The Moonlit Room
The woman in the red dress appeared at the inn every night at midnight. Elias had never seen her arrive. She simply appeared.
One moment the chair beside the fireplace was empty. The next, she was sitting there with one leg crossed over the other, a glass of wine in her hand, watching him as though she knew exactly what he was thinking.
And every night, she wore the same red dress. “You’re staring again,” she said. Elias polished a glass behind the bar. “I own the inn. I’m allowed to look at my guests.”
“You’ve been looking at me for six nights.” “Seven.” Her eyebrow lifted. “So you’ve been counting.” “I count everyone.”
She smiled. “No, you don’t.”
Her name was Vivienne. At least, that was what she had told him. She never gave a surname. She never ordered food. She never paid. And she always disappeared before dawn.
Elias had begun to suspect that she wasn’t entirely human. He was certain of it on the seventh night. “You’ve never touched your wine,” he said.
Vivienne looked at the glass. “I don’t drink wine.” “Then why order it?” “I like the way it looks.”
Elias leaned against the bar. “And what else do you like?” Her eyes moved slowly over him. “Perhaps I’ll tell you when I know you better.” “I thought you knew everything about me.” “I know enough.”
She stood. The room suddenly seemed smaller. Vivienne walked toward him. Elias remained where he was. She stopped on the other side of the bar.
“Do you know what happens in this room at midnight?” “People drink.” “Something else.” “What?” She leaned closer. “People tell the truth.”
Elias smiled. “That’s not true.” “Ask me something.” “Anything?” “Anything.” He thought for a moment. “Why do you come here?”
Her smile disappeared. “Because you haven’t remembered me yet.” Elias felt a chill. “I don’t know you.” “You will.”
She touched his hand. The moment her fingers met his, every candle in the room went out. Elias saw a moonlit garden. A woman in a red dress. His own hands holding hers. A promise. A kiss beneath a silver tree. Then darkness.
He pulled his hand away. Vivienne stepped back. “You remembered.” “Who are you?” She looked almost sad.
“You called me Livia.” “Livia?” “Long ago.” Elias stared at her. “How long?” “Three hundred years.”
The candles returned. The inn was empty. Vivienne was gone.
On the bar sat a silver key. Elias picked it up. A number had been engraved on it. 13. The inn had twelve rooms. He had owned the place for twenty years.
There had never been a thirteenth. Until that night. At the end of the upstairs hallway stood a door he had never seen. Room 13.
The key fit. Inside was a bedroom lit by moonlight. A woman’s red dress lay across the bed.
On the wall hung a portrait. Elias walked closer.
It showed himself. Younger. Standing beside Livia. He touched the painting.
A voice spoke behind him. “She was beautiful, wasn’t she?” Elias turned.
Vivienne stood in the doorway. She had removed the red dress. She wore a simple black gown instead.
She looked even more beautiful.
“Why did you hide this room?” “I didn’t” answered Vivienne
“Then who did?”
“You did.”
Elias frowned. “I don’t remember.”
“You were afraid.
“Of you?”
“Of loving me.”
She stepped inside. “Three hundred years ago, you made a bargain.” “What bargain?”
“You asked the moon to make you immortal.”
“Why?”
“Because I was dying.”
Elias stared at her.
“You gave me your life” Vivienne said softly
“No.”
She shook her head. “I gave you mine.”
Silence. “You survived,” she continued. “I died.”
Elias looked at the portrait.
“And now?”
“Now the bargain is ending.”
“What happens when it ends?”
Vivienne looked toward the window. “The person who made the sacrifice gets one night to reclaim what was taken.”
Elias understood. “You.” She nodded.
“And if you reclaim it?”
“I die.” The words struck him harder than he expected.
“Then why come back?” he asked.
“Because I wanted one night with you.” She stepped closer. “One night without magic. Without bargains. Without immortality.”
Her fingers touched his collar. “Just you.”
Elias caught her wrist gently. “You’ve been coming here every night.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Would you have believed me?”
“No.”
“Exactly.” She smiled. “You always were difficult.”
“And you always were trouble.”
“Perhaps.”
She moved closer. “So what will you do?”
Elias looked into her eyes. He had known her for seven nights. And somehow, he had loved her for three hundred years. “I don’t know.”
Vivienne smiled. “Then don’t decide yet.” She kissed him. It was brief. Tender. And devastating.
When she stepped away, Elias felt as though the entire room had changed. Outside, the moon was turning red.
Vivienne looked toward it. “We have until sunrise.”
“For what?”
She smiled. “To decide which one of us gets to live.”
A bell rang downstairs. Then another. Elias looked toward the door. Every candle in the inn had gone dark.
A man’s voice rose from below. “Where is she?” Vivienne’s face became frightened.
Elias had never seen fear in her before. “Who is that?”
She whispered: “The man who made the bargain with me.”
“Another immortal?”
“No.”
She looked at Elias. “Your brother.”
Elias froze. “I don’t have a brother.”
Vivienne’s expression hardened. “Not anymore.”
Footsteps began climbing the stairs. Slowly. One step at a time.
Vivienne took Elias’s hand. “If he reaches this room, the bargain belongs to him.”
“And what does that mean?”
She looked at him. “It means he gets your immortality.”
The footsteps stopped outside. A man’s voice whispered through the door. “Elias.”
Vivienne squeezed his hand. The door handle began to turn. “Whatever happens,” she whispered, “don’t let him convince you that you don’t love me.”
The door opened. A man stood in the hallway. He looked exactly like Elias. Only older. Much older.
His eyes settled on Vivienne. Then he smiled. “Hello, Livia.”
Vivienne stepped backward.
The stranger looked at Elias. “You finally remembered.”
Elias stared at him. “Who are you?”
The man smiled. “Your first mistake.”
He stepped into the room. “And hers.”
The moon turned completely red.
And somewhere beneath the inn, something ancient woke up.