12- Bine ai venit in iad (Welcome to Hell)

Kya's heart stopped as she stared into the face of a true monster. He looked like any other refined man from England, short blonde hair that was well-groomed and kept cut close to the head. Making him look distinguished, refined even. His bright green eyes piercing through her as if they could see her very soul. The feeling searing into Kya's mind as she tried to back away from the unstable man. She had been around him long enough to know and experience his mood swings. For all, she knew he could be here to cause havoc in the castle, but that was highly unlikely.

"Kya, your home!"

The frightened woman tore her eyes away from the true monster to see Velkan coming to the doorway. He looked as if he was preparing to go out on another hunting trip with Anna. The pair sat at the table eating what Kya could only assume was their dinner, since they always had strange work hours and odd sleeping hours as well they ate dinner and other meals at odd times as well. But their eating habits weren't the most prevalent thing on Kya's mind, it was the insolent human being standing beside her. It took the young woman another moment or two to break out of her mental fog before she pushed past the man and made her way into the dining room. Before she could even say a single word to her cousins Charles was across the room in a matter of moments, pulling out a chair for her to sit down and enjoy the meal that had been prepared.

Kya immediately stopped and looked at the blonde-haired monster in fear, her heart pounding just as it did the night she was attacked. Not only was the completely terrified of this man but she feared the wrath of not only him but the Count as well.

"Please have a seat. I'm told you've had quite a long trip today." He explained, motioning to the seat he had pulled out for her.

Anna stood at the head of the table carefully watching the pair interacting, but something about her cousins' body language spoke of something other than her normal open and kind demeanor. Velkan was too busy mapping out a hunting area for their next trip to notice but for all she knew, Kya could be overreacting. And yet she couldn't stop thinking that the well mannered Englishman in front of her was overcompensating for something, what that was Anna didn't know. What she did know was that her cousin was incredibly uncomfortable around him and she seemed almost afraid of the Englishman. Now that she saw how her cousin felt, she was apprehensive to leave on this next hunting trip to find Dracula's Werewolf. For all Anna knew, if she left Kya alone with this man he could hurt her.

Kya looked at her cousin a bit put off and worried as well, what had Charles said to them to make them think he was a pleasant man.

"I...i'm feeling tired from my trip. I'll be going to my room." Was all she managed to say before making a quick exit and nearly ran to her bedroom.

Kya quickly closed her bedroom door and locked it by putting a chair under the door nob so no one could get in. Her bags had been brought to her room so she could unpack herself, but that was the least of her worries. As she stood staring at the door she began to feel ber breath shorten and her hands become sweaty, fear had taken over and was making her panic. If Charles stayed at the castle while Anna and Velkan were gone then what hope would she have to live safely? He was an offensive human being, a true monster in this world, making Count Dracula look like a puppy in comparison to Charles. Kya began to pace her room running her hands through her hair as she tried to calm her self down. The last time she had seen that man was three weeks before she left for Romania, he was being sent to live with his grandmother in Scotland for several months. The stay in Scotland had ended and he must have found out about her resignation from England after returning home and speaking with his mother.

To think such a violent and abusive man could be birthed by a kind woman who cared about her staff. Hundreds of questions began to swirl in her head as Kya paced the floor. The most prevalent question being why was he here in Romania? There was no reason for him to be here other than to threaten her and try to bring her back to England. She had no intention to leave her Cousins, she was happy for the first time in many years. She had a semi-frequent position at the local pub helping the townspeople and hearing their plights. Telling Anna and Velkan about it occasionally when certain subjects came up more than others, wanting to do her part and help the people.

Hell, she even gained attention from the townspeople! They liked her, they often gave her items to take back to the castle to share with their Prince and Princess who kept them safe. It was a very tight-knit group here in the mountains and Kya enjoyed every moment of it! She had someone in her life that she loved, even if it was the mortal enemy of her family she still loved Count Dracula. He was kind and sweet, never cruel or asking too much of her. He pushed her to excel in her poetry, showing her the wonders of the darkness while she showed him the goings-on of the light. Creating something that the young woman never thought possible, and now... all of that was put in jeopardy because of one person.

With the thought of her immortal admirer and what he would do if he found out about Charles being here in Transylvania. If he found out he had hurt her in the past what would he do? Would he kill Charles, or worse? Just as she tried to convince her self that the Count wouldn't kill him, a light knock came upon her door. Startling her and forcing Kya back into the present, her mind was a train wreck of thoughts all culminating together into a cacophony of thoughts.

"W-who is it?" She asked, moving towards the door to remove the chair if it was anyone other than Charles.

"Kya? It's me, Anna? Are you alright in there, you seemed frightened downstairs..." Her cousin's soft voice came through the door sounding very concerned for the young woman.

Kya breathed a sigh of relief as she took the chair away from the door and opened it to let her cousin into the room. Looking at the elder woman a bit concerned but hiding most of her fear to the best of her ability. Anna walked into the room and looked down at her younger counterpart, being careful to look her over and see if she could find any reason at all to stay behind and keep her calm. The trip that Anna and Velkan were on this time was to scout for an area to set up a trap for Dracula's werewolf, it couldn't be put off. Granted most of the time Anna would never hesitate to go off and complete her father's work, but now that she had gotten to know her cousin more and seen her reactions to certain situations... she gave pause.

"Is everything alright Kya?" She asked calmly.

Kya nodded slightly and put on the best smile she could for Anna, showing no signs of discomfort or agitation as she did.

"I'm alright Anna, I promise. It was just a very long journey from the city and I'm quite tired."

Anna didn't buy the charade for a moment, crossing her arms and giving Kya a look that indicated she wanted the truth. But she stood her ground and choose to keep her true feelings hidden away so Charles didn't hurt Anna or anyone else in the castle.

"I'm serious. I departed from Budapest early in the morning, part of the mountain trail was blocked off so it took me longer to get back. You know I don't lie, Anna, it was just a shock seeing Charles here. I hadn't seen him since before I received your letter in England."

Kya kept her guard up, knowing that Anna wouldn't leave unless she knew that everything was alright. It was a strange habit she had developed after the attack Kya had from Draculas brides several months ago, clearly showing some form of attachment to the woman. Anna frowned and sighed slightly as she watched her cousin, she seemed much calmer and able to at least voice herself this time. Perhaps it truly was the long journey from the city that had her on edge? Anna knew all too well that when she and Velkan returned to the castle after a long campaign she wasn't in the best of moods, needing at least a day to rest before trying again or even trying to get up and think about official duties as a princess to her people.

With a sigh Anna relented. "Alright, but please tell me if anything happens while Velkan and I are gone."

"Of course I will. I always do don't I?" Kya smiled kindly before hugging her cousin goodbye, silently hoping this wouldn't be the last time she can do so.

Anna gently patted Kya's back before wishing the young woman a good night's rest and taking her leave. Taking Velkan with her to mount their horses and ride off towards the mountains to begin scouting. Kya watched from her window as her cousins left the castle, leaving her alone with the monster. She had closed the door after her cousin left to have some sense of security as she unpacked her bags from her trip. Taking her time as she put her clothes back into the wardrobe where they belonged, prolonging the inevitable encounter that she would have with Charles.

The worry and fear in her head began to manifest the longer she stalled, her hands begging to shake and her breathing becoming labored almost as if she had run for a long time. She couldn't fight him if he chose to hurt her, not to mention he's in a castle filled with weaponry! He had the means now to kill her if he wanted too and no one could stop him. Kya wasn't strong enough to hold him off before, what made her think that she could do so now? She went head to head with two bloodthirsty vampires and lived to tell about it, but if she tried going toe to toe with Charles there wouldn't be anyone to save her from his wrath. Only her wits and feeble body would stand between his anger-filled blows and her fragile mortality.

Just as she had finished placing her boots against the side of her bed, Kya's door was forced open showing an inebriated Charles who was holding a bottle of absinthe in one hand and his free hand held him in the doorway.

"Ah, there she is. My little domestic, hiding in her room like always aye?"

Kya quickly stood and put her back to the window across from her bed, wanting to make sure that there was plenty of space between her and the drunken fool. The more that he drank the more violent he became. He was already a sexist bastard with no respect for women, but Kya could recall all the times she had to force him off of her for fear of being assaulted.

"Why are you here?" She asked, finally mustering up the courage to speak to him.

The blonde-haired souse chuckled darkly at her question, the sound sending horror-filled chills down her spine.

"I saw the letter you sent mum back in December." He clicked his tongue and stumbled into the room, leaving the door open. "You thought you could run away from me? After all those years you served us, me?"

Kya carefully moved so if she had to make a quick escape she could, knowing that if she made her way down to the kitchens fast enough she could warn the staff and save them. She didn't think that the letter of resignation that she had sent in December would come back to haunt her, but clearly, she was wrong once more.

"No, no Tart. I couldn't just, let you go without one final goodbye now could I?" His words began to slur as he walked closer to her, taking a drink from the bottle as he did so.

Seeing her opportunity, Kya threw the bedside table beside her towards Charles and made a mad dash for the door. Jumping over the bed and out the door, running as fast as she could down to the kitchens to warn the staff. But before she even made it halfway down the hall she felt something hard hit the back of her head, causing her to fall face-first into the stone floor. Looking back she saw the now broken bottle of absinthe that he had been drinking on the floor, shattered into thousands of pieces as the alcohol made a puddle on the floor.

"WENCH!"

Looking up, Kya saw her former master bounding down the hall in her direction. His pale face now turning red in anger and from being drunk, what small bit of self-control Kya hoped that he had was gone. He was not on the warpath to hurt her and nothing was going to stop it. Scrambling to her feet, Kya tried to take a stand having learned a few things from Anna after coming to live with her extended family. She didn't want to be a damsel in distress, nor did she want to be the meek little mouse in the corner. But with little strength and no weapons to aid her, Kya was quite literally a mouse. As she stood her ground she tried to keep her hands up to protect her face, knowing that would be the first area he tried to hit.

Just as she predicted, after closing the distance between the two of them Charles swung and hit the side of Kya's head, trying to disorient her. With her hands up she was able to quickly grab his arm and use it as a way to try and escape, moving as quickly as her legs could take her and make a break for the library. However, he had anticipated her attempted escape and quickly grabbed her by the back of her collar and threw her into the nearest wall. The pain that spidered throughout Kya's face made a mockery of what she felt from her attack. Almost immediately after landing on the floor she felt warm blood running down her lips, her nose broken from the impact.

"I'll make you learn your place Tart!"

The only thing that Kya could remember from the night before was the pain of each blow that fell upon her. That was before she lost consciousness laying in the hallway beside the map of Transylvania. Her nose and eye throbbed dully in pain as she struggled to push herself up, her entire body ached from being on the floor all night. Not everything from the previous night stuck in the young woman's mind. What she could remember was fuzzy at best, but certain parts were completely gone from her memory, almost as if her mind had shut its self away from the violence that fell upon her.

She clearly remembered coming back to the castle Valerious late in the evening and finding her former employer's son was a guest there. After her cousins left to go about the hunting trip Charles had confronted her about leaving England while drinking absinthe. After she ran away from him is where Kya's memory began to fade slightly. Now as she sat up against the stone wall beside the alcove, she began to seriously reconsider her living arrangements for the time being. How was she supposed to get rid of him now? He clearly had a strong vendetta against her, but the question was why? What had she done in the past that would make him so upset now?

Kya pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind as she slowly pushed herself to stand up, intending to go back to her room and try to make herself appear better than she currently felt. Knowing that her eye and other parts of her body had large bruises or blood smeared across them. She had experienced one or two bouts of Charles' anger in England but it was never like this. He seemed to take after his father from what she could recall of her former mistress saying things about him. She was wealthy by blood, on her father's side he owned many banks in England that were very well off so she inherited quite a large sum. Her husband married into the family but was abusive towards her, so she managed a divorce without any repercussions. However, it seemed as though her son had taken after his father and was abusive towards anyone other than his mother.

"To think I was trying to make a new life for myself." She whispered to herself, leaning against the wall as she slowly limped towards her bedroom.

Her right leg felt numb and like it had been kicked or the blood flow had been cut off for a certain amount of time. It was hard for her to choose what one when her entire boy ached as she moved. This couldn't continue, not like this where Kya was hurt each night for no other reason than to be a human punching bag. Once she reached her bedroom door she saw the eldest maid that worked for Anna and Velkan sitting on the edge of her bed, looking at the young woman clearly upset.

"What happened last night?" Was all the elder woman said, looking at the now destroyed room.

It looked as though Charles had gone on a rampage in her bedroom after she blackout. The wardrobe was turned over, all of her clothes, jewelry and what not were scattered across the room as well. The bed was bare as the blankets and sheets were thrown against the window, almost like Charles was searching for something but couldn't find what he was looking for. Even her sketchbook was laying on the floor, with pages ripped out and thrown around the room, but what scared Kya at that moment as she looked at the damage that had been done to her room was the fact that her drawing of the Count lay close enough to the bed that the elderly maid could see it if she were looking.

"I-im not sure... I don't remember what happened." Kya replied, slowly walking into the room.

Moving so she was able to hide the drawings and poems that she had written about the immortal prince.

"That man is not welcome here if he has harmed you like that. But I don't have the ability to throw him out."

Kya looked to the woman set upon her bed, she looked extremely upset that this had all taken place. Not to mention her brown eyes seemed to be filled with genuine concern for the young woman. With a heavy sigh, the woman stood and looked at Kya seriously.

"I will help you clean the room and restore it to its rightful order, but you must stand up to him. IF the Prince and Princess return home to find that he's harmed you... they won't allow him to live."

That truly shocked Kya upon hearing that statement, she hadn't heard a single negative thing about her cousins. They ruled over their people with compassion and thinking of the villagers before themselves. Perhaps it was simply because Kya was family and they took their family tied very seriously. However, if it were true then Charles may not live to see his homeland again, that is if she couldn't manage to make him leave within the next few days. After speaking with the older woman about the situation she chose to take action as soon as she could.

Over the next two days, Kya managed to evade Charles during the daylight hours but during the night she tried to confront him. Wanting to use her knowledge of the area to her advantage. She remembered that Dracula and his brides needed to feed once a month in order to remain 'living', so if she managed to time it correctly then they may or may not see her little gift for them leaving the castle. During the day it seemed as though her former master slept most of the time, sleeping off his drunken stupor during the day. Giving not only her but the staff time to clean and re-organize the castle in preparation for Anna and Velkans' return. On the third day... it changed. Kya was getting ready to gather Charles' personal belongings and throw him out of the castle by force, not seeing any way to verbally tell him...but when she entered his room he was wide awake and had been drinking already that day.

"Tart... get me more spirits." He pointed to the empty wine bottle beside his chair, staring at the burning coals of wood in the fireplace.

"No."

Kya could hear the sound of wood cracking and breaking, but she pushed forward. She wasn't going to let him stay here, granted that's what she had been telling her self for three days now but for all, she knew he may have a change of heart.

"You're not welcome here, while my family is gone from the Castle I am the one to care for it and the people here. I want you to leave this place. immediately. You have two hours to remove your belongings and leave the castle grounds" She spoke with a firm voice, almost as if she were commanding him to do it.

She was truly tired of his games, tired of being pushed around and hurt. She was not going to put up with it any longer. Kya turned around with her arms crossed hoping that she won't have to repeat herself, or need to find a way to protect herself from his wrath. Even though she basically ordered him to leave, she knew that there was a chance for his temper to fly out of control. The thought of being injured again wasn't particularly engaging, but she was doing the best that she would without being physical. Just as Kya paused to look at the map of Transylvania, admiring the craftsmanship and painting, she began to hear heavy footsteps headed her direction. It seemed as though Charles was leaving after all, but that didn't stop the unease in the pit of her stomach to go away. It was almost as if her body were telling her that something was wrong.

True to form without any warning her head was slammed into the wall behind her and a large hand wrapped around her throat, cutting off her airway. She frantically tried clawing at Charle's hand as she looked into the eyes of the Devil. He was absolutely furious with her, a housemaid ordering her around! She was just a little slut who needed to learn her place before he broke every bone in her body.

"To think, I was going to leave once your little whore of a cousin returned and I could fuck her myself. But now... a Tart needs to learn her place. Shall I teach it to her?"

Kya gasped deeply as he let go of her and proceeded to "teach" her about her place. Repeatedly hitting her about the head and shoulders, making no attempt to keep his marks hidden. Each time she made a sound he would hit her harder and ask her what good maids do and lighten the blows when she remained silent. Forcing her to endure this painful cycle for hours until the sunset. His hand was bloody as well as her face. Kya's left cheek was swollen to the point where she could barely see. Her lip had split open and Charle's had managed to cut open the inside of her cheek, filling her mouth with blood and forcing her to swallow it. Her chest and shoulders were badly bruised as well, however... now that he had left her to her thoughts she knew she needed to go above his head.

She truly did not want to involve him but there wasn't any other choice. She wasn't strong enough to remove Charles from the castle and her Cousins would still be away for several more days. Kya waited as calmly as she could as Charles returned to his room seemingly to sleep off his aggression before standing up. Using the wall to slowly hold her up and make her way down to the stables. She didn't feel safe at all in the castle, especially with Charles being in there. Thankfully at that moment, there weren't any stable hands or servants of the Castle around able to see her ragged appearance. Kya wasn't able to fully saddle her horse as she couldn't move her arm higher than chin level, the very movement of her arm felt like hundreds of shards of glass were grinding away in her shoulder.

She wasn't even able to pull on a cloak to keep her warm, choosing instead to only use a bridle for her horse and ride bareback. Knowing how to ride a horse that way and this time it was for good reason. The entire upper half of her body felt as though it had been trampled by a horse, her head being the one thing that was in the most pain. She was practically laying on her horse as she gently urged him to leave the stables and the Castle grounds. Following her normal path into the woods and up onto the ridge above the village. Trying to clear her mind and think of a worthy excuse to tell the Count, but even if she tried to lie she had no doubt that he would know exactly what had happened.

He could probably smell her bleeding lips from miles away, there was no way she could hide domestic abuse from an ancient immortal being. Especially the one that had stolen her heart. The one she knew would never harm her for any reason at all, and it only made her grow more fond of him. Her once turbulent mind filled with the thoughts of pain and suffering was now filled with the love she felt for Count Dracula. Never once realizing that her horse had stopped moving and stood at the top of the trail, facing the cliffside so she could see the village below and Castle Frankenstine on the top of the other hill. The beauty of the land before her as she lay upon her horse, trying to focus on anything but the pain.

"Who touched you like this? Their head will be on a pike for this!"

Damn! I'm so sorry for not updating sooner but I guess it's at a good time. Since most everyone is under a stay at home order or under quarantine orders I hope that this chapter can provide some entertainment. Please note, I'm not one for domestic violence but I tried to make it seem at least somewhat believable. Hopefully for the time being this will help keep everyone somewhat entertained as I work on my other stories and come back to this one. I have a plan in place for my current stories and hopefully, it won't be that long between chapters. Please R&R, they are my crack and in this time of germ-killing it'd be great to see some new readers reviews.