NIGHTS OF HALLOW
Chapter 179: Pending Disaster

Chapter 179: Pending Disaster

Emily still sat on the ground inside Perdita’s room, grieving the predicament she found herself in when she heard a knock on the door.

Wiping her tear-streaked face clean with the back of her dress, she stood up and went for the door. Outside the door stood, Maria, another maid who gave a slight bow to her fellow maid and Emily returned it with hers.

"Are you okay, Emily?" Maria inquired, noticing the distant look on Emily’s face.

Emily smiled and gave a stiff nod to Maria’s question. "I am fine, Maria. Is there any problem?"

"Ah, yes, I mean no, not exactly but Lady Rosamonda has called for you." Maria relayed the message, her eyes silently gauging Emily’s behavior. Something told her that all was not well, but then she decided not to probe too much. Emily has been someone who liked to keep to herself all the time since she came to work in the castle. She barely spoke to anyone.

"Okay," Emily mumbled, her heart skipping a fearful beat in her chest. She knew Lady Rosamonda was going to call her. What she prayed for was to be kept alive.

Emily closed the door behind her and began to walk with Maria beside her.

Maria whispered in a low voice afraid someone else would hear her, "Lady Rosamonda appeared quite angry, hope you didn’t do anything to warrant punishment from her?"

"What?" Emily feigned ignorance, meanwhile, the wild beating of her heart betrayed the courageous look she wore. "Of course, not. I didn’t do anything."

"Well—" Maria shrugged her shoulder with an understanding look on her face. "I will ask you to be very careful though. You know what I mean, Emily. See you later." Maria said before departing in another direction.

Of course, she knew what Maria was implying. These royal family members all had some loose nuts in their heads and no one knew when one of the loose ones would go off totally. Only the heavens will save her from the rage of this Vampiress royalty.

Reaching the Chambers of Lady Rosamonda, one of Rosamonda’s maids standing outside the door announced the arrival of Emily.

Hearing the approval to go in from the inside, Emily took a deep breath before stepping inside the furnished chamber of Lady Rosamonda.

"Greetings, Lady Rosamonda." Emily bowed at the pureblooded Vampiress who was leisurely drinking the blood tea in her front.

Rosamonda took her own sweet time stirring the blood tea, the movement of her hand filled with elegance. She went on to take sips of the blood tea before she finally lifted her gaze towards the still and standing Emily.

"I heard from, Theresa, that you accomplished what I asked you to do with competence and grace. Is that so?"

Emily’s hands intertwined at her back twisted themselves as she nervously wrung her hands together. The sarcasm laced with the question of the Vampiress didn’t go unnoticed by her.

She quickly went on her knees and hastily spoke in a dreadful voice, "Please, spare me, My Lady. I—I tried but..."

"But you were so stupid to successfully do a simple task of serving her the drink!" Rosamonda slammed her hand angrily on the small table in front of her, causing the blood tea to spill.

"My apologies, My Lady." Emily continued, her head still bowed. "I tried b—but the King was already in the room with her. I didn’t know he would be there."

"That doesn’t explain why she didn’t drink it, dimwit! Did the king order you not to serve the juice to her?" Rosamonda questioned in a hard voice. Her voice barely concealed the rage that boiled within her because her plan did not go as planned.

Emily’s stressed and fragile body shuddered in fear as she weakly replied, "N—no, My Lady. He didn’t stop me from serving her the drink. H—is Majesty took the drink from me and drank it instead." Emily quickly explained lest the Vampiress threw more questions at her which she might not be able to provide the answer to.

"You all are just so incompetent!" Rosamonda suddenly threw the glass cup in her hand at Emily.

The glass cup shattered on the body of Emily where some sharp tips of the glass stuck into her skin. The pain from the sharp tips of the glass pierced into the heart of the maid as blood slowly slipped from the open wounds which were majorly on her exposed left arm. One had flown upwards and had cut her left cheek, the wound deeper than the ones on her arm.

Rosamonda unbothered by what she did to the maid continued to speak with the rage burning inside her, "If the king was not in the room, would you have given it to her?"

"M—my Lady?" Emily stuttered in confusion, the pain clouding her senses. She stifled the whimper of cry that wanted to escape her lips. Her cheeks still burned from the pain of the glass tip inside her skin where blood continued to spill from.

"Answer my question, you darn maid!" Rosamonda demanded, her red eyes darkening with every passing second.

"I—I" Emily stammered once again, unable to provide the desired answer to the Vampiress. How can she do such a thing as poisoning her Lady? Even if she was presented with a thousand gold coins, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

But why was the Lady hell-bent on poisoning Lady Perdita? Emily internally questioned herself not understanding the puzzle behind Rosamonda’s agenda. Lady Perdita was not troubling anyone in the castle after all. So why such a hate towards her?

"You wouldn’t do it, right?" Rosamonda snickered with a dark chuckle, her red eyes twinkling with an evil glint in them. "Why blame the presence of the King in the room when you know you cannot do it? I knew you were going to be useless after all. Should have asked another maid to do it."

Please do! Emily screamed in her head. Find another maid to do it. Please, leave me out of your wicked schemes! Emily in her kneeling position heard Rosamonda stand from the couch she sat on and walked towards her.

Rosamonda ordered, "Stand on your feet!"

Emily without wasting a second stood up with her head still bowed. Her light brown eyes fearfully darted around the floor as she didn’t know what more the Vampiress was planning to do to her.

"Do you know why I chose you to do the job?" Rosamonda questioned, her glare on the maid reflecting the anger in her body.

Emily shook her head to a no. She couldn’t bring herself to speak as fear had clouded her mind.

"Words, you lowly thing. You are only dumb but not a lizard." Rosamonda barked at her.

"N—no, My Lady. I—I don’t know why you chose me." Emily’s voice quivered with each word she spoke. Her shaking legs barely prevented her body from falling to the ground. In her mind, she screamed to know why Rosamonda had chosen to turn her life in the castle miserable.

Rosamonda gritted her teeth in anger, her hands clenched by her sides just remembering Perdita who had decided to be torn in her flesh since the few months she had come to live in the castle. The reason why she wanted her dead was unknown as she had plotted her evil thoughts in her head alone.

She turned to the petrified maid standing before her and went on to vent her frustration on her, "The reason why I choose you should have been clear to you, dimwit. It is because you are the only one she seems to talk to in this castle among all the other maids. She is always reserved and wouldn’t take anything from any other person."

"So you see?" Rosamonda quizzed in an angry voice. "You see why you are the target. In as much as I had wanted to snap your stupid head the instant you walked into this room, I can’t, because the mission remains unaccomplished."

The Vampiress had wanted to kill her? Emily shuddered in fear.

Rosamonda cupped Emily’s face with her palm, gently at first, but as her lips stretched into a wide unnerving smile, she tightened her grip on Emily’s cheeks, deliberately pressing on the sharp tip of the glass inside Emily’s skin, causing it to move in more than before.

Emily tightly shut her eyes as the sharp pain of the glass caused by Rosamonda pressing on it left her breathless as the pain shot through her whole body.

"P—please, M—y L—ady," Emily pleaded, her words sounded muffled, the pain unbearable as Rosamonda didn’t seem to remove her hand anytime soon

"Does it hurt?" Rosamonda sadistically questioned Emily, her smile widening the more.

Emily nodded her head which was restricted by Rosamonda’s grip on her face. She muffled again, "Y—yes. P—please s—spa—re m—me."

"I won’t," Rosamonda deadpanned to the misery of Emily. "I want you to feel and enjoy the pain so that when next I order you to do anything, you will do it without mistakes. I accept no mistake in my order, do you understand what I’m saying?!"

"Y—yes, My Lady."

"Good," Rosamonda finally let go of Emily’s face where the maid’s blood had smeared on her palm. She took out her handkerchief and wiped off the blood from her fingers. "Be prepared for my call, my mission must be accomplished."

Emily on the other hand, held her bloodied face in agony, as hot tears streamed down her face which she wiped off immediately, her heart hardening at the thought of how weak she appeared in front of the Vampiress. Perhaps, it was time to show the real her. This was not who she was, not a lowly maid with no power. It was time she began to implement the reason she was in the castle. No one will dare to look down on her anymore.

With each sharp pain that crossed Emily’s wound so did her heart harden with the resolve in her mind.

Rosamonda waved her hand at Emily, dismissing her from the room as the maid outside rushed in to clean the broken glass cup on the floor.

Emily on her way out, cast a glance at Rosamonda, the color of her eyes flickering to a deep shade of green before they went back to the light brown color they were before. This act unnoticed by anyone.