A Scottish Vampire Tale (Part 4)

kathieletalis (56)in #fiction • 7 years ago

Maybe this is a good time to tell you of the human Ben, the boy who met a vampire and fell in love. Let us go back to that day, when I first met Darcy Moenio.

It was late summer when Darcy first made herself known to me. She had been sat in a tree silently watching me cut wood. I am not sure for how long she had been sat there, but curiosity finally broke her silence. "You do know it be far more profitable to have allowed that tree a couple more years in the ground."

I put my axe down and shielding my eyes with my hand against the Suns glare as I located her view point.

"And what do you know of such things?" I responded irritated.

She slowly climbed down and crossed to the pile of logs I was working on. "Clearly more than you do, but my intention was not to make an enemy of you." She smiled sweetly up at me. “I hoped we could become friends."

She hid her vampirism under the sweet little girl facade so flawlessly. Like an actress upon the stage, she had studied her character and her portrayal of it was a piece of art. She could have jumped down from the branches of that tree, could have moved across the clearing with lightning speed, but she didn't. Like a human she climbed and walked slowly, even clumsily tripping over a tree root at one point.

Looking back now I see the effect that had gone into the character of Darcy Milligan and I was flattered that she had taken such trouble to create her to just to spend a few snatched hours with me.

I wasn't sure in the beginning if I was nothing more than a curiosity, a new toy to entertain her in the long days sat in her prison. All I knew was that very quickly she became very special to me and a day without her visit was a day without my sunshine.

She would appear late afternoon, when I had maybe an hour left of work and sit and chat to me as I finished off. Then she would walk me home, engaging me in conversation that others around me didn't have the intellect to discuss. She made me feel good about myself, taxed my dormant brain with interesting problems and ideas. Around the other men I was made to feel weak and was the butt of everyone's joke. Not because I was unable to do my job or wasn't a strong lad. Only because I was still a lad and the rest were men and had muscles toned through many years of such work.

So in her present I found a self-worth that was absent in other parts of my life and I like that feeling. But most of all I loved her company.

Source

As the evenings drew in and the chill of the approach of winter began to become apparent in the bite of the wind, we would meet in old Mr Fergus’s hay barn. Nestled between the hay bales we would chat until my stomach forced me home for supper. Sometime not even my building hunger could tear me away from her conversation and her mountain of books.

I had always enjoyed school, loved learning and loved reading book. My school master would allow me to take books home to read on my own time. But school ender for me when it was time to take up my place at my father’s side in the forest.

My mother knowing of my love of books would borrow books from clients for me and after supper I would dive into the world within the leaves until the light was too dim to see the words. But they were old books, stories don’t age, but books that hold knowledge of new inventions and theories date very fast.

So Darcy and her books became my new fascination and as the months passed, I began to become very attached to her, started to dream of our future together. Of course she chose the books she shared with me so carefully, books about woodlands, about conservation; reports about the impact of modern life on species of animals.

Throughout the winter months of 1912 we studied and came up with our own theories and throughout spring and summer, in those hours after work until dusk we tested out our ideas.

So why would I suspect she was a vampire, she met me, admittedly when the sun was low in the sky, yet it was still light. When we met she carried on the slow human act, never did I see her break character. Not even the night Fergus caught us in the hay loft and accused us off shenanigans. Climbing down she lost her footing and landed with a cry in the hay below. She played the naïve kid so well and her little act had me fooled in fact I was falling in love with that act.

Actually Fergus wasn’t wrong that evening, the night he found us, I had snuck my first kiss from her sweet lips, and it was the beginning of many more.

It was a January evening in 1913; snow had fallen that day and there was a good inch of snow. Yet now the sky was clear and stars were beginning to pop out as the sun light dimmed. I fought against the strong winds as I climbing the hill following the winding path to Fergus’s barn. She was already waiting for me as I slide into the gap between the two bolted doors. She was sat in the corner on one of the two indented hay bales from months of our use.

I smiled as I saw her sparkling blue eyes in the lamp light, excitedly she held up a book. “My Father sent it, it only arrived this morning, it’s about the stars.” She whispered in wonder. “I just had to share it with you, look isn’t it wonderful?” She appeared so innocent so sweet, why would I have believed she was anything other then what she claimed she was. She told me her father was an Earl and lived down in London most of the time. She wasn’t yet of age to come out in society, she and her governess lived up here. I could never visit her home as; she told me she would get in trouble, her governess believing she was in her room sleeping. She warned me soon she would have to leave and attend finishing school and then probably have to marry some bigot with a title and prospects. However for the time being she planned to enjoy her freedom, without a care in the world.

So even though it tugged in the back of my mind that we were from different world and she would never be mine I didn’t allow it to taint my dream. Times were changing and maybe love would win over class and it prejudice and there was a slim chance we could be together.

Links to start of story below.

Thank you for reading :)