Deeper and darker

Ellie paid maximum attention to her meal, only occasionally glancing at the girls. She no longer had that intense craving for food, but she was hungry.

She still didn't understand what happened to her earlier, and she was definitely going to ask about it. But now that she had food, she needed to fill her stomach before another demon came along and decided she wouldn't be allowed to eat for a week.

"Alright! You're done. Now we can talk. What position did your father occupy?" Layla's voice echoed as soon as Ellie ate the last piece of meat on her plate, even before she could completely chew and swallow what was in her mouth.

Ellie frowned at her but said nothing until she swallowed. After that, she picked up the glass of water at a "no pressure" pace, and downed the liquid slowly.

This elicited a frown from Layla, a small smile from Mary, a look of intrigue on Ginger's face, and an amused and equally curious look on Gwen's face as she shifted her gaze from Ellie to Layla, just to find out the latter's reaction to Ellie's attitude.

She looked like the one who would be ready to act as the referee should a fight break out between the two girls.

As the silence dragged on, the tension in the room thickened, but Ellie didn't allow it to bother her. Once she was done with the glass of water, she returned it to the tray, and looked at Layla for a moment, as if she was ready to answer her question, then the next moment, she shifted her gaze to Mary.

"It's not that I didn't believe you when you said this is Alada's Royal House. It's just confusing that there are vampires here." She decided to answer the question Mary asked, which she didn't get the opportunity to answer earlier. "I know you said you are not in a position to answer my questions, but I'm confused as hell. My head feels like it will explode from the multiple questions inside it begging for answers."

While Ellie was still talking to Mary, Layla's brows flew up and her eyes widened in disbelief. Did this 'whoever she was' just ignore her on purpose? The hell?

"You are no longer in the cell, so I can answer your questions as long as it's within my knowledge and areas I'm permitted to talk about," Mary answered, bringing relief to Ellie's heart.

"Hey! I asked you a question. It's rude to ignore someone like that." Layla cut in, glaring at Ellie first before extending the same to Mary.

Ellie finally shifted her attention back to Layla. "You have no business with who my father is or was. And if you must know, then learn to ask nicely. It's also rude to ask strangers personal questions in the manner you did."

The look on Layla's face clearly stated that she was shocked. But she wasn't the only one with such an expression. Ginger and Gwen looked extremely surprised too. The only exception was Mary, who already had a taste of Ellie's attitude the night before, and already guessed the kind of person she was.

It felt nice having someone else apart from her stand up to Layla's attitude of superiority. And even better, that "someone else", was her new roommate.

When the initial shock dissipated, Layla let out a scoff, and stood up, while giving Ellie a condescending look.

"I thought I'd be engaging a reasonable person with some class. I now see you're just a commoner with an overblown esteem. I have better things to waste my time on." She huffed, then walked away from the room without looking back.

Although Ginger and Gwen were not saying anything, their eyes were keeping up with the interesting event unfolding right in their presence, moving from one point of interest to the other.

Ellie, on the other hand, didn't know how to feel about what just happened. She didn't know why the girl was being unnecessarily rude and pushy. And did she just call her a commoner with an overblown esteem? Who did she think she was? Was she perhaps a member of the royal house?

Ellie glanced at Gwen and Ginger, before returning her gaze to Mary, the only one who looked unbothered about what just happened.

"Uhm… I wanted to ask. What did she mean by 'sins of your fathers or grandfathers'?"

"Do you know about the vampire eradication?" Mary threw a question, and Ellie nodded. "What do you know about it?" Mary asked another question.

"That about a hundred years ago, the people discovered that their rulers were vampires, and decided they didn't want to be ruled by vampires anymore, so the chief of state gathered other people, and they revolted, killing all the vampires in Alada," Ellie answered, but a peal of muffled laughter was the response she received from Gwen, while Mary and Ginger shook their heads.

"Layla was right. You really are a commoner." Gwen commented and instantly received death stares from Ginger and Mary.

Ellie, who was also annoyed by the comment, channeled a displeased look to the girl.

"Don't give me that look, you guys. Isn't it obvious? She just told the commoner's version of the story." Gwen spoke in defense, shrugging, as she saw no wrong in what she said.

"No one asked you to point it out. We all heard it." Mary scolded Gwen, but the latter only gave another shrug in response.

"What is she talking about?" Ellie probed with heightened confusion and curiosity. She just told the story practically everyone in Alada knew about the history of the land and fight with vampires.

This was the story taught to them in schools, and even in their homes. So she didn't understand why they were laughing as if she just cracked a joke. Also, what the hell is the commoner's version? So many strange terms she had heard in just a few minutes, and the more she tried to understand, the more confused she became.

"There are two versions of the story, Ellie." Mary started to explain, and Ellie gave her undivided attention to the girl.

"The one you know and just told is what we refer to as the commoner's version. The one the common masses of Alada were made to believe. And I can boldly beat my chest to tell you that the story is a well-crafted lie. What really happened is deeper and darker than what they told you."