At her request for food, Sebastian nodded and went out somewhere.
Once again, Shalei clicked her tongue at how careless he was, letting her roam free without tying her up.
Was he that confident in himself that he could catch her if she escaped or was it that she wouldn't be able to escape from this place?
After confirming that he wasn't going to return soon, Shalei gingerly stepped down from the bed and found a pair of expensive-looking fluffy slippers by her feet. How considerate, she mused and slipped her feet in, granting herself a good two seconds to marvel on the softness. Despite living in wealth and riches her whole life, Shalei had never felt something as soft as this. She should ask Sebastian later to pack it for her when she returned home later.
Shalei gingerly walked toward the window and peered out, suppressing the urge to gasp. The area around the place she was in was huge, surrounded by rows after rows of neatly planted trees.
Now that she looked closer, they looked kinda ominous with charcoal black trunks and dry brownish leaves. The branches jutted out toward the sky similar to claws and judging from the distance to the ground, she ought to be on the second or third floor of the house.
Shalei looked up and frowned at the dark sky, thick clouds fuming with faint crimson light seeping through. It looked like the sort of sky in apocalyptic movies. Did the sky always look like this? It could be. Shalei knew she was the kind of person who wouldn't bother to admire sunsets and careless enough not to notice that a storm was coming. Thus she threw the matter to the back of her mind.
After careful consideration, she resisted the idea of escaping through the window. Because one, it was high enough that she would definitely break one arm or leg, or worse her neck. And two, it was dark enough that it seemed like a thunderstorm was coming.
Moreover she needed more information to gauge where she was now. One thing she knew for certain was: this wasn't the city where she lived in, Vlence. She was in a deserted house in the middle of an unknown forest, with a stuck-up handsome guard who had a sword in his possession, stripped of her school uniform, phone and mp3 player. Shalei pressed her lips together and dug her nails into her arms. She certainly wasn't pleased with her current situation. Not that she could do anything about it.
Speaking of swords, Shalei turned her gaze to the corner of the room. There it was. Still in the last place she had seen it. Sebastian had really been too careless, she clicked her tongue. Without doubt it must be his first time kidnapping someone. Should Shalei take the sword for herself? She wasn't as proficient with weapons as she was with close combat but at least, she would feel a bit safer with something to protect herself.
A faint noise from below attracted Shalei's attention and she turned to find a little boy around the age of five or six crouching on the ground as if looking for something.
Shalei's ears perked up and she looked around to confirm there's no one besides them and knocked on the glass window to catch the boy's attention. The boy flinched hard and fell on his butt, head searching around for the source of the sound.
Shalei grimaced in apology for surprising him but now that he had moved out of the way, only then did Shalei realize that the boy wasn't searching for something. Instead he was stacking…stones? Round, little stones, one atop of another, similar to inverted cones.
Shalei knocked again on the glass window.
This time, the boy looked up and found her.
She gave him a smile which she was certain was quite friendly and waved. "Hello there," she mouthed.
The boy gingerly stood up and brushed the dirt from his butt. He stared up at Shalei with such wonder that it made her feel weird. There was just something in the boy's eyes, the way he looked at her with — what was that? — fascination and a tinge of fear? Yep, Shalei wasn't unfamiliar with this kind of gaze because children usually thought that she was a literal witch or fairy with her bizarre silver hair.
She tried to mouth again. "What's your name?"
The boy blinked, not giving any reaction whatsoever and Shalei was sure that either he couldn't read her lips or he was too dumbstruck to speak when he suddenly smiled. It was the kind of smile that stretched across his face, wide enough to show his front missing teeth.
Shalei froze, because the boy's smile didn't stop there, it stretched, stretched and stretched until the corner of his lips almost touched his ears. All of his teeth and his red gum were showing. It was so impossibly wide that it almost split his face into two.
Then his normal black eyes started to glow into an eerie crimson light and Shalei felt it rather than heard when the boy cackled. Blood spurted out of his mouth, drop by drop, until it stained the front of the boy's shirt.
And then he spoke.
"AH…!" Shalei scrambled away from the window, hand flying to her mouth and eyes wide in shock and horror. There was a rapid sound of footsteps then the door slammed open but Shalei was still too overwhelmed with the image of the boy. W—What was that?! That… That couldn't have been a human, could it? That eerie smile, those crimson eyes and blood…so much blood…
"Your Excellency!" The harsh tone shook Shalei out of her reverie. She blinked dazedly then turned to see Sebastian right beside her. Since when did he get there? The man's hands hovered around her as if scared to touch and there was just so much, too much emotion in his eyes that Shalei couldn't quite comprehend. Not in her current state. "What happened?" He asked, then scanned the room with full alert.
Shalei shuddered and promptly shook herself out of stupor. "The boy…" She pointed toward the window.
Sebastian's brows furrowed. There was confusion in his eyes but he still nodded, stuck his body to the wall by the window and peered down. "There's no one."
"He's gone?!" Now that there's another person here, Shalei wasn't so afraid anymore. She scrambled forward, almost tumbled on her long dress and crashed to the ground if not for Sebastian holding her elbow in the nick of time. Shalei chose to ignore how firm and gentle it was and glanced down.
The area was empty. No signs that someone had even been there. The stack of stones was gone. Shalei was sure that the boy's blood had dropped to the creamy grey tiles, judging from the sheer amount that poured out of his body, but the ground was clean. She blinked, confused. What…? Did she somehow hallucinate about that?
"Can you tell this humble one what he looks like?"
Shalei bit her lips. She stole a furtive glance at Sebastian and waved her hand dismissively. "I know it's hard to believe but there's a boy there." She measured the height below her chest. "Around this tall. Wearing a plain T-shirt and black shorts. I swear he's playing with stones, but it's gone now. The point is—" Shalei took a deep breath. "He smiled, not the usual smile but a grin that almost split his face into two. Can you imagine that? His eyes suddenly became red then blood spilled from his mouth…"
"Breathe." This time, Sebastian caught her fumbling hands. It took her by surprise and only then did she realize that she wasn't breathing. She stopped talking and inhaled deeply. Her eyes landed on the man's broad palms encasing hers and oh, he was wearing a pair of black leather gloves. That's kind of hot. "Breathe slowly."
Sebastian's deep voice and the steady tone miraculously calmed Shalei down. She let out a frustrated sigh. "Do you trust me? Honestly, I don't know. I can't even trust myself. Maybe I hallucinated that…"
"This humble one trusts you." He said with such conviction that Shalei snapped her head up so quickly that she almost got whiplash. From such a close distance, she could see specks of green amidst Sebastian's blue eyes. It's so beautiful that it made Shalei stop breathing for an entirely different reason. "You aren't hallucinating. Someone must have been there."
The way he sounded so sure tickled Shalei. She felt herself relaxing and started to tease. "How do you know that? Do you recognize the boy?"
Sebastian blinked and promptly looked away. He let go of Shalei's hands and she had to fight down the strange sense of disappointment from the loss of warmth. And nope, she definitely wasn't disheartened at the way Sebastian bluntly distanced himself. "This humble one doesn't know him. Will find out about it as soon as possible."
By now, Shalei had mostly recovered from the shock. He gave Sebastian a once-over and raised a brow. "I'm sure you were going out to get food. And where might it be?"
Sebastian screwed his eyes shut. "My apologies. Let me—" He pressed on his temple.
Shalei had to bite back a smile. The man's expression didn't really change at all but somehow, Shalei could sense the embarrassment that was rolling off him. What? Was he that flustered by her shout that he dropped everything and rushed here? Well, logically that was how a kidnapper should be. Shalei had no reason to feel flattered. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with her? Don't be swayed by that handsome look, Shalei! You're not this kind of shallow woman!
She was sure that she didn't see Sebastian calling anyone but then, someone knocked on the door as if they had timed it. Shalei only raised a brow and kept the doubt to herself.
The door opened, showing a thin, middle aged woman who came in with a tray, her head hung low and eyes trained to the floor. Shalei let her mind wander as Sebastian ordered the woman to put the tray down on the table.
There was something she didn't tell Sebastian about the boy.
He had spoken—mouthed, to be exact. And Shalei had clearly seen it.
"Poor, poor cursed child." That's what he'd said to her.