Chapter 127: Time in Mythweald

Few days ago

The night was quiet with the townsfolk who had gone to sleep as it was getting close to midnight and also because it wasn’t safe to stroll down the streets. No one ever knew when or how the witches got in, but when they did, people went missing. The witches didn’t spare anyone. They took what they got from the towns. Lights were blown out in the houses and the ones that burned outside the doorsteps were extinguished due to wind. But the night wasn’t over for some of them. In one of the house, in the main city of Mythweald, a girl sat on the bed reading a book next to the lantern. Her hands moved once in a while after she finished reading one page after another.

A small yawn escaped Katherine’s lips and she held it back to avoid making any noise so that she wouldn’t wake her companions in the small house. Closing the book, she put it down on the ground and blew the light in the lantern from above. Just as she went to put it down on the book, she noticed a shadow reflecting on the white wall of the room from the window which was open.

Her first thought was that it was the branches of the nearby tree that was creating the images and she brushed it off thinking it was nothing. But as she settled in her bed, the shadow of the tree which was supposed to only shake a little had now begun to move. With seconds that passed by in the night, it no longer looked like a branch of a tree and instead resembled an arm with long pointed fingers. A silhouette of a person in dark appeared on the wall under the moonlight. She felt herself freeze when the shadow increased in its size as it inched closer, one second at a time. To add to the chill atmosphere that had arrived at her window, a dog from a far distance howled, the cry so melancholic that it made her feel queasy.

The night was so still that it exaggerated things around her. Sitting on the bed, she held her breath to not alert who ever it was walking outside the house. The shadow passed. Disappearing behind the window and walls. She had been too scared to turn before and now when she did, there was no one there. With a frown on her face she got up from the bed unsure. Lighting the lantern again, she carried it as she slowly walked towards the window to close it shut. Once she had closed it, she then walked out of the room to see a single candle burning brightly before it went out. The smell of the extinguished candle filled up the entire room. Seeing her cousin fast asleep, she turned around to almost scream when she saw someone standing right in front of her.

Thankfully it was none other than Malphus, her friend and ally, who had placed his hand on her mouth to stop her from any possible screaming.

“Shh,” he whispered, his finger on his lips indicating her to keep quiet while looking at the main door that was closed. He continued to look at the door before his shoulders relaxed.

“What’s going on?” she asked, anxiousness lacing her whispered voice.

“Someone uninvited is out in the town, walking through the streets,” he answered. Going to check the door, he pushed and pulled it to make sure it was locked. He then asked, “Why aren’t you asleep?”

“I was but then I saw someone by the window. What do you mean uninvited?”

“It is midnight. An odd hour for a human to be strolling in the town unless it’s a witch, which I doubt it is,” Katherine replied to see him nod knowing well the more they spoke, the more her curiosity would peek about it.

“I am not sure. Who ever it was seems to have gone now. You should go sleep,” he said leading her back to the room.

Once Malphus saw that the girl had fallen asleep. He left the candle in the corner of the room and closed the door behind him. Like the girl said, it wasn’t a witch. Being part of another realm, he was well aware that whatever was walking outside wasn’t remotely living. Stepping out of the house himself, he walked in search of it. It had been so long since he roamed on these grounds which he had escaped years ago. Nothing had changed, not the streets, not the people nor the lord who acted as the lord of the South. After walking for sometime, he finally caught sight of the person. Was it even a person? Thought Malphus to himself. The creature wore dark ragged cloak around it as it floated behind the forest. Though he didn’t get much glimpse of it, he noticed the bones which looked rotten beneath the cloak it wore.

Malphus who stood, staring at the forest where the creature had gone to, turned around to only be confronted by it as it stood in front of him.

“Hell!” he exclaimed moving away from it. Hadn’t it gone away a minute ago? He jumped back when it didn’t wait to strike at him with it’s bone like hands making whip like sounds in the air as it tried to get him. The creature was fast and lethal in its attacks. Unsure of what and why it was attacking him, he dodged it. Since he had arrived in the south empire, his body had lost its strength and he had turned to a weak human. In no time, the creature got its hand on him and around his neck, waiting to devour him but it didn’t. It stopped, with its previously firm grip, it let go of him before heading back into the forest, leaving the man coughing on the ground.

When the creature returned back to Bonelake, Nicholas was in his study room, cleaning the drawers of the desk where he had placed few important papers from the council. Feeling the presence of the ghoul, he turned around to see it. The ghoul was a silent creature and the lord didn’t need it to speak as it was part of him.

In rare cases of the pure blooded vampires, they were gifted vampires out of the whole lot. Not all but very few of them. And out of it, only some knew to utilize the gift.

Being born under different circumstances and having thick pure blood running in his veins, Nicholas was one level higher in the vampire world. The ghouls were his essence, who were born after the trauma he had gone through when he was in the house with his mothers blood and flesh in the room.

He sighed after few seconds. With what he knew the Lord of Valeria had sent Katherine Welcher, the woman he loved to the land which was seeking to create problems. He shook his head, wondering if Lord Alexander had something in his mind. Thinking about it, he spoke to the ghoul that had returned to him,

“I only want you to keep a watch on the girl. Don’t interfere with what’s going. For now, we are only the onlookers.”