The Black Ball was a week away.
And Verenmore was in delightful chaos.
While a huge part of her was scared shitless, both anxious about what the voice had said and history repeating itself, especially with someone she knew, another part of her was excited for something so novel. Especially since exams were over and assignments were submitted, classes were on pause for a month before they resumed again with a new semester. During the month, students could go visit family if they had any or choose to stay at the castle. From what she had gathered, most kids stayed back which was both sad and not.
The wonderful thing about the Ball though was all the new faces around campus. The Board went all out for the Ball. The Main Hall Tower’s first level which had stayed locked was opened for the occasion. Extra crew and staff were hired for the week, from chefs to waiting staff to electricians and musicians. Instruments, furniture and cutlery from storage were brought down and put in place.
Residents from every tower were called to the Admin Wing at different hours, to meet a team of shoppers and tailors who took measurements and notes and fitted everyone for their outfits that would be ready a day before the Ball.
The only downside of the chaos was the lack of any time she could spend with Vad. With all the people roaming on campus and no classes, there was no way and no place she could sneak to meet him, not even in his own building, without getting caught. And this close to the Ball, they really didn’t want to risk it.
The four days of separation made her realize how much she missed him. She was enjoying her time with her friends and her books and enjoying the entire atmosphere of the castle, but she would have enjoyed it more with him. He was important to her mind, and she settled herself with glimpses of him across the grounds, his tall, dark form making her heart ache with the need to touch him.
She equally hated and loved the time.
Standing in the Administration Wing for her own fitting along with the girls from her tower, feeling giddy because she’d never had anything like this happen before, she was surprised when the spectacled guy called her over to one of the back offices.
“What does he want?” Jade asked her, curiously looking towards the back.
Corvina shrugged. She had no clue. She made her way to the office and raised her eyebrows at the guy who had never been helpful to her.
“Your dress is there,” he told her and walked out.
Corvina frowned and entered the office, confused at what he meant, and froze.
A deep burgundy, almost dark purple dress hung from a hanger on one of the open windowpanes, a color so deep it shimmered with purple and black, its sleeves full and made of some kind of a lace, its neckline a plunging V that almost went to the waistline, a slit up the side of the skirt that to the upper thigh area.
She had never seen something so exquisite.
It was her in a gown.
And there was only one person who could have chosen this absolutely perfect dress for her.
A note pinned to the cuff of the dress caught her eye. She went to it on jittery legs, extending a careful hand to the note, half afraid to take it out in case she ruined the dress. Thankfully, she didn’t. She unfolded the paper and found his bold scrawl, her heart fluttering like a hummingbird’s wings at even the small contact with him.
My little witch,
I went to Tenebrae on the weekend for a legal meeting and found this. The color reminded me of your eyes right after you come. It was a dress made for you to wear and for me to take off.
You’ll find your mask in the box by the shoes. (Yes, I know your size).
I won’t tell you what I’ll be wearing. Instead, I want you to recognize me from a sea of masked people. I need you to find me in the sea.
Leave everything in the office for now. It will be safe. Collect in on the day before the Ball to avoid questions.
I hope you miss me. Your pussy is going to be sore as fuck once I get my hands on you after this.
And be careful on the night of the ball, little crow. Every time, wicked things happen.
Your devil
Corvina clutched the note to her chest, a squeal of happiness bursting from her lips before she controlled herself, rereading his words, again and again and again until they were memorized.
She looked down at the box below the dress, squatting down to see the shoes he’d picked for her, hoping he’d picked something with heels. She had one pair of heels and she loved them, but it hadn’t been smart to wear them around the castle.
The footwear was indeed a pair of heels, block heels in silver with straps that laced around her ankle up to her calves. So very sexy but also practical for the cobblestoned paths.
Something wrapped in the same bag, covered in paper tissue, had her intrigued. She picked it up, pulling out a stunning silver half-mask, one made with silver glitter and crystals, shimmering in the light and sending little rainbows in reflection, curving into the shape of a cat-eye at the tips. It would cover her face from forehead to nose, leaving her lower half exposed.
Corvina put everything back and absorbed the vision of the dress in again, etching it into her memory. It was beautiful but what truly moved her beyond words was the fact that he had gone for a meeting and thought of her, that he had come back with a gift that would make her first night like this better, that even though he couldn’t meet her, he had found a way to get it to her, leaving her a note that made her all warm and fluttery on the inside.
It was the little things behind the big thing that touched her.
God, she loved him, so, so much.
She didn’t know when she fell, when her lust transformed into this deep-seated need, or if she even fell in one moment or gradually. It didn’t matter. The end result was that she did.
Leaving it all behind just as she found it, Corvina tucked the note inside her top and walked out of the office to see the girls giving their measurements.
She must have been wearing some kind of a look on her face because Roy raised her eyebrows at her. “Yo freaky eyes, did you smoke something in the office or what?”
Corvina mentally shook herself, schooling her face. “If there was anything worth smoking here, I’m sure you’d be the first to know Roy,” Corvina ribbed back, comfortable enough with the girl and her brash but well-meaning ways by now.
Roy rolled her eyes and stepped up to get measured.
“So, what was in the office?” Jade asked her as they waited at the side.
“A letter,” Corvina gave her the truth. “From someone important.”
Their turn to give measurements came and Corvina complied, well aware that people would question it if she didn’t. The tailor however knew she already had a gown, probably Vad getting things set up, and simply pretended to take Corvina’s measurements.
Within a few minutes, they were done and walking out of the building under the beautiful, sunlit day, when the wind carried the scent of sandalwood to her, and immediately after she heard Mo’s voice.
‘That house, Vivi.’
Corvina froze.
What house?
The creepy shack in the woods?
“What’s wrong?” Jade paused at her side, looking at her with worried eyes. “You just froze, Cor.”
Corvina blinked as the scent disappeared, opening her mouth to tell her but something stopped her, with all the other girls around. She shook her head, her eyes spying a familiar figure talking to a guy on the other end of the Wing.
“Nothing, I just remembered I had to talk to Troy’s brother about something,” she told Jade, pointing towards Ajax’s big form. “You go on. I’ll meet you in a few.”
Jade glanced between her and Ajax, her eyebrows going up. “Oh god, he’s the hickey guy!”
Corvina almost denied it, then shut up. Better she thought that than the truth.
“Damn girl,” Jade grinned. “He’s fineeee. Go see him. Catch you later,” with a fluttery wave of her fingers, Jade was gone.
Corvina took a deep breath and headed towards Ajax.
He spotted her coming, and the determined look on her face, and excused himself from the guy he’d been speaking with.
“Do you have some time?” Corvina began without preamble.
His face got serious. “Sure. We’re just finishing the forensics at the lake. What’s going on?”
She looked around, checking no one was within hearing distance. “I need you to come to the woods with me.”
His big body straightened. “What’s going on, Corvina?”
“There’s a shack in the woods,” she began, not knowing how to tell him what she knew without telling him what she knew. “Do you know it?”
Ajax frowned. “I don’t think so. Why?”
“Just, come with me,” she told him, buying time. “I’ll tell you on the way.”
Looking around, he caught one of his colleagues and told him he’d be unavailable for a bit, indicating for Corvina to lead him.
Corvina wanted to let Vad know about the development, but not having seen him on campus since yesterday, she had no idea where he would be. But he knew Ajax and she trusted him, so she had to make it work.
They entered the sunlit forest and Corvina pointed to the right, towards a direction she hadn’t taken since that day. “That way.”
The woods looked unreal bathed in the brightness of the sun. The trees stood wall, a plethora of earthen colors from browns to greens and colorful flowers dotting in between, azure sky peeking from between the branches. Without the constant grey and the fog, it looked like something out of a fairy tale. And yet, darkness clung to it.
Ajax followed her down the incline by her side. “What’s with the shack?” he asked, jumping over a log and helping her over it.
“We went there once,” she told him the truth. “Troy and our group. He just wanted to explore the woods once, and we randomly headed in this direction.”
She picked up her skirt, walking around a hedge of weird-looking flowers, and descended down the incline.
“Did something happen?” Ajax asked from a few paces away, turning to look back at her with eyes the same as Troy’s had been.
“We saw something,” she reminisced, remembering the long silhouette they had encountered that day. “A long dark silhouette behind the windows. It was moving. But Troy noticed the lock on the door. Whatever it was, it had been locked in.”
Ajax let out a breath. “Fuck, this place would give creeps to the bravest bastard.”
They kept a quick pace, the castle having disappeared behind them above the thicket.
“And why did you want to check it out now?” he asked her as they almost neared the place.
“Just a hunch.”
Ajax slid her a look but didn’t say anything as the shack came into view in the distance.
“Is the lake close from here?” she asked as the smell of decay that she’d always associated with the lake infiltrated her senses again.
Ajax paused and looked to the left. “Just about there, I’d say. Maybe a five-minute walk. Why?”
Corvina felt her heart begin to pound at the realization that the rot had always been coming from this place. While the lake had hidden horrors, there was something else in the shack.
They finally stood in front of the little brick and wood cottage, and Corvina’s eyes fell on the door. It was unlocked.
“Are you sure it had been locked last time?” Ajax asked in a low voice, pulling out a knife from his boot that Corvina hadn’t even seen.
“It was Troy who’d noticed the lock,” Corvina told me. “I didn’t look at the door.”
“Then it was locked,” Ajax said as they crept closer. “Troy was always good with details. Which means someone has been here recently. Stay behind me.”
Corvina felt her stomach tighten as Ajax cleared the space around the shack, coming back to inch the main door open. The pungent scent of rotten flesh assaulted them immediately.
Corvina covered her nose as nausea rose up, trying to block it out, Ajax wincing at the awful scent, pushing the door open completely. A small room came into view, with a kitchenette and a fireplace, a seating area, and two doors leading to the back.
Corvina ventured in slightly, the phantom ants that had always crawled up her skin doing so with a magnified intensity at the sight.
A body lay on the floor, body charred, with scavenging insects feeding off it.
Corvina felt the vomit rise up her throat and ran outside, spilling her breakfast in the bushes, panting as she vision of that ugly, ugly death imprinted itself on the forefront of her mind. Wiping her mouth, she steeled her spine and went back in to see Ajax covering his nose with his hand, examining the body, completely unruffled, which made her wonder how many corpses he must have seen.
“From the decomposition, I’d estimate she died anywhere between the last five years and a few months,” he spoke, his eyes scanning the body.
“She?” Corvina mumbled, trying to get her eyes to stay on the burned body long enough to observe.
“Definitely female,” he nodded. “And the burns are postmortem. See the legs,” he indicated the portion of the body beneath the knees. It was a pale grey and swollen. “Whoever it was began to burn the body and then stopped. Either they were interrupted or they only wanted to burn the upper half.”
He turned to her. “Are you sure you saw something moving here that day?”
Corvina nodded. “Yes. A long silhouette.”
“The body would’ve been here already,” he grit his teeth. “Let’s get back. I need to get the forensics here.”
Corvina gladly left the shack, her arms pebbled with goosebumps, unable to understand how she even knew any of this. Had her subconscious mind picked up some clues the day they’d been there? And who the hell was the female?
“Corvina,” Ajax said after locking the door as they started their trek up. “How well do you know Vad?”
Corvina paused on the incline. “You think he had something to do with that?”
Ajax put his hands up defensively. “Hear me out. I like him but my personal feelings cannot get in the way of the investigation. That body,” he pointed to the shack, “has been there for a long time, longer than most people here. And this is a part of the woods even I, an ex-student who loved roaming in the woods, never knew about. He knows these woods like the back of his hand. I would bet anything he knows about the shack. And I’m certain he had something to do with a suspicious death before. Question is, could he have done that?”
Corvina shook her head even as snippets of memories flashed through her brain.
Him coming out of the woods immediately after their group that day.
Him getting angry that she’d gone to the shack.
Him not telling her what happened to his grandfather.
She hearing the female voice for the first time right after talking to him.
Corvina walked up, and considered, truly considered if the man she loved with her whole being was capable of murder. She didn’t have a single doubt that he was. She could admit that he was dangerous, but she also knew he respected the circle of life, and he wouldn’t mess with it, not unless he had to.
More importantly, despite the flashes, she knew, just knew in her heart of hearts, that he hadn’t done this.
“No,” she told Ajax firmly. “He knows these woods because they’re his. But he didn’t do that. Because if he had?” Corvina turned to the man beside her. “It would’ve been another suspicious death. Not a… grotesque horror like that.”
Ajax considered her words carefully as they emerged into the clearing, life continuing exactly as it had been like a horrific secret hadn’t been hiding minutes away from them.
“You’re right,” Ajax finally spoke, heading towards the Admin Wing. “I will talk to him anyway.”
He paused, studying her for a minute. “He’s a lucky bastard, you know. Most women would’ve run away from him a long time ago, especially after what we just found.”
Corvina huffed a laugh. “You got it all wrong, Ajax. I’m the one people would run away from, and he’s not. He’s the mountain I build my castle on.”
Ajax gave her a little smile at that. “And you really believe he’s not responsible?”
“No,” Corvina vehemently denied. “He’s dark and mysterious and has secrets I’m slowly discovering, but he’s not the evil we saw in that shack.”
Ajax nodded and left her to go find his team, and Corvina headed to the towers, her mind wrapped up in everything she’d witnessed in the shack, confusion and sadness and horror mingling together in an amalgamation she couldn’t differentiate between anymore. She climbed the stone stairs to her room, running her hand over the cool stone railing, gazing out the window on the stairwell at the beautiful day.
She wondered who the female had been, and how her mind could have picked up on her location. She wondered why she had been so brutally treated in death, and how she could’ve actually died.
And she wondered most of all who the silhouette in the locked shack had been, and if it was now out loose on the grounds of the castle.
