Sarah Mac’s Reviews > The Brides > Status Update

‘The lamplight threw strange shadows across his visage, turning his eyes a gleaming crimson. He returned my smile, revealing teeth that were bright white & strangely pointed. My heart rose into my throat. The world slowed, & shrank to nothing but my human fear of darkness & oblivion.’

‘Yesterday morning I found Mrs Cartwright collapsed on her balcony, limp & chilled to the bone, her mouth ringed blackish red as if she had bitten deep into her tongue & filled her mouth with blood.’ ….Dun-dun-DUN. Poor Eliza.

‘I sat looking out across the red-tiled rooftops as the light left the sky, the streets slowly emptying & the resident bats coming out to wheel around the medieval buildings in their peculiarly erratic manner. This place has an odd feel about it, as if the deeper past could reach out & clutch at us.’

‘For my mistress, the daze of this thing’s mesmerism saved her from the hurt of it. Even as Mrs Cartwright felt no fear or pain, I felt it all. I felt the mortal body’s loathing of such an evil being, its agony, its growing weakness as my mistress was fed on. I felt all the terror, & all the disgust of it.’

“Come here, my love, come to me & kiss me, & we will be together forever.” Blood began to run from the patient’s nose but she continued speaking even as it dripped down over her lips. “Is that not what you have always wanted? Is that not what you have always yearned for? Come to me, & be mine for eternity.” Here, the patient smiled briefly, horribly, & then began to scream.’

‘The Baroness had collected images of the suffering Christ in all possible artistic forms. Everywhere I looked there he was, writhing in torment, flagellated & bloodied. I have never before been disquieted by the image, but to see so many! Wherever one’s eye might fall! At the time I wondered how anyone could elect to be surrounded by so much painted agony.’

‘I saw the figure of a woman dressed in darkest black flung face down upon the steps, on a carpet of dead & dying flowers. The sound of the figure’s weeping became audible as I drew nearer, deserting my strange companion. This was true abandonment to sorrow, a total & complete loss of control & lack of care of the fact.’

‘To see it confirmed in black & white was a dreadful shock. My knees buckled beneath me & I subsided onto the sofa. I tried to breathe, deliberately recalling how we put the hellish, monstrous Count to death & sent him to whatever Beyond awaited one such as he, reminding myself that all living things were now safe from him & his kind. It is over, I said to myself w/ all the firmness I could muster. It is over.’

‘I came time & time again upon tales of ancient goddesses spinning or weaving the fates of men, & might there not be a truth in an image found in so many cultures? I believe my fate was woven with my beloved’s into one tapestry, & that it has always been so & could be no other way. For that, I am more grateful to those spinning, weaving ancient ones than I can possibly express.’ ….Poor sweet Lucy.

‘I am sure I will sleep badly as everyone does at first in new surroundings, & that is even more reason for an early night. I hope that my sleep might be dreamless, but as always I will steel myself in case it is not. The human mind’s capacity to hold on to long-past fears seems to be, unfortunately, infinite.’