The Forgotten Mansion

Chapter Three Part Three

“Awe, Leonard. I don’t think you should be upset at yourself; you were younger than you are now and had no idea who would’ve been your mate. Me, personally, I wouldn’t have had a problem with you saving a person and her family as her dying wish. Even if you did have feelings for her. If someone else would’ve been your mate and had a problem with that then they wouldn’t have deserved to have been your mate. I guess that’s why you got stuck with me.” Brooke said smiling and rubbing Leonard’s arm.

“So, what’s your worse regret?” Leonard asked.

Rubbing the back of her neck, Brooke says, “Well, it’s not as intense as yours but I regret not staying in the room with my sister during her change. Maybe I would’ve been able to talk her out of the way she chose to end her life. She jumped out of her fifth-floor window at our country mansion after having our mother’s vampiric blood in her system. It took her four days just to turn and heal her entire body. And I feel that if I had been in her room, I could have talked her out of ending it that way.”

“Oh wow. Yeah, Brooke, if that’s the way she wanted to go I don’t know if you would've been able to talk her out of it. There is nothing for you to regret there.” Leonard said.

“Thank you, Leonard. For trying to make me feel better. Your turn to ask a question.” Brooke says smiling.

“Okay. What is one of the funniest memories you have as a child?” Leonard asked.

“Prefect question, I like that you asked that just now it balances out the deep dark question I asked. Hmm. One funny childhood memory that comes to mind instantly is this one time when I was eight years and my mother had been a vampire for two years already Malachi was teaching her how to control her new ability and to fly. I went outside to see what was going on because I heard Cecila laughing but from a distance. And once she saw me, she swooped down out of the sky and grabbed me like a baby and flew over our country mansion. It was the most amazing sight I have ever seen, and my mother told me that she loved me and would always protect me. Then we ran into a flock of birds, and they started squawking at us and my mother just started laughing. And the funniest part is that when we landed, all of my siblings were laughing so hard and we couldn’t figure out why, even Malachi was just trying to hide his laughter. It turns out that when my mom and I went through the flock of birds we ended up covered in their poop because they got scared of us. I didn’t think it was funny at the time but after a few days it was the funniest thing that had happened that year.” Brooke said laughing.

“Wow. That does sound funny. Luckily for me I have never been pooped on by a bird. It could have been the fact that my mother was human and had no plans of becoming a vampire. Though she was madly in love with my father, just didn’t want to become a vampire and be seen as a monster.” Leonard said.

“Oh, Leonard, I'm so sorry. I didn’t know.” Brooke said.

Shaking his head, Leonard said, “No, it’s fine. Her being alive is where one of my funniest childhood memories comes from too. I was 12 years old, and my mother wanted to show me the market that only came to town twice a year. She was sick that week but the day the market came, it seemed as if she was getting better. I went with her, and the market was pretty cool, there were people there that I had never seen in the town. My mother said that some people would come from out of town just to trade and barter at this specific market. While we had found a lot of things to buy my mother only wanted for one thing in particular. (Leonard lifts a tiny yellow stone out of his shirt that is on a thin black metal link necklace.) My mother, Joycelyn, was on a mission to find one thing and one thing only, this yellow stone on a black metal necklace. This necklace was the last thing that her father ever made and so she was looking for someone to have it so that she could have a piece of her late father. But the funny thing that happened that day is someone was running late to the market and so they were running through the stalls and this person had gotten distracted and tripped over a goat. They fell into one person which created a domino effect of about 10 people falling down including my mother and me. No one was hurt and we all began laughing about it as soon as we were standing and had made sure that everyone in the incident was okay. That is one of the funniest memories of my childhood.”

“Awe that’s amazing. I bet everyone became friends after that incident.” Brooke said.

“Funny thing is, they had. No one really knew anyone at that market and so that was one way to make a bunch of friends all at once.” Leonard said as he smiled at Brooke.

“Alright, so my turn again. The third question will be, how would you describe that perfect day?” Brooke asked as she sat in the grass near the pond in the castle garden.

Leonard sat down next to her and said, “I would describe the perfect day as, sitting next to my mate somewhere private, having a picnic on a nice and sunny day, having an intimate conversation, and just enjoying each other's company. That is my definition of a perfect day. What is your perfect day?”