The Ghost

When the time of the morning arrived, with the clouds moving away from each other and clearing the sky, the man who had arrived at the doorstep of Adams was called to the parlor room to meet Mr. Adams. Mr. Adams, who had been reading the daily local news, raised his head when the servant brought in the man, "Mr. Adams," said the servant, Milo who bowed his head and Lucas who stood next to him did the same.

The owner of the mansion spoke, "I heard that you came earlier than we expected which is good. We have been looking for a decent butler and Mr. Rufus finally recommended you. What's your name again?"

"Lucas, Sir," Lucas bowed his head, placing his hand cross on his chest.

Mr. Adams gave the man a nod.

Milo, who had been serving the Adams' family for two years stared at the man who introduced himself. There was a polite smile on his face and the servant had doubts if he had met another man. He appeared saint-like. When he invited this man inside the mansion, he looked as if he were waiting for an opportunity to kill him in his sleep but right now, why did it seem that the man wouldn't hurt a fly without any reason?

But that wasn't the problem. Where was his friend? Did Mr. Rufus decide to change butlers at the end moment?

"Mr. Rufus has already filled in about you so I will spare you from the questions. Welcome to the Adams' family. Milo will tell you about the work and show you around the mansion. You can take it from there," Mr. Adams gave Milo a look who looked as if he were daydreaming, "Milo?"

"Yes, Sir!" the young man snapped back and he bowed. The butler gave another bow and they left the room.

The servant boy toured him around the mansion which he had already done before the servants had woken up. As the servant boy was telling what work they did and what time everything was done here, Lucas received looks from the maids in the mansion. Every time his eyes met one of theirs, they would look away as if they were doing something else.

How annoying, thought Lucas to himself. He didn't like the attention one bit and it was getting on his nerves the way the humans were ogling at him. Given the opportunity, he would have them nailed inside the coffin and it wasn't like he hadn't done it before. Maybe later, he thought to himself.

The next second when his eyes met the maid who had been giving him eyes who was standing in the corridor watering the flowers in the vase, he asked,

"What's your name?"

The maid was young, sharing the same age as Milo who looked slightly flustered at the sudden attention she received from the handsome butler and she blushed. Seeing this, Lucas felt the urge to dig a grave for her. He wondered how much she would scream in agony before and after her death. The bloody ones were always the most satisfying ones.

Clearing her throat, the maid replied, "Lydia," there was a blush covering her cheeks as she uttered her name.

"Lydia, what work are you in charge of in the mansion?" he asked her.

"I am in charge of changing the water in the vases, cleaning the windows, grills, and the stairs and-" before she could on and on, Lucas said,

"The fourth vase from here has not been filled with water, the glass right here has a fingerprint to tell it hasn't been cleaned and the stairs, there's dust in the corners of the curves. Just because there hasn't been a butler to supervise the work going on in here doesn't mean you do your work carelessly," Lucas spoke in a very clear calm voice, while there was something underneath his tone that the maid felt daunting.

She wanted to open her mouth and deny it. She wasn't sure which side of the glass she had missed yesterday out of laziness.

"I don't know who placed their hand on the glass. I cleaned it along with the stairs yesterday," she replied to see him give her a smile.

"Follow me," the butler had the servant named Milo followed behind him along with the maid, while the others peeked to see what was going on and slowly tipped-toed following them to see the butler stop at the stairs. He bent down to swipe his hands around the curve to raise it in front of her, "We must be living in a desert, isn't it?"

The new butler was here for only a few hours, there was no way he would have found time to look at every nook and corner of the mansion! The maid gulped, her eyes lowering down without meeting his eyes.

"Unless you want to keep working here, it would be better to start working efficiently if not you shall be replaced with someone who knows how to do their job," he turned around to see the maids who had followed them to quickly scatter and disperse to start working.

Once the servant was done touring and letting him know all about the work, Lucas walked down the corridors, roaming around to make sure the servants and the maids were doing their job. Though he had never worked as a butler before, he had lived long enough to know and understand what a butler did. He didn't want any suspicion falling on him nor did he want the creatures of his kind hunting him down therefore he took the job as any human would.

Lucas continued his new job, getting accustomed to the way the living people lived their lives. All these years he had been watching them from a distance but now he had got the opportunity to look at them closely.

Just as he was walking, he could feel a pair of eyes that had been following him for the past three hours. It wasn't any of the maids or the servants who was tailing his footsteps at the moment.

It was the little girl.

Her diligence in following him was commendable.

When he turned to look at her, she hid behind the wall. Having never been followed by anyone, the butler started to walk to hear the soft footsteps that came not too far behind him. Every time he stopped to look back, the little thing would have disappeared.

The little girl was none other than Mr. Adams' only child, Belle Adams who was six years old. Her reddish-brown hair was tied into a high pony that moved with every step she took.

After seeing the ghost in the corridor of the house when she had come out of her room to fetch a glass of water, she had gone straight into her room. Locking the door and jumping into the bed with the blanket around her. When she woke up and had gone down, she saw her father sitting and reading the newspaper.

"Papa!" little Belle went to her father's side, "There's a ghost in the mansion!"

Her father looked at the girl, "Ghosts, don't exist, Belle. Did you have a bad dream? You must have seen it in your dreams," he saw his little daughter who gave it three seconds before shaking her head.

"I saw the ghost in the mansion. It wasn't a dream!" she looked up at her father.

Mr. Adams looked at his young daughter who looked worried at the fact that there was a ghost in the mansion. She was holding the stuffed rabbit in her hand, her clothes unchanged from what she had gone to sleep in.

"Did you see it again?" he asked and to this, she shook her head, "That is because a ghost doesn't exist, dear. It must be just a figment of your dream. Or maybe you must have seen the curtains flying. Go get washed and get changed," he kissed the top of her head.

With the help of one of the maids in the mansion, Belle got changed and dressed. Her small feet were taking a walk when she caught the ghost she had met last night talking to a servant of the house.