Life changes fast
The basement of the old chapel was cold and dimly lit. Vivienne was sprawled out on a metal table, a thin sheet of paper beneath her to keep the area sterile. She twirled a piece of her tightly curled hair around her finger as she stared at the gray ceiling, listening closely to the annoying buzz of a lamp overhead.
Eventually the footsteps of Mother Miranda approached the basement stairs, and she carefully climbed down the steep steps. Vivienne raised herself a bit, leaning back on her elbows and straining her neck to take a look at the woman across from her. Miranda looked like such a stereotypical scientist at that moment. Her blonde hair slicked back into a tight bun, a pair of rectangular reading glasses sat upon the bridge of her nose, and her black robes if white could be passed off as some sort of lab coat.
She was flipping through pages of her overfilled notebook. The one that she had been jotting things down in throughout the duration of Vivienne’s “transformation”, as she called it.
“How have you been feeling today?” Miranda spoke in a voice more monotonically than compassionate. Her eyes darted to Vivienne’s just for a second while awaiting response.
Feeling groggy, Vivienne slowly answered, “Uhm… I don’t know. I just feel like something different, as I said yesterday. Like I had a ton of melatonin or… yeah…” When she finished her sentence she outstretched her elbows to push her body upright on the table, but Miranda quickly put a stop to that.
“No, no. Lay back down. I do not want you to pass out.” Miranda said as she lightly pushed her back down. She then turned around and scoured through a cabinet, emerging from the labyrinth of bottles with a clear bottle full of pills.
“After looking over your results, I figure these should help you with that feeling of tiredness.” She poured water into a glass that sat beside the sink and took two pills out from the bottle. “It seems that the cadou is taking an energy consuming effect on your body. It is a parasite after all, but it is strange that it is draining so much energy you can barely even stand. All of my other experiments that have survived all have their defects, there are typically cons that the host will have to work around. In your case, you need to make absolute sure that you are intaking consistent sources of energy, whether that be eating large portions of food or consuming a lot of caffeine.”
“I apologize for interrupting you but I can’t imagine that having a lot of caffeine would be particularly good for my health…” Vivienne’s eyebrows were furrowed as Miranda handed her the pills.
“You would be correct in most cases. But your body has changed now. Diseases and health concerns that affect other humans won’t hurt you anymore. Besides, when you lack as much energy as you do now it will be more healthy for you. Now, put the pills in your mouth.”
Vivienne pushed the pills towards the back of her tongue then lifted her head slightly as Miranda lowered the glass of water to her lips. The pills were tough to swallow and it wasn’t easy to drink the water while lying down.
“They should take effect in around… 20 minutes I’d say.” Miranda retracted the glass from her lips and returned to the sink, pouring the remaining water down.
“Okay… Thank you. But what now? Once I gain more stability will you let me leave this dingy basement. I swear if I have to have those yellow fluorescent lights shining in my face for one more day I’m gonna lose it.” Vivienne had been in that basement for a week. Not against her will, but that doesn’t mean she would necessarily like to be there. It was all for safety. When Vivienne had her run in with Miranda in the cave containing the Megamycete, Mother Miranda offered her medical assistance and in return she could collect some valuable information about what the mold did to Vivienne’s mind.
“Don’t worry, I will let you out later today as promised. However you won’t be able to return back to the village. It is too much of a risk. Besides, the chemical makeup of your body has changed forever. You aren’t like the villagers anymore. So, you will stay here in a guest room for a few days until I can set up an arrangement with one of my false children.”
“I have to stay with one of the lords?” Vivienne said with worry in her voice.
The lords were not known for being kind. The Lady Dimitrescu, while incredibly beautiful and regal, had a horrible temper and it was known that she was a cannibal. Her daughters were also bloodthirsty and there had been many incidents where girls were attacked by them. Heisenberg had control of the lycans, smelt like metal and oil, and had a very tough front. The last two lords, Moreau and Miss Beneviento were never seen. The two of them had countless rumors surrounding them and the horrifying secrets locked away in their homes. Mereau was supposed to be grossly deformed, Miss Beneviento on the other hand had been theorized to be severely mentally disturbed, plaguing the minds of anyone who came near. She sounded especially terrifying to Vivienne.
“Yes. Is there going to be a problem with that?”
“I’m a bit terrified. Will it really be safe?”
“As I said before, you are one of them now. If for whatever reason they tried to hurt you, which they wouldn’t, they would receive severe punishments. I need you alive and unscathed.”
“Yes. Okay.” Not that Vivienne really believed her.
Miranda closed her notebook and started to head up the creaky staircase of the basement. “Goodbye. Try your best to sleep, the pills could work better if you’re resting. I will be back soon to assess your state.”
Vivienne nodded her head and watched as Miranda’s black robes slowly disappeared behind the door at the top of the stairs. Soon after the lights were shut off, leaving one ringing lamp beside her left. She then closed her eyes and relaxed her body. She daydreamed about the different lords, and what would happen if she was put in their care.
***********
After some 15 minutes Vivienne got so bored that she drifted off to sleep, and a half an hour later she was awoken by that eerie creaking of the basement’s rusted door. Her heavy eyes lazed their line of sight towards the top of the stairs, and there again was Mother Miranda. “Welcome back.” Vivienne said sluggishly, and Mother Miranda flicked the switch to turn on all the lights. Vivienne’s eyes were instantly assaulted with those bright lights, “AH. You could’ve at least given me a warning first.” She flung her body upwards rubbing her eyes while groaning.
“My apologies. It appears that my treatment worked though.” Miranda made her way down the steps, making her place beside Vivienne’s bedside.
“Oh wow. I didn’t even notice I did that.” As her body was sitting upright she had no headache or dizziness like before.
Miranda put her hand on Vivienne’s forehead, “Hm. Freezing.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“Normally it wouldn’t be, but your body isn’t supposed to have much natural heat anymore. You were only burning up before because your body was desperately attempting to fight off the invasion.”
Vivienne wondered how this would affect her. She didn’t necessarily feel any colder than before. She did notice, however, that her veins could be seen through her wrists more prominently than usual, and while a bit difficult to see in contrast to her skin, she could see a rich blue shining through her wrist. That color could not possibly have been there before. If it had, she thought, it wouldn’t be so jarring to look at.
Miranda took her hands in her own, “I want you to stand up now. If you somehow fall I will do my best to catch you.”
Vivienne threw her legs over the side of the metal table and gradually increased the pressure she’d put each foot on the ground with. She clutched Miranda’s hands lightly in fear she’d hurt herself and then lifted herself off of the table. Her balance felt a bit off, and her legs were a bit weak and shaky from retiring their use for a whole week, but she could stand. The first few steps she took weren’t that difficult themselves either.
“Perfect. You can come with me now then.” Miranda dropped Vivienne’s hands as soon as she possibly could and the two of them walked to the stairs.
While not strenuous to climb, she had to watch out for the thin, and close-in-proximity steps that could easily trip her if she didn’t watch where she placed her feet.
As Miranda was ahead of Vivienne by a few steps she pushed open the door to the main level of the chapel. Vivienne felt refreshed as the natural light hit her face. The chapel was decaying, different chunks of rock were missing from the ceiling where the sun shone through. This did make it very cold though, the dry air bit at her skin.
“Is there any kind of blanket or coat I can have? I don’t know where we're going but I don’t think I can survive a hike in Romanian winters without insulation.” Her teeth chattered slightly as she said this.
“I didn’t bring you anything because we really aren’t going far at all. There is a home around the back of the chapel.” Miranda said while exiting the building through a gateway with no doors. The hinges were still there though, Vivienne wondered what happened. Perhaps it was one of the lycans. Many houses in the village had been destroyed by similar sorts of run-ins with those monsters. She reminiscenced on the time one of her neighbors, Cara, had her ceiling caved in when a huge lycan fell on top of it. Luckily they survived mostly unscathed but they moved in with Vivienne’s family for a week and suddenly there were three young children running around her feet all day. What a nightmare.
Miranda was correct, as when Vivienne turned the corner, sure enough there was a small home. It looked old, with boarded up windows and a shockingly intact door that looked quite fancy actually. The two of them walked up the few steps onto the porch, and that is when Miranda pulled out a comically fantasy-looking key and shoved it into the door’s keyhole. Vivienne was met with immediate warmth as she entered the home, and she relaxed her once shivering arms.
“You may sit at the table in the kitchen, just through that door on the right there. I’ll give you dinner.” Miranda disappeared through another door just behind that one.
Vivienne turned the door knob to enter the kitchen, and as she pushed open the door she noticed a good smell coming from another area of the room. The area Miranda was in was sectioned off from the rest of the room through counters and a little hinged swinging door. Vivienne could see a meal sitting on one of the counters as Miranda grabbed a few items from the cupboards.
Sitting down at the table Vivienne watched as Miranda brought over the mystery dish and placed it near the center of the table. She chose to sit in a seat several away from where Vivienne was.
The table was awkwardly silent as Vivenne served herself whatever was in front of her, but Miranda seemed completely unbothered, not seeming interested at all in engaging in conversation with the woman opposite her. This unnerved Vivienne slightly, she wasn’t used to eating in silence, she missed the times with her family where there was never a dull moment at the table.
Moving around the food with her fork she couldn’t exactly tell what it was, but there was some kind of meat, and some kind of sauce covering all of it that was very dark. She asked, “So, what kind of dish is this? It doesn’t look traditionally Romanian, I’ve never seen it before…” She took a bite, and it was good, very good. However she couldn’t place her finger on what type of meat it was, “And what is that meat?”
“You don’t like it?” A look of confusion flashed over Miranda’s face.
“No I do, I would just like to know..”
“Hm. You wouldn’t know it, I’ll just say it’s like beef.” Miranda looked down at her food again and continued eating.
“Ok then.” Vivienne sensed that Miranda wanted her to stop prying.
The two continued eating in silence, and finished their food quickly. The meal was unusually filling, because even though Vivienne had barely been able to eat anything those past few days she felt no need or want for seconds. At home she used to always ask for seconds. Perhaps the cadou affected her appetite, although Vivienne couldn’t make much of an educated guess.
After Miranda had finished cleaning up she returned to the table one last time.
“Vivienne. I’m going to discuss with the other lords what the best plan of action regarding your residency will be. You are to remain in this house until I return.”
“Yes.” She tried to respond confidently but couldn’t help the slight tremble in her voice as she imagined her fate.