A way back home

Turning around, Larissa almost bumped into a lady who seemed to be of the same age as her and when she apologized, the lady sneered at her and walking past her, she moved towards the old man.

"Good evening grandfather,.._"

Before the lady could finish what she was about to say, another voice was heard and Larissa whose attention was on the lady turned around to face the person.

"I see you have brought in another one." The man commented and when Larissa whipped her face, her eyes met his.

The first thing that she noticed about him was his hair.

Spikes of it wove in and out of one another and like waves on the turbulent sea of his mind,it overflowed out of the crest of his head and receded in the back with a modest cut.

When she realized that she had stared longer than necessary, she averted her gaze and started to walk out only to be stopped by senior Hamilton.

"Larissa,"

The man called him to which she fully turned around to face him.

"The sun has already gone down. I was about to call my coachman to take you there but since Raphael is here, he should accompany you."

"There is no need for that sir, I will use the passengers carriage, besides, it is not that late."

She quickly spoke. And just as she had finished the words, the young man who had stepped into the room added,

"For the first time, I have to agree with your servant."

The way he said those words felt demeaning for her and in as much as she wanted to voice her words out, she just couldn't. After all, she was in a den of predators.

Giving another bow, she stepped out of the room and other than the lady, the two men's eyes had turned to look at Larissa whose footsteps receded towards the main entrance.

When Larissa was finally out of Hamilton's mansion, she let out the breath that She had noticed that she was holding in. Just like she could remember in the morning, the town was calm and with dusk that had come sooner than expected, she raised her eyes to look at the last of the sun rays that cosetted behind the soft grey skies.

Slowly, the view started to fade into blackness and with almost two hours that had passed, worry started to mar on her face. There were no carriages to take her home and as she could remember in the morning, the journey to her house was not a short one.

"Auntie will skin me alive." She muttered and just then, a carriage came by.

"Milady, are you heading to Onsten?" The coachman asked and nodding at his question, the coachman hopped down and moved so that he could open the carriage door.

"Onsten was a small town that was not too far from her home and relieved, she held onto the carriage door ready to get in when someone spoke from behind.

This was his second time he was speaking behind her and unsure if he was referring to her, she turned around to face him.

In the dark, his features seemed to blend well in it. His unfathomable black eyes contrasted exceptionally with his light toned face. When his lips pulled up into a smile, she abruptly looked away.

"Get into the carriage." His words were an order and with her hesitation, his face became serious. The man's aura was intimidating and when she did not move, the young man moved much closer towards her.

Lifting his hand, it came to touch hers that was still holding on to the carriage door and abruptly, he moved her hand away from the door. When he let go of her hand, she immediately pulled it to her side.

"I will use the public carriage." At her words, the young man smiled again and unlike the previous time, his smile was intimidating. There was something dark about it which made her take another step backwards.

"You are naive to think that you will get home alive." Saying that, the man moved towards the coachman who was quiet the whole time and reflexively, he snapped the coachman's neck to have him fall on the dirty ground.

At first, Larissa momentarily closed her eyes but when she opened them, the coachman's face had changed. He was no longer recognizable whereby his skin was red and scaly.

Breathless, her knees became weak. Never in her life had she ever seen such a thing and looking at it made her recoil. Not long after, a small crowd started to gather.

"A witch! There was a witch among us!" A man exclaimed and others started to speak loudly.

"Sir Raphael was the one who identified this creature."

A woman spoke to which soon after, there were praises of Raphael.

"Or I can just drag you into the carriage." The young man spoke and with his word, he held Larissa's arm and started to drag her into the carriage. What she had seen was too hard for her to comprehend and thinking out loud, she said.

"The coachman seemed nice. Why did you do that to him."

"Because witches are an abomination. All that they do is mercilessly kill and sacrifice people." The man by the name Raphael said and Larissa who did not justify his irrational explanation questioned back.

"Aren't vampires the same?"

To her question, Raphael chuckled and once he had sat next to her inside the fancy carriage, he said,

"I see that humans have a lot to say about us. Have you ever seen a vampire killing someone?" He asked before adding, "Well other than me of course."

"You shouldn't have done that to him. Maybe he just wanted to live like others." She murmered while skipping his question but receiving no reply, she turned to look at him but the man had already closed his eyes while comfortably leaning against the seat.

"God, if you get me out of this, I promise that I won't ever come back here."

Though her words were just a whisper, they did not go unheard by Raphael.