“Yes, I wanted revenge,” he admitted. “But it wasn’t directed at Queen V.”
“Please,” Billy said in disbelief.
“It’s the truth,” Pedro said.
“Tell us what happened after Cristian staked you,” Anna said. “There was nothing,” Pedro said taking a breath. “There was
a void of darkness, then I felt excruciating pain,” he said as he remembered his body undergoing a metamorphosis when the dust of his remains began to regenerate. “I fed mostly on rodents and animals. Occasionally, I fed on a human to speed up the process. Once I became aware of my senses, I returned to the loft and found it empty. I felt abandoned.”
“Sage felt bad for leaving you,” Anna said. “She told me that she thought you would begin to regenerate.”
“She did?” Pedro asked, surprised. “Yes,” Anna said.
“I saw the shroud covering the door and realized that you all mourned me.”
“We did,” Lisa said. “I felt the moment you were staked in the heart. I thought you were gone for good.” Pedro stared at her, touched. “I covered myself with the shroud, since I still hadn’t completely returned to my physical form. I was just a shadow. I remembered that Pearson was supposed to meet Robert at the cemetery, so I wanted to give him the scare of his life. He wanted Sage to meet him there,” Anna said, “so he could kill her.” “I showed up instead,” Pedro said.
“I think he probably mistook you for Sage, since she was wearing a black cloak, and you wore the shroud,” Anna said. “He did,” Pedro smirked. “Then Sage knew,” Anna grinned. “She said that she believed that Pearson may get more than he bargained for that night.” “She always seems to have an intuition for those things.” She sighed, shaking her head and thinking of her best friend and what kind of state she was in.
“He called out to me, thinking I was her,” Pedro continued. “I saw the fear in his eyes when he realized he was wrong.” “I chased him through the cemetery and watched him run like a scared kitten, the stench of his fear reeking like garbage on a sweltering day.” Billy chuckled. “I had him cornered with nowhere to run.”
Then he began to pray ceaselessly and fervently, and it was so painful to my ears I had to flee. To my surprise, he showed up here. I heard his loud, raspy breathing along with his hammering footsteps as he approached the door. I watched him peer into the room, and I seized the opportunity to strike, and I tried to give back to him the pain he inflicted on Queen V when he staked her—to right my mistake.”
Daniel listened, folding his arms. “He didn’t know what hit him,” he grinned, thinking of the memento he kept of Rafael that he knew the hunter cherished, the silver stake used to kill Sage’s parents. He recalled picking it up from the floor in the grand living room and placing it in his drawer for safekeeping. “You may have scared him off for a time, but he came back and now he has Sage,” Anna said sadly. “I know,” Pedro said softly.
Cristian arrived at his parents’ door and rang the doorbell. There was no reply. Listening for footsteps, he peered into the window. “No one’s home,” he thought. The door opened. “Hello,” the housekeeper said. She stared out into the darkness, listening to the rustling of the wind. “Hello,” she repeated. Cristian came behind her and walked inside as she turned to close the door. He watched as she went toward the back where her room was situated.
He could hear the sounds of the television blaring from the room. Looking around, he stared at the pictures of him and his parents. “I wish you would accept Sage and she could be part of our family,” he said mournfully. “I would love that.”
He went upstairs and stopped at his bedroom. Over his bed covered with a Spiderman quilt hung a replica of the space shuttle in midair on a thread. “At one time I wanted to be an astronaut,” he thought. “I wanted to go up into space and look back at the beauty of this planet and the universe.”
“Now I can fly and soar faster than an eagle.” He looked at his comic books, chuckling to himself. “This is when I realized that I wanted to draw pictures.” “I’d found my love of bringing images of beauty to life.” He remembered how fervently he worked on the masterpiece of Sage and how he couldn’t get her image out of his mind, recollecting, just earlier in the evening, how beautiful she looked as if she had stepped down from the masterpiece itself. “Nothing I paint will ever compare to that portrait,” he thought.
“Where are you, Sage?” He didn’t want to imagine the torment she may be experiencing at Pearson’s hand.
He looked back once more before leaving his bedroom and stopped at his parent’s room. The door was closed. He turned the knob, opening the door slightly, and walked inside noiselessly. The room smelled of crisp linen that was washed and dried on a clothes line.
Cream-colored curtains made of Chantilly lace hung from the wide windows. A teal-colored quilt covered the king-sized bed. He walked over to the polished mahogany dresser and saw his mother’s framed photo. She had a beaming smile.
“I always looked up to you and Dad,” he mused. “I wanted to have a long-lasting relationship, like you have, and find a wife that loved life as you do. I find her, and you reject her,” he thought, thinking of how Jillian angrily lashed out at Sage. “You made me choose, and I chose her.” He noticed a card tucked underneath the picture frame. “What’s this?” he wondered. He pulled the card out. “Rafael Pearson,” he mouthed. “What the…!” “Why do you have Pearson’s business card?”
“So where did you go?” Pedro asked.
“Prague,” Anna replied. He nodded his head quietly. “The holiday was shortened once Sage and Cristian saw the news about the missing portrait.” “Saw the news?” Pedro asked, confused. “He had the portrait.” “I know,” Anna said flustered. “He had the portrait, but the media broke the story of it being stolen, and it spread like wildfire. He wanted to return to try to fix the situation, and we know how that turned out,” she said disgustedly. “That we do,” Cody said.
“I saw her that night,” Pedro said abruptly. “What night?” Samuel asked entering the room. “The night she was in torment,” Pedro replied. “She was suffering. Her hunger couldn’t be abated and she was in agony.”
“I felt it,” Samuel thought.
“I saw her throw the bottle against the wall in frustration.” Anna realized that Sage didn’t want them to know just how much she was suffering.
She looked at Samuel and saw the realization in his eyes as he thought the same thing. “It was painful watching her like that,” Pedro said staring afar. “She was tormented.” Anna closed her eyes, imagining the agony Sage felt. “Then she said something that I didn’t understand,” Pedro said.
“What did she say?” Anna asked. “She talked about something she couldn’t give and she seemed even more upset over it,” he said. “She couldn’t give what?” Billy said. “Me a child,” Cristian said, walking into the room solemnly. “I had talked to her about having children.” Samuel grimaced, while Anna winced. “She told me that she couldn’t have children.” “From all my years of knowing Sage, she had spoken a few times of wanting to have a family, but her father the king took that away from her when he turned her against her will. She always had resentment toward him for that.”
“I didn’t know, and I just thought...,” Cristian started.
“Just like you thought returning the painting would fix the problems,” Anna said angrily. “Don’t you ever think things through before you blurt them out?” she asked.
“I’m not going to stand here and argue with you,” Cristian said, reaching his limit with Anna. “From the moment we met, you didn’t like me and you have made that very clear. And I don’t care,” he yelled. “Sage chose me, and I’m a part of her life whether you like it or not.” “Deal with it,” he snapped, storming out the room.
Anna glared at him, mumbling under her breath, “He doesn’t know her as well as he thinks he does.”
“Look at this,” one of nurses said handing Randi an early morning edition of the newspaper. It headlined the masquerade ball, the blackout, and ensuing chaos that occurred. Also featured was the sketched picture of Rafael along with a surveillance camera still photo of him roaming the hallways of the hotel. He was named as a person the police were looking for in connection to the Robert Scott murder case and also whether he was linked to a series of “vampire-like slayings” that had been occurring in the city, mentioning incidentally that one of the victims at the hotel claimed he bit them. There was also a mention of a suspicious puddle of blood found in a stairwell.
“Oh no,” Randi said. “Rafael is in deep trouble. I told him he should’ve taken care of this before it got out of hand.” She saw another article mentioning the disappearance of the “Beauty Mysterium” mystery woman when the blackout occurred.
“I need to know what happened at the hotel,” she thought. “Your patient John Fisher is waking up,” one the nurses said. “Good,” Randi thought. She hurried to the room, stopping to catch her breath before opening the door. “Good morning,” she said, smiling sweetly. “Hi,” John said, staring at her nonchalantly. “Your name is John?” she asked. “Yes,” he said, looking around. She wondered if he was looking for someone, perhaps the three people who brought him to the hospital.
“John, I’m Randi,” she said. He smiled. “I get that reaction a lot” she grinned. “I wonder if you can answer some questions for me?” He nodded his head.
She walked over to the side of his bed and leaned down against his ear. “I need to know if you know someone named Rafael.” John twitched his ear. “Rafael Pearson,” she continued.