Brat

Revan sighed, rubbing his tired eyes at the sight of the decapitated body being moved to the garden, wrapped in white and ready to be used as fertilizer. He and the maids were so used to the sight and smell of it, that their hands didn't shake and their noses didn't wrinkle anymore at the decomposing body.

'I really need to find someone who can find a healthier conduit for channeling his ridiculous anger... tch, what is he, a child?'

"Um... Lord Butler, your face..."

One of the maids who was swabbing the red from the floor, Mia, whispered a warning to Revan's face, which had been disfigured with distaste while he stared at his sleeping master.

His face snapped back to normalcy at her subtle remark, and knowing his master was listening, he feigned inquiry, "Yes, what is it? Is something on my face?"

"Oh, just a spot of blood from earlier—would you like to use my handkerchief?" she played along, knowing very well the butler's temperament towards the Lord's rages, even going so far as to call them "tantrums" when calling the maids to clean.

"Ah, thank you," he replied, taking the handkerchief to wipe away the "blood" on his face before checking if the "blood" was off.

Mia smiled calmly before reassuring, "Yes, it's all off now sir."

"Thank you again—sorry you have to clean so early in the morning again," he apologized while subtly sending a jab towards his sleeping master, all with a smile on his face, as if he were being dutiful and not insulting his master in front of his face.

Predictably, Alexi's brow twitched at the barb sent his way, but he stubbornly kept his eyes closed, in an effort to ignore his further responsibilities at the moment. As soon as he opened his eyes, he would unfortunately have to return to work yet again, which he desperately wanted to avoid.

'When did I last sleep? … Not last night, that's for sure...'

It was just when he was beginning to drift off into a sleep he hadn't had in five days..

A quiet yet distinct knock that seemed to thunder through out the massive estate greeted his hypersensitive ears.

A gentle rain had started not long after the impromptu decapitation—an unusual occurrence, considering the place they lived in, Alviern, was typically very icy and wintery—and had muffled the sound of the knock, but somehow it still rang out.

It seemed eerie to the awakened master and alert butler.

Revan in particular was confused; according to Alexi's schedule, there was no visit expected, let alone at 3 in the morning. Indeed, few even had the audacity to meet him when he was notorious with his poor moods in the early morning.

So who the Hell was at the door?

—————

Revan trudged down the steps of the left staircase to where the front hall was, the old doors of steel and oak that had aged like fine wine in the hellish weather greeting him as they nestled themselves within the stone walls.

Hesitant yet composed, he promptly opened the door to be greeted quite eerily by an unusual personage.

Though smaller than him, by regular standards they were quite tall, around 175 to 180 cm in height; a slender yet athletic build that was almost unnatural was adorned by a wet suit, dark blue hair plastered against their face.

Their face could hardly be seen beneath the haze of blue, but against the skin that was almost an macabre white, the red of the thin, curved lips was almost unnaturally bright, as if a bloody rose had been sown to a corpses face.

Revan felt as if something not of this world was standing at the mouth of the mansion, and considering their previous predecessors, he was almost assured they'd be yet another germ to be cut out.

"Pardon me, but what on earth is your purpose for coming at so early an hour during the rain to this mansion?"

The disturbing being quietly looked up, a pale, almost skeletal hand in its thinness rose to brush the hair out of their eyes—and all of a sudden, Revan was trapped.

Bright, eerie silver eyes that seemed to glow within the shadows of their pale, but somehow beautiful face stared up at him in a soulful fashion, as if grasping for a sanctuary.

However, the exchange for such sanctuary seemed to be his soul.

"...Do you need something, sir?"

The strange personage tilted their head with a blank smile replacing a blank face, their gaze unwavering and almost owlish.

Meanwhile, not only were they pissing off Revan, he was honestly creeped out by the unnaturally lovely person's behavior.

Were they attempting to pass off as a ghost as part of a practical joke? If so, they were doing a stunning job of being unsettling to be around.

Weary and wary, he resounded, "As it seems that you lack both manners and purpose in coming to a noble's estate, I must ask you to vacate the premise. If you desire an umbrella, I can give you one and a towel for your foolhardiness—please leave afterwards."

He was about to leave when the figure finally spoke, a quiet alto that made gender identification as impossible to identify as their humanity or earthliness.

"Can I come in?"

He paused to spare a glance that held a question in it, as if asking if they were mad to ask to come in after intruding in a high ranking noble's estate.

"Why?" he snarked, only to be slapped with a reply so reasonable, it left him speechless.

"I'm cold."

"..."

'If you're cold, then what the hell are you doing out in a rain storm within the coldest country in the continent?!'

Keeping his grievances to himself, as he so often did with Alexi, he exhaled, "You may—but take off your shoes, tracking dirt in is of poor taste here."

The personage soundlessly removed their shoes before entering, their gaze landing upon the grand entryway of marble floors shined to perfection, alabaster columns and walls decadent with art of varying styles, but what stood out most was the ceiling; a mural adorned it pompously, with depictions of beautiful, red-eyed corpses participating in a blood feast whilst witches were hanged and horrifying demons crawled up from the pits of Hell, joining the corpses with even more glorious beauty.

The gothic look of the vampires lounging down upon chaises and chairs of human bone was stunning, and the smile grew only more on the unnatural thing's face, the horrific depiction familiar to them.

'And to think, all of this was once bathed with blood, drenched in the screams of the dying... ah, it's so lovely...'

Whilst they drank in the scenery, Revan warned them to not move so much an inch—doing so would result in them visiting the "garden".

The person nodded, and stilled to a degree that, save for the water that dripped down the unnatural complexion, he'd have thought they were a statue brought in as a poor bargaining gift, as instead of inspiring beauty or awe, inspired the deep contemplation of the darkness of the psyche, the horror of the mind.

Unnerved, he sped as fast he could to the umbrella stand and a closet that held towels for after snow ball fights. Returning in under 30 seconds, he was greeted to the sight of an empty hall, the eerie figure disappeared.

He threw the towel on the ground and exclaimed, "THAT BRAT!"

His duties had seemed to have only increased at the person's abrupt appearance; he disliked them already...