Who is Edith Cordelia

Chapter 11

I think it's almost been a week since Miranda and I have escaped. Surprisingly enough, she was true to her words and was able to smuggle my father out, too, along with few people that came with them. But, there were still a lot that was left behind, most of them were afraid to get caught and get killed, some were afraid of the life outside. 

Nobody really knew what to expect.

Is everything on fire?

Did they destroy the houses and buildings?

Are there dead bodies on the street?

Have they turned people into vampires, too?

What did they do to the people out there?

But, honestly, nothing could have prepared us for what we saw when we emerged from the forest and first got a glimpse of the outside world again.

The only thing missing when we emerged from that forest were rays of sunshine shining on the city and birds singing because, damn, the city looked so peaceful... Probably even better than before.

"Oh my..." Miranda gasped in awe as we both couldn't stop from staring at the sight in front of us.

"Is this some sort of vampire trick?" Miranda asked in a jokingly manner, but I knew that she's considering that possibility.

"Didn't your friend mention anything about what it's like outside?" I asked her.

"Honestly, he was so worried about us and I was so worried about thinking of a way to escape that we both forgot to talk about it" she said as we continued to venture towards the city.

There were people dotting the city, most of them wearing smiles on their faces and they look... Blooming. As if this change in the environment around them helped bring out the best in them.

"My friend's house is not far from here, let's hurry" Miranda once again grabbed my arm and ushered me around the city until we reached a blue painted house after walking for about 15 minutes.

Miranda knocked on the door.

"Shit!" we heard a muffled voice from the inside and rushed footsteps followed it. When the door opened, a man that is about 5 foot 6 was seen, his body is kind of small, but it's still evident that he frequents the gym. His legs are thin, though, a sign that he only works out his upper body. His hair is a little long, it's reaching his shoulders, and he has stubble growing on his chin.

His eyes were intense, but it was immediately replaced with something lighter when he saw Miranda.

"Christopher!" Miranda hollered in relief, releasing her hold on me so she could give the man in front of us a quick hug.

"I'm so glad you were able to escape" he said after inviting us in. His house is not that big, but it was impressively well-maintained.

"So are we" Miranda released a sigh then her eyes traveled to me. A small smile erupted in her face, and I replied with my own.

After Miranda introduced us to one another, Christopher showed us the room that we would stay in. While showing us around the house, I found out that Christopher has a small business at the heart of the town, which is a bakery. I also found out that Miranda would be helping him out with it as thanks for letting us stay at his house. So I told them that I want to help, too.

I can't exactly just stay here all the time.

I also found out that Christopher is not just Miranda's friend, they were once lovers before Miranda decided to work us, and Christopher made sure to tease Miranda about the fact that she tried to hide it from me.

Once we were resting at the living room, Miranda and I started questioning Christopher about the things that happened outside of the palace.

"At first, people were afraid when they showed up and said that they are taking over. It was very clear that they were not normal humans. People started preparing for the worst, stocking up on food, barricading their homes, some even decided to migrate to another country in fear that this new ruler will have everyone slaughtered. After the day that they showed up, a lot of them would roam around the city and nobody dared to leave their houses. But they didn't try anything. They could've easily broken into our homes and killed people, but they never did. People were skeptical, for more than a week, people barely left their houses."

"What changed?" I asked him.

"There was a mother and her daughter, they took a quick trip to the grocery store because they ran out of food. Unfortunately, there was a man that tried to take advantage of the fact that some business-owners had left their businesses vulnerable amidst of preparing their houses. The man broke in the appliance store and tried to load his van up with everything that he could. He was barely finished with his first trip when a vampire came. The man tried to escape, speeding in an attempt to escape the vampire. Everyone knew that it was futile. Then, a scream was heard. The mother and her daughter was crossing the street when the speeding man almost ran them over. Everything happened so quickly, the mother and the child were frozen in fear, thinking that their end was very near, when, suddenly, a force had stopped the van from running over the two and, due to the van's momentum and the amount of force that was released, the front of the van got crushed, in the process, it trapped the man inside with his legs pinned by the metals of his car."

"It was only after that fear and shock had subsided that people realized that a vampire had saved the mother and the child. The vampire was later identified as the leader herself. She managed to jump in front of the mother and daughter in time to save them. The two were very grateful, but what made her win the hearts of the people was when she went out of her way to check if the two were fine and even ushered them to a nearby clinic. The man was obviously caught, no one has heard of him since. After that, more people changed their perspective of them, although they were still wary. But that was slowly diminished each passing day that we have lived with them"

When Christopher told us that story, I was in awe. When we were still inside the palace, I thought all Edith did was torture people. I didn't expect her to be... that. Or all of them for that matter.

I just immediately assumed they were all... savages. Until I heard the story about Edith, but, even then, I thought that she was the only one that's different.

I'm currently walking home from Christopher's bakeshop. Miranda went home early so she could prepare our dinner, while Christopher stayed late because they were still some orders that were needed to be made. So I'm walking home alone.

My mind was so consumed by thoughts of Edith that, when a hand grabbed me and pulled into an alley, all I could do was gasp in shock.

Well, honestly, even if I was alert, gasping in shock was all I could've done because the hand moved quickly and I hadn't sensed it come.

Before I could even scream, a hand flew up to my mouth to cover it