Music Recommendation: Chiyo's Prayer- John Williams
Rosetta, who could hear Eugene's breathing, used it to divert her attention from the darkness. She said, "Let me try to open the door. Maybe it is only stuck. Else I can break it open."
Eugene heard Rosetta shift in her seat before she stood on her feet as he listened to her footsteps against the marble floor. "I don't think it will be easy to explain to others why you were here with me, or why I broke it, Lady Rosetta," he stated.
Though Rosetta's heart was beating loudly, as she still felt suffocated in this place, she moved her hands in front of her before feeling the wooden door. She excitedly said, "I found the door, Eugene!"
"Good work, Lady Rosetta. But do not break the door," Eugene warned her.
"Okay..." Rosetta tried to turn the doorknob in every possible way she knew she could. But even though a good two minutes passed, she couldn't open the door.
"If no one comes for us, the only way to get out is to break the door open, isn't it?" Rosetta asked.
There had been times in the past when the servants of her mansion and her parents left her for hours, even hungry, until the following day, she was let out, mostly unconscious as she would have fainted.
"They will find us, milady. Miss Eve isn't someone who will not look for us. You have my word on it," Eugene assured the vampiress, who sounded dejected. "She won't leave you behind."
It wasn't that Rosetta didn't realise the kind of person Eve was, but hearing it out loud and knowing there was someone looking for her made her happy. She said, "Eugene."
"Yes, milady?"
"I am so happy to have met you all. To have come here to Skellington even though initially I came here only to get away from my parents' controlling hand. So that I could see the world and make friends, and I am happy that I came across all of you," Rosetta smiled as she leaned against the wooden door. "I never would have come to Skellington. I wanted to go to my distant relatives' home, where my parents would have less control of me."
Eugene took a moment before he uttered, "I am sure Miss Eve and the rest feel the same."
Rosetta smiled in the dark.
Before coming to Skellington, her life had been monotonous and mundane. She was Marquee Walter and Marchioness Aurora Hooke's daughter, that was all she was. She had been reduced to it since she was small, but after meeting Eve, she knew she could be something else. Maybe not a governess, but choose a path she carved for herself and not what her parents wanted her to walk in.
"Thank you for your kind words, Eugene. They mean more than you would know," Rosetta spoke softly in the dark.
In his life, Eugene had come across plenty of men and women of high society. Their families were wealthy who came from high-status or old and powerful bloodlines. And though one would think that they had everything, most of them were trapped in a cage. Either by responsibilities or their choices that had been puppeteered when they were children.
This was one of the reasons Eugene found himself to be on the fortunate side of life. Even though he was a servant, he still could choose for himself.
"You still have a choice, Lady Rosetta," Eugene said to her. "If it is what you really want and have set your mind, remember that it will be hard. One without luxury, you will be leaving your old life."
"I told you I would leave it all behind. I want to find the happiness that the wealthy can't find," Rosetta murmured the last words.
There was a time when Rosetta enjoyed being the daughter of highly positioned parents, who were close to the King and the Queen. But as she grew up, the emptiness grew in her heart, which she replaced with her own view.
Silence filled the room, and Eugene said, "A vampiress is often suited to be with a vampire."
"Is that your way of rejecting me, Eugene?" Came the quick question from Rosetta. A small frown appeared on her face.
She then heard Eugene reply, "I am stating facts and compatibility, milady. A human is better suited with a human. It is true that a vampire and a human are better, when it comes to protecting, but the nature of who they are, will always come between them."
"Do you not approve of Eve and Vincent's relationship?" Rosetta asked him.
"You seem to speak better in the presence of darkness compared to when there's light," Eugene noted, and Rosetta, who heard this, her cheeks suddenly turned red, which the human couldn't see. With only their thoughts being heard, there was no barrier between them. He said, "Mr. Moriarty and Miss Eve's relationship is different. Their elders approve, but yours won't. They will hunt the person."
"I will protect you with my life, Eugene," Rosetta promised him earnestly. "My parents are only trying to use me... for their own gain. The more time I spend with them, the more I draw away from them, where I am failing to connect to them. And... I am tired of having to prove, knowing it will never be enough and in the end I will be blamed for it. There was a time when I wanted to marry someone of great status and position, someone who would be good looking."
"But now you don't," Eugene said, to which Rosetta nodded.
Rosetta didn't answer immediately. She said, "In the world where people were kind to me only because they wanted to gain something, the person made me feel that I was worth being offered kindness. I met someone who made me feel that I could be liked despite my flaws. That person was you Eugene."
"You think too highly of me, Lady Rosetta. There are plenty of people who could have done what I did," Eugene reasoned with the vampiress.
The vampiress nodded, "Maybe. Maybe you are right, but out of everyone, I was destined to meet you. That out of everyone, it was you who offered me something I have always wanted. I don't need a boat of treasures."
Her words sank in Eugene's mind, seeing her be someone who craved love and acceptance. He had done what anyone would have done for her that night, but his actions and words had left a deep impact that no other good-looking or wealthy man had left.
Eugene asked Rosetta, "You are a silly woman, Lady Rosetta." Even women from Meadow would think twice about him, especially if he used 'Eggs' as his last name.
Rosetta's eyebrows rose, "Why do you say that?" she asked him.
While Rosetta wondered what Eugene must be thinking, as she couldn't gauge because of the darkness that surrounded them, suddenly she felt something crawl on her back. Her eyes widened, remembering there was another spider in this room. She shrieked,
"AH! The spider is on my back!" But it wasn't the spider, but it was a rope's end that was hanging from the wall that had touched her back.
Eugene quickly stood up, wanting to help her. But in darkness, it resulted in them crashing into each other and falling to the ground.
Hearing Rosetta's shriek and crashing sound coming from inside the room, Eve and Timotei heard it in the corridor. Eve pointed ahead of her, "They are here!"
"I told you that you can always rely on my sharp nose," the black cat boasted. When Eve opened the room's door, their eyes fell on where Eugene was on top of Rosetta on the ground. "It seems like they didn't need our help," he coughed.
