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(Northern Region- New Atlantic City)

(Froggy's Old Apothecary)

When Mary opened her eyes, she found herself standing in a room where everything inside was covered in a thick layer of dust.

The wooden chairs in the corner of the room had long since rotted away, there were glass containers on shelves in the back and cobwebs were present on the ceiling.

Mary sneezed loudly as she felt her nostrils begin to clog up. This place looked abandoned as if it had not been occupied in decades... or even centuries

Camilla stood quietly in the center of the room with an unreadable expression on her face.

She slowly walked towards the counter and placed her finger on the top of the glass. Her finger slid along the edge of the glass carving out a clean line amidst the filth.

She looked at the dirt that coated her fingertip and her expression worsened.

The beautiful female vampire walked around the room as if in a daze before her crimson eyes spotted a locked box in the corner.

There was simple metal padlock that sealed the box shut but it was rusty, and the chains easily snapped as Camilla picked up the box.

She opened the wooden box and peered at the contents inside.

There was a thin sheet of paper wrapped in a piece of plastic that had kept it from being destroyed or damaged by the passage of time.

Mary could make out words on the piece of paper, but it was in a language that she did not recognise full of strange symbols and markings.

Camilla read the words on the paper carefully before placing it back in the box and closing the lid shut.

She pursed her lips together and her brows slightly furrowed. Mary could sense her mistress' bad mood and walked a bit closer.

"Do you have anything that you would like me to do mistress?" Mary asked softly in a gentle tone.

Camilla did not reply but pointed at a broomstick and gave the unspoken order to start cleaning up the place.

The female vampire headed for a door in the back of the room and opened it to reveal a set of wooden stairs that had already began to rot away.

Two dark bat-like wings sprouted from Camilla's back as she took flight up the stairs towards an unknown location.

Mary let out heavy sigh as she walked towards the broomstick. It would take several long hours to clean up this mess.

Why did she feel a sense of sympathy towards her obviously bad-tempered boss?

The young woman ripped off a piece of her brown cloak and wrapped it around her nose and mouth in order to create a make-shift mask.

The original Mary was slightly allergic to dust so being exposed to so much filth was causing her nose to run.

She began to sweep the corner of the room while taking curious glances at the stuff on the shelves.

The containers were filled with murky grey substances, peculiar plant samples, unknown materials, and several animal bones.

This place looked exactly like how one would imagine the inside of a witch's hut in a fairy-tale.

Mary hummed softly as she swept the floor and carefully avoided the shards of glass beneath the shelves.

Forty minutes passed quite uneventfully as Mary tried her best to clean up the room without much luck.

She did manage to get part of it relatively clean but there was nowhere to throw away the dust, so she was forced to pile the debris all up in one corner.

Suddenly she tripped on something and crashed to the ground. Mary groaned in pain as her knees scrapped against the wooden floor.

"Ow… fuck… that hurt," Mary cursed under her breath as she sat up and tried to see what she had just tripped over.

There was a tiny knob on the ground no bigger than a door handle that she had somehow missed when she was cleaning.

Mary's hand reached for the knob, but her fingers stopped when they were mere inches away from its metal surface.

Should she tell Camilla?

No… the female vampire was her enemy. She needed to remember her true purpose and that was to escape this place.

Clearly this was a secret and maybe it was a hidden opportunity.

Mary's worried expression shifted to one of determination as she gripped the knob and gently turned it.

A hidden trap door swung open, and a worn-out old book could be seen inside.

Mary gripped the book and quickly glanced at the staircase to make sure that there was no movement.

Okay… just one peek.

She opened the book and saw that it was full of paintings. There were no words just paintings of different landscapes.

There were frozen icy tundras, hot sandy deserts, lush tropical forests and even a green island with palm trees that towered over the horizon.

Mary kept flipping through the pages and eventually the paintings changed to that of people… or more accurately vampires.

A very handsome middle-aged man with a long grey beard and sharpened fangs stared menacingly at whoever painted his portrait.

He wore a plain white robe and there was one surprising detail that caught Mary's attention.

There was a silver cross hanging from his neck.

Was that even possible? It was common sense in this world that vampires could not stand being close to holy objects.

Mary turned the page and saw that now he was smiling with a bemused expression on his face.

There was a twinkle in his eyes as if he had just heard a good joke but wanted to keep it hidden from the audience.

Then there was a group picture.

The middle-aged man sat down on a wooden chair in the front of half a dozen pale faced vampires who all stood respectfully at attention.

This time there was a serious look on the man's face and judging from the painting it seemed that the other vampires feared him.

Finally, Mary turned to the last painting in the book and saw the middle-aged man sitting peacefully under the shade of a tree with a young human girl in his arms.

He was reading an open book to the young girl who stared at him with an adoring expression of love and admiration.

It was a warm and sunny picture.

Yet as Mary stared longer at the image, she could not shake the feeling that the little girl in the painting looked very familiar.

Raven black hair… eyes that were deep brown… very pretty and one could tell that she would grow up to be a big beauty in the future.

Wait… wasn't that…

Mary felt a sudden chill in the air and turned around to see Camilla staring at her with an expression of rage.

"Where did you find that?" Camilla hissed darkly as she loomed over Mary's body with a terrible smile on her face.

She rested her hand on the young woman's shoulder and squeezed so hard that Mary let out a groan of pain.

"Here… there was a trap door here… mistress…" Mary whispered softly as she gritted her teeth and endured the pain.

Camilla snatched the book out of her hand and in a fit of rage she summoned several dark crimson spears from her body.

She flung the book in the air and used her blood spears to shred all the paintings into scraps of paper that drifted slowly to the ground.

Mary winced as the terrible pressure on her shoulder increased until suddenly Camilla removed her hand.

"Forget what you just saw… that's an order," Camilla coldly spoke as she curled up her fingers into a tight fist.

She turned around and left the room immediately not wanting her human pet to see the tears that were threatening to run down her cheeks.