foliage that the autumn season is renowned for in certain places. This place was no exception, and the beauty of those colors stayed with her once the gloom had descended and those colors seemed to be muted by it.
So dense were the forests and woods surrounding the road on both sides of it as the rough terrain of the road... more like a glorified wide path or trail really, ill suited for carriages to ride upon... that it was easy to imagine all manner of magical spirits both of good and evil nature dwelling in the deepest parts of them. She had dreams and nightmares of such things in the past, and still suffered from the worst of the night terrors that had seemed to come more often than the little girl should have liked. There was no pass through these mountains, only this straight road from the nearest village up to the castle itself. Her own home village was itself many winding and more well paved roads distant from that one... and she felt glad that the carriage had not stopped for the night. She was not homesick, was tired of the village life and the hardships she had come to associate with it, and was looking forward to settling in at last at the castle. Like a princess from a fairy tale! That is what she imagined living there was going to be like for her. She kept looking away at the slopes of distant hills, sometimes seeing one or two that had old ruins on the heights of them... and she wondered who might have actually dwelt in those ruins before they became as they now were. Snow capped the tops of the mountains, she noticed, and the air felt a lot more crisp the closer the carriage drew to the castle. Nearby was a forest of birch trees, and the girl had remembered seeing birches like those at a park when she was very little. In England it was the age of Queen Victoria, a time of civilization and the expansion thereof. But in this place, civilization was a bit farther off than it was in England and though the little girl's family had come from England a good many years before she had been born... she herself had never been there, never seen the civilized places that her parents had spoken of so fairly at times. And so, to her, birch forests were a magical place, for in her mind magic had replaced the science that was becoming increasingly the order of the day. Those trees held a certain fascination for her, and she never really understood way. They just did, and that was enough! “How much farther until we are there, driver?” she asked the coachman, after rolling down the sliding panel that separated the interior of the carriage from where the driver sat at the reigns of the two horses that drove it onward. He looked as drab as ever in his long gray coat and his wide brimmed hat, his face pale and almost skeletal in appearance. She hadn't the will to look into his eyes to tell what the color of them was. He replied: “In a hurry, are we? I wouldn't be if I were you! But well and good, we will be arriving shortly enough. Shortly enough indeed!” and he chuckled in a very sinister manner that caused the child to slide the panel back down and return to her silent thoughts. Wolves were howling in the distance not long after that, and the sound of them was mournful... it should have been frightening to the little girl but instead it felt soothing to her. Had she not been so excited and nervous all perhaps at the same time, she would have been lulled to sleep by the music of the wolves' cries. Was it that far past morning that wolves were crying in the hills and woodlands already? It could not have been that close to nightfall, the child reasoned, and accepted that the wolves were only this active here and now due to that strange cloudy gloom that hung over all the land hereabout. It may as well have been night! Or late afternoon... with such a darkness covering the countryside. The driver has spoken true, and a great deal sooner than she had expected, the girl could look out the window and crane her head just enough to see the mighty fortress where in the lord the surrounding countryside lived. The carriage crossed a bridge over a deep chasm, and passed through the open gates of the castle's large gatehouse. They did, at last, disembark in the courtyard past the gatehouse where the driver took the horses away to the stable house to be cared for. The little girl noticed only blackness within the windows, save for those that held faint candlelight or lamplight. The walls were high, the battlements rough and rugged, and the towers so tall! Though the towers themselves were dwarfed by the mountainside that rose up behind the castle like a mighty wall built by huge giants in a time before mankind was quite so numerous upon the face of this world. If it was still day, it was impossible to tell for the gloom was thickest here and save for the lamps attached to the outside of the main keep and other important buildings of the castle... it would have not been wrong to say that there was the distinct feel of twilight about everything here. It looked so lonely!
The child looked nervously towards the dark archways that led away from the courtyard, and it felt as if something watched her from the shadows therein. The driver returned shortly to fetch the child's bags and he gave them to some servants who emerged from one of the archways. They took the bags into the keep by way of a servants' entrance, and the driver instructed the little girl to wait in the courtyard for a bit whilst he went to fetch the lord of the castle. There was no door knocker upon the keep's main gates and no bell to announce visitors. Nor was there a window or a hatch in them. Only thick wood that was reinforced by iron in places to make it stronger. After an intolerably long wait, the child cried out in the direction of the keep's gates: “Hello! Is anybody there? I hope you have not forgotten about me!” And, as she might have expected, there was no answer to her cry. Already, she missed the inn and its' warmth and prompt service. “Just a moment, little girl! Pray, be patient. I am coming!” called out a soft man's voice from behind the keep's gates. He must have moved quietly indeed, for she had heard no footsteps of any kind prior. He unlocked the gates, by the sound of it, and then ordered some servants who were with him... who had moved with equal stealth and silence... to cast the rugged portals open. With many a creak and groan, the gates were cast wide and the lord of the castle strode forward to greet the child who was now in his lawful custody and keeping. He was middle aged, fast nearing fifty if not already at that age, and he was clean shaven. Not only was his face shaven, but so was his head, and the girl saw that the man had no eyebrows to speak of. His eyelashes were as long as hers, and there was a certain feminine quality to this man's features despite his high cheekbones, aquiline nose, and high forehead... all traits bespeaking of many a nobleman. He was average of build and average also of height, and his hands were slender rather than strong looking. They were the hands of an artist rather than a man used to laborious work or activity requiring great physical exertion. He kept his fingernails neatly clipped, it seemed, and the man smelled a bit like lavender scented perfume. He wore a pair of black pantaloons of the Turkish fashion, and had tucked into them a black blouse with billowing sleeves over which he had on a black leather vest that looked very fashionable and which was buttoned in the front. He had a pair of shoes, also black, upon his feet and a black cloak kept him warm amid the cold air of the mountains. The man was pale, with a hint of yellow about his skin that gave it a sallow appearance. She wondered what bloodline produced this man, where his ancestors had hailed from originally, and what blood did course through his veins, carrying with it the history of peoples strange and foreign to the girl's limited knowledge. She had never seen someone quite like him before... and his almond shaped eyes looked at her kindly, unlike her father's eyes which had always seemed cold to her even when he was trying to be kind. His somewhat smallish mouth and naturally reddish lips parted as he said unto her after doing a slight bow once he was standing fully in her presence: “I bid you welcome... my dear, sweet child! My name, though it is to my displeasure that no one in all these lands seems of a want to speak it aloud any longer, is Kalin. And my full name is Kalin Dragos. My family is an old family, an ancient one, and its' lineage reaches very far beyond the borders of this country. I inherited my parents' wealth and the title belonging to my father before me, though I also inherited their misfortunes to a certain extent. But we shall not speak of misfortune today! Pray tell me, what is your name again? It was told to me, but I fear with all of my pressing duties I must have forgotten it. I assure you though, that upon hearing your lips speak it, it will never flee from my mind again!” And he regarded the little girl eagerly as he waited to hear her tell him her name, in her own sweet voice. She was stocky of build, very dusky skinned, and evidently of a variety of middle eastern descent. She had long curly black hair, dark brown eyes, and broad features that complemented her full, plump lips quite nicely indeed. She was a big girl, but not overweight at all. Rather, she was large boned. She wore a long red velvet dress with adorably puffy looking sleeves, had on a pair of warm looking boots of a matching color, and over her dress she had on a maroon colored cloak for added warmth. Her face was round, innocent looking, and pleasing to look at, as was this girl in her entirety. Though her family originated in England, their blood was not of there.
She curtsied and then bowed, just like her parents had taught her to do in the presence of the nobility, before saying in a meek tone of voice: “My lord, my name is Rahsheda. And my full name is Rahsheda Neylan. I thank you for taking me in.” He wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace, and said to her soothingly: “Oh, delightful Sheda... for I believe I shall call you Sheda henceforth... you need never call me 'my lord' or anything of the sort! Hearing you say that sounds far too formal when you are to be my daughter henceforth. Also, think nothing of me taking you in! How could I refuse, on learning of the plight your parents' deaths left you in. A flower such as you should not be left to wither on the streets of peasant villages and cold, cruel city streets.” She smiled, and replied: “Thank you, Kalin! Forgive me if I dislike calling anyone father though... my own father was not very nice to me, after all.” He ran a hand through her hair, caressing the tresses of it as he answered: “I understand, child! I understand far better, I suspect, than you might think. Come on! Let us get inside and out of the cold air. I've a warm hearth, and when you are ready to sleep tonight, an equally warm bed awaiting you.” She was not tired yet, not even now. Lord Kalin had made her feel very comfortable, very much at home, and she could not wait to see the inside of this place which was now her home. He took her by the hand, and now she could so clearly hear his footsteps as they walked along that she wondered what had obscured their sound before. The servants went about their business, leaving the pair to themselves... once the gates had been closed once again, that is. Passing through the entrance hall and its' cozy wood paneled interior with a layer of thick carpeting on the floor, it was easy to see why such carpeting would muffle any footsteps, which it became apparent was what was happening now once again. If the outside of the castle looked medieval, the interior was more modern, by Victorian standards, then one might have expected. Many candles and lamps kept the castle's various rooms bright and cheery looking enough, at least in the keep, and it had to have been hardly an easy job for the servants to keep all of them lit, yet they seemed to be managing it well. But once she was past these more familiar areas, the larger sections of the keep looked a great deal more medieval in comparison, at least to the little girl's mind. Tall columns and high archways did line many of the halls, and there was a level of ostentation and opulence to rival the palaces of princes in many nations the world over. But the past was evident in many places, a past in which war and blood had been visited upon the land, and during which brave knights and valiant warriors fought to protect their country from foreign invaders. Suits of armor decorated some hallways, lining the sides of them, armored gauntlets made to appear as if they were still clutching the swords that were propped up to so look as if the suits of armor held them tightly. Sheda's eyes widened at the sight of these, and it felt very much indeed like something out of a fairy tale, just as she had hoped it would. Soon, just off one of the hallways, the pair entered a rather small study room containing a modest library of bookshelves, a fully stocked writing desk, a study table, and some chairs that looked very comfortable to sit in. This room, was warm and comfortable thanks to a fireplace that had crackling wood and roaring flames within it. The lord seated himself near a wall from which hung various elaborate tapestries depicting some sort of medieval hunting excursions. He motioned to his lap, and the little girl seated herself upon it whilst his arms enfolded her. They discarded their cloaks beforehand. “After such a long journey, you surely must be tired... try to rest in my arms if you are able, and when you wake up we shall see about a late supper. If you do not wish to sleep just yet, I can always tell you stories until you are ready to... or until the hour for supper is come. Whatever pleases you the most, we shall do!” Kalin told her. She felt secure in his arms, and as she listened to him telling her wild and grim stories about the castle's past... his breath on her hair felt good to her. She must have been more tired than she thought, because soon she was asleep in his arms, there upon his lap, with her her eyes too heavy to keep open any longer. She had some very strange dreams, but no nightmares that she could later recall. However, she could have sworn that she had felt hands touching her in places no father normally would are to touch his daughter... and as soon as she awoke, she noticed her legs were straddling the lord's lap in an almost indecent sort of manner.
Her undergarments were laying on the floor nearby, and she knew that indeed Kalin had touched her whilst she slept. She asked him why he had done this, and he told her: “It is how men show women that they are in love with that they are attracted to them, that they love them in a physical sense. I did not a thing that could be considered a defilement, however, rest assured! I would never engage in certain acts with you, without your permission. At the worst, this was a molestation... not a ravishment. It gave me pleasure to do this, and when you are older it will give you pleasure as well.” She could not deny that it felt... interesting... and she admitted to him: “I never said it was not pleasing! But you just said it was a thing men only do if they are in love. Are you in love with me?” She had never been in love with a boy before, and this boy was a man old enough to be her grandfather. Yet, she felt something profound when this thought crossed her mind... something wonderful... he was initiating this, not her. Yet, it was not in the least bit displeasing to her that this was happening. When he told her: “Yes, child! Yes, I am in love with you, and I have been since first I learned of your life and what you suffered from your father. And, how your mother did nothing about it. I heard about your beauty, your grace through all you suffered at that odious man's hands and that rotten woman's neglect, and of your desire for a life just like a princess from one of those fairy tales I hear you are so fond of. Knowing your need, and seeing your beauty with my own eyes at last, and having you so close to me... upon my very lap, in my very arms... how could I not fall deeply and madly in love with you!” she felt elation at hearing him say all of this to her. He had learned of the things of which she had told no one, and with him she need not hide anything any longer. She said unto him happily: “I love you too, Kalin! Does this mean I get to be the princess of this castle? I always wanted to be a pretty princess.” And the man stroked her hair once again and smiled at her in a contented way as he promised: “Yes, Sheda! You will be my princess forever, and you shall have all of the things you lacked before in life. I will make you a goodly husband, and you shall make me a lovely bride. When you are ready... we shall, together, consummate our wedding night following a ceremony that will be just between you and I, with no priest presiding over things to get in the way of what we do. I am the law here, and the only law you and I need follow together is the law of love, and pleasure. All that is not done in civilized lands, we may do... and all that is done here, is done for the sake of pleasure and only for pleasure's sake. Nothing is forbidden for us to savor and enjoy, like a banquet filled with a goodly diversity of many delightful delicacies! We may partake as we desire.” And with that he leaned in and kissed the little girl passionately upon the lips, his hand reaching up her skirts to feel her in the most intimate of places between her legs. She gasped at that fondling, and withdrew from the kiss to do so before his mouth was upon hers again, and this time she allowed their kiss to deepen as their tongues entwined playfully. What his did, she copied with hers, and thus she learned how to kiss romantically. He taught her how to give his manhood pleasure with her hands and her mouth after that... and once she had done all that pleased him... the two of them put on any clothing that was taken off during such sport as they had engaged in and made haste to the dining hall for supper. Supper had come late, for it took a while for the little girl to master the lessons that her husband to be had taught her... but her father once told her to always perform perfectly at any lessons that needed to be learned in life, anything at all that an adult might need to teach her. And that demand... for it was a demand on her father's part rather than proper fatherly advice... had prepared her well to excel at everything Kalin required her to do. The lord had to explain to her what the stuff that had suddenly and quickly emerged from his cock was when he did orgasm into her mouth... warning her that it was going to happen beforehand and thereupon giving her the choice to swallow it or spit it out as she liked. She chose to swallow it, thinking it was gross to spit, and though it was hardly sweet to the taste she kept it down knowing it would please Kalin more if she did not show any signs of disliking the experience. For her, disliking it was simply not an option as this was a man of wealth, nobility, and power... and she was from a far less grand background. She had to please him, and she had to like it. Her father had oft told her such was the way with nobles, after all.
Supper was already laid out for them at the dining hall's long table, the servants hastening to make all things in perfect readiness for their arrival. It was a spacious hall with a warm hearth and more splendid tapestries, and a few paintings, hanging from the wood paneled walls. The carpeting here was soft, and it covered the tiled floor almost to every corner of the hall. The hall was in a section of the keep where one could look out the windows and get a good view of the thickly wooded landscape outside. Elegant draperies and curtains kept the place from becoming drafty, and the windows were kept securely closed. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and wooden pillars supported the ceiling beams all the way up to the rafters above. It was like the modern incarnation of an ancient northern mead hall, and Kalin and Sheda were the king and queen of this domain. The little girl barely hid her delight when she saw the feast as was prepared for them to savor. Never had been presented with such a dinner before in her entire life! It consisted of roasted chicken and cooked meats of various types, along with cheeses and salads and all manner of vegetables, fruits, and delicacies. Wine was served, and flowed freely as the servants joined in the meal once all was laid out... whilst Kalin and Sheda took their seats together at the head of the table, which at either end was wide enough to seat two people comfortably. And, a large number could be seated along the length of the table on both sides of it, so that there was quite the gathering present. “You mean the servants here are actually allowed to eat with us?” asked the child, which caused quite the chuckled among the servants. Kalin explained to her: “Of course, they are! We are all equals here no matter what our jobs or tasks may be that are required of us. It is wrong, that a servant should not break bread with their master or mistress, and so why should the servants not share in our company!” The girl replied to that with: “I see!” and with no one standing on any ceremony, everyone dug into their meal with relish. “The silverware is the finest quality, and I believe some of it is imported from Spain.” said Kalin, showing his fork and knife to the little girl, whose eyes went wide with surprise at hearing this. “May I have some water? I am not supposed to drink wine, since I am only a child.” said Sheda, and the lord told her in answer to that: “You may drink wine if it pleases you to do so, but remember my love... you must only ever drink it in moderation. I will demonstrate.” and he showed her how to have only so much and not too much for one so young. He had called her “my love” and this filled her with a great deal of excitement she could barely contain. Better than “daughter” any day, the sound of those words! He was so gallant, gracious, and well mannered... very much like a prince for certain, and this made it all the more dreamlike, this experience of living like a princess. Of being a princess! There was jesting and revelry, and singing and fellowship aplenty at this table, and it had the atmosphere of a gathering of friends and family. It was a late hour for supper, well into the night, and yet it appeared that all who sat at this table had if anything more energy than they had when it was still daytime. “Night is the time for celebrations, here!” Kalin told the little girl at one point, explaining the festive atmosphere so that it did not puzzle her. She had merely accepted it, however, and was not as puzzled as the lord has assumed. It was, rather, that she had never been in such a joyful company before, and found it wonderful and just a bit overwhelming. Once the meal was finished and everyone began to retire for the evening except for any servants who had nightly duties... Kalin took Sheda to his chambers, where her bags had been fully unpacked and her belongings put in their proper places. She had her own closet for her clothes, next to the lord's closet, and a chest for all her favorite toys, as well as a beautiful jewelry box to keep all of her finest jewelry in. She had only a few necklaces before, but now the box she saw was filled with many more, along with bracelets and other baubles fit for a noblewoman. Or in her case, a noble child. There was only one bed, and she knew that she would be sleeping with Kalin henceforth. But since they were going to be married, it was only right in her thinking that they should share a bed together. She did not know if society would have thought this was right or not, and she did not care. She felt it was right, and so in this place, with Kalin at her side, it was very right indeed. They had their wedding night that night, and she was a virgin no longer when it was through. It was painful, and yet it brought her such pleasure!
Upon the morrow, they dressed themselves for the day... the lord in attire similar to what he had worn the day previous only scarlet in color instead of black. Sheda was presented by her beloved lord with a long gown of the softest silk which she immediately put on. It was mustard yellow in color with white lacy trim, and it had elegant white underskirts that gave the gown a puffy look to it. The bloomers she was given to wear for undergarments were of white silk, and felt far more comfortable to wear than her old ones ever had. The sleeves of the gown were puffy at the tops but straighter in the arms, and all the whole look of it was like something from the previous century. She was given soft gold colored slippers to put on her feet, and the wide neck of the gown allowed for her to choose a beautiful gold necklace to wear which had upon it a pendant shaped like a small Egyptian Ankh with a red ruby gemstone set into the loop of the Ankh. Kalin slid a ruby ring upon the ring finger of the little girl's left hand, and showed her that he wore a similar ring upon his left hand as well. “With this ring, we be wed!” he exclaimed on seeing the bright smile playing upon his little wife's delighted face. They had washed extensively, most especially after the previous night's activities... and he had been tender with her when it was time at the last to clean the blood from when she lost her virginity to him. Washed and perfumed, the child looked radiant in her new clothes and felt radiant in her new role. She still hurt a bit between her legs, and her husband had explained to her why, and for how long she could expect to feel like that. Pain, she finally realized and understood, was the gateway to greater pleasures! And greater rewards. This was not truly a corruption of a young person's spirit... rather, it was instead that she was giving in to desires she never had the chance to realize she harbored before. And she was enjoying doing so, even if many might have said that it was wrong! It was not wrong to her, nor to her husband... and so... it was permitted, that she be allowed to savor and enjoy each new experience that she found herself indulging in. Apparently, all of the servants knew that the lord had a deep affection for and attraction to little girls, and girls in their teens as well, and sometimes they spoke of his previous brides and when they did so they spoke of the children quite fearfully. Whilst the lord was busy with some tasks about the keep that demanded his full attention, that is when Sheda so chanced to hear the talk about those past brides... as she explored a bit on her own. “What happened to them?” she asked one of the servants who had been chatting about this to another. And the old woman told her only: “We don't speak of that, my lady! And aye, we were made fully aware that you are to be addressed henceforth by a proper title that is befitting you now being our master's bride.” But the little girl would not relent, she inquired further asking: “Come on, tell me what happened to those other girls! Did something awful happen to them; did they die?” And the old woman told her in a hushed tone of voice: “Some things are much worse than death, my lady! Much worse. So much so, that it cannot be put into simple words. At the second hour past midnight tonight, go down to the under chambers of the keep, to where the original chapel used to be before it was abandoned when the new one was built on the grounds. Enter the chapel, and you will see for yourself. But make certain that you go there alone, and do not let the master know what you intend to do. It is not kept locked, but it is so deep under the keep that no one ever goes there any longer.” Then, Sheda asked the old woman: “Why do you call him 'master' when he said that everyone here is supposed to be equal?” And this was what the old woman told her in reply: “We call him that not because he insists upon it... he hates it!... in truth, we call him that behind his back because we fear him. I shall say no more about it! Be off, and be careful my lady. Lest you end up like those who came to the master's bed before you.” And with that, it was needful for the little girl to take her mind off of such dark and forbidding words. She tried to play with her toys back in the chambers that belonged to her and Kalin... but found that with this matter so heavily weighing upon her thoughts, she could find no joy in such play. She could not wait until it was so late to know what was happening down in that chapel! Or what had happened there in the past. She had to go there at once, to see for herself what was within. Besides that, she had no desire to lie to her husband and sneak away from their bed in the middle of the night. She planned to go to the chapel now.
It was difficult to find her way below, and she had to ask some of the servants many times for more exact directions in order to know how to get to the chapel. She lied to them and said she had the lord's permission, and upon hearing that the servants made the sign of the cross with their hands before telling her what she wished to know. All of them acted as if she was going to her doom. Whatever lay below, it could surely not be something as terrible as they were all making it out to be! Could it? Such was what she was thinking as her feet padded along the cold stone floors of the under chambers with only a small lamp held before her to light the way in this domain of pitch black darkness. She passed through many storage chambers, wine cellars, and strange rooms that almost looked like cells for keeping prisoners in. When she spotted the occasional torture chamber, she reasoned that after all this had been a castle built back in the medieval era, after all... it stood to reason that it should have a dungeon. She saw at times a fresh bloodstain here and there, and convinced herself that it was only wine spilled by the servants. But then she remembered what they had told her... that no one goes down this way any longer. No one save for the lord of the castle and, of old, the child brides who had been his wives before Sheda came along. The servants only ever went as far as the wine cellars, and by the time the blood stains became evident to the little girl's inquisitive eyes she had already left the wine cellars far, far behind and several levels up above. How many stairs and steps had she descended, anyway? Too many for her liking. Her legs... how they ached from walking down and down, deeper and deeper, and walking on and on for so long by that point without taking a single break! But she dared not rest even briefly in such a place, with a fleeting light that could go out on her if she lingered for too long. So she quickened her pace and chose not to slow it, and soon she arrived at a set of ornate looking metal doors within an elegant archway that was flanked on both sides by roman style columns that had the images of snakes entwining them like a garland from their base to their heights, carved so realistically that the sight of them frightened the child at first when she beheld them. The door had etched upon its' surface a depiction of a subterranean place wherein the spirits of countless children... all of them girls save for only a handful of boys who had a beauty akin to that of the girls... floated about like disembodied ghosts, wearing long diaphanous gowns that only added to their spectral appearances. “What a very strange choice of decoration for the doors of a chapel!” She mused to herself whilst contemplating whether or not to try and cast those doors open. They looked so heavy to her! And she was so young, and hardly strong in any way. Then... she spotted a lever next to the doors on the left hand side, and she thought that perhaps the doors were able to be cast open using that lever. There were no door knobs, no knockers, nor any other way possible after all. And upon attempting to push the doors inward, the child found them to be totally immovable even when she attempted unsuccessfully to slam herself against them with all her might. “I do not know what made me even try to do that! That really hurt my shoulder, badly.” she thought to herself, deciding to try to pull the lever next without any further delay. It wasn't locked, she had been told. And sure enough, when she pulled the lever the sound of unseen gears turning and mechanisms working resounded with an echo all throughout the underground. But not far enough to ever reach the surface. Upon entering the chapel, the little girl saw it was decorated on both sides of the vast chamber before her with tall columns exactly of the same sort that she had beheld flanking the chapel doors. There were stone benches in place of what normally in most chapels might have been wooden pews, and the central aisle between the rows of the benches was decorated with a long blood red carpet that was covered in dust. Dust was thick in the air, and there were cobwebs in every corner and upon many of the benches as well as some of the columns. Sheda coughed a bit on inhaling the dusty air, and it was like walking into a tomb that had been sealed up for centuries. Instead of statues of saints, there were statues of demonic creatures of a sort that was grotesque, alien in appearance, and terrible to behold. She screamed at the sight of those statues, at first thinking them to be real. And she was grateful to see that they were not! She felt nervous as she walked along whilst exploring this forbidden place. When she reached the altar place, she gasped in true fright.
The altar was a stone square the height of a table and covered in arcane symbols of every sort, all of diabolical and satanic purpose and meaning. Old blood stains so covered the top of it, and parts of the front and back and sides of it also. Behind the altar was a massive mural depicting a hellish domain of the sort that sometimes the child had beheld only in her very worst and darkest of nightmares. A large inverted cross made of metal was suspended from the ceiling by thick chains right in front of the mural, and the skeletal remains of a long dead priest was shackled to the cross. Bloodstains on the cross told a gruesome tale of how the man had met his end. Piles of adult sized skulls were heaped about below the cross, some covered in old dried blood. Upon the altar, were the skeletal remains of a long dead child, a little girl judging by the remnants of the child's dress which looked to be from the medieval period. A tattered scroll that looked as if it might fall apart at any minute was with the girl's remains, and from the state of the bones the child had not died violently. So then, where did all of the blood that was covering the altar come from? The whole place had the odor of rot to it, and something terrible had happened in these halls long, long ago. Sheda decided to attempt to read the scroll, only for it to fall apart as soon as she had picked it up. Suddenly, the sound of singing resounded from several hallways beyond shadowy archways in between the statues on both sides of the chapel. It was the singing of little girls, and it was as harmonious as it was unnerving. The singing stopped, and it was followed by hissing whispers and mutterings. None of the children sounded any older than fifteen years of age, and most sounded much, much younger but none younger than eight years old. Were they the brides that she had heard about? At once, she decided to cry out to them and attempt to talk to them. She cried: “Hello! Sisters, is that you? I say sisters because I am Kalin's wife now just like you all are. Why do you live down here in this dark and awful place? Come on out so I can see you! Let us talk, we can be friends.” And then, the children came forward, from the shadows... and the little girl could see why they chose to thus keep themselves hidden away. All of them had skin as white as snow, abnormally pale in fact. And they were of Turkish ancestry just like she was by their facial features and the color of their eyes and hair, although she never talked about that much to anyone. She had yet to even tell Kalin about it, in fact. But the biggest way of telling was their style of dress, which was uncommon in Transylvania but quite common in Turkey and certain other middle eastern countries. Some spoke mostly in Turkish, but with fragments of what they said being in languages Sheda could actually understand, for though she was indeed of Turkish descent she never learned the tongue of that country. The children did not walk upon the floor... but rather, they glided several inches above it, and their movements had a grace on par with that of skilled dancers. The girls all had wild hair that was long and cascaded down to their lower backs, whilst all the boys had hair either cut in a pageboy style or which hung about their shoulders in wild manes. Only the girls sang and spoke at all, whilst the boys remained totally silent. They were all barefoot, and each and every single child had fingers ending in sharp looking claws rather than normal fingernails. Equally bizarre was how instead of teeth the children had sharp fangs... as if they had filed their teeth to points. They looked very feral, and whatever they had become was no longer human. The oldest of the girls glided forward, she being a splendid looking fifteen year old in a beautiful wedding outfit that was consisting of a pair of very baggy white pantaloons and a silky looking white blouse with long billowing sleeves over which was worn an ornate velvet vest decorated with diamonds. A sash was belted about her waist, and she had ribbons further decorating her vest. She had been wearing a veil at first, as well as a headscarf in the Muslim fashion, and she cast both away when she approached Sheda. “We cannot leave this chapel, sister, for we are bound here now, and shall remain bound here by our own willing choice until our very first of all sisters... she whose bones sit upon the altar... is finally able to find peace. Her spirit refuses to come and play and sing with us, and every night after the second hour past midnight... she comes forth to haunt these halls and bemoan her tragic fate. We remain here in order to keep her company, and thus we shall not venture into the part of the keep intended for the living until our sister is in pain no more.”
Once the fifteen year old bride had finished talking, that was when Kalin walked into the chapel, and he said to his wife, within the presence of all his brides past... both the girls and the boys whom he had wed himself to: “Her name was Latifah, and she was the daughter of a nobleman from Turkey... back in the medieval days when I was much younger than I am in this day and age. She was but ten years old... yet I fell deeply in love with her, when the nobleman came to my court to visit me during a matter of trade between our two nations in one of those rare spans of time when there was no war between that country and this one. We were both but petty nobles, minor lords at best, and yet we acted as if we had all the authority of princes! When I asked that man for the hand of his daughter in marriage, he refused me what I desired... and when I offered him fabulous treasures if he would but consent to our marriage, he again for a second time refused me and spat upon all I brought before him. I vowed that she would be mine even if I had to invade his country and abduct her! And so when he returned to his native city, I gathered my army and laid siege to it... sacking it and setting it all ablaze. I slew the nobleman before his daughter's very eyes, and I took her back with me to my castle where I commanded the priest of this chapel to perform the ceremony to marry Latifah and I. All whilst my soldiers had their way with that city and all its' womenfolk, committing unspeakable atrocities there. The priest refused to do as I asked, and he said that for what I did in Turkey I was damned... and that I was acting not out of love at all, but out of animal lust. I responded, by confining the priest to one of the cells in the dungeons, and ordering the most skilled of all my artisans to come to the chapel and remake it after the image that you see all about you now. It took many long decades to complete this chapel's renovations, and in all of that time I noticed that my child bride did not age even one single day. The priest was an old man, by the time the alterations to the chapel were completed... and I was nearing fifty years of age by then. I asked the now quite elderly priest why it was that Latifah remained ten years of age and showed not a sign of growing up anytime soon... and he told he that because so many innocents had died for our love to be, that she was cursed to not ever die. And if one person more should perish in our love's name... then I too would become damned in just the same way as she was. I asked him why it should be that eternal life could be considered damnation, and he laughed and told me that some forms of immortality come with a cost to our very souls. I told him that I had already abandoned God and renounced my formerly Christian faith in favor of something more ancient, primal and real to me than some distant uncaring deity in the sky... and that now he would see the altered chapel and behold the proof of my words. I had him brought into the chapel where I and my beloved Latifah stood before him and she did mock him along with me. She, for she was Muslim rather than Christian... and I, because I now worshiped dark powers from worlds of a sort that are beyond the universe we exist within. Despite her pious devotion, to Allah, she saw in my dark faith a kindred spirit in our mutual disgust with Christianity and it's countless hypocritical lies and misdeeds. For the enemy of one's enemy can be more than a friend when two kindred spirits are wed as one, even if that marriage is enacted outside of the traditions of any church or mosque. At the last, I had ordered that the priest be shackled to that cross you see over there, and put to death slowly. As he knew the torments of torture and the agony of impending death, I kissed my child bride before the dark altar... and we both renounced the faiths of our birth, as we embraced our love with greater devotion than ever we had in the decades previous. With his dying breath, the priest cursed me to live forever... and he did just to spite me curse my bride to perish in some way that would make her immortality meaningless. He implored his precious God to visit this upon us, and to spite him Latifah ran forward and grabbed from around his neck the cross pendant that he always wore. As soon as she tore it from him, she died on the spot as if struck by some unseen force. I laid her upon the altar with a scroll containing a poem I wrote in her honor. The chapel was closed and no one was permitted to enter it again after that save for when we placed the skulls of our soldiers who had perished during the sack of that city beneath the cross on which hangs the priest's corpse. The chapel had become a tomb, and thus it remains unto this very day.”
And upon hearing this sad story, Sheda asked her husband: “But... what caused these other children to end up becoming as they are now?” And Kalin explained to her that each time he fell in love anew, and tried to take to his heart a new bride... be they a girl or a boy... within three nights following the night of them consummating their union, they were transformed into something no longer human. Whilst he too was no longer human, but remained human in appearance regardless. He always tried to find a child of a sort that reminded him of Latifah, and so that is why all of these children were of a similar type. That was also why he was so infatuated with Sheda herself, he confessed. “What would allow Latifah's soul to rest, my love?” she asked of her husband as she realized just how much he needed to be told that he was her love. “The chance to live again and be reunited with me.” explained the lord of the castle. As soon as she heard that, Sheda knew exactly what she needed to do. She walked over to the altar, and she placed her hands upon the remains of Latifah... and she reached out the spirit of the long dead girl with her mind, her heart, her soul and all of her spirit. “Come to me!” she voiced within her thoughts, as she likewise said that same aloud. “Come to me, and live again through me.” She said with a tone of voice that sounded like a monotone chant that she repeated many times. Finally, she spied the cross pendant on the floor nearby and she picked it up and clutched it to her breast whilst saying over and over in the same chanting manner: “Latifah! I implore you, though it be not the hour you normally favor... to come forth and come into my body so that you might live again through me.” And out from the altar, did rise up and float forth the spectral, wraith-like form of the long dead child that despite being ghostly looked exactly as she had when she still lived. “Do you know how many people they killed in here, my beloved and his brides... over the centuries since my death... in vain attempts to raise me from the dead? Always during the second hour past midnight! The screams of those victims kept my spirit restless during those hours of the evening that followed, their blood defiling the altar on which my bones repose. Yet he was always careful, my beloved was, never to allow the blood to taint my remains. If any blood so much as touched me, he cleaned it away immediately so that my corpse stayed pristine. Promise me, sister, that if I agree to enter into your body and live once again through it... with our souls and spirits so becoming one, with my memories joining with yours forevermore... promise me that no further blood shall defile this unholy place on account of my having died here.” And Kalin cried out, upon hearing this: “That is an easy promise to keep, my dearest one! For it is only because you died that I attempted in so clumsy a fashion the undertaking of your resurrection through such terrible means.” The ghost smiled on hearing her husband make that promise, and she said as she merged herself fully into Sheda's body, and thereon made it her own: “Thank you! Now, I can live once again... freed from the pain of the death that caused me to be separated from my soul's very mate.” Once she had entered into her new body, Sheda passed out as if she had suddenly fainted, and when she dropped the cross pendant unto the floor it shattered into countless pieces. The bones of the priest also crumbled apart, as centuries of that corpse being so mercilessly shackled finally took its' toll whilst at the same time... Latifah's skeletal remains crumbled into dust, to join all the other dust in that dark and forsaken place. Kalin rushed forward to make certain that his beloved was alright, and was relived to see that Sheda was still breathing. Her body had a series of convulsions and seizures going through it, and when those were all through... her eyes snapped open. Her skin suddenly became as white as is snow, her fingers were now like unto claws, and her teeth had become fangs. But, she was as beautiful as she ever had been! She would not have to wait three nights to transform... for, the power of Latifah's rebirth had caused Sheda's transformation to occur early. She embraced her beloved Lord Kalin and it was Latifah combined with Sheda who basked in his adoration of her. Following that embrace and the kiss that followed it, the lord of the castle and all of his brides... did come forth from that underground place of darkness and despair, having sealed the chapel forever. It was empty of occupation now, and though the brides no longer needed to eat food or to drink beverages to remain alive and healthy, the servants all the same prepared a great feast to celebrate this joyful hour.
Published 8th Dec 2023
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