Chapter 13: Chapter 13. The Clones

The carriage slowly bumped along the road as we headed towards Victor’s castle. Victor looked more morose than usual. There hadn’t been a particular conversation we were supposed to have for this portion so I broached the topic the only way my brain could think how at that moment. “You know I had no idea you were a Duke,” I said.

He sighed, “yes.”

“You sigh as though it’s a problem,” I joked.

“It doesn’t change anything,” he replied.

“So, about Frederick eh?” I continued, “seems like he already knew you.”

“Everyone knows me it seems,” Victor replied.

“He’s just a knight?” I replied.

“Knights have honor,” Victor answered.

I wasn’t sure where to go from here. “Do you think he also came from somewhere else?” I asked.

Victor cocked an eyebrow as if I’d said something crazy. “Sorry I’m just trying to cheer you up,” I said, “I know we’re probably about to get robbed on the way back here.”

“They won’t take anything with me here,” Victor replied, “but the main road is known to be dangerous.”

“We could just, not,” I answered.

“Not what?” he replied.

“Not take the main road?” I answered, “we could turn the carriage around and stay et the inn back there. We could hop out and try to travel this on foot. We could find a different road?”

“If we turn around we still might get attacked,” he replied, “a different road we might get attacked…”

“You’ve tried this before?” I asked surprised.

Victor’s eyes flashed towards me, “never before with you at my side Annalise.”

“So on foot it is!” I said excitedly.

Victor’s face looked a mix of confusion and excitement as he tapped for our Fox driver to stop and hopped out. He directed the carriage back to the castle with my new dresses. I remember something about how in the book the dresses ultimately make it back. It’s Annalise’s sanity that barely makes it when she spots what she thinks is Victor drinking from one of the robber’s necks.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Victor squeezed my hand as he directed us to pull up our cloaks and start scampering through the woods. “This may be even more dangerous than the carriage,” he joked as he pulled me along behind him.

“Kind of exciting though isn’t it?” I replied.

Victor laughed as he pointed at the white outline of the moon above us. “And romantic,” he grinned.

It was like the depressed man from the carriage had come alive again. He pulled me along with him as we raced along the trees. It was only after a few minutes of giggling through the branches that reality hit. “Victor do you know where the castle is?” I asked.

He laughed, “if we get back to the main road I can take us.”

This didn’t seem like a great idea, but at this point we were lost in the woods and running around like idiots. I didn’t care. I also wasn’t surprised to creep behind him as we encountered exactly what we’d been trying to avoid on the way back. There’d been a slight bend to the road that somehow had made us beat the carriage to the upper portion of the main dirt road through the woods. And hanging around right around the corner for the attack, was the group that had originally been slated to attack our carriage by this universe.

Victor had immediately sighed as we turned and saw the characters joking with each other along the road. “Can’t escape fate can we?” he muttered. I was sad to see his good mood disappear so quickly. But something about this group was.:. off.

“Victor,” I replied, “are these all the same guy?”

He looked up in shock as he stared at the various men looming about the road. One of them was hiding under a cloak. Another was standing closer to a tree. Another was joking with a companion while laughing a little bit too loudly. But sure enough they all seemed to have the same build and face from what I could tell from here.

“There’s supposed to be closer to 5,” Victor muttered as more of the exact same cloaked man began appearing out of the woods to join them. We could easily see the second problem, there were closer to 20 of them. Victor seemed extra taken aback when he saw the man’s face. I didn’t need to ask what was the matter. If he recognized this fellow that was now in 20 person surround sound, it was enough for me to know it was bad news.

“Do they still bother the carriage if we’re not in it?” I asked.

Victor shrugged, “I have no idea.”

He started chuckling as he pulled me down to drop under a rock. We were somewhat hidden as he seemed to be unable to control his laughter. “They’re not supposed to be the same person,” he said.

I was trying not to laugh as well, mostly because I couldn’t figure out what it was we were supposed to be laughing at. But his chuckle was becoming increasingly contagious. Victor looked to me as he proceeded to cup my face with his hand. He went silent for just a moment. But his smile was still right there. “You have no idea how much time I’ve spent trying to make sure the events of this world go smoothly,” he said, “but you just come in and have no problem watching it fall completely apart.”

“Is that a bad thing?” I replied.

“No,” he replied, “I am prepared to follow you wherever you decide to go and through whatever crazy plan you have next. This is amazing.”

“All I did was suggest we walk,” I said sheepishly.

“And you know exactly why you weren’t supposed to do that,” he answered, “but you didn’t care.”

“Well I have you,” I replied, “why would I care?”

Victor’s face suddenly seemed overcome with some unreadable emotion as he lurched forward to kiss me. He pulled away before going in once again. When he finally released me I felt like I had been melted into a stunned silence as well. “You are one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever come across,” he whispered.

I smiled as I let my forehead fall against his face. “You flatter me Victor,” I replied.

I could feel my cheeks flushing as my heart seemed to want to beat out of my chest. A second terrifying thought had started to overcome me. Was I falling for the book villain? He was supposed to be a crazy obsessive vampire. Not a likable goofy multidimensional character who had some morose and nerdy tendencies. The way he spoke had me perpetually confused as to if he was a real person too or just a figment of my imagination about this book world. I couldn’t fall for a figment of my imagination. Even if I was enjoying this. I could barely take it anymore, “Victor are you from the real world too?”

He pulled away and stared at me mouth agape. He put a thumb on my chin as if he really truly wanted to answer the question. He suddenly stopped and turned his head as we heard a series of foot steps approaching us. I turned to peek over the rock with him as I was jolted back to the reality of why we were even parked here. There just a short distance away, was the cloaked group of men we knew we were about to be robbed by. Except now there were almost a hundred of them.

Victor snorted as he covered his mouth. “I suppose every time I try to tell you where I’m from we generate more of these guys”, he giggled, “like the goats, the birds…”

His giggles snapped me out of my tangent. If he didn’t care why should I. “Does that mean we’re about to run into some trouble?” I replied.

Victor was giggling again, “I don’t think so.”

“What’s so funny?” I replied. I finally lost it and giggled a little bit myself too. But then Victor decided to drop one of the biggest bombshells on me to date that single handedly confirmed a lot of my fears, and made me even more confused about the situation.

“I’m supposed to kill that man,” he answered.

I felt a chill run down my spine, “oh.”