In the servant's quarters, Adam looked back and forth before knocking the room inside where Mr. Briggs was. Vincent's coachman opened the door and asked, "What is it, Adam?"
"Briggs, how long are we staying in this place?" Adam looked frightened, and his eyes were wide.
"Master Vincent hasn't mentioned anything about how long we are going to be staying here. It might be two days or it could be a week," Mr. Briggs replied to the young man. "As Lady Marceline is not going to be around until later, you will have to follow Master Vincent until we return to Skellington. Go rest now, consider it to be a holiday."
Holiday? Adam asked himself hysterically. For him, this place looked nothing less than a horror house. Every time he came across the brooding housekeeper in the past few hours, his heart slipped a little away from his chest. Gulping down the nervousness, he asked,
"Mr. Briggs, I think I left my bag in the carriage. Would you like to accompany me there?" It was because he was scared to walk all alone at this hour of the night.
"I am rather tired now and I am going to sleep. Don't mind me and go ahead. You know where the shed is?" Mr. Briggs asked. When Marceline's coachman nodded, Mr. Briggs closed the door, leaving Adams alone in the corridor.
Adam gulped and then went near his room. But it was cold, and he didn't want to go and ask the housekeeper. He wanted to get his jumper to keep himself warm. Taking a deep breath, he made his way outside the castle with a lantern in his hand and reached the shed.
"I hope Lady Marceline doesn't kill me once she comes out," he muttered under his breath.
Cold air drifted across the land, sweeping through the Moriarty castle in Holy Oak, and the coachman outside the castle shivered in his skin. He tried to pull out his small trunk tied behind the carriage. He placed the lantern on one side before he untied his little trunk, opened it, and pulled out his jumper. And while the servant was doing that, something not far away from the carriage moved, and he caught the movement from the corner of his eyes.
Adam quickly looked left and right and in time caught sight of the creature's shadow that was as big as him. He started to sweat profusely, and his heart shook when the creature's shadow moved closer to him. He noticed the creature's shadow open its mouth and growl, and he jumped, "Werewolf! There's a werewolf in here!"
As the servant started to run to save his life, he heard the lantern crash against the ground and the flame fizzle out.
"Werewolf!!!" Adam shouted, disappearing inside the castle-like mansion.
In the meantime, the creature of the shadow stepped out and after growling and said, "Damn, rats! It's like they know I am here!"
While Vincent, Eve and Marceline left Moriarty mansion, without anyone's knowledge, Timotei had gotten into the empty carriage with only luggage and had slept like a King. Just the life he deserved, the black cat thought to itself.
Timotei, who had stepped out of the carriage a few minutes ago, had ended up with the company of a rat. He dusted his body. He huffed, "Whose brave? I am brave!" The coachman had scared Timotei with his scream, which had later resulted in the black cat knocking the lantern on the ground when the coachman ran away.
He walked away from the carriage and stretched his body backwards before a yawn escaped his mouth. His whiskers moved, and he said, "That was some good sleep I have had in years."
When Timotei's eyes fell on the place in front of him, he huffed, "Such a big place. It has been waiting for me to enter. Maybe I will prowl in the kitchen before taking another nap." The black cat's paws pushed on the ground, as it went inside the place.
Inside the castle-like place, Vincent and Eve stepped in front of a double-door that was carved in black wood. These were the chambers built underground, keeping the temperature colder than the temperature outside.
"Let me have you meet the rest of the Moriarty family," Vincent offered her a crooked smile before pushing the doors open with both hands.
When they entered the chamber, Eve noticed coffins lying on separate tables. In each coffin lay a vampire or vampiress, and there were three coffins in there. A sheath of glass covered the coffins and connected to a pipe that was fixed to the walls.
"Are they alive?" Eve asked with a slight anxiousness.
"With the right amount of blood given to them, they will come back to life. Some of the old vampires and vampiress belonging to the pureblood families, who like to die after a while, and there are some who like to take a long slumber by preserving themselves. Some are forced into it," Vincent explained to Eve. When Eve turned, he said, "When you have a love and hate relationship with your family members, you end up having to force them to sleep."
Eve stood next to a young woman, and Vincent came to stand next to her. He said, "This is great aunt Gretchen. It has been told to not awaken her, because she likes to kill her family members. Us."
"What?" Eve asked with her eyebrows raising, and Vincent waved his hand.
"It's fine until she stays asleep. Some of the pureblooded vampires consider killing family members a curse, so they use this method," Vincent said, moving to the next coffin, and Eve followed him. "Here we have grandmother. She could be considered one of the people in causing Marceline the way she is. Mother once found dear grandmother hitting dear sister to school her to bring her to line. When things got too far, she was forced to take the coffin."
That was two out of three coffins that were forced to slumber. Eve asked him, "What about him? Was he forced too?"
"Grandfather?" Vincent asked, walking to the last coffin, and he smiled. "No, he went there voluntarily."
* * *
Author's Note: There will be no update from 8th March to 16th March as I am travelling to Hong Kong for Webnovel event. Updates will resume to normal after 17th March. Thank you for your patience.
