The Underground (1)

Although it was dark, the street lamps lit up the road allowing Olivia to see the eerie and empty roads. Using the dim lamps, Olivia could tell that they were still driving around Whitchurch, which meant that they hadn't yet left the capital.

After a while, the carriage came to a gradual stop. Alexander finally opened his dark eyes and promptly got off, Olivia stepping right behind. While he hadn't spoken a word during the journey since, Olivia didn't ask him any further questions either. They walked for a few minutes more, before standing in front of an inconspicuous black iron door. It was located in a very hidden and tucked away corner of an alleyway, with only the moon serving as light.

Olivia was both confused and bewildered as to why they were here. What sort of fun was he intending to show her?

She took the time to shift her gaze away from the iron door to look at him. Alexander ignored her gaze and knocked on the door twice, the dull thuds resounding throughout the narrow alley.

Suddenly, the small door of the peephole slid open abruptly. Olivia moved her gaze to find that she could only see a pair of scarlet eyes that were observing her intensely.

The person promptly closed the peephole and the alleyway resumed to its gloomy silence. A moment later, a few bolts were unlocked and soon after, a loud creak was heard as the door in front of them opened.

"Please enter," A tall and burly man invited in a monotone voice. His eyes roamed over Olivia a few more times but he did not say more.

Alexander walked past the man without a word and Olivia scurried after him. The room they stood in did not have much causing Olivia to furrow her eyebrows. Where on earth were they?

Alexander continued to walk on until he stood before yet another door. This door was not as intimidating and unfathomable as the first, in fact, it was wooden and slightly chipped at the edges. The man from earlier stood in front of them once again and politely opened the door for them.

Alexander silently started to walk once more, and just like before, he had not said a word. Olivia couldn't do anything but follow him and so she found that beyond the wooden door was a set of stairs that led them underground.

The walls were lit with torches so one could see where they stepped. As Olivia walked down the narrow staircase, she could not help but feel increasingly curious. As they walked further, she finally picked up on some sounds. From the looks of it, it seemed like there were quite a lot of people ahead of them.

Soon, the stairs had finally ended and they had now found themselves in a very large room. Actually, Olivia didn't quite know whether to describe it as a room or a small hall. The place was lit with a few torches that hung off of the sides of the walls, yet even if these torches provided light, the room was still slightly dim creating a sort of dark and mysterious ambiance.

Olivia's eyes flitted around, observing the scenery in front of her. This was something that she was not… used to. All around her she could see a cluster of pureblood and half vampires. In fact she had already felt it when she first stepped into the room, her senses had long picked up on the heavy smell of blood. From left to right, she could see a hoard of vampires indulging themselves on blood. Even if they weren't drinking blood, it seemed that others were drinking alcohol.

As her eyes quickly drifted around, she abruptly caught sight of a stage. It looked like some sort of play was showing and quite a lot of vampires were watching. Her vision then focused on the play and soon found that, this wasn't the type of play or theatre acts she was used to.

"Are you just going to stand there?" A deep voice interrupted.

Olivia looked up and found that Alexander was a few steps in front and was currently waiting, so she hurried towards him. He then turned around and continued to walk to a set of plush velvet chairs.

"Sit."

Olivia promptly sat down next to him. On stage, she could see a young woman. The woman was crying her eyes out, her mucus and tears mixing together as it slid down her face. Her cheeks were pale and her hair was disorderly. Not much was covering her body except a scanty garment. Her mouth was tied with a piece of cloth so only muffled sobs could be heard. Her dainty arms were chained together, the other end being held by a tall man.

"What is this place?" Olivia finally asked.

"A place for vampires," Alexander replied with a low voice.

A waiter soon came around and stood in front of Alexander, a metal plate with an assortment of drinks on top, was balanced on his hand. A few glasses were a deep red while the other cups were dark and light browns. Olivia knew well enough that those in red were definitely not alcoholic.

Alexander reached out his hand and grabbed two cups. Both had light brown liquid. Once he chose, the waiter promptly walked off elsewhere and did not linger. Alexander handed her one glass and kept the other for himself.

Olivia looked down at the glass in her hands then looked back at the vampire seated next to her. In the face of all of this, she was slightly baffled but nonetheless, held the glass cup in her lap.

After a few moments of silence between them, Olivia asked, "What is this place called?"

Personally, she had never come across such an establishment, neither had she heard of one.

"This place does not have a name. Effectively, the owners wanted it to be secretive so therefore, they decided not to name it," Alexander took a small sip of his drink as he patiently answered her questions.

"Of course, others have given it their own names but it's often most commonly referred to as 'The Underground'," He added on after a while.

On stage, the young woman was still hysterically sobbing yet no one was coming to her aid. As Olivia watched on, she soon found out that her initial observation was slightly incorrect. In fact, it was indeed a play as there were a few half-blood vampires reciting their lines, except it seemed that the only person that was not acting was the chained up woman.

The two actors had just professed their love to each other and were both now cheerfully sauntered towards the bed that was on stage.

One of the actors clapped and the man dragged the chained woman and bound her to the head of the bed.

It seemed the audience of vampires were suddenly roused as whispers and whistles broke out. The two actors, now laying on the bed, ignored the flailing human woman as they continued to speak of sweet nothings to each other.

Soon, their attention landed on the woman. It seemed that the human finally realised something as the two vampire actors edged towards her. The woman began to violently shake as more and more tears rapidly ran down her pale cheeks except, no one was listening to her. The audience continued to watch with undivided attention, cheers and laughter rang out as they encouraged the actors to play on.

The two actors continued to recite their lines before their fangs suddenly protruded, and both bit into the woman. The woman's eyes widened to the extreme before they rolled backwards and she lay limply in a dead faint. The bed was soon sprayed with glaring red blood as cheers, claps and whistles broke out.

"Ah, I lost the bet. I didn't think she'd actually faint, she tricked me into thinking she'd last," One of the vampire's from the audience complained as he handed his companion next to him a bag of coins.

On stage, the two actors finally ended their absurd play, and finished bowing towards the audience with their reddened lips that had arched into a smile.

"What did you think?" Alexander asked amidst the cheers.

Olivia slightly pursed her lips before turning to face him, "What is there to think? If anything, I'd say that this type of play isn't quite to my liking."

"Oh, Is that so? What a pity," Alexander gave a quirk of his lips as he took a sip of his drink.

"What about you? Did you enj-" Before Olivia could ask, a tall man had suddenly interrupted, sitting on the opposite seats.

"Alexander! It's been quite a while since I last saw you here," The man had dark brown hair, his crimson eyes looked especially dark under the dim lights. His attire was rather laid back as a few buttons were loosened open. His hair was swept to the side and he had a rather playful and indolent smile on his lips.

"I've been busy," Alexander succinctly replied.

Just as the man was about to continue, his eyes had suddenly landed on the fresh young girl in front of him.

"This is a first, actually bringing someone here with you," The man's eyes flitted all over Olivia as she continued to sit there and observe him too.

"In fact, I had heard a few people say you had picked up a Giver but I didn't quite believe it yet seeing the real thing here… the rumours must be true," The man's eyes drifted back to Alexander but every so often they would glance over at her.

Olivia, on the other hand, raised her eyebrows once she heard him speak. When she first found out that Rufus knew of her, she didn't think much of it, but it now seemed that she had turned into gossip much less a rumour. Olivia also hadn't expected that she had become so well known to the vampires around Alexander.

"I didn't think that everyone was quite invested in my affairs," Alexander replied. Although what he said was normal, Olivia could feel that the vampire beside her seemed rather annoyed at the moment.

Whether or not the man knew that Alexander was getting annoyed, he didn't add much on.

After a while, the man reached out and grabbed a passing waiter. To avoid the glass cups smashing on the ground, the waiter hurriedly placed them on the side table, before adjusting themselves on the vampire's lap.

"Master Lucian," The waiter politely greeted before promptly undoing the buttons on their collar.

The vampire, Lucian, did not say anything in return. Once the waiters neck was free, Lucian simply bowed his head and bit into the waiters neck.

Olivia was keenly watching everything happening in front of her. At first, she was expecting the human waiter to twitch or shout in pain, but nothing of the sort had happened. To Olivia's surprise, the waiters' face quickly became flushed while their eyes turned slightly misty. They looked to be docile and genuinely enjoying the act.

As she continued to watch, Olivia was highly confused and didn't quite understand why the human waiter seemed to not be in pain and in fact looked rather happy.

Confused and puzzled, she looked towards Alexander who was already staring back at her with a slight smile.