Vampire Of The New World

The next day, Flora was surprised that the master's guest did not arrive for breakfast on time. Pablo went to the guest's room at eight o'clock, as was required by Dante, but returned with the usual scowl on his face and instructed Flora to clean up as the guest was not arriving for breakfast.

"Return all of these to the kitchen and tell the others that our guest will not be having breakfast. Instruct the others as well that the guest is not to be disturbed the whole day."

Flora started to do as she was told, but could not help feeling that something bad may have happened to the guest. She wondered if the three women he was with the night before had something to do with it. Only then did she remember the story about the three sisters and how they were supposed to seduce young men before killing them. She realized that if that story were true, then what about the story of the ember ghost? What if Dante turned out to be the monster that the stories tell the ember ghost to be.

"Is he alright? The guest, I mean," Flora asked Pablo as she collected the unused plates and utensils. "He seemed alright when I passed him in the garden last night with the three ladies."

Pablo stopped in his tracks and then slowly turned to Flora.

"The guest is not feeling well and said that he is not to be disturbed. Go on and tell the others," Pablo replied sharply and waved Flora away towards the kitchen.

The young man did not leave his room that whole day, even to eat lunch or dinner. Pablo later told Flora and all the other servants that the guest had to leave early that morning with Captain Salazar for a family emergency. Flora felt uneasy and became even more nervous towards the inconsistency of Pablo's explanation and the indifference of the other servants at the mysterious absence and immediate departure of their guest.

That afternoon, Flora was tasked to help with the cleaning of the bedrooms since the early departure of their guest had given her plenty of time for other work aside from helping with the cooking and serving of the food. Flora was overwhelmed by the size of the house. Just one room inside the mansion was already larger than her whole house in Cardena. The opulence of her employer was in full display and made even more extravagant by the fact that Flora lived in a poorly furnished house that she only inherited from her mother. Even the houses she had seen in Malen seemed to pale with the grandeur of her master's house.

"You can start cleaning at this side of the house," instructed Pablo, pointing to the rooms that Flora was assigned to. "I trust that you already know how to clean. Look for me if you have any concerns." Pablo left her with her cleaning cart.

The rooms were almost identical in terms of size and the style of furniture. Flora noted that the interior decorators must have worked really hard to bring such large furniture to the island. As she entered one room, Flora got started with her work and plugged a vacuum cleaner to the electrical outlet on the wall. As she vacuumed the carpet, she realized that all these rooms did not have any occupants and required nothing more than just some light dusting. She turned off the vacuum cleaner and just wiped the furniture using a clean rag. Not that these furniture require cleaning as well, thought Flora.

Flora was able to finish cleaning the rooms assigned to her early and she wanted to do more with her time. Perhaps she could impress Pablo and clean the other rooms at the south side as well. After picking up her cleaning materials, she pushed her cleaning cart through the corridors and reached the south side of the mansion.

Flora observed the abundance of paintings around the house. She did not care for such art and frowned at the paintings hanging on the wall. Who would want to buy these, thought Flora. Then, realized that her master was able to amass great fortune from the buying and selling of art. That was what she was told, although she did not really listen.

Flora reached the first room and inserted the key that Pablo entrusted to her. When she opened the door, she saw that the rooms in the south side had all the usual heavy dr.a.p.es and furniture, but were definitely larger. There were no windows, but there was ample electrical lighting. Flora was surprised to see that the ceiling was painted as well. Another of those monster paintings that she saw hanging on the wall outside, she thought.

The ceiling was made to look like the sky with gray clouds. There were three female figures that appeared to float and dance in the air, their hair flying in all directions like snakes. Flora remembered watching those monster films about women with snakes on their head instead of hair and how their gaze was supposed to turn you into stone. Flora shuddered as she looked at the billowing white gowns that hid the women's legs and made them appear as if they were flying. They were holding each other's arms forming a tight circle at the center of the ceiling. Their faces were beautiful, but looked wicked and their eyes seemed to stare directly at Flora.

Shuddering, Flora decided to work right away and started to wipe the furniture in the room. She noticed that there were signs that the room has been used quite recently. Black hair still clung to the brushes that lay on the dresser and there was a sprinkle of talc.u.m powder on the surface. There were half-filled perfume bottles, recently opened because their flowery scent could still be smelled. Flora looked at the mirror and saw the wide four-poster bed at the end of the room. She then heard a low groan which seemed to come from the bed. All of a sudden, an arm came out from between the dr.a.p.es and a thin pale face appeared from behind. Flora suppressed a gasp as she recognized the young guest who was supposed to have left for Cardena.