Chapter 6: William the Damned by Lynette Ferreira

THE WEATHER HAS turned warmer and after dinner, Susanna goes out to walk with Francois through the conservatory.

The heavy fragrance of the flowers fills the room and he takes her hand into his, twining his fingers through hers.

When they get to the darkest part of the glasshouse, Francois pulls her to him gently. He lifts her up until her face is level with his and he smiles mischievously while looking at her face searchingly. His face moves closer to hers when suddenly behind them, a vase falls from the table with a loud clatter and Francois lets her go. Susanna staggers backwards.

“Who is there?” Francois’ voice bellows through the conservatory.

Everything is silent.

“William, is it you?” Francois asks sarcastically. He had a suspicion after the ball William was still here, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not deny the way William had looked at Susanna that night. He came here to the conservatory purposefully and he was going to kiss Susanna. Knowing it would provoke William into revealing himself if indeed he was still at the château. Francois starts to laugh. “She is mine. Stay away.”

The night remains silent.

Francois grabs Susanna by the arm roughly and hurriedly he walks toward the house, dragging Susanna behind him. Stunned Susanna follows him.

When they walk into the château, he lets Susanna go abruptly. He orders the servant walking toward them to get a hunting party together. Susanna hears Francois mutter under his breath that he will let none rest until he catches and kills William.

Susanna walks up the stairs with trepidation and fear in her heart. She feels ashamed by the words Francois yelled in the conservatory, claiming her possessively as his own as if he has ownership over her. Is this what she wanted?

When Susanna opens the door to her room, she dismisses the servant girl, telling her as clearly as she could she would not need her help tonight.

The girl leaves the room frowning, while Susanna closes the door behind her and then she leans against it.

Susanna is shocked when she sees William come through the window and she rushes to him. “You should not be here. Francois is putting together a group of men to hunt you down,” Susanna says panicked.

He looks at her amused. “He would not suspect I was here in your room.”

“He might hunt for you in the daylight. He would find you and kill you.”

William smiles sadistically. “You seem worried.”

Hurt, Susanna turns away from him, while she demands, “You have to go. I cannot let him find you here.”

He puts his hand on her shoulder and Susanna can feel tears starting to well up in her eyes. She keeps her back turned to him. “Was it you in the conservatory?” She asks him, trying to keep him quiet by keeping her voice soft.

“Yes, and I am sorry I interrupted. It seems you have already chosen. I am sure sunlight suits you well, although, I can assure you the moonlight looks amazingly good on you.” Scornfully he adds, “This is not the first time I have caught you in his arms and have caused a distraction.”

“You set fire to the stable?” Susanna asks appalled, turning around to face him.

He looks at her, an adamant spark in his eyes.

Susanna asks, “Why are you here now if you think I have already chosen?”

The look on his face changes and he seems unsure of himself. He frowns and then softly, he says, “To change your mind. I should have left you already. My crew is getting increasingly impatient with me and Charlotte is beyond raging mad, but here I still am.”

The loud barking of dogs fills the air outside and Susanna feels fear for William. “He is going to catch you. You have no alternative and you must go back to your ship. Please, before he gets you.”

Urgently he says, “Come with me?”

“No, I cannot.”

“Then I am unable to leave. If it is only because of money, I can also give you everything you could ever want and more. I will be all you want.”

“Do not be ridiculous. I cannot go with you. I cannot only live at night. I cannot stay in your cabin for the rest of my life for fear of your crew. I cannot leave my mother.”

He moves closer to her menacingly. “You know I can make you mine even before you can blink your eyes. I can take you and I can turn you in an instant. I am usually a very selfish person, but in this instance, I would like the choice to be yours. I want you to choose me, above all else.”

Unexpectedly, there is a blur through the room and Charlotte grabs Susanna roughly, swiftly away from William.

Charlotte hisses at him, “I will not let you do this William. Francois is out to get you, and he is on his way up here now.”

William hears Francois coming up the stairs and as the door bursts open and Francois staggers through the door, Charlotte jumps out of the window with Susanna in her arms.

William turns to follow when Francois grabs him hard by the shoulder and knocks him to the floor.

Instantaneously William jumps up and turns to face Francois, crouching low, ready to attack. His face cruelly twisted, growling warningly deep in his throat.

“You let her go, William! Tell your woman to bring her back!” Francois screams at him.

“No! I will not let you have her!”

Francois laughs sadistically. “She has already chosen. Do you honestly think anybody will choose night over day?”

“Yes, for love the choice might be made.”

Francois is raging. “I am going to kill you tonight!”

This time William laughs sadistically. “Do you honestly think you can kill me? Oh, look you brought a gun. Silver bullets, I presume. I think I heard silver bullets kill werewolves, not vampires. You have your monsters confused.”

“I will shoot you straight through the heart.”

“Actually, you should have brought a wooden stake, but perhaps it works, so I do hope your aim is good. Although, I will most certainly not stand still while you take your aim and I certainly would enjoy your efforts in trying. Perhaps it would be a blessing in disguise and you might shoot your own stone heart while you try.”

To prove his point William rushes past Francois so fast, that Francois twirls, aiming his gun at nothing.

William laughs. “Come on, Francois. Shoot me then.”

“We will just stay here until daylight.”

“What makes you think I am going to be waiting here with you for sunrise?”

“You cannot leave. The house is surrounded.”

William laughs as he leaps out of the window.

Francois runs to the open window and looking down he sees his servants run around aimlessly after a shadow they thought they saw.

WILLIAM FOLLOWS CHARLOTTE’S scent. She moved fast. Charlotte is older than William is, and she has lived longer, so she is much stronger than he is and faster.

He runs fast, so he can cover as much ground before daybreak, knowing she also has to go into hiding when the sun comes up and then she has the extra burden of Susanna. He is sure he will catch up with Charlotte before it is too late for him to save Susanna.

She is running north and he wonders if she will be boarding the ship with Susanna, or if she will leave her on the wayside or kill her before she gets to the coast.

When the sun starts to colour the horizon, he still has not caught up with her, but her scent is getting stronger, so he knows he will reach her soon. Hastily he finds a burrow and buries himself deep within the ground, piling branches which he pulls from the surrounding trees over himself.

He can only hope it would be sufficient and he has not left any exposed areas. He waits in anticipation as the sun rises higher in the sky and feels relieved when the burning to ashes pain, which he assumes is overwhelmingly painful, does not overcome him. He only experiences a sweltering of his flesh, although he is unable to sweat, his skin feels blistering hot.

He falls asleep, he cannot go anywhere anyway and he needs his strength to continue following Charlotte. When he meets up with her, he might have to fight her.

He wakes up automatically as night falls and then he pushes himself up out of the ground. He continues following Charlotte’s scent; she has turned south again and he wonders what she is planning.

As he runs, he suddenly realises Charlotte has decided to take Susanna back to Francois. No! The frustration and rage build up in him and propels him faster toward Charlotte. He must reach her before she gets to the château.

CHARLOTTE RUNS WITH Susanna slung over her shoulder.

Susanna keeps her eyes tightly shut against the blurring of the world as it rushes past. Charlotte talks without stopping, muttering repeatedly how much she loves William, how she would not allow another whimsical girl to get between her and William again. If Susanna died, William might be devastated, but Charlotte will nurse him back to health, as she had done before. Susanna is scared, but she clings to Charlotte with all her might.

When they stop for the day, Charlotte ties Susanna to a tree, making sure the tree will be directly in the glare of the blazing sun and she jeers sarcastically, while Susanna only stares up at her fearfully, “There. I hope you enjoy the sun.” Charlotte laughs menacingly when she walks away to hide away from the sun.

The sun burns mercilessly down on Susanna all day. She fights against the twine Charlotte used to tie her to the tree, but her efforts are fruitless.

Susanna has never been so happy to see nightfall and the brush of the cool night air against her sunburned skin.

Cruelly, Charlotte yanks Susanna up from the ground after she unties her.

Susanna pulls her arm out from Charlotte’s grip and she runs. She must have given at the most two steps when Charlotte dives into her and they stumble onto the ground. Charlotte falls heavily onto Susanna, and Susanna feels as if a rock connected with her body. Charlotte leans down to Susanna and she hisses in Susanna’s face, “If I killed you, William will never forgive me. So, behave yourself and I will take you back to Francois, but run again and I will kill you with pleasure!” Roughly, Charlotte throws Susanna over her shoulder and she starts to run again. She knows William is following her and now the girl has slowed her down.

William follows Charlotte and not long before sunrise, William sees Charlotte run through the trees ahead of him. She would reach Francois’ château soon.

He wants to lunge at her and knock her off her feet, but at the speed, Charlotte is running, he might hurt Susanna. He calls out, “Charlotte. Wait. Let’s talk.”

He sees Charlotte visibly slow down.

Charlotte stops and turns to face him, and then she sneers, “I would rather kill her than see you suffer a moment longer.”

In a calm voice, William says pleadingly, while walking slowly to her, “I am not suffering, Charlotte.”

With despair in her voice, Charlotte says, while she drops Susanna to the ground, “We have a good thing. Why are you spoiling everything?”

Susanna drops to the ground with a loud crash and William resists the urge to run toward her. Instead, he continues looking at Charlotte. He keeps his eyes on hers and he can see the pain in them. For the first time, he realises she loves him and suddenly he feels sorry for her. He surely should know what it feels like to have your love reciprocated. “Charlotte, I am not spoiling everything. Let us leave her here and we will go back to the ship right now. Together.”

He was going to kill Charlotte, but now after looking in her eyes, the hateful compassion which rules his non-existent heart gets him again. He would not be able to kill her after everything they have been through, but he would never love her the way she obviously loves him. If not for Charlotte, he would have died from the fever when he changed.

Charlotte looks at him hopeful, yet unsure. She does not know if she can trust him anymore. She looks into his eyes for a moment and then she snarls when she sees the pity for her, and not the love she was hoping for, in his eyes.

With a blood-curdling scream, which echoes up into the pre-dawn sky, she grabs Susanna by her hair and pulls her up from the ground.

“No! Charlotte!” William screams as he runs toward them.

Susanna cries out painfully as she feels her hair pulled at the roots.

He runs behind Charlotte so fast, the grass under his feet does not move and then as Charlotte moves to kill Susanna, he twists her neck. Her spine breaks with a loud crack which booms into the silent air around them. Charlotte goes limp and her arm around Susanna’s neck loosens.

Susanna crawls away from Charlotte, sobs shuddering through her body.

Remorsefully William kneels next to Charlotte. He had no choice because he was acting in self-defence. He knows if Charlotte had killed Susanna, he would not be able to continue living his own never-ending existence.

When he gets up and walks closer to Susanna, she scurries away from him, mumbling incoherently.

William notices with despair the sun is about to rise above the horizon. “Susanna, come with me,” he cries urgently.

“No!”

He stands in the clearing looking at her despondently. Then vulnerable he stretches his arms out into the sky. He closes his eyes and waits for the end. He would rather turn to dust than have Susanna reject him or be afraid of him.

Susanna dives into him so hard, he falls onto the ground. He sees her turn onto her side, gasping for air. She had knocked the wind right out of her lungs when she ran into him. “Don’t be stupid… Are you trying to sacrifice yourself? … Get out of the sun!” Susanna manages to say between breaths.

She stands up, clutching her hand around her waist and leans down to him. He looks up at her shocked. Susanna takes his hand in hers, pulling him up off the ground and then together, they run to an abandoned hut, he saw earlier.

They rush inside and William hurries into a dark corner. Susanna throws a pile of discarded blankets on the floor over him.

The hut is dark and the windows smeared dirty with dust, but still, Susanna runs around the room covering the windows and making sure there is not a streak of sunlight coming through the windows. She did not consider the slats in the wooden structure, and without warning, William yells loudly and painfully. Susanna runs to him and then grabs him up from the floor, keeping away from the walls when she sees the beams of sunlight shimmering through the gaps in the boards. “You will have to move as the sun moves across the hut, away from the sunlight filtering through the slats.”

He sits down against the wall across from the wall where the small, skinny sunlight beams come through the wooden boards.

His eyes hurt because the light is too bright. His skin glows from the heat of the sun. Susanna throws the blankets over him again and then she moves to his side. She lifts his shirt to see where the sun had burned him. The surrounding area is red and it looks painfully swollen. The skin where the sun had burned him is charcoal black and has the look of burned wood.

Softly she asks, “What would happen to you if the sun burned your whole body?”

“I will instantly turn into a pile of ash.” He laughs harshly. “From dust to dust.”

“So, sunshine does not bother you, only direct sunlight?”

“Yes, it is the ultra-violet rays in the sunlight which reacts badly with my skin. The heat from the sun does, however, make my skin warm up dramatically.” He laughs cruelly. “My deadly allergy.”

Susanna feels the heat radiating from his skin. “Will you be able to last the whole day?”

“Painfully, but yes, I shall survive.”

Susanna frowns. “Is it true you are repelled by garlic and holy water, and crucifixes?”

Susanna hears the amusement in his voice, when he says, “We do not like the smell of garlic because it has such a strong and pungent odour. Our smell is hypersensitive, so the smell of garlic causes a burning sensation in our noses. Not fatal, but extremely uncomfortable.”

She can feel him laughing, where she sits behind him.

He continues, “It depends on the holy water because some water is holier than other. It all depends on the person who blessed the water, so we try to avoid it in general because you never know. The same goes for crucifixes, it depends on how strongly the person wearing the crucifix believes, so once again we tend to avoid these because you just never know.”

“Do you sleep in coffins during the day?”

“No, but we sleep in coffin-like places, it is preferable when there is not a trace of sunlight.”

“What does blood taste like?”

William’s body stiffens and he remains silent.

“Tell me,” Susanna insists.

“You don’t need to know. I have amused you long enough and have tried to stave your curiosity, but I think you should sleep for a while. You have had a long two days and you are badly sun burnt.”

“Yes, even we mere mortals cannot stay out in the sun for too long.” She traces her fingers across his side, around the burn and she asks softly, “Does it hurt?”

He flinches, and she pulls her hand away immediately.

“Sorry,” she says softly and then she moves away from him.

She cannot see his face where he is huddled under the pile of blankets and every so often, she moves him around the room, out of the sun’s way. She smiles silently to herself when she looks at his huddled figure under the blankets, realising she has loved him from that first instant when she ran into him and she looked up into his face. Although at the time she thought it was fear when, in fact, it was the warm sensation of love.

Quietly she asks, “Tell me. How do you and Francois know each other?”

William is silent for a while and then he answers offhandedly, “Eighteen years ago, Francois and I were friends. We only met in the evenings, so he never suspected my condition. There was a girl, Lady Evelyn, and one night I brought her with me. I saw the immediate adoration in his eyes for her. He courted her and I could only offer her the night. She chose Francois—she chose the day.”

Susanna is glad the dirty blanket covers him and he cannot see the sad, shocked expression on her face. Trying to keep her voice normal, she asks, “What happened to her?”

“I only know she died sometime later. When she chose Francois, I ran away from her and my thoughts. Not long after that, Charlotte and I started our pirating business.”

Susanna sees him move his body away from hers and silently she looks across the small hut and watches the dust twirling through the room in the late afternoon sun.

When the sky turns dark, eventually, and he throws the blankets from his shoulders, he says jokingly, “Let’s live here forever. You can have the day, while I have the night, and we could meet in between.”

“Sounds promising, but thanks to your girlfriend, my mother must be worried sick about me.” Susanna turns to him and then she says remorsefully, “I am truly sorry, but I do not have a choice, I have to return to them.”

Despondently, smiling acceptingly, William takes her hand and silently they walk out into the bright night together. The moon is full again and it is hanging heavy in the sky. The stars glitter brightly and with a heavy heart, William walks Susanna back to Francois’ château. Neither one talk, they are both lost in their own thoughts and their feet lead the way.

When they walk down the moonlit driveway toward the house, William hears the calls of servants. Susanna carries on walking because she cannot hear the urgent cries all around them, they are too soft for her ears.

When they reach the stairs leading up to the impressive doors, Francois appears on the steps. William stops while Susanna carries on walking.

She stops as if in a dream and then she turns and looks back at William.

She loves William more than she is willing to admit to herself at this exact moment.

Her mind tells her she does not love William enough to give up the day, but her heart yells accusingly, Liar!

In the end, when she looks back at Francois, she has no choice but to choose her mother, who is standing a little behind Francois, her face wrought with worry.

Continue reading Chapter 7/10

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