Vampire Of The New World

Flora did not know what to do and stood frozen by the dresser, staring at the strange reflection on the mirror. The young man's eyes looked dazed as if heavily intoxicated. His hand gripped the edge of the bed as he tried to pull himself up. Just as he was emerging from between the dr.a.p.es, a white slender arm reached across his shoulder while another went around his b.a.r.e c.h.e.s.t like tentacles. The man looked at Flora with his dazed eyes. He lost his grip on the side of the bed and with his mouth gaped open, he slid backwards into the shadows.

Flabbergasted, Flora left the room in haste, trying not to make any sound. She was embarrassed at having entered the room and realized how her mistake might cause her her job. Outside the room, she locked the door once more and deliberated whether she would continue to clean the other rooms or not. She was afraid to be scolded by Pablo if he saw her hanging around the kitchen with nothing to do. She could not continue cleaning the rooms at the south side either or Pablo might guess that she entered this room and disturbed its guests. She decided that she would continue to clean the other rooms of the mansion away from the south side.

Flora thought of the library. At least she could be certain that there was no one there. The master only uses the library at night and he should be in his room sleeping. That made Flora wonder, where does her master sleep? The rooms at the south side were bigger and looked more extravagant than the rest. Perhaps he also slept in one of the rooms there? Personally, Flora would want to use the other rooms facing the sea. At least these had windows and Flora could look tirelessly at the constantly changing sea. Flora thought the habits of the wealthy as bordering on the weird and the eccentric.

Shaking her thoughts off, Flora reached the door to the library. She unlocked it and parked her cleaning cart outside. As she opened the door, she felt the cold temperature rush out. She immediately entered the room and closed the door behind her.

Bookshelves lined one wall behind the huge rosewood desk. There were books of all shapes and sizes, but most of them were old, part of Dante's collection. The rest of the walls were adorned with self-portraits which Flora did not want to look at. Flora noted the absence of any photographs at the desk or, come to think of it, anywhere in the mansion. There were only these strange portraits who could not be related to Dante and whose presence bothered Flora as she cleaned the room.

Flora started to wipe the broad shiny surface of the desk, taking care to replace any of the items that she moved while cleaning. She saw some folders and papers neatly arranged at the side of a laptop and managed to glance at a few. They were business papers related to the purchase of some properties. After wiping the display and the keyboard, Flora wiped the table surface under the laptop.

When she finished with the furniture, Flora proceeded to clean the bookshelves. There were plenty of old volumes, some of which had their covers worn out. Flora carefully dusted the shelves and the top of the books where dust would normally collect. She would take some of the books out and wipe the shelves. There was little dust, she realized, perhaps because the environmental controls were filtering the air as well.

Just as Flora was returning one thick volume to its location, she noticed a metal lever that was completely hidden from view. She touched it and was surprised when it moved. She heard a click and by some mechanism, the whole bookshelf moved to one side, revealing a hidden passage. She flicked on a light switch and saw the passage lit up.

The passage just went a short way before turning to the left. It opened to a b.a.r.e room with a low ceiling. There was no furniture and the walls were unadorned in stark contrast to the room outside. There were wooden crates arranged neatly in rows. Looking around, Flora could not help comparing the room to that of a tomb.

Walking around the well-arranged crates around the room, Flora's footsteps bounced on the b.a.r.e walls and ceiling. Flora approached one crate and wondered what it could contain. More artwork, guessed Flora. Perhaps Dante's most valuable possessions were stored inside the crates. Flora extended her hand towards the lid of the crate and touched its rough surface.

Something within Flora shouted at her that she should leave the room at once lest Pablo or other members of the household discover her, but she could not shake off her intense curiosity as to what the crates contained. Just a peek, just a few minutes, she thought. She was already there, all she had to do was lift the lid of the crates.

With a quick exhale, she slowly lifted the lid. It was heavy and Flora could not lift it higher than a few inches. Flora just slid the cover to one side so that she could take a peek at what was inside. What she saw was farthest from what she expected. No expensive artwork was inside – no paintings, no sculpture, no pottery. It was black earth!

If the contents of the crate were sand, Flora would have thought that there was something buried underneath and the sand was used to protect it. What she saw, however, was no different from the soil in her vegetable garden in Cardena. She took a fistful of the earth and found it to be moist and sticky to her palm. She immediately shook the earth off her hand.

Flora replaced the cover of the crate and walked to the next one. After lifting the lid, she saw that it was the same as the first one. Still black earth! What could the master want with all this earth? Why spend so much trouble hiding all of these inside a hidden room within the mansion? Flora asked herself as she reached the crate at the center of the room.

The crate at the center of the room was identical with the others and Flora debated whether she should open this as well. However, given its prominent position in the center of the room, Flora thought that it could contain something else. Perhaps the other crates were just decoys and this one contained what really mattered.

Slowly, Flora slid the cover of the crate to one side and had to stifle a scream at what she saw. Inside, looking directly at her with eyes wide open lay Dante!