Belle Adams Butler - Chapter 406
Music Recommendation: Placebo – Running Up That Hill
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Belle took upon herself to get closer to the man and woman who stood in the forest, moving behind one tree to another, to make sure it was the person whom she thought it was. She could only tell that it was because of her having the abilities of the Hawvert’s bone in her, she was able to see and detect things.
At first, when she had come to know about who Lucas was, about him being a Grim reaper, Belle had questioned about the creatures who came from the land of the dead. When Lucas was not around, she had sneaked away to go and find more in the old libraries which not many visited. There were no books but only heaps of parchments. As expected, there was no sighting informed or spread by anyone for it to be written down.
The mortals who belonged to the land of the living, were not supposed to know about the existence of the dead. People of the dead didn’t have feelings, at least that is what Lucas had told her. She now understood why Lucas could fall in love. It was because of his creator. The Hawvert could feel those things and it had been passed on to the Grim reapers whom he had created.
“What took you so long?” asked the man, looking down at the girl.
Preciosa, who still had her hood over her head, raised her hand to place it on the man’s cheek, as if wanting to caress it. But her hand fell down to her side, “I need you to leave this place.”
“Why?” asked the man. When the branches moved away due to the wind, more light fell on the two person and Belle could see the man had black eyes and fangs.
When they heard a rustle behind, Preciosa turned back to see who it was. The hood over her head slid back to reveal her silver long hair that had been hidden, “My parents have found out about you. They know you are here, and who you are, Crane.”
“Come with me,” he said to her. The girl looked taken aback by this, “We can leave this place and I will look after you.”
“I cannot do that,” Preciosa said, taking a step back and turning away from him. “You don’t know the villagers are here. They will find and kill you.”
Crane placed his hands on both of her shoulders before turning her around. The girl had big fat tears in her eyes that only glimmered without falling down from her eyes.
“We are not like the white witches,” she said to him, “The blood we have is impure. The basic nature to take things, and avenge-”
“You are nothing like that,” Crane replied to her, “You are anything but not like those people. Isn’t that a good reason why you should come with me?”
Preciosa appeared to think and weigh on his words. Her eyebrows furrowed and her face looked sad. A tear slipped out of her eye, trailing down her cheek, “They want to kill you. I don’t want anything to happen to you. I am the daughter of a standing witch. They sent me here to give you the poison. This hunt will never end.”
“Did you bring the poison?” asked Crane. Preciosa nodded her head, pulling out the flask she had been given. “You don’t want to come with me. You want me to stay safe. I want you with me. What shall we do?” he asked her.
Preciosa’s eyes started to shed more tears, sadness covering her face. Crane put his hands around the girl to hug her.
Belle who was watching this wide-eyed felt awkward to be standing here, watching them with her intrusive presence which the couple was unaware of. She then heard Preciosa say,
“Give me sometime. I will get some of my things and we can leave,” Preciosa looked at Crane after pulling away from him. They both smiled, and shared a short kiss.
“I will be here, waiting for you,” Crane said and she gave him a nod.
Guilt and Wrath were willing to risk their positions as the original Grims for love because Crane was once in love with a girl! A mortal! Right now, Belle doubted that he was a reaper and was just a normal person. If he wasn’t a reaper, how many years did she travel back in the past? Questioned Belle to herself.
But then, there were also Grim reapers like Greed who was attached to Lucas while Barron wanted to bring Ophelia back to life.
She doubted the Hawverts told the truth to the creatures of the dead. The Hawverts were once a mortal, living in the land of the living.
Preciosa who had left Crane’s side was going to die. It was why Belle was here in the first place. So Preciosa was a witch. There were only two kinds of witches Belle knew of. If Preciosa was not a white witch, it meant she was a black witch. But how strange that she didn’t look like the normal black witches did, thought Belle to herself.
Crane didn’t have red eyes, which made her believe that even though he had fangs, he was not a vampire.
And though she was here for the girl, Belle couldn’t move as the man who was waiting for the witch was none other than one of the Hawvert, Crane.
Minutes passed by but Preciosa didn’t return to the forest. Crane seemed to have sensed something wrong happened to Preciosa and he walked in the trail that was left by the witch. Belle followed him, getting out of the forest to see fire that was blazing up somewhere in the village. She was Crane run towards the village and where the fire could be seen.
“NOOO!” Belle heard a female scream.
When she reached the place, her footsteps came to a stop. She noticed Preciosa whose hands and legs were tied as she laid on the ground. On the other side, Crane had fallen on his knees. A man stood behind him who had staked through Crane’s back, near the shoulder.