บท 34: The story
The maid named Marie woke up in the morning to have a sore throat. She coughed every few minutes, clearing her throat in the beginning before a light headache started to form at the back of her head.
Marie continued to dust the windows and cleaned it when another maid noticed how Marie was struggling to keep herself on her feet, "You should go rest. I will let Sir know about your health."
"No, I am fine. It might be the passing cold," said the young girl who was a human. The people who lived in the land of Bonelake, especially humans, were susceptible to cold and often caught sickness that passed by in three to four days.
The other maid gave her a nod, "Make sure you don't get drenched in the rain," and the girl went away leaving Marie standing there at the window who continued to clean the glass until it looked like the glass was not there and if one were to move hand they would be able to feel the wind that was outside.
She was alright when she went to bed last night which made her wonder how she caught a cold now. Maybe her body had turned weak, thought Marie to herself and she walked to the next window with the bucket of water in her hand.
Belle, who was walking past the corridor saw Marie cleaning and she offered the maid a polite smile before she made her way down the stairs. Noticing the butler who was instructing the coachmen about something, she waited for him to complete speaking and when he turned around, his eyes met hers.
"Good morning, Miss Belle," he bowed his head, "Did you have a good sleep?"
"I did. What happened?" she asked looking at the coachmen and then him.
"The horses untethered from their holds and trampled in and around the garden last night. The coachmen said they had made sure to tie them up and don't know how they got out."
"Will they be in trouble for that?" Belle looked up at him.
"No milady," Lucas gave her a smile of assurance. He noticed how Belle let out a sigh of relief and as she did that, her eyes went to look at the orchard tree of the apples, "Is everything alright?" he asked her, his eyes calmly looking at her.
"I feel like I have been daydreaming recently," she chuckled softly under her breath.
"What did you dream about?" he asked her and she shook her head.
"I keep seeing things and when I look closer whatever I have seen is not there," she replied to him thoughtfully with her eyebrows that had drawn together.
Lucas knew what she was seeing was the side of the world people didn't believe or weren't exposed to which is why Belle was questioning what she saw. The land of the living and the land of dead moved together but there was a thin frame that separated in ways where it was only the dead who could see the living and know what life was.
"Sometimes, things need to be looked at from a distance rather than up close," Lucas said to her not wanting to disregard and dismiss what she said to be just her imagination. This piqued Belle's interest.
Her red eyes looked into his. Belle was happy to hear this from him. Not every time, everyone believed what she had told since she was a child. There were times when she was young she had gone to tell her parents about the ghosts that she saw and maybe it was a fragmented dream of imagination which her mind had conjured but if there was one person who believed her words and listened to her, it was Lucas.
Lucas had always been the person she was able to confide to. Her fears and dread at night which is why the butler was often found accompanying her in the night until she fell asleep before he would go back to his own room.
"You think what I saw was real?" There was one person who didn't think she was crazy and it warmed her heart to think Lucas allowed her to speak about it without shushing her and telling her she needed to stop dreaming.
"We live in a world where a wolf howling at the moon in a distance is regarded as the time of ill omen. We live in a world where humans, vampires, witches all live together. It is a world full of possibilities, Miss Belle. Some have the ability to see things and some don't by turning a blind eye by letting it bury deep that they never find out."
"Tell me more," Belle said, interested in what he was saying right now.
Lucas' eyes moved behind her and around to make sure no one was there near them, he then said, "There was a boy a long time ago. A small one maybe seven or eight years old? He used to tell his parents and his sibling how he saw shadows that moved at the time of night. He complained about them but no one ever listened to him. His parents asked him to grow up, telling him he should act his age and to be brave."
"What happened then?"
"And then he stopped seeing them and never saw it again. The question points to if what he saw was real or if it was his imagination that was talking. Some came to believe that he saw things his eyes were not supposed to see while some called him to be crazy but that wasn't all," said Lucas to her, he turned around to walk towards the orchard and she followed right behind him, "When he was finishing his teenage years, people said that he went crazier. Speaking to himself while he would walk through the streets, muttering under his breath and after some time he died."
Belle didn't know what to make of this story. It was a story she had not heard of before. She herself had come to see a shadow following her and it was more than twice, "How did he die?" she wanted to know if the shadow had killed him.
"The villagers killed him," Lucas deadpanned.
The villagers must have thought he was possessed, thought Belle to herself. Now that wasn't something she had heard for the first time. It was the reason why witches were killed without mercy. The humans and also the vampires believed in ill omens. They believed people like that had to be removed and thrown into the fire before they would bring a plague into their own lives and was an action looked as protection when in truth now it was downright brutal.
After some thought, she asked him, "Are you telling this so that I don't discuss this with anyone?" Sometimes she didn't know what Lucas was trying to say. He would say one thing which would end up turning in another direction.
She had stopped walking to see Lucas reach a branch of the apple tree, he pulled it down and plucked the fruit out of it before coming to give it to her, "I was only iterating the story, Miss Belle. It is for you to infer what it means and if you want to apply something out of it or discard it. I know you have been seeing shadows."
Belle's stomach felt like it free fell, "Is it because of that night?"
Lucas looked at her, his calm peaceful expression turning her nerves errant and anxious, "No. I know something has been coming after you. You have been having this worried look who keeps looking around the ground," was it that obvious? Asked Belle to herself.
"You appear to know more than a butler should," she pointed to see a faint smile appear on his lips.
"I am older than you, Miss Belle. It is only reasonable that I will know things which you aren't aware of," he answered her comment.
She knew she wasn't imagining it when she had seen the shadows move and now that there was someone who had affirmed its existence, Belle asked, "What are they?"
"That I don't know," Lucas knew what they were but today wasn't the day for her to know about it, "Pray to God and hope everything goes well? How long has it been since you visited church?" he asked her.
"Three weeks," answered Belle before her eyes started to look around the trees to see any strange things and when she found none, she said, "The apples look in a better condition now."
"Had to swat away the chipmunk that was biting the apples."
When silence fell between them, Lucas was looking at the mansion and Belle was looking at him, her eyes trying to capture every movement of his. The rare times he offered her his smile which was in truth to only persuade her to listen to him, Belle felt herself being pulled towards him.
Her heart was already fond enough before she had come to realize and now that she had acknowledged what she felt for him, Belle couldn't stop her eyes from following him or finding him.
With the giddy feelings she felt right now, Belle couldn't stop the smile and soft blush that appeared on her face.
Lucas who noticed this asked with a passive voice, "What are you smiling at?" his eyes narrowed noticing her cheeks turning pink in color. She was still smiling until she heard him say, "Lady Olivia will be visiting in two hours of time," and it was as if someone had thrown a cold bucket of water on her, her smile drowning down with it.
Belle muttered under her breath, "I hope her carriage breaks down."
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