woohoo! i updated! sorry for the long wait. i've been really busy!! okayi just hope that you like it and dontforget to review!

Chapter 5: How Long Must This Go On?

Esther woke up to the rays of warm sunshine and the nice smell of flowers. She opened her eyes and was blinded by the rays of sunlight. She blinked a bit and got used to the light. She looked to her right and saw the vase of flowers on her dresser. She sighed as she remembered who and why she picked them. She rolled over in her bed to look away from them. She shivered. The morning was cold. She pulled her blankets closer to her chin.

Suddenly, she heard a knock on her door and the squeaking of the door opening. She looked to see Kate as she walked inside her room.

"Rise and shine, sleepy head! Today is a beautiful morning! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and breakfast is ready." She said.

Esther groaned and pulled the covers over her head. "I'm not going to eat with him. Let me sleep."

"Awe! Come on! Vaclav made a special breakfast in honor of your arrival! You're going to come with me whether you like it or not." Kate said as she tore the blankets off of Esther.

"Eekk!" She screamed at the sudden lost of warmth. She clung to her own body for body heat as her teeth began to chatter.

Kate threw the covers into the corner. "Come on, now! You must eat. You'll die if you don't."

"Maybe it's better that I die." Esther said as she curled into a ball and pouted.

"Don't say that." Kate snapped at her. "Oh, Noélle!" She gasped as she looked at the doorway. There, Noélle, who crossed her arms in front of her stomach, came into the room.

"Esther, you shouldn't speak like that. Life is a very precious." She said. Concern covered her face.

"I know. I understand. Both of my parents were taken away from me by the cold-hearted Death." Esther said. She sighed as she remembered the horror-filled night.

"Both? But weren't you talking about missing your mother last night?" Kate asked.

"Well, the one I was talking about last night was my adopted mother. When I was five, my house was burnt down. It was so scary. I escaped the death consuming flames by jumping out the widow, but my parents weren't as fortunate." Esther explained.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Kate said.

"It's all right. I'm fine." She said and crawled out of bed. She stretched; then said, "I'm ready to go now."

"Not dressed like that you're not." Noélle said as she came into the room from the closet with a green dress.

Esther looked down at herself to see the white nightgown she was wearing as a blush grew on her face.

Esther was seated at the head in front of a grand table. She was in a grand dinning room. A chandelier was over the center of the table. A fireplace was on her right. Paintings and their frames were nailed to the wall. She looked at the other end of the table to see Abel as William seated him. He looked up at her. She saw that calm winter-blue of his eyes––only for a second. She quickly looked away at her golden spoon and plate settings. She could have sworn she had heard him snort faintly. She looked back up at him to see that he was looking away from her as she had been doing only seconds before.

The doors to the kitchen behind her suddenly opened as Kate brought in a silver platter of tea. She served Esther first. She set a teacup and saucer next to her plate. She poured the brown tea, which had a light tint of red, into Esther's cup deftly. "One or two, Esther?" She asked.

"Two." Esther sheepishly replied.

Kate smiled and dropped two sugar cubes into her teacup. They already had started to dissolve in the hot tea. She walked over to Abel at the other end.

Esther took the golden spoon in her hand and stirred the sugar cubes into the tea. She watched Kate as Kate served him his tea. She watched her put the sugar cubes into his tea. She lifted her teacup to her lips as she counted the cubes of sugar. "One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven! Eight. Nine. Ten! Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen!" Esther nearly choked on her tea, but she recover quickly before she had made a scene. "Thirteen cubes of sugar! Is she mad? Does she want to be killed?" She still watched as Abel took his spoon and stirred the sugary mess of tea. He took the cup to his lips and took at sip. Esther flinched in expecting and explosion of his scratchy voice. But nothing came. "Don't tell me that he likes his tea like that?" She thought as she took another sip of her own tea.

The doors behind her opened once again as Vaclav came in as he pushed a cart of that morning's breakfast. He placed a bowl on both of their plates. He backed up and said, "Apple oatmeal seasoned with our fineness cinnamon and sugar. With a side dish of baked apples and eggs. Bón appétte." Vaclav said as he bowed.

"Thank you." Esther said with a quiet voice as Vaclav left the room and back to the kitchen. She picked up her spoon and scooped some of the warm oatmeal with it. She brought it to her mouth and blew the stream away from it. She put the spoon to her mouth and ate some. Her mouth lit up. It was delicious. She swallowed it. "You have a very good chef." She said.

"I thank you." He said. His voice was raspy.

"And your maid––Kate––makes a fine cup of tea." She said as she lifted her teacup to her lips and took another sip from the cup.

"I thank you again." He said and ate more of his meal.

There rest of the meal was eaten in silence. Neither of them said a word.

"William, would you care to continue the tour which we had started last night?" Esther asked as she and he walked out of the dinning room. Abel had rudely left her as soon as he was down with his meal. She was hurt, yes, but only a little. She was glad that she didn't have to see him.

"Certainly, Miss, I shall." He replied gentleman-like. Leon walked around the corner as he carried a beautiful urn. "Ah, Leon! Just in time. Miss Esther wishes to continue on our tour from last night. Care to join?"

"I better. Or else you will get us into trouble again." Leon said as he placed the urn on side table next to the wall of the hallway.

"Me? Get us into trouble? I believe it's the other way around, my friend." William told him.

"Yeah, right." Leon said with sarcasm. "You and one of your failure inventions always seem to get us into big trouble, if not with Abel, with Kate!"

"Well, it's because of your sour attitude that makes everything worse!" William explained. "And not all of my inventions are failures." He added.

Leon snorted.

Esther giggled. She could sense the deep friendship between them.

"Here we have the ball room." William said as he, Esther, and Leon walked into the room. Esther looked at the room in awe, yet in curiosity. It was grand, yes, but it was a wreck. The grand curtains of the grand glass doorway to the balcony were ripped and torn. Piles of dust were on the once beautiful dance floor. Broken tables and chairs were scattered around the floor as well. The beautiful chandelier was caked with dust and cobwebs laced.

"It's so…" Esther began as she walked toward the middle of the dance floor. She could imagine the noble couples dancing around her. It was like she was really in the middle of a ball, except the couple had a more magical appeal to them. She could see someone approaching her. He was tall and skinny. He had long silvery hair, which was pulled back into a ponytail, his eyes were a wintry-blue, and a pair of glasses was set on his nose. Esther had never seen a man so hansom as him before. He came up to her and kneeled before her as he took her hand and placed a kiss on it. He looked up with her wintry-blue eyes and said in a calm voice, "May I have this dance?" Esther looked down. She was wearing a beautiful white gown fit for a queen.

"Grand?" William asked as he stood behind her.

The imaginary party vanished into thin air. The guests sparkled and were blown air by a magical wind. The hansom man was last to go. He was smiling up at Esther as the magical wind blew him away. "Dirty." She informed him as she recovered from her daydream. "And a wreck." She said as she glared at the rubbish on the floor. She turned around and stopped. The green bottom of her dress swished at her ankles. "What happened here?"

William sighed. "A lot."

"A lot?" She questioned.

"Abel… he… um… it's best if he tells you himself. I don't know the full story, but he does. You should ask him." William told her.

She crossed her arms in front of her stomach and pouted slightly. "Why do you Methuselah keep telling me to go ask Abel? I told you that I don't want anything to do with him."

"Ah, but, Miss Esther, didn't you pick some flowers for him?" William asked.

"I did," she hesitated, "but only because you both asked me to, not because I wanted to."

"So, have you given them to him yet?" Leon asked as he leaned against one of the many pillars that were along the side the east and west walls.

"No. I haven't. But I shall give them to him after dinner. I promise." She said as she smiled at the two of them. She walked over to them. "I dare say it is passed noon. When shall he have lunch?"

"Right now, Miss Esther!" A cute voice called from the doorway.

The three of them looked to see a little girl, around the age of 9 or 10, standing in front of the doorway.

"Seth!" Esther gasped and rushed over to the little girl. "Let's go and eat. Shall we?" She asked.

Seth to her hand and walked with her back to the dinning hall in the east wing. "Yes! Let's go."

Leon and William followed behind them.

"So, Seth. I didn't see you this morning. Where were you?" Esther asked.

"Oh, me? I was just sleeping. I don't really like to eat in the morning anyway. It makes me sick." Seth replied simply, yet of maturity.

'Oh, that's too bad. Are you feeling okay now?" Esther asked.

"Oh, yes! I couldn't be better!" She exclaimed as she smiled up at Esther.

Leon frowned at Seth's smile at Esther. He knew it was a fake.

William opened to the door to the dinning hall for Esther and Seth. Esther smiled at him and said, "Thank you." She and Seth walked into the room.

"Ah! Big Brother!" Seth exclaimed and let go of Esther's hand and rushed over to Abel who sat in his usual chair at the head of the table.

"Big Brother?" Esther whispered.

Abel turned his head as Seth ran up to him. He stood up as Seth hugged his legs. He looked down at her, flabbergasted. Esther could see his long sharp fangs as he gasped. "Seth, what are you doing out of bed?" His raspy voice asked. Anger was hinted in his tone of voice.

"What are you talking about, Abel? I've come for lunch!" Seth told him with a cute smile.

"Go back to bed immediately." He said coldly.

Esther snapped at this. "She wants to eat lunch with you! Are you that cold as to reject her?"

He looked up and glared at Esther. "For your information, Seth is very ill at the moment! She had a fever last night and I don't want her to up out of bed yet!" He yelled at her.

Esther looked away. She felt sorry for yelling at him. He had every right to.

"Leon!!" Abel barked.

Leon stepped forward from the doorway. "Yes?'

"Take Seth back to her room."

"All right." Leon walked over to Seth and took her gentle by the hand. "Come on, Princess. Let's go back now." Seth pouted as she took his hand.

"William!!" Abel growled.

William stepped forward from the doorway as Leon and Seth walked out of it. "Yes, Abel."

"Tell Vaclav to send up a small portion of today's meal to Seth with some medicine for her fever." Abel said.

"Right away." William said and walked across the room and into the kitchen.

As soon as William had gone through the door, Abel looked at Esther, who stood in between him and the door to the hallway. He pointed to the seat across from him––the one she had sat in this morning. "You can sit now." His raspy voice said.

"Uh, sure." She said and walked over to the seat and sat in it. "Uh, so Seth is your sister?"

"Yes." He replied quickly.

"Do you have any other siblings?" She asked as she looked at her place settings.

"Don't talk to me." He replied.

She looked up at him astonished. She looked at his face. His brow was furrowed in anger. His once blue eyes were in a sea of red. "What a rude man! Or shall I say monster!!"

Night had fallen. The wind had begun to pick up. Another storm was coming. William and Leon were continuing on showing Esther the rest of the place.

They were walking down a hallway lined with lines of knight's armor. "Now as you can see the pseudo-façade was stripped away to reveal a minimalist rococo design. Note the unusual inverted vaulted ceilings. This yet another example of the late neoclassic baroque period and, as I always say, if it's not baroque don't fix it." William chuckled at his little joke; then continued, "Uh, were was I? No then, if I can draw your attention to the fly buttresses above the… Uh, Miss?" He looked to see that she had vanished.

Esther had wandered off a bit before them. She was before a case of grand marble steps. She curiously looked up them. She wandered where the led too. She took a step in order to find out. She took another and another. Then suddenly, something landed in front of her feet two stairs up from her. It looked like a body of someone. That body stood up. It was Leon.

"Miss Esther, you wouldn't want to go up there." He said. William ran up the few steps behind Esther to join him.

"What's up there?" She curiously asked as she tried to look around them, but did she see the darkness of the shadows.

"Where? There? Oh, nothing, absolutely nothing of interest of all in the west wing. Dusty, dull, very boring." William said as Leon nodded in agreement with a sly smile.

"Ah so that's the west wing!" She said as she looked back up into the dark shadows.

"Nice going." Leon hissed at William, as William turned pale.

"I wonder what he's got hiding up there?" She said as she tried to walk around them to get a better look into the shadows.

"Hiding? Abel is hiding nothing!" Leon said.

"Then it wouldn't be forbidden." Esther said as she slipped passed them.

William and Leon quickly ran in front of her to stop her. Perhaps, uh, Miss Esther, you would like to, uh-uh, uh… see something else. We have exquisite tapestries dating all the way back to…" William began.

"Maybe later." Esther said as she slipped pass them again and up the stairs. They used their vampire powers and flew passed her and stopped in front of her again.

"Th-The library! How about that?" Leon suggested.

"You have a library!" That sparked her interest.

"Oh, yes indeed!" William assured.

"With books!" Leon exclaimed.

"Scads of books." William told her as he followed her back down the stairs.

"Mountains of books!" Leon said as he followed them down the stairs.

"Forests of book."

"Cascades!"

"Longboats."

"Swamps of books!"

"More books than you could ever imagined." William said as he and Leon passed Esther and walked down the hallway, each of them thinking that Esther was following them.

However, once they where far enough down the hallway, Esther took her chance to explore the west wing. She climbed up the stairs deftly. "Really? What is he hiding?" She wondered as she wandered up the steps. She came to the top of the stairs and walked down the hallway to her right. Disturbing statues deck the hallway. It was dark and she could feel a cold breeze coming from the other end of the hallway. She walked through it. She was startled at the creepy statues and the cracked mirrors on the walls. This placed looked so sinister, yet, she want to explore more.

She walked up to a tall door and reached for its handle. She hesitated and drew back. She looked behind her to see if anyone was watching. She didn't see anyone so she turned back to the door. She grabbed the handle and turned it. She pulled the door open with a soft creak. She looked inside the room. It was dark and cold. The place was really a wreck. It looked like a battlefield. Worn and destroyed. The tapestries, which were hand from the ceiling, were torn and tattered. Furniture was scattered about; broken like fallen men. Dust and cobwebs claimed them as their homes.

She walked inside.

In one sense the room was like a jungle. The tapestries were strung across the room like vines. Some of the broken furniture lean against one another and some leaned against the wall, looking as to be tall trees each hiding some dangerous.

As she walked she looked at the large room. There were painting and art thrown on the wall. She turned to look from her left and right as she continued to walk. She didn't notice the small round table in front of her. She bumped into it. It began to fall. She reached for it and caught it before it could have hit the fall and made a noise. She set it back right and continued her journey deeper.

She looked over to her right and saw a grand bed. This bed, as like the rest of the room, was practically destroyed. The canopy over it was tattered and ripped. One of the bedposts was bent. The bed's blankets were of silver-grey fur and red-velvet. The bed looked more of a dark cave then an actual bed.

She turned around to see a painting. The painting was ripped by claws––it seemed––but one could tell it was a portrait: a portrait of a man with wintry-blue eyes and silver hair. She ventured over to it. "He looks familiar. He looks like that man in my daydream." She thought as she moved a piece, which hung onto the portrait with all of its strength, to connect the face to reveal the person's face.

But something startled her. She dropped the piece as she looked over her right. There was an opened balcony. A voice came from it, but there was no one––from what she could see––was there. It was someone singing. His voice was a tenor's voice and it was rich and beautiful.

"How long must this go on?

This cruel trick of fate?

I simply made one careless wrong decision

And then the witch was gone

And left me in this state

An object of revulsion and derision

Hated...

Is there no one

Who can show me

How to win the world's forgiveness?"

The person sounded sad. He sounded so alone. Esther walked over to the balcony to see who it was. But a bright pink light caught her attention. She looked to her right and by the bed was a little round table, much like one she almost knocked over before. There was a sparkling, glowing, full-blossomed pink rose that floated in a round, glass case. She walked over to it curiously and lifted the case off. She sent the case on the floor and reached for the rose.

A beastly shadow fell on her. She looked up and gasped. Standing in front of her was Abel. His wings folded slightly around him as he glared at her. He leaped in front of her and she backed up. He grabbed the glass case and put it back over the rose. He snarled and looked at her. "Why did you come here?" He asked.

"I'm… I'm sorry." She replied as she backed up.

"I warned you never to come here." He growled as he approached her.

"I didn't mean any harm."

"Do you realize what you could have done?!" He shouted. "Get out!"

She turned and ran. She ran to the door and pushed it open. She ran down the hallway as the voice followed her, "Get out!!!!!!"

Abel looked at the door. Regret filled his face. He turned and looked outside. Snow began to fall and it fell fast.

A knock came to his door.

"Go away." He moaned.

"But, Abel, I have something for you." A voice replied as Kate came it.

"Just leave me alone." He said.

"It's from Esther. She wanted me to give you this." Kate said as he gave him the bouquet with the pink ribbon tried around it.

Abel took it. "What have I done?" He murmured.

Esther, who wore her cloak, rode Philippe into the woods. She was going back to her home. She was going back to her mother. Promise or no promise, she could not stay there any longer. The snow fell quickly and it had already begun to pile up. She was riding in a blizzard. She rode into the woods. Philippe was acting strangely. She looked around to see why. She saw and heard it: the snarling of wolves!

hahaha cliffie i know you're gonna hate me for this but sorry that's all we have time for! until next time!