Free Wilhelmina A Novella by Ronnell D. Porter

table with a troubled, uncomfortable expression.
    ‘Would you like the honor of doing it yourself, Camilla?’ The governess asked from beneath her veil. Camilla broke the kiss and stepped back, looking Yvette over with hunger in her eyes.
    ‘I like to credit myself with having much strength and patience, but I wouldn’t be able to stop myself, governess,’ Camilla said. ‘If you wish to be paid for the girl, you should do it for me.’
    ‘As you wish,’ the governess said.
    She stepped between Camilla and Yvette and began prowling the girl like a tigress stalking its cornered prey.
    ‘Wait!’ The blonde man jumped out of his seat, urgent fear about his face. ‘Shouldn’t the servant girl leave the room? You wouldn’t want her to see this.'
    ‘Let her watch,’ the governess said.
    With lightning fast speed, she gripped Yvette’s neck, and the girl screamed with fright, but no one tried to help her. They simply hissed and grinned eagerly. Slowly, the governess lifted the black veil over her face and revealed a very smooth and beautiful face, perfection personified. Her lips were round and her button nose ran smoothly straight up into her thin brows. Her black hair was pulled back into a tight bun, and her bright red eye looked into Yvette’s.
    She opened her mouth and struck Yvette’s mouth like a rattlesnake. There was a bright glow coming from their cheeks and a white light shining through the breaks in their mouths as the governess kept their lips locked. It looked as though she was sucking something out of the girl. Yvette pierced my soul with a blood curdling cry for help, and I had to shield my ears. The governess pulled away, holding Yvette’s hair as she stared down into the girl’s frightened eyes. The governess let go, after what looked like a struggle with her hand's grip. Yvette clutched her chest and continued to scream.
    ‘It burns!’ she shouted, but still no one helped her. ‘It burns like fire!’
    The governess ran one long fingernail along Yvette's neck. The girl fell to her knees, clutching at the side of her throat; blood coursed through her fingers.
    ‘It is done,’ said the governess. She turned her head toward Camilla, her brow strewn up in what could only be some sense of ecstasy. ‘You must drain every last drop of blood before dawn; I will expect my payment by the end of the week.’
    ‘Expect it by morning,’ Camilla said as everyone watched Yvette bleed all over herself.
    The blonde man stood and left the room hastily, looking a bit queasy. Mr. Abberdean followed him without a word. I was still petrified as I stared at Yvette, dying on the floor. The governess turned her head and looked at me, and the terror inside reached out and stuck inside of me like little needles.
    One side of her face was perfect and beautiful, but the other was a sight that was too grotesque to believe, even though I witnessed it with my own eyes. Her face was splintered and cracked, like a marble statue. One great fissure ran down her face and it was abundantly clear why I could only ever see one of her eyes beneath the veil. She only had one eye.
    She hissed, and I clutched my chest as my heart raced. The others hissed as well, their hellish red eyes on me and their teeth, grown long and pointed, bared. I ran. I had no direction, but that didn’t matter as long as I was as far away from those monsters as possible. I ran through the garden and into the forest as quickly as my boots would carry me.
    I heard snickers from every direction and shadows swept through the trees like the wind.
    I hit something hard. I struggled away from this hot solid object, screaming, but it held me with iron grips. I was afraid to open my eyes, but the figure swept me into its arms and I had to see who my capture was.
    ‘Be quiet and say nothing,’ Mr. Abberdean told me coldly, his crimson eyes set ahead as he cradled me. We exited the forest, and I saw the governess waiting, covered in blood from the chin down,