THE GUEST IN THE DRAWING ROOM

'Looks like, he does not believe me,' thought Vilian and took hold of his hand making Astrel taken aback. She dragged him in the direction where she saw the painting. Astrel let her drag him where ever she was to take him. His gaze was on the small hand that was holding onto his long index and mid finger so tightly. She had small hands that were the half size of his hands. He felt like comparing a baby's hand to a grown-up man's hand. The thought made his lips tug upwards. He wasn't smirking but smiling.

"This... I saw this lying over here. A-and and it was stained with blood. I was looking at that pain-" When she looked at the painting, she was utterly shocked. Even the hooded creature was not in the painting, now. The painting had the same background scenery of a graveyard but the creature was nowhere to be seen. She rubbed her eyes and looked at it but it was the same.

"How can I believe your words? You might be making up stories just to get away, finding this as an excuse, right?" Asked Astrel.

"I-I swear I'm not making up stories... I'm not lying... There was that same creature that tried to strangle me on this painting, but it's not there now. When I saw the creature's painting it reminded me of those incidents which I could not earlier remember clearly, but now I do as you can see and just like that when I was observing it, suddenly, I felt something moving and turned to see what it was and then saw this handkerchief. It wasn't clean, do you get it? It was stained with lots of BLOOD!!!" Exclaimed Vilian. She was trembling while she spoke.

"And... What about the footsteps that you heard?"

"I heard it when I grabbed the handkerchief and stood up," It was quite visible that she was on the verge of crying but she didn't.

Astrel sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He looked down at her trembling lips that were parted and her eyes that were glistening with tears that were forming. They were looking at him innocently. Those eyes screamed of her innocence. Walking forward towards her, he placed his hand on her nape confusing her.

"Uhh... Astr-"

"M'lord," came a voice snapping Vilian to look at the servant man who now came to stand keeping a good distance. 'Oh No!! This is so embarrassing,' She screamed internally. She prayed the ground to swallow her, not being able to bare the intimate position they were, that too in the presence of another man. If looks could kill, Astrel would have died for god knows how many times. She was glaring daggers at him.

No words came from the servant man bowing his head down, waiting for his master to permit him to speak, "Do I have to sprinkle flower petals over your head to make you speak, Simon?" asked Astrel, not looking away from the eyes that darted and fluttered from time to time. Vilian felt his eyes boreing holes on her , making her feel uncomfortable. She tried to move away, and if possible, she wanted to run far away from him, from his strange mansion. Still, with his hands on her waist and her nape, and his face right in front of her within an inch distance left between them, it made it hard for her to step away from him.

"Forgive me, M'lord!" asked Simon, for forgiveness immediately, "Lord Kaecilius is here with his sister, Kyle."

"Is that so? Looks like they've missed me sooner than I thought they would," laughed Astrel and Vilian didn't know what the joke was about, but just the look of his and the servant named, Simon, was enough for her to tell, it wasn't something so good, "Let them know that I'm on my way," and the servant dashed away quickly from the place.

"How about you come along with me?" He asked, looking at her eyes that traveled behind the servant till she could see him no more.

"Why would I?"

"Who knows, you might get the answers for which you've been running behind," Vilian's eyes sparkled with expectation and hope to know all her doubts were clear. Astrel said nothing but started walking away from her. Vilian ran behind him, trying to catch his pace screaming for him to wait.

Astrel at once stopped. Vilian, who didn't expect him to stop. She tried to stop herself from barging on him but got tackled by her foot, slamming her body on his back, "Ouch," came her wincing muffled voice.

"So troublesome and clumsy," muttered Astrel, annoyingly, which didn't go unheard to her ears.

"It was your fault, annoying house fly," fumed, Vilian, rubbing her forehead, which had no bump mark but had pinkened.

"Annoying house fly, you say, accusing me for your own clumsiness?" he asked and she could see a dangerous glint of a smirk forming on his lips, 'Oh oh! This is not so good,' thought Vilian staring at him. "Let's see what an annoying fly actually looks like, shall we?" He said and settled his heavy hand on her small shoulder, leading her somewhere.

"Uh... Astrel?"

"Hmm?"

"Could you please take your hand off my shoulders?" came her pleading voice, but he made no move. From the corner of her eyes, she could see him calm and composed. His eyes looked ahead of him that was unwavering and even though they looked calm, his lips told an entirely different story.

There was a wicked smile on his face. She could see his fangs coming into a view. It bought her the thoughts of how many lives would he have killed, just for the sake of quenching his inhumane thirst for blood. But she didn't let her mind meddle with that thoughts for a long time. She was curious about what the devil meant earlier. She wasn't looking forward on staying with him, but the only reason she tagged along with him was the hope that he gave her.

She was thankful that she didn't wear anything around her neck. It was because if she had worn it, it would have stung her by the heaviness of his hand which was taking support on her shoulder. She tried to take away his hand off her shoulder but resulted in him giving more pressure on her shoulders. 'Jerk,' cursed Vilian rolling her eyes.

"Cursing me, little kitty?"

"What?! You read minds too?" She asked him in surprise.

Getting no reply from him, sighed out loud. Only the clicking of his sharp shoe was echoing in the hall. They continued to walk until they reached an enormorous polished wooden door that was pushed open for Astrel to enter, and Vilian followed him, to notice two people seated in the room.

Vilian took a quick glance at Astrel to notice the smirk on his face broadened further.