The Forgotten Mansion

Chapter One

Joshua Maraldo is the prince of Cheshia Maraldo Castle. He is the first in line prince and has been the first in line for the throne for 299 years. Oh, did I forget to mention, Joshua is a vampire? He and his whole family are. Some like it more than others, while the rest just enjoy the freedom to go wherever they want for eternity. Joshua is a mix of both, he enjoys being a vampire because he can go anywhere, he wants to for the rest of his immortal life.

“Joshua, where are you going off to this time?” Sebastian, his younger brother, asks.

Sebastian is the third born, but the second son of King Solomon and Queen Cecila. Making him the second in line for the throne of the Cheshia Maraldo Castle.

Joshua spins the globe in the common room and throws a thumbtack at it. Sebastian stops the globe and looks for where the thumbtack landed.

“Latvia? Do you even know anything about this place?” Sebastian asks curiously.

“Oh, my dear brother. That is the whole point of traveling to new places. You get to learn about them.” Joshua says chuckling.

So, Joshua went off, traveling to Latvia on the next flight. He did some research about the country. Latvia is a country in Europe and has wide beaches and dense, sprawling, beautiful forests. Joshua decided that the first place he would go when the plane lands would be the beach. That little old stereotype about vampires not being able to be outside in the sunlight is a myth.

Vampires can be in the sun, just not for too long because they tend to get extremely bad headaches. But if you are privileged enough, quite like the royal family of vampires, then you can afford something like the Auriol’s Ring. This ring allows the royal family to roam anywhere they like, for however long they would like, in the sun.

Almost every vampire that ranks beneath the royal family can't afford the Auriol’s Ring. The only other vampires that have one are those who either work hard to earn the money for one or work for the royal family for a set period. This is just one of the reasons that Joshua did not take over for his parents as the King of Cheshia. The king and queen are the ones that pick and choose who works for them and how long it will take for each person to be able to receive the Auriol Ring.

“Ah. Fresh air. Latvia is so beautiful; the air is nice and refreshing. Being on a plane for 15 hours is exhausting.” Joshua says to the airport clerk woman.

“Yes, Latvia is exceptionally beautiful. Enjoy your stay here and thank you for choosing Alta Airlines.” The airport clerk woman says smiling.

Smiling, Joshua nodded his head and left the airport in search of the beach. Wandering around aimlessly Joshua found a little mom-and-pop-owned hotel right next to the beach, so he headed inside, paid for a room, and stowed away his suitcase.

“Now, off to the beach,” Joshua said to himself before leaving his room.

During the whole 10-minute walk down to the beach Joshua took in the scenery and enjoyed watching people. Vampires have a heightened sense of almost everything, sound, sight, touch, and smell. The only thing that tends to decrease is their sense of taste. Being vampires, they don't need to eat human food, but they have also found a way to not need to feed on humans.

So, watching people, for a vampire is more intriguing than it is for a mere human because vampires can every conservation they want to. Joshua has a special ability that the rest of his family does not have, but we will get into that later. Once Joshua made it to the beach the first thing, he did was buy an ice-cold lemonade from a man serving drinks from a cart next to the sand.

“Hello sir, may I offer you an iced lemonade? It is made from fresh lemons, picked, and squeezed daily. By my wife.” The man standing at the cart asked Joshua as he walked up the cart.

“Yes sir. I’ll the biggest cup you have.” Joshua said to the man.

“Here you are. Have a nice time at the beach.” The man said, handing lemonade to him.

Joshua paid more than the lemonade cost and the man at the cart said he couldn't accept more than what he worked for. Joshua then told him he deserves more than what he makes just for sitting in the hot sun waiting for customers, and gave him 65.5 EUROS (80.14 USD), the man thanked and blessed him profusely. Joshua gave the man a firm handshake then headed down onto the beach and by the water.

One thing that Joshua loves more now than he did as a human is swimming. With vampire super speed, swimming is faster and more enjoyable. But with so many people around, Joshua can't swim around as he would like to.

Even though Joshua can't swim like a vampire, almost 300 years have given him enough time to practice swimming like a human again. He has now spent seven hours on the beach so far and Joshua can't help but notice that he is being followed. Joshua and his family have made many friends over the years, but they have also made some enemies along the way. So, especially since he can't tell who is following him, he keeps his guard up. He is modest and so he never thinks about ‘Maybe it’s someone who thinks I'm handsome and is too nervous to say hi’. Joshua never thinks of himself as handsome enough to be followed by ladies.

However, he has been proven wrong by this fact multiple times. He is 6 foot 5 inches and has a body built like a professional bodybuilder. Joshua has dark olive skin and short to medium-length black hair with unnatural golden-colored eyes. Before becoming a vampire, Joshua had light brown eyes.

Once a person is turned into a vampire their eyes change into a variation of the color they were when that person was alive. Most vampires are born but Joshua’s family was turned. Mainly by accident. Thinking about his family, Joshua sits down in the sand to go over his memories and the stories told to him as a kid.