"I had a hard time looking for you. Your father hid you well." she narrated as she secured the chains and ropes on Mariano's hands and feet. "That symbol on your right shoulder was meant to hide you from me. I found you the moment it started to fade. For three years, I became your Hermana* Auring."
(Spanish term for "Sister")
Antoine looked at her wistfully, listening to every word she told him.
"Your father misunderstood me" she continued. "I meant no harm. I sincerely wanted you to have a normal life. I'm so sorry if you grew up without me."
"I understand." he said without any sign of hatred towards his mother. "I am glad that you have found me."
"Oh, dearest child..."
Mother and Son's touching moment was interrupted by Mariano.
"Where am I?" He slowly opened his eyes and blinked several times. "Am I in heaven? Who is this beautiful lady?"
Antoine's mother is indeed, the most gorgeous woman I ever saw.
She is a real beauty.
Her face had the most delicate and gentle features just like a porcelain doll. Her dark brown hair with soft curls were up to her knees that flowed so gently whenever she moved and looked so soft to the touch.
Her expressive violet eyes were highlighted by long, thick and dark lashes and her full lips were naturally rosy pink. Whenever she smiles, it will make you want to smile too.
Her body is of the best proportion. It had curves that are so hard to ignore even with her loose clothing.
She is of average height, I assume to be five feet and seven inches, a bit taller than I am. With her seemingly dainty built, you would not expect her to easily hurl a man away and break his neck.
Then, Mariano's eyes widened in horror.
"You! Who are you? You are the one who almost killed me!"
"Isn't that what you wished?" she replied with a frown.
"I changed my mind. I still have plans to marry Bianca." He shifted his attention to me. "I heard you scream my name. You are really concerned for me, aren't you?"
I rolled my eyes in response.
He noticed the chains, ropes and pieces of cloths with symbols wrapped around his body.
"What are these?" He tugged at the chains on his hands.
"To restrain you. I'll treat you soon." Hermana answered. She stood up and walked towards a table with mixed various liquids on small vials.
Mariano followed her with his eyes. He watched her and smiled impishly.
"Mariano." Antoine interrupted.
"What?"
"Stop staring at my mother."
"That's your mother?" His mouth opened wide in surprise.
Tears welled from Hermana's eyes upon hearing her beloved son call her that way for the very first time.
"You just called me, "Mother"?"
"Of course, Mother." he repeated.
"I know this is awkward to ask. Would you hate me if I turn your friend there into dust? That kid has no manners!" she furiously snapped. "He keeps looking at my bossom!"
"Hey, I wasn't looking!" Mariano denied.
"You did." Antoine sided with his mother. "But don't turn him to dust yet. No need to be violent. I might just shoot him if he repeats."
"Eh, aren't we the weird folks here?" he tried to change the subject. "A fae. A vampire. A half-half. You know what I mean." He tried to lift his head and stared at me. "I wonder what you are."
"I'm just human. Really." I answered in a whim. He squinted his eyes to observe me.
"Ha! Now I know!" he exclaimed.
I felt my heart beat in irregular rhythms. I expected him to call me a "time traveller" or anything that is not that supernatural.
"A mermaid!" he concluded.
"H-huh?" I stammered.
"That's why you got me swayed with your sweet voice so easily. A siren! Tell me, what color is your tail?"
"I'm not a mermaid!" I denied. "I got no fins and tail!"
"Don't be coy. How I wish I can see you sway your fancy tail! How graceful!" he teased me even more, making me grit my teeth in annoyance.
"Hermana Auring, you don't need to turn him into dust! I will gladly break his bones into pieces!"
She held her cheeks and smiled sweetly.
"My, oh, my! My future daughter-in- law is so violent! I like it! Marry her now, Antoine!"
"W-What?" Won't you even stop me?" I stuttered. Antoine's mother is so much into violence. She's not the epitome of cute and dainty fairies on children's books.
"Go on. Break his bones while I watch."
I sighed and sat beside Mariano. Even though he had a silly grin plastered on his face, he seemed really tired. I felt so sorry for his situation.
"I won't." I fixed his shirt and stroked his dark brown hair. His naughty gray eyes were quick to turn into a submissive one. He smiled sheepishly at me.
"You are so nice." he told me.
"So are you if you would only behave."
"How I wish I could be human again so that I could return all the favor you've done to me, my dearest."
"It is possible." Hermana interjected while stirring a mixture on a glass. "But, I will be honest. You have to be really strong as the process will be very painful."
"Are you going to make him drink that? I asked.
"No." she replied.
"Inject it to him?"
"What are you talking about, Bianca? This will be done through labatiba*. We need to clean his colon first then introduce this medicine." she stated as her eyes narrowed on the concoction.
(Enema. It is a medical procedure in which liquid or gas is injected into the rectum for bowel cleansing or introduction of drugs.
I gasped in disbelief. Antoine winced as if he is in pain.
"KILL ME! NOW!" Mariano begged. He squirmed on the bed trying to free himself.
"Grant him mercy, Mother." he spoke in behalf of his friend. "That looks painful and dangerous!"
"No worries. When I was a nurse in France, a lot of our patients were healed because of this method. And besides, no pain, no gain!."
"Isn't that a bit obsolete?"
"That's right! He is so right!" Mariano sided with Antoine.
Hermana laughed wickedly.
"I got you boys there! I was just kidding!"
Mariano sighed in relief.
She took a metal syringe and drew the concoction into it and the proceeded to where her patient is lying.
"You have to bear with this. Be very brave."
"Of course, I will be." he affirmed.
"This will cause you double the pain you experienced while turning into a vampire."
"I can take it."
She injected the solution on his neck.
"Do you feel anything?"
He frowned a little, trying to feel something different.
"That was so easy....ughh..." he let out a dry cough. His countenance suddenly turned pale and he tugged at the chains restraining him. He seemed to be in so much pain. A guttural sound came out of his throat like it came from the monster within him.
"You should not see this." Antoine told me.
"Yes. I can't bear it."
I came out of the room with my hands on my stomach as I felt like I was about to vomit. I turned around to check on Mariano one more time.
He looked like he is dying. As much as I do not want to witness him suffer, I came back to him and embraced him.
"Hold on. Never give up!"
"Bianca. Don't stay so close." Antoine said while whisking me away from Mariano. "He has little control now."
"Dearest...as much as I want...you...by my side, he is right." he said while gasping for air. "Take her...out...please..." he pleaded while blood dripped down from his nose.
"Never die, OK?" I firmly told him. He forced a chuckle in response and nodded.
"I will look after him. You two may rest now." Hermana instructed us. Antoine and I stayed on the living room. Both of us were silent, worried for what might happen to our friend.
Midnight came and everything was eerily silent. Even though I was restricted to come inside Mariano's room, I sneaked in just to check him. From the cabinet I was peering from, I could see that the faint light from the moon made his attractive features look so calm, without a hint of mischief from him.
I was about to leave when he called for me.
"Come here. I can hear your heartbeat from there."
"Yaiiks! I thought you are sleeping!"
"Nah! I've been awake the whole time! Will you sit beside me and let's talk. I will die of boredom!"
"You're dangerous and scary." I uttered while hiding immediately.
"I'm tied up like a mummy here with these tons of chains. How can I be dangerous?" Then, he said with his usual mischievous tone, "Well, what are you planning to do with me, Dear?"
"Watch you bleed? To death?"
"How cruel!"
I approached him slowly and double-checked if he really was tied up. I pulled a chair and sat about two meters away from him.
"How are you feeling?"
"Oh. Thank God you've asked!" he was quick to reply. "I think a cockroach went inside my pants. It's kind of itchy and I think it is now having a slumber session under my underwear. Would you be so kind to remove that-"
"Eeew!" I interrupted. "You won't die with a single roach!"
"I'm being serious. Since I'm tied up, I can't remove it. Mercy, please. It might bite me!"
"Argh! Where is it, anyway?"
He lifted his head and shyly stared at his crotch area. I took off my slipper, ready to hit the darn insect with all my might.
"Wait! No, Señorita*!" he stopped me. "What are you planning to do?"
(Spanish word for "Miss")
"Kill it!"
"No. Put the slipper down!"
"But, why?" I asked impatiently. He looked at me with puppy-like eyes like he was telling me to do something really weird. The thought made me shudder by just imagining it. "No and no! I won't remove your pants for God's sake. I will let the cockroach have a vacation on your underpants for eternity."
"Remove my pants?" he blurted out, really bewildered by my statements. "No, my darling. I won't ask you that. Just shake my pants a little, that's all I'm asking."
My cheeks burned red in shame because of the malicious stuff that came inside my mind.
It is his fault!
Everything that he says seemed to be marred by malice.
That's what he get for being such a flirt!
"Alright." I did as he instructed me to do. After a few seconds, a black and fat cockroach crawled out and flew on the floor. I shrieked and jumped in the bed for fear that it might consider me as its new nesting place. "Eeek! I hate those so much."
He let out a soft laugh as I absent-mindedly held on to him. When I came back to my senses, I caught myself staring at gray eyes that looked back at me with so much care. I was quick to move away from him.
"So...uhmm...how do you feel now?"
It took him a little while to answer my inquiry.
"I think I've broken a rib or two and those pierced my lungs. I will really appreciate it if you will nurse me back to health? " he pleaded this time.
He coughed blood.
"Oh, how embarrassing, I think...that's a chunk of my lung."
Gross.
He was as pale as death and in great pain yet he still managed to joke about it!
"It hurts." The atmosphere around him suddenly became gloomy.
"Where?"
"Here, where my heart used to beat."
He shifted his head towards me. I felt uneasy with his stare. He was quick to notice.
"Antoine mentioned you have four brothers?" he inquired with so much interest.
"Yes."
"Do they treat you right?"
"Yes. But treated me like a boy and calls me "Benito"!" I snarled.
He laughed.
And coughed.
Blood.
"You still look...so pretty...a lady to me." he mumbled with labored breaths.
"You're fooling me."
"I'm not."
I preferred to never contradict him anymore to shush him as he is coughing more blood.
"Can you stay a little more time with me, please. I feel a bit sullen. I still can't believe my own family betrayed me." he began to rant.
"Sure. What's with your family? How can they treat you like that?"
"Didn't you know?" he inquired, a bit surprised.
"Know what?"
"Forget it. It is really shameful."
"Tell me everything, Mariano. We're friends now, aren't we?"
"I'm...let's put it this way, my father is a married man when he met my mother." he started. "She is one of his servants. He..." he stopped and his brows furrowed in disgust. " ..took advantage of her. I am the result of my father's sin. My poor mother, being a timid woman suffered in silence."
I put my hand on my chest, overwhelmed by the revelation he admitted to me. I did not know. Antoine never mentioned about this sad part of him. He was probably protecting his friend's reputation as being a "bastard" during those times was humiliating.
"It's not so easy growing up a bastard. The discrimination and shame! My relatives and brothers hated me so much. No matter how much I tried to please them, nothing worked. I wanted to go away but we had a deal. My mother became so sickly when she had me and in exchange of her medications, I have to serve them. Her family does not want her back as they considered her a disgrace."
He coughed and blood flowed from the side of his lips. I took a cloth, sat on the bed and wiped away the blood.
"You're such a nice lady."
"You said I'm feisty."
"I wonder." he chuckled. "Why don't you like me so? Am I ugly or a bad person?"
"No, in fact you're very attractive and charming. Ah! Adorable! That's the right word!"
"Ha! I'm adorable and I know it'!" he said with his usual enthusiasm.
His transformation into a vampire made his already handsome features more defined. At first glance, he would have looked like a marble statue sculpted so carefully by a great artist.
His mischief, naughty manners and tactless way of talking overshadows his good looks, though.
"Then, why don't you like me?" he asked me again.
Persistent, isn't he?
"You're a womanizer, like three novias all at the same time? That's so unlikable, my friend."
"Five not three." he corrected.
"What?" I looked at him with a dismayed expression. " And you are even so proud of it!"
He laughed.
"I had them one at a time. Not all at the same time. I am not like that!"
"Really? Honest?"
"Dear, it was a misunderstanding! I have to blame Antoine a bit too. I have to break up with them whenever they see him, they forget about my existence. I never learned! Why did I introduce them to him anyway? I always end up with a broken heart!"
I began laughing. I gave him a gentle squeeze on his arm. He winced.
"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"
"Nah! I just felt some burst veins in my eyes."
He was right. For a moment, I thought that he is crying with crimson tears. He gritted his teeth in pain. I wanted to comfort him so badly but I just did not know how.
"It feels like I'm combusting from the inside. I don't want you to see this." he told me. "I'll be fine. You may rest now."
"I can't..."
"It's alright. I'm not going to die anyway."
I stood up and took another glimpse of him. He shifted his gaze at the ceiling and sighed. As I was about to close the door, he called my name.
"Bianca, dear."
"Yes?"
"Do you know that you smell like strawberries? Just like a sweet cake. I love it! I love it!"
"Argh! Why do you have to say that?" I clenched my fist in annoyance. "It's like you're implying I'm food."
"Ah, it' not what I meant..." he was quick to say.
"I'm so leaving. I'm not a cake or something. I hate you!"
I slammed the door shut.
Mariano is so good in turning a serious and delicate moment into a disaster!
"No, you don't!" I faintly heard him answer inside the room.
I could not help but smile.