Chapter 14 - The Past

 Philip carried me to my bed. He took off my shoes and covered me up, his face still stuck on the question: 

- Why wouldn't His Highness have the courage to hit me? 

- I'm exhausted, I don't feel well. Let me sleep. I will answer you and you answer my questions... 

- The princess is too tired to hear about my life; better rest. I'll still be here when you wake up.

 - There's something I'd like to know: what does the blood taste like? Is it good? Do you want to try mine? 

- You're being mean. Stop it! - he replied, turning to leave 

- Who did this to you? Who turned you into this monster? 

I could see a tear running down his cheek, and he lowered his head and returned to the side of my bed, kneeling down next to where I was lying, his face close to mine: 

- A week after she was born, 17 years ago, my mother fell ill and died. My father blamed me and my brother. It was painful, so I gathered some of my father's servants, took them to the forest, and asked them to build the hut. The one you can see. A year passed, and my father began to miss me because I spent more time in the hut and the forest than in the castle. From there, I could get close to his castle. I met you and watched you grow up. It was as if his eyes liked me too. Disgusted by my absence, my father, bitter with his pain, sent me to study in Paris, France, an ocean away. I began to miss you. 

- There's no need to go on. - I said nervously 

- I received a letter with the news that my brother had died. He had fallen from the main tower of the castle. He couldn't bear my father's suffering and my mother's absence. And I was too distant. I started going out drinking. Trying to escape the demons of the past. One of those nights, I was followed by a strange figure, but I didn't notice it right away. I felt the creature approaching, but I ran too far. I ended up standing in an alleyway face-to-face with the creature. He was scary and strong. He spoke in a hard voice: "You're suffering, I can see it in your eyes. Let me take this suffering away from you. Do you want to? "I was weak and drunk, I didn't know what to do, and I accepted. Then I felt the creature's teeth on my neck. Drunk and weak, I was almost out of blood because it had been sucked out by the creature. I felt death in my body when he took out a small dagger from his pocket and cut his own wrist. And he gave me his blood to drink. 

- That's enough! - I said, covering my face. 

- I need to get to the end, just listen. - he said, removing the blanket from my tear-streaked face. 

- When I woke up, I was inside a coffin in a crypt, and the strange creature was sitting next to the coffin. I asked him what had happened. As soon as he finished explaining, I ran for cover. My father started sending me a lot of correspondence asking me to come back, but I didn't have the courage. I spent two months hiding, then I decided to come back. My father thought it was strange, but he thought it was a consequence of the loss we'd been through. 

- Why didn't you kill yourself? Like your brother," I said, almost sobbing, unable to hold back the tears that were streaming from my eyes. - I went back to my cabin. From there, I was closer to watching you every night. I didn't kill myself for you. At night, outside your window, I watched you. You were growing up. Beautiful. You were going to be mine. My father fell ill and, on his deathbed, I told him what had happened to me in Paris, and he forgave me.