NIGHTS OF HALLOW

The moon was slowly hiding its face behind the clouds as the daylight overtook the darkness. It was still the early morning hours when the village bell have not rung nor had the cocks woken up to sing about the day born anew.

It was on this morning that a shadow was hurriedly walking in the streets of Woodbridge. He was none other than Mr. Perkin.

After stealing the pills from the house of Mr. Malphus the day before, he had woken up before others, so the villagers won’t see him entering the house of the apothecary.

Reaching the small house, he impatiently knocked twice on the door and waited for it to open. After two minutes, a short middle-aged man with a stubble mustache appeared at door.

”Mr. Perkin? What do I owe such an early visit from you?” The man’s brow rose in question and surprise.

Mr. Perkin gave a small smile while holding the hand of his bag that hung across his shoulder.

”Mr. Lucas” Perkin called and gave a small bow in greeting, he continued to say, ”Are you busy? I need you to do something for me”

”Yes I am busy, but it can wait since you came so early, it had to be something important. Come in” Lucas stepped aside to allow Perkin to enter his small house that burned brightly with the lit lanterns.

Mr. Lucas was one of the oldest apothecaries the village had. He was always known as a busy person who never sleeps while he experimented with the colorful liquids in his house. Like other days, he had been working all night with his lanterns that burned brightly in his room before Mr. Perkin came knocking in his house.

Mr. Perkin walked into the house and saw the numerous glass bottles scattered on the table in the corner of the room. The room was barely large to have many things in it, but Mr. Lucas made the things he needed fit perfectly in the small space.

A large and tall brown cupboard was placed against the wall on one side of the room with a table directly opposite it, and a chair was placed in front of the table. His working tools and glass bottles were in a smaller cupboard beside the table. Everything was neatly placed except for the glass bottles that were on the table.

Mr. Lucas walked around the table and stood behind it. He gestured towards the only chair in the room, ”Please have a sit, Mr. Perkin.”

”Thank you,” Perkin thanked and sat down.

”You said you needed me to do something for you?” Lucas questioned while arranging the bottles on the table to create space.

”Yes,” Perkin eagerly nodded his head. He reached inside his bag and brought out the small bag containing the pills.

”I want you to find out the work of these pills, and also what they are made of” Perkin spoke and handed Lucas the small bag.

Mr. Lucas collected the bag from Perkin with a skeptical look on his face. He opened the bag and saw the red pills inside. Lucas looked between the pills and Mr. Perkin. He wondered what the man was doing with red pills and why he was asking him to find out what they are made of.

Lucas gave Perkin another look before he decided to swallow his question. He turned around to do what he was asked to do. Bringing out the tools and equipment he needed, he brought out four Petri dishes. He took out two pills from the bag and broke them into halves.

In each of the Petri dishes, he put half pills in them. He covered two of the petri dish and left two open.

He went to the small cupboard and brought out two bottles, each containing a colorless liquid in them. He opened one of the bottles and added two drops of its content in one of the open Petri dishes, and also two drops in one of the closed Petri dishes containing the broken pills and he placed them on a bunsen burner.

Lucas closed the first bottle and took the second bottle. In the remaining open and closed petri dish, he also added two drops of the bottle’s content in them.

After he was done, he brought down the petri dish from the bunsen burner and waited for a few minutes before they began to turn white, while the other petri dish he left on the table remained the same red color they were and he discarded them.

He took the petri dish that the pills had turned white and placed them in front of a big jar on the table containing leaves that had different shades of colors on them. He brought out a leaf from the jar and squeezed out the liquid in it, and he added it to the two petri dishes.

After he was done, Lucas turned to Mr. Perkin who had been watching him all the while he experimented with the red pills.

Lucas said to Perkin, ”We’ll have to wait a few hours before I know its actual content and what the pills are for.”

”Okay,” Mr. Perkin replied eagerly waiting for the results so he could know what the siblings were up to. He couldn’t wait to expose them and tell the villagers. Since the siblings came to their village, he hadn’t for once seen them in a good light. He always felt something fishy with the way they behaved.

One of the things that didn’t sit well with him, was that they claimed that their family members were killed in the crossfire between humans and the vampires a decade ago. How were they able to survive at such little age without their parents? From what he knew, in the village where the siblings came from, the humans were either killed or turned into vampires. Also, those who turned into vampires were all killed. No one survived in that village. So, he wondered how they survived unless they were turned into vampires.

But then, their eyes were not red like how vampires’ eyes are and he hadn’t seen them drink blood. This confused him and also made him curious to know what they are and what they were hiding. With the recent visit from the vampires in their village who were always seen with Perdita, he could tell that something was amiss with the siblings. He couldn’t wait to know what the pills were for, so he could tell the villagers and expose them.

Mr. Perkin’s eyes were filled with determination to discover what the pills were for. He continued to wait with Mr. Lucas in the room for the few hours before the experiment will be completed.

The day was fully born anew as the village bell rang in the distance. The morning light had fully enveloped the land by the time Mr. Lucas checked the pills in the open and closed petri dish.

The pill in the open petri dish had dissolved and left tiny green particles on the surface while the one in the closed petri dish did not dissolve.

Mr. Lucas collected the green particles from the open petri dish with a small white spoon and poured them into a new dish.

Having handled so many liquids and experiments since his years of practicing apothecary, he could tell what the pill was made of and what it was for at a glance.

Mr. Lucas kept the dish aside and turned to look at Mr. Perkin with a complicated look on his face. He couldn’t help but voice out his confusion since Perkin presented him with the pills.

”Mr. Perkin, where did you get these pills from?” Lucas questioned with his gaze fixated on Perkin’s face.

Mr. Perkin shifted in his sitting position, uncomfortable with the sudden question. He just wanted to get his answers and leave before any villager sees him. He was the one to do the questioning and not the other way round.

Perkin scratched the side of his face in irritation before he answered with a slightly stiff voice ”T...the pills...I got them from somewhere.” There was no way he was going to tell Lucas where he got them from. He didn’t want trouble with the villagers.

”From somewhere?” Lucas’s brows rose in question while his eyes suspiciously looked at Perkin.

Perkin’s mouth twitched in annoyance. He didn’t like the look on Lucas’s face.”I saw the pills in my house, so tell me, what did you find out?” He lied and diverted the topic immediately to avoid more questioning from Lucas.

Mr. Lucas’s face turned surprised and his mouth formed an O ”Mr. Perkin,” He gently called, hesitating to tell Perkin his findings who paid rapt attention to hear the long-awaited news of the pills.

Mr. Lucas wrung his hands together with a solemn expression on his face. He continued to say, ”These pills shouldn’t be in your possession..., unless someone in your home is taking them.”