Continued….
The manager was gone for a while. I must have dozed off while waiting because I woke to a hand to my shoulder. A strange feeling hand. It wasn’t the manager’s.
I looked up to find that familiar elderly couple standing beside me. The old man had his hand pressing firmly on my shoulder. His eyes were close as he continued to lean his hand upon me. Panic at this sudden intrusion, I looked about and saw the hotel manager standing with us all. He raised his hand to me in a gesture that said ‘stay calm’. The old man then took back his hand. With that, he turned towards the old woman and the manager, and gave them a confirming nod. The manager didn’t seem any more relieved.
“Dallas” the manager then spoke to me. “This is Sir Barber and Lady Hannah. And they will need your help.”
“Yes.” Lady Hannah spoke in Pallion. “I believe we saw you yesterday evening.”
“Ahh. Yes. We did too” Sir Barber nodded to Lady Hannah.
“Is this regarding your daughter?” I stood up to be polite. “I’m truly sorry for any trouble I may have caused. I was confused about everything she was telling me and showing me. I didn’t know how to handle the whole ordeal. My dearest apologies. I swear.”
Sir Barber gestured for me to relax. “I understand your confusion. That girl would not be easy to deal with. I know. Let us sit down.” The old man pointed me back to my seat. The hotel manager then politely drew out the chairs for the old man and woman to sit.
“I know this is quite a sudden question,” Lady Hannah said gently. “But did you had her… get intimate?”
“No!” I sort of panicked. “No. We did no such thing. I promise you.”
The old woman looked over to the old man, who nodded to her.
“Though it is heavy,” Sir Barber mentioned to Lady Hannah. “It doesn’t feel to have gone too deep. Fortunately.” He spoke to her in Beckish.
This elderly couple was Beckish. The old fashioned dress sort of made sense. Beckish was such a common language around most of the world. I knew quite a lot of it.
“She showed him a photo” the woman told the man. Then she turned to the hotel manager. “Did he mention any other sort of memoirs or paraphernalia of sorts?”
“No” I said out in Beckish so they could speak more comfortably. “She just showed me a photo of me and her when we were young. And then she was somehow wearing my ring.” I pulled my chain out from my shirt to reveal the ring.
“She was wearing your ring?” the woman questioned.
“Apparently I proposed to her with it. The photo of me and her showed that she was wearing it back then.”
The elderly folks looked back at each other. “She was wearing his ring” the woman said to the man. “Can she somehow manipulate other items?”
“I think she took it off me when I fell asleep. I sort of fell asleep on her couch for a time.” I felt I should have mentioned.
“On her couch?” Lady Hannah gave me a curious look.
“Now that explains a lot” The old man was nodding. The hotel manager seemed to be nodding as well. “If he fell asleep around her, that explains how things could have gone so far.”
“I don’t think she got intimate with me while I was asleep, if that’s what you’re thinking.” I felt I had to explain. “Did she say anything?”
“We don’t know, young lad” the old man said. “That’s why we’re asking you. Can you tell us what happened after she showed you the photo and that she had the ring.”
“I’ll be honest,” I cleared my throat. “I don’t believe I ever proposed to her. Well, I don’t remember ever having done so. I don’t even remember her.
“That was my grandmother’s ring. And I had used it to propose to my ex-wife. It is a special ring to me. So when I saw her wearing it, I panicked and took it off her.”
“You took it off her? How?” Sir Barber asked.
“I grabbed her hand and pulled it off her finger.”
“Did anything happen after you did that?”
“Not really. She tried to take it back. But I stopped her. That’s when I left.”
“You didn’t notice anything strange or out of the ordinary happen after you took your ring back?”
“No. She suddenly got a bit furious when she tried to take the ring back. But nothing I would say out of the ordinary. Why? What did she tell you? Again, I’m sorry about all of this.”
“There is no need to apologize.” Sir Barber gave me a long nod. “It’s a blessing you got your special ring back and nothing happened.”
“Yes” Lady Hannah said in relief. “You are fortunately still in one piece. Thank the heavens.”
“Why? Is Julie dangerous?” I wondered.
“You can kind of say that.” The old man’s face seemed to be restraining itself from saying too much. “Things could have gotten a lot worse.”
Things seemed to be quite sensitive to discuss. But I was still curious to find out more.
“What happened after I left? Is Julie okay?”
Sir Barber and Lady Hannah gave each other a long look. Then they looked to the hotel manager. The hotel manager acknowledged them both, then gave them a confirming nod. Then the three of them kept silent. In thought, they seemed to be.
“Hey. Is everything okay?” I broke the silence. “Nothing’s happened to Julie, right?”
“We don’t know” Lady Hannah answered.
“What do you mean? Did anything happen after I left?”
“We’re not sure, son” Sir Barber added.
“You two saw me leave. I know you heard us yelling. Was Julie okay?”
Again the old lady and old man gave each other another serious look. Sir Barber then took a long breath and decided to explain.
“We couldn’t find any trace of her after you left.”
“What?”
“We couldn’t find her. We were hoping we would catch her right after you had gone, but we let things linger for too long.”
“What do you mean you couldn’t find her?”
Sir Barber took another deep breath. “We entered the apartment to confront her. But when we entered, we couldn’t find a thing.”
I gave him a curious look.
“The apartment was completely empty.”
“What do you mean ‘the apartment was completely empty’?”
“Look, young man” Lady Hannah spoke to me calmly. “Try your best to stay calm when we explain all of this, okay? We’re all going to have to help each other here with this, okay?”
“Okay?” I didn’t have a good feeling about this.
“We are not that girl’s parents like Jean has told you” the old woman gestured to the hotel manager. “We are… you can say ‘specialists’ of particular sort of cases.”
Particular sort of cases. I could feel there was something off about Julie. But what exactly was the ‘case’ with her?
“And we had been called to Peetsurg” Lady Hannah continued. “To deal with a very serious case.”
“How serious?”
“A different case, actually” Sir Barber joined. But like we said, we are glad you are still live and well. But we are going to have to organize a proper cleansing for you.”
“A cleansing?” I looked to them all.
“I know this might sound hard to understand, but please stay calm.” Lady Hannah again gave her gentle tone. “You have been cursed, young man.”
To be continued….
Diaries of the Moonlight Hours 
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