Waking up from a nightmare several hours before dawn, Belle fetched a drink of water. She paused in front of her kitchen's window when she noticed a lit lantern in front of her mansion's garden. Her butler stood there, shovel in hand. This was no hour to be gardening. Curious, she made her way outside, but when she had gotten close enough to see a large and hollow pit next to her eternally-stoic and polite butler, she saw him pick up a rotten body. A DEAD BODY! Her eyes widened fearfully when she saw her handsome butler drop the rotting body into the fresh hole. She asked in horror, "What are you doing?!" Surprised to see his young miss awake at this hour, he stared at her with the same expression he had been keeping up for all these years. He had made sure she was asleep before coming here. "Gardening." "And the body?!" she looked at him in disbelief. "Fertilizer," he answered her before picking up the shovel that was on the ground. Belle was now certain something had possessed her butler. Who gardened dead bodies?! She then heard him ask her, "Want to help me in planting it, Miss Adams?" he gave her a sweet smile. Note: If you enjoy a book of comedy with light-hearted romance and a gothic background. This book is for you~
Lucas accompanied Belle to her room, her footsteps softer than in the past as if she were dragging it. He hadn't asked how she hurt her hand but he understood that it was done by herself. As much as the people or the creatures who belonged to the land of the dead wanted to get to her, they couldn't right now. Not all souls could be touched as pleased but somewhere, something told him that her soul was transcending to the realm of the dead which was not supposed to happen.
Not many lived sanely when their souls started to fluctuate, half in the living and half in the dead, things were going to mesh together one day where reality would be hard to hold on to.
A lot of people in the past whose souls were left only half or lesser than half, they usually went insane. One because of what they saw, and two because there was no one who believed what they saw. People like that were often labeled to be mad and would eventually be killed either by the people around them in fear or by themselves.
Belle Adams' case was different. Though her soul had been eaten to take away to the land of the dead, she was still stable except for what was happening right now. It was like her vessel wasn't able to keep in her soul and was letting it move freely which wasn't a good thing, thought Lucas to himself as they continued to walk quietly in the corridor.
Coming to stand next to her door which he had opened for her, he saw her step in and turn around to look at him.
"Have a good sleep," he wished her and left the door to walk back to his own room as he carried the candles with him.
Once he reached his room, he unlocked the door and stepped inside to hear Barron who was inside a stuffed toy speak to him, "Finally, you are here! You are late!"
"For what?" Lucas asked, closing the door, he gave a look at the toy which was none other than Belle's beloved Mr. Fluffs, "Did you enjoy your tea party with the others?" he asked, eyeing the other two stuffed toys which he had placed next to Barron.
"Stop mocking me. Just because you have me in the doll you think you can speak to me like that?!"
"Am I wrong?" Lucas questioned Barron. The room fell silent because Barron knew he was stuck here and he wasn't able to get out of it. He had tried to move this stupid cotton but he couldn't even lift a finger to do anything with it.
"Do you know how bored I am?"
"You should have taken a nap-"
"I do not want to sleep! I want to get out of this damn thing! Get me out of it!" Barron threw his usual tantrum and Lucas didn't take anything seriously.
The Adams' butler was enjoying his time with the fourth Grim who was like a talking bird that never kept quiet. When Barron finally turned tired, he would automatically shut up without Lucas needing to tell him.
"Have you no respect for your superior?! I am the fourth Grims. GRIMS? Do you know what I am capable of?"
"Infecting disease and bringing plague on the beck and call of the witches at times?" Lucas pulled out his coat as he said this, "I know you infected the maid here."
Barron laughed, "That's right. So you do know my power. Are you feeling sorry for the maid? I could have removed her illness-"
"Both I and you know that you don't have the ability to fix what you break, Barron. You must be the Grim who is not only stupid but also boastful for no reason," Lucas' words turned the reaper mad.
"I hope that the maid dies and rots! You must be working here for years now," Barron spoke to him as Lucas sorted out the things that were in the room.
"I don't care about the maid. You can kill them all you want," Lucas' reply was cold, seeming to look not attached to anything in here. A lot of reapers didn't have feelings and were rather cold. Even if they did, emotions didn't flow the way it did with the creatures of the living.
The fourth Grim stared at Lucas who wasn't bothered with the maid, "If I am not wrong, she must be dead by now. Oh, wait, you were sitting outside the young vampiress room. Is she the one you care about?" asked Barron with full interest.
If the reaper had his true form instead of stuck in this bag of cotton, one would have been able to see the evil grin on its face.
"Has anyone told you that you speak unnecessarily? I keep questioning what you were in your previous life. Was it a snake or a parrot who didn't know when to shut up," this got the reaper to keep quiet for a second before Barron said,
"You are indeed protecting the girl. Is she your mistress with advantages?"
"The girl is a child," Lucas stated in a dull voice as if he weren't interested in the reaper's speculation.
"But you have high respect for the girl, don't you? She must be special. You don't care about the maids and the other servants but you sat there outside her room," Barron chuckled evilly, "Isn't this interesting."
Both Barron and Lucas heard the door knock and their eyes moved to the door. When Lucas opened the door open, he noticed it was Belle who had stood in front of his room. He had only dropped her to her room. The girl looked slightly anxious.
"Look who is here!" Barron chimed noticing Belle, "It is the princess of the reaper."
Lucas wondered if Belle would be sad if he were to throw her beloved Mr. Fluffs in the fire to see it burn.
Though he had learned how to contain Barron in the stuffed toy, he didn't know how to shift him to another object. He had picked the first thing he had found the day he had trapped Barron the fourth Grim.