NIGHTS OF HALLOW

Leaving the mother and daughter duo, Sthena continued down the hallway and to the drawing room where he had first wanted to go when he left the courtroom.

Reaching the drawing room, the guards at the door bowed deeply at the king and opened the door for him to walk in.

Sthena walked towards the table, went around it, and sat down on the chair behind it.

The brown polished bocote table held some parchments and paperwork on the left-hand side, while the stamp and pencil holder was on the right-hand side. The table was neatly arranged and well-kept to match the taste of the king.

Sthena bent his body and reached inside the first drawer of the table and brought out more parchments he placed on the table. He rolled one of them open and started to read the content.

As his eyes moved to read each word written on the parchment, his perfect eyebrows furrowed themselves, and before he finished reading the contents of it, his handsome face was marred with a deep frown.

Sthena crumpled and threw the parchment aside when he finished reading it. His eyes dangerously darkened as the anger from the courtroom returned.

He stood from his chair and walked to the floor-to-ceiling glass window that was heavily draped with thick dark-colored curtains. His mood was unpredictable, but one thing was sure. He was more than annoyed with what he had read from the parchment.

Sthena drew the dark-colored curtain open to reveal the spectacular view of the castle and the land beyond.

No matter where one stayed to view the castle, it always looked magnificent and breathtaking from all angles.

From the view of the drawing room where Sthena was, one can see the tall great walls and gate of the castle. One can also see the entrance of the castle, and the enormous fountain that was surrounded by the beautiful greenery garden that held different colors and species of plants and flowers.

Staring ahead of him, Sthena saw the carriage of the church members leaving the castle making him wonder what they were still doing inside the castle since he ordered Daemon to escort them to their carriage.

Soon, the carriage left through the gate and thick walls of the castle, and shortly afterward, he heard the sound of someone’s approaching footsteps.

No one came to this side of the castle once the king walked into the drawing room to start working. Even the two guards that stood outside to guard the room also leaves from their position. Unless the person had a very urgent discussion or problem that demanded his attention, was the person allowed to come near the drawing room.

Knowing it was Daemon who was the only one permitted to come to the drawing room anytime, Sthena kept quiet and waited patiently for Daemon to walk in.

Sthena drew the curtains close and at the same time, a knock was heard outside his door.

”Come in,” He voiced his permission before Daemon walked in.

”Milord,” Daemon bowed his head in greeting. ”The church members have left the castle.”

Sthena nodded his head in acknowledgment, ”I saw them from here. What took them so long to leave the castle?” He asked with his back still facing Daemon.

”The church members thought they heard a growl and wanted to check what it was. But I assured them that it was probably the wolf growls.” Daemon informed.

”Did they now? Those snoopy fools. Tch,” Sthena clicked his tongue in distaste and slipped his hand into his pants pocket.

That must be the growls of the deranged vampires he had recently caught and put in the dungeon. Sthena thought.

Daemon peeked at the things on Sthena’s table and his eyes fell on the scrunched parchment on the table. He moved from where he stood and walked towards the table, and took the crumpled parchment wondering why the king turned it to the state it was in.

Daemon strengthened the parchment without looking at what was written on it before he kept it back on the table. Before he could withdraw his hands after he had kept the parchment, he heard the voice of Sthena asking him to read it.

”Read it, Dae, and tell me what you think of it.”

”Yes, Milord.” Daemon obliged and took the parchment again before starting to read it.

As he read it, Sthena turned around to watch him. Daemon had a passive expression on his face, but as he got to the point where Sthena must have probably gotten to when his mood turned sour, the look on Daemon’s face changed.

Daemon’s face contoured in anger he felt like not only crumpling the parchment but also tearing and burning it to ashes.

”What do you think of the content of the parchment?” Sthena questioned Daemon when he saw he was done reading it.

”I think that this parchment should be burnt. And not only the parchment, but also the sender’s hands should be ripped off, and his eyes gouged out from their sockets.” The anger Daemon felt could be heard in every word that left his lips. He felt like spitting venom at the moment.

Sthena chuckled at the reaction of Daemon. He was glad they shared the same reproach towards the content of that parchment and its sender.

”What are you going to do, Milord?” He heard Daemon ask.

The smile on Sthena’s face vanished and was replaced by a grim look. He walked forward and sat down on his chair while Daemon took to the couch in the room.

Sthena spoke after a short silence, ”Though I want nothing but to do as you had said, I have no choice but to continue playing my game.”

”Make them believe I’m ignoring them while I attack from the back, and then sit back and watch them falling flat into my trap.” Sthena further spoke in his nonchalant tone while he was cooking some wicked plot in his head.

Sthena leaned on the table and clasped his hands. He glanced at Daemon and questioned, ”How much time do we have till the church conducts the exorcism in Woodbridge village?”

Daemon shifted in his seat and propped his chin with his palm in thought. After a while, he answered, ”I think we have until the morning of tomorrow.”

Sthena nodded his head in agreement with what Daemon said. He replied, ”You are right.”

The church was not the type to waste a second in accomplishing and solving a case like this one. And he knew that without him meddling and interfering in the case, the church would have gotten the missing pieces about the abduction of Mr. Perkin and Mrs. Perkin.

They had done a good job in finding out that it is not because Mr. Perkin discovered that his wife was indulging in immoral acts and taking birth control pills, that he ran away. But then, they were also foolish to accuse the vampire who helped to release Mrs. Perkin.

And all this could only be done and discovered by Churchman Theodore, who was a mystery himself. It made him wonder if there were other things they found out that they were not telling him. Because with Churchman Theodore involved, things were bound to be unveiled.

Sthena wanted to rush things so he could go ahead with the next agenda in his head, and that was the reason why he had approved the exorcism in the village of Woodbridge.

There was no way they would find any vampires abducting humans, and neither will they find any missing Mr. Perkin, because the missing man in question was currently in the underground dungeon enjoying his old days with a blood-deprived vampire who was good as a deranged vampire.

Mr. Perkin was occasionally fed, but with Clayton, he was left without food or blood. It was a fun and cruel way to torture a vampire. Secondly, the King was using him as an experiment to taste how long he would last without blood.

It has been more than a month now, but so far Clayton has been holding it well more than he thought he would. Perhaps it was the work of the pills he took that was aiding him. Just how strong were those blood pills? Sthena questioned himself.

As for the siblings, Perdita and Marco, he had the perfect plan for them. Daemon had reported to him about the visit of John the colleague of Clayton to the siblings, and of how he had posed as Samuel to deceive Perdita and her brother. Such a stupid madman. Sthena clicked his tongue. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Perdita and Marco must be stranded and anxious because of everything going on around them. He imagined how Perdita must be racking her brain on ways to keep both of them safe, and also how she will be looking for him because he knew she will surely look for him. But things had been tight in the castle. Things that kept him away from going to the village of Woodbridge.

The thought of this made Sthena’s grip on the pencil he was holding tighten around it. He rested his back on the chair he sat on and swirled the pencil in his hand. He hummed with a dangerous glint appearing in his dark glacial red eyes. He muttered,

”We have until tomorrow morning before the church conducts the exorcism.”

Until tomorrow morning to execute my plans. Sthena thought to himself and pressed the pencil he was holding in the middle with his thumb. The pencil broke from the impact, like how he was planning to break some people’s bones.