CHAPTER I - 05

As soon as the zombie jumped toward Alpha Luca who was much closer to her, he immediately aimed for his shotgun which was in his right pocket. He had taken that with him in case he was to meet anything that needed to be defeated. He was right after all. The shotgun makes things easier for him, rather than his gun. He knew that if he had taken his knife instead, he'd first have to maybe struggle with whatever and whoever he was fighting with before he defeated it. Immediately, he aimed the shotgun at the zombie's head and fired about four bullets consisting of small metal balls from the cartridge consecutively at its head. The zombie's head shattered into pieces immediately, flaunting across the environment, and the rest of her body went down to the floor. Seeing that he had defeated the zombie, he returns his shotgun to his pocket, where he had taken it from earlier. "That was a close call," Lord Valentine said as he watched Aloha Luca defeat the zombie. "But how did she turn into a zombie though? This woman," Alpha Luca started as he pointed to the lifeless zombie on the floor. "She's the maid Romeo hired to take care of Cassie's grave, in case of intruders or anyone who wanted to take her body or anything." "Then, how come she has turned into a zombie? Besides, now that something has happened to her, I fear something must have happened to Cassie's grave too." Lord Valentine stated the obvious. "Obviously." Alpha Luca replied, rolling his eyes in the process. "Cassie's grave has been tampered with. There are blood spatters all around here, and this blood is fresh. It hasn't been anything more than two days, if not less. Let's have a look," he motioned to Lord Valentine and they both walked towards Cassie's grave. A heap of sand was noticed near the grave, and it looked like it had been dug before they arrived there. As they moved closer to her grave, they discovered that it was the sand used to cover her coffin that was dug and set aside. "Someone was here." Lord Valentine stated the obvious again, but this time, he only muttered it to himself. "Her coffin is gone!" Alpha Luca exclaimed immediately they peeped into the bed hole, which was Cassie's grave, which was supposed to be covered by sand but wasn't. "Someone has taken her coffin, together with her body and all that." "The same person must have killed the maid Romeo set aside to take care of the grave and turned her into a zombie to attack us whenever we arrive." Alpha Luca chuckled, a look of anger mixed with disgust evident on his face. "The person was a step ahead of us." "Maybe two." Lord Valentine said and Alpha Luca glared at him. "Well, what? The person has planned this through before even deciding to go on with it!" "But that isn't the issue at hand, Valentine. The problem right now is that this anonymous person did this so easily and did not even leave anything by mistake that could stand as a leader for us. We have no lead in this. We have no one to suspect! And right now, this means three different people are missing. Romeo, Cassie, and of course, Ethene." Alpha Luca said and growled as he finished his sentence. He hated not knowing what to do next and he hated being frustrated while trying to make things work out. The fact that he had no lead, he was clueless, and had no idea what to do next even made him angrier. He had to make moves as soon as possible, but he knew not where to start. "Well, the person may have left no lead, but we have our lead right here with us." Lord Valentine stated as he let out a small giggle. "And what do you mean?" Alpha Luca turned to face Lord Valentine, a look of hope appearing on his face. "One of the things Lord Romeo made sure he does well when he comes to people he cares about is to put out things that would protect them. But then, after he puts out things that would protect them, he finds a way to make a plan B, in case anything goes wrong with their protector." "Will you go straight to your point, Valentine?" Alpha Luca asked, he was beginning to get impatient with Lord Valentine's small speech. "He placed CCTV cameras everywhere here, in hidden places that no one would ever suspect." Lord Valentine said. "So, what you're saying right now is that there are CCTV cameras around here unknown to anyone and we can look out for them and check to see what might have gone wrong here and see whoever could have done this?" Alpha Luca asked. "Exactly my point." "That's a very good one. But…" Alpha Luca's voice trailed off in the middle of his sentence as he began to look around the whole place, still on the same spot he stood. "But?" "How in the world do we know where he hid these cameras?" "I do. I was here with him when he ordered some men too." Lord Valentine said and shrugged. Without waiting for Alpha Luca's reply, he walked over to somewhere very close to the bush. Then, he bent down a little, and he moved forward his hands to check inside the bush, while Alpha Luca merely stood there, arms akimbo, staring at him. "Here," he finally spoke a couple of seconds later. "Here's one of the cameras." Lord Valentine said as he stood up with a CCTV camera in his hand, and he walked over to Alpha Luca. "Here, let's check what we have in there." Lord Valentine operated the CCTV camera for a few minutes and soon, they began to look at the videos in it from when both of them—Lord Valentine and Alpha Luca—walked into Cassie's graveyard backward. As they rewinded it, they made sure they took note of anything new that must have happened in the surrounding that might sound like a clue to them. Not long into the video, they found what they were looking for. Although, it was not what they had expected. They had expected to see the culprit that had come here to steal Cassie's coffin, and maybe also turned her maid into a zombie, but what they saw was someone they didn't expect. Lord Valentine and Alpha Luca turned to look at each other as they watched the video. A look of shock was on Alpha Luca's face, while a look of confusion was on Lord Valentine's face. "Romeo was here?" Alpha Luca asked as they both looked at the video once again. ___ The wind blew a bit in a place that looked like a deserted environment. The environment couldn't be recognized as a particular realm, but a small cabin was seen come to view, somewhere in the middle of nowhere. A body was laying on the floor sleeping in the cabin. The wind blew again, this time, more severe and heavy. This heavy wind made the logs and wood from which the cabin was built shake a bit. As the cabin shook, the person sleeping in the cabin was seen to come alive. Lo, and behold was the figure everyone in the human and supernatural realms was looking for, the one and only Lord Romeo. He woke up and sat on the bare floor, a strong look of confusion on his face as he looked around his surroundings, which were still in the small cabin he found himself in. "Where the hell is this place? How the fuck did I even get here?" He asked no one in particular since no one was in view to even ask. Immediately, he got up from the floor and walked out of the small cabin which had no door. As he walked out, he looked around, not knowing which direction to go or where to start on his journey back home. "Where is this?" He muttered to himself once again as he looked around him. This time, he just stood in front of the cabin as he tried to figure out what realm he just woke up in. One thing he knew quite well though, was that this wasn't his realm, but he had no idea where he got there. He placed his hands on the sides of his head as he tried to remember anything from his realm, maybe he could figure out how he suddenly appeared here or how he found his way there, but nothing came to his head, his head felt airy and he couldn't remember anything that happened. Not helping matters, the heavy wind blew again, which made him stagger backward as he moved back towards the cabin he came out from. He sighed as he dropped his hands. "What is going on here? Where am I? What am I doing here?"