Rose's Story: A ghoul's View - Chapter 1: Introduction

[kseenaa]

Hope you like this. Next part in a week!

Title: Rose's Story: A ghoul's View - Chapter 1: Introduction
Author: KSena aka kseenaa aka Emma J
Time-line: In real time.
Rating: You should be 16 to read this story. (You can see horror-movies from the age off 15 in Sweden.)
Warning: Mentally insane vampire. Blood-play, mind-games, depression, extreme violence etc... It will get worse as we go along...
Disclaimer: The game this story takes place in is Vampire: The Masqurade, and is credited to the company White Wolf. Characters Rose Valentine, Bosse, Camilla and Kim are MINE! The other characters belong to there respective players. Thanx for letting me have my way with them!
Beta: A big huge hug and thank you to my best friend in the world, and my lovely lovely Beta, spicehobbit!!! You got me the courage to put this up for the world to see!
A/N: A huge thank you to my fellow vampire-LARPers that always give me inspiration. Also, all the cities, companies and places in the story does exist for real.
Any questions you might have about the world this takes place, you can put in the comments, and I'll answer them or not... ;-)

Summary: Camilla tells her story, what it REALLY is like to be a ghoul, a servent, to a vampire... And how it is to live in a world... of darkness....

Prolouge and all chapters in Memories HERE!

Chapter 1: Introduction

Let me tell you about my Mistress, Rose Valentine of Clan Malkavian.

16 years I have been in service of Ms Valentine. As Bosse says, that is nothing. My view of time has really been turned topsy turvy since. It really has. I have a son that looks my own age. And a son that is dead. And that was what started it all, wasn't it? My son’s death. Apparently he was a tasty bite. A first bite, for Rose childe Joy... That’s when she found me... us.

I had a long time of depression then, turning my hours up side down. Sadly that affected my two sons too. So, they wanted to go to the playground that night. I obliged. I shouldn't have, I know. But there you go. I don't remember much from that night, but my older son disappeared that night. He was only ten. I wasn't myself for days. The police never did find him. I had a funeral anyway. Then it was just us, me and Kim. Poor thing. I couldn't give him much on my small salary building websites. I am quite good at it, but it didn't give much. Might have to do with my problem with concentration.

I got a new job shortly after. A proper one. Taking care of the website of one off the companies in town. Borås Weaving Mill. Apparently I did a good job too, since shortly after I was hired I started getting gifts from the company. Knick-knacks mostly, little letters telling me I did a good job, stuff like that and.... vitamins. Liquid once. The first vitamins I got I never drank. Thought it was weird. But my workmates asked me about them, so it appeared several others got these as well. So I started taking them. Was great. I got so much more energy from them! Such a rush! At first I thought it was drugs, but my workmates assured me they were safe. Made me feel good and strong, so I continued taking them. Little did I know it wasn't vitamins in those little bottles... But blood. Her blood. They need to give it to a living human to create ghouls, you see... A servant bound to them. I had no idea that was what I became... But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me continue.

I got packets for about a month when I was told one of the owners was to come thank me for my work personally. I was so nervous. Right on time that night, a woman came to visit me. She presented herself as Rose Valentine. At the time, I found it odd, but I felt comfortable in her presence. Beyond comfortable. It felt like... Well. If I could take down the moon for her, I would. She still gives me the same feeling. It is amazing. Like a drug, almost.

Anyway, she took me on a ride in her car to have dinner, and then she took me home, to her house. I have lived there ever since. Being hers. Always and forever. 16 years... It feels like a lifetime. She is still feeding me her blood now and then. From herself, if I am lucky. Or she gives me a fine crystal glass to drink from. She is always watching when I do. It seems to amuse her.

Bosse, Her other ghoul has been in Rose’s service for many, many years. It boggles once mind. Since 1879, he says. He don't look a day older then me. I know Rose is very powerful, being a Kindred, a vampire. But Bosse has some strength to. He says that if you are true to our Mistress, as he says, She'll teach you tricks you can use your blood for. It is all very confusing and I haven't figured out how it works exactly. But we, the ghouls, just as the Kindred, can use the vampiric blood within us to heal ourselves or do magical things. Rose don't like it that I call it magic. I hope she won't see this, but I can't find another word for it. I haven't figured out why, though... But She is a puzzle.

I have learned one trick though. A trick that amuses Her too. I have learned to take a lot more beating then any normal human. My son, Kim, knows this trick to. He is even better at it then me! It is an odd feeling. Being jealous of your son.... I shouldn't be, I know. He is my son. But I don't see him as one anymore. More like a colleague. And that’s what we are, nowadays. He is a ghoul too, you see. She feed him blood to. Not when he was a small boy and we just moved in here. Oh no. He would have stopped growing then. Can't have that. She waited until he turned 20. But he grew up here. Been Miss Rose’s special boy, this whole time. She is very proud of him. Of us all, at least she says so. Her family.

When She created us, Her ghouls, She only... well... forced us to drink Her blood. I did it willingly. Remember those vitamins? Well, for everyone else in the company they were just that. Regular vitamins. But not to me. No. Bosse helped Rose make sure that in my pack the vitamins were changed for Her blood. And since everyone else at the company assured me that it wasn't anything strange, just that the owner was somewhat eccentric, I took them. For three months I got the packs with the vitamins and knick-knacks. See, you need to give the blood three times to a human for him or her to be a ghoul. You don't turn into a vampire right away. No.... I asked Rose about that once. Why it was that I and Bosse and Kim were ghouls, and not vampires since all of us drank from Her blood? Wasn't wise to ask Rose such a question. It annoyed her that we hadn't learned that lesson yet. So She sent us to Bosse to get an explanation, after she had disciplined us thoroughly. I could hardly walk after that. Kim helped me though. And Bosse told us.

To create a vampire, the creator, the Sire, needs to empty the person, the childe, of blood. Just at the brink of death, the Sire gives of his/her blood to the childe to drink. The childe dies, and rises again a new vampire. When a vampire wants to create a ghoul, he/she don't have to kill the person in question. He/She just gives blood one way or another to the future ghoul. When the ghoul has drunk from the vampire three times a blood-bond is created, binding the ghoul to the vampire. Oh, and Bosse also told us to make sure to be really nice to Rose. If we don't get blood once a month... our true age catches up to us and... well. I would grow an old woman and Bosse would die since he is over 100 years old. Scary thing is... It would only take a week.

I know Bosse only told us everything since he had to. He isn't to pleased that Rose took two new ghouls to her family. Apparently he had wife once. As old as he. Although she was sent out in a conflict, a war of sorts, on Rose’s orders. And died.

Bosse also thought us about Clans. There are quite a few. Rose is of the Clan Malkavian. The blood of all the clans are different, or so Bosse told us. Bringing with it a curse and a blessing. The Clan Malkavian has a better awareness of the world around them, and can sometimes glimpse the future. There curse is that all of them are more or less insane. And this I learned the hard way...

Rose is always carrying with Her a beautiful doll, made of porcelain. Very old. One of my first duties was to keep the kitchen clean, make sure everyone had something to eat. Us ghouls, that is. We still need food. Rose sometimes joins in on our evening dinners, just after She has risen in the evening. It seems to amuse Her. And as always the doll is with Her. After dinner, I took care of everyone’s plates, glasses and things. Kim, I think it was, had some soda left in his glass, and... I was clumsy and spilled it. Right on Roses doll.

In a snap She changed from the laughing smiling lady at the table, to the monster we all knew lingered underneath. I knew. I just hadn't seen it until then.

She let her fangs slide down, and tried to claw me with the long nails I had helped her paint before dinner. The table was in the way, but she soon circled it, grabbing me by the arm, dragging me down to her rooms. Not to her bedroom. I had been there the night before, I knew where it was. But to the locked room next to it. Inside there were lots of dolls. The whole inner wall was filled with dolls. Porcelain-dolls, old dolls, new dolls. Dolls everywhere. There were two tables there too. One lower, with a small tea-set. The other table was a bit higher, made of some metal of some sort. On this table she threw me and bound me, with a force I didn't know she had. I also heard Bosse and Kim run after me, Kim crying for his mother (he wasn't that old then). I could hear Bosse calling for our Mistress telling her why She needed me. She just turned, and locked the door. Then She told me, slowly and icy that She had to teach me a lesson. She had to teach me to see properly... to see behind the curtain... Then I don't remember much. She stared at me, whispered a word in my ear and.... I saw horrific images in the corners of my eyes... heard voices that I couldn't locate... So much pain in my arms, and it did take me awhile to notice I was bleeding heavily from arms.... legs... stomach... Rose with a knife... and with the sweetest smile I had ever seen on Her. I wanted to reach up and kiss her, to keep that smile there forever, but I was to weak then. I don't know how long She played games with me, but I do know that was the time I instinctly learned the trick to withstand more damage then normal humans can. I was close to dying, when I remember Rose patting my cheek and Her voice whispering in my ear, telling me to use the strength of the blood She had given me to heal myself... Then She was gone.

Bosse and Kim helped me out of there. I know more of that room now. It is Rose’s tea-room and play room. The dolls she has collected during her travels and long life as a vampire. Some are gifts, but most she has found herself. Except the oldest one. The one she always carries with her. Miss Julie. I learned my lesson then. Never ever touch that doll.

Rose told me not long ago, two other vampires tried to take Miss Julie from her. A young vampire at a social gathering, but there were many more there then, so she just gave him a piece of her mind on his social manners. At another instant one of the oldest vampires in the city tried to take Miss Julie from her. Mr Magnus Runarsson of the Clan Brujah. I haven't met this man yet. Apparently he was turned to a vampire sometime during the early medieval ages. Very strong, very powerful. Rose said that when he tried to take it, she went in to a rage, and he just hit her once, and she was nearly dead... I would fear to meet this man. I really would. But according to Rose, we shouldn't fear him. We belong to Her, and after the incident, she and Mr Runarsson gets along quite nicely.

I feel safe and loved belonging to Rose Valentine.

Comments

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Well, considering I have never written anything longer before and only drabbles, it is quite the experience! :-D

Actually it is only semi-original, since the world it takes place in is taken from a game. Vampire: The Masquerade. And only three are my characters, rest is my friends characters. But I got permission to use them, so I am in the clear. :-)

I am glad you find it interesting and worth a read, since I admire you so much. :-) Thank you, Jan.