Time: Middle of the night, January 25th, 1611
Location: Čachtice Castle, Kingdom of Hungary
Interactions: None
They’d finally done it, those damn werewolves finally found a way to remove Elizabeth from power. They even got King Mattias to help them, but in all honesty that didn’t entirely surprise her. The man owed her a vast amount of money, which as a king he found quite embarrassing, so having a chance to remove her from power and, thus ridding himself of said debt, he took it. It was all just maddening to Elizabeth and her hatred for the werewolves was growing. They captured some of her newer vampires, tortured them horrendously, and then executed them all while claiming they confessed that Elizabeth was a horrible murderess. They spun a story so intricate and painted Elizabeth as a horrible person that they were able to turn the whole kingdom against her. Well the whole kingdom minus her clan and her family in Transylvania. The Báthory’s were most loyal to those who shared blood and so her uncle, a Prince of Transylvania and the current ruling power, sided with his niece. There was nothing he could do to help her other than suggesting she live out her days in a nunnery there in Transylvania. No, she would rather face death than hide behind holy women. Death didn’t seem like it would be coming any time soon, however.
One thing those pesky werewolves didn’t account for was the fact that Elizabeth could be quite charming. They’d sent a man, Gyorgy Thurzo, to try and catch Elizabeth in the “act” of torture as he was a man of noble standing and his word was highly regarded. They didn’t expect the Blood Countess, as they’d begun calling her, to be able to charm and woo Mr. Thurzo. A little late, as he’d sent his report to the king, but he had now sent a letter to that same king and convinced him to let Elizabeth live her days under house arrest. A touching gesture truly, but the werewolves would never allow her to live long and they were under control of everything now. They took all her land, her wealth, everything other than what she had confined in the room she now resided in.
She sighed as she stared out the small window, looking down the mountain to her small village she once ruled over. To all those humans who now feared her. To the ones that once loved her thanks to her healing knowledge and kindness. One would think she would now hate them, but she couldn’t blame them. They’d been manipulated into thinking she was a monster. If there was enough fear present you could manipulate anyone into anything. Her heart ached for them as she knew their life was about to get much harder with werewolves ruling. She knew these werewolves looked down on humans, even using them as food on occasion. How many of her people would become a werewolves next meal?
She couldn’t dwell on it anymore and had to try to do something productive as she moved over to her writing desk. She opened the journal that sat there and glanced at the pages. They were filled with sketches of different body parts along with notes beside them. Some pages had internal organs on them, then others had different plants. This was the last remaining research journal she had depicting all she’d learned from dissecting those werewolves she’d killed or those that opted for a merciful death rather than living as a vampire. The rest of her books had been burned, all trace of her medical discoveries destroyed. It was all to make sure she went down in history as one of the most feared monsters.
The sound of the locks on her door clicking open caught her attention, but she merely thought it was a servant bringing her food. She was surprised to see Thurzo and two smaller cloaked figures enter her chambers. As soon as the door was shut, the hoods came down and Elizabeth almost let out a sob of relief upon seeing Nikolett and Anastasia. Both women were her most loyal of the clan, Anastasia being her Second and the one who would inherit the clan once Elizabeth was gone. She moved swiftly to embrace both women before questioning,
”How are you here? Anastasia you were meant to get as many of the clan out as you could. Take them somewhere safe.” As thrilled as she was to see the two women, she worried for her clan, the family she’d created. It was Nikolett who spoke.
”We got as many out as we could. There are many who didn’t make it unfortunately, but the ones who did are safe.” She assured Elizabeth which brought her some relief, but that still didn’t explain their presence here.
”Thank you. Why are you here though?” As she asked the question she realized that Anastasia was dressed in some of Elizabeth’s clothing. She looked between the two women and then at Thurzo confused. Just what was going on here?
”You can’t stay here Elizabeth. You’ll die and none of us would be able to live with ourselves if we let that happen. So Anastasia is going to take your place, pretend to be you, and you’re going to escape.” It was Thurzo who now spoke and as Elizabeth realized what they were saying she began shaking her head. She couldn’t let this happen, she couldn’t let one of her closest friends sacrifice her life for her. This was insanity!
Anastasia grasped Elizabeth’s hands and gave her a sorrowful smile.
”Please Elizabeth, let us do this for you. You’ve done so much for us and now it’s my turn. The clan needs you more than they need me.” She reasoned with her leader and Elizabeth felt tears fall down her face as they embraced once more, accepting their crazy plan.
”Make them pay for what they’ve done.” And with that Anastasia became Countess Báthory. She took the cloak from Anastasia, putting it on and throwing up the hood before she was whisked away from her home.
They fled to Transylvania, making that their new home as they plotted to kill the werewolf pack that had taken so much from Elizabeth. Slowly they began picking them off and, over the years, she eventually was able to take back some of the wealth she’d lost. She’d never be in power like she once was before, but she continued to build her wealth as quietly as possible in order to make sure her clan would never want for anything. She began growing the clan once more as only a mere 50 made it out of Castle Čachtice rather than the 300 strong she’d once had. This was her family and she’d do anything to fiercely protect them.
Time: Morning
Location: Hospital ER
Interactions: None
To say the start of her day would be an understatement in Libby’s books. She got in to work at 6 am, just before the sun was to rise even though that wouldn’t have mattered much today anyways since it was overcast and rainy. To start her shift in the ER off she was met with an older gentleman who had some pretty severe burns on his body. Turns out he decided to smoke while on oxygen. Then she had a woman with a broken hip. Her story was she was trying to kill a spider and in her panic fell thus resulting in said broken hip. If Libby had any say she would determine that the spider won that battle. Sometimes the human race concerned her with the things they did.
Now she had a moment of peace as she sipped warm blood from her Yeti cup. Anyone around her would have just guessed it was coffee and if they asked that’s exactly what she’d tell them it was. Having blood on hand was quite helpful because if she became too hungry it became tempting to feed off of some of the patients that were bleeding. Never had she actually done such a thing, however, as that would be severely inappropriate. That is unless they were dying and wanted to be turned. That was an entirely different matter and a way she could save a life.
It was amazing to her how much medicine had changed over the years. They’d gone from blood letting thinking that would cure anything and everything to having vaccines that prevented lots of different diseases. It really was bewildering to live through and see happen. It also kept Libby on her toes and wanting to learn more about medicine. What had once been a hobby had now become her life's work.
As she stood there, enjoying the moment of peace, one of the nurses whose name was Daniel approached her. She immediately thought he was coming to tell her that there was another patient that needed attending to, so when he spoke it surprised her.
”Dr. Bathory...er...Libby...I was wondering if you’d maybe like to go get lunch with me at some point? If it fits into your schedule I mean.” He was quite obviously nervous and Libby merely blinked at him in surprise for a moment which seemed to make him even more uncomfortable.
Soon she gave him a kind smile as she opened her own mouth to speak.
”This is quite unexpected, Daniel. It’s rare to catch me by surprise like this.” She said as she gave a small laugh. He chuckled nervously along with her and she soon realized she hadn’t quite given him an answer. He was unlikely to leave if she didn’t and he looked so nervous it softened her heart just a bit.
”I may be able to swing that, but would you be a dear and give me some time to think about it and work out my schedule?” He looked a little disappointed at first, but she could see that her words still gave him a little hope. He simply nodded in response before leaving her be. Today was certainly shaping up to be an interesting one.
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