Chapter 8: Strangers in Town

The time flew so fast and the season already changes from spring to summer. Crystal settled on the house she bought and renovated and has been living there for a month. She moved on and put her focus and energy on managing the bakery she opened and taking care of the necessities that the twins might need for the next month or two.

"Twins! one or two more months left before we can see each other! Are you both excited? I can't wait much longer!" Crystal conversed with the twins while she was packing the cookies she will sell later.

Her bakery is earning silvers on daily basis and she is thankful that the townsfolk liked her baked goods. This will also help her in the near future to take care of the twins' necessities while they grow up.

She lived at a fulfilling pace. Waking up early in the morning to hunt and buy ingredients that she will use for the bakery and her meal for the day, then going back to her house and taking a quick bath and change of clothes before she will wear her white apron to cook her baked goods to sell in the bakery. The cycle was always on repeat but sometimes, Crystal loses her focus on what she was currently doing and stare into the north side of the town.

'Do you think Mommy already noticed?'

'I don't know why but Mommy doesn't like the North of the town... we're not really safe here...'

'Mommy... Can we make her go there?'

'Are you a dummy? You know that we cannot do that! Besides telepathy, what else would be our innate talent?'

'I dunno... Sister, why are you so bossy?'

'I am not bossy.'

"Okay, almost done."- Crystal smiled as she wipes the sweat trickling from her forehead and neck with her towel before she put it on the shelf to display. As soon as she finished, she opened the bakery and decided to clean the utensils she used. Halfway cleaning her utensils, there were three guys who went inside and bought her products in a haul. Crystal was surprised and looked at the fifteen silver coins and left them at the top of the display without a word.

After the three guys went out, the other townsfolk came but only got to buy a smaller amount of her products.

"Who were those guys?! Always getting here first and not even trying to leave some for us to buy! Seriously! Why?!" Some grumbled and left empty-handed.

"What's going on? Who were those people?" Crystal can't help but ask herself while cleaning up the bakery. She took a broom and sweep the wooden floors before she turns the sign of her bakery close. After that, she went to the second floor to continue the books that she was reading. When it was time for lunch, she went back down the first floor to prepare her meals for lunch and dinner. Before she could go back upstairs to take a nap, there was a knock on her front door. Crystal tilted her head and looked at the window for the bakery display and saw the same three guys who were buying her baked goods in a haul. She opens the door a little, enough to take a peek, and asks them why they were outside her shop.

"We would like to buy your baked products in large quantities for five days. Can we have a deal with that?" One of the guys in front of her shop asked her with an intimidating look on his face. She frowns at this and declined their request.

"I am the only one who is baking and taking care of my small business, also I am pregnant. I do not want to overwork myself for money."

'Mommy wake up...'

'Mommy, We're in danger. Why can't you see it? Why can't you feel it?'

The twins quietly listened to the conversation and both sigh in dismay. They do not know why, but ever since that certain day that there was a fight in front of the inn, something started that made them feel bothered and in danger. The question was why do they feel like that and what makes them feel in danger? But looking at the state of their mother, it seems that someone put her on a spell or a curse because she cannot see the 'real world'.

"Miss, we really need it, so please make a deal with us."

"I said no, I'm almost due and baking is not my top priority!"

"Miss please!"

"No, and that is final!" Crystal raised her voice and shut the door close. Crystal huffed as she stomps her feet in irritation. She doesn't understand why those men want to strike a deal with her but she doesn't want to work just for money. She wanted to spend time with the twins and take care of their clothing and toys they can play with.

'Mom, we're in danger, and your mind is focused on those things?'

'Mommy, how can we snap her out of that curse?'

"Whoa, careful twins."- Crystal was surprised when the twins kicked at the same time that almost made her fall from walking up the stairs. She chuckled and rubbed her belly before going up the second floor, unaware of the twin's thoughts.

Crystal spends the week going through her same schedule, except that the group of three men was still annoying her that made her irritable for the rest of the week. It was supposed to be fine with her, but whenever she goes out and buys food and ingredients for the bakery, those three guys pop out of nowhere and keeps on following her.

"Please stop following me!" Crystal shouted at them as she turns around and confronts them. The three stops and stood in front of her, looking at her with anxious and unsettled expressions. Crystal wanted to just cut them off and go back to her house, however, seeing them act like this made her nervous.

Crystal steeled her nerves and faced them head-on, "What is it? If you can't speak then don't bother me anymore." The three men looked at each other before nodding to each other.

"It seems that you are unaware of the curse, We will come back tomorrow with the cure. In the meantime, please do not go outside your house until we arrive."- One of them said.

"Please do not forget our names as well: Lux, Oz, and Fae. Be safe, Miss." and with that, they all bow down to her before leaving. Crystal clenched her hands into a fist before watching them disappear towards the north.

"What... What are they talking about?" Crystal's heart throbbed hard inside of her chest as she went rigid almost in an instant. That feeling, that predatory gaze was aimed at her back. Wasting no time, she runs towards the alley before jumping up to the roofs and quietly looking down the alley, She cannot see anything or anyone who was after her, but she could faintly feel the lingering gaze against her skin, making her have goosebumps.

'... I was put in a curse, how? What happened and who did it?' Crystal started to feel fear as she went back to her house in a heartbeat using her vampire speed. Closing her door shut and putting down the blinds, she tried to calm herself as she walked towards the kitchen to drink water.

'A curse... I am under a curse, How? Who cursed me? What is happening here?' Crystal holds her cup tightly between her grasps as she stood there in a daze.

'Should I believe those three that I was under a curse? Why should I do that? Are all of the things, the people, and the surroundings I am in for almost nine months, were just a figment of my imagination while I am under a curse? How did I get cursed? What is happening here?'

Crystal's train of thought was broken when the twins kicked inside her belly. She rubbed the top of her belly before sighing.

"I must've put the twins in danger while being exposed to the curse! What to do?! What if something bad happens to them? I know I will still love them unconditionally, but if they were shunned by the crowd? How would they survive in the future?!" Crystal started to panic as she goes towards her dining table and sat on the wooden chair. She placed the cup on the table and worry about the future.

'If those three guys could break the spell and let me see the 'real world' then I have no more option left but escape. I'll take the things that are useful- no wait, I shouldn't do that. What if I get tracked by taking the things I own here and get attacked when I least expect them? I'll further endanger the Twins' lives!'

Crystal brood over the possible scenarios of the future for her every action. She doesn't want the Twins to get caught up in between this body's past and disputes that could kill them. However, with the incomplete fragments of memories, Crystal doesn't know where to run to and who to avoid.

'Moving inside this unfamiliar continent with potential threats that I do not know of, how can I live with the twins peacefully?' Crystal massaged her temples before heaving a sigh. She didn't notice the time and found that it was already nighttime.

'Twins, please forgive me just for this night, I promise I'll feed us tomorrow after I see whether or not I am cursed or I am fooled.'

Crystal didn't sleep that night and waited for the moon to disappear from the horizon, she didn't hunt or baked anything, she just waited for the three guys to appear and give her the antidote to the curse.

'They still haven't appeared... does that means that I was just fooled? What really is happening here and what can I do to prove that everything is real?'

Crystal jolted up from her chair when she heard familiar footsteps walking fast towards the front door. She looked at the windows too to make sure that they were the same people she met yesterday, she was a bit relieved before opening the door to them, locking it behind their backs.

"We're glad you are safe and sound, Miss Crystal. As we said yesterday, here is the antidote." The three guys said and gave her a small vial that is the same size as her pinky.

"Before... before I consume this, please tell me what kind of curse was cast on me, did it affect my twins? Are they in any potential danger?" Crystal asked in a calm and cold tone while her free hand turn into a fist.

"The curse that is cast on you an illusionary curse that lets you see what you want to see. The things you feel, know, touch, see, and smell could be masked with this curse depending on how powerful the caster was. Since you've been here for three-four months, we can guarantee to you that the curse cast on you was multiple that it warped the way you see other living beings." Lux said in a serious tone.

"The potency of this antidote can take half of the efficiency of the curse, but not all of it. We just made it more potent to make you believe that you are under a curse, Miss Crystal." Oz said looking at the vial on her hand.

"And as for this place, we will make sure that you can safely leave this town no matter what," Fae said with conviction in his tone.

Crystal listened to their words without any fluctuation in her expression. As a vampire, she is aware of the things that could go unnoticed from human perception. With the change of heartbeat, wavering gazes, or different breathing patterns, she can feel and hear them better, and as far as she observed, they were not lying to her.

'If I was really in a curse and they were here to save me... why?'

"Why now that you three only appear in front of me?" crystal asked in confusion while holding their gazes.

"We didn't only appear now in front of you, it's been three months, Miss Crystal!" Oz said to her with a hint of desperation in his voice.

"If it wasn't for the caster of the curse that was near you that time, we could've saved you sooner," Fae said in dismay while Lux stepped forward and urged her to drink the antidote.

"Crystal!"