Fiction - Prompt 155

[gillo]

Title: Haunted Summer
Author: gillo
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,445
Prompt 155 Classical literature from before 1960: Mary Shelley,
Frankenstein and Rambles in Germany and Italy; poems of Byron and Shelley; Polidori's The Vampyre.
Characters/Pairing (if any) Angelus, Darla
A/N: The setting is the shores of Lake Geneva, in the summer of 1816.

Comments

[angelus2hot]

Powerfully written! Wonderful job!

[gillo]

Thank you!

[buffyangellvr23]

nice work :)

[gillo]

Thank you.

[petzipellepingo]

“Come, doctor. In the morning we leave for Milan. Come with us, and we will show you things beyond your wildest imaginings.” She hooked a finger and beckoned to him. Stumbling, stunned of face, he followed.

We never saw the doctor again, or that strange couple.

Ah, that explains everything. Very nice job of re-creating the florid style of correspondence used then.

[gillo]

Thank you. I did Actual Research for this one and lifted a few phrases from Mary herself.

Polidori did actually leave the group during that summer, though probably because Byron became sick of him. He fits rather nicely, I feel.

[brunettepet]

This is excellent. You captured the elegance of letter writing from the era.

This is a sharply written, vivid description of Darla: Her very touch was oddly cool, and she kept herself aloof, from all but her husband and Byron. With them she sparkled, like frozen water in the sun; her wit was sharp, her estimate of her companions often sharper and expressed in the most elegant tones but harshest of words. Beautifully done.

Caught a typo: my beloved husband and I had lived with or still more beloved child

[gillo]

Thank you for your lovely comment and for the typo - fixing now!

[brutti_ma_buoni]

Love your description of Darla - all cutting, cool beauty. And Angelus's terrible hair too! Great use of the history behind this too; that sunless summer would have let the vampires be much more openly out in the world if they chose.

But now I'm intrigued about Polidori. Did he make it to Milan alive? Or was the book 'under his name' more of a self-description?

[gillo]

Well, Mary says she saw all three of them together in Milan twenty years later, so I'm assuming they turned him but that he was dusted before Angelus met Dru.

At the time of publication of
The Vampyre he was happy to allow rumours to circulate that Byron was the real author, much to the poet's annoyance. Polidori really was a creepy little man.

Thanks for reading and commenting.