Music Recommendation: Respite- Fredrik Jonasson

Eve and Vincent sat in the tower bell where the bell was hung, facing the other side of the forest and not the town where one could see the celebration of the Carnival of Winter.

They sat near the edge, where Eve had folded her legs and had a water container that rested on her lap. She stared at the vast sky and the forest that stretched.

As they sat up high in the tower, the breeze was faster and tried to ruffle them. She tucked the piece of her hair behind her ear, which only loosened before moving in the direction of the wind. The crowd's chattering could be heard distantly from where they sat, accompanied by the chirping of the crickets.

Vincent sat one step away from Eve, at the edge with his legs hanging in the air. He had his body leaned back which was supported by his hands placed on the dusty platform they sat on.

His eyes moved to the corner, watching her hold a dazed expression. He asked,

"Feeling better?"

Eve gave him a nod. "Better," her reply was short, where she had turned quieter compared to when she had left the tower bell with him earlier.

Her thoughts turned numb seeing the humans, siren and the mermaid die, and the scene sunk in her deeper than when Vincent killed those guards in the dungeon. She asked him,

"What about you?"

A smile cracked on Vincent's lips and he threw his head back, looking at Eve over his shoulder and replied, "Absolutely fantastic. When I accompanied my family, I thought it was going to be a boring walk in the streets until I met you. Just like how life has turned interesting after meeting you."

"Aren't your family going to wonder where you went?"

"They will live without me around them. My dear mother would prefer that way than hear me poke her," a smile was plastered on Vincent's face. As he continued looking at her, Eve opened the top of the container she held and drank water from it. He said, "I realised something."

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Gulping the water, she asked, "What is it?"

"Where you step there is always trouble or you bring trouble, and where I step I bring blood. Isn't that something to think about?" Unlike Eve's dull mood, Vincent's mood was elated and bright, as if he was enjoying the night.

In the back of her head, Eve could still hear the mermaid splash in the water tank. Though she had asked Vincent to go easy on the younger mermaid and turned her back from the scene before he had killed her kind, she didn't know if Vincent had killed the mermaid slowly or if the mermaid's tail had splashed longer even after death. She tried not to ponder on it.

What happened today left an unsettling feeling in her stomach.

Eve's eyes moved to look at Vincent whose gaze had returned to the sky. The night breeze gently moved his silver hair backwards, and his face held an expression of calmness, unfazed by anything.

She asked, "Did you kill a lot of people?"

"Because I am used to killing people? Depends on how much is a lot in your book," replied Vincent. He then shrugged his shoulders, "More than a handful?"

Even two hands wasn't enough to cover half of the death that had taken place in front of her in the dungeon, Eve thought to herself.

"How many have you killed?" He humoured her.

"None," answered Eve, and because of the cold air that swept past them, a shiver ran down her body. Her hands tightened around the water container to stop herself from shivering.

Vincent, who noticed this, removed his coat and offered it to her.

"I am fine," came the stubborn words from Eve. Vincent's eyes narrowed slightly while he stared at her.

"Do you plan to skip work tomorrow because you caught a cold? I don't offer things twice," came the sharp words from Vincent.

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Pursing her lips, Eve finally took the coat from him and murmured a thank you. She draped the black coat around her shoulders.

"The sleeves don't have sharks waiting to bite you," came Vincent's sarcastic words. Eve finally slipped her hands into the coat's sleeves and her hands disappeared without appearing from the other end. "How do you know Marquee Hooke's daughter? I didn't know you were friends with her."

"How did you know we are friends?" asked Eve.

"I caught you both talking at the night of the ball. Not to mention, today you seemed unsettled on seeing the lady drink the siren's blood," Vincent stated, and he stretched his hand to pick the water container from her and drink it himself.

Eve smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. She said, "There isn't anything I can do. Mermaid's blood and flesh are food for the vampires and werewolves. She didn't kill the mermaid and only drank blood."

"You would make a wonderful wife for being so understanding about everything. The Duke must have run out of luck," Vincent commented with a wicked smile and continued, "You cannot be too sure that Ms. Hooke wouldn't have killed the mermaid by sucking her dry or not. Take it from the ball night, the mermaid didn't last for more than an hour or two. Greed and hunger makes people do unimaginable things."

Eve knew that was a possibility. After all, it wasn't like vampires or vampiresses were vegetarians. And she could only hope that the friendship she and Rosetta had just begun would continue and wouldn't end up on the wrong path. She said with a small frown,

"You scared her about your family sacrificing first wife. She's scared of you."

Vincent threw his head back and chuckled at Eve's words. He asked Eve, "Why do you think people get married?"

"To make home?"

"Are you telling me your home is not home? Because neither of the people who live with are married to each other," said Vincent.

"It is, but you make home with the person you believe and love. To share and bear each other's joy and sadness together," upon Eve's answer, Vincent agreed with her with a nod.

"Right, and I neither believe or love the person to marry. My dear mother has plans that I don't plan to follow. Not to mention, some women of the high society like the idea of love and are quick to fall for a person," explained Vincent, before lying on his back without caring about his clothes turning dirty. "If you are friends with Ms. Hooke, I am sure you already know that she's the type of person to get attached to someone too quickly."

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"..."

Rosetta indeed got attached to her quickly and had upgraded their relationship from acquaintance to friends to best friends, thought Eve.

Eve and Vincent had climbed up to sit in the tower so that Eve could digest and straighten her thoughts better to avoid stopping the carriage on her way home to throw up. It was odd to come to a place like this at this hour, sitting with a man when the sun had long set. But the day had ended up with nothing but oddness.

For a minute, neither of them spoke. Even though the place wasn't bright, Eve still noticed the subtle change in Vincent's expression that continued to hold calmness, but now there was a certain eeriness in it.

Curious about his earlier words, Eve asked Vincent, whose eyes were closed, "Was the first time you killed someone difficult?"

When Vincent didn't respond, she wondered if he had fallen asleep. But she wasn't going to fall for the same trick twice. His eyes opened to reveal the darkened red eyes, and he murmured,

"My first time huh. It was memorable."

An empty chuckle escaped from Vincent's lips, and he remarked, "As different as we both are in a lot of things, there are some things I can relate to you." Eve wondered what he meant by those words. He revealed, "I killed the person who killed my mother when I was twelve."

Earlier, Vincent had given a second thought to what Eve had said because of his own reason and not for Eve's sake.

'There have been times I wish there was someone who had stopped the person from killing my mother.'

"I am sorry for your loss," Eve said in a low voice, not knowing what else to say.

Since Eve started working in the Moriarty mansion, she had wondered what happened to the previous Mrs. Moriarty for Senior Mr. Moriarty to take a second wife. But knowing it was none of her business, she had never tried to pry for any details.

"You don't have to be sorry about it," Vincent responded, where his words sounded emotionless. He then continued, "It was something that happened long ago. Over the years like a cloth that has been washed over and over, the memory fades with it. At least that is what one would think, but you know better than that," one corner of his lips pulled.

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As Vincent was the one who picked it up to speak, Eve asked him, "If I may ask, how did it happen...?"

"My mother was selfless, just like you. It's what happens when you invite trouble so freely without knowing the consequences your actions can cause," came the cold words from the vampire. He said,

"It was the usual feud between the humans against vampires and werewolves. A group of humans loathed the existence of the creatures, especially ones that belonged to high society. They abducted some children, including me and my sister Marceline."