When councilman Maximilian left in his own carriage, Damien turned to look at Penelope who looked petrified as time started to pass by, “Breath,” one word and Penny exhaled the air she had been holding in, “Is it your back?” he asked her. Which person in sane mind would go to try bending when it hadn’t been three hours since she had hurt herself.
Penny shook her head, her eyes as if trying to trail the carriage that had disappeared amidst the forest.Seeing their own coachman picking up the dead bodies one by one, Damien decided to ask her later as she was still trying to digest something that was cooking up in her mind.
“Can you walk?” It was better to make her sit in the carriage.
“I want to come too,” she said. Damien raised his hand for her to take and she took it without a word of protest, “What is this place?” apart from the rocky stones on the surface of the land and the loose silt beneath it, there was no greeny grass or plants on this side of the area where the shore of the water body was close. Walking away from the forest, they moved to walk on the other side of the rock which she couldn’t see previously.
The seashore or the sea itself was something she had never come across before. It looked mystical as they walked closer but not too near to it.More than water in there, it looked like a smokey fog which was white at the top and inky hue at the bottom which moved like a lightning on the surface of the sea bed.
“This is the lake of bones. The name of the East land from where it is derived,” answered Damien, clutching her hand in a firm grip, taking her in path which had even rocks than the uneven one so that she wouldn’t have much difficulty in walking, “The lake is made of bones because this is the local graveyard for people who have no family or land to be buried in.
The kinds who the society doesn’t accept to be part of them. Especially when the person has murdered others. The rich have their own cemetery but the poor don’t get a grave of their own. The bodies,” he realized she hadn’t seen them, “There are far too many dead men and women, children, and animals who have been killed in the village we entered. Times like these where they are put up for the sacrificial purpose, the people don’t give them a grave. More than that, I would say it is a belief.”
“Belief?” Penny repeated the word.
Damien said, “It has been said that the souls that reside here waiting to catch a living person. To drag and feed in the world they have become part of. Don’t go to close to the shore. ”
“Have people disappeared from here?” asked Penny for confirmation if it was only rumors or if there was something more to it.
“Humans and vampires who don’t listen have lost their lives. Sadly we cannot retrieve the bones as this place has essentially turned to one of the popular cemeteries that hold thousands of bones under the surface of what you see,” Damien took a look at Penny who had her mouth open, her eyes looking at the lake of bones as they continued to walk alongside to it.
“Has it been like this since before? I mean-”
“Yes,” answered Damien, “As long as the first generation of the vampires,” with the coachman who was taking the bodies up to the cliff. Both Damien and Penny reached up there where it was windy and cold.
Penny had to use her hands for the wind that pushed her hair at the front of her face. Holding it back, she took a step forward towards the cliff as Damien let her hand go. She looked at what nature had to present, the lake of bones that expanded vastly to spread and reach the ends of the horizon. It was a sea that consisted of bones as Damien said yet it was called a lake.
She wondered if it was a lake before increasing itself in size. There was also another question that arose where she wondered if this very place connected to the sea where Quinn’s mansion was built. With the first body that the butler who was brought up to the cliff, the coachmen went down to get the next body upon their master’s order.
Looking down at Falcon, some sort of sadness crept into her heart. The butler was a decent man. A man of fewer words where he did his job and left but he had been considerate to ask and speak to her when they were alone. It was only two to three lines of exchange but he made her feel normal unlike the rest of them who treated her beneath them.
It had been quite evident on what her value had turned to since she had been turned into a mere slave. If she were still a free-living person, she would have been on a higher status than the maids as she wasn’t, she had noticed the eyes that looked down at her like she was nothing but dirt. Penny was used to it but the sudden fall in the lowest food chain. It reminded her of a game that some of the women who were part of the middle society played called the ladder.
“I didn’t expect him to die so soon,” she looked up on hearing Damien speak. His eyes were on Falcon, the hole he had created himself to stop the agony that must have taken place during and after his heart was corrupted.
Living for some countable months now, Penny had learned that there were some Damien spoke civilly while others who got a taste of his sharp tongue. Even though Master Damien often had the habit to throw someone under the carriage of the wheel without notice, there were some he cared for her. Like a pet that was saved to only be killed.
“I am sorry…” said Penny to have Damien smiling.
“What are you apologizing for?” he asked her. She didn’t know how to offer him comforting words, unsure if he needed comforting words.
