"Yes, sir, thank you," She says as she takes the glass of sanguine liquid and takes a long drink from it. "Hector, I have a couple of questions I need to ask of you."
Her sire sat with his own glass in front of his desk. "Ask away~" He smiled as he slowly swirled the contest before taking a sip.
“Last night, while hunting, I came upon a young man. Strong, virile. Clara and I lured him away, and when I went to feed… well, he was so delectable.” Chloe sits down, her glass of vitae stands up, and turns around, wiping away a single blood-stained tear. “I couldn’t help myself. Then, today, I dreamed of him. Of his poor mother. She will never know what happened to him. How do we do it? Go on, knowing it will happen again.”
"I take it the young man did not survive." Hector closed his eyes as he leaned back in his seat. "There are many ways one could cope with that..." He stayed quiet for some time. "Mortals die." He started. "It's a fact. We can't prevent all of them from dying. We can make some of them ghouls, but not all. What we can do, is remember them. As long as you live, for centuries to come, you will carry the memory of him. You will remember him in a century, when all will have forgotten that he existed." He paused. "This, would be one way to cope with your situation."
“That still seems so foreign to me,” Chloe said. “My family still thinks I’m alive. My benefactor Jonatan will be in town within the week. He will probably start looking for me. And yet, my heart goes out to Damian’s mother. The poor woman. She took her son to his death.”
Hector nodded. "We can arrange for your death certificate. Your mortal patron and your family will believe you to be dead." At her words about the mother, the Sire tilted his head. "What do you mean - explain." He asked.
Chloe looks down and says softly, “I dreamed it. His mother is helping him and driving him to his doom. She’ll never know what happened. Never get to bury a body.”
Hector winced. "There is nothing we can do about her son." He shook his head sadly, with empathy. He stayed silent a they sat, not speaking anything. There was nothing really that they could say that would make the situation better. Finally, Hector got up. "Come with me." He said as he made his way to the elevator.
The two entered the elevator and made their way to the car. "Come, I will drive you to a place." As the two of you sat in the vehicle, the car started and you drove into the night. A song, something niche started playing. You drove through the city, passing the market, the center, you drove into an underground tunnel behind the tramcar under the old city. As it stopped, so did Hector. The two of you waited as the passenger left ant entered the tram. "I heard, that in New World, you mostly travel by car and that the city communication is not developed... is that true?" He asked.
Chloe looks over and studies Hector’s handsome face. New World? How old are you? She thinks. Yes, in the U.S., except for some of the largest cities, like New York or Chicago, a car is required to get around. I own a few…Well, I’ve gotten a few cars as gifts. Though, I guess those will go to my family now.
"It's different here. You can take a subway in the centre of the city, then change to a tram, then to a bus, finally to a train and travel all around the city. Usually, the stops are around 200 meters from each other. It's easy to switch between lines. That saves time - and a lot of jams. If you live here, the car is good for travelling at night - not mornings or afternoons." Hector explained. "Except for the obvious advantages, the reason for that kind of development is because this city is old, like most in Europe. Old cities, have tight streets..." He paused. "Through, the city was almost levelled during the second war, so it does not completely apply..."
“You Europeans and your metric system. Distances and speed are not hard to get used to, but I fucking hate Celsius,” Chloe says as they continue to drive. “But the city is beautiful.” Chloe turns her head to look at Hector. “I’m never going back to America, am I?”
"Oh? Celsius are easy. Water freezes at 0 and boils at 100. Two easy points to set a scale." Hector smiles, as the tram starts, the car continues it's travel. "Oh, I wouldn't say that. You can travel to america once you are familiar enough with your new nature..." He paused. "To some of the cities. The politics... Heh... I guess that is one of the subjects for the future."
“Yes, but I prefer Fahrenheit. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to 30 degrees being anything other than freezing,” Chloe said. “Mind if I ask where you are taking me?”
Hector looked at her perplexed. "You are talking 30 C or 30 F?" He asked with a smile. Then turned to face back at the street. "You will see~ For now, look to the sides~" As he said it, Chloe looked through the window, only to notice darkness... For a moment she was confused, weren't they just in the center of the old city? She realised as her eyes landed on the structure - a bridge, that the trees covered the view, and now they were driving over a bridge over the river. On the left she saw another bridge, lighted so that the lights reflected in the river. "Somewhere under the river, not far from here, there is an underground,or should I say and underriver subway tunel, that connects east and west parts of town." Hector said and Chloe turned to see a massive structure on her right as they were leaving the river behind.
Chloe laughs. “30 Celcius is very warm while Fahrenheit is below freezing.” Chloe takes in what Hector says about the subway. “Convenient, but where are we headed?”
"Give it a time~" Hector said. After a few minutes, he stopped the car. "Come." He said as he started walking, straight into the trees, on a path - and soon, the two exited the line of stress, and were standing on a beach over the river. It looked strange, on one side of the river, where they were standing, there was a beach and behind it, the city continued. Yet on the other side of the river, there was no beach - just a concrete pier with buildings standing quite close to the river. "Did you know, that this city was created and officially acknowledged, in 1251?" Hector asked as he looked at the city covered with bright lights.
Chloe looks around, a bit overwhelmed. “Honestly I have a hard time remembering where I am. I only came here because my benefactor sent me a plane ticket.”
"Hmm..." Hector hummed. "I know exactly, what you mean." He said and there was some kind of melancholy in his voice. "In historical sources, you will find that the castle was given to a Knight from the house Rawa, by the ruling prince of the Piast dynasty. At that time, it was just a couple of villages and a castle to hold the crossing." Hector waved his hand and then paused as if he realised something. "The river might have been flowing a little differently, than now." He said with a frown.
