NIGHTS OF HALLOW

”Oh, Theodore. Don’t look at me like I’m going to put the village on fire.” Sthena chuckled, shaking his head disapprovingly.

Theodore did not respond to this. He only stared at Sthena with — ’are you kidding me?’ look. What task of the king did not require the snapping of someone’s head or breaking of bones?

Theodore for a long time, almost since the church was established, had been working hand in hand with the king.

The king always got information about the church and the things that were discussed from him, and the king sometimes also lets him know the missing pieces of some cases he was assigned to solve.

Almost forty five percent of the cases Theodore successfully solved were all done with the help of Sthena. They worked hand in hand and both parties received benefits from each other.

Theodore almost know about the king’s activities, and also before he got to know about them, it was always through digging up the case from the least expected and dangerous place. The king was cruel and evil to people. The only difference was that he showed this side of himself to anyone who tried to go against him.

Aside from all the cruel characteristics he displayed, he noticed that the king was actually kind and also good to the people he favored. For example, the witch who was going to help them with the exorcism was captured and brought to them by Sthena during the time the church needed to solve an important hard case. But Donovan didn’t know about this. He thought the witch was captured by him, not knowing it was the king who was helping them all along.

What confused him was why the King choose to make himself be viewed as a cruel person by everyone. Everyone you asked about the king in the kingdom, the answer was always that the king was a cruel person. Or was it a misconception that was carried around in the kingdom by the people? Theodore wondered as he stared at the king with his striking red hair that was covered with his hood.

The silence between Sthena and Theodore was broken when Sthena continued to speak, ”I only want you to do some things for me. Not really you, but you help the person performing the task to get in and also switch and put things in place for me.”

”No bloodshed or breaking of bones,” Sthena said. The smile on his face dropped and was replaced by a serious look that told Theodore that whatever the king was talking about was a serious matter to him. It made him wonder what it was that got the king to be here by himself without asking another person to do the task for him. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

Theodore nodded his head in obligation to the king’s words. He asked, ”Who do I help get in and what do I put in place for you?”

Sthena smiled. The kind of smile one had to be wary of and also the one that meant business. He replied to Theodore, ”You know my chief advisor, don’t you?”

”Yes,” Theodore nodded his head to a yes. The chief advisor was more like a brother to him. His co-associate in all his evil and good works.

”Good. I want you to help him get in without your fellow church members noticing him.” Sthena responded to Theodore’s answer.

Theodore’s head tilted to the side and his brows rose in confusion. He inquired, ”Do you mean, chief advisor, Daemon?”

”Yes,” Sthena confirmed. He further spoke, ”I know you are surprised as to why I’m asking you to help him get in which he can perfectly do without the notice of the guards or your fellow church members.”

”I want it to be less suspicious. And also I have another reason for doing it that way. Just help him get in and he will tell you what next that will be done.”

”Okay. But it’s that all, Milord?” Theodore carefully questioned, and at the same time wondering why and what the king was doing here if he was going to ask his chief advisor to do it.

”Yes, that is all,” Sthena answered. He saw the question in Theodore’s eyes and he grinned widely at the vampire church member without saying or giving him more details of what he came to do in the village of Woodbridge.

Sthena turned around and glanced at the witch who had made her way out of the cave she was in, which was in the alley. She had heard the conversation between the king and Churchman Theodore and made her way out.

Sthena’s eyes briefly looked at the witch that now stood in front of him. He saw the witch bow her head in greeting which he acknowledged with a wave of his hand.

The witch looked nothing like what witches looked. Shrunken eyes, jagged teeth, slit-like eyes, and cracked skin, she didn’t look that way. With the portions they always brewed and drank to keep their ghastly nature intact, one would think that the beautiful woman with green eyes was a normal beautiful woman with her human features.

Sthena watched the witch for a while and his eyes subtly narrowed. Looking at the woman, she suddenly resembled someone he knew. But he kept quiet on it and rather said to the witch,

”Serena. It’s good to see you. Help the church perform a small ritual.”

The was a change of expression on Serena’s face. Her eyes and eyebrows furrowed with a slight frown on her face.

”Okay,” Serena answered and decided not to voice out her displeasure. The king had helped her a lot and she was repaying him the kind gesture he showed her when she was almost killed.

What Donovan the Headchurch member didn’t know was that they were not the ones keeping her captive as he thought they were. It was because of the king who gave her a place and food to eat that she was still in this kingdom. And also because of a second reason which was dire to her, and she wanted to accomplish and find that which she was looking for, though it had been years and finding it would be tough.

”I’ll leave you two to continue with what you are about to start while I continue with my sightseeing,” Sthena spoke before leaving the witch and Theodore there.

Theodore slightly scoffed at the words of the king. Sightseeing? That was more like looking for bones to break. He thought to himself.

Theodore turned to look at Serena and said, ”Come on. Let’s go and get this done over with. We don’t have much time and I’m already bored with this case that won’t go anywhere.”

Serena didn’t speak and only followed behind Theodore who walked with a slow and lazy step as if he was knowingly dragging the time and delaying the exorcism that would start in a few minutes.

As they walked, the sound of their footsteps echoed in the quiet and slightly dark alley. The dull weather didn’t help at all as the village felt as if there was no living soul in it.

Theodore led Serena through the part he and Sthena had come from and when they reached the place Sthena was standing, the witch suddenly stopped.

She looked around the place as if she was searching for something, and then her eyes landed on the wall where Perdita’s message was before Sthena had erased it.

Serena’s eyes shone brightly as a small glint of hope appeared in her green eyes. She immediately walked forward and placed her hand on the same where Perdita’s message was. She inhaled deeply as if trying to decipher something but met a dead end.

The hope and small smile that appeared in her eyes died down when she didn’t get what she was looking for. Her green eyes became dull in disappointment.

Theodore didn’t notice the witch had stopped a while ago. He stopped and asked the disappointed woman, ”Anything wrong, Lady Serena?” He addressed her as a Lady because he knew, the young-looking witch was older than him, and if he was correct, there was a huge generational gap between them.

”No,” Serena answered and they both continued to walk and soon, they left the alley and arrived at the place where Donovan stood and was waiting for them.

”What took you so long? I’ve been standing here for a while now. Come on, let’s get on with it.”

”Hmm,” Theodore hummed as an answer and shifted to the side to allow Serena walk through.

They needed to quickly do the ritual without Churchman Welsh and Churchwoman Martha being there and discovering the hidden witch.

”Is everything in place and ready?” Serena questioned the two church members. Days before the exorcism, she had given them the instruction to be followed and everything needed for the exorcism.

”Yes,” Theodore and Donovan answered at the time.

Hearing their answer, Serena moved and took one of the things that were brought by Donovan.

She took the white chalk inside the carton and drew a circle where she walked and stood. She drew another line inside the circle that looked like a triangle. On the lines of the triangle and the circle, she poured holy water on them.

Serena closed her eyes and muttered some incoherent words only to her hearing. When she opened her eyes, her green orbs had turned to white with no specks of green in them. The next second she turned, she took the knife inside the carton and cut her wrist, enough for blood to slip out of the wound.

She bent and used the blood to trace on the same line she had poured the holy water on. When she stood up again, invisible vapors which only she and Theodore could see started to evaporate from the circle, and it marked the beginning of the exorcism.