Bride of the moonlight

CHAPTER 5 ✓

Days turned into weeks since I was kidnapped, and every second seemed to

drag. I more often than not found myself sat on the balcony staring emptily at

the forest below. I wondered what it'd be like down there. I'd have begged Celine to go check it out with me, and after much protestation from her end, she'd go with me... or maybe not if she knew what would happen to her. She was really gone...

I could've, in theory, ran away but I didn't know where I was or where I'd

even go. I'm not familiar with this either.

I'd maybe be in deeper trouble if I went to the police and told them I'd been kidnapped. It would likely get covered up in some sort of 'strange conspiracy' which ended up with me 'missing' again or straight-up dead this time.

There was knocking sound to my left, and I saw Phoveous stood there. It was

the first time I'd seen him for around a week. I supposed as a prince he had

other duties to attend to.

I could feel his gaze drilling through the side of my skull but I didn't look in

his direction.

"Are you okay?" He asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the ambience.

I didn't answer his stupid question. How am I supposed to be okay in this situation? I was anything but empty! How could this guy ask me that, like I hadn't been taken against my will, and like I didn't watch my best friend her breath? Claiming to be royalty was one

thing, but vampires another! What kind of crazy people had I been kidnapped by?

There was a strange crow on the railing of the balcony. It stood sideways so I

knew it was staring directly at me. Creepy. It sent shivers down my spine, it

seemed as if it knew everything about me, staring daggers right through my

soul. They were evil birds, they looked majestic, but any bird that could

remember faces and have its little bird friends attack people was demonic,

This one was no exception to the rules.

It squawked and hopped along the floor over to Phoveous, who then perched it on his lower arm.

"This is my message crow. I call him Danzel" He informed me while taking a small rolled up piece of paper from the ankle of the crow, "my friend seems to be having a party in a couple of weeks. News has travelled fast about you."

Again, these people acted like my friend wasn't dead. When was I going to bury her? Could I attend her funeral? I couldn't possibly be thinking about

going to a party, not now and not any time soon! I was mourning, and the

the least they could do was leave me to do that.

"You're going to need some new clothes."

This might be my biggest chance to escape this NIGHTMARE.

"Shopping?" I asked incredulously. This was all out of the blue: a party, shopping, I still didn't know these people, I didn't know this place and I was still confused as to what was happening. These people were merrily planning activities for me like I was at a summer camp, as opposed to thinking about the fact that my best friend was dead!

"Well yeah. Unless you want me to choose your clothes for you?" He said casually.

I shook my head silently, unsure if he was joking or being serious, The crow was staring at me again. I kept getting the sensation that it was going to gauge my eyes out with its enormous beak. I turned my head away, breaking its hungry gaze.

"Why does that thing keep staring at me?"

"He likes you. Lucky," he chuckled,

"otherwise he would've poked your eyes

out by now."

"P..poke? How many people did it poke?"

Should I kill that crawl right now?

"Many."

"W..what?!"

"But that was before… Way...way longer than you expect."

I cringed at the thought. The prince lifted his arm as a signal for the crow to fly off, but he flew straight onto my shoulder and stared directly at me from there instead. I froze up, I didn't trust crows. I was petrified of them. Their beaks were too big for their body proportion. It squawked again and I screamed brushing it away from

me.

Phoveous smiled. "See. No harm done."

He then wrote something down on the note from the crow, put it back in its little pouch, and sent it away. Lemiela walked in whilst beaming.

"Dinner is ready in an hour. So Hera,

you may uh, wanna wash and stuff." She made a hissing sound that was shorter and sounded different to the one Phoveous made when he called for

Hanz.

"Yes, miss?" A girl in a French maid outfit appeared from nowhere at the doorway. She bowed at Phoveous before turning her attention to Lemiela. I don't think she was there before. Or if she was, I never noticed.

"Help Hera get ready; show her how everything works and whatnot. Then

take her to my room where she can choose a nice dress, please." Lemiela

politely ordered.

"Yes, miss," the maid responded obediently. Again, she bowed at Phoveous just before leaving and then signalled for me to go follow her. Lemiela shooed Phoveous out of the room and then escorted herself out.

I followed her to the bathroom, a door a little further down my room that was

out of my line of sight due to an empty bookshelf being next to it.

In the shower I washed my hair, I probably shouldn't have because I didn't

know what products these people had here but I had and I never asked. As

soon as I had a coherent plan, I was going to get out. It should've been the

perfect time to conjure up a plan, but my mind was completely blank. That's

how it'd been since I found myself at the castle.

The maid handed me a bathrobe and a towel for my hair and then led me to

Lemiela's room. The maid stood me in the middle of the room and began to

dry me off. I stood awkwardly and tried to think of anything else besides me being stood stark naked in front of a stranger in the middle of a stranger's

room. Anyone could walk in and all would be on for show.

The maid sat me at the dressing table and after blow-drying my hair, she French braided it.

"One second, Miss." She disappeared into a room leading off from Lemiela's

peeking out every so often to look at me then shaking her head, I was curious

as to what she was doing there.

"Ah, perfect!" She came out with a long

copper coloured slip dress with matching heels, "Are you OK in heels, Miss?"

"Y-yeah?" I responded. The nerves settling themselves comfortably in my

stomachs were telling me otherwise. None of this was normal and everything

felt too soon.

She nodded and hurried me to put the dress and shoes on and then put my

make up on, I was beginning to look so different. Then the maid did my hair-

well, she just undid the braid and ran through the curls with her fingers.

Clearly, she knew what she was doing. As the last few touches, she put a silver choker around my neck and matching earrings.

"So what do you think, Miss? Does it suit your liking?" I nodded and thanked her. The maid smiled and made follow her to a room that was possibly the same size as my house. The dining room. Never had seen a ceiling so high, or a single wall so wide, nor a room so beautiful. Only when my eyes finally made it down from the patterned ceiling to the painting filled wall, did I notice the dinner table with Phoveous, Lemiela, Hanz, Lanz and a rather grey-haired man, who looked to be in his early fifties.

I swallowed hard, they were all staring at me. The ground may well have disappeared beneath my feet as a mild tremor set in.

Lemiela smiled and patted the seat in between her and Phoveous. I hesitantly walked over and took my seat, the old man eyed me curiously before nodding his head in satisfaction. The gold crown on his head suggested clearly that he was the King.

"So, what is your name?" He asked me flatly.

"Hera," I answered in the same tone while taking my seat.

Hanz whispered something to his brother and laughed, and looked to me

while doing so. I didn't react and simply turned my reaction back to the grey-

haired man at the top of the table.

"Your full name," the king said. He already didn't sound impressed. But did i

care? Soon I would be gone, one way or another.

"HERA VY ROSENBERG."

"An elegant name," he thought aloud.

All through dinner I was being asked all sorts of questions and being taught

all the rules and the history of this place. I felt awkward, I was just trying to

eat, but being surrounded by so many strangers was so overwhelming that I

barely ate anything. I had just about finished my starters and I had to turn

down dessert for fear I'd throw up again. All in all, it was a pretty long dinner.

The king seemed to have eased up onto me and seemed a lot friendlier than

he did when I entered. Towards the end of dinner, the King suggested that

Phoveous should take me on a tour of the castle so I could try and get my

bearings, as this would become my new home. He nodded and led me out

the opposite side of the dining room.

The castle seemed a lot cleaner than I expected Phoveous warned me of some off limited parts of the castle, all the hallways leading to them seemed

to have engulfed all the light that was ever there.

"Vamps only,"I remember him saying. The tour lasted at least an hour, he told me in my free time that I should explore the castle some more. In the end, he had called a maid to take me somewhere special and 'mark me' whatever that meant. I'd spent a lot of time by myself mostly in my room since my arrival and

didn't have any intentions of changing that. Everything was still so strange, it

felt so wrong being here, with everyone bar Hanz strangely behaving cordially towards me. Every day I woke up, remembering what happened and why I was at the castle. I had no one to talk to. I didn't feel like I deserved to be here, and I definitely didn't deserve help.