Virginia watched Charles Prince walk away and she had the urge to follow him despite being very intimidated by him. This mansion, however, seemed even more daunting. She'd rather have been in someone's company, even his, than stand in this ginormous old place by herself. Even still, Virginia swallowed her trepidation and stood there in the large foyer alone.
The chill from the cool drizzle clung to her and made her shiver. Or maybe it was the terrifying pictures that hung down the walls that were the cause of the quiver running down her spine.
On both sides of the foyer hung several huge pictures of monsters and demons.
Virginia picked at her nails and studied them, despite the fact that they unsettled her.
She guessed at least half of the pictures were from the 1400s.
The first painting that caught her eye featured a very tall, gray skeleton-like man who was holding several sharp scythes in his hands. The skeleton man had maggots and worms in his belly and chest, and his dead skin was hanging off his bones like worn rags. He had a few fine strands of hair stuck to the back of his skull.
He stood with his bony foot pressed into a dead man's throat. In the background, two young ladies lay on the ground. They were wearing simple dresses, and both girls had a gash slashed on the forehead. The blood rolled down and their eyes remained open, but it appeared they were dead as well.
In front of the skeleton-creature was a beautiful woman in a red dress holding a book and looking up at the skeleton man. Her lips were painted red and her cheeks were either flushed or she'd made them red with rouge.
In another art piece, three ghoulish creatures appeared to be dancing around a man in a cloak. The creatures were all different, but they seemed to have been born from the same kind of hellish creation.
One had hawk-like feet, bat-like wings, and a face like a mix between a werewolf and a warthog. One was covered in long fur and had two goat-like heads, one of which came from its stomach. The third creature was creeping over the cloaked man's shoulders.
It looked like a combination of a monkey and a cat, and it too had bat wings. Upon closer examination of this art piece, Virginia realized these demons were not dancing, but praying on the person in the cloak. Each creature wielded a sharp weapon. The picture was in black and white, but the person in the middle had strokes of gold light radiating from him. He had his head bowed and his hands grasped in prayer. A bearded man wearing a gold crown floated in the upper left corner of the frame. He too had light emitting from him. Virginia guessed him to be God.
The last picture that Virginia came to study was so beautiful because of the artist's amazing attention to detail. It appeared more like a photograph than a painting. But the scene itself was dark and haunting. It featured two naked men, one of which appeared to be jerking the other backward and holding him there, biting at the front of his neck. The man being bitten looked scared and his face was twisted in a horrible grimace of pain.
The man doing the biting looked wicked and hungry. Right next to the naked men were two other men in conversation. One wore a white robe and laurel, and the other was dressed in red.
They were looking with only a hint of concern at a pile of dead, naked men in the background. Flying above the scene was a human-sized, bat-faced man. It wore a sickening smile and its eyes glowed white like two flashlights far off in the distance.
Virginia was amazed at these intricate art pieces. They appeared to be real and valuable. She just wondered why there were so many horrifying pictures in the same place.
Aside from the Renaissance paintings, the foyer was decorated with other antique valuables and furniture. It matched the exterior quite well; everything was both old and scary looking.
Virginia stood there looking at the other paintings, though her mind kept drifting back to the one with the pile of dead men, so she wasn't able to process anything in particular about these others aside from the fact that they, too, depicted demons, monsters and great battles.
She looked up at the ceiling after a while, and a giant crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling. It didn't sparkle as crystal should, for there was not enough light in the room to make that happen.
Virginia caught some sudden movement in the corner of her eye, and glanced down the hall, up at the second level. Charles Prince stood there at the railing, right next to the stairs.
She looked at him, expecting him to come down and tell her what to do or explain to her what was to happen to her next.
Even from far away, she could tell he was handsome. He still radiated like moonlight.
Since he stood at the top of the stairs on the other side of the hall, Virginia couldn't quite read his face. Though, she was sure his face looked as it had any other time she'd looked at him. He was probably stern and unemotional.
Virginia wondered if he had any feelings at all. He was so willing to take her as payment and didn't seem bothered by her crying as she left her sister and father.
However, she recalled his saying to her father, "Anyone who cares for his daughter so little doesn't deserve her anyway" So maybe he did have emotions or at the very least some smidgen of the ability to recognize emotions in other people.
Charles and Virginia stood in each other's gaze. Virginia thought he might head down and say something, but she was soon distracted by the patter of shoes coming down the hall. By the time she looked away briefly and back up to the banister, Charles was gone.
He sure moved quickly, and silently.
Virginia waited for the person to who the footsteps belonged to to pop out of one of the rooms down the hall, and soon they did.
Virginia was surprised to see a woman coming toward her. She was a short, probably thirty-year-old lady, with bright red hair. She was quite pale, like Charles, and her eyes were a light, bluish-gray color.
Virginia assumed she must have worked there at the mansion, for she was wearing a classic, black and white maid's outfit.
As she walked closer, Virginia thought that she seemed to float. She appeared so light that she was hovering over the ground. If it hadn't been for the sound of her white canvas shoes patting the tile floor with each step and the swish of her short legs, Virginia might have been convinced she was indeed gliding.
Fortunately, this lady looked very kind. Her eyes seemed to be permanently squinted in a smile. She had apple-shaped cheeks, and her mouth, lined with red lipstick, was slightly curled up on both ends.
Honestly, Virginia thought it was a relief to see another woman, and, now, seeing that this woman appeared to be kind, Virginia stopped picking at her fingernails.
"Hi there," the maid said. Her teeth were bright white, and her canines were slightly pointed. She had a cute dimple on each side of her mouth when she smiled.
Though Virginia was relieved to have another lady present, she was still uncomfortable being in a new place, so she couldn't bring herself to smile back. After all, she had no idea what her role was in his strange place, so she wasn't sure how she was expected to act.
"Hello," she said with a polite nod of her head. Her eyes, or something about the sound of her voice, must have given away her true feelings because the maid's face softened a bit.
She seemed sympathetic towards Virginia, and that was nice.
"You must be the new girl Young Mr. Prince has brought back with him."
Virginia nodded shyly.
"And what is your name?"
"I'm Virginia. Virginia Downing."
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Virginia," the maid said. She bent slightly at the waist to give a pleasant bow.
Virginia was glad she didn't reach out to shake her hand because she knew her palms would be sweaty from her nerves. It was strange how her hands could be cold and sweaty at once.
"Well," the maid said, "My name is Angela. I'll be helping you get settled in." She smiled wide again and her eyes crinkled in the Corners.
Looking closer, her eyes were very similar to Charles' except that they had a slight blue tint to them. She also had some faint freckles splashed across her nose and cheeks.
She was quite the opposite of Charles Prince, Virginia thought. He was so stoic, cold and dark, while Angela was bright and kind. Sort of like morning sunlight.
Angela turned suddenly. "Come with me," she said.