Sorry that it's late! I didn't have time to finish and upload it yesterday .
Hope that you'll still enjoy it! And happy belated Halloween! :D
Halloween Special:
The Green Ghost of Nephelius Cemetery – Part I
The Countess, First Encounter
"Ghosts come out on All Hallows' Eve..."
Countryside, England, United Kingdom ‒ October 1847
~Cedric~
It was Sunday, but not a normal Sunday – today was All Hallows' Eve, also known as Halloween. And like every Halloween, I had got the day off. For decades, I asked to get Halloween off, and I always did.
Usually, I would spend my regular free day baking bone-shaped biscuits from morning to evening and playing chess with myself while waiting for them to get done. However, at the beginning of this year, I had made a deal with Cloudia Phantomhive, the Queen's Watchdog, and because she was a fun person I decided to visit her today. But not before I baked three baking sheets of biscuits and played twelve rounds of chess.
With a tote bag containing some of my still warm biscuits, I walked through St. Lacey, the village closest to Phantomhive Manor.
When I had gone to the mansion, Cloudia had not been there. Her butler, Alfred Newman, had kindly told me that she was in St. Lacey since sunrise. The village was under the protection of the Phantomhive family for a very long time, and for example on All Hallows' Eve, the current family head was obliged to prepare a party at the manor. The festivities would not start until seven o'clock in the evening, but the servants at the manor had already been very busy and nervous when I had arrived there, running to the garden and back into the building again and again. That the family head, Cloudia, would run to St. Lacey, while everybody else was working hard, seemed odd to me. But then, it was Cloudia I was talking about.
The wind was blowing through the balding tree crowns, shaking their branches and leaves in all shades of red, orange, brown and yellow. The inhabitants of St. Lacey were happily decorating their houses and doing their respective works. Children were running around playing and talking about the party at the manor to which everybody was looking forward.
The village was filled with laughter and positivity, an enormous contrast to the atmosphere of Phantomhive Manor. I had to remember to come here more often.
I found Cloudia sitting in a plain dark dress and wrapped in a thick coat by the entrance of Nephelius Cemetery. She was leaning against an old tree without any leaves left which hid her from the eyes of the villagers. Cloudia was staring into the distance, seemingly deep in thought when I slowly and silently approached her. I wondered what she was thinking.
"Hello, Countess," Cedric Rossdale greeted Cloudia, breaking her out of her thoughts. She gazed up at him, her dark blue eyes glowing on this grey October day. Her eyes looked out of place in this world of gold, brown and grey.
"Oh, it's you," Cloudia replied.
Cedric raised an eyebrow. "Did you expect anyone else?"
"I thought that, perhaps, the village children found me at last."
"Or Alfred," he added, and she shook her head. "Newman never calls me 'Countess.'"
He sat down next to her and handed her the tote bag which she took. "Good Alfred entrusted me that you went to St. Lacey right after sunrise. He also told me that you only ate very few for breakfast and because it is already noon, I thought that you would like to eat something before you starve yourself to death. At least, we would not have to inconveniently transport you to bury you." Cedric grinned at her. Cloudia ignored him and opened the bag. "These biscuits again?" she said, but still put one of them into her mouth and started eating.
"Of course," Cedric replied. "I would only be half the undead man I am without my signature bone-shaped biscuits."
"Signature dog biscuits, you mean."
Cedric sighed. "These are my special house-made biscuits for humans and Reapers. How often do I have to tell you that until you finally understand it?"
"You told me that once before. And that was in Wales, and I was bed-ridden."
"That it was in Wales, and you were bed-ridden is not an explanation for your poor learning ability, Countess."
"You should get another biscuit cutter," Cloudia meant, but Cedric shook his head. "That would destroy my image of the 'brilliant man with the bone-shaped biscuits,'" he said, and she raised one of her eyebrows. "Besides," Cedric continued before she could make a snarky remark, "I think that you and these biscuits fit perfectly together, Watchdog."
Cloudia flipped her fingers against Cedric's nose and glared at him. He grinned at her and rubbed his nose.
"Now, tell me, Countess," he started, picking up a fallen leaf and crushing it between his fingers, "what are you doing here?"
She sighed. "It's ridiculous, I know, but I am waiting for someone. It's a long story."
"I have time," Cedric meant. "You can tell it to me. So... for who are you waiting?"
Cloudia away into the distance again, avoiding to meet Cedric's gaze. "Well... I am not quite sure if I am waiting for 'someone' or 'something.'"
He frowned. "Wait – what? The great Watchdog, the fabulous Countess of Phantomhive, does not know for who or what she is waiting?"
Cloudia glared at him. "I met a... well... presence here when I was twelve. I did not encounter it ever since that day, but I still keep coming to the cemetery on every Halloween."
"That's a bit hard to understand," Cedric meant. "You encountered something here many years ago, and you have no clue if it's a person or a thing?"
She sighed. "Seems like I do have to tell you the whole story," Cloudia mumbled.
Countryside, England, United Kingdom ‒ October 1842
~Cloudia~
Phantomhive Manor had been built in the sixteenth century. Simultaneously, a small village had been founded a few kilometres South from the mansion. Bartholomew Phantomhive, the first of his family to ever live in Phantomhive Manor, had put the village under his protection in 1573. And because the Phantomhive family also governs practitioners of agriculture, the village mostly consists of farmers, and Halloween encompasses the Harvest Festival, there was an annual Halloween celebration at the manor.
However because I, the last Phantomhive, had been locked up in the manor for the past eight years, there had not been a celebration. Therefore, my family and Barrington had helped me with the preparations as I had had no idea how Halloween had once been celebrated at the mansion, and also because we had had to prepare the best party we could.
We had spent almost a month with the preparations. And when the big day, today, October 31, finally came, we all cheered.
Traditionally, the party was held in the manor's garden, but for this year we had blocked the road from Phantomhive Manor to St. Lacey as we had planned to celebrate first in St. Lacey and later head with a parade to the manor where a big bonfire would be lit. Then, the celebration would continue in the mansion, St. Lacey and on the street connecting these two places.
Together with the villagers, we had made scary floats. My cook Jean-Luc Armstrong, Clifford, Felicity, and the Morrow servants had cooked traditional Irish Halloween dishes like Colcannon – a dish made with boiled potatoes, curly kale, and raw onions – or Barm brack – a sweet bread with sultanas and raisins – for the buffet. In the Barm brack coins, pieces of rag, peas, sticks, or rings would be baked into it. Getting a piece of rag in your slice meant that your financial future would be doubtful or that you would have back luck in the future. A coin meant a prosperous year; peas indicated that you would not get married that year, a stick meant that you would have an unhappy marriage, and a ring stood for an impending romance or continued happiness. Coins wrapped in baking paper would also be put into the potatoes of the Colcannon. However, finding a coin or not did not have any deeper meaning than when you found a coin the Barm brack or something else. Apart from these Irish dishes, Felicity, Armstrong, and the Morrow servants had also made things like pies and other dishes.
Ceara and Keegan had shown us, Constantia, Clarissa and me, and the village kids how to carve frightening faces into turnips or mangelwurzels, and how to hollow them, turning them into jack-o'-lanterns. Jonathan and Aiden had organised a scavenger hunt through the forest for the children, Barrington and Isidore had been in charge of the games, and Joanna, Cathleen, Celeste and some village women and children had made decoration while Eleanor had supervised everything. I had helped wherever I was needed – the floats, the lanterns, the food, the hunt, etc. –, but my main task had been to get everyone dressed. Seriously. I had teamed up with Wilbur Hopkins – the Phantomhive family tailor – not to get a suitable dress for myself but my family, Barrington and all the villagers too.
It had taken us days – all thanks to Eleanor and her wonderful idea to give everyone, really everyone nice clothing for the party – to measure everyone, and a few more days to design the clothes. Then, Wilbur and his shop had tailored and tailored like maniacs. At some point, he had even taught me how to sew so that I could help.
We had worked and worked without real pauses. I had not really had time to sleep properly, and my headache had come back, but I still had worked as much as everyone else too because I did not want my attacks to control my life.
And now, finally, it was October 31.
In a few hours, the most memorable Phantomhive Halloween party would start. I couldn't await it, but it was such a pity that Kamden could not be there as he was visiting someone in Wales.
One of Cloudia's maids, Janine, arranged her mistress' dress for the last time before Cloudia would go to St. Lacey. After Cloudia's decoration in May, she had fired every member of her household who had been sent to her by King William IV in 1834 and hired new servants. However, after firing Jonalyn she had not appointed a new personal maid. Thus, the maid who was available at the moment had to help Cloudia to get dressed and coiffed.
Her family was already in St. Lacey. Everyone waited for Cloudia, the Phantomhive family head, to arrive although the villagers did not know that. For them, she was only the "substitute family head" because "the Earl" could not come. However, they were still quite pleased with the fact that Cloudia would lead everything as she was the daughter of their beloved, late lord – Earl Simon Phantomhive.
At five o'clock in the evening, Cloudia, just like planned, went to St. Lacey, only accompanied by Clifford. Twenty minutes later, they arrived, and Cloudia had ten minutes to go through her speech one last time before going up the stage. When she was done, everyone applauded, and it was time for the parade.
Cloudia climbed onto the Phantomhive float, the leading float. It was a huge thing in blue, grey and black, decorated with dead flowers and the family emblem, but also scary, deformed faces graced the float. Cloudia's family members were also on the float, and the instance Cloudia stood on the float, Constantia surprised her with a hug.
"Lulu!" she yelled. "Everything looks so great! Everyone looks so great! You and Mr Hopkins did such a good job with the clothes!"
Cloudia freed herself from her cousin's embrace. "Didn't I tell you to stop calling me that?"
When we had been little, Constantia called me "Clou-Lou," but over the years, "Clou-Lou" had transformed into "Lulu." It was the worst nickname I had.
Constantia giggled. "But why? I called you that for years now."
"Because we have grown up, Constantia," Cloudia replied, annoyed. "Also, I am the Watchdog now."
Her cousin blinked at her. "And that should be a reason not to call you 'Lulu' anymore?"
Cloudia nodded. "Yes."
Constantia ignored her and tapped Celeste, the father's sickly ward, on the shoulder. Celeste flinched and squeaked before she turned to face her elder adoptive sister. "Lessie!" Constantia said. "Don't you think that Lulu's clothes are marvellous?"
Celeste nodded shyly. "They are, indeed."
Constantia had stupid nicknames for every one of us.
She called me "Lulu," Celeste "Lessie," Clarissa "Lare," Cathleen "Leen" or "Leena," Ceara "Ara," and Keegan "Ganny." Nobody else but Constantia used these highly ridiculous nicknames. I was quite sure that my cousin fell on her head when she had been an infant.
Cloudia smiled at Celeste. "I am glad that you like them," she said. "And I am so sorry that your dress turned out to be a bit too big for you. It was an accident."
I wasn't sorry, and it hadn't been an accident. I was me after all.
She nodded again. "This can happen. I am not angry at you. You had to make so many clothes in such a short time. Of course, mistakes can happen then."
Cloudia's smile turned a tiny little bit sweeter. "Thank you for your kind words, Celeste, but now I have to go to my position." She turned around and left quickly. Out of all her cousins, Cloudia could stand them the less.
The parade started and they left the beautifully with self-made jack-o'-lanterns lit and with sculptures and puppets of monsters like kelpies, ghosts, and evil faeries and skeletons and corpses decorated village for the similarly decorated Phantomhive Manor.
The parade was fun. Everything went as it should and everyone arrived safely at the manor.
For the past eight years, Phantomhive Manor had been closed for visitors. Therefore, I had to dramatically and ceremonially "open" the manor's entrance door – although we would only celebrate in the garden – via cutting a ribbon with a huge bow with gigantic scissors shaped like bones. It was All Hallows' Eve after all.
When that was done, everyone went to the garden where some of my servants had prepared a huge bonfire which I had to ignite. Only then, the actual party was opened.
The next hour, I spent my valuable time with playing silly games like carving wheat flour. Barrington had even annoyed me so long that I had eventually given in to his request to play a round of "bobbing for apples." Of course, I had thrown the fished apple at his head when nobody was looking.
At around seven o'clock, Constantia assembled me and the rest of us to get a slice of Barm brack for us each.
Cathleen and Constantia found a coin in their slices, Keegan, Clarissa, and Celeste got peas, Ceara got a stick, and when I was almost sure that my slice did not contain any of these extra things, I bit into a ring. For a few minutes, I simply stared at the little ring in my hand in utter shock and puzzlement, but just like the coin, the peas, the stick and the piece of rag nobody of us got, the ring was actually meaningless. After all, why should a silly stick in Ceara's slice mean that she, an eleven-year-old girl, would end in an unhappy marriage in at least ten years? Or that I, a twelve-year-old and very busy girl, would fall in love in the next few months? Also, a stupid coin could never decide if your year would be prosperous or not. Of course, Constantia and Cathleen could have good years, but they could also have a terrible year with the same chance. The only thing which somehow fit was the pea. After all, Clarissa, Keegan, and Celeste were simply too young to get married next year.
However, the actual meaninglessness of these objects and the fact that they were only there for fun, did not stop Constantia to hug and congratulate me.
Seriously – who had even invented this silly game? And couldn't Eleanor and Isidore have raised Constantia in a different way?
"You got a ring, I see!" Barrington yelled when he saw Cloudia holding the tiny object in her hand after pealing off Constantia.
I internally sighed. Constantia and now Barrington? Really?
Barrington grinned at Cloudia. "I hope you know what that means."
"Of course, I do," she replied, scowling at him.
"And I hope that you also know that I won't allow you to enter a romantic relationship until you're not at least forty-four."
"I assure you that you don't have to worry about me having a 'romantic relationship.' Also, even if this impossible scenario ever happened, I doubt that you would have to decide on it."
He laughed and gave Cloudia a pat on the back. "Your father also used to say that he would never fall in love or marry. Then, Si met your mother and he fell so hard for her that he was even shocked at himself. Also, you're still so young, Dia. You can never know where your heart will lead you."
"Yes!" Constantia exclaimed. "You can never know what will await you in the future."
And why did we have to participate in this ridiculous Barm brack fortune telling game, then, dear Constantia?
"Or do you think that Romeo and Juliet knew from the very beginning what would await them?" she continued.
"The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy," Cloudia replied, her voice dripping with annoyance. "It's about not falling in love too easily and rushing everything. Also, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet are over-dramatic idiots who do not even know what love actually is. They barely knew each other and already wanted to get married! Juliet was thirteen! Romeo could have been a crazy ax-murderer – oh, wait, he did murder Tybalt, his wife's cousin! No matter if Tybalt was a villain, a maniac or not, he still was like a brother to Juliet!"
Constantia, who had turned bright red during Cloudia's little speech, furiously screamed: "And what do you know about love?" A second after the words had escaped her mouth, Constantia put her hands on her mouth, but the damage had already been done and could never be undone.
Cloudia had just wanted to turn around and run into the manor – hide in the secret passages where nobody would ever find her.
I did not care if what I wanted to do was appropriate for a Watchdog or not. I had enough of this. I had enough of Constantia. Constantia who knew very well how delicate this exact topic was for me.
"I am only telling you all this, Lady Cloudia, because I do not want you to get hurt. The less you open yourself up to others, the more likely it is that you will not get hurt. I hope you understand that," I remembered Her Majesty's words.
I should have never told Constantia when we had been children that I doubted that anyone could ever love me, that my parents had ever loved me, because, now, she knew too well that this was one of my weak points.
I hated her. I hated myself for having told her something like that. For still getting affected by that. Stupid, stupid, Cloudia...
Cloudia had just wanted to turn around and run into the manor – hide in the secret passages where nobody would ever find her –, when Cathleen suddenly grabbed her arm, stopping her.
"Cloudia," she said in her sweet, soothing voice, letting go of Cloudia's arm. "Connie did not intend to hurt you. Right, Connie?"
Constantia nodded. "I am so, so sorry, L... Cloudia! I should have never said that. I knew that I shouldn't have, and I am sorry that I still did." She wanted to give her cousin an apologetic hug, but Cloudia pushed her away with so much force that she almost fell backwards into the buffet standing a few metres away.
"Yes, you still did it," Cloudia snapped at Constantia. "You still did it even though you knew that you shouldn't – and that is the only thing which matters."
"Dia, are you not a little bit too harsh...," Barrington began, but Cloudia quickly whirled towards him and cut him off. "'A little bit too harsh'?" She chuckled bitterly. "Of course, I am the harsh one after Lady Matthews here said that I could have no idea of love because I had never experienced love and never will because my father died and I have no memory of him anymore, my mother locked herself away and does not want to see me, and because I did not only grow up completely isolated from the world, bound to a gruesome system and a dreadful governess, but also with liars." Cloudia rubbed her temples. "If I am the harsh one, I guess that I should also be the one to apologise, right? Sorry, everyone, for having me as a relative."
With these words, she turned around on her heels and quickly walked away.
Hopefully, the villagers had not noticed my outburst. I was their lady after all.
Oh, dammit. Who was I kidding? There was no way that nobody had noticed anything. We had simply been too loud.
"Are you all right, Cloudia?" Isidore asked.
Cloudia had hidden in the labyrinth of tall hedges which had been blocked for the celebration because small children could easily get lost in there. This meant that it was the perfect place to hide. But, of course, Isidore had still managed to find her. Before Barrington had become Cloudia's fencing teacher, she had travelled twice with Eleanor, Isidore, and Constantia. These had been the only two times when she had gone outside in these two dark, dark years of her life. Isidore and she had grown close because of that – and, sometimes, she had even caught herself wondering if Simon had been anything like Isidore as Isidore was such a good father. Of course, he would know where to find her. For a very brief time, Isidore Matthews had been like the father she had long forgotten.
But just like her happy days, this had been a very long time ago.
Isidore sat down next to Cloudia on the bench.
"Connie told me everything," he started when she wouldn't answer. "She really didn't want to hurt you, Cloudia. You know Connie – she often says things she does not actually mean. It happens on accident."
"I don't care," Cloudia mumbled and hugged her legs even tighter against her body. She didn't even know how long she had been sitting here like that. Perhaps, the Halloween party was already long over without her having noticed it.
"Cloudia – there had never been a person more important in the lives of Simon and Penelope than you," Isidore continued to talk after a while of silence. "Penelope locked herself away because she could not deal with the sudden loss of her husband. She did not lock herself because of you. And she is only so reluctant to see you because she does not want you to see her in her current state."
"I don't care," Cloudia replied, trying to make her voice not sound too whiny. "She left me all alone to the Phantomhive System – her confused four-year-old daughter without any memories."
"Penelope had her reasons, Cloudia."
"I do not care about her reasons. She abandoned me. Sometimes, I wish that she would have just died alongside my father. It would not have hurt as much as knowing that she is living in the same building as you but refuses to come out or let you in." Cloudia gazed up at Isidore. "I can see you struggling with yourself if you should tell me a heartwarming story of my parents and me from the past I forgot or not, deciding not to betray your wife through breaking her sacred rule. That's so obvious – even I can see that.
"Don't do it. I don't want to hear a detailed story about my parents' apparent undying love for me. It could make me want for more. Also, that's not worth betraying Aunt Ella."
Isidore smiled sadly at his niece. "It is good to know that even after everything you had to go through, you haven't changed at the core. You still possess all the goodness you have inherited from your parents. You should always hold on to this part of you."
Cloudia did not say anything to that, and Isidore wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her to him. If he had not been Isidore, she would have never allowed that.
"I may not tell a story about Simon, but I can tell you a story Simon entrusted me a long time ago. It's a Halloween story, so it's quite fitting.
"When Percival Phantomhive was still the Earl, Simon had once headed to St. Lacey during a Halloween party. He sneaked away and went to the village all on his own through the forest. But because most villagers were at the celebration, there were only a few people in St. Lacey when he arrived. Simon did not care about it and walked through the almost empty village – until he came to Nephelius Cemetery.
"Nephelius Cemetery is the oldest cemetery of St. Lacey. It was built during the time of Bartholomew Phantomhive. It is a beautiful place in its own eerie way, but some decades ago, the villagers stopped to use this cemetery and built a new one on the other side of St. Lacey. For some reason, they abandoned it, and nobody ever entered the cemetery again. Not even relatives of people buried there. And thus, with time, Nephelius Cemetery became overgrown by plants.
"Simon still entered the cemetery, though. And after a while of walking around, he encountered a ghost."
"A ghost?" Cloudia frowned and brushed one of her braids out of her face. Today, her hair was mostly open and only two streaks – one right, one left of her face – had been braided.
Isidore nodded. "That's what he told me. He saw a ghost in Nephelius Cemetery when he was a child. Afterwards, he returned every single year to see if the ghost was still there."
"And was it?"
"Yes, it was. As if it had waited for Simon, the ghost was always there when he had come on All Hallows' Eve."
"Do you know how the ghost looked like?"
He smiled sadly. "I am sorry, Cloudia, I don't. Simon said that he had only seen the ghost from far away, and that, from the distance, its figure had seemed misshapen to him. But there is one thing he saw: Something green."
"Something green?"
"Yes. Apparently, the ghost's colour was black and green, but that is all that is known about its appearance. Sorry, Cloudia."
She shook her head. "It's all right. It's not your fault. You can only know that what you've been told, after all, Uncle Izzy. But did anybody go and check if the ghost was still there after his death?"
"Barrington did – probably. I don't really know if he did it or not, but I doubt that he did," Isidore admitted. "We others didn't do it either. We live in completely different places after all. But..." He smiled warmly at her and put his hand on her head. "Why don't you do it yourself then? Aidan and Jon's scavenger hunt will start soon. You could join and then go to the cemetery."
Cloudia smiled at him. "Thanks, Uncle Izzy."
"You don't have to thank me, Clou," Isidore replied. "You're my little niece after all."
Her smile grew a tiny little bit wider.
I would have scolded everyone else for using my old nickname, but I let him go through with it.
"By the way," he began, "the clothing you made looks gorgeous. Just look at me – I think I never wore something fancier."
"I worked with a professional," Cloudia meant. "Wilbur and his assistants did most of the work. I just did terrible sketches nobody knew how to decipher. I am not made to be an artist."
"But you sure know a lot about clothes," Isidore pointed out.
"A bit. I am a girl after all. A girl who had nothing better to do than to read books about fashion and flowers when there was nothing else to read."
He lovingly patted her head. "I think it's time for the scavenger hunt. I am certain that Connie won't allow it to begin without you."
Cloudia rolled her eyes and stood up. "That's Constantia how we know her."
"Always annoying others," I would have liked to add, but she was his daughter. I could not say such things about his daughter to Isidore.
"I'll go then," she said. "Or the village children will try throwing Constantia into the bonfire."
Isidore turned white. "Please don't let them do that."
"I won't let that happen," Cloudia assured him.
"Thank you – and sorry for having called you 'Clou' earlier. I simply forgot for a moment that you don't want to be called like that anymore. It is still so new."
"It is fine, Uncle Izzy." She smiled at him.
Like Isidore had said it, Constantia had asked Jonathan and Aidan to keep the scavenger hunt on hold until I joined them.
My uncles happily greeted me and gave me a basket and an envelope, telling me that the envelope contained a note with a riddle I had to solve in order to know where I had to go to find my first item. There were thirteen items in total to collect on your hunt. Only three people had the same note and thus the same hunt. And because only three children had the same hunt, every individual quest had its own thirteen items to collect. Those three with the same beginning note formed a team. The team who returned first after getting every item from every one of their thirteen stations would win a special, secret prize.
Jonathan and Aidan had surely put a lot of effort into a simple scavenger hunt.
They announced that the hunt would now officially start and everyone eagerly opened their envelopes and searched for those with the same task.
My note read: "My leaves are poisonous for horses, cattle, and sheep. But my nuts can be eaten by domestic pigs. And I stand all lonely in-between my friends of different names."
Seriously? That was easy, but was it also easy for other children? Or were there different levels of difficulty? After all, there were quite a lot of little children participating...
But if they had put that much effort into this game, I guessed that they had also thought of this. Maybe, they had drawn pictures on the notes for the little children.
Whatever. Now, I had to find my teammates...
"Howdy, La-," a voice greeted her, but before the greeting could be finished, Cloudia whirled around and hit his arm.
"What did I tell you about sneaking up on me?"
Thomas Holmwood scowled at her and rubbed his arm. "It's pointless."
She nodded. "Exactly."
Thomas Holmwood was an annoying fourteen-year-old boy from St. Lacey who knew very much about animals, especially horses. Some months ago, he had come to my manor and asked to become my new stable-lad during my exchange of servants.
Thomas glanced at Cloudia's note and sighed. "Oh, no. Seems like we're on the same team, Lady." He held his own note to her. It had the same riddle on it.
Cloudia sighed too. "Of course, I had to get sorted into the same team with something as annoying as you. Do you have a clue who's Number Three? Don't tell me it's Lily or Matt."
Lily and Matt were two sixteen-year-olds from St. Lacey. They and a girl named Emma had been best friends, inseparable and outright annoying. Nobody thought that they could get even more annoying.
Well, everyone had been wrong.
Eventually, Matt had begun to court Lily – much to Emma's dismay because she had also liked him. Their trio had broken up, and, now, the village had to endure this disgusting young couple who had never heard anything of "etiquette." For them, the word "appropriate" did not exist in their dictionary.
I swore that if I heard them calling each other by silly pet names like "Chocolate Muffin" and "Honey-Bunny" again that I would vomit on them.
Thomas shuddered when he heard their names. "I hope not! You're worse enough, Lady. At least, you being in my group means that I don't have to team up with both of them. I would start a protest. Revolution! Petition to exile Matt and Lily from St. Lacey!"
Cloudia grinned. "Please do the petition."
"You're the lady of the land." He briefly grinned at her, and she punched him again. "Can't you banish them?"
She shook her head. "I would love to. But I'm afraid, I can't."
He sighed. "Then, I will have to do the petition when I see them in the woods again. I am marked for life, Lady. Marked for life."
"Hello," someone greeted them, and Cloudia and Thomas turned to the voice's source. In front of them stood a little girl with auburn hair and tanned skin. She had icy blue eyes and a stern look on her face.
Strange... she didn't wear one of the clothes Wilbur and I created.
"I am Ilex Galloan. The card in my envelope said 'My leaves are poisonous for horses, cattle, and sheep. But my nuts can be eaten by domestic pigs. And I stand all lonely in-between my friends of different names,'" the little girl recited perfectly. "Do you happen to have the same riddle as I?"
Cloudia nodded. "Yes. We three make a team then. I am Cl..."
"I know your names," the girl, Ilex Galloan, interrupted Cloudia. "You are Cloudia Phantomhive, the lady of Phantomhive Manor, and this is Thomas Holmwood. I memorised all the name of every inhabitant of St. Lacey and Phantomhive Manor."
Thomas stared at her, his brain not able to process the circumstance that a little girl could talk like that. "Wait a minute... how old are you? Four? Five?"
Ilex glared at her with her icy blue eyes. "I am nine. And no, I do not need to call for my parents and find out if I got lost. After all, I did not go lost – I never did and never will, I have a phenomenal sense of orientation –, and I am sure that the search for my parents will only overstrain your easily countable brain cells."
Cloudia chuckled, and Thomas continued to stare at Ilex with a wide open mouth.
Why had I never met this girl before?
"Do not mind Thomas," Cloudia told Ilex. "He's an idiot who only cares about horses and worms. Everything else is too much for his brain to handle."
Ilex nodded. "I guessed so."
"Can I call you 'Ilex'? You can call me 'Cloudia' then. You do not have to use my title. It's too bothersome."
"Of course, you can, Cloudia." The little girl blinked at her, and for a small moment, Ilex looked really adorable. Then, she smiled and every drop of adorableness was washed away as her smile was vampire-like.
"I know everyone in the village," Cloudia said, "but I never met you before. Did you and your family move to St. Lacey only recently?"
"Yes. We moved here today."
"Today?!" Thomas exclaimed who had just managed to break free from his state of shock only to get shocked again. "You moved here today and already know everyone's names?"
Ilex rolled her eyes. Cloudia liked her more and more with every second. "My parents heard of the celebration and suggested that I could go there. And because my alternative was to help to unpack, I went to the party and decided to participate in the scavenger hunt. Baron Woodward and the Viscount of Wellington wanted to give me an envelope for the lowest level of difficulty. I had to talk to them a bit until they gave me one for the highest level. The riddle is still a joke, though. 'My leaves are poisonous for horses, cattle, and sheep. But my nuts can be eaten by domestic pigs. And I stand all lonely in-between my friends of different names.' My little brother Orion could solve it, and he is three."
Cloudia shrugged. "We cannot help it, Ilex."
"If Horse Boy here managed to solve the riddle, the hunt is nothing but a big joke for intellect." Ilex turned to Thomas. "Horse Boy, tell me – what is the solution to the first riddle?"
"An oak, of course!" Thomas answered immediately and his dark brown eyes shone. "Never give oak leaves to horses!"
Ilex sighed. "See, Cloudia? Even Horse Boy knows the answer. Today, nobody's brain capacities will be brought to its maximum."
"Who do you call 'Horse Boy'?" Thomas said.
"You. I could you that three times in total. You even reacted to it like a dog to its name."
Sulking, Thomas turned away from the girls, mumbling something to himself which sounded like: "Lily and Matt and their eternal touching would have been more endurable."
"Is there an oak which stands all on its own somewhere?" Ilex asked Cloudia who nodded. "Yes. I know exactly where it is. Thomas! Come and stop crying! All the others have already started their hunts!"
Just like Ilex had said: To solve the riddles, you did not really have to use your brain.
When we arrived at the oak tree, we found another envelope. There were two notes in there this time – one congratulating us and saying that we had to pick up an acorn as our first item, and one containing our next riddle.
"'I am shy of the light, but when it fades I shine. My seeds, leaves, and roots can be used as medicine. I am originally from North America,'" Cloudia read aloud. "That's simple. It's the..."
"Evening Primrose," Ilex and she said synchronously, and Ilex grinned like a vampire again. "Where is the next meadow with evening primroses?" she asked.
We went to the meadow which shone beautifully in yellow. This time, we had to pick up one of the primroses.
The cards and the riddles guided us through the entire forest. We had to pick up more plants or tiny objects hidden like bells or bracelets at the wanted place.
And, then, the thirteenth and last riddle came.
"'I am a terrible beauty entangled in ivy,'" Cloudia read to Thomas and Ilex. "'Fallen from the light, forever I am bound to the earth. My kin abandoned me. My kin fears me. I am the matter of their darkest dreams.'"
"Uh," Thomas said. "That's a tough one. Any idea, Galloan?"
With wide eyes, Ilex gazed at Cloudia. She had never seemed more like a child. "What should that mean?"
"Oh, no." Thomas ran his hands through his brown hair. "Doomsday has come! Little Galloan has no clue!"
Ilex kicked him in the shin and then looked at Cloudia again. "Do you have an idea, Cloudia?"
She frowned at the piece of paper in her hands. Unlike the other riddles, this one had been written on normal stationery rather than fancy cards. Also, the writing did not look like the writing of Aidan or Jonathan.
Someone had exchanged the real puzzle with another one. But how did they know about the hunt and the stations? Had they followed Jonathan and Aidan while they had prepared everything? Or had they followed us, hearing the solution to Riddle Twelve and heading to Place Thirteen before we could, quickly exchanging the riddles? But why hadn't I noticed anything? And what should "I am a terrible beauty entangled in ivy. Fallen from the light, forever I am bound to the earth. My kin abandoned me. My kin fears me. I am the matter of their darkest dreams" mean?
"Nephelius Cemetery is the oldest cemetery of St. Lacey," I suddenly recalled Isidore's words to me. "It was built during the time of Bartholomew Phantomhive. It is a beautiful place in its own eerie way, but some decades ago, the villagers stopped to use this cemetery and built a new one on the other side of St. Lacey. For some reason, they abandoned it, and nobody ever entered the cemetery again. Not even relatives of people buried there. And thus, with time, Nephelius Cemetery became overgrown by plants."
Of course. The riddle referred to Nephelius Cemetery. No. To the sculpture of an angel in Nephelius Cemetery. The "terrible beauty, fallen from the light and forever bound to the earth."
Whoever exchanged the puzzles wanted us to go to the old cemetery for some reason.
"Simon still entered the cemetery, though. And after a while of walking around, he encountered a ghost."
In my mind, I shook my head. No. Ghosts didn't exist. My father had been mistaken. Ghosts weren't real. And even if they were, they could not touch material things.
I wondered if this was a trap, and if I could take Thomas and Ilex with me. I was the Watchdog and could defend myself, but Ilex was still a little girl and Thomas still not a fighter, despite her intellect and his confidence.
But how could I explain the situation to them? Surely, if I told them that someone had seemingly exchanged the riddles and tried to lure us into the cemetery, they would go there to find out if I was right or not.
But, this year, the celebration was not only held at Phantomhive Manor but in St. Lacey too. If it had been any other year, nobody or very few people would have been in the village around this time, but not today. So, I guessed, that I could take Ilex and Thomas with me. After all, if we needed help, there would be others available.
Hopefully, I would not regret my decision.
"We have to go to Nephelius Cemetery," Cloudia announced, and Thomas started at her.
"Nephelius Cemetery?! Are you insane?!"
She rolled her eyes. "That's the solution to the riddle, you idiot. 'I am a terrible beauty entangled in ivy. Fallen from the light, forever I am bound to the earth. My kin abandoned me. My kin fears me. I am the matter of their darkest dreams.' Nephelius Cemetery is a very beautiful place, but because it is still a cemetery, a place of death, and because it was abandoned many years ago, it's now not as lovely as it once was and also entangled in ivy and other plants."
Cloudia turned to Ilex who definitely needed an explanation. She didn't know about Nephelius Cemetery after all. "Ilex, Nephelius Cemetery was the main graveyard of St. Lacey until a few decades ago. Then, it was suddenly abandoned and nobody cared about it anymore because, for some reason, everyone started to believe that the place was haunted."
"Ah, I see." Ilex's face lit up. "'My kin abandoned me. My kin fears me. I am the matter of their darkest dreams.'"
Cloudia nodded. "Yes. But the riddle does not refer to Nephelius Cemetery in general. It refers to the statue of a fallen angel on the graveyard. 'Fallen from the light, forever I am bound to the earth.'"
"'And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.' Revelation 9:1," Ilex recited with a straight face and Thomas nearly fainted.
Actually, it wasn't very astonishing that Ilex could quote the Book of Revelation. It would have been more surprising if she couldn't do it.
"Exactly," Cloudia replied with a nod. "We need to find this statue."
"Wait!" Thomas yelled and barred Cloudia and Ilex the way as they had already wanted to head to the graveyard. "We cannot go in there! It's insane! We're going to die! There's a reason why nobody goes there anymore!"
Ilex and Cloudia rolled their eyes in unison. "Ghosts do not exist, Horse Boy," Ilex said. "So don't witches, elves, faeries, zombies or other supernatural or paranormal creatures. Everyone with a functioning brain and the right amount of rationality knows that. Or are you scared? If you are, you can always go back to the mansion. Cloudia and I are quite capable of doing this all on our own." She narrowed her eyes. "Or don't you think we are because were are girls? Then, Horse Boy, remember who is currently trembling like a leaf.
"So – are you now coming with us or do you want to keep wasting our time?"
It took us a while to get to Nephelius Cemetery, and the moment we stepped through the old, rusty gate, I heard a faint chuckle in the distance.
Could ghosts chuckle or had it been just the wind?
"Had anyone of you been here before?" Ilex wanted to know while they walked through the dark cemetery. Because everything was overgrown and everywhere laid debris, it was fairly hard to move forward.
Cloudia shook her head. "No." She glanced at Thomas whose eyes widened before he vehemently shook his head. In the end, he had decided to accompany them. He was still frightened to the bones, though.
"Of course not!" he exclaimed. "Everyone knows that you should not go in there. Unless you're weary of life. Not even Donegan and Callahan who do the stupidest of things all the time, go in here as a test of courage." Thomas audibly swallowed. "I still think that this is a bad, bad idea."
The girls sighed. "Our knight in shining armour," Cloudia murmured to Ilex before she said to Thomas: "Where did your overly annoying confidence vanish? And your usual manliness which makes everyone roll their eyes?"
"Ha ha, very funny, Lady," he replied bitterly. "Just make fun of me. But if you get eaten by a werewolf, don't cry for help."
"Of course, we wouldn't cry to you for help. It would be like asking a horse to do the laundry." Thomas scowled at Cloudia but she still continued to talk: "If you're not feeling like it, you can still go back. Why did you come with us anyway?"
"Because everyone would wonder why I came back but you didn't."
She raised an eyebrow. "So, in the end, you came because you wanted to protect your manliness?" Cloudia stepped right in front of him and smiled wickedly. Her face looked terrifying. "Well, then, protect it in in earnest and don't complain like a baby, Holmwood."
Then, she turned away from Thomas who had turned white and led the way.
Around fifteen minutes later, they found the sculpture. Like the puzzle had said it, it was indeed "a terrible beauty entangled in ivy." The once white stone had turned dark over the years and had gained numerous fissures. Parts of the angel's face were missing, and he only had one wing. Furthermore, just like the riddle had said it, the angel was almost completely entangled in ivy.
"I will look for the item, then," Thomas said and vanished behind the stone and ivy. Ilex used the moments he was gone to whisper to Cloudia: "Who wrote the riddle? And don't try to fool me – I know that it hadn't been the Viscount and the Baron. The last riddle looked remarkably different than the previous twelve."
"I have no idea," Cloudia whispered back.
Ilex frowned. "And you still brought us here?"
Cloudia shrugged. "At first, I didn't want you to come with me, but because there are more people in the village this year, I thought that it would be okay to take you with me. Also, I wanted to know why the Secret Someone exchanged the cards and led us here."
Ilex was smart. Lying to her wouldn't work.
Ilex nodded. "I see," she said and, then, something dark flew past them. A second later, Thomas jumped out from the bushes and screamed: "There was something! There was something! Something flew by! It was the ghost, it was t-" Ilex clicked her fingers against his forehead. "Stay calm, Horse Boy," she said, and Thomas had already opened his mouth for a remark when something suddenly grabbed Ilex's legs and dragged her so quickly into the wall of ivy that Ilex let go of the basket with their items, and that Cloudia and Thomas did not have any time to react.
Thomas screamed again.
Cloudia's heart pounded in her chest.
The ghost, I thought for a split second before I scolded myself. The are no such things as ghosts in the world. Don't become as paranoiac and idiotic as Thomas.
While Thomas was apparently about to water his pants, Cloudia cut through the ivy with the dagger. Together with Wilbur, she had designed a lot of clothes last month. Mostly in dark green, dark blue, black, blood red, and dark orange – Halloween colours. Her own dress was like the others – dark blue and decorated with rotten flowers, skulls, and ribbons, but unlike the other dresses, hers had pockets. Cloudia had always liked it when dresses had pockets. Mostly, because she could easily hide things in these secret, disguised pockets people usually didn't notice. Things like the dagger and knives, though, Cloudia didn't put into her pockets, but hid them in her sleeves, her petticoat or fixed them with a special cloth around her legs. Because of that, Cloudia took out the dagger out of her sleeve.
Quickly and precisely, Cloudia cut through the ivy, but Ilex was nowhere to be seen. She stepped through the hole she made into the wall and looked around, but around her were only more wild bushes and trees. Ilex's drag marks even suddenly vanished in front of a bush. Like she had been teleported or vanished into thin air.
This had certainly turned out quite weirdly.
What did you want, Riddle Exchanger?
Cloudia returned to Thomas who still stood in the same position as before.
"She's gone," she told him, and he started to panic. "It was the ghost, Lady! It was the ghost!"
She rolled her eyes which made Thomas furious. "Don't roll your eyes at me! Ilex suddenly vanished! She was dragged by something through the ivy! How could it be something else but a ghost?"
"Because ghosts don't exist," Cloudia replied, but he ignored her and put his hands in his hair. "What should we do now, Lady! Ilex was probably already eaten by the ghost. There's not much flesh on her after all."
"Since when do imaginary ghosts eat people?" Cloudia asked when she saw something flickering in the distance. Immediately, she began to run towards it.
"Don't leave me alone!" Thomas cried and hurried after her.
Cloudia ran to the place where something had flickered, but when she arrived there was nothing. She narrowed her eyes and gazed around. It was pointless. It was too dark here to make out anything. By the statue, it had been relatively bright, but here she could not even see the night sky. Everywhere were tightly packed knobby trees. Heavily breathing, Thomas approached her, and she raised an eyebrow. "You need to train."
"I am a formidable runner," he replied while gasping for air. "It's just that I am not in the best state to run right now."
"You mean scared as hell." Even if she did not keep weapons in her pocket, Cloudia surely kept Promethean matches in them. She put one out of her dress pocket and lit it up. From one moment to the other, the cemetery did not seem as frightening anymore.
"You had that with you?" Thomas asked, and Cloudia handed the match to him. "Oh, I have even more," she replied and lit up another Promethean match.
"We need to find Ilex," she said. "I-"
"Don't suggest that we split up," Thomas interrupted her, and she sighed. "Of course, we won't split up, idiot. It is easier to attack whatever or whoever is out here when we stay together. Also, this thing or person won't have it easy to attack us." Cloudia gave him a knife which she had taken out of her other sleeve. "Take that in case we run into whoever or whatever took Ilex. Out priority is to rescue her, understood? The moment you panic and scream and cry, I will personally murder you. You will only hinder this mission and endanger Ilex's life. When the right opportunity comes, I will give you a sign and you will run as fast as you can out of the graveyard and get help, understood?"
Thomas nodded, his pale face full of fear. "But what if...," he whispered, his voice trembling. "What if Ilex is already..."
"Then, the least we can do is bring her body back to her parents," Cloudia firmly replied, her face deadly serious.
"I don't want to die, Lady."
"Then, don't get yourself killed."
She turned around and started to walk. "Come, we need to find Ilex."
After a few steps, Cloudia heard a laugh and frowned. "Did you hear that?" she asked Thomas.
"Hear what?"
"The laugh. Someone just laughed – and it wasn't you or me. Not even Ilex."
She could hear Thomas gulp. "Can ghosts laugh?" he said, and she whirled around to face him. Her eyes glowed in the darkness. "GHOSTS DO NOT EXIST. SOMEONE GRABBED ILEX, YOU ZOUNDERKITE. GHOSTS CANNOT TOUCH MATERIAL THINGS," she yelled, and, all of a sudden, her Promethean match went out. Thomas screeched.
"That was the wind. THE WIND."
Seriously – why did I end up with this idiot?
Then, something absolutely and fantastically weird happened and Cloudia blinked at Thomas.
"Why the damn hell are you laughing?"
Thomas giggled like a maniac, holding his belly. The knife had fallen to the ground, and so had the match which had also mysteriously gone out.
"I don't know," he managed to say in-between laughs and fell to the dirty ground. Tears were in his eyes.
Cloudia sighed. "Stop this nonsense and stand up."
"This is no nonsense!" Thomas protested. "Help me! I am possessed or something."
"GODDAMMIT, THOMAS, THE ONLY THING YOU'RE POSSESSED OF IS DUMBNESS."
I was so, so sure that he was only joking around. Well, at least until he was suddenly lifted into the air and vanished in the woods.
Hell. What was happening? First the laughs, then Ilex, and now Thomas.
Cloudia sighed and ran a hand over her face. "I can't believe what I'm going to do," she mumbled to herself before straightening up and pressing her hands against her hips. "Ghost or whoever took my teammates," she yelled into the blackness, "can you please give them back to me? It's getting late, and if we don't return soon, Constantia will definitely start to panic and force everyone to search for us. And you really don't want to meet Constantia – I tell you."
Cloudia waited a few seconds, but she could only hear the wind and an owl howling.
This was so annoying.
She ran through the cemetery, searching for Thomas, Ilex, a strange person or eidolon, but there was nothing. There weren't even broken branches on paths she hadn't used before. The wildness which had taken over Nephelius Cemetery was only thrown off balance at places Cloudia had been with the others or on her own. She really didn't even want to consider it, but only a ghost could have gone through the graveyard without destroying anything.
This day officially hated me.
Cloudia kept walking around, her third and last Promethean match in one hand and the dagger in the other. And after what felt like hours, she saw a movement in the distance again. She sprinted towards it, eager not to let whatever was annoying her so much escape so easily this time. But when she arrived, there was only...
"Ilex?"
Tiny, little Ilex Galloan was hanging from a very high and thin tombstone. Someone had tied a rope around the top and her feet.
"Good that you come," Ilex said. She was soaked in mud and judging from her facial expression, she was not very pleased about that. "Could you please untie me?"
Cloudia climbed on the tombstone – good that it had so many fissures. "Sorry, I cannot hoist you. I will have to cut the rope. Make sure that you fall on your buttocks." She severed the rope and Ilex fell down, turned in the air and landed on her buttocks. Cloudia jumped from the tombstone and helped Ilex up who was scowling.
"Good that it's so cold," she said. "Because of that, I had to put on a lot of petticoats. Thanks to them, my bottom does not hurt very much."
"At least something."
"Where's Horse Boy?"
Cloudia shrugged. "He suddenly vanished – just like you. Can you remember what happened?"
Ilex shook her head. "No. The last thing I remember was getting dragged into the ivy, and then, suddenly, I was hanging from a gravestone, covered in mud." She looked down at herself. "I think I should go home. If I do not get washed as soon as possible, I will turn into a Mud Girl."
After I had brought Ilex to the cemetery's gate, I went back in again. I still had to find Thomas after all.
A few rounds around the tombstones, and I heard this damn laugh again. It was gradually driving me crazy.
The search for Thomas was shorter than anticipated: He had been attached to the angel statue. I freed him, and the second his feet touched the ground, he took my hand and dragged me out of the graveyard. Right in front of the gate, I could free my hand from his grip. I stopped and he ran through the gate.
I turned around and gazed into Nephelius Cemetery – and saw someone.
"Simon said that he had only seen the ghost from far away, and that, from the distance, its figure had seemed misshapen to him. But there is one thing he saw: Something green."
And here, right by the gate of Nephelius Cemetery, I saw the "something green" my father had most likely already seen all these years ago.
Only that I now knew what it was.
Two strange green eyes were directed at me. It was the strangest pair of eyes I had ever seen. Chartreuse and phosphorescent, shining in the night like two odd stars.
I wanted to take a closer look to the person to whom these eyes belonged, but I had been mesmerised by this special yellow-green.
My head hurt very badly, and the weird feeling that I had already seen such a pair of eyes before went through my body. Like keys opened doors, these eyes opened the door to my locked memories. But only a tiny, tiny bit. The same green tone flashed in front of my inner eye – the first clear thing in all the static of my past. The first piece of the great puzzle of April 1834.
Before I could succumb to my headache which violently hammered against my head, and faint, a voice called me and brought me back to the present.
"Lady!" Thomas called. Cloudia blinked and briefly turned into the direction from which his voice had come from before she looked back to the cemetery, but the person was already gone. As silent as a summer breeze, he had vanished into thin air. She would have told herself that she had only hallucinated, that there had never stood a person if it had not been for the two big shoe prints in the mud and the faint giggle in the air.
"Lady!" Thomas called again, and this time, Cloudia walked towards him without looking back.
Part 2 will come in two weeks!
(Ilex Galloan and her brother Orion are the fictional children of two fictional characters who will never have kids together due to a lot of reasons. Who could their parents be? :) )