Fifty one

1108 word(s)

Published

The black widow

ROMANIA 1780

Weeks went by and an unholy relationship was born between the foreign prince and the vampire Countess. He treated her as she had always wanted. Mamuwalde made her feel human. What started out as an attraction borne from conflicting agendas resulted in love and one stolen night, Mamuwalde told his love to flee with him to Africa. Although flattered, Wilhelmina knew a happy ending was nothing but futility for them. Dracula was used to having his way and the Countess knew the moment her husband realized he had been received, he would come for them both. So she rejected Mamuwalde's offer of a happily ever after. But the foreigner, like many of his kind, was a fierce lover. He put a musket in his lover's small hands and instructed that she kill her husband when he was most susceptible. He was certain his plan was foolproof and perhaps it was but later that night, when Wilhelmina withdrew the musket to end her monstrosity of a husband, she couldn't find it within her cold lifeless heart to pull the trigger. She feared his weapon would fail to do its job. Her heart couldn't bear to know what would become of Mamuwalde when Vlad Dracula heard her secret. The impaler could never hurt her physically for in his own twisted way, he loved her but that would put the human prince she loved in grave danger so summoning the greatest courage she could muster, Wilhelmina put on a hood and fled the palace walls. She proceeded to find Mamuwalde at the secret spot he had instructed they meet after she had finished Dracula off. Tears flooded her eyes when she made it. She could not help it knowing that she had made the decision to break both her heart and the one of the man she loved. The heart ached that plagued Wilhelmina's heart immediately vanished and was replaced by a sense of dread as her nostrils picked up the pungent smell of blood. Human blood to be precise. Her walk slowed and her heartbeat quickened as she walked directly into the mangled body of a human male. His head was decapitated, his hands had been twisted and turned to places they did not belong and his heart, it rested next to his removed head.

Wilhelmina reached for the head and upon realizing whom they belonged to, she collapsed to the ground. "W...Walde..." She had sobbed. What monster could have done this, she cried.

Out of the shadows, a figure crept out and approached her with the gait of a predator. Wilhelmina didn't even bother to see who it was. Only one man was capable of such grotesque evil. Vlad Dracula. His middle finger hooked Wilhelmina's chin and he lifted it so she could meet his gaze. His fangs were out and stained crimson implying that he had quite the drink. "Did you really think you could run from me, Wilhelmina?" He asked, his tone was condescending.

"I wasn't going to run," Wilhelmina wept bitterly as she held on to her lover's severed head. "I was going to stay by your side. I was going to send him off and wish him the best of luck. Why? He could have had a happy life. Why did you do this!"

A smile crept up Vlad's red lips as he watched his wife truly suffer. "Did you not have pride when you let this human ravish you, my dear Wilhelmina?" He teased. There was an unmistakable hint of mad jealousy in the manner he rebuffed her. It made Vlad sick that a human had had his way with his wife. "I killed him because you forced my hand. Wilhelmina, you belong to me," He croaked. "You belong to only me. Did you really think I was going to let this bastard leave after he stole your heart? Did you really for a moment believe that I would be comfortable living our eternity with only the embers of the passion we both share?"

Hearing him spew that maniacal rubbish whilst he laughed made Wilhelmina sick to the core. Why hadn't she finished him when she had the chance? Swallowing the bile that threatened to escape her throat, Wilhelmina looked Vlad straight in the eye and spoke. "He was right about you, you know. He knew you would never allow me to be happy." Before she could finish her sentence, Vlad landed a slap that made her ears tingle but Wilhelmina refused to be silenced. "And I was willing to allow myself be unhappy for Mamuwalde's sake. I knew we would never be able to get rid of you. You are too mad to let strangers take your property." Wilhelmina looked down at the decapitated head for a split second and smiled. It was one of pain and strange novelty. "But Walde was mad too. He refused to let me sacrifice my happiness. Now, look where that landed him."

"I'm not the monster here wife. I am only committing all these atrocities for love."

"Love?" Wilhelmina scoffed. "The same love that wouldn't let you free me from this curse you forced upon me? The same love that wouldn't let me be happy?" Those words caused rage to simmer within Wilhelmina. Engulfed with that momentary high, she reached into her underskirt and pulled out a musket not caring what would become of her if the bullet failed. "Love might be blind Vladimir but it isn't heartless."

The presence of the weapon unsettled the old vampire causing him to take a step backward but it only lasted for a moment. The disgruntled look on Vladimir's face erupted into a bout of laughter albeit a hollow one. "You seem to forget what I am wife. No weapon forged of human hands can harm me."

Aiming the gun at his heart, Wilhelmina spoke. "Words made you the monster you are today Vladimir. If the words of a witch were capable of this much, imagine what the words of a man of God could do to the darkness within you." And with that noble speech, Wilhelmina fired. Vladimir's pride had been his own undoing. For many years, his curse had been able to repel any weapon that could curse him harm. However, Mamuwalde had not been joking when he brought up the topic of a vampirism cure. He knew more than he let on. The bullet that hit Vladimir directly in the heart was a glass pellet encasing holy water and it shattered on impact with its target. Ash formed in the air in the shape of a man before scattering to the ground. Vladimir was gone.