Mr Night

𝟓𝟎| 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫

-HER-

"You cannot do this to him," I gritted at him.

"Trust me, he'll be fine. He was made to do things like that," He assured me before telling an address to the cabbie. It wasn't his address.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked him in confusion but my question remained unanswered as the cabbie whipped the horses before we were headed towards the city.

A momentary silence between the two of us as he busied himself by staring out of the window while I sat beside him, processing everything that happened at the dock. I was still very much concerned about Filth's wellbeing but with the way Romulus sounded confident about him, I decided that he must be fine but still nothing was making sense.

"Who were those men?" I asked after a while when I had calmed down a bit. He remained silent, staring out of the window, "Were they Godwick's men?" I asked him but he remained silent.

"Romulus, who were those men!" I demanded.

"I think I might have made new enemies," He replied, still staring out of the window. I couldn't see his face because he was turned away from me but I could hear it in his voice that he was in deep thoughts.

"Why? What did you do this time?"

"I simply need to exist to have enemies," He responded with a sarcastic tone, still looking out of the window. I didn't know what to make of it. All I could do was sit there and stare at his silhouette inside the cab.

Usually, he was composed but at that moment, I couldn't help but notice how he was slightly slouching. Maybe it was the small space of the cab but it made him look like he was feeling defeated. I had this urge to place my hand over his shoulder and lean into him but I decided against it.

"Where are we going now, Romulus?" I asked him softly.

"Somewhere safe for a while," I thought I heard him sigh. Indeed, it was the strangest evening of my life. Stranger than the evening I saw him killing Godwick's servant and even stranger than the evening when he kidnapped me from my aunt's house in a respectful manner.

He truly was the gentlest man I had ever encountered.

"And where is this place?" I asked him, looking out of the window. We were currently headed towards the residential area of the upper class. My question was answered when the carriage stopped in front of a huge house. He paid and helped me out of the carriage while I judged the house.

"Is this one of your houses?" I asked him before he led me through the gates.

"A friend's," He told me as we walked down the garden. I couldn't help but look around frantically. My senses were still high and the adrenaline was still rushing through my veins. I was ready to take down anything that might jump out of the bushes and attack me. Though nothing like that happened. When we reached the doorstep, Romulus gently knocked before a servant answered the door.

We were let inside the house by the servant. I was busy gawking at the beautiful house while I heard Romulus talking to the servant in a hushed voice before a stout woman walked down the stairs. She smiled warmly as soon as she saw Romulus.

"Oh my, look who's here after such a long time! How are you? We haven't heard from you for a while!" The woman inquired as she descended down the stairs. I watched the two of them like a hawk meanwhile.

"I am fine, Veronica. Is Warner here? It's urgent," Romulus responded politely. At this, the woman named Veronica nodded and responded, "He's in his office,"

"I shall see him there then. Thank you for hosting me and—" Romulus abruptly stopped and looked over his shoulder. It was as if he had forgotten about me momentarily. It was at that moment that Veronica finally noticed me. "I shall talk to you later," With that Romulus left. I stood there awkwardly looking between Veronica and the servant.

"Hello there," she greeted me with a warm smile.

"Good evening," I greeted back cautiously.

"I think it's going take Romulus a while. Why don't you come to the parlour until then?" She offered politely. I nodded and decided to get along with her even though I couldn't understand how she referred to Romulus by his first name. "I'm Veronica Lockhart," she introduced herself on the way.

"Pleased to meet you. I'm Ophelia Maynard,"

"That's such a beautiful name. Where do you live?" She proceeded to ask me all the casual questions while she offered me some tea. Her parlour was really beautiful and Veronica also seemed to be of kind nature so I slowly let my guard down. I found out from her that Romulus was here to talk with her husband. The conversation was headed very normally before she finally asked me the question.

"So, are you Romulus's acquaintance?"

"I'm actually his guest," I told her curtly, not knowing if I should let her know more. Though the fact that I was his guest made her look more astonished at me than I would have imagined. Her eyebrows went up before she tilted her head at a side and scanned me from head to toe with a new spark in her eyes. Suddenly, she seemed to be more interested in me.

She offered me a smile, "Romulus doesn't really get that many guests, especially someone like you. I wonder how you two met,"

I shifted awkwardly in my seat and flashed her a nervous smile and the interest in her eyes seemed to increase. She was smiling at me as if she knew something about me that I didn't know. I decided to change the subject.

"You seem to know Mr Night well," I noted. At this, she laughed and replied, "Oh, I certainly would. After all, I have known him since he was a boy. We have been good friends since then. Good times," She told me while the smile faded from her lips and her eyes looked tragic. she looked in the distance as she sipped her tea.

"So, how long have you been his guest?" She enquired.

"For a while," I answered. Apart from measuring strange instruments and doing complex calculations, if anything else that I had learned from Romulus then it was the art of giving vague answers.

She gently nodded as she looked at me more keenly.

"So, you're only his guest?" She asked even more keenly. I knew what she meant by that but I wasn't sure how she would react upon being told that I also blackmailed him to employ me and that we kissed now and then.

"Yes, his guest," I nodded while sipping the tea a bit louder. She stared at me for a bit longer before nodding.

"His guest," she repeated more to herself before saying, "I know that this might come off as rude but I just want to be sure," and leaned in and asked in a low voice, "what are you?"

I didn't know how to respond. I stared at her in confusion.

"W-what do you mean?" I asked her grimly.

"I meant, what are you? Are you a witch, a healer, a werewol-"

"I'm a human," I interrupted her because the more she kept going on with those names, the more I was reminded of that gambling night. A shiver ran down my spine just thinking about it. Though Veronica looked at me as if she wasn't convinced by my answer.

She leaned in further and asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," I asserted grimly. She gave me an apologetic smile before she leaned back in her chair.

"I sincerely apologize. I didn't mean to upset you. It's just that... I find it slightly strange that Romulus will take interest in humans," she said the last bit so casually as if Romulus wasn't himself a human. Seeing the confused look on my face, she instantly changed the subject.

"Anyway, what did you say your last name was again?"