Dandelion woke up from her unconsciousness laying on a huge, king-sized bed. Her head was hurting as she sat up. She looked around.
Everywhere she looked, she found heavy, old curtains. Around the window, around the bed, even the left corner of the room was covered with them. She later on discovered it was a small changing room. The room was decorated with gold, and old fashioned wallpapers in the colours of burgundy, white and brown. The floor was covered with seemingly very expensive Persian carpets, and on the sofas, on the couch, on the bed millions and millions of pillows were laying around.
She felt there are millions and millions pillows in the room, because the furnishing and decorations were sending very strong impulses to her. She felt the whole room is just a little bit too much, too crowded, and she projected her discomfort feeling toward the twenty pillows of the room.
She carefully stood up, walked around the room to discover it more. Behind the curtain of the left corner, she found a tall mirror, where she quickly examined herself: she was looking for signs of assault on her, but other than the bruises she got from her father, there was nothing else. She calmed down a little bit, but still felt incredibly helpless, scared and anxious: the fact, that against her will she was taken to this unknown place, laid down on a bed in an unknown room of -probably- the house of this stranger Wilfred was very much bothering her.
She opened the heavy door of the bedroom, walked out to the corridor. Dandelion was passing by doors and old portraits along the hallway as she was looking for sign of people -or at least, Wilfred- in the house. Eventually she ended up arriving to a spiral staircase, what was leading to the living room. That is where she found Wilfred.
He was sitting on a deep green couth facing the fire place. When he heard the footsteps of Dandelion, he turned around. The warm, yellow of the fire was only lighting half of his face, and in this position… he looked even more handsome. His huge brown eyes were smiling, his thin lips seemed more red, more full with life. His hair was a total bird nest, the wind blow it to every possible direction, as he would ran a marathon. Dandelion gasped.
She stood at the bottom of the stairs, forgot how to walk, how to breath, her heart was beating so fast and so strong, as it could jump out of her chest in any moment. In the light of the fire her brunette hair was shining as gold, her big green eyes were sparkling. Wilfred watched her as he wants to print this picture into his mind forever.
"Hi" broke the silence eventually Dandelion.
"Hello beautiful. Did you wake up?" asked the obvious Wilfred.
"Yep. Can I get water, please? My head is hurting so much, I can't think, and I want to talk with you for a minute."
"Yes, sure. Everything for you. Come, the kitchen is right behind this door." Wilfred lead Dandelion to the kitchen through a door on the opposite wall of the spiral staircase.
"I usually don't use the kitchen… I think I should was the cup for you."
"Thanks. This headache is so bad, I swear half of my vision is blurry."
"It is?" Wilfred seemed very concern.
"I feel like it is blurry. Actually, I can see perfectly. It was just an expression… never mind." Dandelion felt very awkward.
"Okay then. You will get used to it. It's the speed. For humans, it might be stressful, I guess."
"Excuse me? What do you mean exactly?" she asked very carefully. She tried not to be prejudiced, even though after what she just heard, it was very hard.
"Haha, it was just an expression." Dandelion felt her thoughts are too loud. The fact, that she did not get a correct answer, confused her.
"How did I end up here? Actually, where am I?"
"It is my hiding residency, and I took you here."
"How?"
"What how?"
"How did you take me here?"
"I grabbed you, and ran away from Antark. We approximately run through the whole country."
"Of course. Please, give me an honest, and correct answer." Dandelion started to be fed up.
"I can ran very fast if I want to. I just don't want to most of the time." Wilfred again, gave just the half of the information what she was needing.
Dandelion put the empty cup down to the table very slowly, looked in the eyes of the man with a deadly stare.
"You either explain me what the fuck you are up to, and who you truly are, and where am I, or else I will walk out from this door, and never, ever talk to you again. And by the morning, I will find a way to go away, even though it seems like you don't want to get rid of my presence." she was swearing, what indicated her anger. Dandelion always paid attention to avoid bad words, thus when she used them, it never meant good.
"Do not talk to me like this. I am only trying to be empathetic towards your condition, and save those details for breakfast, what I know you will hardly process."
"I am not stupid, I do understand things. And by giving me half information, you are not helping my situation at all."
"But you have to understand, that I am doing this only for you. I am worried about you."
"Answers. I. Want. Answers."
"Oh, stubborn woman. A deadly attitude for a gentleman, like me." rolled his eyes.
"I'm waiting."
"Okay woman, let's go back to the living room, here, take an another cup of water. You will need it."
"Please, don't call me 'woman'. It's sexist."
"As you wish. Now come with me."
They sat next to the fire, turned in front of each other on the two ends of the couch. The silence between them was vibrating with frustration. Dandelion was frustrated due Wilfred's impossible behaviour, meanwhile Wilfred was deeply sank into his thought, trying to figure out where to start, and how to answer all her questions. How tell her his story.
Eventually he decided to start from the very beginning
"I was born…" he took a deep breath. He assumed Dandelion will freak out, will go lunatic and crazy after hearing all the information he was about to share, as every woman, every man did in his long, long life.
"I was born… actually, that's stupid. I can't really tell when I was born, because back in the days there was no counting of time, and through history, through my life lot of calendars were invented, basically all the empires had their own way to count time. So even though I am aware what year is it based on the Christian calendar for example, I cannot really tell how many years ago I was born.
I usually say -and this is true actually- that since there is humanity, I am here as well. As I mentioned earlier, I am not human, and no, I was never human. I am belonging to an another family, to the supernatural family biologically speaking." he was trying to explain himself using half correct, but common expressions form modernity -such as 'supernatural family biologically speaking'- to make it more digestible for Dandelion. He did it partly because he wanted to save her from an another headache, and also because he highly underestimated her intelligence, thus wanted to save himself from a 'hysterical' scene.
"I am a vampire. I live fifty years hiding, fifty years among a random country's elite. We all use this tactic so no one can discover our true existence. The urban legends, and the pop culture around vampires is funny tho."
"Why did you reveal yourself for me then?" asked Dandelion with a neutral voice after a few minutes Wilfred stopped speaking.
"Because every time we go back from our isolation, we need someone, we need one human who knows our secret, so that we can catch up with the current world more easier. And I choose you."
"Why?" Dandelion's thoughts were so fast moving, she could hardly pick one question out from the lot what she wanted to ask at the same time.
"Because you are beautiful, and to be honest, caught my interest. And of course, no one really knows you, due the fact that you are from a very small town. So when we'll appear among the elite people, no one will question us."
"Are you going to kill me after you don't need me anymore? Are you going to drink my blood? Are you going to force me to be with you sexually? Are you going to push me to pretend that I am your girlfriend? What if someone discovers your secret, you will blame it on me? Are you going to punish me, if I don't do things as you want me to do? And what if I am not the perfect person for this position?"
"Oh, wow. So many questions. But at least, you are not screaming like the others did."
"I discovered if you are not playing with me, and you are really saying the truth, then I don't really have chance to escape from you. So I want to see clearly, I want to know what are the possibilities of my future, what can I expect to happen with me."
"I understand you totally, and I am amazed by your way of thinking. Seems like you are very smart. So yes, you cannot escape from me. That is impossible. And no, I am not going to rape you, nor force you into anything other than being my 'helper'. We call humans who know our secrets 'helpers'. Even though I am drinking blood, human blood, I won't drink yours. 'Helpers' are highly respected among the vampire community, and I am responsible with all my heart for your well-being. I won't punish you, because I am convinced you are perfect for the 'helper' position. Fifty years later, when I will -let's say retire- I will still keep you around, because I cannot risk you expose me. But I will never ever kill you."
"What do you mean, I am perfect for the 'helper position'?"
"You are beautiful, and as I highlighted before, you are not famous."
"Thank you, now I really feel my self esteem booming. So unique, so hard-to-be-good-in-it requirements."
"Are you making fun of me?"
"Prove me then. Prove me, that all what you said was true." diverted the subject Dandelion.
"Like this?" when he asked the question, Wilfred was sitting on the couch, but one millisecond later he was in the opposite end of the living room. dandelion was speechless.
"Now my little helper, go, and sleep. It was too much information for one night, I'm afraid. You can ask whatever you want, but let's keep it till breakfast, shall we?" Dandelion nodded in agreement. She felt like it is impossible to take more information at this moment.
"Oh, and prepare yourself, tomorrow I will show you your new identity, name and everything, we are leaving Europe soon. In this fifty years, we are going to live in America, because I want to influence a few politicians there."