Out For Blood 38

‘…it wasn’t long before I stopped running through the trees, I just couldn’t bare to leave Hal behind, so I went back for him. I went back to beg him once more to come with me, but when I reached the dog kennels Hal was gone.

I eventually made it to Tarboro Bridge and jumped onto a freight train heading east; when I got off the train I walked around for a while and ended up here by the lake, I was afraid of the water but so were they, and I so needed to rest. I found a small boat moored to a pier so I climbed underneath a tarpaulin sheet and sort shelter.

'The next thing I know the boat begins to rock, I then awoke to find the owners of the boat, a couple in their mid-forties bending over and staring at me, they brought me up here to the house and the lady put me to bed. I slept for almost two days before waking to find the man that had carried me up here sat at my bedside; he had that Journal in his hands and his wife by his side.

'That’s when he told me who they were, Dr Alexander Dyson, head surgeon at Lynchburg County Hospital and his wife Amanda Dyson, she was the Chief Administrator there.

‘He asked me if all he had read in the Journal was true; I could tell by the look on his face he believed it was, so I saw no point in lying. I told them everything I knew, except where it had all taken place of course. I then explained my situation to them; they had already worked out for themselves that I was at least three months pregnant.

'They told me they once had a child of their own, a daughter who had died five years earlier during childbirth. The child she borne suffered brain damage during the birth and died two weeks later. (Celia shrugged) Perhaps they saw their daughter in my eyes and found solace in that. Being a surgeon at the biggest hospital in the city Alexander soon found a way to satisfy my dietary needs.

'That December I gave birth to a baby girl, they treated me like their daughter and Marianna as though she were their Granddaughter.’

‘And that is the two of you in those photographs?’ asked Brenda.
‘Yes it is.’
‘And where is your daughter now?’ asked Larry.

‘Marianna is out on the lake Mr Kessler.’
‘So she’s not like you then?’ said Brenda.
‘That depends on how you look at it Miss Wise, she is exactly like me in some ways, and in others we couldn’t be more different.’
‘You mean she can tolerate water where you can’t?’ said Brenda.
‘Yes she can.’

‘But according to your recollection of events you weren’t turned. So why do you—’
‘Drink blood Mr Kessler?’ Celia interrupted Larry. ‘Although I was never turned as such, I was however born of the Jackal. Therefore I am like him, but it never manifested itself until I turned sixteen. Unfortunately I have all his traits, but Marianna has only some of them. If you look closely at the last two entries in that Journal you’ll notice they have been signed and dated by me.’

Larry flicked to the final entries and began to read.

“It now seems Martins was correct and had in fact found what he was looking for, his fountain of youth. But it was not for his generation or the next to embrace without consequence; he was blinded by his greed and therefore did not see past the reach of his own hand.

“On December 5th 1936 unknown to him his daughter/granddaughter was born, I named her Marianna. Today is her sixteenth birthday, up until now she has lived a normal and healthy life, she eats and she drinks well. There are not and never have been any ill effects caused to her. I’m not sure of how many of my faults she has inherited, if she is to change at all… then today will show the first signs of those changes. Marianna knows of my past and she knows it could be her future.

Alice Robertson.
December 5th 1952

Yesterday Marianna swam across the lake. This morning she has eaten breakfast, and all is well.

Alice Robertson
December 6th 1952”

‘Alice Robertson?’ questioned Larry.
‘Yes Mr Kessler, if you move the letters around a little, you’ll find me in there somewhere.’ said Celia.