Chapter 304: Among the gravepines
Every corner he turned struck him right in the chest, pierced him even.
Persephone was right, Arabella had brought so much change in the shortest periods of time than it ever took him to accept anything in life since birth.
Every hallway he walked sent that sense of incompleteness. That feeling that something was missing from it and yet nothing had shifted aside from the lack of... Arabella’s voice.
In the past weeks, he’d gotten used to projecting his hearing and catching her words, laughter or even cries.
It hadn’t occurred to him how often he’d been doing it until it all stopped so suddenly.
The vampire was left wondering about foreign things such as whether he should bury her in that dress or not.
Would she have wanted that?
Silas had sunken so deep into such contemplation that the footsteps walking straight towards him had been eclipsed.
No sign of life mattered or drew his attention until Ada stood in his way.
The color had been completely drained from her face. The wound on her neck had clearly been patched, but the one in her heart remained gaping.
It was all obvious through her empty eyes alone. The maid looked like she had aged twenty years in one night.
The two of them stood silent, facing each other like they had nothing to say or... On the contrary, had so much to say that it was impossible to know where to even start from.
"M... May I see her, please?" her voice cracked and refused to even out, much like her gaze refused to meet his.
"You will find her in my room. Past the curtains," that was all he managed to utter.
"Thank you," she did not curtsy but bowed instead before walking past him, practically floating like the light husk she’d become.
"What happened yesterday?" he asked before she could get out of earshot.
Ada stopped dead in her tracks, but did not turn back, "Truth be told, Master, I myself have no idea what truly happened," she marked a short pause, "One moment we were gathered around one table, chatting and laughing and then the very next someone I knew drove their fangs into my neck. I remember my friend running ahead and opening the trophy room door to shelter everyone inside. I remember that same door closing on her face when she left us there... That is all," the longer her sentence went on, the harder it had become for her to speak as tears threatened to escape her eyes.
"I see," he said.
Silas took one step forward before Ada spoke again, "She held it together when almost everyone else couldn’t. She was so brave...,"
And with that, the two of them went their separate ways.
There was no screaming, no crying.
It seemed Ada too had changed so much in Arabella’s company.
She was a lot more agitated than that when Arabella had been kidnapped. Then again, that may have been the difference in circumstances.
There was hope in getting her back from kidnapping, but none from death.
Was that truly what despair looked like?
Mr Kallum came next on his way. The older man fumbled for words and something to do with his hands.
He all of the sudden looked like a lost child.
"I...," he cleared his throat, "I will make the necessary arrangement if that is what you wish,"
"You may do as you please,"
By then, the sun had risen, rendering him the only vampire to stand among the mortals.
Never did he feel the weight of it as much as that moment.
To stand among those that could so easily fall, so frail...
Silas ignored everything else on his path and went out through the backside of the manor, crossing the gardens where Edgar stood still, facing the white roses.
The vampire took a few seconds to absorb the scene in before turning away and drawing further.
His feet led him straight for the burial grounds dedicated to the humans on their property.
He towered over the many graves that populated those lands without moving a muscle.
Was that where she’d be buried?
Arabella hadn’t yet officially integrated the family and thus their own burial grounds would be off limits for her remains.
The vampire wondered if an exception could be made in her favor. Would that have been too much to ask of his mother?
To the rest of the world, she’d only been part of his life for a fleeting amount of time, but to him, it made all the difference.
It was as though Arabella had always been there, from the start of starts.
It could not be explained in rational terms. The only person for whom it made sense to was him.
Perhaps Ada would understand, but neither of them seemed in the mood to discuss their deepest feelings right then and there.
"Master,"
It was the third time that morning that someone had managed to sneak up on him.
Mr Carlton, the butler, had followed him out there, among the gravepine trees sheltering the graves.
"What is it?"
"It appears the doctors have finished examining Miss Allegra and Grace’s states before entering hibernation," Carlton bowed, his tone not as steady and sure as its usual.
"And?" Silas spared him not a glance.
"The doctors have concluded that they were both physically unharmed and according to the few tests they’d managed to run; they have found evidence of foul play,"
"Poisoning?"
"A sleep-inducing substance still lingered in their blood," he paused for a second, "A tea pot has been found next to them but it would have taken more time to test the liquid for traces of it and so those were left for the coming nightfall,"
In that moment, Arabella’s words from the... Dream came back in a flash. It was something about Katherine being innocent in all of that.
There was going to be hell to pay. Silas merely needed a moment to collect the pieces of himself he’d lost upon arriving at the scene.