New home

"Let me get this right…" Olivia took a few moments to adjust her thoughts, "You want me to stay here with you?" Olivia then looked up at him and asked what had been on her mind for a while now.

"I don't see what you gain from this."

"You don't need to know. All you need to know is that you're a liability and I'd rather have you in my hand than not."

"A liability…" Olivia repeated. She didn't view herself as such but now that she thought of it from his perspective, no matter who caught hold of her, be it witches, humans or vampires, they would want to get what she had no matter what and in the end it would lead to irreversible consequences. Once she thought of what could happen, she felt a cold shiver go down her back.

"You're sure that no one else knew what was happening in that room?" He asked once again.

Olivia nodded her head. She was sure that, going by the siblings personalities and the fact that she never saw anyone else, no other person knew the truth. At least from her perspective.

Just then, the door to the room opened.

"Clean this up," The vampire said nothing else and walked back to his seat. Olivia was struck dumb. How did the butler know to come? He didn't even call for him… She looked towards the vampire in confusion while he ignored her, an aloof expression on his face.

The butler made a small bow and then promptly walked towards the fireplace cleaning up the broken glass and leftover blood on the floor. Once he was done, the butler faced his master and made another small bow.

"Is there anything else you require, Master?"

"Prepare the room opposite mine for Miss…"

It just occurred to her that she had never given her name, "Olivia,"

"Miss Olivia," The vampire repeated.

The butler finally turned to face Olivia for the first time. He did not smile at her, but neither did he have a face of dislike either. Rather, he seemed indifferent to her presence. Olivia took the chance to look over his features. She noted that, he too, had red eyes yet the butler's eyes were a light scarlet, while his masters' was deep crimson. She wondered what the difference between the two colours were.

"The room will be ready in a few moments, Miss Olivia," The butler informed.

"Just Olivia is fine," She felt a bit uncomfortable being called "Miss." She did not suit the title, especially not in the state she was currently in.

The butler didn't reply, merely looking away from her face to once again bow to his master before closing the door behind him. Olivia didn't know whether that meant he accepted the title change or simply just ignored her.

"You should go and clean yourself in the bathroom," The vampire nudged his head towards the door on the right.

At the moment, Olivia felt a bit apprehensive. Everything seemed to be moving a bit too fast and the vampire's kindness looked too good to be true. Although she wasn't strictly human anymore, she still had the weariness of one.

"I think I'll go down to the servants quarters," Olivia replied.

The vampire frowned, "You're not a servant."

"I know, but I feel uncomfortable acting like a parasite and taking advantage of the privileges of a guest yet not being one at the same time. It feels wrong."

"We don't have human servants. Unless… you want to be a slave?" The vampire asked. Olivia felt immediate repulsion towards the word. She certainly didn't want to be reduced to a mere slave. The vampire also clearly didn't allow her to be a servant either. It seemed that she had no choice but to embrace being a long-term guest instead. Except, in his definition, she didn't know what being a 'guest' entailed.

"Now, go into the bathroom and clean yourself. Thoroughly. Just you standing there has already dulled half of my senses," To this, Olivia didn't take offence. She knew she didn't appear to be the cleanest at the moment. She briskly walked past him and closed the bathroom door behind her.

After an in-depth and rigorous clean, an hour later, a comfortable and refreshed Olivia stepped out of the bathtub. She looked at the nearby cabinet and opened the first door to see, what seemed to be, 3 clean towels stacked on top of one another.

Although conflicted on whether she was allowed to use one, she decided to pull out the towel on top and wrapped it around her body, stopping the water droplets from continuing to drip on to the floor.

Olivia, however, had another dilemma at the moment. She didn't have any clean clothes to change into and she couldn't wear her tattered rags again as they were already beyond salvable. While she was hesitating on asking the stoic vampire if she could borrow some clothes, three knocks were heard against the bathroom door.

"I have dry clothes here for you, Miss Olivia," A monotone female voice was heard beyond the door frame.

Olivia opened the door slightly, tucking her body behind so it was out of view, and looked at the maid opposite her. She wore the usual black frock, with a crisp white apron and a little white cap, normally worn by maids of a household. The maid also stared back at Olivia, her eyes roaming across the person her master had brought with him. It seemed that when their master was not present, they acted like anyone else. Olivia took the clothes from her hands and whispered a small thank you, waiting for the maid to leave, before gently closing the door behind her.

In her hands lay a plain black, cotton made dress, with brown boots resting on top. Although different from the outfits the maids wore, the material was of similar make. Olivia was thankful for finally being able to wear new, clean clothes. In fact, this would be the first time she would be wearing a dress made for adult women.

Once she was done, she stepped out of the bathroom.

Hesitating for a while she called out, "Master Alexander, I'm done."

The vampire never offered his name neither did she have knowledge of what it was, so she decided to address him the same way the servants did. It was the safest option she had.

The butler, from who knows when, had apparently served his master afternoon tea, as he was alone in the room, holding a porcelain cup to his lips. He lowered his cup once he heard her, and looked up.

He took in her appearance now that she was cleaned up and merely looked away again, continuing to drink his tea.

Olivia, much like she first did when she arrived, awkwardly stood in the room not knowing what to do. As she continued to twiddle her fingers, a question promptly popped into her head.

"Your family."

The vampire took a few minutes to reply, "What about them?"

"What will they say about this? About me?" She guessed that the vampire did not live alone therefore, wouldn't his family members find it unusual?

This time the vampire didn't respond to her question, merely continuing to savour the drink in his cup.

Olivia asked another question instead, "Will you tell them about me?" Although the question was identical to the previous one, this time she was referring to her newly acquired constitution.

"No one will mind your presence. Your presence will not be unusual to them," Alexander finally replied.

Olivia was slightly confused. How could he be so sure that they won't mind?

In the midst of her thoughts, the vampire added another line, "No one will know about you. To them, you are merely human."

After this sentence, the vampire faced Olivia and looked directly into her eyes. As she stared back, she slowly felt her surroundings turn dark, the temperature falling a few degrees. The only thing she could focus on were those crimson eyes. It was not that she couldn't turn away, something wasn't letting her. Finally, he turned away from her, allowing for Olivia's surroundings to go back to normal, the temperature also resumed to its original state. Olivia felt a cold shiver go down her spine. Just what on earth was that?

"No one will know. To them, you're human. Do you understand?"

Olivia gave a quick nod.

Once again, without being called, the butler opened the door to the bedroom.

"Take Miss Olivia to her bedroom to rest," The vampire ordered.

As per his usual routine, the butler bowed towards his master and looked at Olivia, signalling for her to leave the room with him. Olivia did not delay, wanting to leave the presence of the vampire as soon as possible, lest something else beyond reason occurred again.

A few seconds later, to be precise across the hallway, Olivia arrived at her supposed room.

Once she entered and was left alone by the butler, she looked around. Her room… was certainly much smaller compared to the vampire's room. Olivia dared to guess that the room she was currently standing in, was previously used as a storage room. She, however, had no complaints. It was certainly much better than sleeping on a stone bed. At least there was a bed with a mattress. In the corner, stood a medium-sized chest drawer. The only other thing in the bedroom. Olivia pulled the first drawer, and found another dress identical to the one she was currently wearing. It seemed that they gave her another one as a spare, in case something happened to this one. Next to it, lay a white night dress for when she went to sleep. Olivia pulled the other two drawers, only to find that there was nothing else in there. It seemed that she only had this one pair of boots.

Slowly, Olivia began to undress herself, folding her new dress and placing it on top of the chest drawer. She lay her boots next to her dress so she could easily find it the next day. She slipped her night dress on and walked towards the bed. She pulled back the covers and got in, tucking herself tightly. Although the bed covers were not made of the softest materials to others, Olivia felt as if she was wrapped in the softest wool. She snuggled herself deeper into her covers, her mind running through the events of the day. Unexpectedly, her mind went back to the moment when she killed the siblings. It was her first time taking a life. At that moment, nothing ran through her mind except killing them and escaping that forsaken place but now that she lay there on her bed, the feeling of running a dagger into someone's heart made her a bit too queasy.

Did she start to regret it? No, she most certainly didn't. If she hadn't done what she did, they would continue to do other immoral acts and experiments on her. In the end it was inevitable. Olivia decided to clear her mind, before her thoughts went down a path she didn't want. After 7 years, she had clearly become somewhat twisted due to the treatment that she had experienced. This certainly wasn't something that could be fixed within a day. Now that she was here, she decided to focus on what was to come instead. Slowly, she closed her eyes and drifted off to a blissful sleep.