Chapter Text
One year. It has been one year since Bella had step foot in her former home, Bucharest. She hides her face with her cloak to avoid the church's watchful eyes.
Bella wished that she could find the house she grew up in, But she knew it probably be burned and destroyed. Bella continues to look around her surrounding carefully as she spotted some of the priests, more like the Bishop's goons, who were glaring as if they're trying to find 'witches.'
Bella catches sight of seeing a father walking in the street with his daughter. It warms her heart to see how the father is smiling at his child; it reminds her of her dear father, who she still missed.
She remembers how he used to read stories to her; she would help him making herbal medicine and watching him helping his patients. But she always has to witness the church harassing and attacking him for doing herbalism and thinking it was "witchcraft."
Witchcraft. A term used when everyone tried to do something that the Church thinks wasn't the way of 'God' such as using medicine or herb to heal people instead of praying to God to make the sickness go away.
Bella has nothing against God as she was sure that he is lovely. It was just that the bishop uses his name out of arrogance and killing innocent people as an excuse to make the people fear them, that what led to the death of Dracula's woman and him to go war against the human race.
Since most Wallachia cities are lost or losing to the night creature Dracula had created, though the clergy is losing Bucharest's control, They still rule the towns and the people living in them.
Because of that, Bella would help the poor in secret. Even after her dad is not there for her and losing her home, her passion for helping the ill, weak, and wounded still shines. Flakes of snow begin to fall from the grey skies.
It's been quite a long winter this year, especially after Dracula's reign of terror that happened a month ago. Even after Dracula's death, night creatures are still around and probably spread across the whole country.
She had witnessed night creatures before; usually, she would hide from them to avoid getting killed or stay far away from them as possible. She continues to walk the street in the cities; she looks around many shops.
She sees a small boy trying to get some fruits from the vendor, but the merchant quickly catches him and angrily shoo him away. The boy runs off to the alley of the street while crying.
Bella feels pity for the boy; she goes to the vendor to buy some apples with a few coins. She finds the young boy sitting down in the alley; she crouches down to the kid and gives him the apple. The boy looks in surprise at her being willing to buy an apple for him.
The boy holds her hand as he drags her somewhere; Bella is curious about the boy taking her? They enter a house that looks a bit of a mess.
She became shocked when she sees a woman who seems ridden with illness and fever. She asked the boy if she could use the pots to make some herbal medicine. The boy nodded as Bella rushed to prepare a remedy for the boy's mother to reduce her fever and sickness.
She made a broth consist of ginger, basil, garlic, thyme, oregano, and rosemary. Ten minutes later, she feeds the boy's mother the broth and begins to recover by drinking the broth. The boy is joyful that his mother is recovering.
Bella stays with them until the mother is well again, only going outside to get food and water. A few days later, the mother and boy thanked her for her help and offered her some money, but Bella politely rejected the offer since she didn't like to get money to help people. They waved goodbye to her as she left.
Bella notices the snow is melting a bit, wondering if spring will come soon. She thinks that she should leave Bucharest before the priests go after her. Bella rushed a bit and put on her hood and notices the merchant was talking with one of the priests, probably informing them about her.
She goes to the exit of Bucharest until she saw the two priests behind her. Bella tries to keep her composure, not to panic from the priests. "Leaving so soon, ma'am?" said a breaded priest, "Yes... I got everything I needed from here..." Bella replied.
The priest approaches her closer, "Is that so? We thought you would like to talk with the Bishop...Ms. Țăranu.".
Bella's skin turns pale after the priest knowing her surname. She felt frozen with fear, knowing what they'll do with her like when they banished her. The priests angrily remind her, "Didn't the bishop told you never to come back to this city. I guess we'll have to take you to the Bishop."
Bella begins to run away from the city, "Hey! Get back here! Let's get that witch?" shouted the priest as they go after her in the forest.
Bella spends almost one hour running away from them, she doesn't care where she's going, nor if night creature might come and eat her, she wants to be away from the priests. She didn't eat anything since yesterday, and she's beginning to feel weary from all the running.
Bella run even farther and climb on one of the trees to hide from them, priests looks around to see her, but they couldn't spot her. "Ah, fuck it! She got away. Let's go back. There's no time to wasting finding that vile witch," The priest scoff as he walks away and goes back to the town.
Bella feels relief hearing the priests leaving as she climbs off the trees. She felt exhausted from running for an hour and hadn't drink nor ate since yesterday. The weather made her cold; Bella doesn't know where to go.
She kept walking until darkness clouds her vision and mind as she collapses on the ground. Her mind is fading, questioning herself if she'll get eaten by night creatures while unconscious. She missed her home. She missed her father.
Brown eyes flutter open as Bella sees the almost dawn skies. Bella realized that she's still alive, checking to see any wound, but there were none while sighing in relief and stands up from the ground, looking around to see that she is in the forest of Brasov.
Then Bella noticed a large black building at a distance. Wondering she would get shelter from there, Bella goes closer to seeing it and recognizes that it's a castle in the middle of a forest.
Bella became a bit shocked when she saw in front of the yard are two impaled corpses of a man and woman in front of her, their bodies bloody, their throats slit, and wearing only nightgowns.
Bella realized that this isn't an ordinary castle, and understanding the corpses is a warning to leave, and it's a bad idea to get shelter from the castle. Before she tried to move away from the castle, startling her, the massive castle doors opened, revealing a shadow figure inside the entrance.