NIGHTS OF HALLOW

The little interrogation between Perdita and Daemon caused a big turmoil of doubt in the heart of Mr. Perkin as he went home.

Why were the siblings acting strange lately and why are vampires occasionally visiting Perdita? Who were they and when did she know them? Mr. Perkin continued to question himself.

Mr. Perkin returned home and because of the thoughts of Marco and Perdita occupying his mind, he didn’t see his wife Mrs. Perkin who was ready to spread the gossip she got from the market today to him. He directly ignored her and went inside his room.

Mrs. Perkin’s mouth fell open as she stood transfixed in the same place she was ignored by her husband. She wondered what was wrong with her husband who always listened to her talk, but today he behaved like she didn’t exist. Mrs. Perkin stumped her feet and angrily matched to the kitchen to continue cooking their evening meal.

Inside the room, Mr. Perkin went to his cupboard and brought out a parchment and his pencil. He sat down on the chair near the cupboard and began to scribble words on the parchment. In the middle of the parchment, he wrote Marco and Perdita’s names. He drew a line from Marco’s name and wrote ’Burying of an unknown bag in the forest.’ Then he went back to Perdita’s name and wrote ’Two unknown vampires visiting and speaking with her.’ Coming down at the end of the parchment, he wrote ’What are they hiding?’

Looking at the parchment and what was written in there, Mr. Perkin looked like a detective who was seriously trying to uncover a top secret. He immediately put the parchment away when he saw his wife appear at the door.

”What was that Perkin?” Mrs. Perkin questioned.

Mr. Perkin stood up and walked past her ”It’s nothing. Is dinner ready?”

”Yes,” Mrs. Perkin responded and followed her husband out. She stopped and looked back at the drawer where her husband had stuffed something in. Why was her husband acting strange and what could he be hiding? She shook her head and made a mental note to find out what was in the cupboard.

In the castle away from the village of Woodbridge, Sthena and Daemon sat in the tea room while having blood directly from the wrist of two maids. After they were done, the maids scurried away and left them alone in the room.

Sthena licked his lips clean and spoke ”I believe you have something to tell me,”

”Yes” Daemon responded leaning his back on the couch and he crossed his leg over the other ”I gathered from my source that Pristine is working with someone from the church.”

Sthena chuckled and rubbed his chin in thought ”I know he’s working with someone from the church but I’m yet to know who it is. The old man should let his son float in the ocean in peace. It wasn’t my fault, but I must say his son had low-quality blood”

Mr. Pristine’s son Markus, was one of the many who thought they could outsmart him. Markus was smart enough to know what he did, but his mouth and brain were dumb.

How dare he tittle-tattle on his king?! Sthena enjoyed torturing and killing anyone who double-crosses him and he never spared anyone.

Markus worked in the palace as the overseer of some of the empire’s projects. It was one evening when he came to the castle to report to the king that he got to know and find Miss Kaila’s body in the arms of the king.

Maybe it wouldn’t have been too much of a problem if she was breathing. But no, the king had drunk her dry and dead and he didn’t have any remorse over what he had done. Markus was a human and like many others who knew the king, he didn’t like that a vampire was ruling over them. He had thought that with this incident, that Sthena would be punished and overthrown as the king by the church. But he should have known he couldn’t outsmart the devious red-eyed king.

Like Miss Kaila the daughter of one of the court members, Sthena caught Markus and also killed him lest he exposed him which would have been too much hassle with the church.

The smile on Sthena’s face widened as he recalled the memory. He was so hungry that day that when Miss Kaila offered her blood after hovering around him the whole day, he didn’t refuse and accepted the free meal which ended with her being dead.

Markus with his father was some pest who didn’t want to see him rule, not that he minded their troubles. He liked how they always caused trouble to give him a valid reason to kill them off. Though he killed people before, he did it with valid reasons except for Kaila’s case. What he didn’t know was how Pristine got to know about the death of his son being related to him. And he couldn’t kill the man now the church was involved.

Seems like there were many pests to get rid of in the castle. Thought Sthena.

Daemon remained quiet while waiting for the next instruction from Sthena.

After a while, Sthena said, ”Leave the old man and focus on the preparation of the hallow. At least, the church can let go of my neck and see the good I want for the people. And maybe, their focus will leave me, which I doubt will happen.”

The church, Sthena thought. They were other people that he wished to get rid of, if not now but later in the future. They always claimed they want equality and peace between the humans and the vampires, whereas they were the real trouble that was in the empire.

The church were made up of fifteen members after the last fight between humans and vampires. They came together for the sole purpose of bringing peace between humans and also so that humans were not slaughtered like animals. And a rule was set up stating that, when a human is drunk dead by a vampire, the punishment was death and the fangs of the family members pulled out. But when a human killed a vampire, they were let off saying that it was an act of protection against vampires.

There were other harsh punishments that were all in favor of humans.

The partiality they displayed was more deadly than drinking blood from humans. But they should know that vampires depend on humans for blood and those rules will always be violated by vampires, especially by him, Sthena.

”What about the green-eyed vampire girl I asked you to follow?” Sthena questioned the silent Daemon.

Daemon’s expression turned sour as he remembered the conversation with the foul-mouthed vampire girl.

”I followed her as you ordered and I found out she has a brother too”

Sthena’s brow rose in surprise ”A brother, and he’s a vampire too with the color of human’s eyes?”

”Yes,” Daemon answered.

”Hmm” Sthena hummed ”Seems I was wrong with my guess. I don’t think it is because of the transformation. Though I don’t know what it is, I think the two siblings are very unusual. It makes me wonder if something is going on that I’m not aware of”

”The boy is careless and he was followed by a nosy human who is now suspicious of them. I saw him burying dead cats in the forest” Daemon filled Sthena in with everything he discovered in Woodbridge.

”Cats” Sthena nodded ”So they don’t drink human blood but cats. Makes me want to lock them in a room with human blood splashed everywhere and see how far they could resist it”

Sthena chuckled when he saw the look on Daemon’s face ”It was a thought Dae, I never planned to do it”

Daemon shook his with a frown on his face ”A thought can lead to a possible action, milord” He paused and asked,

”What do you plan to do with them?”

Sthena stood up and replied ”Maybe I should visit them and know more about their little secret. And about the human following them, you know what to do if he discovers more than he already knows. I don’t like meddlers in something I’ve set my eyes on”

”Yes, milord.” Daemon stood up and bowed. He saw Sthena leave the room and he wondered what the king was planning and why he was interested in the green-eyed vampire girl and his brother. He internally smiled when he thought about the reaction of the girl when she’s sees him and Sthena again.