Chapter 12 The Beginning of Marylin

“Yes Joana, you guessed it right. They were lovers. Derick fell in love with her right from the first day he joined the coven. They went into a relationship not long after. They were still together when Hillary and I joined the coven. Their bond was inseparable, and no one would have ever thought that they would break up; until John came into the picture. At first, she would lie to Derick that she wanted to go somewhere far, but she would go and see John instead. The outings became too frequent and Derick kept on wondering where she would always be going as they hardly spent time with each other anymore. One day, he decided to spy on her thoughts even though they promised they wouldn’t do that to each other, but he couldn’t help his curiosity anymore. He became heartbroken upon seeing that she had been cheating on him with John. He confronted her about it, and she confirmed it. They broke up immediately after and she continued her relationship with John, eventually moving in with him. When she started having problems with John’s family, she moved back here. But it was like the person who had moved back here was not Marilyn anymore. Her obsession with him grew to the point that she would not eat or sleep for days, she spent all that time finding information as to how she could return to be with her lover. We tried to talk to her, at least give yourself some rest or eat something, but she wouldn’t listen. She quarreled with everyone, and it got to the point that we all decided to leave her to do what she thought was best for herself.

“I didn’t want to say this before, but seeing you smile for the first time reminded me of the old Marylin Lou, the one who was happy with Derick. I had missed that smile so much. She was the most cheerful one amongst us, until she met John, it was like he changed her.”

“Thank you,” Joana said. She had heard all she needed to. Now she knew that she would have to be careful with Derick during trainings, although she knew that it would be hard for her to catch feelings knowing that she still had a groom that she loved waiting for her back at home, she would still feel bad if Derick began to confuse the time they would spend together training with the happy moments he spent in the past with Marilyn Lou. She thought about what Edmund said about Marylin cheating on Derick with John. Although she did not support what her ancestor did, she still thought that Lou could have done better by breaking up with Derick first instead of lying to him about her relationship with the man she was destined to be with.

And how did they know that Marylin was happier with Derick before she met John? She was sure that the reason why they met her unhappy when she moved back in here was because she had been denied the chance to be with the one she truly loved. She was proud of her ancestor for choosing love over everything else, and even though she lived a short human life at the end, she at least got to be with the man of her destiny and died a happy death, the same way she would with Andrew.

One more thing, Edmund said before standing up to leave, yanking Joana out of her thoughts. I would appreciate it if you don’t let Derick know about anything we have discussed here today. You don’t have to worry about him getting the wrong idea. Derick always knows what he’s doing even though it sometimes seems stupid, and I am sure he wouldn’t have offered to help you if he knew he wouldn’t be able to control his feelings when he’s with you. Besides, it’s been a really long time, I doubt if Derick would still be holding onto any of those old feelings of his anymore.

“Ok, thank you once again for telling me everything,” Joana said.

“No problem,” and with that, Edmund left the room.

***

“In today’s lesson, we are not going to perform any physical activity. I will be telling you the story of how your ancestor, Marylin Lou became a vampire. I am telling you this because it had something to do with her relationship with John, and her relationship with John had everything to do with her becoming human, as she had always said that he reminded her of how things were when she was still a human.”

Joana nodded her head, indicating for Dana to continue with what she was saying. She was fully recovered now, and today was the first day of her lessons with Dana and Derick. The three of them had gathered in the study for her first lesson after the sun had set.

“Marilyn Lou was a tavern worker, she had a good life, good family, a good husband, she was also a Christian, and even though she was not rich, she had almost everything she needed to make life comfortable for her. The only thing she did not have was a good job. The tavern paid her well, but always had terrible male customers who would drink themselves to stupor and carry prostitutes all around. Her husband had always pressured her to quit her job, as it did not go well with her values as a Christian, but she refused because she needed the money, not like she had a choice anyway, as her husband was also poor. She was about your age when she became a vampire, and also had the same youth as you did when she became human, even though she was already hundreds of years old.

“One day, something terrible happened. There was a rampage at the tavern, as one of the drunken men had lost control and had caused a killing spree. They threw all sorts of things at themselves, knives, swords, daggers, and a lot of people present there were killed, including Marylin Lou.

“She was taken to a priest who happened to be a newly converted vampire, for her body to be blessed before it would be buried. The priest, who found out that her heart was still beating in the mortuary, decided to convert her immediately, as she would be dead in a matter of seconds if he didn’t. He bribed the mortuary staff to lie to her family that she had been buried immediately after the blessing, and that they couldn’t see the body because it had been infected with a deadly disease from another corpse.

“Marylin had to move out of the town because she couldn’t be seen by those who thought she was dead. She lived in a little cave in the mountain where this castle stands, not knowing that there were vampires close by. I found her one day when I went out to hunt, and I decided to bring her to live in this castle. I inherited it from my father, who passed on after he decided to return his immortal life back to the supreme council, and from there, we became a coven, until Derick, Edmund and Hillary joined us.”