Bambi and the Duke

Like Sister Isabelle had stated, it seemed that she had felt under the weather because of stress as after taking a good nap and getting her mind to ease, Vivian had slept well the next day to the hour where Leonard had given her an off from work as she continued to sleep.

Standing at the balcony, she leaned forward to look at the scenery in front of her. The calm and quiet atmosphere that she lived away from the village and the other places where harm could befall her. This might be the safest place, thought Vivian to herself. Some of the servants of the mansion were scattered around outside doing their respective jobs.

Leonard had left her with a note asking her to rest and if she needed to go anywhere she could use the carriage as the coachman would be at her service along with the rest of the staff. It was the first time he had told something like this to her without worrying if she would be alright or not. With an entire day in front of her and to spare to however she would like, she heard the birds chirp sweetly, singing their own melody of songs when one of the birds suddenly fell down from the tree and on the grass on the ground.

Frowning, she got inside the room and out, heading down the stairs to check if the bird was alright. Going outside she saw the little white and brown bird that had fallen down, scuffling on the green grass with its wings opening and closing until it came to a halt where it didn’t move anymore. The bird had died and she stood close to it, wanting to bury the bird she took a step before she caught sight of the ghoul that had been lurking behind the trees which made her stop in her tracks.

Suddenly she felt frightened at the presence of the ghoul.

The ghoul hadn’t changed its behavior but Vivian had never understood its basic nature to kill without any word of sympathy. They were the creatures of the dark she should have known and not as friendly as they seemed to be. Not waiting for thr ghoul, she picked the dead bird carefully in her hands, taking it to the garden and burying by asking the servant the dig a little grave so that she could place the bird there.

Everest the ghoul wasn’t a creature who understood the speech of everyone where it could converse back. The creature that had been born due to the pain which couldn’t have been digested by the young boy, he and his brother had stepped in.

For some odd reason, it had come to see the young woman, not because of love as the creature didn’t have the ability to feel those emotions but it had come anyways. Usually, she would greet it but today she didn’t. Her eyes were like the rest of its victims but it hadn’t been ordered to kill her which made it confused as to why she looked at it that way before turning her back making it stop moving as it stood behind the tree.

The ghouls who could be called as the bringer of death survived on meat like the rest of the carnivores but the meat belonged to the dead beings. Hungry at the time of the morning as it hadn’t got to eat anything, it had been lurking around the Carmichael’s mansion.

It’s owner, Nicholas had only asked the ghoul to look after her once but the ghoul had decided to take care of her. In its eyes, the human girl was like a little animal which was very much similar to a human who would look at his pet bird or animal that needed taking care of. Talking about the bird, the ghoul looked at the top of the tree where few of the birds continued to chirp forgetting its family member who had been killed by the ghoul, Everest. It needed food and it had killed the bird to suffice its hunger but the girl had taken away its food to bury it underground.

It let out a garbled voice out of his mouth. It turned back to look at the tree again. After the ghoul had left from standing, the tree it had been standing behind had plucked out feathers of the bird that was next to the roots of the tree with the birds that were nowhere in sight on the branches. But instead of the birds sat a dark creature hidden behind plenty of branches and trees.

The ghoul sat in a place where no one would be able to see it, having its own time of day and no care in the world. The ghoul never slept. There was nothing to work on a time to time job but it’s work mostly involved killing people without much of effort. But it did need food like the other creatures. And the food came after killing the people.

Looking down at the humans who were at work, it’s mouth watered to have more but its master wouldn’t be happy if he came to know where the ghoul was right now.

Their master was the only man whom they could talk to, their garbled words which could be understood by Nicholas as they were part of him. Their work was as random as a bird flying in the sky. There was no time or place. If a body had to be hunted, the ghoul would fly there to kill the person on behalf of their master’s words before roaming the lands like nomads.

The first few days when the ghouls were created they didn’t have a mind and were as good as the dead living in the realm of life where they were not meant to be. Being part of Nicholas they could sense his pain, his anger, his revenge that would boil to the point where the ghouls would often go rampage to kill people.

It was one of the reasons why Malcolm was worried about the young boy Nicholas years ago. Though he knew Nicholas was the one who killed the people there was no evidence as to how he could do it. After all, how could a young boy rip bodies like a piece of a doll that was torn? As the years went by, Nicholas was able to control the ghouls with his thoughts and the ghouls grew with him to understand what to do and how to follow his words that his single word made them fly back to him.

Yet, the ghoul Everest had grown on a softer side compared to the other ghoul. The spark of emotion had been ignited, a spark of fire that was enough to set the forest on fire. Its ear being one of the sharpest, it heard a sound at the shed and to see what it was, it went there. The shed had the four-legged creatures with hooves that made sounds through its nose when the ghoul walked through to hear the sounds of whispering coming from behind the hay of grass that was stacked in the shed. The ghoul peeked very carefully, its leg floating in the air along with its robes. A woman and a man stood there talking to each other, with their hands on each other as they had their head pressed which the ghoul didn’t understand what they were doing. Its head tilted in wonderment as it had often seen people doing this.

Moving away from the shed and getting inside the mansion, it roamed before it stopped after finding the lady in the study room who was reading a book. It stood watching her in the corner of the shadows where the light didn’t reach it nor where she could see.

Though the ghoul wasn’t well versed with emotion and it aimlessly had been following the girl whom his master had asked to protect, it could sense the rejection and the fear of hers that came off when it had appeared in front of her. Almost all the people it had met, they had shown fear which was comprehensible as everyone it had appeared in front was for the reason to rip their body and kill them before digging them unless it was allowed to eat.

But it hadn’t expected it from the girl, the rejection made the ghoul confused. In this scenario where the ghoul was the pet and the owner had rejected to acknowledge it.

Vivian who was reading the borrowed books from Lord Nicholas turned the page to read the next paragraph when she felt the wind blowing in the room. The door and the windows were closed so there was no reason for the wind to blow which she felt to be suspicious.

Her eyes moving across the room, it fell at the corner where it was dark with the light of the fireplace not enough to reach.

”Is that you, Everest?” she looked at the shadows where nothing came to appear in front of her eyes. Worried, she closed the book. She might have been in the mansion with the servants walking somewhere in the mansion, working their daily duties but that didn’t mean she could be safe if some ill omen or a ghost that was coming to pass through this room.

Hoping it was the ghoul, she called its name once more, ”Everest. Please come out if you are there,” she spoke softly to it and finally, the ghoul came out. Vivian closed her eyes thanking the Gods and sending her prayers, ”What were you doing there? Hiding in the dark?” it was just her in the room and it didn’t have to hide.

When Vivian had stepped back earlier, it had been a sudden reaction which she hadn’t meant to be. She had been scared but not scared for her to be around the ghoul. If she knew one thing, it was that the ghoul wouldn’t hurt her. It had earned enough trust by saving her life in the snow mansion.

Seeing that it didn’t move and tried stepping away with its head down, she frowned. Who knew this ghoul would be like this, the kind that killed was now keeping its distance from her. Or was something wrong with her?

”I won’t hurt you,” she said to it, bringing her hand forward she tried to touch the ghoul. How ironic for a human to be speaking to the creature of death like this, she thought to herself. When she touched the ghoul, she read the recent event that took place through its eyes which was her reaction to it outside the mansion. Pulling back her hand, she bowed her head to say,

”Forgive me for being rude to you. I didn’t mean to offend you, Mr Everest,” standing back straight she then asked, ”Would you care for a cup of tea?” she gave the ghoul a smile.