The Crown's Obsession

Music recommendation: Dark Ambience | Cave Sounds | D&D Tomb | 45 Minutes

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Madeline's eyes grew wide in shock, staring at the tombstone which had her name engraved on it. Scared, she quickly moved away from it whilst her eyes continued to stare at the name. Why was there a grave in her name? Was she looking at the future? Or was it in the past? She continued to question herself until she heard her grandfather say,

"We can't let others know. If someone comes and takes a look at the body, they will try to dig more information about what happened."

"But that they will!" her grandmother responded in an agitated tone, "Why can't we just bury her?"

"You cannot kill her!" Her mother stepped forward, "She might not mean anything to you, but she is our daughter!"

Madeline didn't understand what was going on around her as her head felt like it was spinning. Even though it was a dream which she was dreaming right now, she could feel every emotion. The words spoken by them were heard by her.

Her mother was not speaking about Beth was she? Because that would leave only her to the 'daughter' that her mother referred to. Unless she was not their daughter, somewhere in the back of her mind, she had always wondered why she had blonde hair when her parents and Beth were blessed with dark black or brown hair. She had somewhere told herself that she had acquired the physical features from her grandmother. But did she?

Her legs and hands shook when she tried to get up and stand on her feet. The temperature around the graveyard only turned colder, making her shiver.

"What do you propose then? The villagers will know something is wrong with her," her grandmother retorted back to her mother, "We have been living here quietly, and you came here along with that thing to disrupt it."

"If it weren't for your blood, this wouldn't have even happened!" cried her mother.

Madeline wished she could ask them questions. But when she had fallen, making a loud noise, no one had even blinked or turned to look at her. Looking away from her family, she moved towards the gravestone that had her name, which was next to the grave where Jennine was resting.

Why would they build a tombstone for her? She was alive, and she didn't remember her parents ever told she was too sick.

Nobody ever built a grave before the person was dead. It was considered a bad omen. People often made a coffin only to invite death quicker to a person. It was a belief that the coffin enclosed the soul of a person, continuing to keep it dead and to let the soul to rest.

Her grandparents and her parents weren't aware of her presence, and Madeline decided to take a look inside the coffin. Giving a glance at her family, Madeline placed her hands on the top of the lid before she pushed it open to only see the coffin was empty.

"That is enough of chitchat. I will try to fix this one but let us keep it away from the others, at least until everything is sorted. The High house, they are of mixed people who think they know the law and are higher in position than us. If they come to know about us, it wouldn't go down well, and the whole village might end up going in flames," said her grandfather, "This is something I didn't expect to happen this soon. Where is the girl?"

"She's sleeping in the house. We locked the room," Madeline's father answered, his lips pursing in the end.

"Unattended?" her grandfather looked unimpressed, "We cannot let her out in the open. She is harmful."

"She's a child-" her mother began only to hear an unapproving grunt come from her grandfather.

Her grandfather said, "The only way to get out of this is by killing her. I would have killed her if she wasn't my granddaughter, but that doesn't mean we are going to let her out. If we let her free, we don't know what will happen. There will be more people ending up dead."

"What do you propose then? Since what happened, we have locked her in the room," said her father in worry and in slight distress.

"I will look after this one," offered the stranger who had accompanied her family to the graveyard, "You can take care of the one in the house. If I am not wrong, the High House is already on their way."

Her family agreed and left the small girl as she was who continued to reside in the coffin that was opened earlier. Madeline quickly moved forward to take a look at Jennine and noticed there was no bite mark on the little girl. Instead, there was a wound near her stomach.

Madeline watched the man who had stayed back, pulling out her friend Jennine's body up and opening his mouth, he took a bite into the small girl's neck. Seeing this, her face contoured in disgust because the man was a vampire who went to take a bite at a dead person. Not staying there any longer, she quickly followed her grandparents and her parents.

When they reached the house, a house, which she didn't recognize, Madeline heard her grandfather say,

"This is something you cannot speak about. We are lucky that I caught sight of it before someone else did. It is something none of you are supposed to whisper or think of," the man then raised his hand as if indicating to open the door of the locked room that they stood in front of.

"It would bring nothing but death upon us. I wonder if we should kill her," her grandmother proposed. Her father went to open the room which was not closed just by the handle but also had been locked with a lock and key.

As the door was pushed open, the family members looked as if they were apprehensive of stepping inside the room. As if somewhere, they were scared of the person who was in there.

Madeline who stood behind them could feel the tension even though she didn't belong to this time frame.

"Oh dear, I cannot look at her!" her mother shook her head and ran out of the room before even taking three steps inside. Madeline saw her mother take a seat on the chair, her hand covering her face as she cried, "How did this happen?!"

"In every century, you have some bad seed," murmured her grandfather, and the three of them took themselves to get inside the room.

Madeline followed them to notice a small girl that stood with her back against them. Her heart sank in her chest when she saw the little girl turn around. Blonde hair, brown eyes, she didn't have to question to find out who it was. But the small girl had her hands covered in red, which was undoubtedly the blood of the girl named Jennine. The little girl's hand was tied in ropes so that she wouldn't come to harm anyone. A gasp escaped her lips, and she shook her head.

No...that was her.

She had killed a small girl, thought Madeline to herself.