NIGHTS OF HALLOW

Bang! Bang!! Bang!!!

The knock on the door continued as seconds passed with Malphus looking like he was drained of blood. His head throbbed in pain with every bang on the door.

Perdita on the other hand wondered why Malphus was not opening the door to check who his visitor was.

”Mr. Malphus, someone is at your d...”

”Shush,” Malphus immediately shushed Perdita by placing his hand on his mouth. With fear-filled eyes, he looked between the door and Perdita who stood with a confused look on her face. He panicked and pointed at the door of the next room, signaling her to go inside there.

Perdita furrowed her brows in confusion and annoyance. Who was the person that made Malphus want to chase her out of his house since she came here, and now, he is asking her to hide in his room? For what? She questioned in her mind with a suspicious look on her face.

The tension in the room rose with every passing minute Perdita refused to move towards the room Malphus asked her to hide in. She wanted to stay and know what was up with Malphus’s behavior. He has always been kind and gentle, and she had never known him to be someone who doesn’t want her in his house. What could be the problem and what was he hiding?

Perkin who was still outside heard what Perdita told the old man. His mind tried to process what she told him, that she and her brother were vampires. So they have been harboring vampires in their village! No wonder they behaved somehow unlike humans. He had always been suspicious of the siblings, and now he discovered this big secret, he couldn’t wait to go and spread the news to the villagers. The siblings should be gotten rid off!

The continuous knocking on the door interrupted Perkin’s thoughts. He was about to get down from the chair he was standing on and spread his new found secret, but when he noticed the tension between Perdita and the old man which was caused by the visitor, he decided to stay put and maybe get more evidence against Perdita.

Suddenly the air in the room changed which confused both Perdita and Malphus. They didn’t know what happened. The next second, something appeared in the room and at the same time it carried Perdita away.

Malphus was stupefied beyond words. His old legs shook and he slumped to the ground in fear of what suddenly happened in his house. What was that?! And where did Perdita suddenly vanish to? He had never seen anything as such in his life.

Perkin almost stumbled over the chair he was standing on when he saw Perdita who was in the room some seconds ago, was suddenly whisked away by a strange force he didn’t know where it came from.

What are these people?! He screamed in his mind. Seems they were more than vampires. Could they be practicing magic?

The door to the house of Malphus was kicked open by the person who had been knocking for a while now.

”What took you so long to open the door, you old hag?!”

Malphus’s body shook alongside his heart which was frantically beating in its ribcage. The sight of the person before made him want to pass out because of the fright that was building inside him. It was none other than the man who delivered those pills to him.

”Uhm... Uhm...I...I w...was in t...the other r...room. S...so I d...” Panic and fear enveloped Malphus making him stutter with every word he spoke.

”Stop it!” The man bellowed again, annoyed because of Malphus’s stammer. His red eyes glared at him before he spoke again, ”Seems you are being careless and not focused with what master asked you to do?”

”P...pardon?” Malphus questioned in fear.

”What do you mean pardon? You better stop playing your stupid old game with me, or else I’ll kill your family.”

The man dropped the bag he was holding on the floor beside him. He looked around the room as if sniffing something in the air.

Malphus watched every move of the man with an apprehensive look on his face. He was scared the man would find out that someone came and asked about the pills. He didn’t know if he should tell him about the two vampire men who came and asked about the pills. Maybe they will protect him from those vampires. Malphus thought in his mind. As each day passed, he was becoming more afraid of what this work will lead him to.

Malphus swallowed the lump of fear in his throat to speak but the man beat him to it.

The man said, ”Master is back and he’s asking about how things are over here. How is the distribution of the pills going? Have you been monitoring the people buying and taking them?” The man questioned Malphus one after the other.

”M...master is back?!” The fear in Malphus doubled at the words of the man. Master is back! His master is back?! What is going to happen now? What was he going to do? He screamed and questioned in his head.

Malphus slowly stood up from the ground with the help of his walking stick. He looked around the room as if searching for Perdita to know if she was around the room, or if the force took her out of his house. His gaze swept past the door of the next room when he heard a noise coming from there.

The man also followed his line of sight because he heard the noise too. He was a vampire, and he was sure he heard more than a noise coming from the room. It was as if there was somebody inside that room.

He looked at the door for more than a second before returning his gaze to Malphus. He asked, ”What have you been up to Malphus? Has anyone been to your home lately?”

~•~•~•~•~•~•

”Let me go!...hmmp!...” Perdita’s muffled voice sounded in the closed space she was whisked into. She didn’t know how and what happened. One minute she was in the room with Malphus, and the other she was suddenly taken away to God knows where.

”Keep quiet if you want to live” A voice whispered over her head. The hand of the person tightly closed her mouth.

Perdita’s eyes grew wild as she stared at the dark profile of the person holding her. The voice of the person indicated it was a man. The darkness didn’t help at all as it made it hard to clearly see the person who abducted her. She tried to free herself from the man’s hold, and in the process, she bit hard on the hand covering her mouth.

”Fuck!” The man cursed but the pain didn’t make him remove his hand from Perdita’s mouth, instead, it tightly clasped her mouth together with her teeth.

”Damn! Keep quiet!” The man cursed again before saying, ”I mean no harm if you could keep quiet. You’re still in the house of Malphus”

Perdita slowly released her teeth from the man’s hand with an apprehensive look still on her face. She didn’t know whom she was with in this closed space, and it seemed like the man knew Mr. Malphus too. Perdita thought in her mind as she became aware of their compromising position where the man’s hand was wrapped around her waist and his other hand was slightly touching her thigh.

Perdita looked around where they were standing. It looked like they were behind a big cupboard filled with old books that had a foul odor wafting from them. The wind suddenly blew, causing the curtain in the room to quickly part, and light from the moon illuminated the dark room before it went back and made the room dark again.

Perdita felt her breath quicken because of whom she was standing close to. It was the red-haired vampire who had discovered what she was at the market some days back. The sudden opening of the curtain made her see his face. He was the one! Even if she briefly saw him now, she could clearly remember the man and his red hair that stood out from the rest of people in the market that day.

All along, Sthena’s eyes stayed glued on Perdita whom he believed had figured out who he was. The way her green eyes widened in realization made a smile tug on his lips. At least she remembered her buns thief. But if she could keep quiet and let him do his thing and leave, then he wouldn’t do anything to her. He wondered what she would do if she discovered that the pills she was taking were for a different reason?

It was a good thing she is here today to witness what her kind old Mr. Malphus was giving her.

Perdita felt trapped in the eyes of Sthena with the way he was looking at her. She could bet he was also smiling because of the way his red eyes turned small. Her gaze went from his face to his hand that was slightly touching hers. She felt the heat of his hand that slowly slipped into her body, making her cold body turn warm. Perdita’s eyes widened at the thoughts running through her mind. She raised her to knock her head. In process, her hand grazed the length of Sthena’s leg that was covered with his crisp trouser.

A gasp escaped her which she quickly covered by biting her tongue. She looked everywhere but Sthena’s face. She wondered what he was doing in the house of Mr. Malphus in the first place. Why and how could he enter the house. And also, how was he able to adopt her and also bring her inside the other room of Mr. Malphus. What was that thing he did, magic?

Did he know him? Was he the one knocking on the door of Malphus? Or wait! Is he the vampire Mr. Malphus mentioned about? The one who asked him about the pills? The questions rose one after the other in Perdita’s head. She slowly looked up at Sthena’s dark face to see him already looking at her with his red eyes that stood out in the darkness they were surrounded in.

Perdita felt the air hang in her throat, and she swallowed the lump so she could breathe at the intense gaze of this red-haired vampire.

Perdita had to avert her gaze from Sthena when she heard the loud thud coming from the other room Malphus was in. She turned to look at Sthena again who signaled for her to keep quiet when they heard the words exchanged by Mr. Malphus and the person who had been knocking on the door.

”Answer my question, old man! Do you have anyone in that room that shouldn’t be here?!”