Chapter 15:The search

When they had arrived at the palace, Ralph stepped out of the carriage, signaling the guards with his eyes to hold the woman behind him, and immediately the held the lady on the hand with a strong hold, Ralph gestured them with his hands for them to follow him.

The woman twisted and turned to find a way to release her hands, they were holding her hands too tightly and it caused her a huge amount of pain. Every time she felt a huge amount of pain on her hand, she wanted to scream loudly but she would hold herself back telling herself softly that this would soon be over.

After a few steps, they reached Lord's office. Ashton had his back rested on the chair as his eyes were closed, it looked like he had smoked because the scent of smoke was still in the air. When Ashton noticed their presence, he opened his eyes slowly, he glanced at Ralph before his eyes went to look at the lady that was held by the guards and the lord raised one of his eye brows up.

"Ashton, Veronica, s-she is…" Ralph trailed not completing his words and it vexed Ashton up

"What happened? I hate it when I am left curious without an answer?" he said this time, his eyes concentrated more on Ralph and it intimidated him in a way.

"Veronica is missing."

"Missing?" he repeated Ralph's words with his brows slightly scrunched, "I give you permission to take her out to the market and she is missing?" Ashton voice held a kind of sarcastic tone in it. Ralph immediately looked down avoiding the lord's gaze and accepting his fault as well.

"Ashton I am dearly sorry and I do accept it's my fault," he said first lifting his head up before he continued, "This lady here said that Lady Veronica have been adopted and she also said that she had seen it with her own eyes." Ralph pointed towards the lady, who kept on shivering non-stop and Ashton's eyes narrowed.

"Release her!" he ordered in a stern voice as he stood up from his seat, the two guards that held her tightly, immediately let her go, "Come and sit here" he beckoned but the lady only stood there not moving a foot forward, and with a calm voice and demeanor, "come here, I won't hurt you, I promise." He beckoned further for the lady to take slow and steady steps towards him, she finally took a sit on the chair as Ashton nodded his head slightly before he said.

"Tell me everything you know about the kidnap and don't even dear to leave any details out." The woman began explaining everything that had occurred and when she was done, Ashton attention had already drifted. "Very good… take her out." He said before he gestured Ralph to followed him, and soon Ashton left the room as well as the guards with the lady.

Ashton immediately straddle one of his horses before he began to take a different route outside the palace and it got Ralph confused.

"You do know where Lady Veronica is right?" he asked for the lord to hum softly and soon they were off to look for Veronica.

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Veronica turned around to see Mark who held her tightly, he eyes had already turned red with anger and before she knew it, he dragged her back to the empty room she was in a while ago and tied her up with chains, this time more tightly which left some bruises there.

"Who could have known that my very own brother would betrayed me." He snared, Veronica raised up her head to see Gray who had also been chained up just like her. Gray gritted his teeth as he raised up his head to glare at his brother, "You know, you always forget about the pains we went through when we were a child, don't you see brother this is the only way for us to get more power and respect!" he shouted this time for Gray to cry softly and Veronica felt her heart break into shreds, she couldn't just stay there and keep her mouth shut, she had to say something, and with anger in her heart that swirled even more she shouted.

"You…liar, this is called black mailing, don't listen to him, there is other ways to be happy and still have power, you're a good person, please don't change that!" Mark immediately walked, towards her before he grabbed her chin harshly.

"You… I think it would be better off if you had that mouth sealed." He said sharply taking the clothe before he tied it tightly around her mouth, she tried to shout but all she could make was noises without meanings. "Now where was I…? exactly the part where I was telling you about our sufferings, I have been forgiving you times without number and I …"

"No, no more I won't be black mailed by you again!" Gray retorted back with tears in his eyes and it only frustrated his brother further.

"Okay then since you don't want to learn I would have to punish you." He said as he brought out a gun from his pocket and Veronica felt her heart drop, she wanted to tell him to not shoot him, but what could do when her mouth was already covered with a cloth? And before she could find a way to stop him, he shot the gun directly at Gray's heart, a tear slid down Veronica's cheek as she watched the man that saved her die.

She tried moving but all she brought was pains to herself as her skin rubbed roughly on the chains leaving red marks on them. Mark immediately dropped the gun on the floor, he fell to his knees as he screamed and cried out.

"I shot my brother…" he laughed widely, as tears fell down from his eyes, "Milady, you know, this warning is for you, if you try to run away from here, then I swear you would have to go through far much pains than this." He said before he left the place. All Veronica could hear was her own whimpers, she didn't want this, she didn't want to be stuck in the same room with a dead man, he had helped her and all she did was to end his life him, Veronica closed her eyes trying her best to forget the things she had seen a while back, but could she?

 After a long time had passed, Veronica heard the door open, making her to raise her head up, she first turned to look at Gray and something felt wrong, he had not started to smell or decay, but before she could ponder further, she heard some footsteps coming closer and when she looked up, she saw Mark and with him was another man, when she turned to look towards the other person, she felt her heart drop, this was the same creature that kept chasing her in her father palace, her thoughts, her soul and her body were all chased by it and it left her shaken.

"Is this the girl with the soul you wanted to give me?" the soul eater asked Mark for him to nod his head.

"She is the one, now please let me join you guys."

"Not yet I must check if she is perfect." It said back to him before he brought out a knife from his pocket and Veronica felt her heart hitch, the soul eater took slow steps before it grabbed her hand and sliced it neatly. Veronica felt a slight pain before she looked at the neat line that blood flowed from and it dripped on her green gown staining it, the soul eater immediately took the blood and dropped it on the container. "Now I would have access to her memory."

"Memory" Mark asked as he saw the soul eater smile widely.

"Don't you not want to watch a little drama; it would be fun going through her memory lane."

"Memory lane? I thought only the lord have that ability?"

"Yes he does, but now I have it too," he brought out a portion from his bag and Mark smiled widely, "We would also have access to her family's memory lane, and see some interesting drama." The soul eater immediately drank some of the potion and gave it to Mark to drink and he drank as well.

Veronica looked up to see that their eyes were closed, she wondered what they were doing and it also scared her on what they are also going to do to her. After a long while, they two of them woke up from their daze, the soul eater was smiling widely as it turned around and took small steps towards her, before it crunched down to her level.

"It looks like someone close to you fell down from the patio and died leaving you in a misery." Immediately it said this Veronica's eyes snapped at it, was it talking about her mother? obviously it was her mother as she was the only one that had jumped off the patio, "do you want to know why she committed suicide?" it asked for Veronica to nod her head.

She knew the soul eater was an evil person, but what could she do? She only wanted to find out the reason for her mother's death, she wanted to satisfy her curiosity and remove the blames that she had placed on her mother's head, "then if you want to find out, come closer." It gestured her with its hands, and when she stepped closer, it stabbed her on her stomach as she screamed out.

"Ah!" she screamed further as she felt the soul eater twist the knife inside her stomach and plunged it deeper. And when she opened her mouth to scream loudly, the soul eater came closer to her mouth, she felt a piercing pain hit her body and she kept on opening her mouth to scream loudly, she saw a white fog come out from her mouth and enter the soul eater's mouth, as she felt herself partly slip into darkness.

And as all this were happening she saw Mark fall to the ground all for some reasons his skin turned very pale from its usual complexion. She didn't have time to keep looking at him as the soul eater had remove the knife from her stomach and plunge it back inside, and Veronica screamed out loudly as she saw more white fog seep out from her mouth, tears blurred her eyes as the pain became unbearable, the tears fell from her eyes and stained her cheek as she felt her soul being sucked out of her body and before she could comprehend things any further, an arrow shot through the soul eater's body and it fell down on the ground.