Thread: Hidden World (darkangel76 & Neophyte)

Cara ran along the corridor, her footsteps light as she made her way towards the end of the hall opposite her fathers study. When she finally reached the end, she leaned against the wall and placed a hand against her chest as she found herself gasping for air. Trying to calm down and catch her breath, she realized that her entire body was shaking, trembling for reasons that seemed so muddled in her mind. Shed only caught a glimpse of that man, that mysterious stranger her father had hired, but that moment had lasted a lifetime. It perplexed her, made her start to question the simplest of things. Why had her father called him? What was he hired for? Cara knew there had to be a reason. And from the looks of the man that had captured her interest, she knew the reason had to be far from simple. If shed had to guess, shed swear hed been involved in the occult or some sort of dark ritualistic magics that one read about in legends and stories passed down from generation to generation. As Caras mind started to clear a little, her thoughts drifted to such stories. Ones her mother had told her when she was a child, before her untimely and unexplainable death. Looking down at her still shaking hands, she clasped them together and began to wring them a bit. She knew the attempt was in somewhat in vain, but in the end, she did manage to relax herself a little bit. When her breathing finally returned to normal, she stood upright and smoothed out her dress, the fabric so light and airy as her delicate fingers caressed soft material. Setting her jaw, she headed toward the main staircase and slowly descended them knowing that soon shed be meeting up with her father. At the base of the stairs, Caras father, Don Pablo Anderlini, was there to meet her. He smiled at his daughter and kissed her squarely on both cheeks before pulling her into a tight hug. It was clear that the man loved his daughter very much, that he wanted to protect her from all the cruelties of the world if it was within his power. It was this that made her love him even more, though she knew one day hed have to eventually let go, let her live her life and follow her own path. Whatever that might be. Cara and her father headed into the dining room, the large mahogany table decorated with a white lace table cloth and gorgeous red candlesticks set perfectly in ornate brass holders. The ambiance was soothing, making all the agitations from her earlier experience as she tried to spy on the goings on between her father and that strange man. That man. He haunted Caras thoughts now, filled her mind. As her father spoke to her while theyd walked, shed hardly heard a word the man had said. All she could think about was that stranger that had stood there before her father, those eyes as theyd locked with her own. As she went to sit down in the high-back chair, a shiver ran along her spine causing her skin to tingle as if slightly electrified. Unsettled by the rush of sensation, she brought her arms up about her middle and gave herself a squeeze as if shed gotten a sudden chill. Clearing her mind she then gave her father a nod and a smile before letting out a long exhaling breath and then settling deeply into her chair. I am famished, Cara spoke. Her father only nodded, giving her a knowing look, the look of a father who was in constant worry for his daughter. She knew he had a sense that her thoughts were elsewhere. Though she wondered if he could guess as to where they were lingering. Cara didnt have time to say much more since the servants began to bring the food out for them to sample. Everything looked and smelled wonderful and it wasnt long before she was piercing the food with her fork. She and her father ate in silence and it made her wonder even more if he knew that shed been snooping. It didnt seem like hed noticed her, but his silence was more than enough to set her ill at ease. Father, Cara began as she sunk her fork into her dessert, readying herself to ask him a question she was sure would come off as bold. But she didnt get a chance to finish her sentence. Just then, that man that man flew into the room, interrupting their meal. Pablo! the man shouted, his voice laced with an anger unlike anything Cara had ever heard before. Caras pale eyes went wide and she felt herself shrink back a bit in her chair. The strange man and her father conversed about her late mother, her death. Her death? Swallowing, she looked over at her father and then back at the man whod invaded her thoughts since shed laid eyes on him earlier that evening. Her mother had made a deal? What? It was unnerving the way the two men spoke of such things, her completely clueless as to what everything they said meant and why it even mattered. It was more than overwhelming and she suddenly felt her hands begin to shake once more. Speechless and dumbfounded, she watched the man finally get escorted out of the dining room and away to a room that would be his own for the night. Biting down on her lip, she excused herself from the table and headed to her own room. She needed to be alone, to think. It was apparent that Caras father hadnt wanted her to hear the things that he and that man had discussed. But given the way the man had entered and disrupted things, there wasnt much he couldve done in that regard. She knew what she knew now. And she needed to learn more. There was no way she was going to approach her father about anything. Hed shut her out, tell her it was for her own good if she didnt broach the subject ever again. But that would be impossible for her to do. No. She had to do something. She needed to speak to that man . When the moon was high in the sky and the city outside Caras window had gone silent, she gently pushed on the door to her bedroom and snuck out into the eerily quiet corridor that led to their guests room. He was only a couple doors down from her. Not far. On bare feet and wearing nothing but a shimmery silk nightdress, she tip-toed along the carpeted hallway and stopped when she stood in front of the door she so desperately wanted to open. Cara hesitated a moment, wondering whether she should knock or just open the door unannounced. Deciding on the latter, she placed a trembling hand on the crystal door handle and twisted it. The moment she hear the latch open, she pushed on the door and entered the room. The very room that man was staying in.