Chapter One
I was alone in a forest, darkness surrounding me. My pitch-black paw snapped a twig under it as I continued walking aimlessly. The cuts and bruises on my body shot through me like a bullet with every step on the uneven surface and my muzzle hurt every time I opened my mouth.
'I can't stay out here for long.' I thought, feeling yet another trail of blood trickle down my hind legs. 'They'll just find me again.'
Forcing myself to keep on walking, even though I had little to no energy left in me, I placed one foot in front of the other, my tail dangling from my rear and patches of fur slowly falling off, making me shiver.
I sniffed the air around me weakly, trying to pick up a scent of something around my area. Anything that would be a good treat for me to regenerate and regain my energy incase I was found. Any sign of human scent that gives me a hint on how far I am from the main city of London.
Thankfully, there was a whiff of food about a mile or so west, and my mouth watered. Ignoring the excruciating pain, I picked up the pace and began to trot towards the delightful smell.
The smell got more noticeable, making me go a little faster. As I got closer to the source, the faster I got so I could get there sooner.
The smell took me to a dirt path with bushes on either side. I could see trimmed trees scattered all around the grass fields and a large building down the path. Slowly and carefully trying not to make a sound, I make my way down the path.
The path cleared out and presented a staircase leading up to a faded brown mansion with pale royal blue roofs. There were glass windows that look inside the estate and showed me that the halls were completely empty. Not a sign of life was shown, but taking another whiff as I ascended up the stairs, I could smell six humans from within the walls of this building.
Along with the humans' scent, there was an overwhelming smell of meat. My nails scratched the pavement as I went around what seemed like a stone garden. There was a patio that looked out into the trees and the sand with a table covered in a white cloth. Voices could be heard from the tables and I smelled the air again.
There was one male child, four adult males, and one adult female. The closest ones to me were the male child, adult male, and the adult female, who were all at the table.
I got down in a crouching position, my legs bent as I army crawled back towards the bushes where the other three adult males with hand bands covered in grass were. I stayed a safe distance from the males inside the bushes and hid under another, my head low almost on the ground and my eyes glued to the humans at the table.
Two males were on either side of the clothed-covered table. In front of each of them was a bowl, and as I sniffed the air, the stench of raw meat filled my nostrils.
I felt my stomach growl as I slid my tongue across my hungry lips, making me flinch back as I remembered about the scraps and cuts that covered my muzzle.
My head began to hurt after I licked my cut. I whimpered a little at the pain, causing some attention from the males hiding in the bushes a ways from my spot.
A blonde with big green eyes looked over in my direction and I hid deeper into the bush.
"Did you hear that?" He said to the one beside him.
The other blonde male, this on with small blue eyes, looked over as well, squinting to look in the darkness.
"Don't worry 'bout it Finny!" He looked away thankfully. "We need to make sure Mey-Rin doesn't mess up and make the Young Master look like a fool!"
Green-eyes nodded his head and directed his attention towards the table again. The other male, small with grey hair and a cup in his hand, stood quietly and laughed out three "ho's" and didn't bother to look over at me. I sighed out softly, crawling backwards into the bushes. I moved to the right where the males were and tip toed behind them, careful not to trip over their legs.
Once safely away from them, I quickly trot up onto the curb where flowers grew and hid behind them, making my way towards one of the entrances that lead inside the mansion.
The door was open, so I was able to walk right through without causing any noise. My headache had worsened and my balance was a little off, but that didn't stop me from attempting to enter.
Just as I made it to the doorway, I heard the spilling of a liquid and I turned my head. The adult female spilled a magenta colored wine onto the pure white tablecloth. It was about to go over the edge until a human pulled on the cloth. It slid underneath every item on the table without moving any of them. The cloth was completely off the table without the adult male who was inhaling his food noticing. Once he placed the bowl and chopsticks down, he finally noticed it was gone.
Two of the adult males from the bushes ran over behind the man eating and took the female back to the huge building, not noticing my presence for they were running, trying to get inside without begin seen
"Where did the tablecloth go?" The man looked frantically at the bare table, his Italian accent dripping from every word her said.
"A speck of dirt. Most unsightly. I had the cloth removed so it wouldn't distract us." The child smirked. "Think nothing of it."
"Please accept my apologize, sir." My ears perked when a new voice emerged into the conversation. "Do continue. Enjoy the meal at your leisure."
I looked over at the male child and saw a figure standing right beside him. My eyes widened, and as I focused more at the figure, it looked like a human!
'But that's impossible! I only smell six humans present.' I looked skeptically at what appeared to be a male, however, the normal stench of a human wasn't what was radiating off of him. No it was something more foully. Something heavier. Something stronger.
Something more sinister
I tuned out the conversation, keeping my eyes on the tall and lean black figure before I heard something that brought me back to reality.
"You see, I am simply one hell of a butler." The man in black said.
My eyes narrowed at the man. The child looked up at the man as if to say something, but he just huffed and smirked again.
They finished their meal shortly after that and the men sat up from their chairs. The man in black was the first to turn around and I quickly hid in the flowerbeds again. They began walking towards the door and the man stood to the side as the child and the Italian walked through the opened door. Just as the man in black was about to enter as well, he looked down at the patch of flowers I was hiding in and smirked, then left me alone in the bushes in the dark.
Did that . . . that . . . that thing know where I was? He obviously smirked down at me. Or was it not at me? Even if it weren't at me, whom would he be smirking at?
It has to be directed towards me.
I let out a low growl as I emerged out of the bush. I shook out the leaves and flower petals as they grazed my exposed wounds. With another whimper, I limped passed the ajar door and entered the building.
Once inside, I take another whiff. There was nothing different: The same six smells plus the one oddly peculiar stench that stuck out like a sore thumb.
Yet again, the smell of meat poked out from the other scents. My paws went on their own, walking along the halls with burgundy and green walls along with an organ rug going along the floor. There were portraits in each corridor, of men and women, who I could only guess were the previous family members.
From what I observed and by how the inside was so grand, this mansion belonged to one of a nobleman of great fortune and high social status.
I went down one staircase that lead to a center platform before going down another seat and into the vast space where the entrance doors are. There was a place on the wall facing the entrance where a large portrait of a man and woman were together, both of them having the same dark blue, almost black, hair. The woman sat on a chair as the man stood beside her, standing up and a smile on his face.
'Could that be the owner of this manor?'
I sniffed and turned left, the smell of meat getting stronger the more I wandered deeper into the manor.
There were another set of stairs trailing down, and a faint voice was heard. Being the curious thing I was, I descended, being careful about making any noise.
The familiar smell of one of the adult males was coming from a small room, along with a horrifying smell of nicotine. His voice was low, however, there was no other person there with him. Could he be talking on a phone? It seemed most likely he was.
I looked around the corner to see his back to me. He had a phone is his hand and a cigar in his mouth as he talked.
"I'm tired of babysitting this child Earl." There was a short pause. "Yes, I already sold off the factory. Now all that's left is to pocket the extra cash. I'm trying to squeeze more out of the brat right now." Another pause. "The employees? Who cares about them?"
The man turns suddenly, a gasp escaping his lips as he did. I followed him and turned around, hiding in the darkness as my dark fur camouflage with it.
I understood why he turned around so quickly and out of no where. There was some sort of presence with us, like a ghost of some sort that is watching us.
Was it the man in black?
'It can't be.' I thought looking back up at the Italian, still hiding in the darkness. 'He was human, and humans couldn't have that kind of presence like a ghost. Right . . .?'
I shook my head. The Italian went back to his phone, speaking through it once again.
"Never mind. The rest of formalities are for you to deal with." He silenced before speaking again. "No, it'll be easy. Please, he's only a child."
Another chill went down my spine as the man hung up on the phone and put out the cigar. I moved back from the doorway so he could kick me as he walked. He turned right and passed by me and I followed behind him.
He went up the same set of stairs that face the portrait of the man and woman. Taking a left to the other steps, he stopped abruptly, making me hide behind the railing around the corner. As soft gasp was heard as he turned around to look at the painting.
One look at it, and his eyes went wide with fear. Almost as if the ghost was back and he had seen it in the painting.
He wiped his eyes, looking back up and having a look of disbelief.
"Impossible. I'm seeing things." He continued up the stairs before stopping again, inhaling a sharp breath. "No, that's ridiculous."
'Whatever he was thinking about, it must have been unsettling.' I thought, hopping up the stairs behind him.
Instead of going straight and making a right into the game room where the male child was, the Italian made the right too early and entered the wrong corridor. He went to the second door to his left and opened it, finding out quickly that that wasn't the room he was supposed to go.
Inside the room was dark, but still light enough to see the pool table and chair all around it. "Oh." The man closed the door before trying a number of other doors.
"Not here either."
Then he went to another door. "Or here."
He tried to go to another corridor, his complains rolling off his tongue like it was a never-ending waterfall.
"This manor is like a giant maze." He glared off at no one. "I can't even find the drawing room."
I was walking silently until I stepped on a loose floor board. Again, like before, he stopped dead in his tracks and gasped. I tried to moving to hide, but all of a sudden, it seemed like all the floorboards were loose. One after the other, I stepped on the boards and a squeaking noise echoed across the halls.
However, the presence of a ghost returned for the third time, only this time, it was in front of the human and I. The body was solid, unlike the tales of transparent ghosts, but the face was all white with black sockets as eyes and a wicked smile on its lips.
It neared closer and closer to the human, making him tail back and run down the hall. He was such in a hurry that I was barely able to move out in time so he wouldn't hit me.
I looked back and saw him disappear from my line of sight. There were steps from where the ghost-like figure stood, so I turned and expected to see that same wicked smile, but all I got was the blonde with insanely huge green eyes from earlier in the bushes.
He was carrying the portrait I passed by with the woman and man. They seemed to be removing it and replacing it into a different place.
There was a chair and a stand beside me, and I quickly hid behind it, moving my head to the side a little to see what they were going to do.
"That's odd. Was that our guest I heard just now?" He said, looking off into the direction the Italian went off.
"Hey! We need to move this! Or Sebastian will start yelling again!" What I recognized was the other blonde's voice say.
Green-eyes nodded. "Right!"
They went away and their footsteps were no longer heard. I moved from my hiding spot and back out into the center of the hall. I stepped out, the headache I was ignoring until now got even worse and the room was starting to spin. My balance was completely off, so I sat down and whimpered loudly, not caring if anyone heard me.
I was in too much pain to care.
Just then, an overwhelming stench clogged my nostrils. There was a dark figure in front of my, but the face was unknown for I couldn't bring my head up. However, a hand went under my bruised muzzle and I growled from the pain, the hand making me look up.
The face was pale and a wicked smile was plastered onto it as fang could be seen and glowing pinkish eyes were intently looking into my (E/C) ones.
"Uninvited guest are not welcome here . . ." His hand trailed down to my badly cut neck. He wrapped his gloved-covered hand around it, his slender fingers touching my cuts, making them sting.
I couldn't breath, and my eyes become droopy. They were half lidded, the corners of my eyes going black as I gasped for air.
His smirked widened, squeezing my neck tighter.
I couldn't fight anymore. I was too hungry and too hurt to continue. Ending my life here wasn't so bad, right? They wouldn't be able to find me anymore, so I'll be safe in Heaven. Or Hell, whichever one I deserve to go into.
My vision blurred when I took my last breath and dropped on the ground. But there was a voice before I dropped, a voice of what seemed like a child.
"Sebastian! Don't you dare kill her!"