The man who was hanging on the tree had been put down where Lucas had dug a grave for the man. Pus.h.i.+ng all the mud and placing a plant on top of it, he looked up at the sky that thundered above him. The rain would make sure the mud would sit in right, and with the thought, he placed the accessories he had used elsewhere which was hidden and out of sight. With Mr. Robinson gone, Lucas realized there was Belle"s relatives who had to deal with too. Killing was what he would prefer but he was no idiot to not know how people around would get suspicious with the number of increased missing people in the same society. Though death was the end here in the living and the beginning in the land of the dead, he had to find another way to push her family out of the family portrait.
By the time Lucas had returned back to the mansion, he was drenched in the rainwater and the wounds, the stains of blood on his lips and on his coat had washed away. Stepping inside the mansion he was ready to dry himself with a snap of his fingers if it weren"t for Belle who caught him in the halls.
"You haven"t gone to bed," he stated, not moving from his position and Belle was the one who walked up to him.
"I was waiting for you to come back home," the girl was in her nightdress, her brownish red hair open that had been combed through and through after she had slipped into the nightclothes.
Home, thought Lucas to himself. The word brought back nostalgic memories, "Didn"t the maid inform you about me returning back home late?" he asked her.
Belle nodded at him, "She did but I thought to wait for you," she offered him a smile and Lucas returned it back with a polite one.
"It is quite late," he said, his eyes moving to look at the clock that was fixed on the wall. It was two past eleven in the night.
"Where were you? She said you were going to get provision. Did you find the lead on who is helping the witches?" Belle fired him with questions.
"It isn"t your relatives but someone else who is urging your relatives to not only get the property but also who poisoned your parents," Lucas answered her and started to walk towards him and Belle followed along. Far behind, Barron who was in the stuffed rabbit made his way towards them without wanting to blow up his cover. He wanted to hear what they were speaking.
"Who is it?" Belle asked, wondering who it was.
"The Harriets," answered Lucas, "Mr. and Mrs. Harriet have lost their child."
"That"s not possible. Jill is very much alive and I saw her a few days ago…"
"The person you saw is not Jill but a switcher. Someone who has been replaced to act like their daughter," Lucas informed her, "The girl was killed two years ago," Belle looked at him shocked. She had met the girl and her behavior had been the same, "Switchers when they take a person"s form. They pick more than the outer appearance. Voice, characteristics of the person that have impersonated."
Lucas stopped walking and Belle paused her footsteps, "Thanks to the black witches, the switchers who come from the land of the dead have taken forms and have started to live in the society like parasites. Removing them will be extremely difficult. If I am not wrong there is one or two in the council right now."
The council?
"If you were planning to join the council, the council right now is not safe for you. And the council members are trying to figure out what"s going on and what"s happening."
"How do you identify a switcher?"
"In the land of the dead, it is depicted as they look similar to the shadows with no proper outline. They have no shape, they move everywhere except in water. They cannot handle water but here, here they perspire. You will feel their palms wet, their forehead covered in sweat."
Belle was worried right now. As if one problem wasn"t enough, it was like an outpour of issues they were finding left and right and it seemed like everything came from the land of the dead, "Is there no way to fix it? Is there no order or law there?"
"What do I say, creatures can be lazy. The problems started a few months or years ago, it"s just that we are finding out about it now," he answered to her, "The best way is to have you learn how to control your ability and how you can elaborate it. If I am not wrong, your ability has not reached more than five percent. You are not able to foresee everyone"s death."
"What are we going to do about the Harriets?" Belle asked as their daughter Jill was a switcher.
"Would you like to meet the switcher tomorrow?" Lucas asked her and Belle looked at him in surprise. He wanted her to meet an enemy? "Don"t worry about the switcher. If we want to learn something about someone, it is best to get the information through that very person rather than find it by someone else, don"t you think so?" he gave her a rea.s.suring smile that everything would go well.
When the next day arrived, another person was reported to go missing which was none other than the man named Henry Robinson.
But Belle hadn"t read the news that was given out by the newsletter as Lucas had taken the paper and had hidden it from her so that she could concentrate on what they were going to do. Belle"s ability was a tricky one where they could not see a result or do anything unless there was a death involved and it was prime time to pick some of the switchers.
As Lucas was a reaper, he couldn"t take too many lives but he did it anyway to make sure there were no thorns in Belle"s path but Belle could do it. Right now she could sense but he knew there would be a day where she could take people"s lives with a mere touch of her hand.