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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'">LOCATION || Casoria, Italy</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> | Darke Manor - Vincent's Quarters<br/>
<b>MENTIONING || </b>Veronica Sterling (<a class="username" data-user-id="9607" data-username="cressray" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" href="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/members/9607/">cressray</a>)</span><br/>
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<b><i><div style="border: 0px;font-color:transparent;height: 1px;background-image:linear-gradient(to right, transparent, darkred, transparent); margin: 7px 0px 7px 0px"></div></i></b>​</div><a class="link link--external" data-proxy-href="/proxy.php?link=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F564x%2Fe4%2F7d%2F16%2Fe47d16268fd86fc0c878cf08b2827ebf.jpg&amp;hash=d17b965cb66e9b672cb7842332d05691" href="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/e4/7d/16/e47d16268fd86fc0c878cf08b2827ebf.jpg" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Darke Manor</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> was a place in which Auriella Darke had vowed to never return. The foreboding building had loomed over her when she'd arrived, as dark as it was proud. Yet instead of feeling at home staring at the home she'd dwelled in for many years, she felt watched. Judged. Excluded. A soft sigh had rolled past her lips, the action itself a representation of her unwillingness to be present there, though there were boxes that contained items precious to her that she needed to retrieve. It had been Idris that had text her, informing her that she was travelling back home to retrieve her father. They would be gone for an extended amount of time together and Idris had known it had been the perfect chance for Auriella to retrieve the last of her things. She was a smart girl, a thoughtful girl, even if the darkness of her nature did not allow her to show it freely. The thought of Idris sent a jolt of pride and bravery through the Detective then, her sigh morphing into the clearing of her throat as she had lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders. She'd raised a strong, elegant woman like Idris Darke. She could face the home that had turned into her prison one last time. <br/>
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Sebastian was a good boy, unusually pure and light for a Dark Element. When Auriella had strode into the foyer of the manor, he'd been there with a pleasant smile, surprise in his eyes as the Lady of House had returned. He had been sweeping when she'd strode through the door, her soft brown eyes falling on his own as a smile lit his face. <br/>
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"Lady Darke, what a surprise!" Sebastian beamed, propping his broom against the wall as he strode towards her. Auriella opened her arms with a grin, enveloping the young Element in a warm hug. <br/>
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"Oh Sebastian, I've missed you dear. I am just here to pick up the remainder of my things while Vincent is away." Auriella explained, placing her hands on Sebastian's shoulders as she moved back, holding him in place as she looked him over. "You look strong, healthy. Are you doing well here?" She asked, her motherly tone sending a wave of warmth through Sebastian. Lady Darke was nothing like the other Darkes or Dark Elements - full of warmth and light and compassion. He'd forgotten how much of an impact her absence had made. <br/>
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"Yes ma'am, as well as I can be. It's a struggle at times, but I'm making it nonetheless." He admitted shrugging his shoulders with a lopsided grin. Finally releasing his shoulders, Auriella chuckled softly. <br/>
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"You will make it, darling. Just keep your head up." Auriella winked and at that, she moved deeper into the home, leaving Sebastian to his chores. There was no way she could have known that it would be the final time she would ever see Sebastian Flint alive.</span><br/>
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<div style="text-align: center"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'">• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •</span>​</div><br/>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Their old bedroom was just as she'd remembered it. Nothing had been thrown away or rearranged, not even their wedding photos and family pictures taken with their darling Idris. Instead, it was like travelling back in time to a place where she'd experienced just as much good as she had bad... though eventually, the bad had overcome the good, as was life in House Darke. Vincent Darke had never been an abusive husband, per say. He'd never raised a hand towards Auriella or cursed her in anger. He never put her down or demeaned her, but rather when he was near her he'd always put her on a pedestal. Auriella knew that Vincent loved her, but his love for House Darke and fame had been greater. Auriella had been left at home months and months on end to tend to House Darke and keep life running while her husband drifted further and further away. Essentially, it had been Auriella Darke, a perfectly normal human, that had built House Darke into the great house that it was. Auriella herself had never thought such things, but the Dark Elements had. <br/>
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Yet still, being in the bedroom she'd shared with her greatest love made her stomach roll unpleasantly. She didn't want to remember the loneliness, the isolation. Sighing to herself as she stood in the threshold, the seasoned woman breezed all the way into the room, closing the door behind her. She moved to the closet then, where the top rack above the clothes hangers was full of cardboard boxes - some older and some newer. It was the older boxes she was after, filled with photos of her life with her biological family, long before she'd ever been a Darke. Also within the boxes were keepsakes from Idris' childhood. Pictures she'd drawn as a child, documents of Idris' academic achievements. And even her own wedding ring, which she'd stashed away during her divorce in hopes of one day passing along the ring to her daughter's chosen suitor, a ring that had been Vincent's mother's. <br/>
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As she rumaged on her tippy toes, finally finding the two boxes she needed, she stacked them one on top of another before pulling them down. Rather than leaving right away as she should have, Auriella moved to the bed and deposited the boxes, beginning to look through the one with Idris' keepsakes. She found a photo of her daughter who could have been no older than ten, her large doe eyes full of youthful innocence. She held up a fish, a triumphant grin on her face as she stood beside Vincent who was holding the rod, the candid photo catching him laughing down at his daughter. Back then, things had been... perfect. He had been perfect. <br/>
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Pushing the thoughts out of her mind of the man she still loved, she began rummaging through the second box of Idris' birth record and immunization forms. However, as she finally emptied the box taking stock of it's contents, a single sheet of paper lay at the bottom of the box. A detailed biological account of one Veronica Sterling. A photo was paperclipped to it, a beautiful woman with ashen hair, standing beside her Vincent, his arm dropped over her shoulder and a proud smile on her face. And at the bottom of the biological report, which detailed the fact that Veronica herself had abilities... Vincent's handwriting spelled out a sentence that made Auriella's blood run cold. </span><br/>
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<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'">The daughter I chose, not the daughter I created.</span></i><br/>
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