To His Hell and Back
Chapter 89: I Wish I Was a Human

Chapter 89: I Wish I Was a Human

Princess Marissa was curious about Arabella’s question but regardless she still answered the human girl. They took a couple of folk as she answered her, "I suppose in a human age I’m quite young but contrary to your thoughts and not that much older than you. I’m about 23 years of age. You see, vampires are known that they won’t age, but that’s not the entire truth. Vampires too unlike you humans, we vampires just don’t die too quickly. We age the same way but once we reach the age of forty we tend to keep our appearance and live a little longer.

Arabella blinked, "Twenty three?" That’s only three years older than her. What about Cassius then?

As if reading her mind, Princess Marissa answered, "My brother is three years older than me."

Looking at her, Arabella thought that he was still young. Young for a king. The responsibility of falling into such an age, she couldn’t even begin to imagine it. Considering how easily his father had whipped him, he didn’t have so many people to lean on and she could tell he didn’t plan to lean on Marissa. Perhaps deep down he didn’t want to hurt Marissa with having to deal with how treacherous the castle was.

"I thought vampires could live for eighty three years but still retain the face of a young boy."

Marissa chuckled, "Well not entirely true. Though I suppose my brother doesn’t look too old. Like how I am."

"That’s true, my sister looks like you but she is only a year older. You do look like her, just a little," she added thoughtfully and suddenly she stopped as Marissa had stopped her heels first. Turning around, Princess Marissa then smiled.

"What does your sister look like? Like you?"

The question came unexpectedly but Arabella didn’t reject to answer her question. She hummed as she thought about her sister and the smile on her lips was akin to a blossoming flower, "Pretty. She’s so pretty. So much prettier than me even. Green eyes, blonde hair, she has all the features my mother had."

Princess Marissa can’t help but smile seeing her smile, "You must have been closed with her. Where is she now?"

Arabella hesitated and finally replied, "The brothels."

A gasp echoed from Princess Marissa’s mouth and Arabella clenched her fists, "But not for long."

"Oh! Your parents would be taking her back soon?" The hopeful Princess Marissa didn’t know that she had meant that she would be going there to bring Ariel out of the brother and away from Versailles.

She decided to only smile as the Princess took it as a yes. Princess Marissa then held her arms as she stared at the castle that had been so far distant from where they were standing, "I could never be at peace in a castle. The place we once lived at, our previous castle was in a different land. It’s much hotter there and His Majesty dislikes it. But I didn’t dislike it because of how hot it is. I have always disliked it because it smells as if it had been painted fresh with blood. Blood smells sweet to vampires but when it is shed from a human with a negative emotion such as despair, they smell rotten."

It was only now that Arabella realized that the Princess needed someone to hear her out and wanted Arabella to do so considering that the human girl was willing to listen, not that she had the choice not to, but also the fact that because she was someone of a lesser rank, she wouldn’t give her the judging that those royalties would. Instead, she would simply show what she thought, was genuine and sincere; which the princess might have appreciated. Also even if Arabella heard what she thought in her mind, she wouldn’t tell it to anyone and make it a rumor.

But rotten. She never knew blood could smell rotten to vampires. She had thought that since blood was the natural need for vampires, all human blood would have smelled divine and sweet, though this seems to be untrue.

"Is it normal?" She asked Princess Marissa, "That blood of a human could smell rotten?"

"Yes," she sighed, "I recall how there was a vampire who was born different. That person couldn’t smell the human blood as something sweet instead it would smell utterly rotten. Just like how humans don’t eat everything and how food could rot, human blood harvested when they are in fear doesn’t taste as good or smell well. Though there are those twisted vampire who like it, I could never bring myself to like them."

Arabella narrowed her eyes as suddenly the image of Cassius flooded in her mind.

She looked at the princess and asked with hesitation, "I have never seen His Highness drinking blood."

Princes Marissa blinked and she hummed, "In all actuality I never— oh on a second thought, actually I did once. When we were young I remember how Cassius had walked out of Mother’s room. His mouth was all red from blood and there was a young boy that was brought out of his room. I suppose that boy was alive and Cassius had drank his blood."

So he does drink blood?

For some reason, Cassius was out of the world. He was just different... something about him despite being a vampire was so odd. Like there was something in him that was much darker than a vampire, like a powerful mutant or maybe a concoction?

Even Princess Marissa doesn’t exude that odd deadly strength that he possesses which could be felt even by its air.

"Don’t worry," Princess Marissa took her frown of curiosity as a concern, "My brother doesn’t starve himself, but sometimes he needs to. It’s because of how when a vampire is starved of blood they grow stronger, then they lose all their energy and weaken."

Worried? She wasn’t, thought Arabella.

Then she looked at the forest. The words of starving and vampire reminded what Lucien had told her. How the vampires were defanged and starved and how that was the fault of humans. She silently wondered, "Princess Marissa... do you really believe that humans are at fault for what had transpired? That... this human hunt and to have human as a slave is a good thing?"

Princess Marissa eyed her and shook her head firmly, "How could it ever be a good thing?"

She turned her head briefly to Princess Marissa. The vampiress bit her red lips, and her expression appeared filled with ache as she continued her words, "Do you know? They call me an unbefitting of a vampire Princess."

Arabella frowned, "But you are a Princess." Her behavior, her acts, and her mannerisms were all perfect. She held an air even more regal than Queen Morgana.

Chuckling, Princess Marissa shook her head and explained. "A princess but not one that has the vampire quality that’s needed for this Kingdom. Because unlike most of the vampires, I do not think that drinking the blood of a human means that we need to control all humans as if they were livestock. We could have had a normal world where everyone is equal but that is too idealistic."

"Was it His Highness who had said so?" After all, he was the one who had told her that she was too idealistic.

"He wasn’t wrong. My brother, he is always right, so annoyingly right," Princess Marissa sucked her breath, "So I thought I could be different from the rest of the vampires but you know what? When I grew angry, I became nothing more than a monster, a vampire thirsty for blood like the rest of my kin. I killed. I killed humans because my human lover had betrayed me. But their screams, those agonizing plea for help haunts me every night."

Arabella couldn’t answer anything. She only knew briefly from her exchange with Cassius. How he had killed her human lover because he had betrayed Marissa and it seemed after that, Marissa who was far too heartbroken about the betrayal had moved to kill her own human lover alongside all those humans who had wanted to kill her.

"But you know, that was the very first time my father had praised me. That was the only time he ever said that I am his daughter," Princess Marissa sang, her expression marred with sadness making Arabella to pity her. Her action was wrong, terribly so, but she learned that there is a vampires like Princess Marissa, the ones who try to be human, the one who wishes for equality.

It made her wonder if the vampires weren’t brought in such a cruel manner, would they have become kinder? More humane? They could be sad about their lover’s death, which means that they do have a heart, and that heart can be nurtured.

"I wish I was a human," Princess Marissa looked at her. The crimson gaze that laid on her was simply proof that her wish could never be achieved.

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