Page 25 of Little Doll

All the blood rushed straight to my brain and my ears rang painfully as I gaped at my brother open mouthed and then down at the beautiful child who had drifted off to sleep in my arms. A child vampire? Certainly not. How could the merciful God above allow such an atrocity as this? I’d just discovered I had a sister, only immediately to find out that the little sister is a monster.

“How?” I choked out.

Fane rose quietly from the settee and began to pace. He absentmindedly snatched a doll from the attic of its house and tossed it back and forth between his hands as he spoke.

“You see, Astrid is very old. So old that not even she is certain of how long she’s been a vampire or how old she was when she died.”

I gasped sharply at the word. Died. My eyes welled with tears.

“She says that she became a vampire because she was walking in a graveyard and wandered into a tomb where there was a preserved vial of blood on display. As a seven-year-old child, she was curious and touched the vial, clumsily breaking it. As it smashed on the stone floor, ancient, moldering blood splashed up and some of it got into her mouth.” He stopped pacing and gave a flourish of his hand. “And as you know, the rest is history.”

Astrid felt like ice in my arms. I cuddled her closer to me, even though I had no warmth to offer her. “The way you started that tale with‘she says’makes me wonder if there is another version of the story?”

My question gave him pause, and his smile slipped. “Well, yes, there are… Rumors.”

I frowned. “Well? Come out with it then.”

Fane sighed and turned a fleeting glance to Astrid, then focused back on me. “Astrid has never been able to survive on her own. A child vampire is an unpredictable and wild thing. So, she has been passed down through generations of our family to be looked after, which is how she ended up with Cleo and with Father. But some have said that Astrid was wild and unpredictable even before becoming a vampire. Some have said that she was… Different.Somehave said that Astrid slipped out of her bed at night like a ghost, compelled to roam the graveyard, collecting shed snake skins, insects and other dead things. And theysaythat when she found that vial of blood, that she… Drank iton purpose.Not because she wanted to be a vampire. No, she was only a child. She had no knowledge of our curse or even what a vampire was. They say she drank it because shewantedto. Because she wanted to taste it. Because she craved the taste of death.”

I felt my face go pale and felt a little weak and dizzy. But I clung to my darling Astrid tighter tohear such terrible claims made about her by her own family.

“Whatever the truth may be, Astrid’s transformation was horrific,” Fane continued. “The infection was swift and brutal, nearly sending her straight to hell. But when she managed to survive, her parents weren’t prepared, and she murdered them in a fit of starving lunacy. She massacred her entire village, in fact, and if it were not for another ancestor of ours from a neighboring settlement, another vampire coming to take her under her wing and rescue her, she surely would have been executed.”

“She seems perfectly lovely now,” I said indignantly. These tales were angering me. Whatever the infancy of her malady had caused her to do could hardly be held against her now, centuries later. Especially since she had only been and would always be… Just a child.

Fane stepped close and reached down to caress Astrid’s soft cheek. “She is perfectly lovely, Little Doll,” he said wistfully. “I love her beyond measure.”

My heart melted. Fane never showed anyone meaningful affection in my entire life before, and it was sweet to behold.

“But it is true that she can be wild and unpredictable still,” he went on. “That is why she is kept under lock and key, a hidden away secret, concealed by magic. When her first benefactorrescued her, she built this place; Blackmoth House. She filled it with hidden rooms and enchanted it with magic to move the rooms around and make them impossible to find. For a long time, Astrid lived here happily until a zealot priest murdered her adopted mother. Astrid remained locked away and starved in a secret room all alone until our family returned to inhabit this place again. It was Cleo who finally discovered Astrid. Besides her original quirks, and being a vampire child, she had hundreds of years of loneliness and starvation in her psyche. It’s been… Difficult.”

“In what way?” I asked.

“Cleo was a loving carer to her and raised her as a sibling to Father. Father loved her muchly; as I do… Until he married mother. By then, Astrid was hidden away again and confined to these quarters and for the first year of their marriage, Mother never knew she existed. But when she found out, she wasfurious.ShehatedAstrid.”

He shuffled side to side and seemed to ponder what he wanted to say next. Secrets yet to be shared hung heavily in the air between us.

“And so, she has remained here, all these years, and Father pretends she doesn’t exist. Cleo remains a steadfast carer to Astrid, but as you know, Grandmother has grown old. So, most of Astrid’s care falls to me.” He bent and slid his arms under her, lifting the sleeping child into hisarms once more. He leaned his cheek against her forehead and cuddled her. “I love her so.” Fane took a deep, jagged breath. “Oh, how I wish I had been afflicted with the curse, so that I could take care of this little child forever.”

With shaky legs, I stood up and walked towards my brother and sister. I placed my arms around them and leaned my head against his shoulder. “I’m here now, Fane. She’ll be safe forever. I promise.”

Chapter 11

Nova

Life settled intoa dreamy routine of days cuddled in bed with Astrid amongst the extravagant dolls and expensive toys, and nights playing in the garden together under the moon. Astrid was a funny and quirky child, if not a little melancholy at times.

One night, we had brought some of her dollies and a delicate China tea set out to the garden to host a tea party under the moon. Fireflies lit around us like a magical sort of rain. Astrid moved her dolls and acted out an entertaining scene with them.

And then, just like that, she brought her little fist down onto one of the delicate China cups and smashed it to smithereens. I wouldn’t have thought such a tiny hand could’ve done such damage. Yet the cup was pulverized, and Astrid’s hand was unscathed.

I slowly lifted my eyes off her hand and into her face. “Astrid! Why did you do that?” I asked.

Her eyes narrowed and her face was stony. “They lock me away in a room full of pointless toys. I’m over seven hundred years old. What do you think I want with toys?”

We were seated on the ground and Fane was behind us, sitting on a stone bench. I turned my shoulders to peer up at him. He looked on, ever watchful of us, but he said nothing. I returned my attention to Astrid.

“You don’t like your toys?” I asked.

---