It took a few more days for Belle to get better and when she felt like she could leave the mansion without any problem, she decided to meet the ghoul that was reporting back to her with the girl"s possible death. It was more than half an hour since she had been following the ghoul, walking through the forest, "Where are you taking me?"
The ghoul didn"t respond to her and she could only wonder if she had met up with another ghoul of Lord Nicholas, "We have been walking for quite some time now. It"s been really long since I last walked so much," she said, filling up the silence around them and to receive no response.
Was the ghoul not in the mood to speak to her?
"Did you not have tea?"
"No tea," came the answer and Belle nodded her head. Maybe if he didn"t have his tea, the ghoul would turn moody, thought Belle to herself. What a strange creature, "We here," it said when they reached the end of the forest, which looked like it was the end but it was a land of empty s.p.a.ce before more trees came to follow on the other side.
"Where is this place?" asked Belle as she had never been here before. With no one around them, Belle looked around to see if they were going to do something. The ghoul stood in front of the large rocks, staring at it, and Belle looked at the ghoul who stood there quietly before it finally raised its boney hands to move as if it was wiping the window to bring out a black and grey smoke of mist appearing around it.
The smoke moved in a circular motion and the ghoul turned around to look at Belle, "Come."
Come where?!
If she didn"t know the ghoul was helping Vivian, she would have guessed that the ghoul was trying to abduct her right now. While holding its hands, she had to be extremely careful to push away the other things it was involved with. The number of deaths that took place in its hands, Belle could tell this was the rippling effect.
Saving one life ended with many other lives being taken away.
The ghoul entered the smoke-like circle and Belle looked behind her to see no one around. She took a step forward, one step after another before her hands touched the smoke and she felt herself being pulled inside it.
By the time she opened her eyes, Belle noticed the sun s.h.i.+ning brightly and there was no hint of snow here as the ground looked clean and neat.
Belle turned around, the smoke was gone and she was in Bonelake but at the same time, she knew this wasn"t the same place she grew in. The sun was never this bright even after rain or the scarce time when the weather changed itself.
"Where are we?" she questioned the ghoul.
"Our place."
Hearing this, Belle turned to look at the ghoul, "Our place? You and?"
"Narcissus," said the ghoul, starting to walk forward and Belle continued to walk right behind it.
"This is not the land of the dead, but it"s not the land of the living either," the ghoul"s place, thought Belle to herself, "There are actual people," whispered Belle when she noticed a man walking past them.
Belle continued to walk, knowing this was Bonelake, she started to roam around finding it odd that there were different versions of the world that could run parallel to the currently existing one. She met people who she knew from the real world.
"Belle what are you doing there?" she heard her mother call from behind and her eyes filled up with tears. Turning around to see her mother who walked towards her.
"Mama…" Belle whispered.
"What am I going to do with your habit of wandering around?" asked her mother, "You said you saw someone familiar but then you disappeared so quickly. Come now. We have finished shopping, it is time we go back home."
Belle could feel her heart brewing with anxiousness, "W-what about papa?" she inquired, her voice hopeful. Seeing in her dreams and seeing now, she could somewhere put her mind and heart in peace with the way they looked.
"He"s gone to work. He will be back soon once he"s done," her mother said, "Let"s go back," as her mother tugged her, Belle looked behind her to see the ghoul had disappeared.
Belle followed her mother who was alive and breathing. She was not dead here. Her face was not damaged and crushed but it was whole as she was used to seeing before the death had taken away both her parents. She got on the carriage with her mother and the coachman started the carriage for the horses to start moving.
Belle couldn"t stop looking at her mother as everything felt like a dream right now. Her mother noticed this, and asked, "Is everything alright, Belle?"
"I missed you, mama," confessed Belle.
"You were away from me for fifteen minutes," her mother patted her head, "Come here," she said opening her arms and Belle hugged her mother in the carriage.
She loved her parents and she had tried too hard not to think about their absence of how they would never be returning back to life. Of how she wouldn"t be able to spend time with them in the drawing-room, talking to them, having meals together. And though she didn"t regret how she was with her mother and father, she missed them terribly.
Her mother rubbed her back, "This is why I said not to run away. You keep disappearing every time we step into the market like a child," her mother pulled away, a smile on her lips, "Smile now. I heard you have been skipping the dance gla.s.s. How has it been going on?" asked her mother.
"I was occupied with something," Belle"s words came out soft, "I will join back again."
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