Tainted Souls

[Jacksblackpearl]

Black or white. Black or white. What is it going to be ?
Belle looked at the woman, a doctor as she introduced herself. A new doctor in town. Since Miss Narski had passed away.
"Tell me doctor. Am I pregnant again ? Am I expecting ?"

"Yes you are. Congratulations Mrs. Alucard. And by the dangling of my pendant I am assuming that you are expecting a baby boy"

Black it is then..
"Okay.. thank you very much for your help. The butler will show you out" Belle asured the doctor.
Her voice had turned less hopeful, less nice. It was colder, more depressed.

It was no wonder, for afterall he had done it again. He tried to have off spring and he succeeded. She had to give him life, while he was smothering her in her own life.
IT wasn't fair, it wasn't right.. it made her sick to her stomach..
Or maybe that was just something that had to do with the pregnancy..
The thought of having to throw up because of her husband made her oddly more comfortable then anything else. He made her sick, and he had to know it.

Carl looked up when he saw the door opening. The countess has told him to wait outside the door for them. She said it between nervous winks that made him think she was flirting with him again. Or maybe it was afterall just excitement and nerves? He could never really tell with her. Nor did he want to. He just wanted to do the job he had been doing for such a long time. And It would be easier if his mastress stopped trying to lure him into actions he would regret.

"I shall lead you to the door, this way miss.."
The door closed behind the doctor's figure and she walked along with Carl, until she left the castle..

Annabelle stared at herself in the mirror. The black dress seemed darker then ever. Same as her mood.

After one last look at the white dress in the closet she turned around and left the bedroom.

SHe messed with the tradition. For the first time. Just to see how he'd react to it..
In the Alucard family tradition is for the pregnant woman to wear a white dress when she'd inform her husband of the child. That was the only ocasion on wich she was to wear a white dress.
Black was a funeral color. The color of bad news, negative pregnancies...
With a mean grin on her face she walked through the castle. In search for her husband.

[Lana]

Henry Alucard was standing in the basement, wearing a stained long gown that had been white a while ago, and now had the colour of dirty grey with multicoloured stains all over the fabric, most of them dark red or brown. He was concentrated on his work, looking attentively at something lying on a long steely table. A body.

A dead body.

He took a sharp thin knife and made an even incision in the abdominal area, right in the middle, exactly where linea alba was, and then to the left, around the umbilicus, opening up the body, at first the skin and then everything that was underneath: a layer of yellowish fat, fasciae, muscles, all pierced with nerves and blood-vessels.

He spent a few hours down here, in the basement, working. Belle... - he suddenly remembered.

He took the gown off, covered the body and walked upstairs, his long black cloak swishing behind. Henry's eyes narrowed slightly when he saw a 'doctor' leaving their mansion. A 'doctor'! Ha! She's just one of these quacks that have no idea about real medicine and real science! - he thought darkly, despising such people deeply: they considered themselves to be doctors while, in fact, knew close to nothing.

He looked around.
"ANABELLE!" - his voice carried around the large hall.

[Jacksblackpearl]

"If you want to speak to me just come and find me" Annabelle grumbled underneath her breath while she passed through the livingroom. She went to the front door, where on the left side was a door that let to a spiral staircase. As she lifted up her dress she stepped down the stairs and came into her husbands workplace.

She disapproved of it. But it was not her choice to let him have a place to work or not.
However, it was not the fact that he was in a certain room alone, working on projects all the time. God no. The day he told her he would not be spending as much time with her anymore as before was as if he'd told her he wanted to divorce her and would too.
But no matter how nasty she became, never did Henry seemed to want to get rid of her..

"Yes, Henry?!" She replied, when she was near him. She stroke her black dress and stared at her husband, wondering what he would be thinking right now, seeing as she wore the mourningdress.

"Unfortunatly, my dear , I am with child" She tarted him

[Lana]

Henry clenched his fists when he saw Annabelle wearing the black dress that could symbolize only one word right now: "No". The dress of the mourning, the dress of negative pregnancies. He pursed his lips and looked at her with a frown that made his face look even darker, even more dangerous than it did.

He was a handsome man, but his appearance was somehow tainted with cruelty and danger, with darkness. Some women liked him even more for this air of brutality, but not his own wife. His wife knew that his hands could be not only gentle, but rough, that they could not only caress, but hit, and hit hard. Belle knew him too well.

"Care to explain?" - he raised an eyebrow. - "With child? Then has your eye-sight gone wrong, darling?"

Though, if she was saying the truth and if she was pregnant...

[Jacksblackpearl]

Carl went to the kitchen. The minute he heard the count shout for Belle Carl knew that they might be up for a fight again. Ever since he started working for the Alucards he had been a witness of their fights. They did not hesitate to fight right in front of the staff. They did not care.

Belle downcasted her eyes "No it has not. My mood has gone wrong since I know I have to carry your child. Again" She muttered, now looking up at him, her dark eyes piercing through his. "Do not expect me to be as happy as you are with this miscreant. For you know how it was brought to live in the first place.." She reminded him.

He knew, just as well as she did. Ever since the first night they slepped together, eversince he spoiled her weddingnight, the fact that she had to sleep with him, had to have intercourse with him just became unbarable. Not once was it ever good or to her liking. She just sort of zoned out and let him do his thing. Let him try to have pleasure and try to have offspring..

"I do not think I am ready yet, Henry..
I hope you can understand that.. this is a big step.."
He said he agreed. He said being a virgin on the weddingnight was scared for a girl.
Eightteen she was. Not once ever been naked with a man, and now she was sitting with a four year older man. She liked him. She knew him for two months now. A short period of time for her, a long period of time for the people of Odesa. They expected the marriage to have happened within a month. They became impatient, wanted a new coutness and count.

Eventhough he said he understood and agreed, he didn't. He thought it was a fase of her, just a while of whining she had to get through to be able to sleep with him. But it didn't stop. He kissed her, he undressed her. She was like a scared puppy, backing away every time he touched her.
He said he felt as if his pride was hurt and that is why he did it. He needed to get matters into his own hands. He needed to make the wedding night go well for him. What trauma it left with his wife wasn't of his interest..

Annabelle shuttered while she thought back of her weddingnight.

[Lana]

Helena was in the kitchen, fussying over some large bowls, cooking dinner which she wasn't sure would be eaten. There were too many evenings when the spouses fought, and then the Countess would go to bed without eating, ordering Helena to bring oils and ointments to rub into bruises and scratches, and the Count would go downstairs, to the deep and dark basement of the castle, doing his dark business there. Helena only knew that he had dead people down there, and that he wasn't treating them the way a normal man was supposed to, only someone with a dark soul and dark aims could take corpses out of their graves and touch them... She shuddered slightly and noticed Carl. When their eyes locked for a moment, she blushed and looked away hastily.

Henry's eyes were narrowed as he looked at his wife attentively. The black dress couldn't show anything yet, her body was as slim as it used to be, but the dress was supposed to be white, it was a tradition, and traditions were to be strictly followed and respected in this family. He listened to her explanations, raising an eyebrow but not interrupting.

"Go upstairs and change the dress", - he said coldly. - "You have five minutes and if you don't come back downstairs, wearing a proper dress, you will regret it, my love. If you ever call my child "a miscreant" again, you will regret it as well", - the Count shrugged, looking at his wife.

She was a true beauty, but there was a touch of darkness to her as well, something dangerous as well, something unsettling, untrustworthy. Her dark eyes could be full of hatred and this hatred was obvious.

But he was much stronger. Henry smirked, but it was just an icy physical movement, with nothing behind it - no amusement, no real delight. The joy of having a child was overbalanced by anger towards this woman who stood her ground even though she was so much weaker.

[Jacksblackpearl]

Carl smiled at Helena "Oh hello. I did not know you were in here.. I hope I am not in your way" He spoke politely, trying to be the best gentleman he could be. He knew he was merely a servant, and he knew she probably wanted to be in love with something less of a butler, so he tried his best be nothing less then an outstanding gentleman in front of her, for her.

Belle sighed deeply "Fine, as you wish. Thank the devil that you can not change my mood" She muttered while glaring at him.
She had risked it. She stood up for herself, stood her ground and gave in when she knew she had to. But she had touched a sensitive part of his ego, his offspring, she had used whatever she could to slowly hurt him the way he had hurted her.
And for now, that was enough. Her expression slowly went a little softer "I will meet you at the diner table in ten minutes " She said, then she leaned over and placed a kiss on Henry's lips "Oh and darling.. do clean yourself up. As much as I like the smell of human blood.. on you it's nothing but disgusting" She grinned and turned around, heading back up the staircase, in her black dress..

[Lana]

"You're not", - Helena mumbled, still looking at the floor, at the table, at her bowls - anywhere, but not at the butler. She couldn't find the right words to say anything to him, because he always sounded so polite, while she was just a maid from a poor family, and she couldn't talk the way he did, she didn't even know where he learnt to sound so proud, as if he weren't a butler, but almost a Count himself. - "Maybe you would like me to make you a cup of tea?" - she asked quietly, having created, perhaps, the longest sentence she could, using all these 'high' and 'haughty' words and constructions, which was very unusual for her, but she didn't want him to think she was stupid and uneducated.

When Belle's lips touched his, Henry couldn't help but feel shudder going down his spine. He couldn't say he loved her, but there was something special, something magical when he touched her skin or felt their lips pressed together - he forgot how nasty and unpleasant she could be, how much she tried to hurt him, there was just him and her, physically he loved her, while there were too many barriers for moral love.

When she went upstairs, he indeed decided to change his clothes - after all, they would celebrate their future offspring, someone he had been waiting for for so long! Of course, there were 9 more months, but Henry was sure it would be a good boy to take after his father.

[Jacksblackpearl]

Carl smiled broadly 'Tea would be good, yes. Here let me help you" He said and he tried to help her, but it didn't go well and in the end he just stood in a way in stead of helping her. His face turned slightly red 'I'm sorry, I'm not helping at all.." He smirked a bit and stepped away from her.
He felt nervous and he just knew he was turning tomato. She made him nervous, without doing anything unusual. He observed her as she continued with the tea. He could only watch in awe, and try not to let it notice.

Belle went back to her room and took off the white dress, as told. She smirked a little, liking the fact that she did this. She took the white dress and put it on.
Oh.. right there.. Now it became more visable to her.
Her slim figure started to round a bit. not much, but a little. A small growing stomach was showing.
"maddouy gnirspoff" She muttered, cursing Henry in the Witch-language she tought herself. Right before she left the room to go to the diningtable she opened her spellbook and skipped through it. She needed a curse, one that fitted her condition. One that would get rid of the miscreant..

[Lana]

"It's... o-okay", - Helena stuttered, blushing a bit as well, but not seeing Carl's face 'cause she was concentrated on making tea for him, trying not to think about the fact that he was standing right there, beside her, and that he was watching her. She didn't like to be watched at all, and Carl's presence made her even more nervous. In a few minutes, the tea was ready and she took two beautiful cups out of the shelves, two spoons and small plates for the cups, all made of expensive porcelain. Usually such cups were served only for the Count and his guests, but... "drinking from them once won't really be awful... it shouldn't be a very bad thing to do?" Helena took a couple of apples and put everything on the table, still avoiding Carl's eyes.

"Bon appetit", - she smiled slightly.

Henry put on his good clothes, not the ones he usually wore while 'working'. He glanced at himself into the mirror and grinned at his reflection. Everything was great: he had a castle, a wife with a perfect body, much money, interest in science, and now he was going to have an off-spring.

Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in the area of his heart, which made him take a shallow breath. He frowned and left the room, his hand touching the area around his 2nd and 3rd ribs.