ROYAL BLOOD

SUSPICION & THE SPARK OF ATTRACTION

Lore muttered something under his breath and said, "Then we'll have to find Urbane and Gary to finish our business with them."

Jackson said," I don't think so. You don't want to risk your lives, do you? You've heard what Rufus said. Gary is involved in black arts. Anything can happen."

"No, Jackson." Lore said, "We cannot let this slip easily. If Urbane was with us then there might be a reason. I'm starting to think it's related to me because Gary was in my yard that time and we need to find answers."

Wisteria agreed, "I think Lore's right. First we need to execute a plan. Instead of catching both of them, we should first find Urbane because it will lead us to the man behind all this."

Jackson was still not agreeing to this plan and Lore thought he's scared. Eventually, they forced Jackson to go with the flow.

--

Somewhere isolated, in a thick forest, there was a small patch of wet land under a mulberry tree. Grivald bent down and whispered something. Suddenly a trap door appeared on the patch. He looked here and there and opened the door. He climbed down stair and shut the trapdoor close. The door disappeared again showing the same patch of land. Gary was sitting in his study, flipping some pages. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door which made him get up. He moved near the door slowly and said, "Who's there?"

"It's me." a voice said.

The man opened the door. The owner of the voice entered inside puffing and panting.

Gary looked at him and asked, "Grivald, did get it?"

"No." Grivald replied while drinking a glass of water.

"Damn it!" Gary muttered.

Grivald paused and said, "I was going to but they saw me."

Upon hearing this, Gary quickly looked up and exclaimed, "What?! Did they suspect anything?"

"I don't think so. But Lore came running after me. Fortunately, he couldn't catch up."

"Lore? The Augustin kid?"

"Yes."

"And what about him?"

"He didn't follow me but you'll be proud of him. He has already built up so much trust in them."

"Ryan told me the same thing. He's guiding them well." Gary smiled.

"He's following whatever they say. Expressing fake love, fake sympathy and fake sadness." Grivald laughed and continued, "He did a great job pretending to be shocked looking at me."

"We'll rise and win this time. We'll celebrate."

Grivald nodded and smiled.

--

Rufus was in his room alone. He looked out at the kids. They were talking amongst each other and didn't pay any attention to Rufus. He quickly moved his bed to the side which unveiled a small square. He removed the lid and peered inside. The book was there. He sighed and told himself, "He didn't get it."

"Get what?" a voice said behind him.

Rufus gulped and quickly closed the lid. He turned back to see Jackson standing there and looking at him in confusion.

"N-Nothing" Rufus stammered.

"What's that you're hiding?"

"Nothing." Rufus gulped.

Jackson eyed him and Rufus said, "Do you remember my brother who had died in the lake?"

Jackson nodded still eyeing him.

"Well" Rufus continued, "I have kept his belongings here and whenever I miss him, I just look at it. That's it."

Jackson kept staring at him in doubt and said, "Okay." And he went out of the room.

Rufus sighed in relief and quickly pulled the bed back and walked out of the room.

Jackson was staring at him. Rufus smiled and asked them, "What do you want for dinner?"

Wisteria replied, "Urbane's head."

Lore and Jackson quickly turned towards her in shock including Rufus.

Wisteria looked at each of them and said, "I'm joking. I'm just angry."

Lore sighed and looked away.

"You're scary." Jackson said and laughed.

Rufus walked into the kitchen to prepare dinner. Jackson watched him working and turned towards Lore and Wisteria and whispered, "Guys, do you remember when I had walked inside Rufus's room?"

Lore nodded. Jackson continued, "I walked in on him looking at something. When I asked him what he was doing he said he was looking at his dead brother's belongings."

"So what?" Lore said.

"Gosh Lore you're not getting it." Jackson groaned. "If it had been his brother's belongings, he wouldn't have looked so nervous when I asked him that question. Also, what's there to hide anything about that? He didn't even show me."

Wisteria hit Jackson on his head to which he replied with an "Ouch" and she said, "Stop suspecting so much. It might be something private. Instead of using your brain on something like this, think of a plan to catch Urbane."

"Yeah." Lore said, "I bet you, he isn’t like that."

Jackson didn't speak further and kept moving his hands on the area where Wisteria hit. Rufus came back and sat in front of them.

"Dinner's ready" he said.

Lore nodded, "Okay let's eat."

"I'll help you bring the plates." Wisteria said and both of them walked in to the kitchen.

"Don't you think she's cute?" Jackson asked Lore while smiling at Wisteria.

Lore elbowed him smiling and said, "Someone's in love."

Jackson smiled stupidly and said, "What're you saying?"

"Stop. I can see it in your eyes."

Wisteria entered and asked, "See what?"

"Nothing" Jackson replied.

Lore kept smiling at him and said, "Wisteria, you're single right?"

Jackson coughed and eyed Lore to which she replied, "Yeah. Why?"

Rufus eyed Lore and Lore nodded his head to say no. He then signaled Rufus with

his eyes saying it is Jackson. Rufus got the message and nodded. Jackson cleared his throat and looked at Rufus.

Wisteria glanced at them and asked, "What's up with the three of you?"

"Oh nothing." Lore replied and smiled at Jackson.

"What do we do about Urbane?" she asked.

Jackson replied, "I can't believe we risked our lives coming here just to rescue that jerk."

"Look at the bright side." Rufus said to them, "If it weren't for him then you wouldn't have known about everything."

"Are you taking his side?" Jackson asked with suspicion.

Wisteria hit his leg from under the table and sneered at him.

CHAPTER 9: SOMEONE VISITS.

In the cabin, the planchette glowed again and pulled someone inside. The person fell out of the portal and looked around him. That person saw nothing but darkness. The moon was the only source of light. The person looked back and saw a forest. Panicking, that person ran forward instead and saw houses. The houses were all dark with no sign of living beings. The person kept running and saw the only lit house a little far from the others. The person sighed and ran towards the house. The person hesitated for a while and knocked on the door.

--

Lore, Jackson and Wisteria helped Rufus clear up the dishes. Rufus fed the fireplace with some logs and lit a fire.

"It's a bit cold tonight." Jackson said.

"Yeah." Rufus replied.

"We've been wearing the same clothes for two days." Jackson said.

Lore and Wisteria nodded. "Didn't realize." Lore said.

"I have my late brother's clothes somewhere. I'll pull them out for you." He looked at Wisteria and said, "I'm sorry but I don't have any female clothes."

"That's okay." Wisteria said, "I don't mind wearing your brother's clothes."

Rufus nodded and disappeared to his room.

"We need to plan something out." Wisteria told Lore and Jackson.

"I won't sleep tonight unless we come up with something." Lore said.

Wisteria nodded and Rufus came back with a few pair of clothing and handed over. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Lore, Jackson and Wisteria got up quickly. Rufus walked towards the door slowly and asked, "Who's there?"

The person kept knocking on the door and heard someone approach the door.

"Help!" the person cried.

Rufus turned back towards the others after hearing someone ask for help.

Lore gulped and watched Rufus open the door.

The person stepped back after hearing the door open. Rufus looked at the person standing out. He knew the person. The person looked at Rufus and felt strange. Rufus looked familiar to the person. The two kept looking at each other. Rufus turned back towards the kids and opened the door wide revealing the person to them.

"Leo!" Lore cried.

"Lore!" Leo said and ran towards him. Lore hugged Leo tight and felt warm and relieved. Leo let him go and said, "Buddy, are you okay? Where is this place and what happened?"

Lore smiled at him. He was very happy to see Leo again. It was like a miracle. He was thinking of Leo the other day and now he was standing right in front of him.

--

Lore finished telling Leo everything that happened from how they reached there to how they were betrayed by Urbane.

"How did you find the game?" Lore asked Leo.

Leo replied, "I had seen the four of you enter the woods. I wanted to follow you but at that moment Patricia called me for some work. Suddenly, cops showed up in a few moments and they brought out professor Baron's body. Patricia freaked out and looked for you. Jackson and Wisteria's parents called in to ask why you weren't back home. I thought that you were fooling around and entered the woods just to play. But I got worried once Baron's body was discovered. Patricia panicked when she couldn't find the four of you. She asked filed a missing complaint case to the cops who were investigating the forest. I didn't tell Patricia that I had seen you in the woods because I sensed something fishy. Patricia just didn't leave me alone from then. So, I couldn't sneak out. I thought you would return back but a day passed and there was still no sign of the four of you. I got worried and I just sneaked out into the woods a few minutes ago. I saw the cabin and I checked inside. I saw the game and when I read the description of the game, I was sure that you played the game and disappeared. So, that's how I reached here."

Jackson exclaimed, "Wow."

"Now what?" Wisteria asked.

"We find Grivald, I guess." Leo replied.

"But how?"

"Maybe Rufus knows something?"

"I don’t know." Rufus replied.

"Then we'll just look for him tomorrow." Lore said. They agreed to this because no one had a plan. They were just exhausted. Wisteria went inside Rufus's room to change her clothes. Leo went out to stroll.

"Be careful and don't let anyone see you." Rufus told him.

"Yeah, it's alright." Leo said.

Rufus cut out the lights inside and went to sleep. Lore walked towards Leo who was staring at the vast darkness.

"Hey." Lore said.

"What's up?" Leo asked.

Lore smiled. "How's Patricia?"

"She's okay. She was extremely worried when you disappeared. She didn't eat anything. I don't know how she'll be when she wakes up tomorrow to see me disappeared as well."

"Well were you worried when I disappeared?"

"Of course not."

Lore poked him and said, "Shut up"

Leo laughed. He kept staring at the sky and said, "You remember how Patricia used to tell us that dead people become stars?"

"Yeah, I do. I also remember how we used to say it's nothing."

"After mom and dad…" This made Lore change his expression. Leo continued, "I realized that once you lose your loved ones, you'll automatically look up at the stars in the sky hoping it to be one of them."

"Yeah. Are you okay? You're being extremely philosophical."

Leo hit Lore's head and said, "Shut your mouth, Loser."

Lore laughed and said, "I missed this Leo a lot."

"I missed this loser too." Leo said and smiled.

--

Ryan watched the brothers move inside and he ran out of his house. He entered the forest, bent down near a Mulberry tree and whispered something. The trapdoor opened once again and he went down. Like Grivald, he kept walking through the long tunnel until he reached Gary's study. He knocked on the door. There was no response from the other side. Probably asleep, he thought yet he kept knocking. Soon enough, he heard a shuffling sound from across the door. The door opened and Gary looked at him sleepy headed.

"What brings you here at this hour? Make sure that it's something worthy for disturbing my sleep." He asked.

Ryan replied with his eyes gleaming, "His brother is here."

This made Gary grin, "Bingo! It's going to be a double kill."

Ryan nodded grinning from ear to ear.

--

Lore looked outside the window. A new morning. A new chapter in his life, he thought. He could hear Leo talking to Rufus asking him questions about that place. Wisteria slowly approached him and said, "A new day and we don't know what to do." She sighed.

Lore nodded and asked, "Came up with anything?"

"Not yet." She replied.

"I hope we find a way."