3. Who he really is
Lea POV
'I hope you don't run away from me, my bride…'
Those words echoed in my ears for a long time as I walked heavily down the corridor of Moretti Castle. My hosts were already waiting for me at the table, which was really full of food and looked appetizing. I sighed deeply and approached the dinner table. My fiancé pulled the chair, so I could sit down. When I sat down, there were only three people at that long table: the count, the count's son, and me, but I felt like the table was totally filled with other presences, things I couldn't see.
"Why so much food if it's only for three people?" I asked aloud before analyzing my words. The earl and his son looked at me at the same time; they had been in terrifying silence until then.
"Do you think it's too much food, Miss Allen? Apparently it's not customary in London to have such a large table." The earl spluttered, his black hair parted in the middle and his sly smile giving him a mysterious air; he was wearing his overcoat even at the dinner table. I lowered my head so as not to reveal the truth with my eyes: it was true that the Allens always had a full table, but the table in my parents' small house was never full, not at all. A piece of dry bread and poor oatmeal were definitely not symbols of abundance; we didn't even have money to buy meat. I smiled slightly in disguise; I wasn't going to let them see my hesitation.
"Really. Londoners sin by not making room for healthy food manufacturing." The earl laughed loudly and openly.
"You Londoners and your factories; here we grow everything naturally. From the fresh milk milked from the cow to the broccoli that was picked this afternoon from my fields, feel free to eat and enjoy." He invited me with a lewd smile. The food was indeed exuding an inviting aroma: there was fresh bread, steaming soup, salads, and a large suckling pig with broth running down the surface of the meat in the middle of the table. I licked my lips, suddenly very hungry. I smiled, bringing my hand to a tray of fried chicken in my reach. Furthermore, I took a piece and was preparing to take the last bite when I heard his voice.
"Are you sure you really want to eat?" Lucca, my future husband, was looking at me deeply; there was a line on his forehead that I could interpret as an expression of anguish. I didn't understand what he was talking about.
"What?" His voice was like a needle bursting a magic bubble inside me.
"What are you doing, Lucca?" The earl hissed at his son in rebuke.
"Look around you." He ordered, not listening to the father, and was disturbed. I took my look at the whole table that was still empty with only my father, son, and I present, but a thunder was felt, and in a lapse of seconds of clarity of the thunder in that room dinner, revealed things too grotesque to be imagined: the table was full of the most bizarre creatures; all those creatures were looking at me with their wide eyes; the food was rotten and smelly; worms and flies crawled over the piglet's meat as if it were feces; the chicken leg in my hand turned into countless venomous cockroaches crawling on my arm... I screamed, struggled, and blacked out.
When I woke up, my head ached, and the images of that nightmare were still vivid in my head, so when I opened my eyes, I saw the face of the handsome prince looking at me, a face so beautiful that it contrasted grotesquely with my nightmares. I blinked my eyes, trying to understand what was happening. For a moment, I forgot that I was no longer in London working in the Allen household, but I was up north as the bride of an earl's son, and now my name was Crystal Allen.
"Finally you woke up. I even wanted to call a doctor, but my father is a doctor, and he said he'll take care of you." Lucca was talking. I was lying on a comfortable bed in a room that would apparently be mine from now on, and he was sitting right next to me. How long was he there?
"What happened to me...?" I asked, sitting up slowly, my head still hurting. I wasn't remembering almost anything; I didn't even know what day it was.
"You passed out last night after dinner." He revealed that he was pouring a glass of water and giving it to me.
"Did I delete it?" I stared at the water that looked clear to the eye, but suddenly images filled my head: the night before at that dinner table, the horrific creatures I saw, the food that was once pleasing to the eye that had suddenly become petrified, the sticky cockroaches... I shuddered and ran a hand through my hair. "I had a terrible nightmare; I'm sorry..."
"It wasn't a nightmare." Lucca spoke without much emotion in her voice as she gently adjusted the covers over me. "You saw things as they really are here at the castle." I furrowed my brow in confusion.
"What are you talking about?" I didn't understand why he was all mysterious like that. It was enough that this castle was haunted and there were rumors about his father; now he was the one starting to play with me? It was about time he started getting serious. "Sorry, Mr. Moretti, but I would like you to stop making charades."
"Call me Lucca; there's no reason for us to be formal with each other when we're getting married, Crystal. And I'm not speaking in riddles; my father said it was necessary to open your eyes to see the truth.
"What do you mean, open my eyes?" He was still looking at me as he spoke, and I could feel how serious he was being.
"I tried to prevent you from starting, but even so, you ate, and now you will see the non-human creatures that roam this haunted castle, and you will see who I truly am."