NIGHTS OF HALLOW

Lunch ended in silence with Perdita and Sthena lost in their thoughts.

Perdita was worried about the state her brother would be in, and Sthena was thinking of how to tell her what happened to her brother without making her worried, which he doubted.

Perdita dropped her knife and fork on the table beside her plate, already feeling full. She didn’t eat as much as she thought she would, which Sthena noticed too but he didn’t push her.

Taking the glass cup filled with water, Perdita drank the water in one gulp feeling thirsty all of a sudden. But even after drinking the water, she was not satisfied.

It was as if her body craved something. Something warm, thicker, and sweet.

And it was blood.

And at the thought, her throat felt more itchy and her hands balled into fists. She wanted blood and not the water she was drinking.

With the thought of wanting blood, she recalled bits and pieces of what transpired in her house in Woodbridge village.

She remembered killing and drinking the blood of all the cats in their house before she went to attack Mrs. Perkin.

Perdita’s hand shook as the thought started to sink in. The way she appeared wild and behaved like a deranged vampire, killing and drinking without care and she had also gone as far as to attack Mrs. Perkin.

If not for Sthena who arrived on time and had taken Mrs. Perkin away from her, she didn’t know what state the woman would have been in considering how wild she had behaved. Maybe the older woman would have died at her hands.

Perdita’s body shivered again at the thought that she could have killed someone. Like a scene being displayed, another memory flashed in her eyes.

Perdita this time recalled that after she almost attacked Mrs. Perkin and Sthena’s intervention, she had been so angry that she couldn’t drink Mrs. Perkin’s blood and then she...

She couldn’t remember what happened next. It felt as if her memory suddenly got blocked. Even about what she had done that Sthena kept talking about.

Her head throbbed in pain as she tried to recall the memory, but no matter what she did, it didn’t show up. It felt like there was a barrier between her and the memory.

Lost in her thought, she didn’t notice when Sthena left the table and came back with a bottle of wine he took from the cellar in his room. He opened and poured its content into a cup and replaced it with the cup of water Perdita was reaching out to take as she forced her brain to recall a lost memory.

Not knowing her water had been exchanged, Perdita brought the cup to her mouth and drank everything as she did with the water.

She stopped with her hand hung in mid-air. She stared at the cup in confusion and then at Sthena with questions in her eyes.

”It will help curb your thirst for blood in the meantime,” Sthena explained the reason for the wine. He continued to say, ”The more you stress your brain to remember, the more you’re harming yourself. Allow the memory to flow through. Don’t force it.”

Perdita gulped and nodded her head in understanding without saying anything.

How did he know what she was thinking? Perdita wondered. Was it that obvious she had been craving blood?

”Let’s go,” Sthena said and dabbed the napkin on his mouth before standing. He drew Perdita’s chair backward to make it easier for her to stand.

”Thank you,” Perdita murmured before she stood up too.

With a snap of his fingers, the head maid, Theresa walked into the room with Maria and Emily trailing behind her.

While Maria and Emily cleared the table, Sthena gave orders to Theresa. ”Get a shoe for the Lady,” He ordered.

”Yes,” Theresa bowed and left to carry out the order.

By the time Theresa came back with the shoe, a deep line of worry had creased Perdita’s forehead.

She didn’t even get the chance to compliment whoever it was that prepared such a sumptuous meal because of the unknown fear that was slowly building inside her.

Perdita slipped her legs one at a time into the shoe Theresa dropped near her feet. She stared at the costly shoe but didn’t bother to question it as she had more important things to do at the moment.

Together, Sthena and Perdita left the room, and the maids started to clean the king’s room.

At first, the hallways were deserted with no one in sight. Perdita was awed by the beauty of the castle now she was viewing it in daylight.

The beauty when she explored it on the night of the hallow ball was breathtaking, but now, it looked like she was in a dream and she still couldn’t believe she was in the castle. No wonder everyone wanted to be part of the castle. It was where power and wealth resided.

By the time they passed several hallways of the West wing where Sthena’s chamber was located, Perdita started to see several maids who were either carrying things or cleaning.

She also noticed that each time they walked near or past them, the maids will stop whatever they were doing and bow deeply at them. But most especially at Sthena.

Even though Perdita was cold with fear of the unknown, she still noticed these acts by the maids that couldn’t be mistaken as showing someone great respect. Was he really that close to the king? There was a saying she once heard, ’close to the king, close to power.’ Maybe it was the same case with him.

As they walked, Perdita will always cast a curious and suspicious look at Sthena but didn’t speak or ask him about it.

After walking for almost five minutes, Sthena and Perdita finally arrived at the hallway that led to the guest room where Marco was in.

The guards.

Sthena internally sighed. He forgot to tell the guards to leave. He had noticed the way Perdita’s eyes would suspiciously or curiously glance at him each time they encountered a maid who showed him respect as the king he was.

He knew she would be having some thoughts going through her head. And just like he expected, he heard Perdita question him.

”Is that the room my brother is in? What are the guards doing standing there?”

”I asked them to guard the room,” Sthena answered and felt like he needed to explain more so the curious eyes of Perdita would stop looking at him.

He went on to explain his lie, ”Your brother is a human in the eyes of others and there are vampires in the castle who might not know he is a vampire and they might drink from him. So to avoid this, I asked the king to give me to guards to guard the room.”

The explanation was understandable. Sthena internally sighed. He hadn’t spoken or explained to anyone as much as he did today with Perdita.

Perdita did not immediately answer Sthena until they reached the doorstep of the room. And just like the maids, the guards were quick to bow their heads deeply and respectfully at them, precisely Sthena.

Perdita’s gaze on Sthena lingered more than three seconds before she averted her gaze and said, ”Seems like you are very good friends with the king. You must feel so fortunate to have a great and powerful figure like the king as your friend.”

”I guess that is how it is always. You will experience and understand the feeling too,” Sthena replied and stepped into the room while the guards wondered about the meaning of the king’s conversation with the unknown Lady before the door closed behind them.

Perdita’s heart churned and thumped loudly in her chest when her gaze fell on Marco who lay on the bed. She was quick to walk to the bed and her thudding heart skipped a beat in fear of what might have happened to her brother.

She took Marco’s hands in hers and noticed the coldness of his hands like he was drained of blood. She hysterically touched his forehead, his face, and his chest to make sure his heart was still beating.

Relieved Marco was alive, she turned to Sthena who stood on the other side of the bed.

”What happened to him?” She croaked, fear and pain evident in her eyes. She didn’t want to think of the worst that might happen to Marco.

”He was fed with nightshade mixed with blood,” Sthena answered.

”Nightshade? What is that? How and who gave it to him?” Perdita fired her questions at Sthena.

Sthena exhaled again. He knew this was going to happen. The questions and fears were bound to happen.

”Calm down, Perdita. He’s not dying. His body is just reacting to the smell of the exorcism ritual and nightshade he was fed.” Sthena said trying to make the beating heart of Perdita calm but it didn’t help.

Her eyes were wide and she must be imagining the worst that could happen to her before with the way she stared at him.

Sthena knew there was nothing else he could do than to tell her everything which he had planned to tell her when she fully recovered.

He walked to the side of the bed she was sitting on and joined her.

”Perdita,” He gently called to get her attention before he started to narrate everything to her.

Perdita did not speak for almost thirty minutes Sthena allowed her to digest all he had told her, and it was as if she took it well. But when he saw the look in her eyes and the way her lips opened and closed with no words coming from them, he knew she was confused. But more than that, she was scared of the future.

At this moment, Sthena knew that he was going to be the guardian Perdita and Marco needed now that the truth about their heritage was surfacing. The journey had begun and it was not going to be an easy one.