Chapter V
Contains spoilersOverview
María returns home to a suspicious Andrés, promises to stop visiting Sabine, and secretly escapes at night to the apothecary. There, after María asks to be freed "by any means," Sabine bites her and then bids María drink her blood, transforming her. Overwhelmed by hunger, María drinks from Sabine until Sabine dies and crumbles to ash, leaving María alive, altered, and ravenous.
Summary
María arrives home without her scarf and tonic to find Andrés waiting and tense. At supper, Andrés is uncharacteristically quiet; on the stairs he accuses María of spending too much time with the apothecary widow, Sabine. María feigns obedience, tells Andrés she will stop visiting the shop, and leads him to bed, masking her disgust and calculating her next move.
While Andrés sleeps heavily, María lies awake imagining poisoning him. She waits until she is certain he will not wake, then climbs out onto the roof, jumps to the street below, and lands unbroken. The nighttime streets feel empty and liberating as she walks to the apothecary, resolved not to return to her husband's bed.
Finding the shop dark, María knocks until Sabine appears on the street, unveiled and composed. Inside the pitch-black shop, Sabine asks María what she wants, and María states plainly that she wants to be free "by any means." When Sabine asks for trust, María says yes.
Sabine embraces María and bites into María's throat. Pain, weakness, and panic flood María as her heartbeat falters and darkness closes in; she relives a swift montage of her curtailed life and fears she will die. Sabine withdraws and then opens her own neck, telling María to drink.
María drinks Sabine's blood, tasting sweetness laced with decay and earth, and feels her pulse steady, strength return, and mind clear. When Sabine tells her to stop, María cannot; she is consumed by thirst. She bites into Sabine's throat and drinks despite repeated commands to stop, feeling her own power grow while Sabine weakens.
María continues until Sabine sags and then ceases to bleed; Sabine's body goes still and collapses into ash and remnants of clothing at María's feet. Startled, María discovers her own neck wound has fully healed. She does not feel horror so much as a disappointed sense of being left and an awareness that something within her has changed—something long-buried has been awakened.
María sits beside the ash, recognizes she has cast off death and become something new, and stands feeling only hunger.
Who Appears
- María Olivares
central figure; deceives Andrés, escapes at night, consents to Sabine’s method to gain freedom, drinks Sabine’s blood, then kills Sabine by overdrinking; wound heals instantly; emerges altered and ravenous.
- Andrés
María’s husband; suspicious of María’s visits to Sabine, accepts her promise to stop; sleeps heavily and remains unaware of María’s escape.
- Sabine Boucher (Madame Boucher)
widow apothecary; meets María at night, bites María and offers her own blood; attempts to control María’s drinking but is drained and dies, crumbling to ash.
- The maid
household chaperone; present on María’s return and likely betrays María’s outing to Andrés.
- The Count and Countess
María’s in-laws; silent at supper, present as part of the oppressive household backdrop.