Chapter 4 Some items in this house vanish

Dinner was excruciating. A breeze of awkwardly silence filled the room. She and Damien were seated at opposite ends of an incredibly long dining table. Like those used when you're holding a dinner party for fifty guest using one table.They were presented with roasted lamb, exquisite wine, and treats that tasted like ash in her lips by a small army of waiters. She felt as if she was in a five satr restaurant, but to Damien she already knew this was his life. Damien hardly acknowledged her presence as he ate in solitude.

Anger rising within her, the silence in the room discomforting her, she tapped her fork against the dish. "Will we ever communicate?" Damien didn't raise his head. "There is nothing to discuss." Selene's jaw tightened. "We're married. Like husband and wife. That certainly merits a discussion at least." He glanced at her with his grey eyes. Sharp. chilly. evaluating. While swallowing in remaining roasted lamb in his mouth. "Selene, this is a contract. Not much more." Her chest grew constricted. "So why get married to me?"

Around his wine glass, Damien's fingers froze as he was about to pick it up to take a sip.

Something flickered for a second, for a tiny second, on his face. Almost like a smile as if he was amused. And then it was gone as fast. Simply he uttered, "You signed the contract. The answer is already known to you." "But why get married? Why was there nothing else? Perhaps I could have spent the rest of my life working for you, or something. But why get married?" Twirling her fork in her palm as though she were trying to decode something, she questioned. As he got up to leave the dining table, he remarked, "I don't appreciate conversation on the dinner table. This should be the last time."

After she findshed eating. She wandered the corridors of the manor, her bare feet silent on the chilly marble floor. Considering why her enquiries agitated him during dinner. Then she noticed how quiet it was. It was too quiet in Blackwood Manor. The kind of silence that was heavy with secrets-deep, heavy secrets-and pressed on her skin. Her eyes strayed to the west tower down the corridor. She kept thinking about Mrs. Hawthorne's admonition. "You are not permitted to enter the west tower under any circumstances." However, why? She took a step forward. Then another. The iron door, securely locked, in front of her. Shivering at the weird cold that soaked through the metal, she put her palm against it.

She was about to twist the door nobb as she heard a quick creak behind her, her heart pounding like it was in a scary movie. When she turned back slowly, Damien was standing behind her, his face thunderous and angry. Darkly, he muttered, "I told you.That door is off limits. " Selene felt her heart race. Not only was his voice icy. It was risky. "I-" "Save it, go to your room now!" "Thunderously," he said. Like a child being scolded by their mother, she moved quickly to her room and slammedthe door behind her. She was shaking and frightened. Damien is normally cold but this was different this was dangerous.

She works to her bed trying to sleep of her awful first day as Mrs Blackwood. But she couldn't fall asleep. She kept on replaying the expression on Damien's face in her head. What did he conceal behind that closed door? And why was he so mad?

A faint sound came from outside as she tossed and twisted around. A faint sound of footsteps she heard, but she brushed it off as one of the helps. But this was more of a sneaking around footsteps, someone is doinging something they are not mean to be doing. She thought to herself. She moved towards the door placing her ear on the the door to see if shell her more. There was a person in the corridor. She slipped over to the door and pushed it open softly and hesitantly. She opend the door a little just pip at who is there.

Except for a flickering shadow that vanished around a curve, the corridor was black and deserted. Her heart was pounding she wanted to go out and investigate more. But she remembered the rules and wanted to follow them. She didnt want to enrage Damien more. But her curiosity got the best of her. She was desperate to find out what was happening. Whi is on the corridor. It was too much for her to bear. She followed the sound of the footsteps to led her to the owner. The figure was too silent and too quick. The corridor was deserted by the time she rounded the bend.

However, the door of the west tower was slightly opened alittle. She grabbed the door handle in an attempt to peek into this enigmatic door. Maybe the mysterious person entered there. As she opened the door, she was blinded by a brilliant light. Darkness was the next thing she saw. There was a change the following morning. Selene strolled down the corridor from her room after waking up with a hangover-like headache. As she was heading towards the kitchen to get some water. She became aware that one of the enormous oil paintings-an ancient portrait of a Blackwood ancestor-was gone. Where it had been was a faded rectangle of dust. As she swept the floor, she turned to face one of the maids. "Whatever became of the painting?" The maid stopped. Selene scowled. "Did it drop?"

The maid's face went white. She averted her gaze from Selene. "No, ma'am. It's... gone. Selene felt a prick in her flesh. "Gone?" she asked bewilderedly. She can't recall anything strange that happened last night. She tries to remember the evening. However, she only recalls dozing off following a torturous supper with her current spouse. She thought out loud, "There's something spooky happening in this house." The maid took a deep breath. "Some items in this house... vanish." She said as she hurried away.