L I S A

Getting out of the bed in the same cautioning rush, I put on the slippers and decided to adjust my dress. I wasted no time as soon as Edward was out of my range, heading towards the village to meet Malcolm and others. I went to bathroom that according to my supposition should’ve stayed on the right side of his bed. I unbolted the knob and dashed my face into the fresh cold water in the sink.

When my dress was finally fit and lovely like the last night, I loosened my hair from the burden of clips and more. The curly strands bounced on my chest and back and stilled there, taking away any evidence of drowsiness. My eyes were wide awaked and conscious and so was my mind to bear yet another one of my life’s complications.

Had I expected it? More than anything but I was glad that Edward kept his promise to me and stayed with me the entire night—despite the accident. It took me though half an hour to induce him into believing that I was unharmed and unhurt by his bite. I hoped the next time we make out he wouldn’t be too hard on his inner demon.

I turned around on my heels and decided to stalk after him. It was time.

Much to my luck the door wasn’t locked and I could easily slip out without anyone knowing—well actually one person but he was easy to persuade.

As much as dark it was in this house at night, the morning in here was twice as bright. Every corner, even the darkest and narrowest ones were illuminated without a single trace of a lurking shadow. It was almost dazzling to my human eyes and just as alluring.

I dawdled slowly downstairs, taking in every bit of the handsome vista his magical house had to offer. The hallway that he carried me through last night wasn’t dim anymore let alone scary and I could actually see the very scarce furniture decorating the foyer; a chaise lounge, loveseats, glass tables, showcases, bookcases and whatnot. The long pillars supported the roof that had vibrant art depicting vampires’ history in a rather attractive manner.

I had to wonder. Where was I? This house wasn’t like the other ones and from the little luxury and style it seemed rather like a miniature architecture of a castle. I thought the hall was missing a chandelier but then I figured it’d be too distracting from the art that was carved on the walls so perfectly like pamphlets telling the stories of ancient treasury.

I knew Edward was my aim right now but a little snooping around wouldn’t hurt. Besides I’d been living with vampires for more than a week now, it wouldn’t hurt to actually finally learn something about them. The museums had always piqued my interest and Edward’s house wasn’t less than a historic treasure. If only I could find books around here.

My eyes budged to the painting that was beaming vigorously in all its glory across the hall, hanging through a peg on the wall. It was more vibrant than the paintings, more colorful than the rainbows and more fantastic than unicorns and chocolates. The painting depicted love and care and an everlasting longing for your mate. The smiles on the faces of the characters in there were genuine, like it wasn’t a pose meant for the artist but it was rather a sign, a token of love for their mates.

The painting seemed to have been belonging to an earlier age, like the nineties or something but I wasn’t sure as the woman and man in that looked like to be alive in the tenures of monarchy or tyranny. I didn’t know much about art but the colors in the painting were more special than oil-pastel or water colors and the portrait was protected by a frame around it.

The woman had a beautiful, glowing scarlet, heart necklace around her neck as she clung to her partner’s hand, a man with long shiny jet black hair, tanned skin and a light moustache. His muscles were strong for him to be in his early twenties and the woman was beaming with purity and a compassionate beauty like the ones a girl would have at the end of her teens.

Her face was aligned with his and all her pale brown eyes were seeking were the red crimson ones of his. She had a huge coy smile on her face as he was drawing her closer to his chest. Just by staring at this magnificent piece of work I could live every moment and imagine how they must’ve been like.

The man was enveloped in a royal red robe whilst the woman was in a light pink maxi with the same pink rose fixated in her bun.

When I was sufficed looking at the both of them, my eyes fell on the side of the portrait and I could read that handwriting which wasn’t part of that miraculous painting. A cruel wind of realization struck me hard on my face as my mouth spelled the written words, “Anthony & Merida, Forever.”

I couldn’t stop the tears that poured down my eyes and had me dumfounded at the intactness of the couple. How could anyone be so cruel? They’d killed Edward’s perfect family and were still trying to make him do their dirty works. My hands hovered over their name and rested on a date carved beneath it, “1644”

I didn’t dwell on that thought and went off to gather some more information about Edward, my little knight. If only I knew how to talk to him about this sensitive topic, I wasn’t even sure if he wanted me to familiarize with his past and now that I had, I wanted to dig deeper and deeper until I knew what it was about him that attracted me so much. He wasn’t a typical guy—no he was a vampire, a broken vampire who’d witnessed my pain so closely like his own and lent me a shoulder to cry on. Now I wanted to be that shoulder, the shoulder he could lean on at nights and protect during days.

I turned towards the other end of the hall that had a slant height. I didn’t know what I was expecting but I wasn’t much surprised or thrilled when my eyes met a staircase leading to a pit deep into the ground.

Without a second thought I stepped towards and with the same bravery and courage went on until everything around me went dark. My hands roamed on the walls to ensure support for myself and I continued downstairs in the same manner.

Not long after my fingers felt the edge of the wall and no more steps were left for me to proceed. I inhaled sharply and dawdled towards hoping for a source of light. I had no idea how but with just another step, all the torches in the illuminated one by one, giving me a visionary access to the room.

It was just another foyer, except one made from bricks without any colorful paint to mask the ugliness of the room. Torches hung on the walls in a queue from left to right and right to left drawing a simple pattern. The whole place was twice the size of the foyer I’d witnessed above a few minutes ago. But here there were no paintings or portraits at all to decorate the room, only piles and piles of yellow, old wrinkled papers. Anywhere my eyes landed I could see a bookcase already waiting for my gaze there and anywhere my feet took me, the papers were there to embrace me in a hug.

I loved it all but I’d have loved it more if it was a bit more hygiene and dust free.

I covered my nose with my palm to avoid sneezing and went on with my search. There were so many sections, ordered in years and names, that I didn’t know where to start from, what to choose from. I thought why not start from the beginning? I went to the section 1644 since I didn’t know Edward’s last name.

There weren’t much books regarding the events occurred in seventeenth century, maximum to ten or twelve but I didn’t have the patience, I wanted that particular book with that particular name without much efforts. I had not much time to be gone in vain.

“Sullivan . . . Marino . . . Collin . . . Hale . . . Albrecht.” There were files from 1600s all arranged on the basis of surnames. How am I supposed to know what Edward’s surname is? What would suit him by the way? Edward Sullivan? Edward Marino? Edward Collin?—hell no! Edward Hale? Edward Albrecht?

And then out of the blue something clicked in my thoughts. What if Edward didn’t take after his father’s surname? A lot of people do that—it’s rare but they do that. What if he decided to take after his mother’s name? I tried to search something in the files, if they’re carriers of century’s old inherited traits of a particular family they ought to have a family tree.

I decided to search from the last and looked into the file of Albrecht’s. From the last page I flipped back and back until my eyes landed on a family tree. I didn’t heed the upper section and searched from the last and not much to my surprise the branch ended at one name which was, Edward J. Albrecht son of Anthony N. Albrecht.

My curiosity about the Albrecht family only increased as I got familiar with their customs and hereditary wealth. According to the file of 1623, after his brother’s death by a hunter, Anthony N. Albrecht was burdened with the title of Earl of Albrecht family. He was also a high ranked lord to work under Mason and was going to get his retirement in 1650 after his marriage. However, he was murdered by a group of hunters in cold blood in 1669, after twenty successful years of marriage.

My heart was skipping a beat now and then as I read on. If Anthony Albrecht was dead that meant the title of the Earl of Albrecht family was to be casted upon Edward and for some reason I was feeling like he didn’t want such a price given to him, he didn’t want that title and to be burdened by it. Something was off and I couldn’t seem to understand what.

“Ah!” I growled as the ground literally slipped underneath my feet and I fell flat on my stomach with the file still between my clasps.

I was still shaking from the shock or perhaps it was the ground that was jolting side-splittingly beneath me. I held onto myself tighter and reminded myself to breathe moment after another. I hoped silently for the so-called roof to not end up on the floor as my eyes saw the little aftereffects of the jolt in the form of dust leaking from the bricks everywhere.

The house was still shaking, vibrating like a call on snooze and I lost faith in the well-built structure of this house and the roof as I started scampering towards the staircase. I held onto the walls as I ran hysterically saving my life. The darkness didn’t even matter as I did my best to get out of that place and upstairs were fresh and hygiene air was waiting to embrace me.

I coughed all the way up never stopping to take another glance. It was so peculiar for an earthquake to just come out of nowhere—I knew that was how they worked but still, it wasn’t that hot today for something as hazardous as like this to happen.

I kept my theories to myself as more and more dust came at my direction and my coughing only increased. I was having trouble with my breathing and was waiting for it all to be over soon. My feet was losing the potency to walk as my mind began was getting tempted by a swoon and the darkness was just making the option more alluring.

I couldn’t know how to handle myself as I took another step and another one and a last one and fell flat on my stomach. I could feel the ground beneath me masked in slight dust but I couldn’t care, just like a drowsy child doesn’t ask for a bed, I slept there and let myself get lost in the transitory pleasures of dreams.