NIGHTS OF HALLOW

Inside the room, Serena asked Marco to lie on the bed while Fredrick and Leonard stood on each side of the bed.

Once Marco was settled on the bed, the pain still twisting his stomach and the life out of him, he saw Serena snap her finger and a blue light emitted from it.

Marco closed his eyes for a brief moment when the pain came again. When he opened them again, he saw Serena raise her right hand toward his face, and everything seemed to black out, making him unable to see anything but an endless depth of darkness that enveloped him. His hands stretched in an attempt to hold on to something, but it seemed like the darkness was intent on taking everything away from him.

Serena stood watching Marco as he struggled to keep wake while slipping and slipping out of the darkness he was succumbing to.

”Do you think it will work on him?” Leonard questioned Serena.

She nodded her head, still watching every move of Marco so she wouldn’t miss anything. ”It has to work on him. It will definitely work on him.” Serena answered confidently knowing the kind of spell she cast on Marco. It was a spell where he would be held by the darkness she had created. The darkness served as an illusion of what was actually happening. He will feel everything, but would not be able to witness it at the same time. The name of the spell was the darkness whisperer.

”Did the both of you do what I asked you to do?” Serena briefly turned to look at the men before resuming to watch Marco.

”Yes,” Leonard and Fredrick answered.

Leonard further spoke, ”Everything is in place, Her Ladyship.” He paused as if contemplating if he should ask the question on his mind.

”What is it, Leo?” Serena asked, knowing a question burned inside Leonard.

Leonard gave a slight bow. He stared at Marco for a while before asking his question, ”Are you sure of what we are doing, Lady Serena? What if we are wrong?”

”We are not wrong. I have never been wrong with my intuition. I know and I am sure it is them.” Serena’s confident voice sounded in the room once more.

”We could be mistaken too,” Fredrick voiced his thoughts. ”When I touched his sister, she held nothing I could use to trace her to them. No energy to identify them to be one of the siblings. What if they are other siblings who may—”

”They are not another sibling, Fredrick.” Serena cut off before he could finish. ”Their last name says it all. I thought that it was a mere coincidence that they both answered the same name as them, but this couldn’t also be a coincidence that their surname is Kartar.”

”It is just a name, Lady Serena. Thousands of people answer the same name and surname.” Leonard seconded Fredrick’s words.

”What about their eyes?” Serena countered back.

Leonard shook his head disapprovingly and responded, ”It is only the Lady with green eyes. The boy is black-eyed. And not to add, they are turned vampires. They may or may not be the people we are looking for.”

”I know all these, Fredrick and Leonard. But I know what I felt the day I touched him. The energy might not be in Perdita’s body now, but Marco had it. And for me to feel it inside of him, means that the probability of them being the siblings we are looking for is high.”

Leonard and Fredrick simultaneously exhaled with a defeated look. ”I hope we are not making any mistake by doing this. Because once his body rejects the spells because they are not who we thought they are, we all know that they will die. And them dying means we would be met with a dead end given how protective the king is towards them.”

”Do not worry, we would meet a successful end,” Serena assured still watching Marco.

”What about the king? You know we can’t leave here with them if the king is around.” Leonard asked.

Serena used her left hand to check the temperature of Marco body’s that have gone cold as if he was placed on ice. It showed how he was rapidly moving towards the end of the darkness that would fully envelop him before they started their ritual. She answered Leonard’s question, ”I have taken care of him. What about Perdita? Did you do as I instructed, Fredrick?”

”Yes, I made sure she inhaled the sleep-inducing spell,” Fredrick replied, feeling the second hand of the clock tick faster than it was before. While on the stroll with Perdita, he had discreetly cast a spell that invoked sleep which she had not been aware of, and inhaled everything.

”She should be fast asleep by now,” Fredrick added.

”Good,” Serena nodded. ”Everything should be set before we start. What we are waiting for is for Marco to fully succumb to the darkness which he isn’t far from.”

Marco lay on the bed unmoving as he continued his journey down the path of darkness. Once in a while, he would stretch his hand upward, in search of something or someone to pull him out. But every time he did that, a strong wave of energy would weaken his body, making him fall deeper into the darkness.

He felt cold, as if he was walking on ice but there was no ice. It felt like the more the darkness enveloped him, the more the coldness of it shook his bones. It was as if the darkness carried whispers of cold that caressed and sent shivers down his spine.

Marco felt the coldness increase while his body now rapidly moved toward the end of the darkness. He tried to stop his body but he couldn’t. It was as if his soul longed to be there. He longed to get out but felt caged, causing him to let out an agonizing scream that bounced on the walls of the darkness before it echoed around him.

Another scream erupted from his lips as he felt the cold embrace of the darkness finally took him in.

His eyes snapped open, showing a pair of pitch-black eyes that seemed to engulf anything they laid their eyes on.

Serena smiled with her right hand raised in the air, she spoke, ”It is time. Take your stands and make sure no one, not even the king dares come in.”