Bambi and the Duke

"You don't have to look through them if you don't want to," she heard Leo speak behind her.

It was true, she didn't have to look at the person's memories if she didn't want to. It was never a compulsion but the curiosity and the need of the mind to know the truth always pushed it, making her hands raise and touch so that she could learn the past memories. 

She shook her head. No, she had to do this. The boy had been alive until yesterday but that might be because the spirit continued to live in the boy. Looking at his decaying body where Leonard came forward to pull up the boy's shirt when she saw the discolouration that was creeping down from his face towards his neck and chest. Below his abdomen, the body looked fine but in a matter of time, the decay would spread like an infection until the entire body would look rotten. 

This was why she had enrolled herself in the council so that she could solve the untold mysteries. If she looked away the innocent souls wouldn't be rescued but now that she was in the situation, there was very little she could do. Somewhere easy to identify and bring justice but cases like these, there was hardly anything she could do. 

The wet cloth she had borrowed from Murkh laid on the ground. Taking it, she gulped before getting closer to the boy. Carefully she turned the boy around to have his back exposed to her again. 

Leonard who had been standing close to her didn't question what she was doing and instead watched her take the cloth she held in her hand to wipe it around the mark or the scar that was etched on the boy's back. Maximillian who had been curious himself about what the woman found out, came to look at the boy. When she was done cleaning the entire mark, the only design that was left on the boy was the crescent moon and one single line instead of two. 

"There's only one line," said Leonard whose eyes were strained on the boy's back before shifting to look at Vivian who looked dazed. 

Vivian glanced down at the cloth which she had used to wipe, the beige colour had turned slightly red and she took that it wasn't mud but the blood that had been used to draw an extra line. She tried to figure out before she came to speak what she found, "The Walter's killed the boy. When we went and met the couple last evening, they mentioned about the elder daughter to have looked prettier than she was before. They...used him as a sacrifice to turn their daughter pretty enough to gain Mr Senielton or any other man's attention," Dutan had only arrived at the room after being interviewed pointlessly by the vampire doctor before he was let inside, "The family must have been and debt, their daughters average to look at."

"In return, the boy killed the people who killed him," Leo commented and Vivia gave him a nod.

"He was alive after all, until yesterday..." she trailed.

But there was something Leonard didn't understand, "What about Mr Senielton? Did he kill him too?" 

"I couldn't reach the memories after that but," she paused trying to wrap her head around the situation, "I think the boy was responsible to it," it was the only plausible answer as a body couldn't explode like that out of nowhere. 

Dutan was soon followed by Heuren who came to look at the boy to exclaim, "The boy is dead?! Oh, God!" his eyes fell on the single line on the scar that had been carved. 

"Yes, apparently he is. Since for some time now," answered Leonard, he then turned back his gaze to Vivian, "Why do you think he killed his brother-in-law? He did beat him but do you think it warranted death as a punishment?" 

"Yes," she answered, her hand moving the boy back on his back, she ran her hand on the boy's head where the hair had stuck to his forehead, "I think, and it is only my assumption here but that both the parties tried to scam each other, they were using each other to get profit from the other. I was going through one of the books I borrowed from the local village library. It says that some of the spirits or ghosts have the habit of wandering even after venging death to stay around until they finish punishing next few then depart to the next world. Very much similar to what happened in the snow mansion."

If the four men's thoughts had drifted on her words, the word on snow mansion brought everyone's attention back to her with a questionable, curious look on their faces. They waited for her to speak, wondering with intrigue on what was being linked in here.

"During the second exam that took place, a lot of them died but not everyone was killed by the two candidates, there were some who were killed by the woman who was the mistress of the second lord. When she killed councilman Oliver that night, she had written down there on the wall 'I know what you did,' and I doubt it was written for just one but many others like she could see what they had done and was punishing them for it."

Leonard then stated, "Heuren came out clean."

"The ghost must have gone through you too for letting you walk out of there alive," whispered Dutan to Heuren. Heuren was as scared as Vivian when it came to the talk of ghosts and to think that he had crossed path with the ghost, a shiver ran down his spine. 

Standing up, she felt her thighs feel a little sore from squatting in front of this whole time. She then said, "That's right. She left him unharmed while she killed two or more of them when I was at the snow mansion. Isn't it strange that Abel wanted to push the case to be closed so that he could get information which he later couldn't get his hands on?" she asked.

"If it is the grave sins she took into consideration, the lady must have found a dirty little secret from our fellow councilman. And he was the only one who was displayed in front of everyone while the rest were taken into the forest," said Leonard looking at his men.

Though Maximillian wasn't part of their team, the man usually gave in useful intel on the others in the council due to his peculiar hobby of having to observe and know most of the things everyone did. He offered, "Let me go find what the man was up to. Something should come out with the digging."

"That would be helpful," agreed Leo.

"What about the case? Are we going to close it?" asked Dutan wondering what was going to happen next as both the man as well as the boy were dead. There was no point in holding a court proceeding when both the parties were not going to participate in it. 

"Lionel will possibly close it as there's nothing more to look into it," said Leonard before continuing to speak, "If Oliver was involved something bad, which was in his personal life then the case will be closed easily but if it is something else we'll be able to find it only in time after we get to the bottom of it."

"What about his body?" asked Vivian. If she could get her hands on the body surely they could simplify the task.

Dutan was the one to answer it, "Unfortunately the body was burnt, lady Vivian after the case was dismissed."

"Burnt?" Vivian frowned at this information. She turned to Leonard for the explanation which he didn't mind,

"There are a few laws that are set for the councilmen and councilwomen, if one is found dead in strange and unexplained circumstances the body is burnt after the case verdict. Right now, we cannot retrieve the body back. We will have to go in our usual route of finding it piece by piece," Leo informed his teammates who nodded their head ready for the next mission which was an undercover one like many which their superior, Lionel wasn't aware of, "Let's go see what Lionel has to say."

"What about the boy?" asked Maximillian and before anyone could voice their opinion on the matter, Vivian spoke hurriedly,

"We bury him right. In the grave with the peace offering," she looked at them, her eyes coming to settle down at last on Leo who gave her a nod.

"He will have a burial in the cemetery," he assured her like many other times making her chest light. Her expression showing how thankful she was, "I have something for you to do before the judgement is passed, Vivi."

"Yes," she responded in full alert.

Hours passed by and even though the council elders would usually get the best expertise in the field, there was no explanation about what happened in the cell room where Mr Senielton was locked up. Witchcraft couldn't be the answer as they had marked the council in and around where white and black witches couldn't tress pass close to the grounds. Some came to believe it was an ill omen while some said he was under transformation as soon that noon parchments were found which was on the transfiguration of a human to something ungodly and inhuman which no one had seen. 

When asked about the boy, it was told that he was sent to the next relative who had lived in Mythweald. Lionel had narrowed his eyes at the information as the older man hadn't forgotten how the deceased had accused of the little boy of being involved in a devil's play. But then Lionel couldn't point a finger on the little boy as it wasn't just parchments of illegal activities that were found but also voodoo dolls which indicated that the man had killed Walter's family as there were four dolls made from twigs. 

What had happened was that Leo had asked Vivian to go to couple's house to get some of the markings which weren't high curse spells but enough to put one in trouble. Everest being the dutiful ghoul had slipped into the Senielton's house and had placed the evidence right before the councilmen had come to inspect the man's activities. 

The body was slipped out of the underground lab without anyone's notice and was taken to the next cemetery. 

Vivian stood near the grave wearing a black dress with Leonard next to her who was in a black suit and black shirt. With the final rights being performed and done, the snow continued to fall from the sky to cover the newly placed tombstone. 

In one of the East side of Bonelake, in a mansion, Abel stood at the door where he had come to relay the news of the verdict of the case being dismissed. 

"...Lionel closed the case just as we wanted," said Abel with a dull look on his face which wasn't smiling like many other times.

"Lionel closed the case because there was nothing more one could do," came a voice from the dark where a man's feet could be seen crossed as he sat on an armchair, "I heard they found out some parchments with the markings. Did you fail to ask him about it?" came the deep voice who wasn't pleased with the turn of events. It wasn't a question.

Abel didn't respond to it, knowing an extra word from his mouth when not being asked would only displease the man he had been working for. 

"I expected more from you, Abel or are you turning old that you aren't able to continue with the job I give you. I can always have you replaced if that is what your efforts mean," came the light threat where fear crossed Abel's red eyes upon hearing it, "Do you know why I have kept you around for so long now?" the man asked in the dark, his face not coming close to the light that fell up to his thighs, "It is because you have not only been loyal but have worked well over the years for me in fetching little information but this," the man paused.

"I am sorry for having a slip," Abel bowed low, his head not lifting up.

"If the world worked with sorries life would be so much simpler. The information I asked had the spell curses, the same which that little witch cunt once held before we killed her. But even that is lost and there have been no whereabouts on it. It not only contains the high ranked black witches names but spells that a human or a vampire can make use of. On the last letter, Oliver said he had delicate information but the boy is dead and what use are the dead?" the man tched as if he had a bitter taste in his mouth as he spoke about the councilman who died.

Not because he felt sorry for the way he had died but because he had lost information which could have got him closer to the parchment of papers.