The Journey to Rome

"What are you doing there?" Tammo asked suspiciously, still a bit sleepy as he sat in his opened chest.

Hindrik greeted him cheerfully and set down the two chests he had clasped under his arms, one on each side. They were about as long and as wide as the coffins of young vampires.

"Even though he doesn't change outwardly, his powers seem to be steadily growing," thought Alisa, who was already dressed and had pinned up her long hair. Today, she wore a blue dress made of silk taffeta, consisting of a hip-length corset top - high-necked with a small stand-up collar - a narrow, floor-length underskirt with pleated ruffles, and a slightly shorter gathered overskirt that flared out slightly at the back through a small bustle.

"Sören, look at her. Doesn't she have a cute little duck butt?" Tammo sneered. Alisa almost tore her skirts as she tried to grab him by his unkempt mop of hair with a leap. She stumbled and would have fallen if Hindrik hadn't quickly caught her. The two boys chuckled mockingly. Alisa glared at them fiercely.

"Why should I wear these stupid clothes that I can't even move in? And these shoes!" She pointed at the fine leatherwork with decorated heels.

"Lady Elina expects you to make a good impression in front of the other families."

"Oh, and she thinks if I stumble over my tight skirts, the impression will be better…"

"…than if you dressed like a dock boy from the slums," Tammo added. "Yes, something like that, I would express it. But you won't stumble. One can indeed traverse a room with a single leap even in tight clothes, if one concentrates accordingly," he added.

"I will work on that," said Alisa as dignified as possible, but silently resolved to hide a smock, trousers, and slip-on shoes in her sleep chest and take them to Rome. One never knew.

Hindrik went out and fetched a third chest. It was only then that Alisa noticed he was also dressed particularly finely today. He wore a single-breasted orange silk frock coat with a high collar and tight sleeves, underneath a vest, yellow silk knee breeches, a white neckcloth with a lace jabot, white stockings, and black buckle shoes, though he did not wear a wig. Instead, he tied back his dark blond hair with a velvet bow.

"The latest fashion, I presume?" said Alisa, after scrutinizing him thoroughly.

"But yes, the trend among gentlemen - a hundred years ago," said Hindrik with a bow, then turned back to the coffins.

"Now, finally tell us what's up with the chests," urged Tammo, stepping closer.

"Lady Elina asks you to pack your chests within an hour if you want to take any of your belongings to Rome. Each of you choose one and then lie back in your coffins. I'll come later to fetch them and carry them to the cart waiting downstairs to take them to the station."

"We have to stay in our chests for the whole journey?" exclaimed Alisa. The disappointment was evident in her voice. Hindrik nodded.

"But then we won't experience anything of the journey! I thought the train would leave around midnight. It will be dark!"

"Correct, but we will be on the road for quite a while. Almost two days! It's better if we check ourselves in as cargo."

"You too, and Lady Elina and the others accompanying us?"

Hindrik nodded. "Yes, we'll all travel like that. Reint and Anneke will come to the station and make sure we're all securely stowed - and that no one disturbs us during our journey."

He went to the door. "Don't dawdle. We need to leave on time."

Alisa started packing. First, she stuffed in the newspapers she had captured over the past few nights, then her most important books: Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Around the World in Eighty Days", a volume of stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's "Frankenstein", and Samuel Butler's "Erewhon". Of these, she had liked this book the least. How could one think so pessimistically in the face of the incredible inventions and discoveries that people made year after year?

"How can you be so terribly cheerful?" scolded her brother, standing with arms crossed in front of his empty chest. "We'll have to go to school there! Doesn't that mean anything to you? I've heard the human children talk. I know what that means. Studying and sitting still, beatings and standing in the corner. Our freedom is over! And you're even happy about it? Sometimes I wonder if women possess any sense at all."

He backed away cautiously, but his sister was far too busy stuffing a bundle of clothes and a linen-wrapped package that suspiciously clattered into her sleep chest.

"What's that?" Tammo asked.

"Nothing that concerns you," his sister replied, closing the lid.

"Probably just some useless human stuff again," Tammo said contemptuously, sneering.

"Oh, it will prove to be not useless at all," Alisa retorted, tapping her chest with a flat hand. "I'm quite sure of that."

A man stood hidden in the shadows of the night, watching as the railway attendants loaded several elongated containers into a carriage. The wooden chests were almost two meters long and not light, as the groans of the workers proved. A man and a woman, both fashionably but inconspicuously dressed in dark colors, supervised the work. They kept away from the gas lamps on the platform, yet he could see that their faces were unnaturally pale, and their bodies lacked the warm aura of humans.

The man stood completely still, not even blinking as he watched the progress of the work. Only once did he adjust his long black cape. For a moment, a ring on his finger flashed. A golden lizard with green emerald eyes. Then he merged back into the shadows. A conductor in a blue uniform approached the two strangers next to the carriage and spoke to them. His golden buttons shimmered in the light of the lanterns. He nodded briefly to the two and then locked the heavy iron door. The staff walked away to fetch more luggage for other carriages traveling south.

The woman placed her flat hand on the metal door, lowered her head, and closed her eyes, as if she were in conversation with someone. Her eyes were of a captivating blue. Actually, the stranger was too far away to see that, and yet he knew it. As she raised her lids again, her gaze seemed to dart to the shed where he had been standing in the shadows for over two hours now. Her companion turned to her and said something. She stared into the darkness for a moment longer, then shrugged and followed the conductor and her companion back into the station hall.

The observer remained concealed. It watched as other carriages were arranged and coupled. Workers with their hand trucks and carts loaded sacks and crates. Then the engine approached and was attached to the carriages. Sweating men loaded coal into the tender. The man in the shadows flinched. For the first time, unrest seemed to come over him. A flicker passed over the platform as the stoker began shoveling coal into the firebox. The boiler began to puff, then the wheels slowly started turning. The train rolled in front of the station building and stopped there until the passengers on the platform had climbed the iron ladders. Then finally, it was time. A bell struck midnight somewhere, the locomotive driver pulled a cord, and a whistle pierced the night.

The two stokers bent their backs and shoveled more and more coal into the firebox, building up steam. The engine driver leaned out of the window and gave a thumbs-up, the station master returned the gesture. One last door slammed shut, then the train started to move with a jolt. It quickly gained speed and puffed out of the station, leaving behind only a cloud of steam and soot that lingered over the empty tracks for quite some time. In the distance, another whistle was heard, and finally, the nighttime silence settled over the station.

The stranger waited a while longer until the lanterns on the platform went out, then he left his hiding place, crossed the station, and stepped out onto the street. Seemingly aimlessly, he wandered through the city. A few times, the glow of a gas lantern flickered over the man, illuminating aristocratic features with a sharp nose under the brim of a top hat. He was tall, but his body was almost completely hidden by his wide cape. An attentive observer might have noticed that the man cast no shadow. But there was no one else on the street but him.

The locomotive whistled piercingly. Then the wheels started turning. A vibration traveled through Alisa's body, turning into a rough shaking. She lay on her back in her crate, hands folded on her chest, eyes closed, yet she was wide awake. Soon, the wheels rolled faster, and the shaking subsided a bit. A regular rhythm set in with a rushing sound that was interrupted by a short drum roll at each seam where two rails met. For a while, Alisa focused only on this sound. "We're going to Rome, we're going to Rome," whispered the rails to her, punctuating "Rome" with a little jump of joy at each seam.

Actually, the steady rattling should have been soothing, but Alisa was in a state of tingling restlessness, finding it hard to lie still. It felt like she couldn't breathe. Of course, that was nonsense. Vampires breathed out of habit, not out of necessity. Still, she felt confined and would have preferred to pry open the lid. However, Hindrik had carefully nailed it shut. Alisa felt the train accelerate. They must have left the city behind now and were traveling across open country. She tried to imagine the meadows and forests rushing by, illuminated by the moonlight. How much she would have liked to see it with her own eyes. Sit in one of the comfortable compartments, stick her head out the window, and let the night wind tug at her long hair. Instead, she could only hear, feel, and smell, trying to guess where they were.

The night progressed, and a few times, the train stopped at a station. She heard voices. She could even smell some of the people passing by her tightly sealed carriage. Then the train continued. When it stopped again, Alisa felt the carriage uncoupled. Then it remained stationary. When would they continue their journey? Time passed, and the night faded.

Alisa felt the approach of the sun. Her body grew heavy, and soon she could no longer keep herself awake, falling into the deep, death-like sleep of all vampires. When Alisa woke up in the evening, the train was moving again. It was moving slowly, and she felt that they were going uphill. Her restlessness could no longer be suppressed, and curiosity was worse than the onset of hunger. And besides, she wanted to move!

Alisa rummaged through the bundle she had hidden in her sleep crate. "Useless human stuff," Tammo had called it. Well, it would be very useful to her now! She felt over the cold metal surface of the tools she had taken during one of her nighttime raids at the Heron Wharf. A hammer, pliers, a crowbar, and a wide wedge. That should do it!

As quietly as possible, she went to work on the nails. At first, the tools kept slipping off, as she couldn't stand up and therefore couldn't reach the nail spots well. But then she had removed so many of them that she could push the lid open a bit. She pried out the last metal pins from the wood with the crowbar and opened the lid. Wonderful fresh night air enveloped her.

Alisa sat up and looked around. Next to her were Tammo's and Sören's crates, as well as the three with their belongings. The crates of her companions were stacked a little way away. Alisa listened. Apart from the rattling of the wheels and the puffing of the locomotive, she could hear nothing. She swung over the edge and darted to the wagon door.

The wide sliding door on the side was locked and probably also secured with a bolt. But she might be able to open the narrow door at the front end of the carriage - with the right tools! She hurried back to her crate and took out two thin iron pins from her bundle. "Bundle." "Alisa? Is that you?" she heard Tammo's voice, muffled by the wood around him. She remained motionless next to his crate.

"What are you doing? Answer me! I can feel you!" "Yes, I'm here," she said softly, running her fingernails over the wood. He knocked back from the other side. "How did you get out? I'm stuck here! Did they forget to nail your crate shut?" "No, they didn't," Alisa replied with a barely suppressed