Halloween Vault Contest 2018

Don't Say a Word

 Most people aren't betrothed at age seven in today's day and age but Genelia's parents were anything but normal. They adored the idea of picking out a spouse for their daughter instead of Genelia picking her own spouse.

She peered out of the silvery window of the car. Trees, more trees. The forests were so thick you couldn't pull a needle through them and yet here was this neat little gravel road leading to the new place she was to soon call home with her soon-to-be husband whom she'd never met.

Finally the woods parted like the red seas with two emerald waves of foliage and revealed a mansion that loomed over them like a tidal wave. Genelia felt extraordinarily small and yet something about the house was almost...inviting? She couldn't quite put a finger on the right word...perhaps alluring?

She stepped out of the car as her luggage hit the gravel. She straightened her azure dress. Her parents had insisted she wear the utmost formal attire. So they had bought her a dress that highlighted her curves the same way a waterfall would tumble gracefully over stones. Her hair, like shavings of gold and rose petals, cascaded in dreamy curls from a half-up style hair-do. Her skin was slightly sun-kissed from all the time she'd spent outdoors. But this was all simply scenery to highlight the main event, her riveting blue eyes like the most treacherous of seas.

She carefully ascended the steps in her silver heels to the voluminous doors of the mansion.

This was the day she would meet the man her parents had decided she was destined to marry -- though they were not to marry until another month from now when she would turn 19.

Her fingers had barely rapped on the door when it opened. She pulled her hand back. The butler nodded seeming to know her.

"Please come in Miss. Kentworth."

She nodded and went in when the door was opened further. She waited only moments before she heard his voice.

"How nice to finally meet you, Genelia Kentworth, I am Stephan. Though I suspect you know that."

She lifted her head trying to let her frantic heart calm itself and only just kept a gasp from spilling out of her lips.

His hand gently brushed the railing as he came down the stairs to greet her. His skin was flawlessly olive toned and his hair was like that of black gossamer feathers. His eyes were as ravishing as the forests themselves. He bowed low taking her hand and placing a kiss so delicate on her knuckles it was like a whisper.

"Come, I have lunch all laid out for us. I figured after such a long trip you must be famished." He said sweetly letting her take his arm and guide her to the dining room.

He made sure she was seated before sitting down himself. The food was exquisite, everything from seafood to seasoned vegetables and meats. She noted he did not eat much of his food.

"Would you join me for some light dancing?" He bowed offering his hand and she took it shyly and stood with him nodding. He captured her waist with one hand and gingerly cradled her hand with the other sweeping her elegantly across the dance floor.

"You know, your dancing is just as lovely as you are." He smiled a spritely sparkle in his eyes. Genelia blushed glancing away only to find her gaze drifting back towards his enchanting eyes.

The song ended slowly and they parted with a curtsey and a bow.

"I will show you to your bedroom, then I will bid you goodnight." He told her before he held out his arm. He led her upstairs to a luxurious bedroom. "These are your sleeping quarters, you'll find everything you need here I hope and, if not, ask the butler but please don't go poking around. I'd like to keep some of my collections private."

She nodded, it sounded reasonable enough.

"Tomorrow is Halloween, but since we live so far away you don't need to worry about trick-or-treaters or dressing up." He informed her. "Goodnight, lovely Genelia Kentworth." He once again kissed her knuckles before leaving her alone in her room.

She did not sleep well that night. The walls seemed to moan and creak. But the thing that was honestly the most disturbing was the silence. It was like no one lived there anymore. Not even a whisper or a hint of breath or movement in the whole manor. She didn't know when she'd fallen asleep but she soon found herself waking up . Genelia stepped into a crimson dress and pulled her hair up into a bun at the back of her head as the sunlight danced in through the windows like a golden gowned girl waltzing across a ballroom. The comparison in her mind made her smile as it reminded her of her dance with Stephan.

A knock sounded at her door. She opened it to find a butler. Only he didn't look quite the same as he had yesterday, was his nose a bit larger? Hadn't his eyes been blue not brown? Maybe she wasn't as observant as she once had been. She dismissed it after a moment and smiled winsomely.

"Stephan will see you at breakfast." He said drawlingly before leading her downstairs.

The day was filled with much joy and so many smiles. Stephan had such a dazzling smile it made her blush.

But as the light faded from the sky, he once again returned her to her bedroom and bid her goodnight.

She was combing out her hair when a piece of gold caught the pale moonlight's glow. She turned and found a key perched on her desk. There was a note with it.

Find the hidden room.

Who was the note from? Surely not Stephan. He'd said he didn't want her looking around. Perhaps the butler? But then did she dare betray Stephan's trust by using the key?

She fingered it's smooth edges, turning it over in her spindly fingers. Further contemplating her dilemma before slowly standing and opening her door, peering down the halls.

Empty.

She began to look around, curiosity burning within her. She found a library, a bathroom, a kitchen, nothing particularly unusual. She ran her hand along the walls on the way back to the stairs to return to her room when her hand hit a hitch in the flawlessly smooth wall.

She paused and turned back letting her hand roam the wall before finding a strange hole and inserted the key feeling quite clever. She opened the room with a small smile before it quickly faded her heart freezing over.

Stephan was pale and sickly looking but what really disturbed her was that he was lying in a coffin. A circle of men stood at the foot of his coffin chanting and in the center was the newest butler. She had made it just in time to watch them plunge a knife into the butler's heart. She gazed in horror as color and life returned to her fiance.

His eyes opened and he saw her.

"Such a pity. I thought I told you not to go looking around." His voice was coy and smooth as a slippery snake. "But one good thing is that your lack of speech or voice makes it that much easier to kill you. Everyone expects the murdered to scream." He lunged at her and she ran wildly fleeing the house despite the pain that shot up her legs as she ran over the gravel walk with her bare feet, panting as she ran for her life.

It was a relief to feel grass as she approached the forest. He ran over the ground like a lumbering animal on all fours. She tried to find her way into the tightly woven forest. Stephan tore after her violently, branches snapping like twigs as he passed by.

She kept running until she could no longer hear his animalistic snarling and cowered under a dying tree, tears falling down her face. She was lost and so very far from civilization. She wished it would all disappear and turn out to be nothing but a nightmare, that she'd wake up and Stephan would come in and be dreamy. But if she hadn't found out, would she have become a corpse like him?

She slowly caught her breath and began to stand before feeling a hand on her shoulder. If she could have screamed, she would have.

"Shhhhh, now, now my love. Don't struggle. We wouldn't want to mar that lovely face. After all we're still going to be married." He crooned, eyes crazed, holding up a knife.