"Diamond palace, the best tourist spot of the Stafford village. This place is famous worldwide because of its amazing history and scenery." Ruby said while looking at the beautiful palace in front of her.
Anastasia also stared at the large majestic palace before her. The material that was used on the structure of the palace was white limestone.
This place was like a dream come true. It was giving her the fairytale kind of feeling.
Emily quickly took a picture of the palace "I can't believe it, I am finally here. I have seen this place in my favourite movie called 'the blood in the night' and I heard that the movie was based on the real crown prince of the Stafford village. Is it true?"
Anastasia remembered about the movie.
Blood in the night was a fantasy horror movie that hitted blockbusters in the cinema hall.
The movie plot was really good that's why many tourists from all over the world come to visit this village.
But many years ago. The movie was banned because the movie characters names were based on real people. That's why the producers got a law suit against it.
But it got take down because of the audience support and the ban from the movie was gone.
But Anastasia still had her doubts, Was the crown prince really a vampire like they showed in the movie?
Because as per as she witnessed, this town is filled with many supernaturals. So who knows, if it is true or not?
"Ruby if you don't mind me asking. Was the movie based on the true events? I mean like does that scenes really happened in real life? Because I saw it on the internet and some people believe that it is real."
Hearing that ruby chuckled. "No it is not, the producer of the movie came to this village for a festival, and that time he heard about the story of our crown prince and he got very interested in him. That's why he decided to write a fictional story about him. But yeah, some of the scenes from the movie were in fact real."
It's was truth, when the producer came to the village for attending the new year eve's festival. He heard the story about the crown prince Victor Dalton. like how he was the only surviving member of the royal family after some disaster happened in the diamond palace centuries years ago.
It was the day of the crown prince's wedding. Where he was going to get married to a maiden named Cassandra. But before the wedding ritual was completed, a scary disaster came their way.
It is still unknown about what happened at that time. but many people connects it with witchcraft because many witches used to lurk around in that time of period.
All the blue blooded people who attended the wedding. None of them survived.
Even it is impossible to know if Victor Dalton survived that incident. but people assumed that he did survived it, because his dead body was no where to be found on the spot. Unlike his family and the other people.
It was also rumored that his fiance Cassandra's body also disappeared from the grave where it was kept in right 1 year after that incident.
Like that, a lot of bizarre things happened in the Stafford village but today's generation don't believes them. because there is no exact proof that all these incidents were in fact real.
But it doesn't matter anymore, if Victor and his fiance did survived the incident then they might not be alive now. Because it has past 1000 years till that time.
Total 567 people lost their lives in that period.
Some died in the diamond palace and the others died while fighting the war. This whole village was a mess at that time. That's why that period of time was known as the 'red blood century'
"Huh? A red blood century? Who knew that the place that looked so beautiful might have a tragic past like this"
Ruby nodded "I agree, even though there is no proof about it but I think this story is real because I can sense the sadness hidden in this place."
Anastasia was taken aback when she heard this. She thought that she was the only one who is feeling this way. But in reality, she is not the only one who senses this place's feelings. Looks like ruby is also an empath like her.
"But the gate is locked! I want to explore this place from inside." Emily yelled while trying to open the gates lock.
"Emily stop it! Don't do that" Anastasia is not going to repeat that mistake again. Once when she entered the forbidden area, she is still regretting till this time. But it is not going to happen again.
Ruby took out a key from her pocket "We can go inside, but I don't know if I should do this or not"
Anastasia looked at her in confusion "how did you have the key?"
Ruby looked at her and responded "My father is a gate keeper of this place. Currently, he is attending the funeral. That's why he gave it to me so I can take care of it, but if you want"
Before ruby could complete her sentence, Emily jumped in between "Yes, go ahead, open it. I can't wait to be inside it and take selfies"
"Emilia Alexandra De Rossi" Anastasia glared at her that made Emily shut. Whenever Anastasia calls her by her full name. She always understood that the matter was serious.
"It's okay ruby, we can go to some other place. I don't want to put you in trouble because of us." She would feel bad if that happens.
"No it is alright, we could go inside, there is no problem. This place is empty now because of everyone being in the funeral, but you could go inside it. I promise nothing will happen. My father will not scold me if I told him that you are related to nanna. So don't worry."
"But Ruby."
"No but, just trust me, it will be better if you explore this place now. Otherwise, if you came here tomorrow then you couldn't fully enjoy the atmosphere. This place is very crowded in the morning that's why I am telling you, let's go." Ruby opened the lock with the key but she heard her a man's voice from behind her.
"What are you kids doing there?" That voice surprised ruby. She turned around and looked at the person.
"Father!?" What are you doing here? I thought you were in the funeral."
"I was, but I didn't saw you there. That's why I came here looking for you. But what are you doing here?" He said while looking at Anastasia and Emilia.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you." She hitted her head "Nanna told me to show them our village that's why I bought them here. So please daddy, can you allow us to go inside? Otherwise, they can't enjoy the real view of this place." Ruby asked while looking at him pleadingly.
The man was going to say no because he got a strict warning from Isabelle that he will not let her grand daughters go in any restricted area alone, but looking at his daughter's face he couldn't say no to her.
"Fine! But come out fast and don't roam too deep in this place. It is under construction." He looked at Anastasia "please take care of yourselves otherwise Isabelle will be mad at me"
Anastasia nodded "sure uncle, I promise that I will take care of everything."
Ruby hugged her father tightly. "Thank you, daddy. You are the best."
"Yeah now go inside. I will keep watch in the entrance."
Anastasia looked at the father daughter duo lovingly. Their interaction touched her heart. If only she had. Uhh! No thinking about that.
"Now let's go inside" Ruby dragged them both with her inside the palace.
The palace was just as big as she thought from outside. The garden was the most beautiful part of this palace. There were plenty of different kinds of flowers on the ground and a beautiful little pond where frogs were jumping.
There were plenty of interesting things to explore there but the one that caught her eyes was the painting room.
There was a large big potrait hanging around the wall of many people's.
"So this is the painting of the crown prince Victor Dalton." She showed a potrait of a tall man with a Victorian era clothing and he was holding a huge sword in his hand. But she don't know why, but his picture was making her very anxious. It was not her who was anxious. It was someone else.
"Damn, is it just me or he is really hot to be living in a medieval era. What the hell? Am I into older guys?" Emily said while clicking his picture but she was stopped by ruby because taking photos were banned there.
"And this is his younger sister princess Amara Dalton." She showed a potrait of a beautiful blonde woman who was dressed in a purple long dress. She had flower jewellery on her ear and her neck.
"The casting director really did a great job. I couldn't find the difference between these people and the actors. Let's give a clap to them." Emily was very impressed with the potrait but she felt little confused. She kept looking between princess Amara's potrait and then stared towards Anastasia.
"Anna I don't know if it is just me, but your facial features are very similar to princess Amara. But the only difference is. She is blonde and you are brunette."
Anastasia who was staring anxiously at Victor's photo turned to them and glanced at the princess Amara's potrait. That's a bullshit, she looks nothing like her. "What the hell are you talking about Emily? I don't look like her."
Ruby decided to barge into their conversation "I am sorry for coming between your talks. But even I think that you resemble princess Amara a little bit. She was declared a beauty in her era. You don't look like her fully but you look similar to her in the eye area. You both possessed a similar green eye. And that eye color is very rare. maybe that's why we are confused."
"Sometimes I think that if we are related or not. I mean we are blood related sisters but your eyes are green and my eyes are blue. Why is that?" Emily asked because she was curious to know. but it unknowingly hurted Anastasia's feelings. Is she trying to say that they are not related with each other?
"Emilia it sometimes connects with your ancestor's genes too. That's why maybe Anastasia has a green eyes. Don't think much about it. Let me show you the big fountain that is placed in the garden." Ruby took Emily with her to show the fountain. But Anastasia stayed on the same spot. Her stomach was feeling weird because of being anxious and she knew who is doing that.
She let out a frustrated groan "Mimi what do you want!? This thing is making me upset so stop doing that." When she said that her anxiousness stopped.
She took a deep breath to feel calm again. "Fine, now tell me what do you want me to do?" She closed her eyes tightly and started to meditate to hear her voice clearly.
[Victor]
Anastasia felt dazed when she heard it. Victor? What is Mimi trying to tell her?
"Mimi I really don't understand anything you are saying." But then suddenly her body started to move on its own and pushed her towards victor's potrait.
She felt a sudden urge to touch the painting and she did. But doing that, it made her transported in another place. She started to bang the wall where she came from but it didn't worked.
Where the hell am I? Am I trapped again like I was in the forbidden area? She thought to herself. She should stop coming to these kinds of old places. it always ends badly for her.
"Talk to me" she tried to connect with Mimi but it didn't worked.
She looked at the place where she currently was and saw that she was outside in the garden. How did she came here? Just by touching the painting? Did it had a portal or something?
As she went forward ahead. She saw a unexpected thing. She was currently standing on a graveyard.