Topic: Depression Castle

Gaida · Date: 2007-03-09 20:07 EST

It's dead here.

Longden castle has become a morgue. It's nearly unbearable.

With Countess Tara gone, the life has gone out of this place. How could someone who is unalive remove all the life when she's gone? I have no explanation, but it's what has happened.

The staff are all in mourning. They walk around like little zombies with feather dusters and white aprons.

There's no more joy, no more laughter.

The worst of all, by far, is seeing Count Longden. He seldom comes out of his room, and when he does, we all keep away from him as much as possible. It's not that he would hurt us for I don't think he has the emotion for that. We just hate to see him so depressed.

It's sad. Very sad.

Longden Castle has become unalive.

Talomar Longden · Date: 2007-03-11 16:11 EST

Say goodbye, as we dance with the devil tonight.
Don't you dare look at him in the eye, as we dance with the devil tonight.

Trembling, crawling across my skin.
Feeling your cold dead eyes, stealing the life of mine.
Breaking Benjamin - Dance With The Devil

In the days following Tara Rynieyn Longden?s precipitous and unannounced return to her own home, Count Talomar Longden dismissed it as one of the ?normal idiosyncrasies? of his beloved wife, something that he had become accustomed to over their year of marriage. Whether it was swamp or cave or coffin or wherever else she would ?escape? to, he knew it would not be for long. Their love for each other was the invisible force always working to pull them back together with ever more passion and devotion to their marriage.

When the days turned to weeks, the Count?s demeanor became increasingly sullen. He began eating meals only in his study; and when he needed to feed, he had become ruthless. He took out his anger on his victims, leaving them not only drained of blood, but often torn apart limb by limb.

More time past by without his wife?s return. . .

. . . and Count Talomar Longden slowly lost all of the mellowing effect on his personality that Tara?s love had provided. Rage boiled away at the surface, never more than a misguided word away. Once again screams were being heard from the dungeons beneath the castle. Broken bodies were being discovered. Bloodstone collars were dusted off and used once more.

Then, one day, he had had enough.

Divorce papers with the words ?Irreconcilable Differences? were drawn up and delivered to him as he sat in his study. The lawyers had to wait two hours before he walked into the library where they were nervously sitting. He dropped the documents into the lap of one of the lawyers.

?You may go now.? Was all he said.

Written in blood was his signature.

Count Talomar Longden

Gaida · Date: 2007-03-14 19:14 EST

Gaida could take it no longer.

The Count was brooding over the disappearance of his wife and their eventual divorce. The screams coming up from the dungeons were becoming unnerving as those who displeased the Count were either being punished or ?taught? how to behave properly.

She heard that his feeding had taken on a different dimension as people were now being hung upside down and slowly skinned alive and their blood consumed.

More and more women were showing up with collars about their necks; women that she had seen in the Inn or in the streets of the West End, women who now learned to submit and be slaves before he?d pass them on to be sold to the highest bidder.

The staff of the castle was now half of what it had been, mostly due to the fact that the atmosphere around the castle had changed completely and the servants couldn?t stand to work there any longer.

Gaida couldn?t fault them. She was feeling the same.

The night he brought home two women from the Inn, collared and naked, was the night she made her decision. She had known those women. They had often been seen in the Inn at night. Who would be next?

The following morning Gaida turned in her resignation . . .

. . . and disappeared.