The Vampire Prince's Beloved

"Good afternoon ma," the security man greeted when Lily came out of her car and walked towards the gate he was manning. "Good afternoon," Lily said, pressing the lock button on her car key. "I am here to see Barry." The car gave a beep and a flash of the headlamps. "You must be Mrs Lily?" the security guard confirmed. "Yes I am," Lily said, wincing her eyes and placing her hand over her eyes as a shield from the blinding ray of the sun. She took out the dark shades in her red leather bag and put it on. "Please, come on in, madam. Mr Barry is inside waiting for you," the security man said as he opened the gate and gave way for Lily to go into the compound. "Thank you," she said, with a courteous smile and walk through the gate while the security man shut the gate behind her. "Watch over my car, please. It is quite expensive," she informed the gatekeeper. "Yes, ma." Lily made a quick assessment of Barry's house as soon as she stepped into the compound. It was a sizeable one-storey duplex with well-trimmed beautiful flowers gracing the front yard. A Honda Accord and a Cadillac XTS car were parked under a carport canopy mounted some distance from the building in the compound. Everything was very simple and sizeable but yet, lovely. It was clear Barry was big on a quiet lifestyle. One would hardly know he was the head accountant in Lily's textile company. Unlike her who cannot bear to stay in a small house. She liked flashy things . . . "Excuse me, ma," the security man interrupted Lily's mental assessment. She turned her countenance to him with a little frown. He stretched out a box wrapped with fancy paper towards her. "Mr Barry asked me to give this to you when you come," the security man explained. "Oh," Lily said, taking the parcel from him with a perplexed look on her face. "Did he say what it was for?" "He said it was a gift for you, ma." "A gift . . ." Lily repeated, looking from different angles, at the fancily wrapped box in her hand. Her birthday was still months ahead and there was no form of celebration going on around her at that point in time. She had come to discuss a serious matter with Barry so a gift was very unexpected. After pondering on the thought for a few seconds, she decided to unwrap the box there – that instant. "No, ma!" the gatekeeper exclaimed, jumping towards Lily and almost touching her. "He instructed me to beg you not to open it till you meet him. He wants to see the expression on your face when you open it," the security man informed. "Is that why you wanted to pounce on me?" "I'm sorry I acted that way, ma. If you had unwrapped it, I would have lost my job." Lily looked at the box in her hand and then accessed the security man from his head to his feet. He had a blue face cap shielding his head from the sun, dark shades probably also for the protection of his eyes from the sunlight and a nose mask; which covered his nose and mouth for God-knows-what reason. His uniform was a long-sleeved shirt and long trousers. His fingers were covered with white hand gloves. A rather strange uniform for weather as hot as that. Even though Lily was curious to know what was in the parcel, she considered the poor-looking gatekeeper whose uniform and tattered beard were enough to show that he was struggling to survive. Losing his job would only make him miserable. "Ok, no problem," she said, after eyeing him once more and tucking the parcel into her bag. "Thank you, ma. You can go in. The door is opened. Mr Barry is waiting for you upstairs." Lily heard the voice of the security man some distance behind her as she walked towards the door. Squeezing the handle of the door, the door opened and Lily went in. The television was on but there was no one in the common area. This wasn't much of a surprise because Mr Barry's wife would be at work and his son would be at school at that hour of the day. She walked towards the stairs and called, "Mr Barry." but there was no response. She called again twice but again, her voice fell flat. She wondered if he was in the bathroom so she decided to wait for him. "I don't have all day, Mr Barry," she complained to herself as she sat on one of the cushion chairs, placed her bag beside her and crossed her legs. A thought crossed her mind to call his cell phone. She reached out to her phone in her bag, brought it out and dialled his number. Barry's phone began ringing and Lily could hear it ring from somewhere close by. She listened carefully and noticed that the ringtone was coming from the staircase. It was rather strange. Why was Barry's phone ringing on the staircase while he was upstairs probably in the bathroom? Curiosity made her climb the stairs, tracing the ringtone to the phone. "Mr Barry," She called out as her legs took her up the stairs. Yet again, her call was futile. She finally found the ringing phone on the third step to the upper floor. It seemed to have fallen off from Barry. But why was his phone still lying there? Wasn't he aware that his phone had fallen off from his pocket or something? Even if he wasn't aware, didn't he hear the phone ring? Picking up the phone and still trying to understand the situation, Lily noticed that the screen was freshly cracked and there were several missed calls on the phone, apart from hers. Lily suddenly felt chills run down her spine. She began to feel hot even though the air conditioning system in the house was not poor. Thoughts began to cloud her mind and her heart began to pound faster, knowing the reason she and Barry had to organize a secret meeting in his house. Where was Barry? Wasn't he upstairs? Did he experience a domestic accident? Or was he attacked? Did he flee the house? But his gateman said he was waiting for her there. Lily shook her head vehemently to shove all her speculations out of her head. She inhaled deeply and exhaled, trying to stop herself from freaking out. She began to tell herself that it was nothing close to what she was thinking. "He might probably be asleep or something. There is nothing to worry about. After all, no other person apart from Dan and Ella knows I am having a meeting with Barry today in his house," she tried convincing herself. As she made steps towards the door of his room quietly, she called again, "Mr Barry," but her voice came out as almost a whisper because, despite her pep talk to herself, she was still scared. As she slowly approached the door to his room, she could feel her heart beating in her throat. She was at the door but her hands were trembling and unstable to push the door open. She imagined how it would appear if Barry, her employee who held her in esteem, came out and saw her fidgeting. How embarrassing! She quickly got a hold of herself, straightened her gown and pushed the door open confidently. As she went in, she almost screamed her head off. She quickly placed her hand tightly on her mouth to suffocate the shriek that threatened to jump out of her mouth. She suddenly felt dizzy, her hands got weak, her knees became feeble and her legs could no longer hold her body, so she fell to the ground. In front of her was Barry, who had been stabbed repeatedly to death, lying naked in the pool of his blood. Lily managed to pull herself up and dragged herself out of the room. Her palm and the white gown she wore were already stained with blood from the room floor where she fell. Tears began to flow down her eyes as she hurried down the stairs. Had it gotten to that?! Killing Barry to hide their corrupt practices?! She never thought that it was that serious. Barry must have known, that was why he kept emphasizing that no one must know about their meeting. She felt devastated because she didn't even know those who she would direct the police to. Barry was meant to tell her everything he knew about those scoundrels during their proposed meeting but has been killed Immediately Lily got to the common area, picked up her bag and headed out of the building. Coming out of the building, she met the police already in the compound. "Thank God, you are here already," Lily said, crying. She was trying to hold herself from fainting at that spot. "My Head Accountant has been murdered upstairs by an unknown person." "Mrs Lily Brown," the police detective in front of Lily said. " You are under arrest for the murder of Mr Barry Crest." "Excuse me?!"