Soul Eaters

Lucas stepped out of the mansion, his eyes falling on the servant named Milo who was in the horse shed, he walked up to him to ask, "Milo," he called the young human who had been stacking the hay for the horses in the shed.

"Yes, Sir," Milo answered the butler, leaving the hay that he had picked up to dust his hands and walked towards the butler.

"How long have you been working for the Adams family again?" he asked the boy.

"Ah, I guess two or three years?" Milo answered him right away.

Lucas gave a blank look that made Milo question back, "Is everything alright?"

"Yes. I was wondering how many butlers have worked for Adams so far."

Milo gave a thoughtful look before saying, "Must be four to five of them."

"Why?" Lucas raised his eyebrows, "Are the Adams' unbearable to work with? They seem like good folks."

The young boy's eyes looked away from the butler, "Something very bad keeps happening here. I mean to the butlers," that Lucas was already aware and one of the culprits stood right in front of him.

"Like what?" Lucas coaxed the boy with a gentle tone. The boy looked torn, wanting to and not wanting to let the butler know about it, "I promise to keep it a secret," he added, giving the boy a solemn look.

The boy's eyes darted around everywhere before it came to settle on Lucas' face, "The Adams doesn't have anything to do with it but every butler who has come to work here. They have mysteriously died. I think they are worried that it might continue to repeat. There has been some speculation that it is a black witch's doing. It is why the butlers who know about it don't come to work here. Most of the butlers who knew about it often didn't appear for an interview. One butler had also come to the mansion and after a maid had slipped this little information, he had packed his luggage that night and had escaped from the mansion to never return back again."

"How unfortunate," hearing the butler comment with a calm voice, the boy looked at him curiously. Wasn't he scared about dying? "Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me," he patted the boy's back who staggered with the impact, "My bad," he apologized with a polite smile on his face.

The young boy then asked, "You won't be packing your bags?"

"For what?"

"To run away," Milo said to the handsome butler who was standing in front of him.

The butler gave him a smile to say, "I am not scared about the witches. Carry on with your work," he said, leaving the shed to have the boy stare at him.

When Lucas got back inside and was walking by Belle's room, he heard the girl scream. Wondering what happened, he took long strides to reach her room and see she was hugging the ragged stuffed toy.

"Mr. Fluffs came back, Lucas," she said looking at her butler.

Of course, he knew that because he was the one who placed it back in her room. He had placed it last night after she had fallen asleep and she was seeing it now? For a vampire, this one wasn't very bright.

"That is good news, Miss Belle," Lucas answered the girl.

"Would you like to come to have tea with us?" little Belle asked him.

"Unfortunately I have work to do but maybe sometime later?" he asked her and she gave him a nod. Not stepping away from the door, he suggested, "Why don't you ask Miss Jill to come and play?" Jill was Mr. and Mrs. Harriet's daughter who was the acquaintance of Admas. He remembered another name, "There's also Grace."

Belle pursed her lips and went to her bed with her back facing the butler, "That's alright. Maybe later," she said playing with the rabbit that was in her hands.

Belle sat on the edge of her bed holding Mr. Fluffs in her hand. She was alright to play by herself and didn't want the other girls to come. Things never went well when they were around, especially some of the girls. In the back of her head, the memory of the last time when she had met everyone at a party.

It was at one of the elite pureblooded vampire's mansions where the party was taking place and Belle had only been passing by when Mr. Fluffs was taken away from her.

"Give it back," Belle had frowned looking at the girl who had Mr. Fluffs.

"Look how ugly it is," one of the girls snickered having the other two girls beside her giggle, "Let's throw it away."

"No!" When Belle went to take it back, the girl had raised her hand and soon the four girls ended in a brawl.

One of the girls had pulled Mr. Fluffs' eyes on purpose and out of anger and love for the stuffed toy, little Belle had picked up the fork and had stabbed the girl's hand. It had not ended well for any of the girls and Belle had received the most scoldings for harming the other young girl who was the Quinn's daughter but she had also received praise from the stabbed person's brother.

Not to forget, she had come back home with her hands and face bruised to receive harsher disciplinary measures that had lasted for a little less than three weeks. She looked at Mr. Fluffs, a small smile coming to form on her lips, "Welcome back, Mr. Fluffs," and she hugged him.

Though Lucas was yet to take any action on the scavengers who had been sucking souls in the mansion which especially belonged to the little girl, what he didn't know was that his food was being poisoned every single day with every meal in an attempt to kill him but he was unaffected by it.

One night, Belle woke up from her sleep. Thirsty and wanting to drink water, the little girl got out of her bed while holding Mr. Fluffs' arm to step out of the room by dragging the rabbit along with her. As it was the time of midnight, the candles that were burning brightly had dimmed down and the corridors of the mansion had turned darker with the time touching midnight.

The little girl didn't mind it or didn't take it into account as she was sleepy. With her eyes not completely open, she almost sleepwalked with Mr. Fluffs who was now gliding on the smooth surface of the marble floor.

Belle made it to the dining room and climbed the chair to reach the jug of water and poured the water before taking large gulps from the glass. While Belle was in here, the butler was walking on the other side of the mansion walking through the corridors making the usual round. Placing the empty glass back on the table with a clink against the surface of the table but before she could step down from the chair, little Belle faced a creature that stood facing her in close proximity.

The creature looked like a corpse that was at least twenty years old that had no skin, no eyeballs, and no teeth as it opened its mouth. It had small wings that looked like a bat's wings attached to its back.

Belle opened her mouth to scream but no voice came out and the creature started to suck her soul little by little as if it was feeding on her.

The creature was suddenly thrown across the floor by Lucas with a wave of his hand to be pushed away from the small girl. As if out of energy, the girl fell unconscious on the ground. The creature tried to get to the girl but Lucas quickly pushed the creature against the wall by its neck, his fingers digging in deep enough to bring the face he had come to be familiar with in this household.

"So impatient," Lucas looked at the young boy named Milo who was struggling to free himself from the butler's hand. The creature struggled to get out of the butler's hold. He clawed on the butler's hand which was like an iron grip that didn't budge even a little.

"You knew," came the boy's voice which was hoarse than the voice he had been using.

Lucas looked at it, his expression unmoving as he saw how the creature couldn't keep up with its appearance. The skin around its face had started to peel, "You were too perfect for my eyes...I think and I don't like perfect things," he said to the creature who had tried to run its sharp nails against Lucas's skin on his hand, "Where is your other friend, Mr. Scavenger."

"You are a vampire!" said the scavenger, as the butler appeared to be standing effortlessly in front of it.

Lucas tched, "Guess again."

"Pureblooded vampire!" the creature said to him. Lucas's calm expression turned slack and lazy, "I will kill you!

"Good luck with that!" Lucas said in a bored tone and squeezed the creature's neck further to say, "Enjoy your time back at the gates," electric sparks flew around its neck and in a snap, the creature turned to a black smoke that evaporated in the air. The other servant had made its way to suck the remaining part of the soul of the girl and Lucas reached where the creature was and in less than three seconds it evaporated leaving only dust behind.

Picking the girl up, he pulled out his pocket watch to see one of the hands in the little clock flicker back and forth near the red line. It seemed like her soul was faint if the scavengers had spent more minutes on her they would have left an empty shell behind.

The scavengers were the lowest possible creatures one could find in the land of the dead. A place where he frequented over the years by going in and out of it. These creatures fed on the living or dead souls, taking the living to be much more delicious as their soul didn't reek of death in it. Children often fell as victims to the scavengers enjoyed them but there was also something else they liked, a soul that was dark in nature. Souls that were lonely and in despair, souls that were wilting without joy around them.

He looked down at the girl again and took her back to her room and put her in bed. The girl would recover as he could tell her time hadn't come yet. Taking a seat against the wall with his arms crossed, he sat there looking at her.

Belle appeared to be one of the brightest girls he had seen. Always up to no good though in her eyes it was a very good thing to do where she received scoldings from her mother. The earlier butlers must have hindered the scavenger that had led them to their deaths or they would have turned to the soul eaters meal.

Seeing her breathe, Lucas got up and used his fingers to extinguish the flame that had been burning in her room.

When the next morning arrived, everything appeared to be normal, except that the two servants who used to work for the Adams' had disappeared. Lucas was serving them breakfast when the maid came forward and spoke something in his ear by leaning forward.

Mr. Adams looked at them and asked, "Is everything alright?"

Lucas had a stoic expression on his face when he said, "It seems two of the servants ran away with the notes in their room telling they found another job in the land of Wovile."

The man didn't look pleased hearing this and he asked, "Who is it?"

"Milo and Crantis, Sir."

Last night after putting Belle in her bed, he had gone down to the rooms the scavengers used and left a note in the room before retiring to his own room. As expected, the maid handed in the note to Mr. Adams so that he could read it.

"I guess there's nothing much that can be done. I am hoping there are no missing things from the mansion. Please look into it, Lucas," Mr. Adams asked the butler.

"Yes, Sir."

Mrs. Adams then said to her husband, "I thought he didn't mind the work here." After the completion of the meal, Lucas stood in the hallways helping Mr. Adams with his coat and seeing him off in the carriage when Belle came running to Lucas with a paper in her hand.

"Lucas! Lucas!" little Belle made it to where Lucas stood, "See what I drew?"

Lucas looked at the paper in her hand and took it to look at circles and lines drawn in it. His mouth twisted, wanting to say something and he had to bite back his tongue from telling anything to the girl that would discourage her.

"What am I looking at, Miss Belle?" the butler asked the little girl in a very polite tone.

Belle had taken more than four hours to draw it and she looked up at the butler, her eyebrows furrowing together, "It is Romeow and Julisqueak," Lucas's lips twitched this time.

"Wow, it looks wonderful," he praised her as if it was an art he had never seen before, which was true. He had seen a fair share of terrible art in the decades that had passed by but this, no one could hold a candle to this piece of art on the paper as it made no sense except for the round circle and a small circle that had a tail, "It is very beautiful, Miss Belle," the girl hearing this beamed.

"You like it?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he answered her to hear her say.

"Keep it," she said with a smile, "I will make mama and papa another one," in the speed she had come to him, she went back at the same speed out of his sight. Lucas didn't care much for the drawing, he didn't even see how it could be of any use to him.

The maid who caught sight of this, who was older than the rest of the servants, a woman in the age of her forties said, "Miss Belle is a very sweet girl. She might appear to be spoilt, trying to go against her parents' words by doing things she shouldn't do and sometimes a little pushy but she has a good heart," the maid looked down at the drawn paper, "Some of the maids who were new didn't like the way she behaved when they started to work here but they have warmed up to her," she gave him a bow and then went back to do her work.

He looked back at the drawing, folding it, he put in his pocket.