White Rose - Gao Yang (best fiction novels to read .txt) 📗

and nicely greeted Bryce.

 

"Gwen, darling, who's at the door?" Colin said as she turned her head and he saw Bryce. "Bryce, what are you here for?" Colin said as he eyed Bryce up and down and noticed a paper in his hand. "What's that in your hand?" Bryce handed the paper to him and Colin snatched it out of Bryce's hands. Colin looked at the paper and it was a letter from King Charles.

 

Colin Myers,

 

Your father, Frank Myers, will be released from the dungeon due to false evidence that were provided by the Prosecutors and the court. He will be sent home two days from now. I'd like to apologize for the misunderstanding that my father, Henry, he was mislead and mistaken for accusing your father. We hope you understand the circumstances and hope you cooperate.

 

Signed, King Charles Vivet

 

"What is it, Colin?" Gwen asked as Bryce was standing outside their door entrance. He looked up from the letter and looked at Bryce.

 

"What kind of sick joke is this?" Colin was rather pissed than relieved. "You think after three years, I'm going to forgive your King Henry for framing my father?!" Gwen looked at her husband and pulled him back. Bryce didn't show any emotion. He just stared at Colin. "What are you looking at now?!"

 

"What did you do to Isabella?" Colin gasped and scoffed.

 

"You still want to pick a fight with me about this?" Bryce rolled his eyes and shook his head. "What's the amusement?"

 

"I'm just being amused by how idiotic you are to realize that you pushed her away when she needed you the most." Gwen released Colin as he walked up to Bryce.

 

"You don't know what happened, Bryce. She pushed me away and left."

 

"Yeah, when she comes back alive, I'll believe that she actually pushed you away herself." Bryce walked inside their home and stood before Colin.

 

"You never knew how she struggled to survive in her home. You never knew why she did what she did. You never knew anything about her. And look at you!" Colin stepped back. "Now you're the one accusing me that I made her disappear." Bryce looked at Colin and saw how he was becoming a maniac. "You didn't know a single thing about her!"

 

Bryce closed his eyes as he realized that Colin was right. He didn't know a thing about Isabella and her life and what she went through. "Fine, you're right! I didn't know a thing about her. But in the short amount of time I was with her, all I know is that she was a beautiful person with a broken heart and she knew but she didn't want to accept it." Colin looked at Bryce as he stepped back outside. "And I think I already know who broke her heart, it was probably you, Colin."

 

Just as Bryce had enough and turned around and walked away from the argument, Colin rushed up to the door and stopped. "You don't know anything!" Bryce walked inside the carriage as he didn't bother to look back because he was just in anger.

 

"Thomas, take me the Valet's."

 

"But My Lord, you're not supposed to be there." Bryce looked at Thomas and glared at him.

 

"Just take me to the Valet's." Thomas nodded and took him to the Valet's residence. On the way there, he thought about what he was going to say to her family. Then he thought about the story that Jack and Alison told everyone, he still didn't quite believe the sacrifices. If Isabella really did have to die to save the world, he wouldn't let her.

 

"Sir?" Bryce turned his head to see Thomas opening the carriage door. He was already at the Valet's residence.

 

He walked up to their doorstep and was hesitant to knock. He lifted his arm up to knock but he stopped as the door opened and Jack was there. "Bryce." Bryce looked at Jack as he was about to walk outside. He glanced inside the house as Alison walked out the door with a bag.

 

"Bryce, what are you doing here?" In fact, Bryce didn't know why he came to their house. Was he missing Isabella? Was he just thinking about her?

 

"Where are you guys going?" He asked and Jack and Alison looked at each other.

 

"I was just sending Alison back to the Donnovan's. Why?" Bryce's face dropped, biting the inside of his mouth. "Is there something wrong?" Bryce fell to his knees as he ran his fingers through his hair. He was crying.

 

Just as he thought he was over Isabella, though the first thing he said was about her. "Did you find her?" Immediately, Jack became puzzled. "Did you find her? Did you find Isabella?" He looked up at both of them, waiting for an answer to satisfy him. Alison's mouth dropped and shook her head.

 

"You said you'd never ask anything about Isabella but you did." Jack said as he got down to Bryce's level. "You still think about her, don't you?" Bryce turned his head to look at Jack. "You still feel her presence with you. You still feel her love with you. You still remember her every smile and laugh and giggle, and you feel as if she's here with you." Bryce stood back on his feet and walked inside their house. "And if I'm correct, you still love her with all your heart."

 

He turned around and looked at them and turned back around. He walked inside and then he remembered the first time he first saw her on the stairs; he remembered how he fell for her gracefulness. He then walked into the living room and looked around the empty room. There was no one in the house but Jack and Alison. Mr. and Mrs. Valet were out of town for their business. He then saw the same framed photo on the fireplace, it was just as he stepped inside the house for the first time. That framed picture in our living room, above the fireplace? That's Maire Jeanne in the photo. He walked up to the fireplace and looked at the photo more closely.

 

Alison and Jack walked into the living room as they saw Bryce looking at the photo. "You guys remember what she said before she left us in the woods?" They both nodded.

 

"Yeah, she said she'd be ready when the time comes." Alison replied as Jack's eyes widened.

 

"It can't be . . ." Jack uttered as Alison turned her head.

 

"What did you say?" Jack looked at Alison and Bryce.

 

"It can't be . . ." Jack uttered again. Alison and Bryce were confused as ever.

 

"Seriously, what do you mean 'it can't be'?" Alison said as Jack started pacing back and forth.

 

"Alison, you remember where Mother and Father would take Isabella to practice archery?" Her eyes wondered and back at Jack.

 

"Yeah, I remember. In the small cottage at the edge of the woods." Alison also soon came to the realization just like Jack. "You mean . . ." Jack nodded.

 

"I'm confused." Bryce interrupted them and they both looked at him.

 

"Sorry, guess we should fill you in . . ." Jack looked at Alison and she nodded. "When Isabella was younger, our parents would take all of us to a small cottage in the edge of the woods. They'd help her practice with archery and in hopes she would be a huntress just like how Maire Jeanne was." Bryce nodded.

 

"So you think she may be at the cottage?" Bryce asked them and they both looked demented.

 

"We don't know." Alison said as she put down the bag she was carrying.

 

Bryce narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean you don't know?"

 

"We mean that we don't know, as in we haven't been to the cottage in years."

  

Chapter 19

 

Deep inside the woods were where no one has gone to, there was something or someone inside the forest. Nobody's ever really been in that deep inside the woods before, so no one knew except for few who have ventured farther than anyone in the village. Everyone has talked about this place but no one knows what lurks inside of the place. It was the small cottage owned by the Valet's.

 

The small cottage was already starting to rotten up and the place started falling apart because no one has come to patch up the place. Stephen and Nate even have encountered the cottage and stayed there for a few nights before but they're not there anymore; they've moved somewhere closer to the village. Sebastian, however, vanished the same night Isabella did.

 

"How do you suspect she'd be here?" Bryce said as Jack navigated Thomas to the cottage. Alison, who was in the cottage with Bryce, was answering his questions. "You even said, none of you have been there for years."

 

"It's true that we haven't been there for years but that doesn't mean we don't remember where it is." Alison looked outside the carriage window. Bryce looked outside as the sun started fading and it was getting dark.

 

"It's midday. Why all the darkness all of sudden?" He said as they travelled deeper into the woods.

 

"Don't you know that the trees block out the sunlight and it causes for woods to look darker?' Bryce shook his head.

 

"No, it's just I've never been this deep into the woods during midday." Bryce said calmly.

 

"Jack, are we there yet?" Alison said.

 

"No, but we're almost there." Jack replied back as the carriage came to a sudden stop. "Stop the carriage!" He shouted and Thomas stopped. He stepped off of the carriage and walked up to a pool of blood. "What is this?"

 

"Jack?" Alison said as she walked out of the carriage and Bryce followed her. They walked up next to Jack and saw the blood. Alison gasped and quickly looked away.

 

"Oh my!" She walked away for a second. Bryce kneeled down and examined the blood.

 

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be a blood-thirsty vampire?" Bryce looked up at Jack and scoffed.

 

"Yes but I've learned how to control myself around blood." Bryce stood up and looked down at the blood again. "But judging by the time this blood was spilled, it still looks fresh. Something must've happened earlier before we were coming here." Jack looked at him as he walked back to the carriage. Bryce looked around while he was listening attentively, there was no sound of the birds singing their songs, no wind. He looked around again and he saw a small little house at the end of the road where they were going. "Hey Jack!" Jack turned around. "Isn't that the cottage you and Alison talked about?" Jack looked at Bryce and he pointed at the cottage at the end of the road.

 

"Yes, but . . ." Jack said as he noticed smoke coming from the chimney. "Someone's already there!" He ran ahead down the road, leaving Bryce and Alison back with the carriage.

 

"Jack!" Bryce yelld out to Jack but it was no use, he was going straight for the cottage. Bryce quickly got on the carriage and took the rails of the carriage. He followed Jack to the cottage. "Jack!" He stopped just as Jack busted into the door but he stopped. Bryce walked up next to Jack and he walked up to the table that was in the room.

 

He grabbed the bow that was on the table and looked at it; his mouth opened as he realized that it was Isabella's bow. "This is Isabella's bow." He was searching for something on the