LOGINValaria was groaning weakly on the floor while Liliana stared at Jane with wide eyes full of surprise. The little girl had clearly been under the impression that Jane had already been caught by her father after running away. She had likely thought Victor had dragged her back to wherever he kept those who disobeyed him. Yet here Jane was, standing at the doorway once more. This time, however, things were different. Liliana had been caught in the act. There was no carefully crafted image left to maintain, no sweet smile capable of hiding what she truly was. Her gaze quickly studied Jane's face and whatever she found there caused her expression to darken. Perhaps she had realized that Jane had seen enough. Perhaps she had realized that the human girl was now looking at her the same way one would look at a monster."Papa didn't do his work well today. He promised not to let you go!" Liliana stomped her heel against the floor as she whined, her childish voice echoing throughout the room.
It'd make sense now. From the start, Valaria hadn't wanted to kill her in the room earlier, far from it. Valaria, who had seen her being taken in by the family, must have feared the idea that they would use Jane the same way they had once used her. Looking back now, Jane could finally understand the desperation hidden behind the woman's actions. Perhaps Valaria had recognized the signs immediately, seeing another girl brought into the mansion under the illusion of safety and kindness. Perhaps she had once stood in the same position herself. And perhaps, deep down, after witnessing it happen all over again, she had decided to sacrifice herself in order to help Jane leave the mansion for good. Even if it meant becoming the villain in Jane's eyes. Even if the consequence was ending up here, forced to face the true monster standing before them.It was a while until she was on the verge of becoming completely lifeless that Liliana finally stopped. The room had long since fallen quiet asid
As she continued to crawl, the tunnel remained just as pitch black as the nauseating feeling bubbling inside her chest. The darkness swallowed everything around her, leaving her with no choice but to continue forward blindly. She could only cling to the words Liliana had told her earlier. Whether there truly was an escape route hidden here or not, Jane couldn't bring herself to fully believe it. Yet at the same time, she had no other choice. Right now, all she could do was trust that Liliana had been telling the truth.The crawl felt endless. Time seemed to stretch strangely within the narrow tunnel until Jane could no longer tell how long she had been moving forward. Then, finally, she noticed something. A light. Faint and distant, but unmistakably there. Jane froze for a moment. She wasn't entirely certain whether she had truly seen it or whether her desperate wish to escape had finally begun turning into hallucinations. Her eyes remained fixed on the tiny glow ahead of her until sh
"How many people have you trapped with this little trick of yours?" Victor asked then while Rahaul was still startled by his blatant refusal. He even added with a light smirk on his lips, "Do you think that just because you knew one of the elders, everything you do goes? There are rules in this place but of course, us vampires, never want to follow the said rules. We like pretending they only exist for other people. We like pretending that if nobody complains then there is no crime. It is quite fascinating actually."Rahaul gritted his teeth. "They know this is my feeding ground.""They know but I can make it into a problem," Victor said with the widest grin of a child who was about to create trouble and knew exactly how to make one's life into a nightmare. He slowly turned his head around the room, his eyes lingering on the walls, the staircase, the furniture, before eventually looking back at Rahaul. "Let's think, I saw the few shoes outside the mansion yet there isn't the same amou
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!"The feminine laughter echoed throughout the place as Jane rushed away from the servant quarter. The sound followed her like a curse, bouncing against the walls and slipping through every corridor she passed through. No matter how hard she tried to ignore it, it remained lodged inside her ears. She couldn't tell anymore whose laughter it belonged to, whether it was the lady of the house, Valaria, or the child of the house, Liliana. Or if they really laughed at all. Perhaps it was even her imagination that had caused her to hear that ringing laughter. Perhaps fear had finally driven her to the edge. Yet it sounded far too real, far too delighted. By the time she noticed the laughter had stopped, a shadow had spilled over her and before she could react, a hard force collided against her, making her stumble forward and bump straight into the chest of a man.When her face lifted upward to see who it was, all the blood immediately drained from her face. "V... Victor."Vi
Where they had gone to was none other than the back route leading toward the servant quarters. Oddly enough, the servant quarters were surprisingly small. Jane had expected something larger considering the size of the mansion, yet there were only a handful of rooms lined neatly along the corridor. What caught her attention even more was the complete lack of servants. Since arriving, she hadn't seen a single maid carrying linens, nor a footman moving furniture, nor a cook passing through the hallways. The absence was strange enough to make her uneasy. It beckoned her to wonder whether the house was somehow managed entirely by Rahaul and his wife. Yet that didn't make sense either. While the mansion wasn't enormous, it was still far too large for a single family to maintain on their own. The gardens alone would require constant upkeep. Then there were the floors, the furniture, the laundry and the cooking. The workload would be impossible for only two people.Furthermore, Rahaul's wif
Harnold frowned as he wondered what kind of game his son had found this time. Victor always found new amusements to occupy himself with, only to grow bored of them soon after. One month he would become obsessed with something to the point of driving everyone around him insane, only to abandon it en
Victor sat down with his legs crossed. His gaze settled somewhere into the distance, unfocused and empty. Though his eyes could no longer see, he could feel his father standing before the desk, his broad back facing him as silence stretched across the room. The old man rarely sat during conversatio
Jane opened the door as slowly as possible, the creaking noise coming from the slowly opened door and the lack of oil on the hinges rang in the silence. The sound seemed unusually loud in the empty hallway, scraping against her nerves as she carefully pushed the door wider inch by inch.Just as her
Victor didn't reply. He shrugged and then suddenly, he pulled his hand to his vest, slowly unbuttoning the buttons on his vest and immediately she flinched, "What are you doing?"She didn't have an answer as Victor took off the silver vest that snugly wrapped around his waist, revealing his inner b







