Arnold always felt a rain shower was rather soothing, it was as if it gave him an excuse to not go out or do much of anything. He watched the rain and wind blow through the trees in his back yard as they swayed back n forth, an occasional rumble of thunder could be heard outside his personal study. It had been three months since Astrid's death and ever since that day it had rain three months straight, Arnold couldn't help but think they were correlated somehow.
The three months of miserable weather mimicked his depressed mood for he wasn't taking Astrid's death at all too well. His dreams and thoughts were of her, there was no escaping it for he was now in care of her children. It was pure torture at times for the twins looked just like their father. Their father who had ruined his life and who inadvertently caused Astrid's death. Arnold knew there would be a day when Dracula would return, and a target would be placed upon him. He made a promise to Astrid that he would watch over her children, guide them, and raise them to be hopefully not be anything like Dracula. It made it only easier that the twin boys had his last name of Vasile. The makeshift family he acquired three months ago was an adjustment for everyone.
Luckily, he had Lilly to help his last remaining wife with the children. A newborn who needed constant care and two young boys who were starting to act out was more than what they bargained for. The twin boys were acting out in such a way that they were becoming violent by throwing and breaking things. Constantly giving Lilly an attitude until Arnold had to step in when they needed a talking to. It was here in his study where he came to escape it all to void out the constant ruckus outside the four walls of his in-home office.
A knock on the door could be heard breaking Arnold free from his thoughts as he was still staring out the window. Lilly walked in looking flustered as she went to close the door behind her quickly. She let a loud sigh before tucking a piece of blond hair behind her ear and then went to straighten her plain red t-shirt over a pair of beige jeans.
"Alex just locked Elliot in his room again and I just need a breather for a moment before I deal with that." Said Lilly.
"Lilly, we have to do something the children are getting out of hand. With them losing both of their parents, I can't even begin to fathom what lasting impact this will have on them."
"What are you suggesting Arnold?" asked Lilly as she now rested a hand on his shoulder.
"That we hire professional help, this is a bit more than we can handle. A consoler is what I had in mind so that maybe Alex and Elliot can talk about what upsets them."
"Where you do suppose we take them Arnold? Anywhere we take them we risk the exposure of our world. I can't trust them not to speak of what we are and who their parents were." Said Lilly.
"Lilly it seems that is a risk we must take, because I won't go back on my promise that I made to Astrid. These are our children now Lilly we must be there and offer what assistance we can through this hard time." Said Arnold
"I'm not disagreeing, but I feel we should discuss this matter first with other members of the Ventrue before we make any rash decisions."
"Fuck the Ventrue! Hector along with the Elders aided Dracula to power once more and on top of that gave out our whereabouts to him. I will not allow some rats to consult me on to raise these children." In a fit of rage, Arnold knocked a stack of papers off his desk causing them to fly in the air before they scattered all over his office floor.
Arnold closed his eyes pinching the bridge of his nose as he did while breathing in deeply. The stress was getting to him no doubt about it that it led him to become short with Lilly at times. He ushered his hand for her to come closer to him and offered for her to take a seat on his lap. Lilly had known Arnold for a long time she knew he could be hot headed at times and easily got frustrated, with him being short with her it didn't at all phase her anymore. As many times that Arnold had strayed from her and pursued other extra marital affairs, she remained fiercely loyal to him. Lilly believed the bond between master and wife was a sacred one but make no mistake she too wished Arnold had felt the same way.
"I'm sorry for snapping at you like that for I too haven't been dealing with Astrid's death all too well either. I miss her so much." said Arnold before he began to choke on his own tears. Lilly wrapped her arms around his neck embracing him in a tight squeeze. There was a first for many things and that was she never saw Arnold cry before. He wept into her shirt luckily her shirt she was wearing was red that the tears of blood rolling down his face wasn't too noticeable on her shirt. She held onto him for several minutes while gently rubbing his back in a soothing manner till he eventually calmed down.
"This pain this hurt that you are feeling will pass. Trust me when I say this for, I had to go through this same thing alone when you were killed. Luckily for you at least you don't have to go through it alone you have me." Said Lilly with a smile.
He cleared whatever remaining tears off his face with the cuff to his blue dress shirt while trying his best to hide the embarrassment of crying like that in front of Lilly.
"Why are you so good to me? I've wronged you in so many ways yet you're still here."
"The simple answer is you are my master, husband, and lover. I don't give up on those that I love the most even if they have strayed. I once believed we had eternity together until my beliefs were rocked to the core when you perished all those years ago. I then thereafter found holding grudges expended so much of my energy that when I finally forgave you, I felt free." Said Lilly.
Arnold grabbed her hand cupping it his and then looked up at her with his blood shot eyes. Her warm brown eyes met his accompanied by a heart-warming smile that until recently he had long forgotten how much missed he her smiling and laughing at him.
"You and you alone going forward will be the only Mrs. Vasile. I'm truly blessed to have you." Said Arnold as he went to kiss her on the lips. When she kissed him back slowly it brought up memories of the past before Cecilia before Astrid when it was just the two of them. It was one of the more happier times in her life when she truly believed her master loved her and her alone. A time she didn't feel so alone and insecure as she did these past many years.
"Shall we get Elliot out of his room once more?" asked Arnold.
"I suppose." Said Lilly as she went to get off his lap and made way for the door.
Arnold and Lilly went down the narrow hallway filled with several picture frames of relatives till the twin's bedroom door came into view. The door knob was violently shaking it seemed as if any minute now the door was going to come off its hinges from Elliot banging on the door so much. Arnold reached into his pocket and pulled out the skeleton key to unlock the door. Just as he opened the door Elliot fell flat on his face as he was just about to run into the door once more. Elliot looked up in Alex's direction as he could hear Alex howling with laughter at the other end of the hall.
"You're going to get it!" shouted Elliot as he bounced back on his feet.
"Not so fast!" Said Arnold as he just in time grabbed Elliot by the shirt. Elliot went to try to claw at Arnold's hand that had ahold of his shirt as a means to free himself from Arnold's grasp.
"Enough!" shouted Arnold. His eyes changed color instantaneously as black spikes began protruding all over his legs and arms. This seemed to stop Elliot's fussing as he was now cowering before Arnold hoping Arnold would show him some mercy and spare him from any punishment.
"Alex, I know it was you who took the spare key from my office. Hand it over now!" shouted Arnold.
Alex gulped while remaining completely frozen where he stood. Arnold hated that it always ended with him losing his cool for them to stop fighting and for once corporate.
"Hand it over now!" Said Arnold a second time.
Alex slowly with his bent head down walked over and placed the key into Arnold's out reached hand. Arnold then let go of Elliot's shirt and shoved the spare key safely into his pocket.
" Now you and your brother can spend the rest of the night in your rooms and will be grounded from the Wi-Fi for a week. Believe me when I say I'm changing the password so don't get any bright ideas."
Neither one of them let out of protest nor would even look into Arnold's now red eyes. There unkept curly hair hid their faces to him as they walked in shame back to their one bedroom the two shared. Lilly almost jumped as one of the twins slammed the door shut causing a couple of the picture frames on the wall to fall to the floor.
"Ya, I'm going to make some phone calls tomorrow." Said Lilly before she disappeared off to get a broom. Glass from the broken picture frames littered the hard-wooden floor, Arnold went to bend down and picked up the frames. He could hear Lilly approaching him from behind and offered to clean up the mess.
"They just don't listen to me. However, I don't want to be that kind of parent who always yells at her children either." Said Lilly
"I know what you what mean, and I'm surprised that Logan sleeps so soundly while the twins are creating such chaos." Said Arnold while sweeping up the remaining glass into the dust pan.
"Indeed, he is the best one out of the bunch." Laughed Lilly.
"Lilly will you put on your to do list tomorrow to get the twins a haircut and some new clothes. They out growing all the clothes we managed to gather from the mansion, and you can barely even see their faces with how long their hair has grown."
Lilly groaned at the thought of it for taking the twins out anywhere in public was a nightmare. She plopped herself onto the white leather sofa turning on the tv too in the process. Though only eight at night Lilly wanted nothing more than to sleep. However after all the children were in beds it was what Lilly like to call the "special time". It was a time where the two could be adults for once and have on tv whatever they wanted, maybe even sip on a few glasses of wine as they cuddled up together on the couch. It was relief to Lilly that the" special time" was here and no more spongebob till tomorrow morning.
"Here you go." Said Arnold as he handed her a wine glass filled with sweet cherry merlot before taking a seat next to her. Lilly looked to see what was on tv when she realized it was a documentary about Dracula on the History channel.
"Even in death there is no escaping him." Huffed Arnold as he quickly went to take the remote from Lilly to change the channel.
The night was slowly coming to a close, Lilly was passed out on the couch with her head resting on Arnold's shoulder while he watched the local news at ten. He could hear the wind howling over the sound of the TV and rain pounding on the roof. Maybe if it stopped raining for once maybe the children wouldn't be in such a terrible mood all the time either. It was then in the middle of the news when the tv went out along with all the lights in the house.
"Great just Great!" muttered Arnold.
He went to get up from the couch and almost walked right into the coffee table as he tried to walk through the darkness of his home. He needed to find a flash light to get to the breaker down stairs in the basement without killing himself in the process. He found a flashlight in the junk draw in the kitchen before turning it on and heading towards the door that lead to the basement. Arnold shined the light down the steep flight of stairs to the basemen floor, the wooden steps creaked with each step he took, and he too now realized why the children didn't want to come down here. The basement was a place to store stuff and forget about it. It was dark, cold and had musty smell that lingered all around. His flash light spotted the breaker box next to the washer and dryer set before went to walk over towards it.
"Bathroom, kitchen, Livingroom, where is the main switch?" he mumbled to himself.
He finally saw in the far-left corner the black switch for all the power in the house and went to switch it off once and then waited thirty seconds before switching it on again. The lights in the basement flickered on causing Arnold to sigh in relief that all it took was a flip of switch. The days of relying on candlelight for everything back in his early years as a vampire he did not miss what so ever. Slamming the breaker box shut he turned around to go back towards the stairs when he immediately stopped in his tracks at what was before him.
An eerie black cloud of mist was lingering in the air blocking his path towards the steps and was beginning to form into a shape right in front of his very eyes. It took the shape of human being as the legs, arms, and head began to become more pronounced. It wasn't till a few moments more that the swirl of mist began to finally piece the last bit of details so Arnold could finally make out who it was.
"Astrid?" said Arnold in disbelief.
Before him she stood in a black dress that came all the way down to her bare feet. Her dress was sleeveless revealing bruises and many scarring up and down her arms. What took him aback most were her eyes they were completely black, there was no distinction between the pupil and the iris.
"Astrid is that really you?" asked Arnold. Arnold wasn't sure if it was the merlot or lack of sleep that could be causing these tricks on his mind. He was almost certain he was losing his mind till Astrid finally spoke.
"He is coming Arnold." Said Astrid. She looked uneasy as if afraid of something or someone for she kept glancing over her shoulder then back at Arnold again.
"Whose coming? What are you talking about?"
"Arnold there is a plot a plot in which terrible things will happen. You must leave for he is coming."
"Who? Tell me who?" shouted Arnold.
"Arnold who are you talking to?" asked Lilly who was now half way down the wooden steps.
Astrid seemed to have left as quick she came for the black mist had disappeared out of plain sight. He couldn't believe it and kept flashing his light in all directions of the basement looking to see if Astrid or the mist he has seen earlier was still around.
"Will you get that light out of my face?" asked Lilly as she went to cover her eyes with her hand.
"Sorry just thought I saw something."
"Saw what?" asked Lilly.
Arnold went to rub his eyes while shaking his head as he did. He wasn't to sure if what he saw was real or a figment of his imagination, but deep down in his gut he certain it was real and was a warning of some sorts. Till he could figure this matter out further he decided not to scare Lilly and thought it would be best not to tell her what he saw.
"I'm sorry the power went out and I thought I saw something. Ready for bed?"
Lilly looked at him as if she wasn't buying it but didn't want to push the subject for, she was tired herself. Arnold followed her out of the basement locking the basement door behind him as he did.
"I'll be in shortly just want to make sure all the doors and windows are locked." Said Arnold to Lilly before kissing her goodnight.
There were only two doors in the front and back both were locked upon checking and even all the windows were tightly secure. Everything seemed in order, but the last thing he wanted to do before going to bed was check on the children. He made his rounds to each of their bedrooms down the hallway. Cracking open the door and peaking his head inside to see each and everyone of them was asleep. All seemed sound all seemed normal for all he knew whatever happened in the basement he couldn't explain.
"I swear I'm losing it." said Arnold to himself as he opened the door to his bedroom. He got under the comforter before snuggling next to Lilly who already fast asleep once more. He envied how fast she could fall asleep how she could sleep though an entire night and not be plagued by nightmares. With his thoughts all over the place he knew he would be in for a rough night of no sleep. Maybe the twins weren't the only ones who needed help maybe he himself also needed it. This nagging feeling of something terrible was about to happen he couldn't quite shake off it almost creeped him out in a way. He could only hope that it was just his nerves that were getting the best of him as he went to close his eyes and attempt at this thing called sleep.
The End