Hello, darlings. Bless you!
This is Helena the Clown. I am back to scare you a bit more (Missed me? Of course you did, how could you not miss me, hi hi…I suppose I am your favorite Vampire, am I not? No false modesty…) I got new stories for you.
Sorry if you got radio silence mostly from me and Ruxandra, I kept getting DMs and private messages from you to keep you updated from those who read our last year testimonies. Life can be hard and nasty, not all things are to be shared. Yeah, some bad things are interesting to share, some are not if you know what I mean.
Some of you may remember the fact that I had that experience during the New Year night, while I was in the graveyard in Ialomița county. The night was gone and I hung out with my good friend Ruxandra (my Human familiar, so to say), her boyfriend Adrian and father George Baka, our dear confessor, waiting for Sophie and her family to come from Bucharest, the capital of Romania, to get the Exorcism Formulas of Saint Basil the Great be performed onto al us, since we were have been through something really terrible in recent past. For those who know me and my stories well, I apologize, as I repeat some things you already know, but there may be some people who do not know them, in order to make them understand a bit of what is coming, I hope you do not mind, darlings…
My new friend Sophie is an Elf (although a Caterpillar Elf, not a mature Full Elf), her Human father and her mother I have not met at the time. I waited discreetly in a corner of the graveyard, being so scary for Humans, as I watched the car being parked on the village street. Sophie„s dad came first, showing a bit of fear, since he was terrified of me, as I really made sure he would be afraid of me. Sophie came next, as her red bangs over the glasses moved a bit in the wind. She was not afraid at all, but joyous. She turned to her mother, in the back seat, trying to make her come out. Finally, appearing to be even more scared than her husband, who actually met me and had real reasons for fear, she stepped out of the car. Her blonde, a bit curled, professionally styled hair moved as well in the wind, but she did not seem to mind.
I looked at her, and my assumption about her being a Caterpillar Elf as well seemed correct. Most Elves today are Caterpillar Elves, most of them are former Humans with Elven ancestorship and they do not know they are Elves. Even if they feel something about them, they dismiss it. Because they know Elves are not real, as Vampires are not real, eh…
Pretty elegant lady, as I expected her to be. Sophie smiled and tried to get her to come to church, where father George waited for them. Although they did not see me, they sensed my presence, a normal Human (and Caterpillar Elf) reaction required for them to survive beings like me.
After the Exorcism Formulas, as people left, the family waited in church, I went to the parish house and waited for them there. When, finally, father George came with them behind, Sophie ran to me to give me a hug. Both her parents were startled, especially her mom, who screamed. I could not blame her, I would have probably screamed, if I were in her shoes. Sophie looked at her, trying to calm her down: ”Mom, it’s ok. Remember?” Poor lady looked at me with her eyes open wide. Sophie went to her, to reassure her, so I smiled as gently as possible: ”You can sit down. Stay quiet for a while. This is why father George brought those chairs, after all.” They sat, reluctantly, still shaking. Father George and Ruxandra were present.
As me and father George talked to Sophie, we let her parents get used to the situation. Father George served us some delightful red wine. It took about an hour talking about Sophie and her baby„s situation. Sophie tried to convince Odette, her mother, to stay in Romania and not just move out to the UK with the entire family. The parents were uneasy about it all, I could feel it. Can not blame them. Having your teen daughter pregnant, soon to give birth, and a Vampire threatening them to do what was right was probably pretty nasty. As talking drifted towards several collateral issues, it seemed Sophie was not very pleased with how it was turning.
At some point, she changed to the topic: ”You know, talking with mom yesterday, she started telling me about her old friends, from the time she was a teen, in the late 1980ies, as she does from time to time. It seems they knew about you. I hope she will tell us herself.” Sophie looked a little bit eager to her mom, it was clear that she wanted me to hear something. Odette was a bit calmer, but still had a cold fear in her being. So I smiled at her: ”Is that so? You will, it will be really interesting for me to know… I don’t want to force you into anything, do not get wrong, but it is my artistic ego, so to say… I was quite famous in the 1930ies and I would be really curious how people still remembered it from the 1980ies…” She looked silently at us, so I went on: ”I would really like to know, please (I giggled.)”.
As Odette, her mother, was still off, Sophie started: ”You know, my mom was a Goth back in the day. One of the few Goths who were in Romania back then. In a way, she still is, just that she does not show it anymore.” I looked at Odette: ”A trad Goth, it seems. The one with backcombed hair, Siouxsie eye makeup and band patches on their clothes.” Odette answered, almost whispering: ”A Goth is a Goth. Regardless of their fashion style.” I replied: ”I know, Goth is about music, first of all. Those who are not Goth, usually think it is about fashion, or fashion types. I know.” I winked. Odette smiled, finally. ”I wonder how you managed to get your music back then. As far as I know, during the late years of the reign of Nicolae Ceaușescu, censorship did not allow a large part of western music to reach the country.”
Odette gave a sigh: ”It was smuggled, of course. We copied it on cassettes. The Duke had some connections, some through the British embassy, also some others. He kept a lot to himself. We joked around that was a Vampire, secretly. Now…” She stopped for a second, looking at me with a bit of fright. But she went on: ”Now I see it could not have been true.” ”Ah, you mean that, now that you met a Vampire, that he could not have been a Vampire. (I gave a wink.) You know, not all of us look like me, we have different races. There are some who can look really Human on the outside. Also, there are some who got half-turned into Vampires, they have it in them, one way or the other, they do not know it. Once they go through an apparent Human death, they rise as full Vampires. Unfortunately, today, autopsy and embalming turns them, truly dead, most of the time.” I wanted to add: ”Fortunately for Humans.” but I stopped, that would have freaked them out. ”Yet, something else could have been possible. He could have been an Elf. Caterpillar Elf, like your daughter, is pretty possible, since the Elven blood in the Humans of this land is very high. Or, who knows, maybe a Full Elf, like the ones I knew back in the day, living as Humans, using their masks. Yet, I find it unlikely a Full Elf would be interested in Goth subculture. Yet, life can be really surprising.”
Odette gave another sigh: ”Regardless of what he was, the guy was awesome. And I mean it. Our entire small group looked at him like we were his flock. We were, actually. His mere presence made us feel somewhere else. Like in some gothic story. It was not just his long, dark hair, and his pale skin and light blue eyes. It felt like sort of magic. When we hit play on the cassette player at home and we were grooving. Or when we did it in the Bellu graveyard. Sooner or later, the Militia (the communist police of the time was called Militia, actually) found us, chased us away. From time to time they caught us, took our names and such. I took a lot of persuasion from the Duke to stop them from taking us to the police station and gave the guys a forced haircut. He bribed them a bit. Probably, in time, they realized we were not, truly, trouble makers but, from time to time, some old lady, visiting a grave, gave us weird looks.” She laughed a bit, then gave another sigh.
This next story is told by Odette, but edited by me, from memory. In reality, this one, like the next ones, is more like a dialogue than a monologue from Odette, but I decided to give a form easier to read.
—
”We were a small group of friends. I remember one night, in late 1989, when we gathered at my best friend, Laura„s place, in the attic, close to Iancului square. There was me, Laura, my boyfriend Philip, the Duke. We have had some instruments there, as Laura„ s family owned several of them. The Duke said for a time he wanted to start a band, so we tried to play several instruments. He was keen on having Laura on bass, since she looked very much like Patricia Morrison from Sisters of Mercy. She would have preferred the keyboards, but the Duke insisted, especially since he wanted to play the keyboards. Laura was strong headed, usually, but she gave up on her boyfriend’s demand, eventually. Philip had to learn the drums, and they pushed me to the vocals. We played different songs, from Joy Division and Bauhaus to Christian Death, just to get better and better at it. I forced my voice a bit, as it was pretty high and I tried too much to sing lower notes.
Later, that night, taking a break and listening to some new music brought by the Duke, Philip finally said something that was on our mind: ”I think we should try making our original songs. I have a few lyrics written, if you want to see them.” Philip was a cheeky guy in general, he loved Peter Murphy and that was clearly visible in the lyrics. Such a shame they were lost, only a few lines got stuck in my head since then. Even those are not completely accurate, since the rhyme does not fit entirely. (Odette gave a sigh, then got quiet for a few seconds.) The Duke started to modify them, Philip did not like it, they started arguing. The Duke tended to take things more seriously, Philip refused to let go of his irony. It was clear they did not understand each other, although they were friends. Paul had this destructive humor, he often manifested it not just in words, but also concretely, like when he was playing pranks on people. I was involved in some of them. He did that since he was a Punk, before becoming Goth.
As they kept on talking, Laura came and sat next to me. I was already a little tired of their argument, and Laura seemed to be as well. At some point, after a yawn and a look in the mirror, to fix her black hair filled with hairspray, she decided to intervene: ”You know, guys, perhaps we should take it easier for starters. Let’s make a song about something or someone from here. Like what we heard regarding the grey man found at the construction site of the University subway station.”
Indeed, a tall man, with grey skin and white hair or Humanoid was supposed to be found downtown, at the University area, during excavations for the subway, apparently unconscious or dead. The Securitate (Romanian political police that also acted as a secret service and repression force, that surveyed much of everyday life.) wanted to investigate, but the body was gone and the workers started to be dragged by something invisible and get buried alive, never to be seen again. We went there to investigate a bit of the area at some point, but we found nothing. Felt a bit eeriness, I had to admit, when I went there first, but that was about it. The area had at least hundreds of years of history that was ravaged during the construction, who knows what was lying there?
”Well”, I said, “What about Helena the Clown, from Obor?” They looked at me in different ways, Laura was rejoiced, Philip as well, the Duke looked at us a bit strange. Laura said: ”Obor is very close. My grandparents often went to the attraction in the old Obor fair. They said it felt to them the doll was, indeed, a monster or something dead. They were really afraid, but also loved the whole thrill. They even think they saw her on the street one late night.” ”And what did they think it was?” I asked. Laura replied: ”They did not know. They suspected some unknown sorcery.” ”Ok, we got a start. We can make lyrics starting from their experience that night.” And we did. There were several variants, the Duke and Philip argued. The Duke was leaning more towards something romantic, Philip tried to bring sharp irony into all. We did not manage that night to fuse the versions.
–
Odette was silent, looking at me. I have had my ego satisfied a bit, for now. ”You know,” I said. ”It seems you were close to guessing that I was a Vampire that night. But you did not. Philip probably wanted some sort of symbolism of the doll, the Duke wanted to mystery, so that both of them missed the concrete clues. But here we are…” Odette gave a forced smile, then placed her head down a bit, like trying to avoid some memories. After another sigh, she looked in a corner, and went on with on the story:
–
Laura, probably a little tired of all the fuss, got an idea: ”Ok, perhaps seeing the place shall give us more inspiration? Obor is close. Then we can come back here or go to Duke„s place.” The Duke lived at the outskirts of the Colentina neighborhood, pretty close to where the city ended. The ten level communist apartment blocks were not there yet constructed (They are not to this day, fortunately.) , only small, village-like houses. His house was close to the Colentina depot. He only allowed us in one building on the property, he said it was for guests, and in the other, his parents live and do not want to disturbed. He refused to give any details.
The Militia (police patrols) could get us, especially since, at the time, being out at night was close to forbidden. Also, in order to save state money, street lighting was very diminished. I did not like the idea, but Laura and Philip were eager. The Duke did not seem to like a potential surprise visit to his place. But Laura was already on her way out, Philip followed, we had to come with them. The night was quite chill, not yet very cold. Our custom made jackets with band names on them kept us somewhat warm. We crossed Ritmului street and reached Dimitrov (now Ferdinand) boulevard. It was pretty dark. We tried to stay as close as possible, but just to avoid potential attackers, but also make stray dogs less likely to pick on us.
There were Militia patrols at the Obor marketplace that survived the destruction of the fair, decades ago. Philip wanted to stay on the sidewalk next to the marketplace, to get into the vibe better. We almost tiptoed. We were caught by the Militia in the past, as we looked very creepy to them, potential ”enemies of the state”. I could not feel any supernatural vibe, looking for the Militia all the time. Perhaps I would have preferred for Helena the Clown to rise up and chase the cops away, then this. (I think Odette wanted to give me a wink, but she did not dare to. So I winked at her and whispered: ”Thanks. If I were there, I would probably help you and chase them away. But I was not, I was sleeping in my grave a few tramway stations away to the west.” Odette managed to smile and, after a small pause, went on.)
Of course, we were noticed by a patrol and signaled to stop. Laura started running, we had to follow her. This was, of course, dangerous. Fortunately, neither me and Laura were wearing high heels and this helped us. We were close to the plastic factory area, when we saw a tram coming. We needed to get it, before we were caught. We hoped that it was either the 1 tram, heading downtown, not the 36 tram, that took it north, but it required an extra switch, when the cops could stop the train.
The tram was an old styled one, completely with lights off. One wagon. (It was probably a Tatra train, made in Poland and imported in the 1960ies. Some of them are still in use in Bucharest in 2023, although with some modifications.) We did not mind too much at the moment, since the state policy of energy saving would make this. The tram stopped. We could barely see the conductor, no visible face, he was wearing a beige trench coat, like you see in the French or Italian police movies at the time. Also he had a matching fedora. In all that darkness, it felt like he had a beard, although we could not see it and some weird dimly colored light dimmed like blurry where his eyes were supposed to be. It was blurry. Their eyes got blurry at first, I noticed it. We jumped inside the tram, it smelled like something was burned, rubber or something. The doors closed, as we managed to see another tram coming from behind and Militia patrol signaling the conductor to stop. It started.
But it did not take westward, but eastward, so it was neither the 1 or the 36 trams, but it seemed to be a train coming out of circulation, towards the Colentina depot. In a way, it followed the line of the 21 tram, towards Duke„s place. We were relieved, as we let ourselves fall into the seats. The train was empty, besides us.
We were soon silent, as it was clear we were heading towards Duke„s place. Finally, Philip wanted to say something, but the Duke signaled him to be silent. The Duke was like trying to pick up something, or like sniffing, in a way. We never saw him like that before. The large highway around us, with apartment blocks around it, started to get covered in some form of mist. Indeed, some weird sound, hard to describe, like both a screech and a fizz could be heard, clearer and clearer, as the tram passed the station, It did not stop. And it felt like it picked up speed.
”I did not stop at the station.” said Laura, a little concerned. ”Don„t worry, it shall stop at the depot, we shall go out there.” tried Philipp to sound reassuring. He did not manage to convince anyone, as a shadow was creeping in. The Duke hushed us, as strange shapes started to appear in the mist outside. Not yet sure if they were shapes of the mist or inside the mist. The blocks were still visible in the faint light of the blueish street lights, but the shapes were between the tram and the blocks. Teiul Doamnei boulevard was behind, as the tram rushed towards the Doamna Ghica street. I looked at the shapes that seemed to appear more in the mist, and they seemed to be houses. One or two level houses, like they used to be when Colentina highway was not enlarged, before the apartment buildings were built.
”Guys, look! They are houses!” We all kept on looking on each side, and there were houses. They seem to be, somewhat, up in the air, and the air outside, at ground level, seemed to be really dense. I was freaking out at this point, as we started to notice figures on the windows of the houses of the mist. Vague shapes, like grey, naked people, with some sort of white eyes staring at us. Some started to get their arms out the windows, like reaching out for us. ”What the heck? There are ghosts all around us!” said Laura, running towards the back of the tram, followed by myself. Philip looked at the Duke and almost shouted: ”What’s happening? What on Earth is going on?” The Duke went in silence to look at the conductor, who was less visible, but whose presence was, somehow, getting stronger. Soon, he followed Philip in the back where he tried to calm down me and Laura.
The Duke was paler than ever. He was calm, but his expression was deathly grim. ”We need to get out of this!” I shouted to him. ”I do not think it is possible.”, he answered almost sternly. Or at least it sounded to me sternly. ”Probably the best course of action is to hold on and let it finish.” he went on. I felt both helpless and angry, a part of me wanted to hit him, as I felt he knew something and he refused to say anything. But I stopped, as I could not know if it was in my mind.
When we reached Doamna Ghica street, at the large intersection, the tram started to feel like no longer going through something heavy, but getting lighter. The mist houses started to be replaced with mist trees, soon turning into a mist forest. Branches started to hit the tram itself and that sounded like coming both from a great distance, but also, somewhat, like being real, physical branches. One of them hit a window so hard that I thought the window would break. But it didn„t. I screamed at this point, Laura followed and screamed as well. It would not be the last time, as the tram was getting faster, like going fast downhill.
”Is this taking us to hell? Or to some underworld?” I shouted to the Duke, like he was supposed to know. He looked at me with cold, but also scared eyes at me. A calm fear was in him, I was almost sure he knew something we do not, that he didn’t want to tell us, or that he could not. Then, the tram hit or felt like hitting something massive. It shook the whole cart, I screamed, fearing the tram would derail and plunge us into who knows what. I fell to the ground, screaming. The thing we hit was behind us, and the mist forest looked more and more like an old oak forest, in the winter. More like a physical forest. Laura screamed as well and followed me there. With my peripheral vision I saw what seemed like debris being pushed on the right side of the tram, dark debris.
The sensation of going downhill fast gave me a sense of doom coming near. Philip shouted, while going down at us: ”The river! The river!” It took me a few seconds to realize what he meant. In real life, this portion would come close to the Colentina river and the bridge over it, very near to the dam that held the Plumbuita lake, which was created in recent decades by damming the Colentina river. The river went out of the dam after the bridge. I didn’t know, by now, how much of reality was still real, if the bridge and the dam were there, if we were going to plunge into the river or not.
The best I could do is shout at the Duke: ”Are going into the river?” ”Are we?” shouted Laura as well. The Duke looked at us very grim and helpless, then he turned his back at us, looking towards what was coming.” The three of us grabbed the seats or each other, whatever we could, and waited for the plunge. And the tram reached the river.
I knew I was no longer on solid ground in a second. I felt like falling, but also not like falling. If you’ve ever been in a cable car, when the cart reaches the pole, for a few seconds, it feels like plunging into the abyss below. It felt something like that, but much longer. Falling, but not falling, like floating, somehow. This is one of the few times in my life I, actually, prayed. I prayed while I was screaming. Then I went silent, as my strength felt like it was ending. Indeed, in that dead silence, I could hear the water whispering underneath us.
I do not know how much it took but, at some point, the tram hit something from the front. But it was something quite gentle, nothing like what happened a few minutes ago. And it felt like the fall was over and we were back on solid ground. And we were coming up this time. Coming up fast as we were going down fast before.
The Duke turned and looked behind the tram. His gaze was far more tranquil this time, it made me calmer as well. Philip went up and started to look around. Laura followed pretty soon. Reluctantly, I rose up as well. All around us was like a dense, leafless, dark grey forest. Even behind, we could see the forest in the mist, and a gap. Indeed, we crossed the river somehow. Around us, from behind the trees, some faint bluish lights, pretty up in the trees, not close, were seen from time to time. A familiar blue. I tried to remember where I saw that blue before, when the voice of the Duke woke me up from my thoughts: ”Soon, we shall go down again, it seems.”
And he was right. ”How did you know?” I asked. He gave a barely visible smile: ”This is how it is in here. There are the river terraces. It is not the first time you came this way, on the tram. It seems we shall get home soon.”. He was right. This is how this portion of the tram tracks were. It was how the geography of the area was. This familiarity was reassuring and made me, somewhat, calm. We were, in a way at least, still in the real world. If so, the intersection between the Colentina, Andronache and Fundeni highways will soon come to pass.
Then another impact, like the from before the river. This one was heavier, the tram shook so hard that I fell and almost hit my head on a window, but I managed to stop the impact by grabbing a pole. Philip and the Duke managed to do it as well. Laura, instead, fell to one side, on the floor. Fortunately, she fell into her right arm, making her scream. I managed to see and hear the debris of the object that hit the tram above and on the sides. There seem to have been branches of those mist trees, and that meant there were some of those in front of the tracks.
We managed to get Laura up, her arm seemed injured pretty badly. The Duke turned back again to look at the road above. I was about to scream in anger at him because he was not helping us, when he said: ”We are at Fundeni already. Another tree is coming our way. Hold on tight!”
I looked ahead and, indeed, a mist tree sat right in front. I made the countdown to the impact. I wanted to see it this time. We sat on the seats, this time, when it hit us. The Duke held Laura„s hand, as Philip held mine. My heart was beating insanely fast as I anticipated. It was hard. Not as hard as the last time. The tram blew that tree or whatever it was in pieces, the debris came towards the back. I even looked behind us, they seemed to be lost in the mist behind.
”Are those the real houses from here or mist phantasms, like the ones earlier?”asked Philip. This area was of small houses, most of them one level, half-rural style, and the Colentina highway is much narrower. This portion was not enlarged and had not got ten story apartment blocks, at least not yet. ”I do not think so.”, I said. ”The houses we can see can, very well, be the actual houses, this is a different portion of the highway, narrower and without blocks.” And the small blue lights were closer now, meaning they could be actual street lights.
”We shall cross Sportului. The depot is pretty close, I do not think it shall pass beyond it.” started the Duke. ”We need to be ready to exit, one way or the other. It will probably slow down once in the yard of the depot.” ”And we were supposed to break the window and jump out?” asked Philip. ”Perhaps not. Maybe. Probably not.” replied the Duke. ”I do not think I can jump.” added Laura, while closing her eyes in anguish. I needed to stop them: ”It seems another tree is coming. A huge one.” Indeed, a giant mist tree, that had the shape of a multi century oak tree, was visible. It had impressive tall branches. We were coming straight into it. 3, 2, 1, 0…
The biggest impact of the ride. We screamed our lungs out, as the tram seemed to be close to turning to the side. The tree fought a bit, it did not blow at once, it felt a bit like engulfing the tram. Something pretty dark covered the front of the train. But it cracked, finally, and the tree broke with a low shriek. As the train got stable, branches were near the windows. I could see some humanoid shapes in that tree, similar to the ones seen at the beginning, but smaller, child-sized. Only for a few seconds I was able to see them, as they tried to grab the tram itself, but failed. The last held on the most, in the back, I shriveled while looking into its blank eyes, but I could not remove myself from it. But it went out.
”We need to decide what we will do fast,” said Philip. ”Who knows what will happen if the train reaches the depot, it may enter some dimension or something and take us away with it there. There are two hatches in the roof, we could force our way out through but, as far as I know, the electrical arch above could fry us immediately.” ”Or we could just wait to stop. I do not see any other option, right now.” replied the Duke calmly. Indeed, there was another option none of us mentioned, the elephant in the room. It was implicit. Yet, a part of me convinced the whole of me to speak: ”Or we could just ask the conductor to let us go down.”
Awkward silence. The tram was slowing down. Philip added: ”I think we have nothing to lose if we do it.” We were looking at each other, probably everybody expecting somebody else to do it. In the end, they looked at me, being the one with the idea. The tram started to turn right, it was preparing to enter the depot. Whatever we were to do, it had to be fast. In the end, I stood up to get towards the cabin of the conductor. Philip noticed it, stood up and went in front of me and went towards the cabin. Indeed, the conductor emanated something that made us feel cold, like he was something we have had far more reasons to fear than anything we saw outside the tram side the ride started.
Philip went reluctantly towards the cabin, as the train slowed down. When he was preparing to knock, the tram stopped. I went towards the back instinctively, Laura and Philip followed. The conductor rose from the seat. Those moments, although not so acute like the one over the river, held a deeper, stronger fear than that crossing. Especially when the conductor turned his face towards us. We could not see it, it was all blank in the dark, but there was something terrible in it, something I could not describe. Something locking my mind to it and sucking something away from it. All of us stared at him. For one reason or the other, it felt that, in the dark, shadowed by that fedora, this was, in a way, a middle aged man with a beard. In a way, at least. On the other hand, this thing did not feel Human at all, it felt ancient, strong and dangerous in a way I could not never comprehend before. For a second time that night, I said a prayer in my mind, as those invisible eyes fascinated me into their abyssal nothingness.
I do not know how much it took. Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Probably just seconds. My mind started getting blank and falling. I did not notice the doors opening, but the Duke shook me and pushed us out. He went out last.
The night was misty and pretty cold, but felt real and refreshing. We were not out of the spell or whatever it was, yet, at least not completely. Nothing weird could be seen or heard around us, until the conductor went down. He stepped out and turned around just like a middle aged police detective I felt him to be at the beginning.
I started to get my eyes locked into his again, when a metallic shriek was heard. Behind us, the other tram we saw earlier entered the gate of the depot. The Duke whispered: ”Let’s get out the gate! Now!” Like awake again, we started running towards the gate, feeling that we need to get out before it closes behind the tram. We ran as fast as we could, Laura went out first, then me, then Phillip, the Duke the last.
The street was empty, silent and pretty dark. In the mist, I stopped to look one more time at the depot. The gates were still open, the other conductor got out from his tram and went towards the first. It felt like they were talking, somehow, although I could not hear anything. They shook heads towards the trains, then towards us. The Duke shook me once again and went towards his old home, which was not not far, just two streets away, towards the exit of the city.
Firstly, we need to see if Laura was ok. It was a bit dangerous to call an ambulance, as the Militia could ask questions, or worse. Finally, we did it, since we could not risk her situation getting worse. It came, we said she fell on our way towards the house. The Duke went with her to the hospital. We waited at his place in the morning. We could not sleep, my mind was still fixated into all that. In the morning, the Duke and Laura returned. She had a contusion on her right arm, being fixated in plaster.
The Duke felt like knowing something, he refused to talk, pretending to know nothing. We could not see his parents or the main house not even now. We tried talking on all of it, speculating on what was all that. Other things will follow soon enough, in the coming weeks, until that fateful day.
–
Odette went silent and gave one final sigh, lost in her memories. At least she appeared to be disconnected from her fear of the present. There is more she told me, but that is a story for another day.
Update: Part 2