"You are coming with me," Demian said to me with his usual cold tone.

He jerked me along as we arrived at the main dining hall.

What was he going to do? I need to tell him my medical condition.

When I finally thought he'd let me go, Demian suddenly yanked me down, throwing me on the ground.

"Get up."

Afraid to anger him, I scrambled up quickly.

"Now, pour this," He nearly slammed a bottle of red wine down on a table. No, not red wine, it was...

"Um, I don't think I can do..."

"You don't want to do your job?" He asked me, with his cold, dark red crystal eyes fixed steadily upon me.

With no other choice, I reached towards the bottle of blood. My hands shook at the sight of the putrid thing.

"Now, pour it in these," He gestured towards a line of wine glasses.

Gluping, I looked away as I pop open the cork screw. The familiar stench of rust and salt reached my nostrils, and almost immediately my energy drained. Taking a step back, my knees felt wobbly.

"What are you waiting for? Pour!" Demian urged me.

Shaking, I felt my hands give in as I almost dropped the bloody thing. Thankfully, my grip came back as I clutched the bottle to me tightly.

I had to do it, it was my job, and Demian was my supervisor.

Carefully, I approached the table.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Pour already!" I could sense that he was getting a bit impatient.

I took a deep breath and held. Cautiously, I began poring the bloody red liquid into the glass. The splashes of red looked so disgustingly putrid, I wanted to puke.

Closing my eyes, I refused to look.

"O-Oi, oi! Stop, that's too much!" Demian shouted as the glass overfilled and spilled.

Opening my eyes, I quickly pulled back my hands; my fingers were covered in blood. I was in shock, the bottle fell to the ground and shattered. A pool of blood flooded along the floor.

"Now look what you've done, you couldn't even pour one glass," He growled at me.

That wasn't the only problem now. I could feel my body give in to the sight of red. Leaning on the side of the table, I couldn't stand it any longer. I fall to the ground with a thud, and my vision begin to blur.

I couldn't take in the pool of blood any longer.

I was going to faint...

"Get up, what do you think you're doing?" Demian looked at me with a squint, " Clean this mess up and start over. You wasted one of our best bottles you little--"

A hand swung across Demian's face, hard and sharp.

The sound of the slap echoed throughout the dining hall, as everybody stopped and turned our way.

Looking up, I immediately knew who it was.

"What is this, Demian?" Antoine's indignant face showed up in front of me.

The expression on Demian's face was confounding, like he was stabbed rather being slapped. His mouth gaped open, and he turned to Antoine, outraged.

"What else do you think? Are you blind?"

"No one deserves to be treated that way," Antoine said to Demian, his facial expression clamed down a bit.

"I'm trying to properly train her to the standard you once said this Cafe should be held up to!" Demian nearly yelled at his boss, " What are YOU doing? Hiring some girl so easily, just because of some stupid whim--"

"That's enough."

No one dared to move.

All was quiet as Demian and Antoine gave their silent exchange, their eyes not blinking. The air felt stiff between them, their eyes piercing each other with icy glares.

Finally, Demian broke away. His eyes fixed upon me once last time, and with clenched teeth, he walked away.

"Errol, Diane, clean up this mess," Antoine bent down to one knee, reaching over to my face, he lifted my chin, cupping my face. Softly, his fingers wiped away the dust and debris of glass from my cheeks, before he stood up again.

"I'll be in my office," He said to me shortly, and with brisk footsteps he walked off.

The moment I was alone, everyone crowded around me.

"Darling, are you alright? Let's get you a cup of water," Diane held my hands tightly.

"Demian was too much, this time he went too far," Adeline complained too.

Even Candice came to offer some assistance.

"Someone help me to carry the table cloth over... I'll get the mop and broom."

"Isis, watch out for the glass... It's a little slippery here," Errol also came and help.

Nodding my head, I let everybody carry me over to an empty chair as I regained my strength.

Something tells me there was more than just a boss and employee relationship between those two...

****

Making my way up the stairs, I climbed up the dark stairwell. Only a few feet away, when I was about to knock on Antoine's office door when I suddenly heard voices.

"... A real surprise it was, to find you of all people bring in a human girl."

".........."

"It was really a stupid choice on your part, you don't know anything about her--"

"What is it you want." Then I recognized the voice belonged to Antoine.

"Pardon?"

"You may have fooled everyone else with your lies, but you haven't fooled me."

"Well, neither of us can stand here all day. I'm only a messenger, and my message is this: Abandon this pathetic excuses of a memoir and come back to your family."

"I will never close down Cafe Rouge."

"Your mother's willing to forgive you, for everything you've done."

"They are not my family."

"You really should set aside your pride you know, it's not good for anybody, especially for your little black lamb--"

Antoine suddenly jolted out of his seat, grabbing the concealed figure by the collar.

"She's just human. Involving innocent bystanders breaks state law."

"Now now Anthony, we wouldn't want anything to happen to our little black lamb, now do we?" 

".........."

Slowly, Antoine loosened his grip on the collar.

"Get out of my office."

...Oh no, I had to hide!

Looking to my left and right, there was an empty closet at the bottom of the stairwell. I made a run for it, and hid myself inside.

The door creaked open and echoes of sounded as the figure made his way down.

It was too dark to see who he was.

Then the shadow emerged to the closet, I covered my mouth with both of my hands. It was so quiet, I could hear the pumping of my heart. Sweat trickled down from my forehead. A few seconds later I saw the figure left, my heart weighted a little less heavy. Just as I thought I was safe, the figure came back again, and this time he came nearer to the closet.

.....Oh no, please don't open it! I prayed to myself.

Then suddenly, I heard something stabbed just right beside my left ear, I rolled my eyes towards the left.

There was a knife.

I gluped, and tried to control myself not to scream. The shadowy figure finally left.

Who...Who was that?

I was too afraid to move for another five minutes.

Slowly, I creaked open the closet door, I didn't even bother removing the blade. And with stealth steps, I climbed the stairs, knocking on the door of Antoine's office.

****

Hi fellow readers...

Well I have been sitting in front of the laptop for 1 hour typing this chapter and I felt like my eyes have fallen out. :/

Phew, please vote and put down comments! I hope to hear more from you guys, like how do you think about the story, well something like that. Anyway, see you soon!