Two for tragedy. Volume 2
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– Do we have to do this? – Susan asked fearfully.
– Either you undress and leave right now, or you never leave here. I think both options are just fine," Grayson told her calmly, as if this were just business as usual for him. But there was steel in his calm voice.
– You better do it! – I exclaimed quietly, afraid that now, because of their stubbornness and bashfulness, he wouldn't let them go. – 'You'll stumble into some village or meet some good people-and you'll be free!
"Let them go naked, but let them be free! There will be good people to help them!" – I fervently believed this.
When the girls heard my words, they hesitated a little longer, and then, with eyes full of tears, began slowly to take off their dresses. Lourdes cried. And when they were completely naked, they shamefully tried to cover their nakedness with their hands.
My heart bled, but there was nothing I could do to help them. I imagined the humiliation of Grayson's order, but I didn't dare say a word to the vampire.
– Now it's time for us to part our ways! – Grayson smiled. – Go away before I change my mind. – He pulled a key fob out of his pocket and pressed one of the buttons. – The gate opened.
I gave the girls a quick hug and whispered to each of them, "Run as fast as you can!"
The girls slowly descended the stairs and found themselves under a furious downpour.
Naked, in the cold downpour, they had to reach the city! And after all, it was even a long drive! Poor, poor martyrs!
– Run! Run! – I shouted to them, dissatisfied with their hesitant movements. – Run away from here as fast as you can!
The girls quickly ran towards the open gate that was the way out of this kingdom of horror. I watched them until they were out of sight, and when their silhouettes melted into the rain, I breathed a sigh of relief.
– Thank you…" I said quietly, looking up at the vampire. – That was very noble of you.
But to my amazement, he laughed in my face. His laugh, creepy and mocking, made me shiver.
– Do you really think so? Well, it's time to show you the second part of my favourite amusement! – he said grimly, and his eyes became so scary that I trembled. – As you asked, I let them go, but now I have every right to kill them! You didn't ask me not to kill them, only to let them go!
– No!" I let out a scream of horror.
– Did you think I was going to let them go alive? – The vampire smiled gloatingly, walked down the stairs and disappeared into the rain.
– No, Brandon! Don't do this! Leave them alone! I'm begging you! – I shouted after him, but he was already out of my sight.
"He'll kill them!" – "He'll kill them!" went through my mind, and I rushed down the stairs and ran after him. I ran through mud and puddles, the rain hitting me in the face, covering my eyes and so soaking my dress that it became a heavy wet sack that stuck to my body and legs and made it hard to run.
– Brandon! Don't you dare! Leave them alone! Let them go! – I screamed exhaustedly, hoping to stop his horrible plans. Soon I was in the woods, my feet drowning in muddy streams and slimy mud. Water streamed down my back, my hair wet and sticky, covering my eyes as if on purpose. I didn't know where to run: the forest seemed huge and unfriendly. The downpour was hitting the green leaves on the trees, and they made a muffled, quiet drumming sound. My right side stabbed, and I stopped involuntarily to give myself a few seconds of rest. I looked around for the girls and the vampire, but they seemed to have disappeared. I had no choice but to keep running, but not as fast as before – my side was aching as I had never run so much and so fast before. I ran into the bowl of the forest and suddenly tripped over something on the ground and fell with my face down into the mud, but I didn't have the luxury of hesitating, and quickly getting to my feet, I ran on, covered from head to toe in mud. But I was suddenly seized with a strange feeling of unbearable anxiety.
What could I have tripped over? The "something" was quite soft, long, and it couldn't have been a fallen branch.
I stopped abruptly and looked back: there was a human body on the ground, half buried in the dirt. I lost my breath. Quickly returning to the body, I hesitantly stopped a few steps away from it.
– No!" I shrieked: there, in the mud, lay Lourdes. – Lourdes! Wake up, Lourdes! – I rushed to her and shook her violently.
But she didn't move. She was dead. There was horror in her beautiful, wide-open eyes, and two large red dots gaping at her neck. The girl's face was almost white: she was completely drained of blood.
Grayson had killed her. He drank her blood.
My eyes filled with tears, and everything around me began to blur. My head was a blur. My body refused to obey me, and I sat on my knees in front of the dead girl, as if hypnotised by her death, crying silently and staring at her pale, dead face. My mind was unwilling to accept this reality. I couldn't believe that Lourdes was dead and would never get up and speak to me again.
Suddenly, some heavy object fell beside me, showering me with a fountain of spray. I glanced sideways and saw Susan. She wasn't moving. She was dead, too. I cried out quietly in horror and looked up to see Grayson standing very close to me, smiling. His lips and teeth were scarlet from the blood he'd drunk, but there wasn't a single speck of it on his soaked suit.
"It's my turn now. He's going to kill me," my mind raced, and I fell into darkness.
Fragmentary scenes flashed before my eyes, changing like the frames of a horror film: Lourdes running across the field, her black hair wet and sticking to her back. Her blue dress tangles in her legs. Suddenly, out of a dense wall of rain, like a black shadow, Grayson appears in front of the girl and nuzzles into her neck. Not a sound comes out of her open mouth – she doesn't even have time to cry out. Lourdes collapses, but the vampire holds her tightly against him and continues to drink her blood, then, satiated, roughly throws her already dead body into the dirt. A moment later, the shot changes to a fleeing Susan looking around, afraid of being chased, and running straight into the vampire's deadly embrace. Grayson drinks her blood, then lifts her white corpse in his arms and carries it into the shroud of rain. Susan's white, skinny arm swings with his steps like a pendulum. And, at the end of this film, the dead eyes of Lourdes stood before me in a huge frame Those beautiful, huge black eyes. They reflected the rain, Grayson's silhouette, and a frozen wonder, like a question that would remain unanswered forever: "Why?"
I opened my eyes sharply and saw myself lying on a fur pelt in front of a large, burning fireplace.
It was warm. The wood in the fireplace was crackling cosily.
My dress and hair were dry, and I realised that I had been unconscious for hours, maybe more. My body, face, dress, hair, everything was covered in dried mud.
"Where am I? How did I get here?" – I thought involuntarily, and looked round to see Grayson sitting in a black chair, staring at the fire. We were only a metre or less apart-I was almost at his feet. The vampire was dressed in a new clean, dry suit. When he saw that I had regained consciousness, he smiled at me with an enchanting white-toothed smile.