Hidden in the Darkness

[Elflady]

Standing in her room examining the dresses hanging in her wardrobe, just a normal one, she didn't much like those large walk in closets, despite their useful size Angeline only expected to see something crawl out of it. That may be a ridiculous superstition judging by what she was, but that was also the reason she knew such thoughts could very well come true. Luckily her house was safe. Not many creatures risked entering this home without reason, the family living there frightened of lesser creatures with number solely, of course she used the word family in the lightest sense of the word, as only two were actually related.

Finally deciding on a light maroon dress with as little frills as possible, and also with the smallest hat, it had tight, wrinkled sleeves on the jacket bodice while the overskirt was caught up slightly on the sides showing the creamy beige underskirt. Angeline skipped the corset entirely, she hated the feeling of it like she couldn't breath, besides she wasn't looking for a husband so she had no one to impress.

"Are you done?" Katherine called from downstairs, probably already done as always, Angeline sighed and pulled part of her long hair up in a bun on her head and covered it with the hat before emerging meeting her bubbly red headed stepsister Claire on the way.

"Come now Angie," she said as she noticed the expression on Angeline's face. "It's not the end of the world." Angeline frowned over the nickname but she had tried and failed for years to get Claire to stop using it and now she was almost used to it.

Of all the people in the house Angeline felt that she and Claire was closest in terms of personality, Katherine was very strict and proper and Lucy while kind was not as easy going as her brother Lucian. "Perhaps not but it feels like it," she answered as they reached the bottom floor. Angeline ignored Katherine's sharp glance at her long hair hanging loose, this too was a normal thing that happened every time they went out and it had become like a custom.

"Lucian and Lucy has already left," Katherine said as she ushered the other two women out the door. "We get the second carriage." A decorated carriage drawn by two elegant bay horses stood waiting outside the house prepared to take the three to the party.

After surviving a few hours of small talk, gossip and dancing Angeline was sick and tired of it, the air was heavy with perfume and she was getting tired of behaving like a proper lady. With some excuses of feeling out of sorts she left a bit early declining the carriage and headed on foot back home, it gave her the chance to head through the park, a chance she took as often as she had the time.

The small, green park in the middle of the large city was full of life and an air of freedom that was a surprising and welcome break from the stiff and proper city and its people. Angeline walked along its many paths and just enjoyed the calm and tranquillity, after being stuck in an elegant room with several other women for a few hours it was nice to get away from it all. It had been yet another of her step sisters tries to get Angeline more involved with the social events, it had not succeeded this time either. If she herself found something interesting to do Angeline could be very proper and charming at such events but most of the time the parties, balls and gossip hours were just boring.

Birds hidden among the branches sang their little melodies and Angeline hummed along, trying to keep in tune with nature's best singers. In her school years she, as all other girls, had learned playing instruments and to sing, and while she had never succeeded greatly in the singing department she often sang when no one was around. She couldn't complain in any way really life could be much worse but complain she did, either silently or openly with her attitude. She felt the first pangs of hunger, the burning throat and itching in her gums, the food and drinks at the party having done nothing for her hunger, it had tasted barely more than nothing, unfortunately the park seemed rather empty where she was.

 

[Mary]

I sat there just looking at her play with the most recent doll I had bought for her. She looked so peaceful and beautiful with those perfect curls floating around her pale skin. She was mine. My little doll. Since the moment I saw Amelia I fell in love of that sweet innocent smile that she sustained even when her eyes were pleading with hunger. I remember her little face covered in filth and grime with residuals of apparent meals that were part of her skin now since they were incrusted on to it. But those eyes…The determination that she had for living captivated me. It's still vivid in my conscience how I bent over and asked her "Are you all alone?" Amelia nodded. "Are you hungry and tired?" The girl nodded again. "Would you want to live with me, forever?" And this was even stranger; Amelia just took my hand and allowed me to lead her without a care in the world. As if she knew I would not harm her. Well, I did have to hurt her in order to give her eternal life but since then she has been nothing but pampered and loved. That was three decades ago and Amelia is still the bright eyed little girl that I adore. My vintage doll.

William sat as usual, with his leg crossed and his nose well shoved into a new book. Across from him his daughter Amelia played with her doll, sitting crossed legged over an extravagant bear skin rug. The last couple of days Amelia had been extremely irritable and bratty. She fought with her father almost every day and refused to do anything that they normally did. She didn't want to go out for sodas or go ride on horses. She didn't want any imported new toy or custom made dresses. The girl –who mentally had stopped being a child a long while ago- wanted to be a woman. Of course she knew it was physically impossible for her body to flourish like it was meant to. Amelia would not have to go through puberty or hormonal changes and would not be able to sit down and talk with her friends about the men that they would like to marry. She would not be able to walk around hand in hand with another man but her father and obviously her body was not only too small to bare a child, it was also frozen. Amelia felt stuck in a life that she did not chose and daily wished that she would had died instead of approaching that wealthy man with a big hat.

Amelia sat the doll on her lap and pulled down the straps of her emerald dress. Removing the ruffled straps from each of her shoulders and lowering the bustier so that her two little nipples could be exposed. "Amelia!" William scolded her immediately but Amelia ignored his cry and tenderly picked the doll as if it were a real child. William observed silently because even with her daily reproaches he could not understand why did she 'hate him' but tiptoed every night to his coffin because she simply missed him. They used to be so close and Amelia had always seemed to adore him as much as she adored her. Every dusk the awoke in between kisses or tickle fights for three decades and one evening she simply pushed him away and started acting weird.

"Amelia Nicole! What has gotten into you?! I am tired of your pointless rebuffs. Pull your dress up NOW." He yelled sternly but of course she ignored him again and took the puckered mouth of the doll and pressed it over her right nipple gently. Her left arm cradling the fake child while her right hand tenderly supported the porcelain head with so much love and delicacy. "I'm just feeding my baby Papa… They say that there is nothing better for a child that his mother's milk." Amelia Nicole softly whispered as if not to wake the baby. "It's a toy. Now hurry and cover yourself up Amelia. The window is opened and you can be seen." Again her father discouraged ignoring the message behind her actions. "EXACTLY!" She yelled and stood up in a flash. Tossing the doll out the window with a speed that would be impossible for the human eye to capture. "Exactly! That is what I am to you! Just a toy. I want a child. Just like you have me!
Why can't I have one?! I just ask you for a real live baby, not some stupid puppy or kitten or a God dammed urinating Daisy! Papa I will take care of him or her and when it grows up you can turn it into an immortal. I will be his big or little sister to the human world but here I will be his mother and you will be his father like… like you are to me Papa. But please… please just give me a child. One I could call my own…" Amelia begged and even got on her knees, clasping her hands together and letting heavy red tears slide down her complexion.

The man stood up and without saying a word grabbed her by an arm. Ignoring the fact that she was half naked and pulled her down the hall and to the first door on the left; her room. There he pushed her towards the mirror, forcing her to spin around and face it. "What do you see?" He asked but she didn't answer. She saw a half naked seven year old with a beautiful complexion and a miserable expression. "I see a child. You are a child and you will always be a child Amelia. That will not change ever. If you don't like it then kill yourself. You know how. I will not get you a child. Children are not toys and immortal children are prohibited. You know that well. We have had been on the run all our lives. Do you want that? What would happen when your child grows? You are gonna get bored and tossed it to a side like you do with your dolls, then ask for another. I am sick of this foolishness Amelia and until you can behave like a grown up this subject will not be touched." William walked out of the room without even looking on her and closed the door behind him. It was the last time that he saw Amelia.

He waited for her that morning but she did not come to his room so he went to see what was wrong. Will knew that she would not take her life since it was barely dawn and the only ways to terminate her life was by either dismembering herself or walking into the burning sun. Sadly, he found a badly written note that was of course not her writing. "Come find her but hurry. You have only three weeks."

William's life crumbled into a million pieces and he sniffed, smell observed and did as much as he could inside his house because the sun down took forever to arrive. There was no trace of anything else but Amelia's dried up tears and his regret for being so harsh with her. William went crazy looking for his daughter but no one wanted to help him because most feared his kind. Ruthless and dead vampires who fed of anything that had a pulse. He was pickier with his preys but Amelia was fearless and daring with hers, which he had to admit on doing since his daughter could not be discovered as an immortal. From people to people he went and a few told him about a girl who could perhaps help. Her name was Angeline. Will searched for this apparent Angeline and had to knock quite a few doors and crash a few balls until four days after Amelia's disappearance, he heard two women gossiping about an Angeline. They were saying things about how she needed to start looking for a spouse before people started to talk. After that, just listening to a few other conversations pointed him to the direction of a young woman in a maroon dress. William observed her from afar. Not knowing who she was or what she would be since they were more creatures living among them than actual humans. Even when her disgruntle made it evident that she was not just human.

It took a few dances with way too eager ladies and several disgusting walks to the buffet table to finally have a chance to approach her. The girl walked out on her own and of course the vampire did not hesitate on following her. He walked on her shadows and like a shadow. Without breathing or making the slightest noise. Just creeping along the dark alleys and stepping behind her steps until of course they reached the park. The second that the man placed a foot on the stone cobbles every bird, squirrel and animal fled. The little chipmunks climbed the trees and the birds immediately flew away accompanied by their other flying companions leaving William frozen like a marble statue in the same position since he did not want the woman to run away from him, he desperately, desperately needed her help.

 

[Elflady]

A gnawing feeling had kept annoying Angeline through the evening, she had not really noticed it earlier but when she thought back it had been there since the party, then she had thought it was people staring but now she was sure it was something else. Her suspicion was enhanced when she walked through the park and hummed together with the birds when they suddenly fell silent in an instant, suddenly it became so quiet you could here a needle fall.

The same silence as when a predator was approaching, the animals was a bit vary of her as well, only birds stayed to sing when she crossed through the park. Somehow they sensed what humans couldn't, that she was a danger, but the animals needn't worry as Angeline disliked the taste of animal blood, she would only consider hunting an animal if she was starving. Perhaps it should be frightening that she, a former human, was more apprehensive about hunting animals than humans but during her years such thoughts didn't bother her anymore.

Her sharpened hearing picked up the slight sound of gravel being stepped on, whipping around quickly, her dress whirling around her legs by the swift movement, her brown eyes fell on a man. First she felt calmed, he couldn't do her any harm but a second later she realized this man wasn't a normal human, he was one of the creatures living among humans. "Why are you following me, what do you want?" She snapped, irritated over being followed and she believed it was a good guess that this man had followed her, for who knew what reason. "And who are you?"

Her brown eyes were darkening to black as her temper flared and the only sign of what she was showed as she spoke, slightly elongated canines glinting in the faint street lights. Beside herself Angeline was a bit interested, something exciting rarely happened, it was just the same old boring thing day after day only interrupted by boring events and the annoying demand that young women should marry to not seem improper. This was something breaking that boring streak and while the very same defiance and curiosity had gotten her into trouble badly many years ago she couldn't help it.