Chapter 2
With her father's jacket in hand the blonde forcefully moved her feet towards the black gates in front of the manor with a cursive E in the middle. Her small slender hands reached to the other side of the dark pikes and unlocked the gate doors. Opening them with a creaking sound she shut it behind her. It was dark; her foot steps could be heard as she walked the stony path to the large front door. Grabbing the gold door knocker she knocked loudly hoping that someone would answer. After two attempts she began to get frustrated then a loud boom could be heard from inside. It was loud enough to startle and scare away the donkey away. "Wait! No come back here you coward!" Maka yelled after the honking mammal but it was too late it was already gone. She stomped her foot on the cold hard ground. "Dammit!" She cursed under her breath. Letting out a sigh the young girl gripped the jacket knowing she had to go inside and look for her father. Little did she know that she was being watched through a nearby window. To her surprise the door was open, stepping inside she gaped at the scene in front of her. It was all so large, neat, and beautiful. Heels clanked on the marble floor. The room was lighted with long dim candles, there was a giant crystal chandelier in the center of the ceiling. It shined and sparkled against the light of the flames. Picking up a spare candle she walked through the manor searching for her dad. Paintings, flowers, and vases decorated the hallways.
With just a couple of steps she knew she just past objects that are worth more than anything she owned. It was probably more than enough to cover her father's debts. Temptation sprang within her, part of her wanted to steal them. But her better judgment over took her and shop her head and pushed those thoughts out of her head. Her emerald eyes flicked at a shadow nearby that looked like a figure of a woman. "Excuse me! Can you help me I think my father may be in here could you help me?!" She shouted as she ran towards the shadow. Maka didn't even notice that she was following the strange woman down a fleet of stairs until she almost tripped on the first step. "Ouch!" She winced but continued to make her way down. The girl was scared when she didn't see the figure anymore and fastened her pace. As she kept going down the darker and colder it got. Finally reaching the bottom she looked around and saw no one. "That's strange…I could have sworn I saw someone." Then she felt something rub against her ankle and she screamed at the top of her lungs. Looking down it was a small purple cat meowing at her. Feeling her heart come back to life she gripped her coat. "Oh thank goodness it was just a cat." She breathed before narrowing her eyes at the feline. Before she could say anything more a familiar voice caught her attention. "Maka?" It asked from the darkness.
Holding her candle out she moved towards the voice tilting her head to the side. There was a cell in front of her a man with red hair was inside. Dropping the candle she ran to him "Papa!" She called out to him letting herself drop to her knees grabbing the steel bars. "Papa! I was so worried about you! How did you get in here?" She asked looking for a way to get him out. The older man was shocked and shook his head reaching out for her hand. "Maka my dear you need to get out of here! He's going to come back and he'll kill the both of us!" He shushed warning her to flee. In response she glared at him. "No! It's freezing in here if I leave you you'll die!" She countered not about to leave her father here by himself. "As your father I'm ordering you to leave!" "As your daughter I'm telling you no way in hell!" As soon as she argued back the light from her candle blew out and darkness surrounded them. The sound of water droplets can be heard perfectly. Her breath hitched looking around, footsteps began to be heard getting near them. Her hand held onto her father's tighter, a dark figure came up to them stopping. The moon light showed through the cracks of the ceiling and window of the cell. The way the person looked Maka guessed he was a man, a tall one at that. He wore a cloak covering most of his body. His crimson eyes glowed in the dark a smirk graced his lips showing off his bright sharp teeth. Placing a hand at his side he stared down at the two of them. "Well looks like I'm going to have a big meal tonight."
His low husky voice filled the room sending her goose bumps. But she never let a guy dominate her life taking a big dry gulp she got up. She could feel her legs shake underneath her but she didn't care. "Who are you? And did you do this to my father?" The question took him back slightly the determination in her eyes was something he wasn't used to seeing. Usually people would scream and run away with just a simple look at him. It amused him though as he let out a small chuckle. " That perverted old man is your father?" She retaliated with a glare, "My father is not a pervert! He's a respectable man!" She lied but Maka would defend her father despite of what he was. "Respectable my ass, he was sexually harassing one of my maids how is that respectable not only that but he was also trying to steal some of my valuable possessions." This made her shut up and part of her wanted to kill her father herself. He was still going around causing problems for them and now they were in a dungeon with a mad man. "Look I'm really sorry about what happened. But I promise you that it'll never happen again. I'll smack him a couple of times in the head I can assure you he'll never come near your place again." She apologized just wanting to get away from there and him.
The air was so cold and thick she could barely breathe. The mysterious man shook his head "No can do precious, he did two very high crimes in my house. Technically I can kill him if I wanted to, I could kill you as well. I can't let people like yourselves going around causing trouble in society. No I simply can't you should go I don't think you want to be here when I eat your father's soul." Maka's eyes widened confused and scared. "His soul? You're going to eat his soul? What kind of monster are you?" She asked blocking his way to her father. "Yes, I eat souls. They're delicious I'm pretty sure yours is tasty actually. But I'll spare you since you came for your old man. He on the other hand has to die, I'm sorry I can't let a meal pass me by like this. And as for a monster, that's actually a compliment. I'm more of a demon." He smirked showing his teeth proudly.
"No…I'm not going to let you kill my father." She clenched her fists tears threatening to fall down her eyes. Her father pleaded and begged Maka to run but she ignored him. "I'm afraid there's nothing you can do." He shrugged trying not to let her red eyes convince him to let them go. She was just a human after all they die easily anyways. The blonde wiped her eyes inhaling deeply before getting on her knees her head facing down. "Take me." She said, his eyes widened in shock. "What?!" He asked taken back unsure of what he heard. "Take me instead of him, you said my soul seemed to be tasty right? Kill me, just let him live..please." She choked on her last word. His eyebrows furrowed. "Why would you do that for someone like him even if he is your father?" He asked bewildered by all of this. "Because he's the only family I have left! And..I don't know! Just accept my offer please!" She begged looking up at him. The man just had about enough of it, he would let him go but he would make sure to send him far away. "All right then fine my me, you want him free from here then your wish is my command." He said simply his hand reached out and with little effort moved her out of his way. His right arm all of a sudden turned into a big black and red blade and smashed open the cell. "Okay old man you're free to go." He said dragging him out, Spirit begged and kicked imploring for him to change his mind. "She's no longer your concern, here take this." He shoved a small bag of gold coins into his hands before shoving him down a nearby chute going further down.
His arm went back to normal and turned around to face her. "Hey what's with the look I thought that's what you wanted?" Maka shot a glare at him. "What did you do?! I told you to let him go!" She yelled tears still streaming down her face. He shrugged "I'm sending him far away, don't worry he won't die. I just can't have someone in the town going around talking about me. I'll have noisy curious humans coming through here." He frowned at the thought. "You ass! You didn't even let me say goodbye to him! I'm going to die and I didn't get to say goodbye to him!" She cried out angrily. Even though she had been angry with her father she did at least want to part with him in good terms. "Heh, who said you're dying? I'm not going to kill you, I only eat the souls of the people who have lost their paths of righteousness. No I'm just going to keep you here, you might make a good pet for me." He said laughing at her. "I rather die than to become someone's pet. Who the hell are you anyways?" She barked getting annoyed with his behavior.
"So temperamental geez, fine let me introduce myself." He said coming closer to the moonlight, uncovering his hood the blonde's eyes widened. White snowy hair, tanned skin, crimson eyes, and he had shark like teeth. "I'm the owner of this manor, you can call me Soul."