The Preacher's Smile

Dinner that night was quite the awkward one. While Olivia sat at her usual place, right next to the main dining table, it was clear that there was a glaring absence at the Givers table. The other Givers had already noticed the anomaly, every so often looking at Orpha's empty seat but nonetheless, quietly continued to eat their food.

On the other hand, the main dining table had a different tension. The air around the De Vere's was so stifling that even Olivia could feel it from where she was sitting.

"Oh, what a splendid spread for today's dinner," Julian playfully complimented, as if there was nothing else left to be said but to talk about the food.

"Hmm," Alexander's low hum rang throughout the room. It looked like he was quite appreciative of his brothers incessant words at the moment.

Mr. De Vere was not to be fooled, however. He glared at the two brothers as the clangs and scrapes of utensils filled the silence in the room.

"Brother, what happened yesterday? There were quite an awful amount of bodies lined up near the door including that new Giver. I didn't even get to savour her blood yet," Rosina sulked as she prodded her potatoes.

Finally, it seemed that the elephant in the room was addressed at Rosina's discretion.

Julian was not present yesterday, so Rosina's question could only be aimed at Alexander. After taking a sip from his cup, Alexander took a few moments before calmly explaining to them.

"That new Giver turned out to be a witch. She had cursed one of the servants leading to a massacre causing the pile up of the other bodies. Before, the servant could take more lives, he was swiftly dealt with," Precise and succinct. He added no more to his explanation.

Rosina gasped while Mr and Mrs De Vere held deep frowns on their faces. Julian, however, looked unperturbed, a small smile playing on his lips as he glanced at Alexander.

Mr. De Vere cleared his throat, "And of the witch?"

It seemed that they had automatically stopped classing her as a Giver.

"I took care of it," Alexander replied, taking another sip from his cup.

Olivia's ears had caught the whole conversation. Her brows furrowed when she thought about why Alexander missed out some information. As she continued to think about the reason, she suddenly felt her stupidity had taken over her brain.

'Of course he had to lie. If he let them know of the true events, would that not end up exposing me?'

Olivia gave a small peek at Alexander. He looked elegant and regal as he drank his soup. She quickly looked away as someone else began to speak.

"It seems we have been too lenient in our teachings. To think we were harbouring a witch within our midst. Perhaps we need to be thorough," Mrs. De Vere spoke in a honeyed tone, as if she were speaking of the weather.

The other Givers on the table, however, began to pale and tremble knowing that Orpha's actions would most likely have consequences for the rest of them.

One of the Givers, in their fear, looked up towards Julian. The vampire sensed someone's stare and looked down to face the Giver, only giving them a glance before turning away.

"Well, why should the other Givers be punished for something that had nothing to do with them? If anything, didn't you two bring that witch here from the slave market?" Julian pointed at both mother and daughter with his fork.

While Mrs. De Vere smiled and kept her silence, Rosina scoffed, "The rest of the Giver's here were also from the slave market. How were we supposed to know she was a dirty witch?"

Without much effort, Julian had somehow gotten rid of the upcoming punishments and deflected the blame to the mother and daughter duo instead. He looked to be quite the manipulative person outside his everyday amicable façade.

Thankfully, not much was said after.

The next morning, Olivia made her way to the stables.

"I thought you were one of the one's that had died," Ivan joked as he fed the horses.

"I doubt that'd ever happen," Olivia muttered under her breath.

"And? Are you okay? I remember seeing you and Orpha talking in the garden. She didn't do anything to you, right?" Ivan turned to look at Olivia, giving her body a full scan with his scarlet eyes. Fortunately, she took off the bandages around her neck.

Olivia didn't think that Ivan had seen that small conversation between the two of them in the garden. She shook her head, "No, nothing happened."

After a few bouts of quietness, his voice rang out again.

"Peggy died, you know."

Olivia kept her silence and she tried to recall who this person was. Suddenly, she remembered. The same maid who first gave her these set of clothes she was wearing and the same maid who ridiculed her when she first set foot in the servants quarters. Truthfully, regardless of who it was that had died, Olivia doubted she would feel anything either way.

"Well, she was a foul mouthed nuisance so good riddance," Ivan spoke indifferently. Olivia had long noted that Ivan seemed rather aloof towards others and mostly spoke his mind whenever she talked to him.

"Olivia," Ivan suddenly called out.

She turned towards him.

"You must be careful when in a household full of vampires. Do not trust them."

As she listened to his cryptic warning, she couldn't quite decipher what he meant but opted to nod her head instead.

Soon, it was time for her to go with Alexander. Because of the ordeal with Orpha, they had not been able to inspect the villagers bodies at an earlier notice.

"If you had been a day later, I'm afraid the odour would be even more unbearable than it already is," Silas complained, as he lead the two into a grey coloured room.

Olivia looked around and found that the room was different to the one she had first seen when she met Silas. Except, this one looked and resembled the other with only the size being the biggest difference.

"I'm going to go and fill out some paperwork so take your time," Silas grumbled as he closed the door behind him.

Olivia didn't know what Alexander had told Silas for him to leave the bodies with them, but she didn't think too much about it.

Standing before the pair was a mangled corpse. It seemed that no one had taken it upon themselves to clean up the mess of over spilling guts and intestines. It was truly a gruesome sight to bear.

Looking at the mess before her, Olivia was reminded of a few very disturbing memories which she, with much difficulty, managed to swallow down.

"Try to see whether you can catch any faces," Alexander spoke out.

Olivia nodded her head.

Her hand slowly reached out to the corpse and touched the cleanest body part. Her eyes concentrated as she willed herself to watch the corpse's past. Thankfully, she was successful on her first try.

Soon, the familiar sensation washed over her body as darkness filled her vision.

A few moments later, her eyes slowly opened and the scenery in front of her had drastically changed.

The body Olivia occupied was currently in the middle of eating supper in his small, shabby house. There wasn't much on the table as they only had a few scraps to eat, indicating that they weren't that well off.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Olivia continued to watch through the villagers' eyes, as they grumbled but nonetheless, stood up to open the door.

In front of the villager, stood a man with dark brown eyes. Human.

"What do you want?" The gruff voice of the villager sounded as Olivia continued to scrutinise the man in front.

"Sir, I've come here to preach about the wellness of The Order. I beg your pardon, but I wonder if you are a follower?" The preacher's eyes curved into crescents as he gave a wide smile.

Olivia could feel the villager scratch his chin as he replied with a throaty bellow, "Of course I know about The Order and I agree with their cause. To hell with those stinkin' vampire's!"

Somehow, the man had long made his way into the villager's house.

"Very good, Sir. Of course someone of your calibre would know how important The Order is for us human's," The preacher complimented with his flowery words, effectively stroking the villager's ego.

"Of course I do! If it was me, I'd do anything to kill all those nasty vermin's," As Olivia continued to listen to the villager speak in his righteousness, she had the urge to roll her eyes but was unable to do so. Could he not tell that his very same words were digging a hole for him?

"Haha! Just the kind of man I was looking for!" The man's smile had somehow gotten even wider than before.

The villager stupidly laughed along.

Soon, the front door opened and a few people stepped in.

The villager's bewildered voice rang out through the room, confused as to what was going on, "W-what is happening?"

"Didn't you already say that you'd do anything?" The man's face still held the same wide smile, yet this smile was no longer amicable and felt increasingly sinister and uncomfortable.

The few people who had previously walked in were wearing masks, causing Olivia to be unable to see their faces. One thing she did figure out, however, was that these were not the same golden masks she was used to seeing. These looked like fancy masks, with sequins and colours adorned on the surface yet they perfectly hid the top half of their faces.

The villager finally felt a sense of dread as his body started to sweat and his heart fiercely palpitated. He opened his mouth to shout but was instead quickly stuffed with cloth, causing the sounds to come out quiet and muffled.

Olivia knew what was going to happen next and did not want to go through such scenes yet she didn't quite know how to end the vision. Just as she was about to start trying different ways, the villagers eyes had abruptly caught sight of one other man. The difference was, that this man was unmasked. The only other unmasked man along with the preacher.

However, once Olivia caught sight of the unmasked man she felt surprised and shocked. Her feelings were so intense that it snapped her out of her vision before the death of the villager was carried out.

Once Olivia returned to her senses, she started to gasp loudly. Her eyes were slightly wide as her thoughts ran over the same face that she had just seen.

Alexander looked at Olivia. Her eyes were still a lustrous purple, shining under the lights of the room. Her hair, although in its usual neat bun, had long turned into its beautiful silver-white tone. Every time Alexander saw her like this, he could not help but continue to look at her for a while longer.

Now that she had returned to her sense's however, Alexander retracted his gaze, "What did you witness?"

Olivia's eyebrows furrowed before she mumbled one name, "…Tobias?"