"Lila, honey," Khalilah's grandmother, Rose-Anne Earhart, said as soon as she saw her granddaughter stepping out of the car, it would appear that everyone was worried as they were standing outside.
Khalilah found it strange that her family would care this much about her, but it didn't matter when she got crushed in Rose-Anne's arms.
"Oh my goodness! Look how you have grown! You were so tiny the last time I saw you." Her wrinkled hands holding Khalilah ever tightly, Khalilah noticed that her grandmother looked thinner.
She noticed that she was also pale and sleep-deprived, tears bursting out of Khalilah's eyes, she could see just how much her grandmother Rose was suffering, and she must miss her grandfather so much.
"Don't be sad, I promise that you won't be lonely Lila dear." Her voice came back again as they wiped the tears away from her eyes. Khalilah shook her head, she wasn't crying because she felt lonely, she was crying because she felt pity for her grandmother, she sniffed back and wiped her tears.
"No grandma. I'm not going to be lonely staying with you. I just realized how much I missed you and Grandpa." She nodded as she began to wipe Khalilah's tears with her handkerchief.
"I know baby, I miss your grandpa too." Khalilah felt guilty because while she was selfishly thinking about herself, she didn't realize how hard it was for her grandmother, and how lonely she must have felt.
She is such a bad grandchild, but it's not too late she can still make that fact change. She suddenly held Granny Rosie's hands very tight.
"Grandma I promise to make you feel less lonely, I can't fill up the space Grandpa left behind but I will be a good kid to you." She promised and bent slightly to kiss her cheeks and she hoped Grandpa forgave her too.
"Don't be silly now, child. Come before dinner gets cold." She ushered Khalilah inside the house.
Cherry, the housekeeper showed Khalilah to her room and she was also thoughtful enough to help her unpack my bags.
The room was a bit bigger than her previous room, in the city and it had all the aesthetic decorations that she loved. She was just so glad her grandmother didn't take the time to paint all the walls pink like she was some kind of "Barbie freak" or something.
"Thank you, Cherry." She said with a small smile, Cherry was about to go when she stopped for a while and turned back slightly.
"Miss Khalilah, always make sure to leave your windows closed." It sounded like a warning but before Khalilah could ask why, Cherry had already gone out through the door.
When she was done unpacking, she selected her nighties, and she shivered slightly when the cold air hit her skin, and then she remembered Cherry's warning, she held the window sash and closed it and then drew the curtains as well.
She picked out her towel went into the bathroom and soaked in the bathtub, she didn't do anything other than sleep in the tub filled with hot water, it was so convenient and nerve-soothing that she fell asleep in the tub.
She suddenly woke up again, but that was because she suddenly felt cold, she wiped the saliva that had fallen out of her mouth while she was asleep away. She felt her teeth clatter together, it was very cold. She reached for her towel and got out of the tub, the cold was coming from the room and when she got out she felt a very strange presence like someone was watching her from the shadows, she turned around and there was no one there.
It's not just the gust of wind.... or maybe it is because the windows were wide open and the wind was blowing the curtains like hell.
She could swear that she closed the windows before she went into the bathroom, is the lock bad? Or maybe she didn't lock them well? Hum probably… she held the sash and locked them again, this time waiting for a few seconds to make sure it was locked.
She changed into her pajamas and before she could even pray, she fell asleep.
"Urgh!" The frail old woman groaned in pain as she was being thrown to the floor by the tall figure of a man who towered menacingly in front of her, she hit the sides of her head on the table in her study.
The assailant was dressed heavily in a black cloak, and his face was hidden from the poor old woman, not once had they ever seen his face; but they knew it when he was around. His presence alone was such a fearful thing.
"Please have mercy, Lord Olive." His black boots came back into her vision, he was far from done with her but she hoped he wouldn't kick her again; there was just so little her old weak body could take.
"You're all making me run out of patience," he growled, his voice was deep and terrifying. It commands authority and respect; goose bumps peel out of the old woman's skin. "I said nothing when you refused to let me have your first granddaughter, it's even more annoying that you're leaving the youngest brat for me but now you say she isn't ready?" He laughed, a pained sardonic laugh, a kind that appears only in nightmares and darkness. "How dare you?"
"Forgive me, Your Majesty." The old lady squeals, her fragile body trembling, now she can see why her husband was always terrified of them, this is what he is forced to go through.
This was the reason he wanted to end the cursed blood pact… They are monsters!
"If this was it, you were supposed to educate her on the fact that she belongs to me as soon as she learned to speak!" His voice came back, even more still than before and she crawled towards him and held on his feet, her head bowed in both shame and fear. "How dare you hinder me because of your stupidity?"
"Just give me three days, Lord Olive. I promise—" He interrupted her with a kick to the head, she fell and rolled away from him.
"In three days I will come back for her, if she isn't ready even until then, I will kill all of you, when I say all of you, I mean every single god-dammed relative you have."
And he was gone just like the wind, just like the very same way he came; would it be wise to give such a young and foolish girl to an impatient and unkind monster such as himself? Maybe she could make the girl run away, she would do her best to shield and protect her, she scoffed at her uselessness, with what strength exactly would she be protecting the girl with? Right from the time they allowed Khalilah to come here, her fate has been decided, no, right from the time that she was born and chosen by her mother.
Rose-Anne got up, even if she ran to the depths of hell, Olive would come and he would find her.