The Mistletoe
Chapter XVIII

We went for a walk with Laura’s father and some hunters, searching for the Beast of Gevaudan, but I knew that with the contingent and the weapons we had, it would be a massacre in which we could end up losing.

“Traps, bullets, and we lost two more men! We should use explosives!” complained Laura’s father. The creature had become more aggressive since it attacked me, and now it was killing wild animals, pets, and livestock. I was only concerned about not letting anything happen to him and was trying to think of what to do. I had considered the idea of ​​using a blunt weapon, like those used in medieval times against fully armored knights, remembering that it was a giant rock that had given the final blow to the Peuchen. I still remember the vivid scarlet eyes that both beasts had when they tasted my blood.

After being soaked in the rain, I heard that a contingent from the army would come to help. A letter had also been sent to get experts in the occult to investigate and assist the military contingent regarding the creature, but most agreed that this beast was probably some exotic animal escaped from a zoo.

There were also some taxidermists and naturalists who were very interested in the subject, and it seemed that the creature was really becoming popular. I didn’t like this at all because it had already disrupted the timeline enough. Inside the mansion, there were also some problems. Although the doctor had discharged Laura, he insisted on conducting his own investigation in case the outbreak started again.

Laura and I were almost finished analyzing the Arthurian novels while Carmilla conducted her own analysis and occasionally corrected Laura.

“My dear friend, in order to progress with the reading and for our dear friend Miguel to understand as well, I kindly beg you to stop debating interpretations and let me explain the basics,” Laura pleaded.

“My beautiful Laura, our beloved Miguel needs to understand and appreciate the beauty and subtleties of the epic poem. Don’t feel attacked, I only want the best for you,” replied Carmilla.

I always ended up more lost than a penguin in the desert. What seemed like classes turned into a debate on English literature. “Damn, I miss a quick round of Counter-Strike.”

Laura’s father had forbidden us from going far from the mansion for fear that the beast would appear again, so I used to have breakfast in the morning with Laura and have tea in the afternoons with Carmilla.

Sometimes Laura’s father tried to find out more about Carmilla’s family, but she, as always, refused to give details or diverted the conversation, as always. The problem was that Carmilla had practically been living with Laura for a while, and he was really starting to worry about her family’s delay. It’s not that he minded having her; on the contrary, she was a very pleasant girl. But he found it really worrying that it had been months, and there was no news about them; the carriage never returned.

Spending months with the girls really made me learn a lot about their way of seeing things. I don’t know how girls are in the present, but both Laura and Carmilla seemed very intelligent and cultured to me.

After having tea with Carmilla in the afternoon, I would retire to my room and lie down. I didn’t usually use too many covers because I had, let’s say, a high tolerance for both cold and heat, but I must confess that the nights had become very intense. I hadn’t felt this way since I was in puberty.

Every time I closed my eyes and went into my typical night trance, I had dreams about Carmilla again. The first ones were of subtle touch, with very romantic dyes, the typical, kisses and caresses, in different landscapes, which were usually places that I had already seen, always with the common denominator of those, let’s say it this way, eccentric kisses.

From there, in the following dreams, began what in my land we call “hickeys”. A teenager who received the famous hickey from a lady, was praised as a legendary hero by his peers at school, and showed it with great pride, as if he had won a football world cup, so basically I dreamed that I received sessions of these from Carmilla, it seemed so real that I could feel her breathing in my ear.

But things got intense when I went to my next stage of dreams, my wet dreams. These were vivid and no longer of the typical adolescent, but they were already explicit, with all that entails in an adult relationship, you know what I mean. These wet dreams made me wake up sweaty and agitated, and the feeling made me check my pajamas or the sheets if I had an “accident”, but everything seemed totally normal. I could swear I could hear her, I could feel her on me, I could smell her, but whenever I woke up, I was completely alone, it seemed like a kind of sleep paralysis. The sheets were always shifting and the windows were fogged up. “Am I going crazy? Are my senses playing tricks on me? I’m not a teenager anymore, for having such recurring and intense dreams.”

During the mornings, I would eat as usual and get ready, still thinking about those nights. Laura and Carmilla laughed and whispered as usual, but seeing Carmilla sitting radiant in front of the sun, it was unusual, I had never seen that before.

This girl had completely changed; she seemed like a different person. Laura had also noticed and commented on it.

“Dear Carmilla! Lately, you look so radiant. And I’ve never seen you wake up so early! I wish I had the energy you radiate. Have you found some new herb?” Laura asked.

“Oh, my friend! Perhaps I have found the Holy Grail!” Carmilla joked, alluding to our classes with the books of King Arthur.

“Good morning, friends...” I said, almost embarrassed. I couldn’t look her in the face; I felt like a perv.

“Don’t act so saintly,” I thought. “Your browsing history doesn’t lie.” I remembered those times with nostalgia and laughter, so I thought it simply seemed to be a phase. Maybe spending too much time with two women was revving up my hormones, and I wished I had gone hunting with Laura’s father.

But Carmilla looked really good, more than usual. Laura asked her if she was wearing makeup:

“Completely natural my dear Laura!” she insisted.

I had improvised a ball and taught them how to play football in the garden. Carmilla had taught me to play chess, and we spent long hours talking about different topics.

I tried to avoid topics that were supposed to come up later, but it seemed that from time to time, some reference from the future slipped out. For example, forgetting what century I was in, I spoke about a movie, and they looked at me bewildered. I made the same mistake again, but this time with music.

As I was having those strange dreams, I decided to take a walk at night and get some fresh air. I roamed around the mansion’s outskirts and saw the crow once again.

“Any news?” I spoke to it.

It was holding something in its claw; it seemed to be some kind of stone with an odd symbol, very similar to the one on the amulet my mother had given me when I was little.

“Thank you!” I said, and it flew away.

“This bird does whatever it wants, whenever it wants. Is someone behind all this? Is this some kind of test? If it is, it must be quite macabre because of all the people who have died.”

I turned around and heard someone peeking from the side. It was Carmilla. “The habit of lurking in the shadows,” I thought.

“How beautiful the moon is tonight! Waxing crescent. Do you know what that means?” Carmilla asked.

“Um... That I’ll find a treasure tomorrow?” I joked.

“Soon it’ll be a full moon! I love the full moon; it’s so romantic. Don’t you think so?”

“Yes. Perfect for being devoured by the beast!” I laughed.

“You’re really an expert in ruining the mood. Wait... What do you mean by finding a treasure?”

She glanced at me flirtatiously. I just said, “Hmm... Maybe I’ve already found one?” I wanted to flex my “Victorian dialect”.

“Oh Sir! Are you flirting with me? What would Miss Laura say?”

“Haha. I just wanted to joke a bit. I’m a little uncomfortable with long silences,” I replied.

While she elegantly walked, she sat in the garden, removed her hat, letting her face fall under the moonlight, her hair loose. Her beauty was truly supernatural. She invited me to sit, and after gazing into my eyes, she said, tilting her head from side to side:

“You have beautiful eyes, I’ve never seen such beautiful eyes; they shine like the moonlight... It’s almost... supernatural... Mother or father?” She asked.

“Mother...” I said flatly, trying to give a compliment. “Your black eyes are also very peculiar... they seem... to absorb with their gaze?”

Carmilla laughed and added. “You have to train those little compliments darling. Sorry about the kiss, I don’t know what came over me.”

“Nah. I’d already forgotten about it.” I lied.

“Your features... Your mother too?” she asked.

I sighed and said. “For the most part yes...”

“She must be a very beautiful woman, like an angel, I would have melted in front of her. Do you miss her?”

I seriously looked at her and said, “No, I don’t know. She left me and my dad when I was little.”

“I’m so sorry dear.” She said, and then joked. “Now I understand why you’re confusing me.”

I swallowed my breath and said, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Carmilla looks me straight in the eyes, almost without blinking, and says. “There really is something supernatural about you...I felt it from the first day we met. I wanted to deny it, to fight it, but I couldn’t.”

“Did she suspected something? Did he see something?” I was beginning to worry. But there was something else, I felt again that subtle pulse, that magnetic force, the drums began to play, in the distance, subtly, almost like a murmur.

Carmilla and I stand, facing each other. And I felt a tingling behind me. She hugs me and whispers subtly in my ear:

“I know you are not what you say, you are not like them. No, we, are not like them...”

She kisses me and then I can see clearly on her face, the irises of her eyes had become an intense ruby color, the same as the Peuchen, the same, of the Beast of the Gevaudan, her elegant, sharp fangs.

“You are divine, you have made me divine.”

“What have you done?” I asked.

“I have drunk from you, and you have drunk from me. Now we are connected forever, trapped in this house, together. Two immortals, joined by destiny. Opposites attract, don’t they?” She said as she kissed me passionately.

“Dreams? They weren’t wet dreams!” I was paralyzed, I was an idiot...a vampire...under my own roof.

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