Forbidden Darkness

Chapter 2

The tiny interior of the inn flooded with the ambrosial smell of the feast that was being cooked in the small back kitchen. Augustine breathed in the sweet scent and felt a flush of warmth travel through her body. There was always a type of a party every time somebody was selected to hunt a vampire, and Augustine couldn't help but smile at how the celebration for her turned out. She joyfully skipped down the halls from her bedroom to the dining room and grinned as the party scene unraveled in front of her.

Augustine beamed at the beautiful way the room had been decorated. All red and black ornaments and streamers that somehow seemed to compliment the old log-cabin look of the inn. She took a long glance around the room as she stepped in and turned to find Rosaline, whom she remembered planned the party for her.

"Do you like it?" Rosaline asked proudly as she caught Augustine's glance. "Well, I guess it's okay," Augustine replied jokingly and gave a disappointed shrug, but her serious expression quickly cracked into a smile.

"It better be, I spent hours planning this for you," Rosaline said with an exaggerated sigh, continuing to fill the conversation with sarcasm.

"Okay, have you tried the chocolate fondue?" Rosaline asked suddenly as she eyed the snack table in the back of the room. "It's incredible!" She said enthusiastically and skipped to the table to prepare a plate of it for Augustine.

"No, I haven't," Augustine replied and gave a light laugh toward Rosaline's back after her friend had already taken off.

A few moments later, Rosaline returned with a plate full of chocolate-covered strawberries and she quickly shoved one into Augustine's mouth. "See! Amazing, right?" She asked her friend with a grin. "You have to actually let me taste it," Augustine replied and gave a light laugh as she broke the skin of the sweet berry. Her mouth flooded with the fruity taste and she gave a small, pleasured grin. "I guess you were right," Augustine agreed and gave a small nod as she dabbed the smudged chocolate off of the corner of her lip with her thumb. "Oh, and guess what I saw?" Rosaline asked and ran back toward the snack table without waiting for a response.

Augustine lightly shook her head and gave a small, almost inaudible laugh to herself as she waited for her friend to return. She eyed the tables in the room and only saw one that wasn't already taken, which happened to be next to the trashcans in the back corner. She gave a simple roll of her eyes and jaunted over to the table, settling into one of the wooden chairs when she arrived.

"Luckily I got to the snack table when I did. This was the last flyer left," Rosaline spoke after noiselessly creeping up behind Augustine. She slapped a shiny flyer onto the table and pulled out a chair by the table on the opposite side of Augustine.

"Masquerade Ball," Augustine read the headline out loud, furrowing her eyebrows as she did so. "What even is that?" She asked nobody in particular as her eyes scanned over the picture on the flyer.

"Duh, it's one of those parties where everybody wears those pretty masks and there's a lot of food I think," Rosaline responded with a small shrug, obviously not quite knowing what a masquerade ball was either. "So are you going?" She questioned curiously, wanting to hear what Augustine planned to do.

"Would you give me more than two seconds to decide?" Augustine demanded playfully and swept her dark hair over her shoulder to prevent it from dipping in the black-dyed candle placed on the table.

"Fine, fine," Rosaline replied with a light laugh and raised her hands into the air in a surrendering motion.

An idea instantly shocked Augustine, and she desperately hoped that it didn't show in her expression. "Do you know who's going to the ball?" She asked Rosaline, frantically wanting an answer.

"I heard it's a big town thing. I'm sure almost everybody's going. Why do you ask?" Rosaline replied and lifted an eyebrow, wanting to know where Augustine's sudden curiosity came from.

"No reason," Augustine replied with a shrug, trying to play off that she thought of the ball as nothing. If everybody in town was expected to make an appearance, maybe Bridger would also show up. There was no way to know for sure, but if he was planning on going to the ball, Augustine wanted to be there to take care of what she had been assigned to do.

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I just want to say thank you to everybody who decided to stick around for the second part of my story XD I really appreciate that you take the time to read some of my writing, and I'm glad to hear that some of you already enjoy it!

Also, I have become really busy lately, so I may begin to update more slowly. I will still try to update every 3-4 days, but if that doesn't work out, I may update about once a week.

Thank you for understanding, and again, thank you all for checking out my story!