NIGHTS OF HALLOW

The carriage of the church members arrived at the doorstep of Mr. Perkin’s house after a few minutes.

The church members and Mr. Humphrey alerted from the carriage and they stared at the thatched roof of the house that could barely withstand the snow and cold. On a closer look, the church members noticed that every house in this village was equally the same as that of Mr. Perkin.

Donovan’s brows which have being scrunching more than they should since he arrived in the village of Woodbridge, furrowed deeply again. His lips set into a thin line before he turned sharply to look at Mr. Humphrey. He asked loudly in a clipped tone,

”Head warden Humphrey, why is this village as it is? This is — should I say — one of the poorest villages I’ve set foot in.”

”A...ah. Ahem...” Mr. Humphrey nervously cleared his throat with his hands clasped behind his back. He walked forward as his eyes swept past the church members before he looked away to avoid their curious and interrogating gazes.

He replied, ”Headchurch Donovan, the village is not poor as it seems. The people are doing very well and everything is going smo...”

”The people are well? And everything is going smoothly you wanted to say, head warden Humphrey?!” Donovan cut Mr. Humphrey short from completing his sentence.

”Look at the state of this village and see for yourself if it is doing well. Can the people here survive the snow and cold for the next couple of weeks it would continue snowing? What of all the allocations allotted to this village under your care and inspection? Where are they all going, Mr. Humphrey?” The anger brewing inside Donovan could be heard loud and clear in the way he spoke with a raised voice.

”Headchurch Donovan, please l...listen to m...me. It is not as you speak of it. I have been taking care of the people the way I can. All the funds and allocations were all used for the purpose for which they were allotted to the village for.” Mr. Humphrey responded with a quivering voice to Donovan’s questions that kept coming one after the other.

Donovan took a deep breath to calm himself down. Talking and shouting will do him no good. It was best he handled this matter separately after the case of the report at hand was successfully taken care of.

This village was the poorest he had ever set foot on. It lacked several facilities which were all provided for by the king. These damn corrupt people, he will make sure he taught Mr. Humphrey a lesson.

Using and confiscating everything allotted to the village for personal use warranted severe punishment which he would make sure he meted out to this man who called himself the head warden of Woodbridge.

Donovan glared at Mr. Humphrey for a long while and asserted, ”Head warden Humphrey, you have not been diligent with your work as you claimed. But do not worry, I won’t treat this matter now as we came for another thing.”

Mr. Humphrey bowed his head refusing to meet the angry look of Donovan. He didn’t have anything to say because only he knew why the village was in this poor state it was.

Theodore who was leaning on the carriage pushed himself up and walked towards Mr. Humphrey and said, ”Proceed with what we came here for, Mr. Humphrey. Let’s see if you have another secret to unveil.” The way Theodore said those words, made it look like there were other secrets he knew Mr. Humphrey was hiding.

”Y...yes, churchman Theodore.” Mr. Humphrey stuttered before he hurriedly went to the house of Mr. Perkin to knock on his door not knowing there was no one inside.

The loud knocks of Mr. Humphrey resonated around the place three consecutive times. On the fourth one he raised his hand to knock, the voice of Mr. Theodore stopped him.

”Stop, there is no one there,” Theodore announced. The bored and lazy look returned to his eyes.

Mr. Humphrey was quick to walk back to where the church members were and said in a low voice, ”Forgive me, churchman Theodore, I think Mr. Perkin’s wife went to the market.

Theodore nodded knowingly and ordered, ”Take me to her at once.”

Once again, the eyes of Martha almost bulged from their sockets as her eyes widened in disbelief. If it were possible, her eyes would have rolled out and fallen on the ground.

She quickly voiced her thoughts, ”Churchman Theodore, where are we going again in this cold weather? I painstakingly came here so we could complete the clarification and move on to the next thing we have, but all you did was delay us with wanting to meet the wife of Mr. Perkin.”

”I don’t remember tying your hands and feet to drag you here, churchwoman Martha,” Theodore replied with a roll of his eyes.

”You always do things as you like. We should be looking for Mr. Persin and not this woman for Christ’s sake. Does this cold not affect you?”

Theodore ignored Martha and only spared her a glance before he walked forward to be followed by Mr. Humphrey and Donovan.

Martha gritted her teeth in anger directed towards Theodore. She complained to Mr. Welsh, ”Churchwoman Welsh, did you see that? We are meant to work as a team but he is purposely doing things his way.”

”Churchwoman Martha, I can’t say anything on this. We have no choice but to follow him. Not to forget, the man is capable and very efficient in solving cases. Let’s allow him to do it his way since we couldn’t get anything fruitful since we arrived in this village.”

”But we are a team. He should at least tell us what he is about to do unless he wants to take the credit himself.”

Mr. Welsh peeked at the woman beside him and shook his head. He chided her, ”Enough with the complaints. We are a team, and we will take the credit equally. It doesn’t matter who solved the case. What you should be worried about is how to get to the root of this problem and stop the vampires from killing humans. Do not forget why we established this church in the first place, churchwoman Martha.” With that, Mr. Welsh walked out from there and followed Donovan, Theodore, and Mr. Humphrey who were in the front.

Martha hissed angrily and stomped her feet in anger. These foolish people! Why can’t they listen to her? The man they clearly came for was Mr. Persin but now they were looking for the wife of the supposed Mr. Perkin who ran away because he found out his wife is a whore. Was this how the capable Theodore solved his cases? Without proper thought before execution? Ptff! Martha sneered before she started to walk and follow her fellow church members.

The snow had reduced the intensity at which it was falling in the morning and was now dropping in small flakes.

Five hours had passed since the arrival of the church members and it was already noon. Everywhere was filled with white cold flakes as the villagers continued with their work.

The street was empty with no sign of the villagers as the church members together with Mr. Humphrey walked towards the local market. They did not take the carriage with them because of the snow that was everywhere that would surely slow them.

With each step they took, their shoes continued to plow the snow leaving their footprints behind before they arrived at the busy market.

The people did not notice the church members and the head warden who walked into their market as they were busy tending to their various businesses.

Mr. Humphrey’s head bobbled up and down as his eyes roamed around the place searching for Mrs. Perkin. He couldn’t see the far end of the market because one — he was short, and two — there were many people in the market.

”Are you sure she is here?” Mr. Humphrey heard Theodore question him by his side.

”Yes, churchman Theodore. I’m sure she is here. It’s just that – I haven’t seen her.” Mr. Humphrey replied. After searching for another minute and still did not find Mrs. Perkin, he gave up on the idea of using his eyes to search.

Mr. Humphrey walked towards a group of women gathered and talking among themselves while eating the buns in their hands they bought from the shop that was near where they stood. This shop was none other than the shop of Perdita where she baked buns and after buns.

Her shop was flocked with people who were eager to taste the appetizing buns they were not able to buy because of Perdita’s absence the day before.

Mr. Humphrey managed to pass through the crowd and stopped near the women who he recognized to be those who had wrongly accused Mrs. Perkin that day. Theodore and Donovan also followed him while Martha and Mr. Welsh stayed back because of the crowd.

”Excuse me, women.” Mr. Welsh called to get the attention of the village women who were lost in their world. They stopped talking and turned to look at the man who stood before them, and immediately they recognized him.

”Head warden, what brought you here? Is there a problem?” Rosie was the first to speak while internally fearing that he was here to seize her because she had wrongly accused Mrs. Perkin some weeks back.

”Ah, yes,” Mr. Humphrey responded. ”I happened to be looking for Mrs. Perkin.”

Perdita who was not far from where Mr. Humphrey stood with the village women paused in what she was doing when she heard the head warden ask about Mrs. Perkin.

”What about Mrs. Perkin, head warden?” Rosie voiced out the question that was on Perdita’s mind.

Mr. Humphrey pointed at Theodore and Donovan who stood beside him and answered, ”These gentlemen came from the church, and they are looking for Mrs. Perkin for a few questions.”

It felt like a lump of hot coal was dropped on the head of Perdita when she heard the answer from the head warden.

The Church?! Perdita screamed in her mind. Who didn’t know the powerful church who was like the second king in the kingdom?! And now they were looking for Mrs. Perkin for questions.

What questions?! Perdita questioned in her mind with a gobsmacked expression on her face.

They were doomed! She and Marco were finally doomed!