The Other Lord - Chapter 1. The Doll

“…and the prince as well as the princess lived happily ever after.” Mrs Rose Melton closed the book and placed it by her daughter’s bedside.

Alice, who was busy making playful hand gestures, looked at her mother with her green, emerald like eyes full of innocence, “Mother! Are happily ever after stories true?”

Rose smiled and placed her hand lovingly on her daughter’s head, “Every person has his own story sweetheart.How the story unfolds depends on the choices one makes.”

Alice immediately sprang up on her bed and with enlarged eyes spoke, “But mama! You didn’t let me keep Anna.”

Rose looked at her for a second.She knew the doll was precious for her daughter.It was gifted to the child by the Lord of Nightfall himself.

She had been worried when Alice had gone to spend time at the castle of the Lord of Blackmist. She knew the castle was not safe.It was difficult for her to send her only child to a place where the vampires were aplenty.

However, she had to agree to her daughter’s demands as Alice wanted to see her cousin Mia, who was working at the castle as a maid.She had become adamant and wanted to see her sister.Rose was apprehensive about sending Alice as she was her only family left after the death of her husband.

Night and day she used to wonder how her seven year old girl must be living alone in a palace full of vampires.However, she took solace in the fact that her child was living with Mia, her niece, who was working as a cook in the royal castle.

Mia came into Rose’s life when both her parents were killed by a rogue vampire.Her dying mother had asked Rose to take care of her little daughter.Since then Rose was like a mother figure to her.She had brought her up as her own child and by a series of fateful events had now become the queen of Empire of Blackmist by marrying Lord Damian.

Rose had been glad and relieved when her daughter Alice had finally come back home unharmed.But she was alarmed when she saw her daughter clutching a beautiful doll.Upon enquiry, Alice had revealed that it had been a gift from Lord Nicholas, the Lord of Nightfall Empire.He was the younger brother of Lord Damian.

‘Anna’, that was the name of the doll.She got to know about Alice’s new friendship with the Lord of Nightfall as she went on talking about him endlessly.

Rose grew worried.It wasn’t right for such an innocent child to be involved with vampires.So, she had asked her daughter to get rid of the doll.

“But mama! I love her! Nick has given it to me!” She had held the doll tightly in her little hands with tears flowing down her cheeks.

“It is Lord Nicholas, Alice!” Her mother had reprimanded her.”You can’t keep the doll sweetie.It’s not right for you to keep something so expensive.He is a Lord of an empire.They are different from us.They are vampires.It is not right for a human to be so involved with them.”

Alice ran away with the doll in her hand.Her mother shocked at first, ran after her.The mother daughter duo ran throughout the small house.Finally her mother caught up with her and grabbed the little child by her arm.

Alice tried to resist, her hands tightly holding on to the doll and trying to free it from her mother’s strong clutches.

The little girl wailed, her face wet with incessant tears but her mother was determined to free her daughter from the clutches of the Vampire Lord.

She snatched Anna, leaving the poor child crying in a corner.She covered herself in a shawl trying to hide the doll from suspicious eyes and tip toed outside the house in the chilly night.

Her eyes wandered over the almost deserted street with only a few men and women outside.

The vampires usually roamed freely at night but luckily for her tonight they were busy partying at a local bar. She had avoided footwear in order to make minimum noise as the vampires were sensitive to sounds.

Her feet felt cold as they came in contact with the ground and her eyes looked around in all the directions cautiously, trying to sense any potential danger.

She started walking towards the end of the street and finally reached a place where the townsfolk dumped the usual garbage.

She took out the doll, gave one last look at its smiling face and without a thought dumped it into the garbage.She then quickly turned around and made her way back to her house.Alice had not talked to her for days after that incident.

At present, she looked into her daughter’s eyes and pondered over her innocent query.What should she answer her? She was too naive to understand.She lovingly brought out her hand and placed it on her daughter’s cheeks while giving her a sad smile, “You are too young dear.Young children cannot make choices on their own.Their parents do that for them.”

Alice narrowed her forehead, “This is not fair.I will make my own choices when I grow up!” Saying this she jerked away her mother’s hand, fell back onto her bed and rolled over to the other side.

Her mother’s mouth slightly opened in surprise, her eyes slightly enlarged at her daughter’s defiance but she covered her daughter with a warm blanket and headed towards the door.She gave one last look at her daughter before closing the door behind.

It was pitch dark outside Alice’s bedroom window but there was a dark figure of someone standing outside.He had slightly long hair that reached his ears.He looked at little Alice’s sleeping form, the way her eyes were closed and the slow rhythmic sound of her breath while she was sleeping.He then turned around and was gone into the darkness.