Ashes of Vile

010

CHAPTER TEN
Death Seeks You

The hazy glass walls engulfed and surrounded Abourne; there was something about walking in within the mirrored walls that had made her feel so suffocated all throughout her childhood. It wasn't the kind of cliché where Abourne insisted on taking a different road compared to the Blaque family and threw a fit and ran away. Abourne loved her family, she really did. It was more of the trap reel she had seen beyond the walls of the Abourne dynasty. The creepy vicinity of the mansion spooked her enough, but the secrets that lie in it were far more disturbing; And living for 17 years in it gave her absolutely nothing, not even the smallest trail to follow in uncovering the Blaque hidden entails.

She stared at the door as she wrapped her hands tightly on the water bottle she held. She then cleared her throat and popped a Xanax in her mouth and drowned it out with the water. She then exhaled the breath of air she has kept too long in, letting slip the emblem of secluded trance hidden away from time itself. She situated herself into the fashionable Blaque quality and steadied her jaunty manner that her father has always liked. She swung the door open that revealed the blazing chandeliers that hung from the high ceiling and the grandiose frightening statues that seemed to stare at her wherever she goes, the absurd pinpoint train of unrealistic eyes that hounded her sense of being. She strutted down the large luxurious Victorian flooring, its spacious area was enough to fit the Trojan horse that was waged against the city of Troy.

The extravagance of the manor belittles her as the high gratification cascaded her in recalling the distant memory of shaped knowledge and history. She greeted it with mixed emotions when she opened the door from the great hall and into her father's headquarters. She was then acknowledged by the man on the seat, about 50 years old, who was engrossed in the tabloid. She gave the curtsy of an elastic smile. "To what do I owe this visit?" Her father put down the paper and entirely focused on her. Abourne neared the cushioned seat across from her father and perched on it. Before speaking, she observed the royal mystic ivory carvings and designs that ran smoothly on the walls with a mixture of dark royal blue. Abourne suddenly resonated the familiarity of it all to her childhood and sitting across her father when she was in trouble or opposite from it. At that moment, it was none of the two, not even a mixture of both.

"You may have noticed I wasn't home for a few days." Abourne put her hands on her lap and continued to look around the room as if she hadn't been there all her life. "You were?" He took off his reading glasses and placed them on the table. Abourne then had a wash of relief although it wasn't the greatest feeling in the world to have her father not notice she was gone for some time, it was much better than having to face millions of questions and a couple of lashings thrown in. "Yeah, I was at a friend's."

"Were you with that wretched woman's daughter again?" Abourne made the mistake of using August as her scapegoat, assuming her father was in good graces with the Valkyrie. A respected and affable man who hallowed in business and Ashgrim itself would be thought to be a man who highly valued the one who worked the inner and outer workings of the city, but that was extremely false. There was no word that could explain the amount of hatred he had for the Valkyrie. It was indescribable.

"August? Yeah," Abourne nodded and her father only groaned at her name. "She's real sweet, father," Abourne defended her good name, but even she didn't look convinced as she said it. August was far from sweet, she was Ashgrim's greatest assassin after all, but her father didn't know that. She'd like to keep it that way. Otherwise, she'd have to face wrath no one has seen in millions of years. "I've warned you plenty of times Bo, the Blaques are not friendly with the Viles. My heart might give out earlier than I thought if you keep hanging around trouble."