After some time, he caught Milo who was the one who had first brought up about the butler not being a.s.signed in here on his first day.
"Milo," Lucas called the young human who had been stacking the hay for the horses in the shed.
"Yes, Sir," Milo answered the butler, leaving the hay that he had picked up to dust his hands and walked towards the butler.
"How long have you been working for the Adams family again?" he asked the human.
"Ah, I guess two or three years?" Milo answered him right away.
Lucas gave a blank look that made the human question back, "Is everything alright?"
"Yes. I was wondering how many butlers have worked for Adams so far," though people were not willing to speak about it, it had made Lucas extremely curious. Wanting to know what had transpired four months ago.
Milo gave a thoughtful look before saying, "Must be four to five of them."
"Why?" Lucas raised his eyebrows in surprise. Four to five was too many in the span of three years. It was because with what he had seen so far, butlers often stuck to a family for more than six to seven years..unless they died, "Are the Adams' unbearable to work with? They seem like good folks."
The young boy's eyes looked away from the butler, "Something very bad keeps happening in here. I mean to the butlers."
"Like what?" Lucas coaxed the boy with a gentle tone. The boy looked torn, wanting to and not wanting to let the butler know about it, "I promise to keep it a secret," he added, giving the boy a solemn look.
The boy's eyes darted around everywhere before it came to settle on Lucas' face, "The Adams doesn't have anything to do with it but every butler who has come to work here. They have mysteriously died. I think they are worried that it might continue to repeat."
Lucas didn't appear to be shocked or he didn't look at Milo with a surprised look. Instead, he appeared to look calm, "Did they find out why?" he asked the boy.
Was the butler not worried about dying?
Most of the butlers who knew about it often didn't appear for an interview. One butler had also come to the mansion and after a maid had slipped this little information, he had packed his luggage that night and had escaped from the mansion to never return back again.
He shook his head, "We servants don't know about it. We weren't told what was going on, except that the butlers have died...gruesomely with their head being torn away from their body," his eyebrows scrunched as he said this.
Butler dying? Why? Asked Lucas to himself. He took in more information from the boy before saying, "Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me," he patted the boy's back who staggered with the impact, "My bad," he apologized with a polite smile on his face.
The young boy then asked, "You won't be packing your bags?"
"For what?"
"To run away," Milo said to the handsome butler who was standing in front of him.
The butler gave him a smile to say, "n.o.body can kill me. Carry on with your work," he said leaving the shed to have the boy stare at him.
Lucas had not taken a soul back to the gates as he had been on vacation. With no work to do where he had to pick the soul and hear them whining about how they didn't want to die while they were already dead, he was glad to have this break where he could stretch his arms and legs around that he hadn't done in a long while.
He could finally take a break from those annoying souls, thought Lucas to himself. His patience often ran thin as at times he barely had any and there were times where he had left the souls to wander by themselves before he decided to pick them up or drag them with him. Lucas could barely remember how many years it had been since he had started to work as a grim reaper. The land and the world he came from was grim and dark, quiet in a few places, and some places where distant cries could be heard.
Butlers being targeted, it was interesting. Being the next possible target, Lucas couldn't wait to see what would happen. He was bored and he needed some entertainment.
When Lucas got back inside and went close to Belle's room, he heard the girl scream. Wondering what happened, he took long strides to reach her room and see she was hugging the ragged stuffed toy.
"Mr. Fluffs came back, Lucas," she said looking at her butler.
Of course, he knew that because he was the one who placed it back in her room. He had placed it last night after she had fallen asleep and she was seeing it now? For a vampire, this one wasn't very bright.
"That is good news, Miss Belle," Lucas answered the girl.
"Would you like to come to have tea with us?" little Belle asked him.
"Unfortunately I have work to do but maybe sometime later?" he asked her and she gave him a nod. Not stepping away from the door, he suggested, "Why don't you ask Miss Jill to come and play?" Jill was Mr. and Mrs. Harriet's daughter who was the acquaintance of Admas. He remembered another name, "There's also Grace."
Belle pursed her lips and went to her bed with her back facing the butler, "That's alright. Maybe later," she said playing with the rabbit that was in her hands.
Little Belle sat on the edge of her bed holding Mr. Fluffs in her hand. She was alright to play by herself and didn't want the other girls to come. Things never went well when they were around. Though she was young, some parts of her memories were fresh and she stopped her from moving forward when there were people around her. People she wasn't comfortable with.
'What is she doing with that thing?' asked one girl and the other children laughed at her.
'You need to throw that thing away. It looks ugly,' said another girl before Mr. Fluffs had been torn away from her hand and one of the children had pulled out his eye.
Of course, Belle had not stood there and she had fought physically with the girls that ended with her hands and face bruised along with the other two girls. She looked at Mr. Fluffs, a small smile coming to form on her lips, "Welcome back, Mr. Fluffs," she said, hugging him.
A few days pa.s.sed by and Lucas had somehow managed to find a job for the butler. Giving the original butler who was supposed to be working in his place another mansion's address who was in need of a butler. Lucas often waited late at night for everyone to sleep so that he could walk around the house by himself, waiting for someone to attack him but nothing happened.
And though the man knew a lot of things, there was something he didn't know going in the mansion. That the food he was eating was poisoned which the other person who wanted to kill the butler was daily mixing in his food.
What the other person didn't know was that the poison didn't affect the butler. The dose of the poison had been increased but the butler appeared healthy. Daily making his rounds around the mansion.
One night, Bell woke up from her sleep. Thirsty and wanting to drink water, the little girl got out of her bed while holding Mr. Fluffs arm to step out of the room by dragging the rabbit along with her.
As it was the time of midnight, the candles that were burning brightly had dimmed down and the corridors of the mansion had turned darker with the time touching midnight and continuing to spend the night in darkness.
The little girl didn't mind it or didn't take it into account as she was sleepy. With her eyes not completely opened, she almost sleepwalked with Mr. Fluffs who was now gliding on the smooth marble floor.
She walked down the stairs and then to the large dining room. While Belle was in here, fetching herself a gla.s.s of water as she stepped on the chair and reached for the jug of water that was placed at the center, the butler was walking on the other side of the mansion. Belle took the gla.s.s and placed it in front of her that clinked against the surface of the table. Picking up the jug with both of her hands, she poured the water and then started to drink from the gla.s.s. Once she was done drinking it, she placed the gla.s.s back but before she could step down from the chair, little Belle faced a creature that stood facing her in close proximity.
The creature looked like a corpse that was at least twenty years old that had no skin, no eyeb.a.l.l.s, and no teeth as it opened its mouth. It had small wings that looked like a bat's wings attached to its back.
Belle opened her mouth to scream but no voice came out. The creature started to suck her soul little by little as if it was feeding on her.
In time, Lucas caught sight of the creature and he waved his hand to push the creature away from the girl. As if out of energy, the girl fell unconscious on the ground. The creature tried to get to the girl but Lucas quickly pushed the creature against the wall by its neck, his fingers digging in deep enough to bring the face he had come to be familiar with in this household.
"Well, look who we have here," Lucas looked at the young boy named Milo who was struggling to free himself from the butler's hand.
