I had never felt anything else. My loneliness was my friend, it kept staring at me in the mirror and watched me sleep. It held me tight when I cried and refused to let me go. Some days, it felt like a demon sitting on my shoulder, keeping me from leaving through the door. The world outside was lonely, too: the sun was shining on the clear sky, the trees were holding the snow quietly and the mist trapped the castle on Silent Hill to eternity.
There I was, staring at the door I had just closed behind me. The air was thick and freezing, first snow was falling quietly on the rose garden, and those huge pines leading to the woods were bathed in white.
Nothing happened here in the hill. There was one small village of which the people never approached me or even looked at the castle. And I had my hollow castle, it was massive and filled with cold chambers and undiscovered mysteries, and I was there all by myself. Some days, I wished someone would knock on my door, yet the day never came.
I had been left all alone in this cold world, and years passed by so slowly, yet it felt like an instant. After my family had abandoned me to the woods in fear of my behaviour, I had never been happy since. The only thing I remembered about that incident was the fear in my mother’s eyes as she threw me in the cave with no food and just a night gown on me. After that, I had fallen into hibernation. A century after that, a little boy from the village had helped me kindly, I did not remember his name, but he had been so kind that I had believed that maybe I would live on. But as time passed by, I did not get to thank him as he left the village with no sign at all.
Time passed, my hair had turned white, and my eyes had lost their tears, yet I never got older. For a while, I had been looking like a teen, but God knows how many miserable years I had spent here in this damned castle.
I looked up at the clouds that covered the sunlight. The sun had not been there for days, winter was on its way already. I stepped on the fresh snow, wondering if it would be a long winter ahead, but I knew it was always Hell.
As I went to the woods, I kept wondering if the kind villager would ever come back so I would thank him for helping me live on. Those trees held so many memories, and a bunch of things I wanted to let go with the wind, but as I walked past those same branches, my mind was at peace. I had not felt those things in years. They were erased from this land, locked away in my memories. I did not yearn for my past again – it was like a dream; it did not feel real.
A bird was singing on the top of the tree. Snow kept falling on the ground, soon it was covered in the soft petals of snowflakes, and the cold would freeze everything for a time long as eternity. I would remain in my slumber again, longing for someone to hold me, and it kept wishing it over and over no matter how I knew it would never happen.
I squeezed my winter coat tighter on my skin, yet the cold wind still blew through it. There were no berries anywhere. The snow had already covered all of them, and my stomach fell on the ground, my throat started to ache, but the tears wouldn’t come out. I would never survive the winter.
My knees froze as I fell on the ground, but there was nothing else. The blizzard was intensifying. I would still find the castle if I left now, only to find myself trapped in the same space as before.
A long spear flew over my head.
I barely dodged it, and it stuck to the snow. It was glowing in the darkening evening, it seemed like fate, but I had no idea where it had come from.
“The snow appears to be pure”, an unknown, high male voice spoke from the distance. “Seems that I missed my target.”
My heartbeat suddenly turned into a clock ticking inside my ribs. Someone had tried to kill me, and they knew I was here. I was a target. My voice would not come out, my limbs were chained to the ground, and I stared at the trees.
A swift hand grabbed the spear and saw it almost pierce my flesh on my head, but my legs forced me to get up.
I had never run so fast in my life. Thoughts of dying filled my head, the cold weather did not bother me anymore as I dragged my feet on the thick snow, praying the spear would not hit me.
“You won’t get away, monster!” The mysterious voice echoed in the trees, followed by another strike of the spear. In the dark blizzard, I had not seen his face, but I knew that someone out there hated me. Even though I had never done anything bad in my life.
I slipped on the icy meadow and fell face down on the ground. My feet refused to lift me up, even though I wanted to, my body wasn’t able to stand it any longer. This would be the day I were to die by the hand of this mysterious assassin, and there was nothing I could do.
Somehow, even though I couldn’t stand my life, I didn’t want to leave this world behind.
His eyes met mine, and I stared at those cherry-coloured, intense eyes. He was so young, it hurt to see him holding a catalyst of death in his hands. His beautiful eyes didn’t hesitate. For a moment, I saw his face looking so full of wrath, like a devil. His rosy strands of hair framed his anger, so cruel but so pretty.
And those small hands, they were shaking as he held the spear on my neck, yet it did not pierce me. The cross necklace on his neck reflected my terrified eyes, I knew what he was. A vampire hunter.
“Are you lonely?” I whispered.
His hands gripped the spear tighter, yet it did not reach my neck. I looked up at the sky, the clouds were drifting away and the stars shone their light over the lonely kingdom. My eyelids felt heavy, the snow was slowly pulling me towards its embrace, but I could not rest. Not until his spear was away from me, not until I knew what he was going to do.
My eyes were locked in his, and they looked murderous. “I think it’s rude to try to kill me without introducing yourself first, monsieur.”
“Why do you care about that?” He replied, then stuck the spear in my dress to avoid letting me go. “You’re just a vampire. And vampires deserve to die.”
“My name is Celestine de Sade”, I muttered, ignoring his viewpoint on me.
He scoffed. “Astolfo Granatum, or Astolfo of Garnet”, he looked away. “I am one of the church’s chasseurs.”
The moonlight shone straight to my eyes, and for a moment, I saw him completely. His eyes widened as his gaze met mine in a moment. I could not ignore that he was a beautiful human for being a male. I had never seen such an interesting-looking person in my long life.
“Astolfo”, I repeated slowly. “Chasseur... I see.”
He was still staring at me, surprisingly enough, and not making a move. I thought that I would have been dead by now, but he did not aim the spear at me, he just kept staring at my eyes and I was staring at his.
“I never thought that I would have to die by the hand of the church, when there is nothing that I can do except lay here and watch my blood spill on the snow.”
Astolfo lifted his spear and pointed it at my chest, lifting it up at the moon’s gaze. My eyelids closed from the world, I waited for the stroking pain in my chest, the one last breath. I had always wanted to die by myself, yet now it seemed that my time was up.
It pierced right through the palm of my hand. I screamed softly; it had not pierced my heart. As I opened my eyes again, I saw the snow turning red, and he was standing face away from me, holding his fists together and shivering, if not from the cold, then from the depth of his heart.
“My sister...” he muttered angrily. “You look just like her laying down there, curse you...”
I opened my mouth to say something, but he brushed his face and turned back at me, eyes filled with hatred and murder. He looked like a fallen angel, his rose-coloured hair was messed up on his face, his knuckles had turned pale.
Then, he swiftly grabbed back his spear and turned to leave. The person he had been a while ago was gone, and instead of flowing rage, there was deeply buried wrath, something I had never witnessed someone having towards me.
“Wait!” I shouted through the storm.
He stopped on the path and met my eyes again. “I will return to take your life, mademoiselle.”
And he vanished in the blizzard, as if he had never been here. The soft snow was painted in crimson red, my heart had almost stopped its endless beating. Yet I realized that he had not called me a monster anymore. But I knew he was going to come back to kill me, but something about him felt restless, like a bird that had just learned to fly, and locked in a cage. And his blood that shone through his porcelain skin, was the sweetest scent I had ever known.
