Chapter Text
Drip… Drip…
The soft patter of water droplets hitting a puddle on the floor woke you up. You slowly gained consciousness, your eyes still sealed shut, but they quickly snapped open when your arm landed at your side, feeling cold, rugged cement beneath you. Your body jolted up, realizing you couldn’t see much, having to strain your eyes just to see your hand in front of your face. With shallow breaths and jaw tightly and involuntarily clenched, you stood slowly bumping your head on the ceiling, cursing how low the ceiling was to the floor. You felt around attempting to find something to hold on to. Your hands collided with metal, groping around figuring it was metal bars.
You instantly backed from the bars when you felt a gust of warm air hit your fingers, there was something out there and by god, you didn’t want to figure out what it was. Your back hit a wall, sliding down and sitting with your knees pulled up to your chest.
‘This is it huh? This is how I die? In a dark, cold cell?’
You thought frantically and just before your mind wandered as to how you even ended up in a gross hole, to begin with, you picked up on the sound of distant chatter, the jingling of keys, the turn of a knob, and silent footsteps. The cell was now dimly lit after whatever door had been opened, allowing some visuals of the dungeon you had been locked in. It was clear now that there were others with you for sure, but they wandered around the cell, half dead with not a single gleam in their eyes. Two figures moved into your line of sight, one extremely tall lady with a large-brimmed hat and a woman significantly shorted than her, hooded with what seemed like blonde hair. You couldn’t make out their features just yet, but felt intimidated nonetheless.
“You’re awake,” spoke a sultry voice from the other side of the cell door. The sound of keys piercing your ears had your hands fly to cover them, wondering why the sound was so intense. The cell door opened.
“Now, you can come with me up to my chambers voluntarily, or you’ll be made into tonight’s meal, which is it?”
You rose to your feet cautiously and slouched over until you got through the cell door. Everything seemed so low in the dungeon as if it had been made for people under five feet. The two in front of you climbed up the stairs to the door that lead out of the dungeon and once all three of you had gone through, you stretched your back out. It took your eyes a moment to adjust, the lights within that place had rendered you blind for a solid minute. As you adjusted, you immediately realized a few alarming details.
You looked down at your hands, your fingertips were black all the way up to the middle of your forearm, at that point, it started to fade out to your regular skin tone. Your nails were also completely black. Besides the fact that you were starch naked, you also realized that the floor seemed a lot farther than you remembered… until you took a good look at the two who pulled you out of the cell.
The tall woman who once caught you off guard now looked at you with a stunned gaze, brows furrowed. You could see her throat working as if she was trying to find something to say. She wasn’t really as tall as you thought she was, but you still had to tilt your head to get a glimpse at her face. Your eyes turned to the hooded woman standing next to the lady who looked up at you, mouth agape.
“Mamă, e mult mai înaltă decât îmi amintesc…” (Mother, she’s a lot taller than I remember…”)
“It seems so…”
You didn’t recognize the language the smaller one spoke in, but you can denote that this tall lady is the blonde’s mother.
“I uh… have a lot of questions…”
The lady took a step closer to you and took your chin in between her fingers.
“I’m certain you do, follow me. Bela dear, go inform your sisters that dinner will run a little late tonight.”
“Yes mother,” Bela burst into a swarm of insects and disappeared rather quickly, leaving you bewildered.
“Did she just-”
“Come now, we don’t have all night.” Her voice grew slightly impatient, you didn’t want to push her buttons.
Walking up the curved staircase, it didn’t take long to get to her chambers. It was eerily quiet in those corridors, but once you were in the same room with the lady, the tension in the atmosphere got thicker than it had already been. You stood a few feet in front of the door, hands held behind your back, awaiting any kind of instruction or question that may come, but for several minutes, it was quiet. Observing everything the woman did, from the moment she sat at her desk, lighting up a cigarette and taking a long drag. The curtains were propped open, the crescent moon softly lit up the lady’s features, that’s when you really couldn’t look away. Even from a distance, the soft light revealed marbled skin, deep laugh lines, and crow’s feet that could tell hundreds of anecdotes. Crimson lips parted slightly as the remainder of the smoke seeped out gracefully, and most notably her pale, golden eyes.
“Has anyone ever taught you any manners?” Her voice cut through your trance, trying to recollect your thoughts and come up with a response to such a question.
“W-What do you mean?”
“You’re staring, it seems like you also need to learn how to address your superiors.”
You opened your mouth to say something but it just shut automatically when those eyes pierced right through you.
“You’ll address me by Lady Dimitrescu or my lady. Any variation may work as long as you are respectful and know your place beneath me, understood?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Good, we understand each other thus far, now if I may ask, do you have any recollection of the moments leading up to your capture?”
“I don’t remember much, my lady. The last thing I remember was sitting in my home reading a book, then being consumed by a rather large headache.”
She glances back in your direction, seemingly deep in thought before she responds.
“You were caught lurking around my castle a few hours prior. My daughters managed to drag you here but not without putting up a fight. To be quite honest, we didn’t expect to see a puny human in our cell when we came to get you.”
You raised a brow in confusion, not a lot of things were coming together just yet.
“What my daughters dragged into my castle was not human. So you are going to tell me everything right here and give me a good reason why I shouldn’t slice your head right off your neck.”
Eyes wide, stunned by the sudden change in character and threat hurdled your way. You weren’t sure what the lady was referring to, but you weren’t going to get out of this one. It was becoming increasingly obvious that something had happened to you, but you couldn’t recall much of what had happened since you blacked out with that headache.
“My lady, I would be lying to you if I told you anything other than I don’t know.”
Lady Dimitrescu arose from her chair and elegantly strolled in your direction. She stopped mere inches from you, placing a strong hand on your shoulder.
“I want you to take a good, long look at yourself,” she turned you toward the vanity on the wall to the left of the door.
“Do you want to know how tall I am?”
“You’re only about a foot taller than me, my lady.”
“You aren’t wrong, but I am over nine feet tall.”
You shifted to look at her, an incredulous expression spreading across your face
“Careful, I can practically see what you want to tell me pet.”
Your shoulders dropped.
“You can’t be serious… you mean to tell me that this castle isn’t insanely small? I-I’m five foot six you can’t be-”
“My daughter, Bela, is a little over six feet. You are about seven to eight feet tall, my guess would be the latter.”
That explains that… but how did that even happen?
“My point stands, no normal human is almost at my height. Perhaps Miranda would find you interesting to look at.”
At the mention of the name, your head started to throb violently, sending you to the floor after stumbling and struggling to stay up. The Lady of the house stepped away from you slightly, observing your sudden behavioral shift. You held your head in your hands, your nails digging at your scalp in a desperate attempt to relieve the pain.
“Stop! Are you idiotic?” You felt your arms get pulled behind you, a deep noise escaping your throat. Without another second you were pinned face-first onto the icy floor. She grabbed you by the shoulders and flipped you over roughly, knocking the wind right out of your lungs as she slams you back down.
“You insolent child, I should rip your throat out for snarling at me-”
The Lady couldn’t describe what she was looking at other than a half-morphed beast. Irises that were a shiny silver color were now glowing white with a bold black pupil. The scleras were slowly changing into a darker color, face filling with dark cracking-like marks. When the girl decided to speak, the Lady was stunned by the canines that had now stretched in size and sharpened significantly.
“ You wouldn’t dare take me back to that witch!” You quickly lunged at the matriarch who kept you down and sent her onto the floor, almost effortlessly switching positions and tacking her down. Lady Dimitrescu was left speechless for the first time in a while. She hadn’t faced someone who not only spoke against her in such a manner but was able to physically take her down within the blink of an eye. Never mind that though, the Lady never minded a challenge.
The lady grabbed you by the wrist and yanked it as hard as she could, splitting bone. You growled furiously, holding your arm and letting out a deep groan. Taking this distraction, you were taken by an iron grip and held up off the ground despite only being a little shorter than the lady. Sharp nails dug into the sides of your throat and what were once pale, yellow eyes now glowed a bright, honey yellow. Staring a little deeper, her pupil now had a red ring around it that threatened to spill and cover the beautiful yellow color.
“How dare you insult Mother Miranda and me in the same breath, you filthy animal!” She projected you up against the wall with more restraint this time around. Your behind hit the floor with a loud thump, your back arching in pain.
Once you looked up at her, you realized your eyes burned with tears that sat on the edge of spillage, flashbacks started to fill your head as you glared at your lady.
You saw your own body tied down to a sturdy wooden chair, wrists, and ankles bound tightly, allowing little to no circulation. All you could hear was what sounded like whimpers and cries of pain and humiliation, hands gripping tightly onto the armrest. The pale complexion of that evil woman flashed in your head, causing an involuntary yelp to escape you.
You looked up again and rubbed your eyes, moisture now covering your palms. The lady looked slightly disheveled in her anger, glowering at you with unbridled rage. It was unbelievable to you that at just the mention of her name, you had remembered key parts of your missing memory.
“I know what happened now. Thank you for your help, my lady,” you sneered, getting up, feeling the cracks and pops your body made. Your naked form now developing bruises along your neck and backside, you decided you were better off out in the wild trying to find your home.
“Where do you think you’re going? You don’t honestly believe I’m going to let you leave after this atrocious scene you put on do you?”
“I am not staying here. It’s not safe for me here.”
She laughed out mockingly, those eyes that still bore into you with nothing but disgust and anger.
“Whether you like it or not, you are one of us now, THIS is the safest place for you.”
You stopped dead in your tracks and turned to look at her, frustration growing within you and most definitely showing in your gaze. Thinking about this was going to get you out of a brash decision, knowing now that no matter what, she was right. You weren’t the same anymore; lumbering over to the vanity, you closely observed all the changes that had occurred since you had woken up. You were most definitely taller, more rugged looking, eyes that were once painted a hazel color were now a soft silver with dark grey streaks surrounding your pupil. You had two very distinct scars now, one on the corner of your lip and another through your right eye. You pulled your lower jaw open, revealing sharper upper and lower canines. From the mirror, you could see the lady intensely staring at you, cautious of your every move.
“Bet you’ve never had anyone fight back huh?” you bit, aware of how quiet she got after the altercation.
“It would do you right to keep that senseless mouth of yours shut.”
You chuckled sarcastically, wiping the beads of blood that had formed over the small puncture wounds on your neck. As the blood was wiped away, you noticed the injuries had already closed up, leaving no trace of a struggle.
“Well, what now? I’m not going to let you even give Miranda a whiff of my presence at this castle-”
“Watch your tone, that's Mother Miranda to you-”
“With all due disrespect your highness, I am NOT going to regard her with that title, she sent my life into a downward spiral, she is no savior of mine.”
In a flash, you were thrown against another wall, this time being held by the throat again, golden eyes drilling into you.
“I do not care about your pitiful sob story, this is my castle and you will learn some respect. I am not a woman of much patience and rest assured you are exhausting the last ounce of kindness I am willing to extend,” this was going to be challenging. Both had nerves of steel and were quick to rage at any given hair of insolence. You recognized then and there that this woman would be the death of you.