NIGHTS OF HALLOW

In a forest in the village of Woodbridge walked Sthena and Daemon. The dry leaves that covered the forest ground made a scrunching sound under their feet as they walked to where their carriage was stationed outside the village which they will use to travel back to the castle.

With the winter season that was around the corner, the trees have shredded their leaves waiting to welcome the cold and the snow. Even the wind in the evening time turned heavy in the empire of Vamlone.

It was also said that this was the season of vampires. Because of the cold the weather brings, the vampires always come out in the woods to hunt for human blood. The vampires believed that any human who left the warmth of their home and wandered around in the cold, that it was a free meal to them. Hence, humans never tried to go to the forest during this season.

Sthena and Daemon walked in silence as their robe flew in the direction of the wind and some leaves also flew in the air. From time to time Daemon will peek at Sthena who seemed to be enjoying his buns. He couldn’t believe that since he left him in the market, all he did was cause trouble and even took buns without paying. A king!

Sthena knew Daemon was looking at him which he ignored till he decided to taunt him ”Why didn’t you tell me you wanted some buns? I would have gladly gotten more for us. Now you make me look stingy.”

Daemon shook his head and diverted the topic ”You seem to be in a good mood, milord.”

”Of course, I’m in a good mood. Tell me, who wouldn’t be after eating these sweet buns?” Sthena’s lips pulled up as a sly smile crept to his face that made his red eyes look smaller.

Daemon kept mute and ignored Sthena. It was better to be silent than converse with him. He still couldn’t understand how a king behaved as he did.

Sthena finished the last buns and licked his fingers and his lips clean while making a smacking sound with them which annoyed Daemon more than he was already.

”You know I found something interesting today,” Sthena said still licking his lips.

”And what could that be, my lord?” Daemon’s sounded uninterested but his ears had already been piqued to hear more.

Sthena finally dropped his hand to his side ”The green-eyed human girl is a vampire. A turned vampire”

Daemon was surprised. The words sounded unbelievable but he trusted Sthena’s words even though he was always nonchalant with everything.

”How is that possible? Her eyes are not red?” Daemon asked still trying to wrap his head around what Sthena said.

Sthena became thoughtful and after a while, he said ” There are rare cases of a vampire’s eyes having the color of a human eye but it is only found in a pureblooded vampire”

”And you said she’s a turned vampire?” Daemon questioned trying to put everything Sthena said together.

”Yes, she’s turned which makes me wonder how it is so in her case,”

Daemon paused in his steps and his face held a thoughtful look ”Could it be from the vampire that turned her?”

Sthena shook his head making his long red hair fall on his face ”It hasn’t happened before. But I’m also curious to know who turned her. There could be something wrong with her transformation. I want you to keep an eye on her, who knows I might get something valuable from her.”

Daemon frowned. Why was the king suddenly interested in the transformation of some human? He didn’t like the idea of watching someone that was of no importance to him. But it was the king’s order, he could only swallow his displeasure and oblige to the order.

The following day in the village of Woodbridge where Perdita and Marco lived, the villagers woke up at the first crow of the cock. The sound of the moving carriages could be heard as the villagers shouted greetings to each other across the street.

Perdita and Marco were among the first to rise and had also prepared for work. As a safety measure, Marco killed another cat and gave the blood to Perdita who drank two cups of the blood before heading to the market.

Marco was the first to leave their house after taking the dead cats with him to bury inside the forest. They didn’t dare bury it in their backyard for fear of their neighbors poking their noses into their house.

At the same, the village man named Perkin saw Marco heading toward the forest and he became suspicious again. Why was he going to the forest when it was not the way to the construction site? With yesterday’s event that happened where everything raised the ambiguous and curious beast in him, he didn’t want to lose the chance and decided to follow Marco and see what he was up to.

Marco unaware that he was being followed reached the forest and started to dig the ground with the shovel he usually took to work. When he was done, he put the cats covered with black nylon inside the hole and covered it with mud.

This made Perkin more suspicious and he wondered what was in the bag. He stood there and waited for Marco to leave the forest before he rushed home to get a shovel to dig out what was inside the bag.

A few minutes later, Perkin came back to the forest and made his way to the place Marco was. He started digging the hole. He found the black nylon and hastily took it out ready to see what was inside.

He carried the heavy nylon out and opened it but found it was something he wasn’t expecting. The bag was filled with wet mud and he became confused as to why Marco had to bury a bag with mud. And why was the mud wet? Did he perhaps mistake the hole being dug by Marco or did he come back to remove the original bag?

Perkin stood up and walked around the forest but he found out that was the only place with a new dug hole. He stood there still wondering what the first content of the bag was. Not bothering to close the hole, he dropped the bag and took his shovel home unaware that someone was watching him all the while.

Daemon jumped down from the tree he was sitting on with the two dead cats in his hands.

Wonderful that vampires were living in this village and they were still alive. Daemon thought. Not only was there a female vampire whose eyes were green but they were two. One with green eyes and one with black eyes. And also a nosy human who wanted to find evidence to expose them. He clicked his tongue in distaste.

The first thing he did this morning when he woke up was to come to this village to carry out the order from the king. Finding the house of the green-eyed girl was not hard as it seemed she became more popular because of the visit of Sthena to her stall. Because of his hearing ability, he was able to pick out the little conversation she had with someone she addressed as a brother in her house which made him follow the boy to the forest.

He thought it was going to be a boring day until he saw the nosy human who was also following the boy. Understanding what the man was going to do which will lead to the exposure of the siblings, not that he minded, but because this was an order from the king where nothing should go wrong, he decided to dig and bring out the cats and in turn, he filled it with wet mud and covered the hole again.

The only reason why he followed him was to know if the boy was also a vampire and why he was heading to the forest, but who knew that he, Daemon Walnot will cover up his dirty work? Daemon shook his head, the boy was not good at covering up his tracks. If not for him, by now they could have been dragged by the humans who were ever ready to run a stake into their hearts.

With his red watchful eyes, Daemon scanned the area before walking out of the forest with the dead cats.