Pamela Alternate Ending

As the calm sounds of the cloister bell rang through the late evening hours, Eric lay reclined back in a chair in one of the most secluded rooms, waiting in the dark with an air of desperation. Even though he had retained a slight ray of hope, Eric realized that there still existed the chance that he would indeed soon meet his end. While his fingers work through his blonde locks once again, finally he heard the distinct clipping noise approaching down the hallway; his progeny Pam had returned but had she been successful in her endeavor? Did she find it?
Silently, the heavy wooden door swung open on ancient hinges. When her eyes met his, he could see the look of triumph shining in their blue depths. “I take it you found the scroll?” In his usual
When she finally stopped in front of his chair, she propped one hand on her cocked hip with an air of annoyance before she replied with the coveted item in her other hand, dangling it before his face. “You doubt me, Eric?” Her eyes burned with a need for his approval, a fact of which he was well aware. “You wound me.”
“I’ve known you for many centuries, Pamela, but not once have I ever questioned your ability to get exactly whatever you set your sights on.” Leaning back in his chair, Eric extended his hand to her, palm up, awaiting the scroll, which Pam did not fail to deliver as she set the small rolled paper in his hand.
Suddenly, impatience overtook him as he unrolled it carefully so as not to ruin the writings that it contained inside. Meanwhile, Pam moved to sit on the side of his chair to peer over his shoulder at the contents of the ancient tome. “I speak several languages fluently, but I cannot decipher that at all. What is it? A cure?” she
“Ah well, you see that is where you would be wrong, dear Pamela, for I know exactly where it is.” Carefully, he raised himself up slowly from his reclined position, making the outward signs of his illness obvious, paler than normal skin and tracings of the bluish black veins that are traveling down his limbs as the Hep V worsened. “This blade is located in my vault in my home in Sweden, where I’ve had it in safe keeping for a very long time. However, the issue concerning this knife is not in locating it but in using it.” Eric scowled