Calhoun walked down the empty roads of the village, his body moving nothing less to a shadow because of the black attire that he wore. The night was quiet and peaceful. But he wasn’t satisfied with the kill he made a few minutes ago back in the maid’s house. If it was possible, he would have torn the maid’s limbs, going one after another, before ripping her head out of her body. But he didn’t want to spill blood tonight.
Sure, he had promised Madeline about not killing people, but the promise was only for the day before, after and on the wedding day.
As much as his ears picked on rumours that he didn’t care about, he didn’t like people speculating rumours about Madeline’s mindset and turning her family or her against him. Calhoun had been careful enough to lay his web out, and Madeline had stepped far into it. Almost at the centre, ready to live with him in the castle.
Calhoun killed people, but at the same time, he made sure no one would be able to point the finger at him. The servants in the castle were trained not to utter words that didn’t concern them. Even if he did kill people, there was always a solid reason or a reason was cooked up in favour of the King. Treason to the King or the King’s family was something that was not tolerated.
The air in the village was cold, and Calhoun’s lust for blood increased. He looked for prey to feed on, to suck and drink the blood out of the person until the last drop. He wondered who would be the lucky person. Calhoun was in no mood to drink the blood from a glass at the moment.
The truth was that he wanted to drink the blood from the petite girl who had pale yet milky skin. Thinking about it made his fangs ache in need. When a person found something close to paradise, it was hard to let it go. One sip was never enough and sometimes, not even many gulps. His shoes didn’t make any noise on the ground, and Calhoun played with his fangs by running his tongue over it. The fang was sharp enough to cut the surface of the tongue, and he tasted the metallic blood.
His eyes searched in the dark, finding the next possible person who could turn to his prey. With most of the lanterns that were burning since the time of the evening, they had exhausted themselves because of the lack of oil in them, making it easier for him to move freely.
He was eager to go back to the castle. To visit Madeline to whom he had said he would return to see her if she was awake. The expression on her face told him that she would be waiting for him. It had taken many days to create a spark of fire, and Calhoun had done nothing but fan it in Madeline.
Madeline was a sweet girl. His girl, Calhoun thought to himself. He wanted to know every little thing about her. He wanted to meet her right away, which was why he didn’t bother to torture the maid further and waste his time. The maid barely held his interest to keep him near her. He killed her quickly, leaving her body in the care of his coachman. Even if someone did try to pin it on him, the blame would go to fall on the coachman and not on him.
Standing anywhere close to Madeline right now, would only make him do worse things to her, things she would be scared and would break her. It was why he was looking for a person in the night. Somewhere in one of the houses, Calhoun then heard an argument taking place. A woman screamed in pain and Calhoun made his way towards the house.
“You worthless piece of woman! Did you think I would not find out!” the man yelled at the top of his voice, just enough not to let his voice out of the house. But Calhoun was a vampire. He heard most of the things even though he wasn’t around.
Calhoun walked away from the door, moving near the window to take a look at the woman who was on the ground, with her hand on her cheek. There were tears in the woman’s eyes.
“You promised you wouldn’t spend any more money on gambling! Every morning there are debt collectors at the front of the house!” the woman said in tears, “I cannot live like this!”
Calhoun identified the man to be the husband who glared at his wife, “Why don’t you leave right now then?!” he pulled the woman up to stand and pushed her out of the house, “It is my money! I will do what I want!”
“Why did you even marry me? You cannot throw me out. I am your wife!” the woman said in distress. When she went to speak again, the man slapped and kicked her stomach, making her fall down on the ground and hurl in pain.
By watching this, Calhoun’s eyes narrowed. He had come across such events before. He had seen his very own mother being mistreated. Not by his father, but the men who came to use her, which was why how made money. His memory was distant, but it was still there.
Things in the past had been dire for both Calhoun and his mother. He was a young boy when he started to take note of things. Rumours always spread very fast, worse than a wildfire, burning a person’s image to charr it for the next few years until people forgot about it.
Nobody knew how and who spread the news about his mother being the King’s mistress, but Calhoun could only guess that it was his paternal grandmother’s doing. When something belonged to the King, it was possible for the King to lose interest in it, but it didn’t mean the interest was lost outside the castle. Everybody wanted to know about the person or the thing. To have it and wonder what made it important to the King before he discarded it.
In Calhoun’s memory, he and his mother shared good times. It wasn’t long, but it was enough for him to keep him going. To turn to the person he was, with the things that had gone down with him. He wasn’t angry with his mother. He doubted he ever would be. She was with the wrong man.
It was only after years did Calhoun bring peace to her by killing the man who used and threw her.
“How dare you try to stop me!” the man shouted, to kick the woman again and spitting on her. In anger, the man left the house, leaving the woman behind crying in pain who didn’t move from her position.
This brought in other memories in Calhoun’s mind. He followed the man who stomped like a little child as he headed close to the forest. It was funny how some men thought it was alright to show their pride and manliness where it was not needed. The woman wasn’t shocked when the man had kicked her, and it only told that this person whom he was following now in the dark, was not worth living. Calhoun said to himself that it was a way to stop the misery of the woman and clean his land by getting rid of such people.
The village man turned around when he heard the sound of footsteps, but there was no one there. As he continued to walk, he again heard the crunching of the dried leaves that made him walk faster to get rid of the person whoever was following him. He turned back and then looked around for someone to catch hold of his neck and push him against the tree.
“W-who are you?!” asked the village man in panic.
With the shadow that was cast on Calhoun’s face because of the hat and the darkness of night, Calhoun chuckled, “It might be the devil who has come here to suck your soul out of your body and send it to hell.”
“S-stop joking!” the man fretted to get away from the stalker, “I will alert everyone in the village.”
“Go ahead,” Calhoun replied with a calm voice, “I would like to hear you scream with no tongue in your mouth.” He loosely held the person, but the man was not strong enough. After all, he was a human while Calhoun was a vampire.
The man’s eyes darted towards the village and then back at this crazy man who had come to attack him out of the blue, “Let go of me! I don’t even know who you are!” exclaimed the man, his fingers continuing to struggle to pull Calhoun’s fingers that didn’t budge.
Calhoun laughed, “I am here to collect my money that you borrowed. Where is it?” he decided to play with the man.
“I don’t know! I gave it to my wife. Ask her!” said the man alarmed, but both of them knew it was not true.
“Your family must be truly disappointed with you because of how useless you are. Blaming your wife when you have gambled your money away,” Calhoun tsked while shaking his head in disapproval, “You know my father was useless too. Do you know what I did to him?”
“HELP! SOMEONE HE-” the man shouted as loud as he could, but his words were cut short in screams as Calhoun dived in to sink his fangs in the man’s neck. With Calhoun who was already hungry, it took less than two minutes to drain out all the blood from the man, and the man turned dead.
Calhoun looked down at the man. Picking the man’s leg, Calhoun dragged him further into the forest. On his way, Calhoun licked his lips clean with his tongue for any traces of blood on his mouth.
He didn’t take the body too far. If the humans were going to be scared of vampires, that was fine by Calhoun. Humans and vampires were asked to live and share the same land under the words and rules of the High house. In Calhoun’s book, fear was not meant to be forgotten.
He wiped his mouth with his sleeve before black wings emerging out from his back.
Back in the castle, Madeline laid in her bed with her eyes open. She had tried to sleep, but for some reason, she was unable to do it. She wondered how much time passed since she got into the bed, and also since Calhoun left the castle to complete whatever work had come to his notice.
Turning around, she pulled the blanket closer to herself. Calhoun had told her, he would come to visit her if she was awake. Would he?
