Gregory who had come back to the house with water had been startled to not find his elder sister in there. He had searched the house over and over again after realizing she wasn't there here. Worried he had first planned to look around the village. On suspicion, he had gone to Gibb's house which wasn't far from here. Upon reaching he had met the housekeeper who had asked him a hundred questions before letting him in. 

Thought the housekeeper had let him in, Vivian had the door of the room locked from inside. 

"I am fine," said Vivian when Gregory knocked on the door, "I felt a little tired and needed to rest. Please don't worry about me."

"If you are unwell I can take you to the doctor, Sister Vivian," offered her brother but a doctor could not help her right now. She didn't know what to do because Leo was far away from her and there was no one she could actually come to trust. 

"That won't be necessary. I am not used to the hot weather here. A little rest should make me feel better," she said for him to murmur a half-hearted okay as he was still worried about her well being.

She had told them that she needed rest, but she could hardly come to rest as the pain only increased in time and her vision kept dulling more than coming back to normal as she laid on the bed. As time ticked away, the burning in her chest only grew that much more where she avoided to sep out of the room. 

She was scared to go out. 

Going to stand in front of the mirror, she couldn't stop staring at her reflection. At first, she had thought it was her imagination but it wasn't. Her two different coloured eyes stared back at her. The surrounding of the eye which was pitch black coming to dry the skin around it. 

Vivian felt a sharp pain in her chest and her legs gave out making her sit on her knees as she writhed in pain, "Argh!" she twisted herself on the cold floor. Tears started to stream down her eyes due to the pain and she cried herself to sleep. 

The next time she woke up, she felt a warm hand on her forehead. Her eyes opened slowly and she moved away quickly at the sight of Lord Alexander in the room. 

"What are you doing here?" she asked him standing defensively where the lord stared at her. She noticed the way he looked into her eyes as if gauging on what had just happened. 

"Your brother called me for help," Lord Alexander answered. Her brother, Vivian closed her eyes. She had a headache right now but there were other things hat continued to hurt in her body where she refused to acknowledge.

"Did you send a word to Leo?" was her next question. She wanted Leo next to her. 

"I did but you need to know that delivery a message will take a lot of time before he comes back here," she nodded her head. She knew that. And then he said something she didn't want to accept, "Vivian your heart is corrupting."

She had guessed right. 

"Is there no cure to it?" she asked softly looking away from him. Her hand turned to fist at how and why it had turned out like this. 

"If there was one, many men and women would have never died. There would have not been more deaths. Unfortunately, there is no cure for it. I am sorry," and as she said it she could feel the tears that burned her eyes, "I cannot let you walk out and will have to detain you here." 

Vivian knew the fate of the corrupted hearts. The only path they had was destruction and death in the end. 

"What now?" she asked in the quiet room where it was only her and the lord, "Why won't you put me through death?" she asked him. It wasn't uncommon to end the lives of the corrupted hearts due to the threat they held to society. 

"I cannot kill you, Vivian. If that is what you are asking. Your case is unique. You weren't a pureblooded vampire before who had been turned to a human and now you are back to your pureblooded self. Things don't change without any external factor. Your heart was corrupted before, wasn't it?" he asked her, his blood-red eyes staring into hers, "The council learnt the properties of the potion which was made by the black witch but no one ever studied a case like yours. The pureblooded core of your heart turned back to life but not to get back to your original state. The reason was that it wanted to complete the transformation."

Something told Vivian that the Lord wasn't talking about the transformation of her human to vampire. 

"With what I have observed, the core of your heart was corrupted ears ago but not to the full extent."

"Why didn't it happen then?" 

"I don't know," he shook his head, "I can tell this much, that when you were turned to your human self the core stopped or paused itself from its existence. In such a way that it never got to corrupt it back then but it is turning you back your vampire self...Your body wants to complete the process of corruption and it won't stop until you are completely corrupted. It is only a theory," he added the last sentence after noticing tears falling down from her eyes. Going to her, he offered her his handkerchief. 

"I won't kill you right now because we don't know how exactly things are going to be and what is going to happen. I will give it time before we come to decide," his voice was serious as he said it, "Please rest in the meantime. I will leave to of my guardsmen in here. Goodnight,"  walking to the door, he opened and closed it behind him. 

Vivian knew that the guards weren't here to protect her but to make sure she didn't harm anyone. If the situation turned dire where she would start killing everyone, the guards would not be hesitant to restrain and kill her. 

Going to the door, she locked it from inside. 

The night wasn't easy to pa.s.s as the pain continued to increase in her chest and her vision only turned that bad in hours that came to pa.s.s by. As she hugged herself from the pain that she felt now, she came to realize what her recurring dream meant.

She had turned to a vampire whose heart had been corrupted and just as her dream, her body was going in that direction. The thing that scared her most was the outcome of her dream with Leo dying by her hands. She was terrified right now and there was no one to console her. Tears continued to fall down from her eyes down on the mattress to wet the sheets where her head laid. 

She cried, the pain getting worse which made her wonder if she would be able to survive this until tomorrow. Hearing the rustle behind her, she turned around to slowly get up and see the shadow that hovered in the corner of the room. 

"Everest," she called out its name as more tears came to fill her eyes. She sniffed softly, moving herself to let her legs hang. Seeing that it was just them, the ghoul came forward to see the girl who was visibly upset with water falling down her eyes. 

Vivian had cried to the point where her head felt heavy. 

The ghoul didn't say or do anything but stood in front of her before raising its hand up to her face and moving its boney fingers across her cheek to pick the salt.w.a.ter. It brought its hand towards it and looked at the water which it couldn't feel. After all, the ghoul had no flesh or warmth yet the ghoul behaved oddly towards this young girl. 

It garbled something when it looked from its hand to her. 

She shook her head as if it had asked what happened, "I..." she took a deep breath but she couldn't do it and broke down, "I am scared, E-Everest," she said placing her face in both her hands. It took her some time to hold back the tears and when she finally had calmed down, she lifted her face, "How long will it take for you to go to Bonelake?" she asked the ghoul.

It raised its boney hands to show a finger.

"One day?" she asked to confirm. The ghoul was much faster than the man who was now riding the coach to Bonelake to inform Leonard. She then heard the ghoul say something to her, "What is it?" she wished she could understand what it was trying to tell her. 

"One day," she repeated seeing its hand still up in the air. It garbled again. Her head which had been hurting due to lack of sleep, crying only increased with the puzzle it was leaving until she wondered, "Do you mean...an hour?" the ghoul garbled to drop its hand down to its side. 

"I have a favour to ask of you...." and Vivian dropped her words very clearly. She said every little thing she wished to say and relay the message on time, "Don't worry about me. I shall wait here," she promised the ghoul. 

By the time the ghoul had returned back Vivian had fallen asleep. The ghoul didn't move away once from the room and kept its sight on the girl. It stuck standing in the room, waiting for her to wake up while also guarding the door so that no one would enter to harm her. 

Vivian woke up to the pain in her heart, her heart-tugging like several needles had been pushed and pulled with the strings. Sitting up, she found a parchment of paper rolled next to her and not far was the ghoul that stood in silence. 

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Not waiting for another second, she took hold of the parchment in her hand and unfolded it to read,

'Dear Vivian,

Leonard and I have left Bonelake. We shall be there as soon as we can. I have dropped a word to Lord Alexander. Do not be worried.' 

The paper was signed by Lord Nicholas.

That was two days less, thought Vivian to herself. After talking to Lord Alexander yesterday she was afraid of what he had told to be true and it was likely to be true. She didn't know how much longer the time she had. Even though if she would have a whole week or a month, it didn't remove the point that she was going to be a threat to everyone around. If a corrupted vampire bit into another vampire, there were chances of the corruption being multiplied. It was one of the reasons why the black witch was trying to target them with her potion. 

She had meals given by the housekeeper but the guards didn't let the woman pa.s.s through. They were under strict orders by the Lord to not let anyone pa.s.s from inside or outside. Even her brother wasn't allowed, but Vivian was in no position to meet anyone. 

It was during the time of noon when she heard a whispering which didn't come from the ghoul who chose to stand in the shadows. 

"Sister Vivian!" 

"Gregory?" she looked at her younger brother surprised who had climbed up to the window to talk to her, "What are you doing here?" she asked worried that he might fall until she came to realize he was a vampire and a fall like this wouldn't hurt him. 

She noticed the way he observed her, his eyes looking at her face, "You look ill," he noted, "Is that why they have restricted you from going out?" seeing her nod he said, "I guess the Lord wasn't helpful in bringing help to help you. Let us go to visit another doctor."

"It won't help, Gregory," unable to meet his eyes with the sadness that came to make a home in her eyes, she looked away.

"Why not? A pureblooded vampire doesn't fall sick that easily and if we do, it cures itself in a few days. Faster than humans," he held the sides of the window so that he wouldn't fall down. 

"Have you heard corruption of heart?" she saw the look of shock that came to fall on his face, "No one can treat me. Lord Alexander said my body is trying to complete the corruption which had been incomplete for the last few years."

Silence fell between them before she started cough holding her chest with her hand. She coughed until she felt something wet on her hand. Looking down she came to see the red blood she had just coughed. Her body had started to fail her. 

Vampires heart usually got corrupted easily but as she was a special case, the process seemed to have been elongated. 

"How much time do you have?" 

"I don't know..." she whispered the answer.