Malphus then asked, “Are you alright?” She bit her lips feeling them tremble at his concerned question and she nodded her head.

“Come here, Katie,” he waved his hand through space in between the bars.

The cell wasn’t big and therefore even with the short chains around her ankles that was fixed to the walls she could still crawl to where Malphus was. When she placed her hand in his she felt him squeeze it gently.

“I am sorry for your loss. If you want to cry you can, little lady,” he spoke to her in a certain gentleness that made her sniff but she shook her head stubbornly, “We all have to leave this place and go. We bring nothing, we take nothing. Think it this way…his time was written before birth and it was taken away.”

“But to be taken in such cruel way. Why do people who offer kindness are the ones to suffer the most?” she questioned in general, “So many innocent people who were killed and are going to be killed, what have they done to deserve it?”

“This is the world we live and this is how it functions. You cannot ask how and why because it is survival of the fittest. You only have to thrive,” Malphus said rubbing his thumb soothingly at the back of her hand before loosening it and letting it go.

She told him about what had happened the previous night and what Ralph had said to her. “I don’t know if I am dreaming,” she said staring at the ground, “One minute you are waiting to eat dinner and another minute you see nothing but crimson blood surrounding you,” her voice ending into a whisper.

“May be we all are. You are have a bruise,” Malphus murmured and she touched the side of her cheek that throbbed before flinching away, “Did you get into a fight?”

“I don’t remember,” she sighed softly. She had been shocked to see her sibling pass away in her arms that she didn’t remember much of what had occurred after that.

She mourned for her cousin silently, hiding her tear streaked face from Malphus or the guards who walked past their cells. She had lost each and every one of her family whom she held dear to her. Everyone taken away by murder, killed mercilessness. Wiping her cheeks she took a deep breath to calm herself, staring at nothing but space as minutes passed.

When night had fallen she saw Malphus getting up from the ground to look outside the small window of the wall. She hadn’t noticed it before but it seemed that the place they were held in was surrounded by water as she heard the splash of water. Copying him she stood up to see the night sky outside the window. Like she had thought they were surrounded by water.

The other captives of the south empire were held few cells away from where they were. The prison was old; the iron bars worn out and rusted to show case the brown and red spots of age to it.

It was quiet. Quiet except for the echo of the guards footsteps and the water hitting the prison walls from outside. Though it had been more than two weeks since she had come to Mythweald, she didn’t know that the river was connected to such a vast water body. Her hand grazed over something on the wall and she bent down to see what it was.

Malphus 1833

Had he been in this place before or was it another person’s name?

Katie saw Malphus looking outside, his unblinking eyes staring out of the prison and it was then that she noticed that unlike her, his hands were shackled too. Feeling her gaze on him, Malphus spoke,

“Aren’t you curious as to what they spoke?”

“I am,” Katie replied while going back to sit on the ground. It had been too much of information and events that had taken place in the last twenty-four hours that she was still processing what had happened.

She had never been one to pry in others lives and knowing that Malphus wasn’t one to reveal about himself or his family even in the past, she had kept quiet. And it didn’t feel right to ask him even though she had so many questions she wanted to ask him.

With what she heard until now it was obvious that Malphus didn’t get along with his family. Not his father or his younger brother. Now that she thought about it, she recollected the time when he had followed Silas when they had visited the church. He had been shocked that day.

Malphus had died thirteen years ago in south would mean that Silas who was in his early twenties now would have been really young at that time, a little boy.

“Like few pure blooded vampires who like to have only vampires in their company and surroundings, the Mythweald empire has always preached indirectly to have only humans on their land,” Malphus began while still looking outside, his hand going to hold one of he grill on the window where air passed.

“My father, Esdras Norman married my mother, a woman of a low class out of force and power. She never wanted to marry him but she did anyways due to the force of her parents. Humans are no less than vampires when it comes to emotions such as selfishness, with no regard to another. The previous Lord of the south had only passed at that time and therefore the title and ego going straight to his head.”

“My mother was brought into the Norman’s mansion and she gave birth to me an year later. I was treated well with love and care as the blood of a Norman ran in my veins but it wasn’t so with my mother,” he gripped the grill tightly in his hand, turning his knuckles white as though he was controlling his anger.

He looked at his mother who had a deep red mark on her face. Climbing up on her lap, he traced his finger out of curiosity to see his mother smile.

“What is this, mama?” he questioned her with his dull grey eyes.

“A small scratch darling,” she ran her hand through his hair, combing it as she helped him get into bed in his room, “How was your day? I heard from the butler that you sat on a horse today.”

The five-year-old boy smiled at her brightly, “I did, mama. The brown one let me sit down. One day we will ride the horses together with papa,” and his mother continued to smile.

“Of course we will,” she answered tucking the blanket around him before they heard a noise outside the room, “Sleep, my child. Good night,” she kissed his forehead before getting up and walking outside the door.

Malphus heard a crash outside and he moved his blanket, stepping down the bed he opened the door slightly to peek outside. He caught sight of his parents along with another woman who was clinging to his father’s arm while his mother was on the floor crying.

“Look at your pathetic self before pointing a finger on me you wretch. A woman of no knowledge on how to behave in public. Stay out of my quarters and don’t try to question me ever! Did you hear that!” his father yelled at his mother while taking the woman hanging on his arm to his room.