33 – Vampire Attic

With the worst bits of debris cleared aside and a new ladder in place, I was the first one up.

The attic was, for lack of a better word, filthy.

What had to be years or even decades of dust and miscellaneous dirt covered every surface. It wasn’t one large space either, instead subdivided by walls in front and behind me.

My surroundings were mostly free of any furnishings. There was a stack of boxes in the corner, but the wood looked rotten.

Despite the dirt and disrepair, the attic wasn’t unlived in. There was abundant evidence of birds nesting, even in this central room. And by ‘evidence’, I meant the layer of grime contained copious amounts of both feathers and bird waste. Plus the several empty nests up in the rafters. A few eggshells lay scattered on the floor.

As to how the feathery squatters got in here, several holes appeared under closer examination of the separating walls’ tops. A few looked to be intentional, likely to provide ventilation, but the rest were clearly symptoms of neglected wood in a humid environment.

All the dust, rot, mildew and bird excrement mixed together into a pungent odor that had me decide to test how long I could hold my breath.

The male servant, when he poked his head into the room, turned pale. There were slight green undertones as well, but mainly his gaze wandered over the absolute state of this room.

Despite his clear unwillingness, he nonetheless finished climbing up the ladder and illuminated more of the room with his lantern.

Oh right, light. I keep forgetting about my dark-vision, it just feels so natural.

Next to brave the climb was one of the maids. Not the one I was slightly familiar with. She took one look around, paled just like her colleague and retreated back down. I could hear a quiet “Gods help us. Such a mess.”

Interestingly, while both this room and the one to the west didn’t currently have any inhabitants, there were several small hearts to the east, up below the roof. They were clustered close together and didn’t match any specific heartbeats I was familiar with.

Nesting birds? It’s a bit late in the year for that though. Not that I’m very familiar with all the varieties of bird local to this region.

Stepping closer to the door, careful to keep the dirt stirred up to a minimum, I focused.

While the hearts were in close proximity to each other, there were over a dozen of them. They also didn’t really fit into any of the bird’s nests I could see, with the way they were arranged.

I considered opening the door to take a look, but was held back by the worry I’d spook whatever the creatures were.

Laying my hand uncertainly on the – also very dirty – handle, I stopped at a peculiar sound.

A short, high-pitched screech. More of a squeak really. And then another and another and another in quick succession. They each sounded a bit different, but shared that same, high pitch.

Could be baby birds calling out in hunger, or… What are the chances? A certain possibility was intruding on my mind. There’s no way, right? That would be too much of a coincidence.

Much as he clearly didn’t want to, the servant had followed me with the lantern.

“Do you hear something?” I whispered. After a brief look of concentration, he shook his head.

Doesn’t mean anything. It could just be too quiet for a normal human to hear from this far away. Or, it could be too high-pitched for their ears to register…

My mind was a contradicting mess between expectation and rationalizing. When I couldn’t take the suspense any longer, I pressed down on the door handle.

It unlatched the door with only minor complaint. Unfortunately, the door didn’t budge. Applying a bit more force, I realized the hinges must have rusted or gotten otherwise jammed. Well, time for a bit more force then.

Leaning my whole body against the wood did the trick. Especially since I could use some of my enhanced strength without appearing too suspicious. Unfortunately, once the resistance in the hinges was overcome, the doors really moved.

With an ear-grating screech followed by a loud slam, the door swung all the way open and rebounded off the wall. I barely caught myself on the door-frame. The room’s occupants didn’t appreciate the racket one bit.

Amid a flurry of squeaks, they dropped from the ceiling and flew away. I almost tried chasing after them, but it was futile. They were already gone.

The outer wall at the manor’s eastern end apparently had quite a few holes. The sun wasn’t in the east any more, but it was still brighter than I’d like in here. Still, I got a good look at the creatures as they fled my intrusion.

No way! What are the odds of that?

Apparently, the manor was a great fit for a vampire’s lair. Since I just discovered a colony of about fist-sized bats nesting under the roof.

I dearly hoped they would come back, since the little fuzzy bundles with giant ears looked really cute. And there was a lot I could do with a flying familiar. But mainly it was the cuteness. Not to mention I really wanted bats. What self-respecting vampire doesn’t want a flock of bats?

Another thought came to mind as I returned to the ladder. I’d closed the door of course.

Mel, you idiot. This attic would have been the perfect spot for your damn ritual! Have your mage puppet open the hatch and clean up a bit, then hide the ritual up here. No one knew this pace existed! It would have taken ages to find any traces. By then you could have cleaned it all up and pretended nothing ever happened.

Okay, to be fair, one of the demon hunters that was already on Mel’s trail had the ability to sniff out traces of demonic influence. In other words, this place would have been revealed anyway. Not to mention Kalin’s body, if used as a puppet like Mel planned, would have definitely had traces on it.

So it wasn’t that big of a loss in hindsight. But still! Using Kalin’s main study was just sloppy. Even with how rarely he let cleaning staff into the tower, someone would eventually notice. Not like the tower’s third floor was very hidden. Also, Kalin lived on the floor right below the ritual! Some of the blame for this was also on him, really.

Well, the situation’s already over. No use getting upset about it now. I’d rather use the time to bait a bat into accepting a blood bond. Much more productive.

After climbing back down to the empty room on the first floor, I waited for the servant to follow. With both of us here, Lars stopped holding the ladder steady and instead leaned it against a wall.

My lantern-holding exploration companion was still slightly green below his pale skin.

“I’m terribly sorry for the state of the attic, Lord Steelheart.” The two maids joined him in bowing deeply. “We had no idea it even existed, so it hasn’t been cleaned in probably years. We will immediately work to fix our mistake!”

I looked the three over. They clearly hadn’t cleaned off very thoroughly after being subjected to the dirt avalanche earlier. The man also gathered new grime on our short trip. All three looked like I’d strike them for daring to let any amount of dust get near my person.

“Who is responsible for the general maintenance of the manor?” That was clearly not expected, so they took a second to answer.

“The steward would normally be in charge, Lord Steelheart. But since he is, um…”

“Right. So this situation is the former steward’s fault then. That old man worked here long enough he should have known about it. Not properly instructing the cleaning staff is on him. I won’t admonish you for something that isn’t your mistake.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Thank you, Lord Steelheart!” The man looked ready to fall to his knees. Maybe he would have, if the floor here wasn’t still layered with various gunk. “What are your orders concerning this newly discovered attic?”

What are my orders indeed. I considered it possible, if maybe not entirely likely, that the bats would return after a while. But if they did and their nest was full of people cleaning, they might decide to find a new spot instead. If that happened, my chances of finding them again any time soon were minuscule.

“Please clean the central room. Leave the side rooms untouched for now. Feel free to request others for help if you need it.”

“Of course, Lord Steelheart. What about those vermin? If we don’t do something, they may come back and further pollute in there.”

“Leave them be. In fact, avoid disturbing their nest. I found them quite cute.”

“A-alright. We will do as you say, Lord Steelheart!”

Leaving the trio to their unenviable task, Lars and I returned to the ground floor.

Almost immediately, a guard rushed in and over to Lars.

Apparently, a small group of men had carted lots of meat to the front gate. Before Lars could answer, I confirmed this was on my order. I would decide the exact use for all the meat later, so it should go in storage for now.

Letting Lars deal with the situation, I flagged down a nearby maid and sent her to prepare the bath. I really needed to get out of these clothes and give myself a good wash. My nose was much too sensitive to endure my current state for long periods of time.

Watching the bath be drawn, I decided this was an experience I should enjoy in moderation. The sheer amount of buckets it took to fill the tub was mind-boggling. Even with multiple people helping out, it wasn’t fast. Not to mention the time it took to heat it up.