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    Putting things down accurately occupies my mind. I never understood how important it was for your mind not to focus on the things that are terrifying you.
    The Count had told me to never fall asleep in any place in the mansion other than my room. But I couldn’t be in there tonight. I needed a sense that I was somewhere else. I went to the room with the open window near mine and pulled a couch up and lay on it. Though I fear him, there’s something in disobeying him that gives me a slight thrill. I’ve thought about fighting him. But he moves … unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I tried to touch him once just to see if I could and he instantly appeared on the other side of the room. And his strength is far more disturbing. So I don’t fight. Instead I walk around at night like a ghost and plan an escape that I’m not sure will ever come.
    As I lay on the couch and stared out the window, I suddenly got the impression that I was not alone. I looked over to the doorway and three women were standing there. They were nude, and three of the loveliest creatures I had ever seen. Models, or porn stars maybe. Built to be lusted for by men.
    The y moved through the room like silk and were on me.
    Pearl white teeth were pressed against ruby lips , their cold hands over my body. Something about them was unlike any other women I had ever met. I longed for them and feared them at the same time. One of them, I saw now, was Charlene.
    Staring into their eyes, I wished they would kiss me. I wished they would rip off my clothes and ravage me, dominate me. I wanted to be dominated and humiliated.
    They were whispering among themselves and they laughed. A beautiful, silvery laugh after so many days when I’d heard nothing but wind in the mansion. Their voices were like water-glasses played softly by a human hand. It was otherworldly.
    “You’re the first,” one said to Charlene. “He’s yours by right.”
    “There’s enough for us all,” she said.
    I lay quiet in a type of anticipation that made me feel like my body would fail me. Charlene ran her hand up my chest and clawed me. Her voluptuous lips were near me and I smelled her breath. It was sweet, like honey, but underneath the sweet was bitterness. Like something perfumed poured over something foul.
    She bent over me with perfect breasts that just lightly touched my neck and sent shivers up my spine. Arching her back, her face was lit by the moon and she licked her lips like an animal. In the moonlight I could see the moisture on her shining, velvet lips, and the red tongue that lapped over the white teeth.
    Her face brushed against mine, and went lower and lower. Past my chin until I felt her on my throat. I heard the sound of her tongue licking her teeth and lips and felt her hot breath against my neck. I felt her lips shivering against the sensitive skin of my neck and I moaned in ecstasy as she grinded her hips into mine. I was hers, and anything she wanted to do to me I wanted done. I was hers to use and discard or to love and cradle.
    The ecstasy, as quick as it had come, began to fade away and I chased after it like a child chasing a butterfly. It was then I became suddenly aware of the presence of the Count. And not just his presence, but his fury. Like a raging storm.
    He moved like an apparition and grabbed Charlene by the back of the neck, throwing her against the wall. His eyes were lit on fire, glowing red in the darkness. I didn’t think anyone was capable of such absolute fury. He growled at the other two women who quickly hid in the dark corners of the room.
    “How dare you touch him when I forbid it!” he screamed.
    Charlene, sadly, as if resigned to her fate, said, “You’ve never loved. You don’t know what it’s like to long for love.”
    Laughter filled the room. It was hard and soulless. The Count turned to me and there was sadness in his eyes that I had never seen before.
    “Yes, I