She had never heard or read about anything like this. Were they possibly under a spell? Asked Penny to herself. Her eyes darting to look at everyone in the room.
"Is there anything about this mentioned in the witch cookbooks?" Damien asked her, stepping further close to look in the eye of the man he had been standing in front of. He raised the lantern to have a much better look, finding the eyes dilate because of the light, "They are still alive."
"It is definitely a witch's work but I doubt the woman, the magistrate lady is a black witch," Penny said, seeing Damien drop the lantern and place it on the surface of the table.
"Doesn't mean the person cannot be a white witch," Damien pointed out, picking the man's hand he let go of it for the hand to quickly drop by his side, "Let's take a look at other houses."
He dimmed the light of the lantern that came close to extinguishing itself and they made their way to the next closest house. Damien had chosen to look into this side of the houses because breaking in was easier as it would cause less attention to them and the people of the other houses would not come to look at what was going on.
But right now they doubted if any of the houses were awake at all.
Going to the next house, Damien gave a knock on the door and after fifteen seconds passed by he broke into the house, turning the light of the lantern to see that the condition in this house was the same. Some of them were sitting, some standing and the children sleeping on the bed. It was as if time had stopped and it had made them pause whatever they were doing.
The woman near the sink had bent her back and was positioned very uncomfortably without moving for God knows how many hours that had passed since they were like this.
"It looks like we are going to find this case to be the same in every house in this village," Damien commented, blowing the light of the lantern out, they stepped out in the dark. Just before they could move out of the house, they heard something and Damien pushed Penny behind him while placing his finger on his lips to let her know to stay quiet as she had opened her mouth to speak.
They heard footsteps pass by the house and when Damien leaned forward, he found it was the magistrate lady who walked quietly on her way to the office.
Penny leaned forward too to see who it was, finding the lady going on her way, she said,
"She has something to do with it. Are we going to follow her?" Penny asked him.
"Not now," he answered her quickly. Come let's go to the other villages.
"What about this one?" She stared at him. They surely couldn't leave so many families like this in this state.
Damien tugged her hand along, not wanting to be part of the witchery dolls,"They haven't harmed anyone yet," he said to her, "If the humans in there are still alive, then they are still doing fine but with no reaction at all. And if those people are not humans…"
"Why would you say that?" Penny asked him as they left the village without anyone's notice.
"Because right now we are not sure about what is going on. We just stepped in twenty minutes ago, drawing any conclusion right away would be hasty. Come," he said, placing his hand on her shoulder that transported them quickly to another village. This village was in much better condition as Damien and she could see some of the villagers who were walking on the streets.
It was in stark contrast to what they had come by in the previous village. Penny's heart somewhere along the time had started to race at the thought of the happenings that were going on in here.
"I wonder how many other villages are like this," hearing Damien mutter under his breath as they walked through the streets heading towards the magistrate's office of this village.
"This place is not right either?" Penny questioned him. With what she saw right now, everything looked fine in here. There were men, women walking. Lanterns burned in most of the houses and some that were outside in the open.
"Looks can be deceiving, mouse. Look closer," he said as they continued to walk. He was giving her the opportunity to find out herself without him blindly leading her.
Penny looked back at the couple who were walking on the street, heading towards them on the other side of the street, passing them without even sparing a glance at them. Both Damien and Penny hadn't dressed too much but they did stand out of the crowd in here. The man who was walking in front of them didn't stop or pause his footsteps when they came head-on. It was Damien and Penny who moved out of his way.
She also caught the vacancy and hollowness in the man's eyes.
"It feels more like they have been hypnotized," Penny said her head that had turned to look at the man who continued to walk without moving left or right.
Stepping into the magistrate's office, they found a man talking to a young girl who had been sitting in front of him.
"The crops have dried quickly and we need more men so that we can start harvesting," said the girl.
The magistrate appeared to be in his late twenties who gave her a nod, a vampire, "I will have the workers know about it and get the help you need but that will be charged."
"Yes," the girl replied, "I shall take my leave now. Thank you for your assistance," she stood up, bowing her head and turned around.
"Welcome, councilman," the magistrate greeted Damien.
Just as they passed by the girl, Penny noticed how the girl's hair came to hover over her face as they walked by, the girl stepping out and them getting near to the desk.