Baratrum - 2

The town of Baratrum sounded foreign to her ear. She never heard about that town before and she was sure that there was nothing like Baratrum on the map of the country. Had the train taken her out of the country? How long had it been since she left Victoria and boarded the train? What day was it? Willow felt muddled and could not keep track of her minds.

The sound of horse galloping caught Willow's attention. As she turned towards the noise, she gaped. Coming towards her were four horses driven by a man who sat at the front bit of the wagon. A carriage — a horse carriage, like Mr. Creed had mentioned before.

"Hmm… seems like my ride have come." Mr. Creed announced. At the same time, the carriage halted right in front of them. The driver stepped down and bowed at the man politely.

"Mr. Creed. We have been expecting you." Said the man whose attire were as classic as the town. His eyes then fell onto the girl next to his master, noticing her different outfits, and bowed slightly.

"Thank you, Walter. It will be just me, unless this lady made up her mind." Retorted the man sarcastically. He looked at Willow once again, curious to see her next move.

Willow, who was still processing everything that happened around her, lifted her head up to meet Mr. Creed's waiting gaze.

"Mr. Creed." She spoke. Her voice was slightly trembling from anxiety. "Would you be kind enough to give me a lift?" When Mr. Creed did not give any response, Willow said in a low voice, "Please."

The wind blew her dark blonde hair lightly, causing her to shiver from cold. She felt helpless and in need to get sheltered. Although Willow did not know what agenda Mr. Creed had for her, she had no choice but to let her guard down in this unknown place. At least, until she figured it out what she had to do.

The man who was very eager to help her earlier was now standing there in silent. He did not respond to Willow's plea but to watch her expression who turned gloomy.

"After you, Miss." He finally responded.

"Willow." Said the girl. "My name is Willow… Willow Dean." Willow bowed her head at Mr. Creed and got on the carriage with the help of the driver.

Creed smirked at Willow, amused by the fact that the girl had given him her full name. He went inside the carriage after nodding to his coachman and found Willow looking around, inspecting the interior design on the carriage.

"Are you impressed with the design, Miss Dean?" Asked Creed, sitting across the girl.

"It looks… luxurious."

"I'll pass your compliment to the real owner of the carriage." He told the girl who got her brows knitted together. "It is not my carriage but my cousin."

"Oh. Okay." Willow mumbled. She felt awkward, sitting in a carriage with a man she did not know anything about, as if she was back in 18th century. "Does this town only have horse carriage as its public transportation?" Asked willow who could not hold back her curiosity any longer.

"As far as I know, the people in Baratrum don't really much on public transportation. But yes, carriage is the only thing that can be considered as their transportation. Otherwise, they will just go by foot."

"Walking you mean?"

Creed shrugged, "You can say that." He crossed his leg and sat comfortably on his seat, leaning his upper body against the window. "To some people, walking is faster than riding a horse."

"They must be fit." Commented Willow.

"Extremely fit, Miss Dean. And may I add… very strong." Willow could not help but noticing the double meaning on Mr. Creed's remark.

"Why did you choose to help me, Mr. Creed?" Willow finally inquired him as she got more curious towards the man and this town.

"I didn't choose to help you, Miss Dean. You chose me to help you." Mr. Creed offered her a polite smile which irritated Willow to the point that she regretted to ask him for help. "But looking at you back there at the station, you look quite pitiful."

"You don't have to mock me, Mr. Creed." Responded Willow in a stern voice.

The man chuckled. "I believe this is your first time here. Did you come here by choice?" He wondered what brought the girl to this very town.

"I don't think we are playing 21 questions here, Mr. Creed." Willow looked away from the man and tried to pay attention to the road as the carriage moving pass the place that displayed nothing but darkness. There was no single house coming into her view. She could identify some trees that they went pass, but nothing more than that. Fear began to creep into her. She held her bag tightly as if it was going to be snatched from her, even though there was nothing valuable inside her bag except her couple dollar of notes that she earned from her wages.

Wages. Her thought went back to her last client who got murdered by someone and how the police thought it was her. She sighed. How long did she have to runaway for?

A change of view on the window caught Willow's attention. The road was no longer dark. The lights from the lanterns hanging on the pole began to brighten up the place around her. She could now see a couple of buildings that had similar design to Victorian era. The buildings got more crowded as the carriage started to enter the town, she presumed.

It was there, in the middle of the town, Willow's bewildered eyes caught a group of tall bulky man, shirtless, standing in circle with a couple of huge dogs around them. One of the men, who stood in the middle of the circle turned his head towards the carriage. His yellow eyes caught the green eyes of Willow staring at him.

Willow found herself captivated by the man's eyes. She could not look away even though she wanted to. She felt trapped. She then noticed how the man started to shake and his eyes hardened as they continued to trap Willow in place. Without knowing what happened, Willow's body begin to shake and her eyes suddenly flooded with tears.

A sharp sound of the blind being pulled down brought Willow away from the yellow eyes. She turned away from the window that was now closed by blind and looked at Mr. Creed who examined her closely. She quickly wiped her wet face and spoke, "Who are they?"

"The resident of Baratrum." Said Mr. Creed.