VAMPYRE DREAMS 2: UGLY DUCKLING
by Frank Yao, 1995
fyao@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca


It was cold there in that little room..  and damp, in the arms of her
mother who wasn't her mother.  The terror of the moment was real.  Her
beloved was torn from her and her only comforts were with the stranger's
arms, and her own dreams...

She dreamt of times not so long ago.  She was a princess, standing in
the middle of a brightly lit hall, dancing with her prince, momentarily,
before fantasy took him away, and she was peering out the window of a
castle, her nanny fussing over her.  "Oh, Miss Claudia, you look so cute
in that dress..."

Cute.  Cute.  Cute.  The word cut her deeply, and in her rage, she sent
the kindly old woman away.  The wind seem to laugh the laugh of an old
adversary, the laugh of that other father, that demon.  "Hahaha...  I
hope it's a beautiful woman with endowments you will never have..."

And then she was tearing away at that dress, her anger convincing her
that "cute" was a nice thing to say in place of "ugly".  She was ugly to
all those "adults" around her, and no amount of anger and grief would ever
release her from the prison of her immortal body, eternal youth wasted
on one not so young anymore.

Her screams reverberated throughout the castle, "I'm ugly!  I'm ugly!
I'm ugly!"  On and on she kept screaming...

She woke with tears in her eyes, and heard the call of Hell's Bells.
Then she saw it, for the first time in over 30 years, the sun creeping
in through the grate at the top of the room.  With urgency, she woke her
companion in the cell, and in terror, they tried to run from the light..
finding nowhere to run, but into each others arms...  then the red-hot
power of the sun was upon them, stealing the night out of them...
 
And in that moment that she was freed.  Her prince Louis was gone forever to
her, and that torn at her, but she was freed from that thing which kept
her a child for what seemed an eternity, and in that moment, she
screamed in triumph, "I am beautiful!"

			The End