NIGHTS OF HALLOW

For the rest of the day, Perdita agreed with Marco to stay at home and watch over Mrs. Perkin so she wouldn’t escape. As a safety precaution, they tied her hands and legs with ropes, and also her mouth with a piece of cloth.

It was after some hours passed before Mrs. Perkin finally regained consciousness. She woke up with a groan because of the uncomfortable feeling of being tied. Her eyes stung as she blinked several times to adjust to the light of the room. For a minute, she couldn’t remember where she was until her eyes landed on Perdita who sat with her back facing her.

It immediately dawned on her that she was still in the house of Perdita and Marco. She opened her mouth to scream but the cloth tied to her mouth restricted the flow and movement of her lips making her scream come out as a muffled cry.

Perdita turned herself around to face the older woman. She said, ”You are finally awake. I thought you will become another sleeping queen. Unfortunately, there is no king to wake you up.”

Mrs. Perkin glared and furiously struggled to free herself from the strong ropes holding her in place. ”Get this thing out of me!” She wanted to say, but again, her words came out as a stifled cry.

”My, my, my, Mrs. Perkin. It was so cool and quiet when you were still in your beautiful slumber, but now?” Perdita shook her head disapprovingly and continued to say, ”But now, you are chattering more than a parrot.”

Mrs. Perkin continued to tug on the ropes and Perdita’s taunts did not help either as her eyes flared up in anger. ”You will pay for this, Perdita!” She muffled again.

”Just quit making noise and I’ll see if I can untie your mouth.” Perdita chuckled and rested her head on the headrest of the chair.

There were a few minutes of silence between Mrs. Perkin and Perdita. The only movement in the room was the tug of war going on between Mrs. Perkin and the ropes in desperation to get them untied.

Perdita smiled and cast a side glance at Mrs. Perkin. She advised in a low taunting voice ”You should stop stressing yourself. Those ropes won’t get untied even if you continue from now till the coming new year. You should rather use this time and think about the options I gave you. You can still save yourself the stress and harm knocking on your face ”

”Damn you!” Mrs. Perkin muffled a curse at Perdita.

”You know...” Perdita began with a thoughtful look ”You make us look like the bad people here while all we are trying to do is to survive in this hard world. Do you think it is easy to live as a vampire? To be hungry every hour and the only food you badly want is blood. To drink human blood.”

”I just wish you, the villagers, and also other humans who think vampires are all evil and dangerous will become a vampire for a day so that you all will have a taste of the experience. It would be very chaotic and also fun to watch all of hunt your family members down for blood.” Perdita already imagining the scenario giggled to herself in amusement at what she said.

”I can bet you’re disgusted by it already.” Perdita continued laughing as she teased the angry Mrs. Perkin who had finally given up her struggle to untie the ropes. She sat on the ground defeated and helpless but her eyes held an enormous hatred towards Perdita.

Perdita stopped talking and the smile on her face faltered as she stared vacantly at the thatched ceiling of their house. Her thoughts swirled all over the place as she tried to figure out what she will do next. There was no way Mrs. Perkin will continue to stay in their house and they won’t be discovered. They had to take her to another place. But to where?

Where were they going to keep her? How will they be able to make her keep her mouth shut without tying the cloth on her? There was absolutely no way they can be able to do it if they did not seek the help of Sthena.

Now, that was another problem. How will they get in touch with him? Since the day of the Hallow ball, she and Marco have not seen him or Daemon anywhere in their village.

The question of how will they and what are going to do was piling up one after the other. But first things first, she will go and look for Sthena. Perhaps if luck was on her side, she will see him and ask for his help which she knew he would definitely offer her. She didn’t want to think why he was readily available to help them out, just the thought of having someone backing you was enough for her at the moment.

The evening was quick to approach and Perdita got ready to go outside and search for Sthena. The earlier she found him so Mrs. Perkin will be taken care of, the better it was.

Now it was the time of the evening. Perdita dragged Mrs. Perkin to a corner of their house after she had fed her to keep her alive. Though she was doing things that were not meant for a lady and disagreed with her morals, she was not a murderer who will kill anyone that got their bad side.

Perdita made sure Mrs. Perkin was securely bound by the rope before she set out to look for Sthena after she had carefully and securely locked their door.

The first destination that was on her mind was the alley because that was the place she always found Sthena in.

The villagers had gone home after the day’s work. It was only a few of them that were seen on the streets either discussing or merrily enjoying the cool air the evening breeze blew that was silently setting in for another round of snow that will soon begin to fall.

The alley was quiet and dark when Perdita reached there. The eerie feeling she felt was enough to make one take to their heels but she shoved the feeling away and continued down the narrow passage of the alley.

Her eyes were quick to thoroughly search the area for any danger or any sight of Sthena, but even after hours of searching and waiting for Sthena to appear, she did not see him or anyone that looked like him.

Perdita gave up on her search and decided to head home when she suddenly stopped as a thought immediately came to her mind.

Was it not better and smart to leave him a message here? Perhaps, he might see it when she must have gone home. That’s right! That was a better option right now.

Perdita turned and quickly searched for a pebble or something she could use to write on the wall. When she found a small pebble, she rushed to the nearest wall that would be quick for someone to take notice of.

She wrote, ’Can I see you? I’ve got some troubles to take care of.’

Perdita dusted her hands and stared at the message on the wall. How will he know she is the one that wrote it? She asked herself and decided to add the first letter of her name beside it. But that might expose her, she reasoned and wiped it clean.

What will she write to show that the message came from her? ”Ugh!” She hated the idea of Sthena and Daemon calling her green eyes but it was the only name she could use that wouldn’t expose her.

With a sigh and an annoyed look, she wrote ’Green eyes’ beside the message.

It seemed as if she was summoning him to...no, no, no, Perdita! Stop your perverted thoughts. She shook and knocked her head twice.

Satisfied with the message but still grumpy about the green eyes part, Perdita finally turned to leave the alley with hurried steps.

Now out of the alley, she turned in the direction of their house when there, standing in the darkness with his back to her was Mark.

Her heart skipped a beat when he turned and approached her with slow steps.

”Mark,” Perdita called trying to calm her anxious nerves ”What are you doing here?”

”I was just going to ask you that,” He said and smiled warmly at her. ”I came here for church work when I saw you entering the alley.”

”Since I entered the alley?” Perdita questioned and saw Mark nod his head to a yes. That long? Perdita asked herself. So he had been here all the while she was looking for Sthena. Did he see what she wrote?!

”I know what you must be thinking. Don’t worry, I didn’t follow you so I don’t know what you were doing there though I’m also curious to know, I respect people’s privacy.”

”Oh, thank you,” Perdita muttered in relief. She asked him, ”You said you came for church work?”

”Ah, yes. There had been a recent sighting of vampires that the humans had reported to be killing humans here.”

”Vampires? Killing humans?” Perdita asked with a raised eyebrow.

”Yes, and because of that, the church has arranged for an exorcism to be carried out in the village. It will help to fish out the vampires who might be in this village.” Mark answered in a low voice so someone will not hear what he was saying. It was still a new agenda in the kingdom and the church had ordered for it to be a secret until the day it would be carried out.

”That is so sudden if you ask me,” Perdita replied as a new form of dread started enveloping her.

Mark nodded in approval ”Yes, it is. So I’ll advise you to stop coming here by this time of the night lest a vampire captured you.”