The Protégé [On Hold]

01B | When the Lightning Flashed

It was almost midnight.

Thunder began to rumble loudly, and it didn't look like the snow would end soon. In fact, it looked like it would go stronger.

And it did.

The cold soon became intolerable, and even Hugh's fireplace couldn't stave off all the coldness.

Add that with a thought-provoking story, and the results would be insomnia for Hugh Rowland.

All the two hours after Harold left the room were spent in deep thought, with an unconscious stare at the large parrot painting. A normal person would have felt asleep during that time, but for Hugh Rowland, deep thought was making him awake.

And yes, the Rowlands were far different from the so-called 'normal' people. They lived differently, they thought differently, and they did things differently. This scenario was basically a case on point.

Hugh was always more of a thinking person, and if one would give him a question that is difficult to answer, one wouldn't expect him to end the day without an answer. And knowing his uncle, Hugh knew Harold did it on purpose.

Unable to withstand the cold, Hugh crouched closer to the fireplace as he threw in more coal for it to give off more heat. His eyes were sensitive to smoke, however; and even with his black glasses on, he couldn't go closer to the fire, which he wished he could do. That was how cold it was.

Once again, thunder rumbled. Aside from the blazing fire, the thunder was all he could hear inside his room. That was how quiet he was if he was alone.

*thump*

All of a sudden, a thumping sound was heard. It was pretty loud, so it seemed impossible for it to come from outside. Hugh ignored it at first, until the sound was heard again and again.

*thump* *thump* *thump*

It sounded like something was going on inside the household- something violent. From a cadet who had experienced several fights, he could pretty much tell just by hearing.

Hugh's heart started to beat faster nervously. Was it just a pillow fight? Was it just a squirrel? Was it just one of the guards chasing a loose parrot? Hugh had a lot of possibilities in his mind, but he knew for sure that he was just trying to calm himself. It was obviously a fight, although he had no idea who and why.

It was too cold for Hugh to move, but he itched to rush towards the scene. If it was an intruder, he could have helped out. He was probably the last one awake and aware of the situation.

'The Rowland motto is to help and save,' a terribly familiar voice echoed on his mind.

Those words were probably enough to push him to move.

As though his body moved on its own, Hugh took a deep breath... and he struggled to stand up, trying to withstand the cold. The only weapon he had was a small knife that his mentor gave him, but he had no choice to go with it.

Without any sort of preparation, Hugh rushed out of his room and began to run along the dark hallway. The Rowland Household had lots of rooms, so all he could depend on was his ears.

*thump* *thump* *thump*

The sounds slowly became louder. He thought he was getting nearer. Again, without any preparations, he tried to trace the source and followed his intuition.

He ran and ran towards the darkness. He felt he was going nowhere, but he still kept running. His heart kept beating rapidly.

He felt scared, but he kept running.

He ran up and down several staircases and he opened several doors, but he just couldn't find where the sound came from.

Until-

*clink*

The sound of glass breaking filled the household.

Knowing every detail of the household, Hugh was sure that there could only be one place where a glass could break:

The household's entrance hall.

From where he was standing, Hugh quickly rushed towards the nearest staircase he could see.

He went down the lowest ground, and as he ran towards the entrance hall, Hugh had to stop as he heard another thumping sound. It sounded very near, so he was certain his hunch was right.

Knowing that he was near, Hugh did his best to stay quiet while slowly approaching the scene. The surroundings were too dark, so he wasn't able to see any silhouette even with his nearsighted glasses.

As he tiptoed carefully, Hugh accidentally stepped on a broken piece of vase, and it was presumably the one he heard breaking earlier. With due care, he avoided the scattered debris of the glass vase while scanning his eyes left and right for a person's presence.

Hugh noticed that the sounds stopped coming as soon as he arrived into the scene, so he thought the fight was over with.

However, there was a peculiar smell that was very familiar to him- terribly familiar.

The smell of blood.

As soon as he reached the middle of the hall, lightning instantly flashed and lit the whole scene- and for a split second, Hugh saw a horrible sight in front of him, as clear and as bright as day.

The exact thing he saw did not literally last for only a split second, though- because it was going to be etched on his mind forever. It was a terrifying picture that he, himself, would never forget.

And yet again, thunder rumbled. It was loud and sudden, but it did not surprise Hugh at all. He couldn't hear nor smell anything anymore. His eyes were fixed on the horrifying sight before him, and all he could feel was the blood flowing on his toenails, and nothing else.

He did not know what to feel, nor to do, nor to say.

His mind was blank.

All he thought of doing was to kneel down the dead corpse before him, helplessly touching the pool of blood that had spread further and further.

He couldn't see any feature of him clearly, but he could picture it on his mind.

His long, black hair was properly combed back. His face looked as peaceful as ever, even in the midst of his death, as though he was only sleeping. His clothes were no different from all the days he saw him- it was a noble's coat with black leather pants, all neat and tidy, although there were dirt and blood-stains.

Everything looked quite the same for him- all except for the fatal stab wound on his neck, which slowly drained away his blood.

He kept staring at his body for minutes. He still couldn't do anything. He couldn't shout for help nor chase the murderer away.

Soon, he noticed something on one of his coat pockets. Inside was a piece of paper with his handwriting. Hugh unconsciously took it.

As soon as he read it, tears fell from his eyes. Hugh didn't intend to cry, but it seemed his body wanted to cry on its own. It wasn't long, though, before Hugh gave in.

He looked at his bloody palms, and soon, he finally screamed.

"U... UNCLE!!!"

Lightning then flashed, once again, for the last time.

«---»

Author's Note:

Hiya. Thank you so much for reading this chapter. I hope you liked it, as well as the previous chapter.

This is Part 2 of 3 introductory chapters. The last part will be published on Saturday.

If you have comments, please comment them. If you like it, feel free to vote. I'll be very happy if you do :)

Also, if in case you see grammatical errors and such, please inform me.

Until then!