Taking extreme steps like these, the humans were trying to worsen the situation of making an evident boundary between their and other kinds. While the council was trying to fix things between all of them while working on the harmony of vampires and humans, there were some of them who were trying to work on the witches and humans too. Right now everything was out of order and only heavens knew when things would settle down in the future which would take years.
It was funny how humans and witches caused trouble, and it was mostly vampires trying to clean the mess. Now he had to check if the witch was white or black. It was funny how Bathsheba failed to mention there was another witch residing in here which he wasn’t aware of. As much as he was looking forward to the harmonious environment between all the creatures it didn’t mean he trusted any of them. He didn’t believe his own kind therefore trusting the other creatures was out of the question.
“What about this house?” he nudged his head towards the black witch’s house who was now missing.
“There used to be this woman named Airen who lived here. We heard a gunshot in the village and rushed to see if anyone was hurt. While checking the houses it seemed like her house was the only locked one. The gunshot was really really loud. We had to break the door,” that explained the broken door thought Damien as the woman continued to ramble, “We were worried for Airen but to only find out potions and vessels. Hairs and other bizarre things.”
One more woman who stood next to the rambling one opened her mouth, “It is hard to believe who is a witch and who isn’t. The councilmen and the magistrate are not doing a decent job. I mean how will we know who goes missing next?”
“You are right,” agreed the woman.
With the crowd that was hovering around the house while also keeping a safe distance between them and the house which belonged to the black witch, he could tell that the black witch had fled for her life. Which meant that the witch hunter had returned back to hunt her down.
The question now was that if Bathsheba was still alive or had been killed by the witch hunter.
His eyes roamed, looking at the crowd when he caught sight of a man in a hat who looked peculiar compared to the rest of them. Another witch hunter. Damien’s eyes didn’t linger too long at the man and instead, he decided to look at the house by walking around it to see if Kreme had missed something. If his suspicion was right, the previous one who had arrived at the house when Penny and he had visited was dead.
Witch hunters often worked in turns. If one failed another replaced them or hunted the one before them, following the bread crumbs which was left by the other or the witches themselves. There weren’t many witch hunters but the few who worked were too dedicated which made him sigh. Where were these people when there were the riot and massacre going on?
He didn’t know if it was selfish of him to think like this but he was somewhat glad about the massacre taking place. Especially when Penny and he had only discovered a few weeks ago about her being a white witch.
Damien didn’t wait but when he walked right behind the house where no one had their eyes on, he vanished in thin air to step at the heart of the forest. Walking around to find anything in there. He continued to walk, his footsteps taking far enough where he caught the sight of grasses that looked dried up and moved away. Next to it was the red blood that had dried.
How strange, thought Damien as he bent down. Pulling up the grasses which had blood he brought it close to his nose to notice it be blood. It was human blood which meant someone had bled enough to die. Now it would be quite a coincidence for someone else to die the very day the black witch had fled from her house.
Her house looked like a mess, with the furniture which looked slightly out of place. There was definitely intrusion but there was the possibility of humans stepping in and trying to make another mess. Or else how could they have picked on the potions and vessels which were not left in blindsight. Damien then asked himself how often people ran through other people’s things especially when they went missing. Wasn’t it more than out of place for humans to go through other things when a person had gone missing?
The first thing when someone went missing, people went in search to make sure the person was still alive but this place appeared to be an odd one. Unless someone had hinted on to go through the house and her belongings. But why?
As much as he would love to run through with his usual questions each and every perimeter in the lands of the four empires was split into lands and portions which was further given down under councilman’s care to look after unless again the council itself wanted to shuffle things around and let others handle at the lower ground.
Kreme came running to him, huffing and puffing as he had to catch hold of Damien.
“Already out of breath? You are going to fail terribly when you’re going to be in bed with your lover. Remind to make you run more,” Damien joked with his associate councilman.
“Councilman there has been a problem,” informed Kreme.
“Big or small?”
“The magistrate was found with his throat slit.”
Damien stared at him before answering, “He’s dead. Let’s have a look at him,” Returning back to the village by foot they reached the magistrate’s office, “Did you notify the guards?”
“I wasn’t sure if I should…” Kreme wrung his hands together as he was still learning from Damien who was frankly the worse example as a mentor as the man did follow work ethics.
“You can go inform them. Else that lady will,” he jerked his head towards a woman who was walking past the office with a suspicious look.
Kreme nodded, hurrying himself to the guard who wasn’t stationed too far. Stepping inside the office he caught the magistrate who sat in the plush chair who wore above-average clothes. His head was pulled back or rather had been pushed to show the deep wound on his throat. Blood that had leaked down his throat and clothes had turned dry and dark. The color was the same as the one he had seen in the forest but the blood didn’t belong to this person.
Bathsheba might be part of the black witch community but she wasn’t stupid enough to kill someone important to bring attention to herself which only raised his suspicion further that someone set her up.
In a twisted scenario of the humans, this would be seen where the magistrate was killed by the black witch to avenge the death of her fellow brother. After all, revenge was what got humans running and that is what they would believe the moto to be, where the witch finally ran away.
But Damien’s mind was quick to piece on what might have happened.
Bathsheba was attacked, there was a fight that was pulled to the forest. Blood meant she had killed the man else the next hunter wouldn’t arrive unless the witch was considered to be powerful. When the witch hunter had arrived before he appeared to be passing by but he had been following her for some time. After Bathsheba tried to conceal the evidence of what she had done there are two ways to go about after it. One. She had done a bad job of hiding it. Two, she hid it well. But someone saw her killing the man, enough to expose the evidence while also having the house being searched.
But the question back to on who might have seen her do the deed and to set up a trap enough for her to run and never return. Couldn’t be the witch hunter as their blood boiled higher than the rest of them. He would be quick to kill and hang her body as a showpiece.
