Bambi and the Duke

The little girl stepped into the room which was darker than the night in the corridors of the mansion. It was a large room that hadn’t been used for a long time where the objects had been covered with white sheets to avoid dust settling on it.

Little Vivian held one hand tightly on her dress, the other close to her chest out of fear. She was scared so scared that every step she took into the room, her legs shook which made her almost fall in the dark.

It had been more than an hour since Leonard, his cousins and Vivian had started to play hide and seek in the mansion. Leonard who already knew of Vivian’s fright over dark had tried to keep her out from being seeker but he had failed because one his cousin, Christopher had caught on him trying to protect the girl from playing fairly in the game.

Having been the one who always stuck to Leo it was the first time for her to be seeking others and it felt lonely and quiet. The part of the mansion they were playing at was the place where not many maids came to walk by leaving it isolated.

”Do you think we have to go get caught?” asked Julliard who peeked where he stood behind the chair looking at the human girl looking around the room as if she were about to pass any moment.

”Why would you do that? And why are you standing so close here to get me caught!” whispered Charlotte at her brother. The siblings had taken upon the covered chairs to hide from the girl who had turned to be a seeker this time, ”But she’s never got the turn to seek. It is only fair that we let her play this one round before letting her pass again like we usually do,” Julliard nodded his head before looking back at the girl.

Funny enough, there was also Rhys who had hid in this room to his absolute annoyance to be stuck with the other two cousins of his. Every time they came to the Carmichael’s mansion, the first and only game they played was Hide and Seek. With the human girl small where Charlotte wanted her to be included in the game, the girl was by default someone who only hid and even if someone did catch her blatantly out, no one ever turned her to be the next seeker. It was a mutual understanding between Leonard, Rhys, Julliard, and Charlotte.

But right now, his paternal cousins had decided to join in the game which included Eleanor, her brother and two more girls who had decided not to play.

There had been many times where rooms had turned dark with the rain and thunder, the lightning striking up from the sky which enhanced one’s imagination of the objects that was covered which even scared Eleanor and Charlotte who hid in the same room. Apparently four of them had decided to use the same room to hide- Julliard, Charlotte, Rhys, and Eleanor with little Vivian who was walking with small footsteps looking left and right.

A loud thunderstruck which was enough for everyone to look at the window. Rhys who stood right in front of the window caught sight of a little grasshopper that was trapped from the outside.

The green grasshopper looked as if it were struggling with the raindrops that continuously fell on the window which pushed the grasshopper down every time it tried to climb up. The grasshopper was strong to be trying its luck in surviving the rain. After five seconds of watching it, the little dark-haired boy went to it. Reaching his hand to the lock of the window so that he could open it. The rainwater started to spray inside where he stood while he tried to catch hold of the grasshopper by putting his hand outside.

Little Vivian had been walking around the room as it was the next room she had to search after the previous room which she had passed by. With Rhy’s body which was hidden behind the large tall statue, she caught sight of only a hand that was moving outside the room, outside the window. She slightly staggered back in fear of if it was the ghost’s hand that was trying to get inside.

On the other side of the room where Eleanor was crouched down behind the covered couch, she was waiting for the girl to move quicker. How slow was she? The vampiress didn’t know why the servant girl was even playing with them when she wasn’t part of the high vampires nor was she intelligent enough. She leaned to her left to look at the girl’s back where she was still walking in the room.

On-time, a cockroach that was had made it’s own in the corner of the room came out to, crawling on the floor and the objects before heading towards the vampiress. After looking at the human, the vampiress moved back in her original position to come face to face with the little winged brown creature.

The window that had been opened by Rhys not only let the rainwater and the grasshopper in but the wind outside was strong enough to slip through the crack of the window which was yet to be closed. The air blew the white cloth which was placed to cover the stand which looked like a haunted ghost that suddenly started to move.

Little Vivian looked absolutely terrified, her body trembled further at the sight of the tall hooded white ghost which started to move. The ghost had hands which were flailing its arms around and when the wind blew further into the room, the cloth moved forward which was trying to protect the stand but in the little girl’s eyes, it was trying to catch her!

She took a step back but it wasn’t enough. At the same time, to time everything the cockroach that had been sitting and staring at the vampiress suddenly started to flap its wings to fly and settle itself on her nose. Eleanor screamed loudly out of fright, the window suddenly came to shut by Rhys locking it and Vivian who had turned around to flee from the room fell face flat with tears in her eyes while also hitting both her knees on the floor.

Hearing the scream both Leo and Christopher arrived at the storage room. Eleanor who was moving around while trying to get something off and Vivian who was on the ground. Christopher being Eleanor’s brother went to look at her while Leo went to Vivian to see if she was alright. The others came around too.

”What happened to you?” asked Charlotte looking at Rhys who was half drenched.

”Nothing,” answered Rhys.

”Bambi, are you alright?” asked Leo crouching down in front of her. Little Vivian nodded her head but there were clear tears that shone in her big eyes, ”You dummy, you got hurt,” he said sniffing the air and looking at her before his eyes settled on her knees.

”Vivi got hurt?” asked Charlotte worried, she pushed her brother and sat next to Vivian to inspect the scrape on both the knees, ”Let me carry you,” said Charlotte ready to piggyback her.

”You will put her down,” commented Rhys immediately, ”Let Leo pick her up,” the dark-haired boy suggested. Eleanor hearing this, even if she were a child for a vampire her mind was sharper than even Charlotte who was two years older to her. Leonard had always given her the attention and it seemed that suddenly the spotlight had been hogged my a mere servant which she didn’t like.

Wanting the attention, she started to cry, ”There was the scary cockroach that flew right at me,” even her own brother stared at her, ”It must still here!” she said to everyone.

”It is just a cockroach, Ele. I am sure it would have gone away,” Julliard being the nicest of the three maternal cousin’s said to her who only continued to cry.

And then Charlotte joked, ”Ele you should be happy that it didn’t fly to sit in your mouth. Imagine it crawling in your mouth while flapping its wings,” she gave out the vivid description making the other vampiress wail even more.

Leo sighed and picked up the girl who hadn’t uttered a word even though her knees were bleeding...