Belle stood outside the mansion. She didn't know what she was doing here all alone on the street. The mansion she had grown in stood at a distance with the gates that weren't closed as they used to at night. The gates were open, waiting for someone to get inside but she didn't know why it looked different. As if it were old, dull and bleak that was abandoned for years now.
There was no light and there no soul that she could see. The plants that the servants and Lucas had grown around the mansion had dried and withered away on the ground with no flowers or leaves, almost dead.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she told herself she was dreaming yet this felt surreal to doubt it wasn't real.
There was some sort of fog that covered the entire property and also where she stood now.
"Miss Belle," she heard a voice and Belle snapped her head around in the direction of the voice but she could see no one. She identified it to be Marie's voice, the maid who had died. She looked for the girl, wondering if it was an imagination inside the imaginative mind where she was dreaming right now.
From the corner of her eyes, Belle saw a girl walk behind a house which was not far from where she stood. She caught the lower part of the dress that went around and Belle quickly went to follow the girl. Marie was still alive, thought the young vampiress to herself. When she came around the house, she saw the maid who stood with her back facing Belle. She wore the same clothes that she had worn the entire day yesterday in the mansion.
"Miss Belle, you are here," said the maid with her sweet human voice Belle had grown up around.
If they weighed with the way they looked, both Marie and Belle were almost of the same age. Maybe the maid was a year older to her on a human scale of the age but they had almost grown together.
Out of all the maids, she liked Marie the most because of the age, because they had grown together and she could share her mischief with the girl. Though Belle didn't have friends outside who were close to her where she kept only a few near her, it was much easier to talk to the servants. Belle shared a good rapport with the mansion workers unlike the other houses of the vampires or humans that were close to the elite who believed that mixing with the lower cla.s.s people would tarnish their image,
"Where is this place?" Belle asked Marie who still had turned and instead she walked forward making the vampiress follow her.
Marie didn't answer right away. Her footsteps weren't fast but it was slow enough where Belle could keep up with her. As they walked, Bell noticed how the houses were dull and old like her mansion. Almost a dark greenish hue around the houses. There was no light but she did notice how the sky was clear right now with just the moon that was full enough to emit the needed light.
Marie finally paused her footsteps and she turned her face to look at Belle with just one side of her face to face Belle, "This is nowhere," Marie offered her a smile and she started to walk.
Nowhere? Belle furrowed her brows.
"Is this not Bonelake?"
"It is Bonelake, milady," answered Marie as she walked. Her dress was long enough to touch the ground that made her look as if she were gliding through the ground, "How strange to think, I have walked by these streets and never knew everything was right here. We think about the possibilities and we are so scared. But now that I am here, it is much clearer, clearer than before," Belle was lost as she didn't understand what the girl was speaking anymore.
They came across the tall tower bell that stood lonely without a ring that was heard by it but Belle could hear something that came from the sides of the houses. Like shadows that were creeping forward and towards where she was.
Marie continued to walk but this time noticing Belle not following her, she asked, "Won't you come with me, Miss Belle?"
"Where are you going?" Belle asked as she found it hard to wrap her head around that this was Bonelake. For all her life, she had lived in Bonelake. She had looked at Bonelake from the rooftop of her mansion as she sat during the time of night when everyone had gone asleep and Bonelake not once had looked this lonely as it did now.
"To a walk," Marie answered and when she did turn around, Belle's eyes widened in shock to see the state of the maid's face. While one side of her face looked as perfect as it did two days ago, the other side of her looked as if it were melted. There was no eye and the nose looked almost nonexistent. Her mouth was melted enough for one to see the bones behind it, the skeleton with no muscles or flesh to cover it.
As much as Belle didn't want to accept that this wasn't Marie, one side of her face had the same smile that she had come to know.
"What's the matter?" Marie asked her and the smile on her face fell down to ask, "I was waving at you earlier but you left my side. Just like that. Why did you leave, Miss Belle?"
"What are you talking about?" Bell asked for clarification.
Marie then said, "You said I would get better but instead you let me die. Do you think I should return the favor?"
