A Little Girl's Broken Tales

4 **

**OLIVIA**

I sat alone in the room, just staring at the walls. I didn’t even care to look at the décor. Taking note of the décor meant I wanted to know about where I was or what was with me. Taking note meant I cared. In all truthfulness, I did care –not if it meant I could kill those three, heartless, soulless demons. Now here you might call me hypocritical, how could I label them so evilly but not Luigi or this Vampire I was with now? Simple, neither Luigi nor Alexander made any threatening moves to kill me. For Alexander, I should add ‘yet’.

 Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

Alexander entered my semi-dark room with all the confidence of a king. I guess I should have expected some of that grace to come from the fact that he was a vampire, but even the ones I met had that extra poise he had. Yet, still I shrank back against the pillows as he laid a serving tray in front of me. “Olivia, please eat. And I expect you to eat all of it!” he said with a firm smile. 

I knew he was doing a huge favor by allowing me to stay in his house because he didn’t even know me, but he couldn’t push me around because of that. As always, the words left my mouth faster than I could stop them. “Expect me to eat it? Who do you think you are? King of the Night? Or the bloodsucker King?” I scoffed.

He didn’t get mad or anything, instead he smirked at me as if he was amused at my words. “That is my secret, of course. But please, do continue and enjoy the meal,” he bowed down and then went to sit in the corner of the room watching me. I ignored him and looked at the food that gave off an amazing aroma. There was a bowl of what smelled like chicken and mushroom soup, freshly baked bread that was still unsliced and a tall glass of freshly squeezed juice. “Thank you,” I said softly, ashamed that he went through so much of trouble for me. Well, that and the fact that the food smelled to heavenly to let it go to waste.

“You’re welcome,” he smiled.

I shrugged and tore in, eating it slowly, letting the food melt on my tongue.  Realizing that my body was getting heavier and heavier by the minute I decided to eat faster and not indulge too much. I sipped the juice when Alexander called my name softly. “Liv.”

I turned and face him with a slight scowl. The sound of my name rolling of his tongue made my insides gooey and warm, but then I shrugged it off as the food hitting my stomach after days. “Liv, I need your honesty please. Do you think you can answer me honestly?” he asked in a pleading tone, I don’t know why, but for some reason, I just nodded and continued to eat.

“So, tell me, how did you know I was a vampire? How did you know what a vampire looks like? How do you recognize a vampire?”

I blanched at that and put the food down abruptly. “I don’t think I can answer that question. I can’t just open up to people. I can’t do that easily,” I choked out. Talking about my past caused me to shut down.

I didn’t lift my eyes to see his eyes or even see his expression. “I think I can live with that, if you can tell me how you ended up on the streets in the dead of winter?” he bargained.

I sighed and then picked up the piece of bread I had dipped into the soup.  He was offering me an easy way out, but something wanted me to tell him the full story, to tell him the truth and that was what I did. “I know you are a vampire and all of that, but I ask for your patience on this. It has been three years since I am speaking of this again. And, this is very difficult to do.” A tear slipped out of my eye and I wiped it, while he just nodded his consent. With a deep breath, I began the re-telling of my parents’ gruesome death. “I was six years old and I was kind of a spoiled child. Being the only child, I usually got what I wanted. That day, I just wanted to spend the day outdoors, so I begged my nanny and she eventually relented. We were out outside, after all the begging, and the sun shone brightly turning my golden locks to a beacon. That was my selfish reason for going outside. My family was mainly dark-haired and everyone loved my golden hair, as did I, and that was why it fascinated me in the sun. After begging my nanny the entire morning, she gave in and said we were going to go out in the afternoon. Her consent caused me to behave like an angel, because I got what I wanted. At last, when the afternoon rolled around, I was excited and grabbed her hand as we rushed out with smiles on our faces. We went further than we had ever gone before, and I think that is why my parents were killed. We spent three hours outside and by that time, Elizabeth was tired. With a lot of begging on her part, I agreed that we could go home.” I stopped and took a deep breath.