Allure Of The Night

In the living room of the Dawson’s residence, the fire crackled in the fireplace. In front of it sat Lady Aubrey on a chair, holding a book and reading it. The evening had passed, and the chatter of the people and sound of the carriage on the streets had decreased with the night that had come to fall upon them.

She heard a slight sound of scrunch near the entrance of the house, where the house’s main door was left open. Eugene stood outside with a worried look, craning his neck every once in a while to check if he could see Eve. The lantern that hung outside their house burned brightly.

“You should get back inside,” Lady Aubrey suggested to Eugene from the living room, her voice reaching the man, who stepped back inside the house.

“This is the first time she’s been late since she started to work,” came the concerned voice of Eugene, whose eyebrows were closely knitted. “What if Miss Eve is in trouble?”

“She will be just fine,” replied the older woman, and she flipped the page of the book that she was reading. “It isn’t the first time she has returned home late. If you keep worrying about her, you will grow older and die sooner than me, Eugene.”

But Eugene couldn’t help but take another peek outside the door.

“Are you not worried that someone must have turned her into a fish and ate her, milady?” Asked Eugene, wondering how it was possible for Lady Aubrey to not worry about the young miss.

Lady Aubrey looked up from her book, meeting Eugene’s worried eyes, she said, “I am. Or it would be more right to say that she worried me to death when she was young,” pausing to exhale, “Especially knowing who she is, but I have gotten used to it.”

Her words only stressed Eugene further, “Lady Aubrey, Miss Eve, she—”

Lady Aubrey smiled at the concern shown by Eugene. She said, “Eve might be clumsy and a little hasty about certain things, but that doesn’t mean that she is unaware of the matters of the world. After all, she grew up through the pain, and not away from it.”

A child who was forced to see the dark and dangerous world that they lived in as it was, without any protection. Lady Aubrey didn’t know what Eve went through, but she was there next to small Eve, who had recurring nightmares of the night when she had lost her mother.

Lady Aubrey’s thoughts went back to the time of the initial days when Eve fell sick before she rarely fell sick as if her immunity had increased. And during those initial days, she was the one who had stayed next to Eve, placing a wet cloth on the little one’s forehead to bring down the fever.

Back then, one day, Lady Aubrey had just woken up from her afternoon nap, and she opened the windows of her room for air to pass through. When she noticed the little girl trying to climb one of the trees in their backyard with persistent efforts. The little girl climbed to only return to the ground.

‘What are you looking at, Lady Aubrey?’ questioned Eugene, who had only stepped into the room.

‘The fish trying to be a monkey,’ Lady Aubrey replied grimly.

The woman wasn’t pleased with Eve’s behaviour because it was as if all her teachings on the etiquette of how to behave in the society had been tossed right into the well.

‘Huh?’ A confused Eugene came to stand next to the lady and took a peek before his eyes went wide, ‘Miss Eve is going to fall! Is she trying to pluck out the fruits? Let me go and help her—’

‘You won’t do anything,’ Lady Aubrey stopped him. She didn’t want the little girl to grow thinking that help would be readily offered. ‘She will fall once, but after a few more times she will learn not to do things which aren’t good for her.’

Eugene, who had already grown attached to the little one, bit his tongue and watched the little one, who had successfully climbed the tree now. He wanted to help little Eve with anything he could do, but Lady Aubrey was the owner of the house, and he had to oblige. Both of them continued to look at the little girl, who didn’t dare to stand on the branch, but crawl.

‘Oh! It wasn’t the fruit,’ Eugene commented with a chuckle, ‘It is a cat. Milady, do you think cats are attracted to fish?’

But Lady Aubrey didn’t answer Eugene as her eyes continued to watch Eve. She knew if the girl fell, they would be tending to her injury, but pain was what made one understand things faster.

Little Eve continued to crawl on the branch and inch closer to the cat, which sat almost at the end of the branch.

‘Here, kitty kitty kitty,’ came Eve’s soft voice, and Eugene felt his heart melt. ‘Kitty kitty kitty.’

Little Eve quickly grabbed the cat that loudly meowed. But her quickness only made her lose balance on the branch.

‘Miss Eve!’ Eugene quickly ran outside the house while Lady Aubrey stood there staring at Eve dangling on the branch upside-down. One of the little girl’s legs was caught by the thick creeper of the tree. ‘Are you alright? Let me help you out!’ Eugene exclaimed in panic.

‘Eugene! I caught a cat!’ The little girl exclaimed with a bright smile, to only end up getting scratched by the cat.

‘You nearly gave me a heart attack there,’ Eugene laughed while helping the little girl.

Lady Aubrey, who had lost herself in the past, returned to the present. She shook her head and smiled. She said,

“We knew that Eve would one day step into the world of vampires or werewolves. Let us give her the benefit of doubt that she will be home soon. Believe in her and her destiny will be different than the fate most of her kind experience. Why don’t you come and sit next to me?”

Eugene sighed, and he nodded. He walked towards the older woman and took a seat on the floor next to her chair. If he didn’t know Lady Aubrey better, he would have thought that the woman didn’t care for Eve. Lady Aubrey cared for Eve, and she had tried to teach about the world as much as she could. But then, at the same time, the older woman was right.

Though Lady Aubrey’s eyes were fixed on the pages of the book, she wondered what was taking Eve this long.

Back in the Hollow Valley, Eve went to fetch her lunch box when she noticed it was missing. Her eyebrows deeply furrowed, and she looked front and back before looking at the street, which was pretty much deserted.

Did someone steal her lunch box?

Feeling something move from the corner of her eyes, Eve quickly turned to catch sight of… was that her lunch box moving by itself? There was no way her lunchbox could walk on its own, which came to the question of what was going on?

But when she took a closer look, she saw no one near it, which brought goosebumps to her skin. Was this place haunted?

With her lunch box moving farther and farther away from her, Eve ran towards it, but the lunch box only moved that much away from her. And this continued for the next two minutes until it finally stopped. Most of the lanterns had grown dim on the side she walked.

Eve quickly ran towards her lunch box, and making sure no one was around, she picked it up.

“Last carriage to the towns of Skellington, Meadow, Lockwood, and Thresk Hills! Last carriage!” Shouted a man who stood next to his carriage. A couple, who were standing outside, paid the coachman the travel fare and got inside to sit.

“Last carriage for the night! Leaving in two minutes!” the coachman repeated. On noticing Eve alone on the street, the coachman asked, “Miss? Do you need a ride?”

Eve looked around the place, slightly worried on what just happened before she nodded to the man, “Yes. To Meadow.”

Not too far from where Eve had picked up her lunch box, a shadow moved away further into the darkness.

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