Chapter 1
It was one of those odd turn-of-the-season days in London. Summer was long dead, however Autumn had not yet seen its first birthday. It was one of those sorts of days where it felt warm out for a good deal of the day, but as day first broke, the comfortably high temperatures were nonexistent; one of those days where for a good chunk of the morning, you'd rather stay under the comfortable fitted sheets of your bed. And Victor Van Dort did just that. As the newborn sunlight crouched through the branches of the bleeding trees, it caught sight of gossamer white curtains and slipped through them like a fox under the gate of a henhouse. It slowly leaked into his quiet bedroom, making its presence known quickly, as the light traveled up the grey comforter and onto Victor's soft, pale flesh. And then into his fluttering eyes. He groaned a bit, trying to save his eyes from potentially burning out of his sockets (it felt like), and rolled a bit to the side, repositioning his body- back facing the window. As the light traveled deeper and deeper into Master Van Dort's chamber, it had finally dawned on him that it was in fact, the morning, and that he should not be in bed, rather the cannery, assisting his father in opening up the shop and preparing it for another long, hard and rather smelly day of work. He growled and then, using his dominant arm, slowly pushed his exhausted and seemingly heavy body up into a sitting position. Victor yawned, rubbed his eyes a little and dragged his thin legs out from under the warm blanket atop of him. Slowly, he walked out of bed to the closet and picked out the usual- the shabby, white white shirt, pants and apron, still stained with water and fish blood from a previous task. After removing his nightgown and putting on his uniform, he crept down the narrow, spiral staircase and trudged out the door into the streets.
The plaza and its many streets and walkways were unusually quiet, especially for this time of day. Normally, during this hour, it would be absolute madness- people literally running out of their homes, trying to get to their workplaces, massive carriages with equally as massive horses roaming around carrying the elite to and from the city and crowds of eager shoppers, trying to get to stores on time to pick up the freshest groceries or the best-priced basic home items before the shelves were out of stock. Normally, this would be the time that a clumsy young man like Victor would have a better chance of running into a street sign (like on Monday), a lamppost (like on the Tuesday of the week before), a mailbox (like yesterday) or another person (like every day). This time, he had no need to fear a potential collision with an inanimate object or being heinously late- the commute to work was actually quite nice. It was quiet- something that Victor enjoyed more than the average person- and then of course there was the scenery; the stunning pre-Autumn scenery. If it only had been Sunday- then he would be able to relax in this quiet, and soak it in for a longer period of time. Maybe sit out on a park bench with a sketchbook and a quill or some pastels and draw for a while until he would be called inside for breakfast and preparation for weekly Mass. But, unfortunately, today was indeed, not Sunday. So there would be no such spare time to waste. He had to take in as much as he could before it was back to the monotony of the diurnal routine of working at a fish cannery.
In a way, though he was in a hurry and was slowly waking up and heading back into reality, that certain dreamy haze had not left him. It circled above him, allowing him to enjoy the relaxing quiet even more, though still accepting that it was once again, indeed not Sunday and that he needed to go to work. Maybe just a bit too much, even. For what he feared would happen this morning did happen. All of the sudden, she felt a sudden, violent jerk on his shoulder. Slightly startled, he turned around and became face to face with a young woman. He began to turn red in the face. She did too.
How terribly rude of me... Victor thought to himself, frantically, I better say something...
"I'm terribly sorry, Miss. It was incredibly rude of me to run into you like that. I should have been more careful."
With that, he turned around to take a better look at the woman. She was an innocent thing with a thin face, not unlike his. She had short, brown hair and olive green eyes. She wore a simple, purple dress and her ears were pierced- the jewelry- small, metal dangling earrings bearing a small red jewel in the shape of a running lupine. She looked so sad, yet strangely fascinating. And as his eyes met hers, a strange feeling came upon him. By the way she looked at him, he could tell that she must've felt something too.
The young woman stood there for a few seconds, shielded her eyes and fearfully walked away.
Victor stood there, still staring. That odd feeling rushed upon him again, but this time, it was something he recognized. Anger, fear and regret. But something else as well…
Did I just...? He asked himself. He paused and redirected his thoughts. No. No, it couldn't be... He changed the topic. I need to get to work...
He turned around and began walking again to get to work. However, all during this walk, he could not stop thinking about what had just happened. He saw something in that young lady- a gentleness and a tenderness that he had never witnessed in anyone before- something powerful. It haunted him his entire way to work. It seemed that all he could think about was that young woman. Who was she? What was this odd feeling that he had experienced? Victor just had to know. And more importantly, he needed to apologize.