A/N: Chapter 3! Enjoy!
I do not own Elsword nor its characters.
She looked at him, not understanding his words completely. "Why would you want me to stay?" was what she wanted to ask him. Instead, she took a few steps back closer to the door, reaching its frame with her hand. The air was dense between them, even though his expression was as gentle as it could be. Almost imploring, she thought.
"I beg you to excuse me this time, but I really shouldn't. There's already a carriage waiting for us outside and…" she trailed off, feeling her will to speak become weaker at each word. He was smiling, yet she was sure of seeing a different emotion showing on his face. Despair? Pain? Could be.
"Oh well, it's a shame. I just wished to have a word with you. But it'll be some other time, it seems" he said in a soft voice, walking towards the door and next to her.
"Yes, now please excuse me. And thanks, once again" she replied with a slight movement of her head, turning her back at him to walk away and leave the castle at once. Somehow, she felt the urge of running towards the carriage where her friends were waiting for her, running with all her might. She quickened her pace until the group was finally in her sight. Meanwhile, in the castle, Add knocked his head against the closed door with a pained expression distorting his face, gritting his teeth.
Reaching the gates of her home once again made Ara feel at ease, light. She had never been as eager to go back to the mansion as she was now that the adrenalin agitated her and the sensation of having escaped from great danger lingered in her stomach. What did she want to escape from? Add Kim? There was no reason at all to feel that way, and yet she finally had the certainty of being safe.
She took off her dress as soon as she was alone in her bedroom, untied her hair and removed her shoes, throwing herself on her bed and burying the face against the pillows. How she had longed for something familiar. The entire night was filled with different sorts of excitement and new feelings, everything piling up inside of her at once. It was confusing and overwhelming, nothing could make her gladder than to be back at home again, but she didn't dislike the thrill that still remained as an echo in her heart.
With those feelings she drifted to sleep, the mansion becoming quieter and quieter with each passing hour until there was nothing but silence and a deep darkness, only the moon's shine filtering through the windows. All the magic and strange beauty that made that night so incredibly surreal disappeared with the first ray of light in the morning. Ara woke up with the feeling that everything she had experienced had been a dream.
She found Elesis and Aisha chatting when she walked down to the kitchen. "I have a bad feeling about him" she heard Elesis say as she entered the room.
"About whom?" she asked as she sat down at the table, next to them, a frown appearing on her face. The girls turned to look at her when they heard her talk, exchanging a quick glance of doubt. That gesture didn't go unnoticed by Ara, who leaned closer to them as if to press on the subject.
"That Add Kim. Elesis said there was something strange in him, and I agree. Though I couldn't point out exactly what" Aisha explained, lowering her voice when she leaned towards Ara. "It's just a feeling though. There's not really anything bad to say about him. Just this…aura".
Elesis shook her head with a deep frown, staring at the wall past her friends. "Remember what I said yesterday? That day in the alleyway, he was standing next to a corpse. And the one attacking him was a human, that's…strange" she said, breaking her silence. Her gaze was lost at some point of the room, deep in thought. "All we've encountered and fought so far are demons, and corrupted humans. Yet that man was attacking this…Add guy with such vehemence. But he didn't seem corrupted. Otherwise I wouldn't remember it so clearly" she added after a while, shaking her head once again and taking a sip of her coffee.
Ara couldn't help but feel agitated. She looked at her friends with an alarmed expression, every little thing she had noticed and felt the previous night quickly rushing back to her. Something strange to him? Something that gave them a bad feeling? No, all she had felt by his presence was a supernatural charm, a certain magnetism, this strong and filling atmosphere.
"Are you saying that…he might have killed that person, instead of the man we attacked to save him?" Ara asked, gazing at each one of her friends, preoccupied, chills running through her body.
Elesis and Aisha looked at each other, then at their own laps. It was the magician who broke the silence after a dense air had settled between them. "There's no way we can know for sure. As I said, it's just a feeling. But you spent the entire night with him, didn't you? Didn't you notice anything strange? Didn't he say anything that could sound suspicious?".
She shook her head slowly. "No, we…didn't talk that much. It didn't come across to me as someone dangerous either" she stated, talking carefully, measuring her words. All she received for her words was the heavy silence and the questioning looks of her friends. There was nothing left to say nor was worth pressing further on the matter. None of them knew of anything suspicious or threatening, there was no reason to suspect. Ara glanced towards the redhead, she looked angry and lost, gripping the cup tightly between her hands. If there was someone exuding danger, it was her.
Ara stood up from her seat, walking to the fuel stove at one side of the kitchen. "I'm going to make some tea. Would you like some, Aisha?" she asked without turning to look at them again, she didn't want to. The air was so dense she could have cut it with a knife. Everyone seemed to be lost in their own thoughts and worries, and she couldn't blame them. The questioned girl merely muttered a soft 'yes'. After pouring water inside the kettle and leaving it over the fire, Ara started gathering the herbs for the tea, remaining silent. Her eyes watched the flames dancing under the iron, keeping her arms crossed and a troubled expression spreading all over her face. She heard the chair being dragged and then the strong steps when Elesis left the kitchen. It seemed like nothing good was going to come out of their experience.
That night was like any other, the ball seemingly left behind in the past. The whole group was preparing for duty, each one of them in their own room. Ara put on her light cloth trousers and a simple t-shirt of the same material, everything in black. It was strange and inappropriate for a woman, but necessary. She fixed her hair in a single braid and tied it up in a bun, all of that to make her mobility as swift and comfortable as possible, she didn't need her hair getting on her way. Grabbing her spear Ara left for the hall, where everyone would meet once they were ready.
Elsword, Elesis and Raven had their sword, Aisha her staff, Rena her bow, Chung his guns and Eve had herself. Everything was ready. Before going out, all of them shared looks of determination without saying a word. The plan was, as always, to split up and patrol their own determined locations. The town was small enough for them to find each other if needed, knowing already where everyone was supposed to be. If neither the government nor the security forces were going to do anything about the increasing infestation of demons, they would with their own hands.
The streets were extremely solitary, not a single soul could be seen that night. Not even the waning moon and stars were illuminating the town, only a few streetlights to lead her path. There was an absolute absence, a deep silence. Deciding that it was probably best to watch over the houses and buildings from up high, Ara jumped and climbed through a wall in an alleyway, making her way to the roof easily. Her agility and swiftness were those of an expert martial artist. Away from the streetlights now, she made her way above the houses sheltered by the shadows, not making a sound. She kept walking, glancing down to examine every street, every alleyway, even the last and most hidden corner of the town. Not a single mistake, no detail overlooked could be forgiven. But the streets were as empty as they seemed to be when she left the mansion.
Ara stood straight, making a pause to look around, holding her breath to listen intently to any hint of sound. Nothing. She bit down on her lower lip with worry, frowning slightly. That's when she saw it, a dim light emerging from one of the passages in the residential area near the post office. And she recognized it, too. It was the light that Aisha's staff casted when she wanted to call the group over where she was. Not wasting a second, she ran across the roofs, letting the light guide her way through the darkness.
Jumping off the nearest roof to the light, Ara readied her spear, holding it tightly. Whatever happened, she was ready to face it. But what she found was just Aisha herself, standing alone, gripping her staff nervously. She saw her trembling and closed the distance between them, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder firmly. "What's the matter, Aisha?" she asked her worriedly, an unbreakable serious expression hardening her face.
The magician turned around to face her, fear written all over her features. "I found something" she merely said, pointing out to a spot in the dark. Ara nodded in understanding, knowing that it was too much to expect from her to make a better explanation. She gestured for her to hand her her staff, to which she complied. Walking cautiously in the direction her friend had pointed at, she used the enlightened staff to clear her view. And what she saw was a dead body.
"Aisha, it's really common to see things like this. Why are you so scared?" she questioned her, turning her head to take a glance at her as she kneeled down next to the corpse. Aisha shook her head energetically.
"Look closely" she muttered. Frowning, Ara turned again and approached her face to the body. Then she noticed there were two marks on its neck. They were open circles, but they were dry, no blood was coming out of them and there wasn't any on any other part of the body either, nor in the floor, not anywhere. It was strange, something they had never seen before, that was for sure.
"Aisha, what is this?" she asked, a deep frown darkening her expression. She had an idea, one she didn't dare to say out loud. "Do you think it's…".
"A vampire. That was done by a vampire" Aisha replied with certainty, yet her voice sounded more fitting for announcing a bad prophecy. And maybe it was, in the end.
"But vampires don't exist, Aisha. That's fantasy" she said, but there was no security in her words. It was certainly something they had never witnessed, nor heard about before. Why now?
"Ara, there are demons invading our world and you think vampires are unlikely to exist here too?" she retorted, her voice shaking. It wasn't a scold, it was weak, almost as if she were trying to believe that it was, indeed, unlikely. "What are we going to do? This is a whole different thing!" she shouted, her body still trembling.
Ara understood, it was a terrifying panorama. But no matter what happened, she needed to calm her friend down. She quickly stood up and closed the space between them, taking her in her arms softly, yet firmly. "Shh, don't shout Aisha" she scolded her sweetly, caressing her hair maternally. "Whatever this is, we'll have to face it the same way we have done with everything else. I promise you we'll be alright. We have each other, after all" she cooed reassuringly.
Truth was, she didn't even believe that herself.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
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