Chapter 7: A New Life

It had been over 2 months since David had left the manor of House Velma. The day he left, Maria's first reaction was to run to his room and confirm with her own eyes he wasn't there. After that she spent the next hour searching the mansion desperately for him, hoping he was just hiding somewhere or that the rumors he had killed a guard and left were untrue. At the end of the hour she had searched the entire manor more than once. She quickly ran back into her room and hid under her covers, she cried for 2 straight hours after that. She had just made a friend, a human friend, though they had a bit of a rocky start she had seriously come to appreciate his existence, even if while he was with her he was a bit dispassionate, he was a solid worker, he was intelligent, he had even managed to teach her a few things. And while he may not have shown it, he also paid quite close attention to her. 

He knew exactly what sweets and tea she preferred without even asking, he was always able to help her with the more difficult parts while sorting through estate matters, he also seemed to know exactly what she was thinking before she thought it, on many occasions he had chosen the exact dress for her that she was thinking of using, he had also many times correctly surmised what she would request the chef for dinner. And, though to outsiders it may not look like he did, he she could tell he cared for her, he never once got angry at her for messing up, he never once got frustrated when he had to explain something to her over and over again, never once seemed to mind that she would mess up when practicing. He always seemed willing to extend a helping hand to her no matter what. Despite how he acted emotionless, just being with him gave her a warmth that she hadn't felt before in her life, the feeling of being supported by someone she trusted was a wonderful feeling. 

That day she hadn't just lost a servant, or a confidant, but a friend, and to her a friend was someone special. Of course, there were plenty of people who wanted to be her friends, daughters of other nobles would constantly try to win her favor with gifts, invites, and praise. Even many of the noble boys would jump at any opportunity to escort her, they would bend over backwards to gain her favor in any way they could. But they were not real friends. All the girls saw in her was her wealth, they merely wanted to get close to her to help their family gain contact with her father. All the boys thought about was the potential to become her suitor. Not because they fancied her, not because they liked her wit, or her intellect, but because they were after the influence the Duke's house has, if they managed to marry her they would immediately become the center of noble society, they would have the backing of her father, and even the king would have to pay them respect if they met. And then of course, there were the few outliers that were only after her for her body, which was arguably worse. Among these people, there was no one who she would ever call a friend. Except for one. There was only one girl whom she felt genuine with, whom she felt had no ulterior motives towards her and just liked her for being her. And when it dawned on her that David had become an existence special enough to her that she would call a friend, the joy she felt was immense. However, he left the same day as she had this realization. She had 2 friends for but a moment before her hopes were violently dashed. 

She wasn't even sure why he left, was she too harsh on him? Was he unsatisfied with the conditions in the manor? Was there something that he needed as a human that she was unaware of having grown up surrounded only by other vampires? She was distraught as she could not fathom the reason. Not only that, but the day he left she had just told him her secret, the secret of her curse, the fact that he was needed for her to live, that fact that she depended on his existence not just for his blood but his mind and companionship, she may not have said everything but she was sure she had poured her heart out to him, and still, he left. So, had he never thought of her as a friend like she did? Did he secretly despise her? She had so many questions and so few answers. 

The days and weeks that followed, the entire manor was in constant alert, her father, who always seemed to have gentle expression on his face and who always stood tall, now seemed tired and old, even his gentle expression had faded some giving way to a haggard expression. Her father was constantly sending out men to search the surrounding areas to find any trace of David, he was getting more and more worn down each passing day as more and more reports came in with no signs of him. On the occasions he would receive a report about the deaths of some of his men, his face was grief stricken and violently angry. After some time, a rumor started spreading around the manor about David, people began referring to him as "The Ghost of the Forest." Since, despite being human, he seemed to vanish into thin air leaving no trace behind. His considerable body count had only added more fuel to these rumors as people referred to him as a phantom of death, some people even began to claim he wasn't a human at all and that he was some kind of reaper possessing tremendous powers. 

But Maria knew better. She had felt the gentleness of his hands as he helped her up if she fell, she saw the softness in his eyes as he would explain this to her, she was aware that every time she had changed dresses he would have a soft glimmer in his eyes as he looked at her. Such a man wasn't capable of such brutality, right? She had managed to see a body they did bring back at one point, and it was neither mangled nor defiled, it had a single puncture wound in the neck and that was all. The whole thing confused her, she didn't know what to think about the whole mess, on one hand he was murdering so many people, on the other she had an instinctive urge to take his side, no matter what was going on outside there must be a good reason for it, surely. 

Soon enough a month had gone by and it had been close to a month and a half since she had last drank his blood. Perhaps that was why she was feeling weak all the time now. She found it harder and harder to get up in the morning, food no longer had the same taste it used to, and every once in a while, she would feel the urge to cough. She wasn't oblivious to the cause, of course, this had to have something to do with her curse. Vampires did not get sick due to natural causes, so there could only be one explanation. But since she was not yet 19, she didn't realize that she would already start to feel the effects. Of course, her 19th birthday was coming but not for a while, it seemed weird that the curse would take effect so quickly, it had only been a little over a month after all! Still though little by little she was getting worse.

Returning to the present day, 2 months since David had left, it had been well over 2 months since she last had his blood. She was now bedridden, her head constantly hurt, and it was starting to get hard to breathe. Still though, she tried to make the most of it, she had long since stopped bothering with the estate business as she found it too taxing, so instead she spent most of her time reading. It was not a terrible time as she managed to get through some novels she had been eyeing for a while but never had the time to read. Regardless, her weakened body made it hard for her to do anything else which meant she had few options. She hadn't seen her father in over a week, even when she was still eating in the dining room, her father was busy elsewhere. For a while now he had not left his wardroom, pouring over maps and reports he is constantly ordering patrols to go out and even took his meals, what little he ate, in there as well. 

Maria had just been eating the light meal a maid prepared for her and reading through a book about a young prince who goes on an adventure when all of a sudden, she hears a knock at her door. 

" Come in!" Maria said without looking up from her book. 

"Pardon me, young miss." A maid said as she entered the room. "But your father is calling for you." This caught her attention, over a week without seeing her father and now he suddenly wants to see her, not that she was complaining, any excuse to get out of her room was good by her. 

"Alright." Maria said as she put down her book and struggled to get out of bed. "Would you be so kind as to help me get there?" She said with a smile to the maid. The maid nods and walks over to her, grabbing hold of one of Maria's arms and steadying her as they leave the room and walk down the hall together. To her surprise they aren't heading towards the wardroom, in fact they walk right past the door and keep walking down the hall, as she is walking, she begins to hear some people talking at the end of the hall. As she gets closer the voices become clearer and she can tell where they are coming from. The dungeon. 

"...then?" Her father's voice said. 

"When we found... already was... and came back." A man's voice said in response. 

"Did you... I asked?" Her father said. 

"Yes sir!" The man responded quickly, by now Maria was standing on the top level of the stairs leading into the dungeon. 

"Well then, all we do now is wait for my daughter." Maria's father said as he turned around when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. 

"Ah daughter!" Her father said excitedly as he ran over to help her walk, shooing the maid away as he did. 

"I'm so glad you made it!" Maria looked at her father, his eyes were bloodshot, his clothes were wrinkled and smelly, and his hair looked wild and unkempt. He probably hasn't left that room in the entire time she hasn't seen him. "I have a surprise for you!" He said with a wide near manic grin as he led her to the cell at the end of the hall. Maria wasn't quite sure what he was leading her towards, but whatever it was, if it was down here, she doubted she would like it. Eventually they make it to the cell at the very end and Maria turns and looks inside. 

"David." she mutters softly as her grip on her father's arm loosens. 

There, inside the cell, David was laying against the wall on top of the pile of hay, his eyes glazed over his mouth hanging open, he himself, not moving an inch. As she draws closer to him, she can see some clear liquid dripping down his face from his mouth; it has a quite repugnant smell too. It took her a moment before she realized what it was, she was seeing. Drugs. They drugged David. She turns back to her father unsure of what to say and sees him just staring at her with joy and pride in his eyes. She turns back to look at David again, still unmoving, clearly drugged out of his mind. 

"Now my daughter, go. Drink his blood and you will feel all better." Her father said with a small bit of crazed enthusiasm. Maria hated this, despite how he made her feel, despite all the things he had done, seeing him like this, in this state, hurt her heart. But her father was the head of House Velma, he was in charge, there was little she could do to prevent him from doing what he wanted. She would give him an earful later, she could lobby for David's sake at another time, but right now she knew that she needed David's blood, so she decided, in that moment, to swallow her shame and pain and take a bite. The taste was bitter.

The last thing David remembered was being poisoned and Alice saying she could save him, then he passed out. He had no memory of what happened after that. As he woke up now, his whole body felt very weird. He was having trouble keeping coherent thoughts together and his vision was very blurry. He could just barely make out two shapes in front of him that looked somehow human like, especially the way that they swayed. But nothing was truly staying still, everything around him was wiggling. Where was he? What was going on? He tried to answer these questions, but he didn't get very far because he couldn't keep the thought in his head. It felt as though his brain were floating on a cloud he could not control, and he was unable to see down below him. Occasionally, he would feel a thought coming past him, but the cloud always drifted past the thought before he could catch it. If he was in the right state of mind, he would find the whole situation very annoying, not being able to think straight. But this haze that he found himself in was like a maze with no end, he was trapped. 

He vaguely looked down at his arm that was lying next to him, trying to move it, but not only did it not budge but the thought of trying to move it was taxing in itself. It was strange, he couldn't even feel his arms or legs, he knew they were there, but floating in the void of his mind like he was, it was hard to make them do anything. He was stuck. Not that it really mattered anyway, where would he go? Did he have somewhere to be? He couldn't really remember correctly. He felt like he had something important to do, some sort of mission he was supposed to be on, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't remember. Thinking already was taxing enough, by now all of this "remembering" had sapped his strength, he was tired, so he decided the best thing he could do was just stop. 

After some time, a third shape appeared next to the other two shapes. They wiggled back and forth as if they were performing a dance together, then the new shape started to grow until it had enveloped his entire view. He felt a slight sting on his body. He felt? He wasn't sure. He thought he felt something, but the moment he started to think about it the thought once again flew away. It was best not to try too hard, so instead he would just rest there and not bother thinking. 

After some time, the third shape grew smaller again, and then alongside the other two shapes disappeared from his view. He was alone now, or was he alone? Was there anyone here besides him to begin with? He wasn't even sure what he meant; his thoughts were so jumbled he was finding it hard to be coherent even to himself. By this point he was tired, not just mentally tired but physically tired, he had no idea why, but he felt the best thing he could do was sleep, after all it's not like he had anywhere to go.

Some time passed as David remained in a haze, had a week past? Months? Years? Minutes? He had no idea; he had no concept of time in his haze; he wasn't even sure if this haze had just started or not. Every once in a while, a shape would appear in his view, grow in size for a bit, he'd feel some sort of wetness going inside him and then the shape would disappear. Then he once again had the experience where a shape completely covered his view and he felt a small prick which made him sleepy, but he didn't mind, sleep was relaxing, sleep was peace. Just being awake made him sleepy so it didn't really matter. 

Eventually after some time of this a bunch of shapes gathered in front of him, he could hear sounds but they were all muffled, warbly, and distorted, he couldn't make out what they were saying, not that it would matter, even if he could hear them he would still be unable to think about it, his thoughts hurt so it was better to not think at all. One of the shapes was being very loud and then pulled out a long smaller shape. A few of the other shapes who were being loud stopped making noise after that. Then after a bit of time passed the shape with the smaller shape grew and then he fell asleep. 

"Ugh." was the first words out of David's mouth as he slowly came too. The pain in his head was immense and the light when he opened his eyes was blinding, it took him several minutes to get his eyes open and look around. He now saw around him a huge room, with white walls, furniture, tables and chairs. There were also two large glass doors behind a thin white curtain leading to a balcony that was overlooking something outside his view. He also noticed that he was on a huge canopy bed with white sheets and blankets. There was also a door leading into this room on his left which was currently closed. As his gaze shifted downward from the door, he noticed a girl wearing a long frilly dress with her head on the bed asleep. It took him a moment to figure out who she was because his head still pounded. But it was, without a doubt, Alice. He smiled to himself as he watched her sleep for a moment. 

"So, you managed to save me after all huh?" David said softly as he reaches over to gently pet her head. 

"Thanks." By now Alice had begun to stir. She grumbles to herself as she slowly comes too and then sees David sitting there watching her. 

"David! Thank goodness!" She yells as she flings her arms wide open preparing for an embrace. But before she goes through with the hug, she stops herself, thinking better of it and regains her composure. "I'm so glad to see you awake and feeling alright." Alice said with faux grace. 

"Yeah well." David said, ignoring her act and holding his head. "My head is still pounding but I guess I'm alright." He looked at Alice. 

"I guess that poison hit me pretty hard didn't it?" David said with a light chuckle trying to make light of the situation.

Alice just stares at him for a moment with confusion. 

"Do you," Alice begins, as she speaks carefully as if she's afraid of stepping on a landmine. "not remember what happened?" Well this was confusing; he just mentioned the poison right? What else was there to comment about? Obviously where he was and how he got here were mysteries, there certainly were unknowns, but it didn't seem to him that he forgot anything. 

"I mean, weren't we just recently attacked in the forest? There's not much else to tell unless you count the weird dreamlike feeling I had for a while." David said as he looked at Alice confused.

"Looks like this is going to take some time." Alice said with a sigh. Alice stands up and walks to the door, she opens it revealing that there was a maid standing outside this whole time. She asked the maid to bring some tea and then shuts the door again. "Okay," Alice said as she sat down, a serious expression on her face. 

"Where do I begin?"

Alice spends the next half hour detailing what happened to David after he passed out, how she left shortly after, that he was found the next day, he was picked up by the soldiers that found him, he was brought back to the manor, drugged, and kept in a barely conscious state for the past 3 weeks. Meanwhile she was working tirelessly to free him with an order from the King. She also went on to describe how the outside world understood his time in the woods. How he had become the infamous "Ghost of the Woods." and how most people thought he was some kind of urban myth. Frederick Velma had kept a lid on things for the most part because he didn't want such an embarrassment to come to light. Plus, his detainment and ownership of David was illegal under Imperial law, so he didn't have the right to keep him. After she had rescued him from the Velma mansion, she took him back with her and he just woke up now.

"So that takes care of that matter." Alice said as she reached for a paper that she had at her feet. "Moving on to the next issue. I want to apologize for three things." She said as she held the paper tightly in her hands. 

"First, I want to apologize for not telling you I was a vampire sooner." She said, slightly bowing her head. 

"What's done is done, I already forgave you." David said nonchalantly as he shrugs his shoulders. Honestly that fact was still surprising to him, he still had some reservations about this, but she had definitely saved his life, and according to her story, more than once. He at the very least owed her some amnesty on the matter.

"Second," she said as she stood up and gripped the sides of her dress. "I'm sorry for not telling you I was the princess sooner." She does a small curtsy.

"My Name is Alice De Lugo Cantora. Crown princess of the Cantora Empire." Now this was a shock to David. He had a torrent of thoughts fly through his mind as he tried to wrap his head around this. He was upset she never told him, feeling proud that he befriended a princess, feeling embarrassed for having considered himself worthy of calling a princess a friend, feeling confused at the sudden turn of events. But most of all he was just simply surprised. A long moment of silence occurred before David's boisterous laugh broke the quiet and echoed through the room. The simple absurdity of the whole thing made him laugh harder than he had in a long time. 

"Who knew that the princess really was a princess!" David said as he calmed down for a moment only to launch into full blown laughter again just a moment later. Alice puffs out her cheeks. 

"I'll have you know I am renowned for beauty and my grace throughout the Empire!" She said as she tried to save face through David's laughter. It was a good feeling, after everything he had been through the past half a year, he needed a good laugh. It had been a long time.

"Okay, okay. I get it, your highness." David said sarcastically as he finally calmed down enough to resume the conversation. "I'll let that be put aside for now, so what was the third thing?" Alice nods and now, with a somber expression she unfurls the paper she was holding. 

"This," she said as she gestured to the paper. "Is an ownership contract." She pauses for a moment before continuing. 

"To be precise this is YOUR ownership contract. In order to get you out of House Velma I had to jump through a few hoops to get ownership of you so I could legally move you away." Again, she pauses for a moment. 

"According to this document I now have ownership of you." David was taken aback by this, for a moment he felt betrayed, after all this, after all that she did and said. At the end of the day she now owns him? Was it just that she was a vampire and he was a human, was this the fate he was stuck with? But as he was thinking these thoughts, before he could get mad, Alice continues. 

"And this," She said as her hands moved to the top of the paper. "Is what I think of that!" She said as she ripped the paper in half right in front of David. She then proceeded to rip those halves in half and then ripped that again and again until the paper was nothing more than a pile of scraps. David is left stunned and speechless, the whole thing moved too fast for him. One second she claimed that the paper proved she owned him, the next she was ripping it to shreds. He was of course happy, but he had a bit too much information to process all at once. After all, it was just seconds ago she had proclaimed herself to be the crown princess. He may have let her change the topic, but his mind had not left the subject. 

"I..." David begins before he is stopped by the princess holding her hand up in front of him. 

"Wait until I have finished saying everything I want to say." She then clears her throat. And takes on a more dignified expression. 

"As of today, you, David Lee Williams are a free man, able to make your own decisions and forge your own path." She stops for a moment as if she is taking a breath. 

"And as such I would like to formally ask for you to join me as an assistant working directly under me." She said as her bravado slowly melts away, David just sits there in silence for a moment before Alice, who has completely lost her composure by this point scrambles to say more. 

"Also, you will get paid for your work, you will also be given a place to stay covered under the cost of working for me, and... and..." Alice said as she began to stumble over her words as she searched for more things to add.

David was a bit unsure of what to do, there had been a lot of new information he had gotten in the last 30 seconds. Still he decided to parse out the information important for right now. Assistant? To Alice? His first thought was of how silly it was that he would be working under the girl that greedily stole all the food he procured, happily sat around and talked for hours on end, and seemed unable to fend for herself. His second thought was simpler. Then would anything change? If he was being given a place to live, food to eat, and a job to do. Then would he really be living a different life? Especially working as an assistant under Alice would be no different than working under Maria back in the Velma estate. But as he was thinking this through, a simple question came to mind.

"Am I allowed to quit?" David asked seriously. 

"Yes of course." Alice said quickly though her expression has now soured "Though I hope you don't. I don't think I'm that bad of a boss..." Alice said as her voice trails off into mumbles. David had his answer, her response made things very simple for him.

"I accept." David said as he looked right at Alice who was now sheepishly standing there. 

"Are you sure?" Alice said quickly. "I haven't even told you about what you'd be doing yet!" Alice said, feeling flustered. 

"It doesn't matter, so long as you don't have me slaving in the kitchen for your gluttonous mouth it'll be fine." David said with a light chuckle. 

"Hey!" Alice said defensively. "I don't normally just eat everything I see; I was on vacation, so I figured a little letting loose was fine! You think it's easy to maintain this figure? Normally I'm on a diet!" She said as she stomped her feet twice to show how uncalled for David's comment was. 

"Yes yes." David said dismissively with a laugh. "Pleasure to be working with you, princess." David said with a smile as he extended his hand to offer a handshake. Alice takes his hand in hers and smiles. 

"Please, just call me Alice!"