"My father still hasn't woken up," Leiah confessed, chewing on the side of her finger as she rested her other hand on her black garments. "I don't want to think anything bad, but I'm terrified Hallow. What if he's very ill? I must take him to a doctor."
The king polished the metal on his curved boots with a spare rag, wiping away what looked like dried blood. "A doctor? Why didn't you say so before? I know an excellent one who would be more than delighted to tend to your father."
Leiah's head perked up, and she leaned forward at the edge of her seat, "Please call them quick. I'll be eternally grateful."
Hallow liked it when humans begged, especially Leiah. It made him feel much more proud of himself. "Very well! I'll make sure Doctor Death arrives here before dinner."
"Doctor Death? That name doesn't sound very nice."
"Ohoho, dont let his name fool you! He is very skilled in whatever it is he does. Why, I've asked for his service before and he has always produced gory- I mean, good results." Hallow made sure to omit any details on how the "doctor" was actually a vampire who liked to open up and play with people's insides.
"If you say he's good then I trust you." Leiah confessed with an honest smile. She stood up from her chair and picked up a glass of wine resting on a table beside her. "So much has been going on since you have arrived, Hallow. I'm still finding it hard to belive this isn't a dream."
She rested her hand on the window sill before her, looking down upon the lit village down below. Monster and humans both mingled around, but she was too far away to figure out what they were doing.
Hallow made his way beside the girl, slyly placing his large hand directly on top of hers. She would have pulled away from embarrassment, but it was clear that she didnt want to. With the most serious face she could muster, Leiah casually glanced up at her morbid companion and parted her lips.
"Why do you care so much about me? We've only just met, and yet you're treating me like we're-," she paused for a short moment, laughing nervously to herself before continuing, "Like we've been lovers for a long time."
Hallow used his free claw and gently rested it against the woman's delicate cheek, going through a list of things he should say to win the woman's heart even further. "It is the universe, uniting both our souls and fufilling our destiny."
"Our destiny?" Leiah echoed, repeating the word in her head a few times before Hallow cut her off.
"Perhaps if I wore the typical skin all boring humans wear, you would feel more comfortable around me."
"No, it's not that. I just need to...find out..." Leiah stopped talking, and she began to fidget with the hem of her sleeves like a timid child. Hallow wasn't all too sure what was going on, and he bent down to get a better look at the princess's face.
"Are you well, my lovely Leiah? Have I-?"
He was cut off guard by a pair of soft lips crashing against his pumpkin forehead. Before the king had time to react, Leiah whirled away and hurried down the empty hall without a sound. All Hallow could do was watch as she vanished like a ghost, leaving him alone and at a loss for words. He placed a palm against the area she had kissed him, and the fire in his skull suddenly went dim.
It was the first time Hallow wasn't sure how to react to such an unexpected act, and that made him feel baffled with himself. He cleared his throat loudly, marching away from where Leiah had run off to.
It would be best for the both of them to have some time alone, he thought. The princess was most likely fretting over what she had done, and he wouldnt know what to say to calm her down. Besides, it was like Catarina had said before. He needed to be patient and make Leiah believe that all he wanted was peace and harmony for everyone currently in the kingdom. If he continued pushing her for a response to his proposal, she would surely realize that something wasn't right. The lives of his citizens relied on her approving and giving herself over to him. If he made one mistake, everything would be finished.
Hallow was much too distracted with his own thoughts to take notice of a pair of feet dangling directly over head. He paused the moment the bare toes grazed gently against the top of his pumpkin skull, sending an unwanted wave of tingles over his body. With an irritated sigh, he stepped to one side and glanced upwards, examining whatever it was that had touched him.
The King wasn't one to be taken off guard so easily, but it appeared that that day was full of unanticipated surprises. He took another step back, watching as the hanging, blue corpse strung from the wooden beams up above rocked slowly to and fro.
"By God," Hallow spoke with an incredulous look at the corpse in their sleeping gown, placing a hand over where his heart would have been if he had one. "The king doesn't use undergarments! This is positively disturbing and my eyes will not burn any further than they already have. Vicky!" The angry shout caused a young girl hiding behind one of the beams to jump in shock and slip off the thin structure she thought hid her well. She was barely hanging on for dear life, and it was apparent Hallow wouldn't be there for her when she dropped.
"Explain to me what is happening, my mischievous wretch?" He boomed, looking around and making sure Leiah wasn't present to witness her dead father hanging high. "Did I give you instructions to murder this gelatinous pile of flesh? Did I?!"
Vicky shook her head vigorously, trying to think of something to say that would calm Hallow down before he went berserk. "I'm sorry? I thought I could help, and you said you didn't care if he died."
"You dirty rat!" Hallow leaped up towards the girl, digging his unusually sharp pumpkin teeth into the wooden board that held the king's lifeless body. The fire in his skull turned unusally dark and his voice became even deeper than usual. Swinging his body up so it wouldn't be left dangling, he reached out for a squealing Vicky and latched on tight to her body, squeezing tight as he brought her tiny face closer to his furious one.
"He was supposed to die in front of everyone so no one can point fingers at us and lead an uprising! Now that he has died with no witnesses, those filthy humans will be suspicious!" Hallow screeched like a crazed animal, hating how he thought everything was going so well, only to be slapped in the face with another problem.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't rip off your empty head and devour your blood."
"Because I'm your niece?" Vicky replied weakly, a nervous giggle escaping her lips as Hallow's eyes burned a deep red. He opened his jaw, clearly unsatisfied with the response and much too angry to give a damn if they were related.
"Wait! You're upset 'cuz then Leiah won't say yes to you, huh? She'll be too sad that her dad's dead and she won't feel okay getting married, right? Right?"
Hallow didn't respond, but it was clear that he was still fuming mad. Vicky knew that she would have been lunch by now, so she continued talking and hoped that her king wouldn't be so upset at the end.
"What if he suddenly came back to life and told his daughter to follow her heart and marry you? Then after the wedding he dies, but by then who cares?"
Hallow snorted loudly, loosening his grip on the child just a bit, "And how do you suggest we do that? I don't have enough energy to bring the bastard back and trick his daughter."
Vicky grinned, as if she had everything all planned out. With a reassuring wave of her hand, she calmly replied, "I heard you were going to bring Doctor Death around. He can do anything, for the right price. Why don't you explain the situation to him when he comes and I'm sure he'll be happy to help."
Hallow's heaving chest died down, and he calmly dropped the child in his grasp onto the floor. It took him a while to come back to his senses, but in the end he was grinning at his niece despite threatening to eat her up a few moments ago.
"Yes, of course. The doctor will definitely enjoy this challenging task we have prepared for him."
He swung backwards from the banister like a bat, playfully pushing his future father in law's body to one side. "If this works out, then the princess and I will be married in a matter of days."
Vicky nodded with both satisfaction and relief. She was about to turn and tiptoe away from her uncle, but Hallow forced her to stop with a few strict words. "Don't think you're off the hook, little one. I'll have your mother deal with you later, and I don't think she will show you mercy."
Hallow motioned for the fearful girl to go away, undoing the rope that strangled the king of Feria's neck. If he was lucky, the good doctor of his would be able to bring life into the dead man and hopefully fool everyone. However, if he wasn't, then he was sure that his time in the world of the living would come to a complete end.