A World of Vampires: Volume 1 Page 2

  He chuckled as he scribbled on a piece of paper. “That I can. As for now, Jessica out in the lobby will give you my house keys and one of my men will escort you to my house. Go there and start cleaning.”

  My mind had ran many scenarios of all the things Brian would ask me to do the moment he called me his servant. Many of them ended very poorly for me. Never did I think I would hear that word.

  “Cleaning?” I repeated.

  “Yes. I will be back at around three in the morning. Have some sweets ready for me. Also, take care of the scratch on your face. I don’t want people thinking I would hit a young girl such as yourself.”

  I was about to ask if he was joking, but decided I’d rather take this than anything else he might come up with. I nodded and went to the lobby to ask Jessica for the things.

  And that was how I met the poor bastard that was Brian MacAuliffe.

  Brian’s house was in a nicer part of town than I imagined, for South Boston that is. Brian’s second-in-command Joshua led me to his house. He didn’t say anything as he drove me, but kept glancing over at me. I felt conscious of the scratch on my cheek and the bruises that covered my arms. I could feel his eyes linger on them but he didn’t say anything, which I was very thankful for. I didn’t need to hear his pitiful remarks.

  Frankly, I was afraid he was going to take me somewhere to make me disappear, but I guess in a sense he was. I belonged to Brian now, never to see my family again. That part of it I didn’t feel bad about, I prayed for the day I wouldn’t have to see them ever again. As for thinking of the things Brian could order me to do...

  I didn’t want to think about it and was grateful he was simply sending me to his house to clean up, at least thus far.

  We finally arrived and Joshua stopped the car. “Well, this is it,” he motioned to the house. “Brian gave you the key.”

  “Yeah, thank you for driving me over,” I began to open the door.

  He grabbed my wrist, his grip tight. “Wait just a moment. I’m not letting off that easy.”

  My entire body froze. He reached over me and pulled the door closed again. We were alone in the car.

  “First off, you need to know that Brian is a good man. If you do anything to betray him, I will personally see to it that you suffer. You understand me?”

  I nodded slowly.

  “Just do what he says and you will be perfectly fine,” he let go of my wrist and smiled. “Now, get to it. You have a lot to clean before your master gets home.”

  I got out of the car as quickly as I could. I didn’t like how he called Brian my ‘master’. It was rather disturbing and I tried not to think how Joshua or Brian saw me.

  As I pulled out the key I examined the house. It looked simple enough, a brick house close to that of his office. It was quiet too, which was strange. I had thought it would have a lot more people around it, but I guess if they all feared him, they wouldn’t want to come near this place. The people that were there walked around me as I stood on the sidewalk, still worried as to what horrors could be awaiting me. Taking a deep breath, I unlocked the door and opened it.

  I quickly raised my hand over my mouth and nose. The stench was horrible, worse than that on the back streets. Trash covered the floor, in no sort of form or order. I wondered if he knew what a trashcan was. I quickly went inside and opened all the windows on the first level, to clear the smell of rotting food away and to get a cool breeze going through the house. Other than the trash, there wasn’t anything too distinct in the house. All the walls were painted a quaint beige, and he had a couch and half-full bookcases. No paintings, no sculptures or vases. There was a table to dine on as well with a few chairs sprawled out around it, at least I hoped it was a table and not just a mountain of papers and half eaten food.

  I started searching the closets for something to start cleaning with, going straight to my job as Joshua said to do. For all I knew he could be watching and I didn’t want him reporting to Brian that I was slacking off. I kept looking for a broom or something. Anything would have worked, really, the place was a mess. I had a good ten hours before Brian got back and I had a feeling it would take that long to sort all of it out. For a half second, each time I opened the door I expected a dead body to fall out. One never did appear, thank goodness. I’m not quite sure what I would have done if it did. Once I found the right closet, I grabbed the cleaning supplies and started away.

  I worked on clearing away any food I could find, either putting it away if it was still edible or just throwing it out altogether. I ended up throwing out most of it, even the random scraps that were in the refrigerator. The stench started to leave the house finally.

  After the food, I started on clearing all the rubbish and paper on the tables. Not wanting to throw away anything that could be important, I mostly separated out the paper on the table for him to look through. I didn’t want to get killed on the first day on the job for something as small as a piece of paper. I tried to do my job as best I could, in fear if I didn’t please him, he would hurt me. Would he kill me? Would he hit me? It wasn’t like I wasn’t used to pain and being told I didn’t do something proper. Punishment and I were close friends. I took a deep breath, letting the thoughts of being trapped in one of these closets disappear out of my mind. He wouldn’t do that, he wasn’t my father.

  Although I tried not to read much of the writing on the papers, it really wasn’t my business, I couldn’t help to notice some very explicit death threats. Nor could I help to notice the checklists Brian had made describing the robberies and heists he wanted to perform. It was all in code as to when and where, but I got the gist and started to realize what I had gotten myself into. I tried to push the thoughts of what could go wrong in this deal back in my mind but the more I tried, the more I started to fear for my life and wanted to run away.

  I made my way up the stairs into the bedrooms. One was clean and empty, which I was very thankful for. The other one had to have been a guest room that was used a few weeks ago. The sheets smelt stale, as if Brian never got to cleaning them again. That wasn’t a big surprise. As for the last room, which I gathered was Brian’s, I wanted to slap him. His clothes were scattered throughout the room, covered in blood. His bedding didn’t look like it had been cleaned in weeks and there was not one drawer that wasn’t partially open. I rubbed my forehead and started to realize why he agreed to send me here for releasing my brother. It was disgusting.

  I gathered the clothes and filled the bathtub with cold water. I figured I would let them soak for at least a day since Brian had let them dry.

  As I finished sweeping up and cleaning the rest of the house, I realized Brian asked me to make him sweets. I didn’t know what he meant by it, if he wanted cookies or something else. At that moment I truly hoped he meant cookies and decided to make simple sugar cookies since that’s all he had ingredients for. Barely.

  I waited for those to cook and as I pulled them out of the oven, I heard someone unlock the front door. I checked the clock. Three in the morning. Right on time.

  Taking a couple of deep breaths, I went into the hallway, greeting him for the evening, or morning I guess it was by then. When he saw me he jumped. “Oh, you scared me. Lucky I already put my pistol down.” He sniffed the air. “Why does it smell like cookies?”

  Damn, he did mean something else. “You told me to make you something sweet.”

  He laughed as he hung up his hat. “Right, so I did. I was joking, I didn’t think you would actually make me something. Honestly, I forgot you were here until I opened the door. I haven’t had a maid in a while,” he took a look around as we entered the kitchen. “Place looks nice.”

  I had spent over ten hours cleaning his mess and all he could say is ‘looks nice’. His house was disgusting, I’m not sure how he even lived here. I glanced at the cookies cooling down. The cookies he was just joking about. I couldn’t complain, at least he didn’t slap me for making them wrong or something in the like. That’s what would have happened if I
went home. It did bother me, though, I had spent time and had to get creative with ingredients. This was my second batch and I had really worried about him liking them.

  Facing him, I smiled as if it were the best compliment I had ever had, which in reality it probably was. “Thank you.” That’s when I noticed the blood soaking his shirt and marking his knuckles. “Are you okay? You’re covered in blood.”

  He looked down at himself as if he forgot, which he probably did. Blood was second nature to him as I would come to find. “Oh, right. Sorry, I probably dripped on your clean floors. I will take it off right now before I make a bigger mess.”

  I blushed as he pulled his shirt off, which made me feel strange. He got me to trade myself in as a servant for my brother’s freedom. He was a mob boss, a gang leader, someone who killed for a living, yet something about him made me feel strange inside. He was handsome, I had to admit, but there was something else about him that made my heart beat faster. Something that made me want to know more about him.

  No wound was found on his body, just blood smeared across it. I didn’t know then how that was possible but I didn’t question it. I didn’t want to know about any of his business, I just wanted to survive. He handed me the shirt. “Here ya go.”

  I grabbed it slowly and took it into the bathroom where I had the other clothes. Brian followed me into the bathroom and watched as I rinsed off the blood.

  “Last person I had clean this house saw all the blood and ran off,” he stated as he leaned against the wall.

  “A deal’s a deal,” I responded. Truthfully I wanted to run away too. I didn’t ask what he did to the other person, in fear that they floated in the bay or worse.

  He leaned over and looked in the bathtub. “Are those the clothes from my bedroom?”

  “Yes.”

  He smiled. “Usually I buy a girl dinner before she gets to see my bedroom.”

  I didn’t respond as I grabbed a washcloth and soaked it in some water. I turned to him and started to wash off the blood from his skin. He didn’t say another word but simply watched me intently. My heart raced in my chest and I could barely breath. I decided to bring up my brother.

  “So you released my brother?” I asked. I didn’t really care if he was released or not since I didn’t have to go back home either way. The only reason I wanted him alive was because I would have been blamed for his death. Now it didn’t matter.

  He nodded. “Yes, as promised.”

  “Then this blood...” Fear that all of this work had been for nothing,

  Brian laughed. “Not your brother’s, don’t worry,” he raised his fists. “This is though.”

  I stared at his stained red knuckles. “Why?”

  “I told him that his sister gave her life for his. He didn’t care so I laid it into him that he should. I guess it doesn’t matter since ya won’t ever have to see him again, but he should know how to treat ladies better.”

  I couldn’t believe what he was saying. No one ever did anything for me like that. “You stood up for me?”

  “I believe in manners, every man should have them.”

  “And the other blood?”

  “Hijacked a shipment. Couple of men got in the way but I fixed that,” he whispered.

  I finished washing off his knuckles, which I found to have no cuts on them as well. I began to think about how he stood up for me. Not many had ever been nice to me, a handful at most. Without knowing me or needing to, he had decided to stand up for me.

  I rinsed off the washcloth and let it soak with the clothes, thinking about whether or not he was nice to all people or if I was the only one. I couldn’t have been the only one, there wasn’t any reason for him to be nice to me.

  “Come on, I have something for ya,” he grabbed me by the hand and led me out the door. He pulled me up the stairs, not without grabbing a cookie first, and just smiled.

  “Don’t look so worried, I won’t bite.”

  He also mumbled something under his breath. I decided not to think about what that was.

  He opened the door closest to the stairwell, the one that I didn’t need to clean. “This room is yours.”

  Truth be told, that wasn’t what I was expecting, but I had no idea what to expect with Brian MacAuliffe. “Mine?”

  He nodded. “Yup,” he pointed at the door to the left. “That one’s mine and the other is another spare, but you probably figured that out already. I usually use it for my second-in-command Joshua, if he ever stays late and is too drunk to go home. Which is more often than not. Anyway, make yourself comfortable. I wake at about three in the afternoon,” he checked his watch. “Usually stay up a bit longer, do paperwork and stuff. I expect a newspaper on the dining table by then, some tea and a muffin. Then the day will go about the same. Just keep things tidy until I can think of anything else for ya.”

  I stared at him for a long moment. I don’t know what possessed me to say it, but I did. “Are you serious?”

  He leaned against the doorway, his face inches away from mine. “Why, is there anything else you have in mind?”

  I just stared at him, not saying a word since the last time I opened my mouth, I ended up with this job.

  After a few moments, Brian moved back. “I didn’t think so. As I said, just do those things for now until I think of something.”

  “Alright.”

  “Well, then, see you in the morning,” with that, he left me for the night. I watched as he went down the stairs, wondering if he was serious or if I had been dreaming. I pinched myself. Nope, not a dream. Not even a dream could be this crazy. I turned into the room and closed the door.

  The next day, I woke up late in the morning and quietly went down the stairs, which was nearly impossible given that they squeaked worse than a mouse. I kept looking up at Brian’s door but it never opened. He must have been a heavy sleeper or just really hated mornings.

  I finished cleaning his clothes, getting the blood stains mostly out, which took a good deal of time. I then made the muffins he had requested, again as simple as I could since he didn’t have much for the ingredients, and then gathered the newspaper to be ready for him. There wasn’t anything else for me to do that I knew of so I opened up one of the books from his shelf. Beauty and the Beast. I sat there and read it, finding the fairytale to be enchanting. I didn’t get to read stories like this at home, only a few when I visited my neighbors when I was younger.

  “Relating to the character?”

  I looked up to find Brian standing in front of me, smiling as if he had found my reading to be entertaining. I jumped up and put the book on the table. “I’m sorry, I finished with everything you needed me to do.”

  “You have nothing to worry about, I’m up a little earlier today than normal,” he took a seat at the dining table. I quickly got him a muffin and placed it next to him. “Thank you,” he nodded.

  I started back towards the couch and he motioned to the table. “Why don’t you join me, I haven’t had someone to eat with in this house for ages.”

  I did as he said and sat down awkwardly, staring down at my hands in my lap. Every time I glanced up at him, I found him studying me.

  “You seem nervous,” he ate some of the muffin. “I said I wasn’t going to bite.”

  That was the second time he brought up biting. I fidgeted with my skirt, not sure how to respond to it. I still expected him to hit me or throw me in some box for doing something wrong.

  He watched me with a careful eye. “You also have nothing to worry about while you’re here, this house is one of the safest in all of Boston.”

  I stared at him. After reading all those death threats that had been on the table, I didn’t quite believe him. “Really?”

  “Yup,” he took another bite of the muffin. “My men are always around.”

  I didn’t notice anyone when I had come the day before. “None of them did anything when we arrived yesterday.”

  “Called ahead, but if you did try to leave, they would have st
opped you.”

  Simple enough, wished he told me though, I would have felt a bit better after reading his mail. It also explained why he didn’t fear that I was going to run away. I couldn’t. “Ah, I see.”

  He opened up the newspaper and started reading. “I also would never hurt you, so you don’t have to worry about that either.”

  “Never crossed my mind,” I lied.

  “Says the girl with bruises on her forearms and ribs.”

  So he did notice the bruises. The ones on my forearms were apparent and usually I wore a long sleeved shirt to hide them but it had been so hot the day before. As for my ribs, I had no idea how he knew that. I moved a strand of hair back behind my ears. “How did you know?”

  He kept flipping through the paper, as if this conversation was no big deal to him. “The way you stand and hold things. I’m used to seeing people in pain, I can tell. It’s exactly why I sent your brother home in a bloody mess.”

  I didn’t know what to say, but stared at him for a long moment. “Thank you.”

  He shrugged it off. “As I said, he needs to learn how to treat a lady. Speaking of which, why are you in the same clothes as yesterday?”

  Was he really that naïve. I had moved here without going by my house. I had nothing with me. “Because I have no other clothes.”

  Brian pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket and placed it on the table. “Knock yourself out. Also, get some groceries on the way back.”

  I stared at the money. Never had I seen so much cash in one place. “I can’t take that money...”

  “Why not? You’re my servant and I don’t want to be seeing the same damn shirt and skirt everyday. So go get something nice.”

  I glanced back at the book lying on the table. A young girl trapped in the home of a beast. Maybe I did relate.

  I bought myself some clothes, mostly just simple skirts and blouses. With how much Brian had given me, I could have gone all out, but that was never my taste. I liked simple clothes and that was that. Even now I just wear tanks and jeans and a coat if need be. I never understood fashion and why someone would pay so much for clothes they would only wear once.