Bambi and the Duke

Vivian couldn’t think straight as she left the room of the councilman or was she supposed to take it as her blood uncle who was her mother’s brother. Her head felt heavy, a headache forming and instead of going back to the department where Leonard and the others where there, she went to the bathroom which was allocated for women.

With hardly a few women working in the council, the room was empty as tears began spilling down her eyes. She didn’t know what to make out of it. Walking to the nearby sink, she placed both her hands on either side of it as her head fell forward. She consumed with shock with what she just found out.

She had never been keen on finding out about her family that was until she found out that she belonged to a pureblooded vampires family. It had raised the hope in her mind about her family’s existence on how they were and if there were more people she could learn about to call as her own family. How could she not recognize her own young self, as they were both a spitting image of each other?

Tears fell on the dry black stone sink which hadn’t been used in a while that day. Her chest tightened as she reminisced what she saw in the memories of Abel, her uncle. She covered her face with her hand, her body falling almost slack as she slid down to squat on the floor. More tears came to fall wetting her cheeks and dress.

She cried as everything started to connect one by one. Though she didn’t want to believe, it was hard not to accept the facts all over the place. The first thought when she had realized, her thought had instantly gone to her parents. Abel’s sister and brother-in-law. A cold sweat had broken down before her emotions started to collide inside her mind.

She was a Harlow or was a Harlow. She was part of the family she had found to be disgusted with what they had done.

Due to their one mistake, so many lives had been pulled down. If her parents and uncle hadn’t let the witches off the hook, Mr. and Mrs. Carmcihael would have been alive today and there wouldn’t be this much bitterness filled in Leo’s heart to the people around him. Her own parents had done something unforgivable due to which there was nowhere she could vent out the loss she felt right now. How could she when they had been killed only to be served as a sign of justice for what happened?

”What do I do?” she whispered to herself unable to comprehend the situation she had found herself in. It wasn’t her fault, it never was but what was she going to do from here?

The very parents she had been searching all this time had turned out to be the same people who had betrayed the council by freeing the black witches. But that wasn’t what it was, it was the fact that Leonard and the Lord of Bonelake had killed her parents. She had been so eager, eager to find her parents to know more about them so that she could understand why they had given her up when she was a young girl. Was it for the reason that they were ashamed of her being a human? More tears spilled down from her eyes until everything turned blurry.

She hiccuped as she further broke down.

She stared into space as the same thought went to pass around her head over and over until her chest started to hurt again along with her stomach. The pain started to increase and it was as if her heart was trying to keep up with the internal, mental pain she felt wanting to cope up but the pain was too much.

If Vivian hadn’t heard the entire story from Leo, she woul have mistaken the entire motive and killing that took place. And though she wanted to understand, emotionally she felt hurt for Leo being the one kill her parents. They had done wrong but they were still her parents, the same parent’s who had abandoned her when she was a little girl.

Standing up, she looked into the mirror to see a blurry reflection of herself. Her parents were killed. She had heard another child’s voice apart from her when she had been in there listening to the sibling’s conversation. For one thing, she knew Abel was single and childless which would only mean that she did have a sibling. They had betrayed the council and if that was so...she closed her eyes as more tears fell on her face. In his field of work, Leonard had been taught to kill every single one of them and with what she had heard before, there was a possibility that he had killed the sibling she had.

But did he kill everyone? All this while she had only heard on how they were involved in the matter of the black witches being released. Wiping her face quickly, she made her way out of the bathroom and towards the department. Opening the door she saw Leonard raise his head from what he was doing before worry came to mar his face.

”What did Abel do?” anger came to contour his face, his eyes darkening as she stared up at him. Though Vivian had wiped the tears from her face, the little specs of water droplets that had touched her eyelashes still remained to darken her already black eyes.

Hueren and Dutan who were present in the room stared at the couple, their eyes later to fall on the lady who had only arrived at the door. She had been gone for an hour to meet councilman Abel

”My parents...” her voice was small as she uttered those two words.

Leonard’s eyebrows drew together before he gave a look to the two men to hear their chairs squeak and scrape across the floor before they stepped out of the room to give the couple the needed privacy.

”I found out about my parents-” and as she said the tears she had tried holding back broke the wall to splatter back on her cheeks that had turned pink in color.

”Shh,” he tried to quieten her sobs that broke through her delicate lips, ”Calm down, Vivi,” he took her hand but Vivian quickly went to hide her face in his chest, every single sob coming out of her mouth breaking his own heart.

As Vivian cried in his chest, Leonard smoothened the back of her hair in an attempt to calm her down but her sobs and hiccups didn’t stop. It didn’t take the smart Leonard to connect what had happened. She had worded the cause of her tears to be about her parents. She had found out who were her parents and with Abel being the person to have them being given as a memory to her touch...Leo wasn’t sure if his conclusion to the matter was right but if it was, he didn’t know what to say.

”Please tell me you killed only them,” he heard her say. Vivian moved away from his embrace, wiping her eye with the back of her sleeve which had turned wet, she looked up at him. She saw his face harden at what she said as if her words had confirmed his thoughts. Letting go of his hands slowly, she turned away from him, scared to know what more was there to know, ”Life is so strange, isn’t it? The parents whom I have been searching turned out to be dead. Who were also responsible for Mr. and Mrs. Carmichael’s death.”

”I am sorry, Vivi,” he apologized for the loss she felt. After all, he was the person who had personally seen to it that they were killed gruesomely for what they had done and he didn’t regret it. As Vivian said, they were the reason why there was chaos in the four lands right now and who knew how much chaos was going to be spread because of their single action.

Vivian shook her head, her eyes not meeting his, ”I saw my mother in there,” she confessed, her heart feeling heavy as she remembered what she had seen, ”I never...expected to find it out like this. If I knew this was what I was going to find by digging the past, I would never think of finding them. They are responsible for what is going on but-but why is it that I can feel the pain over what has happened,” she asked Leo when he came to stand in front of her.

He wiped her tear-streaked eyes, ”There’s nothing wrong with what you feel. They were your parents,” he said gingerly, not happy with the sudden revelation of what he found but who knew that those people could turn out to be his beloved’s parents? It was something far from unexpected that was undigestable news.

”I don’t even remember them,” she whispered to feel his hand being placed on her cheek, raising her face so that Leo could look into her eyes and speak.

”You were far too young when Martha brought you to the Carmichael’s house. Human or not, it isn’t easy to remember the young times, even adults forget memories in time,” he consoled her, ”Come sit here,” he pulled the chair and made her sit, fetching the jug on the table, he poured water into the glass before handing it over to her, ”Drink it.”

Vivian took a few sips before placing it on the table, her breathing getting back to normal as she had finished sobbing, her eyes staring back into space like the weather after a heavy rain which was filled with silence.

”I did not kill anyone that day except for them. For what they did,” he conveyed her the news where hope came to fill up her eyes and she looked up at him, ”But I don’t think they had another child.”

”Just me?” she asked, trying to remember if what she heard was right there. She was positive that she hadn’t misheard it. She was sure she had heard a child’s cry which didn’t come from her.

”Did you see someone else?” questioned Leonard.

”I heard a child. Very young maybe a baby,” she answered before continuing to say, ”I think it was a few years before I was sent away. D-do you think he’ still alive?” she didn’t want to keep high hopes over it but she couldn’t help but cling to the little family that could be remaining who wasn’t involved in the whole ordeal of the black witches.

”I can run through some of the reports on them and get the information by tomorrow. Can you wait until then?” he asked her to see her quickly nod.

”Yes,” she sniffed, receiving the kerchief from him, she wiped her eyes first then went to blow her nose. Feeling the discomfort back in her chest, she couldn’t help but cringe.

Leonard who had been looking at her intently saw the expression pass across her features, ”What’s the matter? Are you feeling sick?” he asked.

”I am okay,” Vivian picked the glass that she had placed, drinking the remaining water that was in there before the pain only heightened.

”You need to rest. Don’t, Vivi,” his words were gentle but firm as he spoke. Previously there was sister Isabelle to help them but right now, he couldn’t take her to a normal doctor, not even one who specialized with a pureblooded vampire. Vivian was a human but she had been showcasing rare traits of a vampire once in a while which had got him worried. If word got out in the open, it wouldn’t just her being called as a witch but there would be complications where she would be subjected to body tests.

And if there was one thing people had to be aware here was that the experimental tests were never sixty percent successful.