Prologue I

"Man dies of cold, not of darkness."

-Miguel de Unamono-

***

All life has left the place once filled with laughters and mending tears. She found no reason to stay, therefore she had to leave. Yet she had no idea the madness that followed from the trail she left behind.

Dark, cold and Smokey. Three words which perfectly described the Russet Manor in the middle of Washington winter. Thick scent of cigar in the air mixed with the burning scent of the fireplace filled the entire place.

Soft wailing of the dogs was faintly heard from the backyard where they were kept on the leash under skillful hands of their trainer. It was snowing outside and the weather was quite terrible, yet it did not stop them from doing their jobs if they still wished to keep it.

Every guards under Dimitri's command that night had gathered in the front porch of the house in rows as they repeated the daily mantra assigned by their leader.

Do not let any outsider in

Do not let her out of the house

Do not let your guard down

Those words were repeated over and over again every day like a broken cassette. He had insisted it was important for them to know their duty. After a while, they were dismissed to their posts where they would remain on look all night to ensure... no one even knew exactly what they were doing besides keeping the house safe.

In the meantime, Dimitri was going inside to check up on her. The sounds of his footsteps echoed throughout the wooden hallway at a twelve million dollars Seattle mansion belonging to the late Wilhelm Russet.

After the main house was caught in fire a few years ago, it had been re built and modernized while maintaining the core essence of the building. The property was located on one of the most exclusive neighborhood in the city.

The house itself was placed further away from the rest, built with tall, modern looking electric fences around the area to ensure no one would be able to trespass. From a stranger's perspective the place always appeared mysterious and closed off.

Even the fellow neighbors never had any idea what the inside of the place was like. Because there were barely any windows. The only thing they knew about the place was the owner's name. Even then they had no idea who he was or what his business was and truthfully, they could not care either.

Unlike the other guards, Dimitri knew the place better than any of them, for he was a full time bodyguard which had been working at the place for years, after being recruited for the first time by the previous owner of the mansion, the late Wilhelm Russet himself, he had been giving his best at fulfilling his duty toward the family even after the man himself has passed away.

His night routine usually started with him inspecting every corner of the rooms, slowly making his way to the second floor where her bedroom was located.

The second floor was always the most silent as most activities occurred on the ground floor, but at night, everything was so empty, most of the staff had gone home, it was almost as if every traces of life was gone from the house.

At the end of his routine, he made his way to the end of the hallway, the room was slightly isolated from the rest, it also had triple locks on it, not only did you have to know the code of the room, you would need to have your fingerprint and retina matched to get inside.

In the house, only three people had the access. Being one of the three, he could just enter it without permission, but his conscience would never allow him to. Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door.

"Miss, are you asleep?" when there was no response, he entered the code and opened the door to check. His heart was already thumping loudly in his chest as he did so. The room was dark and all of the lights were turned off.

At the first glance nothing was wrong. He was about to close the door when he turned his head swiftly at the room once more. His pupil dilated as he opened the door at full length.

He quickly turned to light the switch and then he realized that the room was completely empty. She was nowhere to be found.

"Oh, shit." He ran outside and informed the other guards to search around the house for her. It was complete chaos, they searched everywhere from the garden until the rooftop and found absolutely nothing.

Dimitri went to the security room and pushed the guy who was observing the CCTV, he carefully took a look at each and every one of them, which concluded the entire household, but he could not find her anywhere.

She was gone.

"Check the recording from five hours ago until now." he ordered. The confused man immediately did as told ,he examines every details in hope of finding any movements or signs of her of her, but then he realized that the timing of record was cut in the middle, there was a one hour jump from ten to eleven P.M when the cameras were not recording during the hour.

"How could this happen?" he asked the security guy with a threatening gaze, holding himself back from slamming him to the wall and breaking his skull.

"I do not know, I did not notice." the poor guy was telling the truth. Skipping the part where he had eaten a donut delivered to his room right before the incident which caused him to be sleepy and ended up falling asleep, so did his friend who shared it with him.

"That girl!" Dimitri cursed as he kicked the computer chair until it flew out of the room. He placed both of his arms on his waist as his mind tried to think of the places she might have gone to, but not many came into his mind.

Even though he had been her personal guard for many years, he could never predict that girl's move, she was as cunning as a fox and as sharp as a knife.

Instead of wasting his time in the room like an idiot, he went back to her room in search of any possible clue, going through every corner of her closet, to her drawers and even under the bed, perhaps she had left clues to her where about, but after half an hour of searching, he found absolutely nothing.

Then he remembered something, he went to check underneath her pillow and found a piece of letter, sealed in orange colored clay, her favorite shade. He opened it up and found a hand written letter from her.

"Dear Dimitri,

If you are reading this now, I would have left the house. I am sorry I did not tell you about this, because I know if I did you would report it to him. You have been a great help for me throughout these years but I think it is time that I live life on my own terms. I don't want to live under his wings anymore. I'm done.

I know Vincent will be upset when he finds out about this, but you don't have to worry much, it is not your fault. It's my own decision. Just show him this letter if he ever threatens to kick you out of the household.

No need to search for me. Don't even bother to find out about my where about. Because you won't be able to find me this time.

Take care of yourself, and tell Vincent I hate him.

Love,

Lana."

He folded the letter and placed it back on the envelope. He could not believe that woman just left like that. He had made sure that every gates of the house was locked and properly guarded, it was nearly impossible for her to escape.

"What are you planning this time?" he whispered to the empty room as he stared at the portrait of her hung neatly in the middle of the room. The golden framed portrait held a picture of her with a cunning, sly smile on her face. The look which always got him every single time.

"How am I going to tell Vincent about this?"