VAN HELSING - A Short Story

Part One, Chapter Five: Midnight's mistake

AMBRA 

I woke up drenched in sweat, feeling like I am drowning. I threw the now heavy blanket off my body, immediately feeling the cooler air of the room on my skin until I had goose bumps.

It had been very sudden that the nice and cosy warmth turned into a suffocating heat that I wanted to get rid of immediately.

I pulled myself out of bed, feeling how the sheet was sticking to my sweaty arms and the shirt against my torso.

I shuffled towards the window and opened it. It was still dark and I had my eyes halfway closed not to lose any of the sleep still in me.

I smacked my lips several times, feeling thirsty out of very much nowhere and I was now wide awake.

I scolded myself for this because now I was most likely to not be able to fall asleep anymore. It happens every time...

I walked out of my room – no Johann's – and into the pitch black hallway. Getting myself a glass of water from the kitchen will prove far more difficult than getting one when I get thirsty in my own bedroom.

I had to feel my way around the little terrace before I found the stairs and I had to descend them step by step, not to fall over and break my neck or something.

In the end, I managed to reach the kitchen for the glass of water without dying; meaning part one of mission was accomplished. I walked to one of the cupboards and pulled a metal cup out of it before I opened the tap and waited a little until the water had cooled down and it was clean enough for me to drink. I did not trust these new pipes and systems.

I filled the cup with the clear water and felt getting even thirstier as I watched it rise inside the cup and I heard it fill it up until I was almost running over.

I gulped down the water, feeling the cold liquid run down my oesophagus and filling my stomach, ultimately quenching my thirst and also cooling me down a bit.

I placed the cup on the table where we servants eat and sat down beside it to try and get my organism tired again. Hopelessly. And if this was not enough, I heard the doorknob behind me rattle and I was startled by Clarissa entering the kitchen as well.

She was dressed in her white gowns, slippers and nightcap and was holding an oil-lantern in her left hand as she opened the door with the other. She got startled by me sitting there just as much as I got startled by her entering.

"Oh my goodness, Ambra you gave me the jitters!"

She breathed out, dramatically clasping her free hand against her chest before she remained in this position for a while, looking like she was thinking about something.

"Ambra..."

She began with furrowed eyebrows and her voice slightly trembling. I could not fail but notice that she kept her distance.

"...The Lord said you had fallen terribly ill; you should not even be here. He said you are in the hospital!"

She half-whispered as her aging voice got shriller with each word she spoke. My relationship and feeling towards her varied every time I saw her from absolute loathing to loving her like a mother. Right now, she annoyed me a little because of her nosiness but I understood her concern.

"No, I'm just staying in Johann's room but-"

"It's Lord Johann to you and why in his room?"

She intervened and cut through my sentence as rude as she sometimes was. But before I could open my mouth to explain she gasped loudly as she realized something that I didn't and continued to make assumption.