Freedom

The cold wind hit my skin; I felt the grass and small branches I fell to. My breath took long stops between each inhale.

Mars stood a few feet away, his face full of sorrow. The runes that he used to stop Lilith's lance started melting and disappeared slowly. His hand looked normal again.

Mars ran his hand through his messy hair and looked at me. "I can't go with you, kid."

His words were just white noise, melting into the ambient sounds of the forest.

Leaves fall, birds chirp, water runs, and animals move in the shadows.

My gaze was still on my hands. They trembled, clenching them into fists; my knuckles became pure white.

I saw the black ring on my finger.

"Listen to me, Taro," Mars called out, his voice low. And his eyes were not looking at me directly. He took a step closer and started explaining, "What Conall did was absorb his father's power, which means I am now bound to him as well. I will be mad if someone doesn't help me; that's why I have to stay here. I am sorry that I am of no use..."

I didn't look up, my eyes still fixed on my fists. Conall's smile still flashed in my mind, over and over.

Mars let out a deep sigh. "This is no time for any one of us to stop. You have to keep moving, no matter what happens." Mars put his head inside his coat and pulled out a heavy wool-covered package. He tossed it near my legs, and I saw the package. "There's dried meat and bread in there; it should last you for a bit."

Mars pointed east. "Go forward from here and never stop; it should lead you to Carleone. It's a big city, so people won't suspect you or ask you where you came from. You can't stay here; everyone contracted with the Winfield family, and even other families will come and hunt you because you killed one of their heads."

I remained motionless.

"I am sorry, kid." Mars said, "We may not know each other, but our lives are connected for this brief moment, and I hope that whatever happens to you. You can find a life that you're happy about."

Mars turned around and began a long walk back to the mansion; his figure slowly blended in with the trees until he, and then the sound of his footsteps, vanished completely.

For a while, my body didn't move. The wind got stronger, lightly moving the package at my feet.

Then, with slow, stiff movements, I bent, and my fingers touched the rough wool. I picked it up; the package was light, yet it felt heavy in my hands.

I didn't turn to look where Mars had gone; I turned east and started walking slowly. My steps were so short that it felt like I was moving impossibly; I didn't know where I was going.

But I knew I had to keep moving.

In the cold dungeon, Eden sat in the far corner, her red dress torn and stained with dirt. She felt like something had happened but didn't know what; then the door to her cell opened, and the black-haired maid stood there.

"Since the previous lord died, you are free, Miss Eden," Lilith said, her voice weak.

Eden felt the thirst in her throat; she pushed herself to get up. Her legs still shaking, she walked to the iron door and stepped out of the prison she was living in.

She placed her slender palms against the bars she was in. Then she moved through the lower levels, ready to see the light again. She climbed the grand staircase in the main hallway of the mansion, seeing that at the top of the stairs, the door to the great hall was open.

It was where her father used to sit; she walked there and pushed the door open completely.

And she saw him. Conall sat on their father's high-backed chair, which looked like a throne. His black hair is now white, and his eyes are redder than ever.

On top of his head was a pitch-black halo that followed him around.

He pushed his head slowly up, seeing his sister. Then a smile formed on his face. "Eden, you are awake. I was about to come personally; I guess Lilith did it for me."

Eden took a step back and looked at him. "What have you done?" Her voice was devoid of emotion.

"I did what Father was going to do with me," Conall replied, his tone casual. "So, in short, he's gone. I am the new Lord Winfield."

Silence filled the air; Eden didn't know what to say. Her stupid, oblivious brother... he had done this?

Conall killed the monster that was their father.

"You..." She tried to talk, but words didn't want to come out. She felt the bruises on her body and the memories of her father's contracts.

She should feel relief. Joy, even.

But when she looked at her brother, she saw their father's gaze staring back at her. The realization was more terrifying than the man himself had ever been.

"And Taro?" She asked. The image of him coming to her cell still in her mind, she wanted to talk to him and see him again. "Where's he?"

Conall's expression didn't change. "The hero. Sadly, I needed him to be the one to take the reverse death for me. And he did, just like a true friend. Thanks to him, we're free."

The disgust in Eden's stomach spread like a virus, as she couldn't control her expression. Conall made Taro the target of all great vampire families, which include most undead that work under them.

The quiet, strange, kind boy who only wanted to understand what he was.

Eden looked at her brother on the throne. She didn't want to blame him, since she knew the life he had lived all this time. Yet, there had to be another way.

Eden didn't say a word; she only turned around.

"Where are you going? I am calling all the families to inform them that someone killed Father; you have to be present." Conall's voice was commanding; Eden felt like turning around and obeying him instantly.

But Eden didn't. "I am going to find him." She said, her voice dead.

She walked out of the hall, leaving Conall alone with the knights around him. She didn't want to follow her family or do any contract anymore.

She would save the one person who had tried to save her.

I walked.

I felt the dirt beneath my boots; I stepped on a twig. And the snap was the loudest thing in the world.

I saw a deer watching me from between the trees, its eyes locked onto me. The deer eventually moved, disappearing into the darkness.

I followed the river; the constant flow was a relaxing sound. I knelt at the edge and splashed the cold water on my face. I looked at my reflection. A stranger, with dead orange eyes and pale skin, was there.

I unwrapped the package from Mars and started eating. The bread was hard, and the meat was tough and salty. But I continued eating; it was my body commanding me. Chew, swallow, breathe.

The days blurred into one another. The sun rose and fell. I walked. I saw everything as a watercolor painting, moving slowly. I slept when my feet gave up, and I moved the moment I woke up.

Then I saw buildings; smoke came out of chimneys. I heard people talking faintly, dogs barking, and laughs. It felt like another world entirely.

I walked inside, with nobody caring about me.

Rain fell heavily on the ground; it made a chaotic sound that kept on going. So I took shelter under a small underpass. My back to the stone wall.

Carriages kept going and coming, and I closed my eyes.

I saw Dorothea as she cooked a warm meal for me. Away from the cold nights.

I saw Conall, holding a ring out to me. It will help me learn magic.

I saw Eden biting my arms. Tears mixed with blood.

I saw Mars, looking at me with a face full of pity. Not sure if it was pointed at me or at him.

I saw Lilith making a meal with me. In a calm kitchen with a music box playing in the background. Telling him he shouldn't hide his undead nature.

Tears fell down, mixed with rain. I opened my eyes, not sure where the pain was coming from; however, it was there.

A heavy ache in my chest and head. I raised my right hand and took off the glove slowly.

And looked at the scar I got from hitting Dane back then. Seeing the black ring that I can't take out.

I extended my hand and felt the mana around me using it. For a moment, the rain was stuck in place.

For a single, silent moment, the world didn't say anything. The rain hung suspended in the air. Then, reality crashed back in, and the downpour resumed.

Maybe this was the nature of us all.

Back at the mansion, Lilith moved through the silent corridors. A feather duster in her hand. Her movements were precise, exactly as they had always been. She dusted a portrait of the old Lord Winfield, her expression calm.

She passed the grand doors to the hall, where Eden had fled from the new family head.

Lilith's lavender eyes locked toward the door for a fraction of a second; it was almost nonexistent. Then she continued on. Her contract remained; she served the house—that was her nature.

Her reason to exist.

A week after the assassination, a carriage bearing the crest of the Albescu family—a single silver fang between two large gates—arrived at the Winfield Mansion.

Arriving at the gates of Winfield Mansion. The spirits guarding the entrance opened the way without a word.

A middle-aged man with sharp features, a black suit, and a short beard was escorted into the great hall. He was a messenger, a high-ranking human servant of Lord Albescu.

He stopped a respectful distance from the throne and bowed low.

Conall looked down at him; his halo was gone, and his hair was back to black. Yet the energy around him was different; people who looked at or were around him felt like obeying him instantly.

"Lord Winfield," the messenger's smooth voice stated.

Conall smiled.

The messenger nodded, his eyes moving around the empty hall. "Lord Albescu sends his regards. He had heard of the misfortune that had happened here."

Conall leaned forward, his red eyes pinned on the man. "Yes, what happened is true. Someone killed Father."

The messenger's face didn't change as he waited.

"The person who killed him was a young man around my age, an unknown undead," Conall explained, his voice cold. "He infiltrated our home, faking his weakness. Then manipulated me and my sister and attacked my father with an unknown magic." Conall paused, letting out a smile. "I dealt with him, but he's still out there alive."

Conall leaned back in his throne, his expression shifting into a mask of grief. "Inform Abescu that the Winfield family is secure, and I took the responsibility as the new head. And that there should be an investigation around all the other families; I suspect that one of them sent the assassin."

The messenger bowed even lower. "I will deliver your message, my lord. The five families will mourn the loss of your father. And they will recognize the strength of his son. And we will make sure that all the families will be on the hunt for the person responsible."

"Make sure they do," Conall said, dismissing the messenger with a wave of his hand.

The messenger backed away, not turning his back on the new lord. Then I was escorted out of the hall.

Conall looked at his own pale white hands. And a small smile was still on his face.

This was freedom.