“It’s her, the vampire princess. She’s got my girlfriend,” the boy shrieked. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. We were only curious and wanted to visit the Schloss after we learned the details on how to reach it from a forum. Please, I don’t want to die.”
“A forum?” Loki squinted. “So you’re a trespasser like all the other stupid teens?”
“I didn’t believe the vampire princess existed. I’m a fool,” the boy said. “My girlfriend came up with the idea after she met with Genius Goblin in the forum.”
“You’re stupid, you know that?” Loki shook the boy harder, listening to his girlfriend’s screams upstairs. He let go of the boy, wondering how he was going to stop Snow White from hurting her. “I swear I’m going to kick the Genius Goblin’s ass one day.”
The boy’s girlfriend fell from the second floor onto the couch as well.
“She’s mad,” the girl screamed hysterically. “We have to get out of here,” she punched her boyfriend in her panic.
“Shhh,” Loki shushed them both. “Don’t you two dare move. If she sees you again she’ll kill you. Let me take care of this. Did she bite you?”
“No,” the girl sobbed. “It’s like… it’s like she wanted to but held back for some reason. But I’m sure she’ll kill me if she sees me again,” the girl started screaming again, shaking with her boyfriend on the rumbling couch.
“Get a hold of your girlfriend,” Loki ordered the boy and turned around to go look for Snow White.
Loki found her gliding over the famous stairs again, looking as monstrous as when he’d first met her. Except that she was struggling in pain this time; she was struggling between giving in to Carmilla’s curse and feeding on everyone around her or fighting back. She must have sensed the nosy teenagers sneak into the Schloss when he was asleep, and couldn’t control her hunger. Then after catching them, she did her best not to bite them. Loki had to find a way to deal with her anger. He couldn’t think of a greater pain than that which she was suffering.
The notable difference about her this time was that she was holding her apple-shaped necklace, which she usually wore. It was hanging at the end of a thin string dangling from her hand, wrapped smoothly around her fingers. The necklace looked like it had some kind of liquid inside it.
“Why don’t you ever leave me be, Loki,” she said with black eyes.
“I can’t,” Loki said. “It’s not like I have control of it. Besides, you asked me to save you the first time we met, remember?” he climbed a step higher, gripping the banister tightly so he wouldn’t lose balance. It was true that everything was shaking around him, but he hoped he’d be able to sneak his way up to her without her noticing.
“I’m cursed and I need to feed. If I don’t feed now, the whale is going to sink Sorrow into the water and all will be lost,” she said.
“I know,” Loki nodded, taking another step. “You told me that your soul is bound to the island in some way.”
“But I don’t want to feed. I want to resist it,” she said. “If I resist, the island will sink and everyone on it will die. If I feed, I will fully become one of them. I’ll be letting the darkness inside surface, and I also don’t want to do that.”
“I understand. If you just let me up there, we can work this out together,” Loki said.
“No, we can’t,” she growled. “You missed a lot of things you were supposed to understand in the dream. This is why I can’t. I have to die so everyone else lives.”
“I did my best in the dream. I don’t think I missed anything. And you don’t have to die,” Loki shook his head. “You can’t die, unless in a dream, and we’re not in a dream right now.”
“You’re wrong,” Snow White said, swinging the apple necklace like a pendulum in the air. “There is a potion inside this necklace, and if I take it willingly, I can kill myself. It was given to me centuries ago in case I became stuck in a situation like this.”
“Wait,” Loki stretched out his hand and stepped up. He had to stop though when she drew the potion closer to her mouth. “You survived two centuries against all of this and want to kill yourself now?”
“Is he talking to the vampire?” Loki heard the boy on the couch asking his girlfriend. “He’s freakin’ talking to the vampire.”
“I guess it’s my destiny, Loki, to eventually succumb to the poisonous apple. I’m Snow White after all.”
“Did she say she’s Snow White?” the girl said to her boyfriend on the couch. “Has she gone cuckoo in the head?”
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Loki said, the stairs shaking wilder. He had no idea what to do to save her. All he knew was that he wanted to be near her. It wasn’t rational, but he thought he could help her if he was closer to her.
“I’ve waited for you so long, Loki,” Snow White said. “I guess we’re not meant to be. Who was I fooling? Our love is forbidden. Dhampir or not, I’m still a vampire, and you’re a vampire hunter.”