"Alberta, get some rest, I'll be fine. It's you who needs to attend to Stan tomorrow early in the morning, so it'll be better if you are well rested."
For the past week Mr. Stan had been severely ill. I wanted to go check on him, but couldn't, daren't. It wasn't as if I was in a better condition, but Alberta had it worse. She was the caretaker of our house and Stan was the head of guard, and my personal guardian, serving under Pavel after Hans retired. I never really liked Stan much, but unlike me Alberta loved him to death.
It took me by surprise - the romance between the two, their reciprocation of emotions towards each other almost made me believe that love existed. The story of my parents, Janine and Abe, taught me quite differently. What they showed me was that it was need not affection, greed not care, fulfillment not love that made people stay in each other's company. For them it was nearly impossible to stay in same room for more than a few minutes, since ones very presence made the other irritated. Their aversion towards one another resulted in their lack of presence and their decisiveness to busy themselves with their respective job for the past eight years, thus I mostly grew up with Alberta as a mother figure and Lissa for a kind friend.
These days Alberta was torn between her duty and her desire. Though I had repeatedly told her to take a leave of absence, it wasn't of much use. She would have taken it and only cared for Stan if her duty didn't demand otherwise.
"No way am I leaving you alone in the mansion, unguarded, with both Stan and I off duty. How could you even suggest this Rose? Mr. Mazur would be aghast", she argued.
"Find a temporary guard then", I suggested.
She had brightened up upon my idea, but after interviewing some guards, gave up on it altogether, not deeming any of them fit for the role. Though Stan's absence had limited, almost restricted my interactions with the outer world, I decided against pressing upon the matter any further, considering that it would only add to Alberta's worries. However, that didn't stop me from taking other measures to ensure I wasn't tied to the mansion longer than I could bear.
As soon as the opportunity presented itself, I snuck out for a late night walk. Upon my return an hour later, I realized that no one had noticed my absence and all was fine. Naturally, daunted by my previous venture from a few nights ago, today I repeated the deed. I came to the decision to try my luck and actually stay out for a little while longer this time around, so I brought a backpack with snacks along with me.
Time passed insensibly as I lay on a bench beside the lake, in the park, observing the beauty of the moonlit night. The moment was surreal - the clear sky splashed with twinkling stars, the leaves rustling in the soft wind, the moon reflected in the still waters of the lake, seldom disturbed by movement of creatures that lived under its surface - it all made the world seem magical.
Sadly, the serene moment I was lost in, was rudely interrupted by a crack of a twig, the soft sound amplified in the silence, alerting me of the fact that I was no longer alone. I straightened up and cast a look over my shoulder only to realize I was correct, as, not moments later, a figure clad in black darted out from the shadows, grabbed my backpack and ran. What surprised me more than the fact that I had just been robbed of my possessions, was, that the actions of this person annoyed me instead of scaring me and I found myself running, not away, but towards this thief, chasing my beloved backpack, determined to get my snacks back.
I came to a halt when a rather large figure stepped in the path of the offender, causing him to come to an abrupt stop. Without a word, the man pried my backpack away from the aforementioned thief's hands and with a simple glare sent him scurrying away.
My presence hadn't escaped the man's attention either. He turned, heading towards me as my mind screamed at me to escape, get away from him as fast I could . However, I couldn't get my legs to move, I was transfixed, simply rutted to my spot from which I stared at man approaching me. I took in his features carefully: an intimidating height, shoulder length hair, a bearded face with a scraggly appearance and a brown duster to add to his scary presence.
When he was only a few steps away from me, I willed my limbs to action, ripping my backpack out of his grasp and dashing in the opposite direction without so much as a thank you or a simple look over my shoulder, hoping that the frightening man had no desire or patience to chase me.
With my heart beating out off my chest and my breaths coming out rapidly I tiptoed my way back into my home, gratefully noticing that Alberta and the rest of the staff was sound asleep. I made my way into my room, shut the door and slid down against it, winding up on the floor, contemplating about the events of the night that went sideways in the most unexpected way possible.
"Rose, open the door!! Rose!!", Alberta shouted in panic from the other side of the hard wood surface, banging on it hard as I tried to grasp onto lucidness.
This certainly wasn't a nice way to wake up, especially after the fright I had last night. For a few moments I was baffled by her actions. My door was never locked, so that allowed her, my tutor Sophie and Lissa to come and go as per their wishes, without so much as a need to knock, let alone attempt to unhinge the said door. The realization dawned on me as I briefly relived the fear coursing through my bones last night, the temptation to not only lock every door that separated me from the outside world, but also put numerous impediments between my bed and the entrance to my room.
I tumbled out of the bed, hurrying towards the key in the lock and turning it hastily. I swung the door open just before Alberta managed to hit it again, faced with her frightened expression and her fist lingering midair.
"Heavens child! What happened?", she exclaimed, taking in my ghastly appearance.
Tired as I had been, I hadn't had the chance to undress before sleep had claimed me. The result was visible in the numerous wrinkles that graced my clothes and a nest of curls sticking out in every direction from my head.
"Nope, nothing. I simply wanted to surprise you, so I got ready before bed and slept in these clothes, so that you wouldn't have a chance to complain that I wasn't ready for the day", I mumbled out a silly excuse cringing while I awaited Alberta's reaction.
She rose her eyebrows and stared at me for a while before finally submitting to the matter with a humph. I smiled in relief, wishing her good morning as she left nodding in amusement at my antics. I was glad that I had had at least enough mind to kick the shoes under the bed where they were hidden from Alberta's view.
It was while trying to tame the messy excuse for a hair that circled my face, that something odd struck me, something seemed off, unusual. As I pulled the brush through the strands at the front I caught a sight of my wrist. My empty wrist. I gasped, feeling tears well up in my eyes, as I realized that it was the very lack of something that actually caught my attention.
My bracelet was missing.
I dropped the brush and scratched at my wrist like that could somehow make the bracelet materialize before my eyes. Tears spilled over my cheeks as I accepted the fact that I had lost the most precious piece of jewelry I owned. It was my parent's gift to me for my eighth birthday and though I had despised it at first, at some point it became dear enough to me that I took it out of the jewelry box where it was stashed and put it on my hand, never taking it off again.
The bracelet was cute, a silver chain with several small white pearls attached to it. Over the years I had become used to the sound of these pearls tapping against each other, accompanying my movements and now, I missed it. Its beauty, however, wasn't what made it so dear to me. I treasured it greatly, for it reminded me of the time when we were truly a happy family. It symbolized the part of my life when my parents cared for me and each other, when they loved one another or at least claimed they did. Mind you, to the world, Mazurs were still a perfect, little, respectable family that stood as a pillar to the community, despite the harsh reality that differed from that picture quite a lot, a true and united family now nothing but a long lost dream and an illusion.
I knew that telling Alberta that I had lost the bracelet would have raised a lot of questions, the ones about my whereabouts during the previous night being the most pressing.
I desperately wanted to evade getting into trouble and I also wanted to avoid the park and the lake at all costs, for there was always a possibility of running into even more danger than I previously had. Thus I spent the whole day devising alternate and almost impossible ways and situations to find the bracelets in the most unexpected places:
It'll be in my shoes.
It'll be in my bag.
Let me check the stairs.
Was it in the washroom?
Perhaps I left it in the drawer after all.
I'll find it in the jewelry box.
I'll roll my sleeve up and it'll be there.
By the end of the day I had been forced to acknowledge the fact that I had no other choice but to do what I've been putting off for hours.
At exactly 2:45 am, I sneaked past the mansion's gates determined to get my bracelet back no matter what the cost.
For half an hour I scoured the road to the lake, checking around every stone, the inside of every hole and every millimeter of the short grass by the path I walked down.
By 3:45 am I had thoroughly checked the region by the lake and the bench where I had been prior to the theft of my backpack.
It was past four already when I finally stopped at the very spot where the tall man had intercepted the offender, and barely managed not to slump onto the ground in dejection. I had looked everywhere, but it was all in vain.
My mind raced, conjuring scenarios to add to my despair.
Somebody could have found it and kept it.
Some animal could have been drawn to it by its shine and taken it to its lair.
It might have fallen into the lake, though that was a possibility I highly doubted.
Someone might have thrown it in the trash considering it to be a waste.
Whichever it was it was certain - I had lost it forever, it was gone.
Completely defeated I turned to leave and go back home, only to find, someone standing in the shadows watching me. I instinctively reached into my pockets with sweaty palms, desperately digging through them find anything that could be used as a weapon if need be.
Sadly, I only found a hair clip. Gripping it tightly in my hand I thought that any weapon, even the one so small and probably harmless, was still better than none at all.
I courageously stood my ground, straightened up, cleared my throat and boldly demanding: "Who are you?"
The person, instead of speaking, simply stepped under the lamp, making my already fast beating heart skip a beat. It was him, the tall scraggly man in a duster.
"You!", I gasped digging my heels into the ground so I'd stop myself from backing away and showing him how petrified I actually was, "What are you doing here? Are you stalking me? You are stalking me, right?"
Anger was lacing my words, but when the man took another step towards me, my voice became a lot shakier than I'd like it.
"Who are you? Who are you working for? What do you-?"
My words were lost on me for a few moments when the man wordlessly held his hand out, slowly opened his palm to reveal my bracelet tucked in it. Staying silent was not something I exercised often so I quickly ordered:
"Give that back to me!"
It was very improper and rude of me to act this way, but my anxiousness got the better of me. The man seemed to be almost unfazed by my terrible behavior though, since he simply rose one of his eye brows, in a way that I had tried to do on several occasions but had failed terribly every time, and stayed unmoving in his silence.
Perhaps I've gotten ahead of myself and judged him too harshly. So far he had been kind of neutral and seemed to pose no threat. The fact that he had helped me when needed also hasn't exactly escaped my notice. 'Politeness is the least you can offer', spoke my conscience, making me feel guilty. With a sigh I finally added:
"Please."
"It's yours," he spoke calmly, lifting his hand slightly as if to show me that all I had to do was step forward and take what I wanted.
I did just that, moving slowly and watching him carefully to see if I could detect any malice, but his intentions seemed genuine. I reached into his palm gingerly, fixing his eyes as my hand ghosted over the bracelet.
"You don't want anything in return?", I questioned as I brushed the pearls with the tips of my fingers.
"No", he replied shortly.
I nodded more to myself than him before I took the bracelet and quickly latched it onto my wrist. With a barely audible thank you, I started to leave, but after taking a few steps decided to glance over my shoulder one last time. I was surprised to see that man still there, though now he sat under the lamp, looking up towards the sky. Unable to contain my curiosity per always, I found myself returning to him.
"Are you sure that you don't want anything in return, you've already helped me twice?"
The words slipped out before I could even think about them properly, so as expected only seconds later my mind started accusing me of foolishness. I should have walked away, any other person would have given the chance, but here I stood making small talk. He was helpful, sure, but his appearance, his timing and this place where we met were odd and creepy, the surroundings eerie enough to send a chill down your spine.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one baffled by the words that left my lips. He blinked up at me in awe for a few moments, taking some time in forming a coherent response. When he managed to speak I was more shocked by his request than I anticipated.
"May I kiss you?"
-o-
All rights belong to Richelle Mead.
There goes the first chapter.
Loved it? Hated it?
Would be great if you let me know.
The next chapter would be up tomorrow.
Have an amazing time ahead!
-Katnipsc :)