"Does that mean you know the man?", asked Cesar somewhat curiously.

"Yes", answered Silas still watching them.

"How exactly do you know him?", asked Cesar, who started to feel uncomfortable seeing his oddly calm expression. 

"He's the person who was watching us the past week", he said in a completly unbothered voice.

"What?"

"Are you sure?", asked Marianne now also agitated. 

"Yes", he answered once again turning around.

Upon seeing his expression Marianne knew that he wasn't lying. The question was how did he recognize him if they never saw his face.

At the same time a knot formed in Cesar's throat.

"Why didn't you say anything before?! He took the girl with him", said Cesar now panicked.

And hearing his words the others also realised the seriousness of the situation. 

"We have to get her back", said Marianne, as she ran into the kitchen to grab a knife.

"Why aren't you doing anything?", asked Cesar seeing that Silas didn't budge and only watched them panic. 

"While he may be the one who was watching us it's also true that he's her brother", said Silas not in the slightest bothered by the fact that all of them were staring at him horrified. 

After saying what he had to say he went upstairs to make himself something to eat, leaving the rest behind without looking back even once.

"I don't think I've ever seen someone dropping a bomb like this so nonchalantly", said Jasmine watching him go upstairs.

"I'd be more surprised if he were to be completely serious and make a fuss about it", meant Marianne while starting to go upstairs.

"I wonder who he got that from", said Cesar in a sarcastic tone, which earned him an annoyed look from Marianne. 

"It's not like I was lying", he mumbled.

"I can still hear you", exclaimed Marianne from the second floor.

"How?!"

"Who knows", she answered while humming a song.

"This is why I hate you", he said not too quietly this time.

"Come on you love me."

"As if!"

In the meantime Jasmine made herself some tea and listened to the two bickering. The way it was right now she didn't think it would get boring anytime soon and maybe this was what she had missed all this time. A lively place where she wanted to return to and where she could smile carerfree. A place that she could call home.

At the same time the siblings returned home where bad news awaited them...

"What?", he couldn't believe it. There was no way their father died just like that, if he had known he would've at least apologized instead of fighting with him the day before. He would've done more things with him in order to strengthen their bond, but now it was too late. He was gone and there was nothing that could change that fact. 

From now on there was no one who could protect them anymore.

"Who was it?", his sister asked, tears streaming down her face. "Who was it that killed father?"

"We aren't sure who it was, young miss, but by the looks of it it was someone from the upper council, since there is no way for anybody else to sneak in without getting noticed", said her father's butler, who seemed just as devastated as the rest of them.

"Inform everybody that we'll be going on lockdown for the next few days and make sure that nobody leaves the mansion", ordered Leila in an unfeeling voice while wiping her tears away. 

And for a split second he saw his master in her and that was when he was sure of it, his master had been wrong. There was someone in this family who could replace him.

"Yes, my lady."

Seeing his sister getting her composure back so fast Eros realised that she wasn't the same person anymore. 

Just a few months ago she would've locked herself in her room and refused to talk to anyone for days, but now she seemed to want revenge on whoever did this to her and her family. Seeing this he made a promise to himself to never tell her what truly had happened on her twelfth birthday.

While his sister was giving out commands to the servants his mother was sitting on the ground in disbelief. Seeing what dire situation they were in he made a decision he would come to regret later on. He called the one person his father told him not to no matter what happened, but at that time it seemed like the only choice he had.

After they finished eating dinner everybody went to their own room to get some sleep, everybody except Marianne who had went downstairs to check if the doors were locked. 

As she was about to leave the kitchen a stinging pain made her lose her balance and she fell to the ground, where she started to cough up blood. Just when she was about to get up her whole body started twitching and she fell to the ground once more, the only difference was that she passed out this time. 

By the time she woke up the twitching had stopped and instead it felt like her whole body was being stung by thousands of needles. As she looked down on herself in an attempt to find the cause of her pain she saw how some kind of small animal was moving inside her arm, but before she could even scream the whole world went black once again.

Not even five seconds later she woke up again and saw that the animal had started to move towards her heart, she wanted to scream for help, but she couldn't, it was as if someone was holding their hands on her mouth to hinder her from screaming and just like that she watched how the animal was closing the distance between itself and her heart by the second. Just as it was about to reach her heart she passed out again.

She didn't know how much time had passed since she last passed out, the only thing she was aware of was that the animal or whatever it was had reached her heart. Honestly she had expected it to hurt more when it reached her heart and just as she was about to get up she felt a wave of pain inside her whole body and before she could react to it the next one was already there. It didn't take her very long to figure out that the pain came with her every heartbeat and with that she passed out one last time.

 By now all she wanted was for the pain to end and as if someone heard her wishes the pain really started to disappear.