I woke up in a hot weapons chamber in which the air was nearly spent. I suppressed my coughing, knowing it wouldn’t be of use and would probably just wake the girl, who rested her head on my lap, up. She was supposed to be my new daughter, not by blood, but by circumstances.

And if this was how our relationship would play out, I wouldn’t need to be afraid at all. Even in her sleep, she was smiling slightly and looked so childlike, so innocent that she could in fact be my ideal daughter. She was brilliant at baking and even her voice as she hummed unknown songs was mesmerizing. She had so much potential in helping humanity …

But she was also the girl who drew gruesome faces at a wall with blood. Whenever I spoke with her, I got the feeling she knew exactly what I was going to answer, how I was feeling and what she needed to say to get her will.

She was playing a game with me. The problem was though that I neither knew what game we played, what her strategy was and what pieces I had if I wasn’t one of her pieces already. But the worst part wasn’t even the game; it was my opponent, a 209-year-old calculative monster … who was also my new daughter.

A bit depressed, I sighed and instantly woke Lucinda up, just like I feared.

“Good morning mum!” She exclaimed and played her role perfectly. It really looked like she was insanely familiar with me. She smiled so innocently, so happy to see me that I nearly couldn’t comprehend what she was doing.

“A bit more scared and maybe we should rob into this corner.” She was obviously just training for the real show when this door would be opened.

Her bottom lip began to tremble and her eyes darted around the room scared, but always went back towards me as if to check if I was still there. That looked on point in all honesty, but it also revealed she could hide her true intentions behind a mask insanely well. But then again, I doubted she would reveal stuff like her acting abilities without a second thought. She must know I would look at her every expression now and tried to find the hidden meaning behind them.

“Do you … need help?” She asked as she switched back to her usual friendly expression.

“No, I´m good. Lying to my citizens isn’t my hobby, but I will manage.” I said and robbed into the corner and spread my legs enough for her to sit down. She tilted her head slightly, but then just shrugged and sat down in front of me. I doubted there would ever be a day when I would be able to understand her, at least for a second.

I wrapped my arms around her belly and held her close. She wriggled a bit in the beginning, probably searching for a comfortable position and as she found it, she sighed happily. She didn’t even resist as I tousled her hair, but rather pressed her head against my hand as if she was begging for affection. I stopped as soon as she did that and returned my hand to her belly. It felt way too much like she was playing with my emotions and tried to create some motherly love for her.

She glanced upwards as I stopped and pouted unhappily. I looked away from her as I couldn’t bear it anymore and rather stared at a few weapons instead.

“Did you hear that?” I asked as I noticed a sound behind the door.

“What?” She asked and looked at me as if I imagined things. But there was it again. I was sure several people were cleaning up a hallway in the cellar.

“Eh?” I asked a bit surprised. Did she really not hear that? It was nearly impossible to overhear these sounds. Well, they were quiet, but everything around here was otherwise completely silent except the sounds of my breathing. “You seriously don’t hear that?”

“It is daytime. I´m weaker than a little girl, I get knocked out just by seeing a single sunray, and my senses are incredibly dull.” Once again, my gaze went towards all the weapons on the racks and then downwards. Lucinda was looking at me with a completely blank expression as if she just waited for me to grab a sword.

“It is your chance. I´m not lying. It is common knowledge that vampires die when they are hit by the sun, I am just a little bit different than that. You could even tell everyone that I got turned into a vampire as well and my head would soon roll on the floor.” Lucinda said. She was for some reason tempting me to murder her. It was obviously a trap, but I just couldn’t see how. Everything made sense so far, although I couldn’t confirm it.

“You obviously have prepared for that eventuality.” I concluded and watched how Lucinda returned her gaze towards the door only to chuckle lightly and then scream for help loudly. She was forcing me to make a decision before they could open the door. If anyone saw me like this with her, they would surely doubt that I had nothing to do with Lucinda.

Someone soon knocked against the door and Lucinda went silent. “Time is over.” She whispered and looked up at me.

“Who … who are you?” I asked with a scared, raucous voice loudly and made my decision.

“My name is Tom. I am a guard at this place. Is that you Miss White?” Tom said behind the door for all to hear. Lucinda really thought about everything. She destroyed all the evidence in a raging fire and then simply added Tom to the now dead and speechless guards.

“Yes … me and Lucy.” I said loudly. I chose against murdering Lucinda for a very simple reason. If I failed or even succeeded, all of my citizens would die by a horde of wild elves.

“That is great to hear. I´m opening the door now.” When did he get the keys? Only then did it dawn on me that he didn’t follow us out of the kitchen at all and was free to do whatever he wanted. I thought he would run towards the taverns in a panic, but I apparently underestimated him. For the first time, I noticed how Lucinda started to breathe. Previously, she didn’t do that as her belly and chest were always completely still, but now, her shoulders moved and I heard her breathing.

The door was opened swiftly afterwards and Tom, wearing the clothing of a guard stormed into this room, along with several others. Lucinda shrank back in my arms and pressed her back against me. I patted her head and hugged her tightly, making it seem like I was trying to comfort her.

“It´s alright honey. You don’t have to be scared.” I whispered quite loudly into her ear. Lucinda relaxed a bit but was still incredibly tense.

“Is he …” I asked, but didn’t continue, seemingly out of sadness.

“The vampire was slain by my sword, Miss White. The mansion and the other servants though …”

Yeah, I knew what you three did. You slaughtered everyone and burnt everything down.

“… at least you and Lucy are still alive and that’s all that´s counting to me.” He didn’t play his role perfectly as he looked a bit too often towards Lucinda who still looked scared from person to person. But I wasn’t perfect either and the only thing that counted is how believable everything was.

“Thank you for your kind words.” I said while closing my eyes.

“Wait, the duchess has a daughter?” Asked one of the others in the room. I waited a bit with an open mouth, seemingly hesitant to explain.

“I do. I birthed her nine years ago … her father is … not Arthur. I … I.” It was incredibly hard to play my role considering that I couldn’t easily start crying in front of everyone. It just didn’t work, no matter what I tried. Thankfully, Tom came to my help quickly and knelt down beside me.

“It´s alright, Milady. Don’t worry, it is all over now. Arthur is no more. He cannot hurt you or your child anymore.” Everything worked out way too smoothly in my opinion. We only agreed on the main parts in the kitchen and then were strangely ordered to improvise by Lucinda. I did secretly hope they would fail, but Tom played his role really good by emphasizing the emotional burden that laid on my shoulders and completely reducing the possibility of failing because now, the citizens were all incredibly embarrassed to be here and didn’t know how to react to this revelation. Tom smiled at me for a second until he turned around faced the others.

“Everyone, thank you for helping me slay this monster. Thank you for saving my Mistress and Lucy. I will deal with the rest personally and naturally, will stay by her side, so don’t worry about their well-being. I want each of you to take a sword you like and travel safely back home. Take a few swords for your friends as well, I don’t want anyone else to die today.” This was completely unlike the behaviour I expected from a person who followed Lucinda, but I knew it was just an act. A damn good one at that.

“I will reward you soon for your help. Thank you.” I sank my head down and gently pushed Lucinda´s head down as well. It was rare for someone of my status to show this level of gratitude towards a few commoners, but I needed to make this a memorable experience for them. Lucinda even made it harder for them as she started to sob uncontrollably and I had to pat her head.

They all mumbled under their breath as they were completely overwhelmed by the situation and only went out of the room awkwardly as Tom gave them all the weapons we had stored. A few minutes as nobody was coming downstairs anymore and Lucinda pointed towards the door, but didn’t stop sobbing after Tom closed it.

“Tom … I want you to remember everything you have seen. The mansion … did it burn down completely?” She said between her sobs.

“Yes, all the evi-“ Tom said but was interrupted by Lucinda.

“Even … even the kitchen?” asked Lucinda, seemingly in a weird panic.

“I think so. Why do you ask?” Tom asked a very good question. I wanted to know as well as she was trembling quite a bit in my arms.

“We … we forgot the cookies …”

For heaven`s sake, was she even crying because she was acting, or was she really so sad because of a few burnt cookies? Seriously, I couldn’t tell.