The Mystery of Mr. Lee (True Beauty Vampire AU)

Prologue

A monster lived among these men.

The residents of Jangwon village had no idea.

They went about their day, listless in the mornings from having woken earlier than their body accepted, and returned exhausted, their backs bent from having worked hard all day. They passed by the large house that loomed atop a hill, casting a shadow over the rest of the street, without noticing the faint silhouette in the top right window watching them below.

The house was hard to miss for how huge it was. Though it wasn't a giant estate, it was still quite intimidating. There was an air of mystery and deceit about it. Like it was only pretending to be a normal house.

It was made with a dark, almost black, brick, with inky iron work framing the windows and the gate. Thick ivy crept up along the ominous wall and the windows were all curtained, all the time. No light was ever seen behind those curtains, nor was anyone ever seen going in and out beyond the staff that worked there.

The staff themselves were reclusive. A gardener came once a week and apparently was a foreigner since he only spoke in English. There was no cook though food was sometimes delivered and left at the doorstep. No one ever saw anyone open the door and take it in. Yet the empty dishes would be sitting there hours later.

A doctor was sometimes seen going in. He was always stand offish and gave people a cold greeting every time they tried to approach him for some gossip. He never even introduced himself. People only knew he was a doctor by the medical bag he carried and the stethoscope he sometimes forgot to take off.

The only source of news were the cleaning ladies who were hired through the local agency and even they could only speak in guesses since none of them met the owner in person. All they could confirm was that it was a man.

"There doesn't seem to be any woman's touch inside."

The fact that housekeepers often changed was also something that fueled the mystery of the house. Almost every month a new cleaning lady was dismissed for one reason or another. And perhaps it was due to the dismissals that the rumors about the owner got so fantastical.

The man was a wanted criminal and was hiding away from the police.

The man has a phobia of people which is why he never even saw his own house staff.

The man was horribly disfigured and was afraid of showing his face.

The only thing common with each story was this:

The owner was a recluse. He never met any of the staff and often left instructions on notes. And any violation led to immediate dismissal. No one ever saw him watching, yet some how he always knew if one rule got broken.

"I'm telling you, he's a pervert who likes to watch you as you clean. I mean, how else would he have found out that I tried to see what was inside the fridge?"

"So, what was in there?"

"Nothing. It was just these wine bottles without any labels. No food."

The owner was not worried about these rumors. None of them ever got close to the truth. Andhe in question couldn't be happier about it.

He stood at one of the balconies now, overlooking the empty street. Small, red flowers crept up the black, iron balustrade as if reaching up from the flower pots, desperate to climb the top. No one was out. He could easily expose himself to the moonlight without raising any flags.

He breathed in the crisp night air. The moonlight slightly burning his skin, just like sunlight would to any normal person. Claw like hands curled around the railings, the finger tips pointed and black, twitching for some action.

A steady beat of footsteps caught his eye and he was forced to look down to see who was up at 3 am. Below, on the empty street where warm orange pools of light offered refuge from the dark, walked a young girl. She was tired, by the way she slouched forward, trudging ahead towards her home.

The man leaned in closer, his eyes entirely black like a void, with dark veins spreading outward, throbbing. He sniffed the air and crinkled his nose.

Nope. The girl smelled just like everyone else. Dismissively, he went back inside.

The girl below continued to carry forward up the hill that led to her tiny home, unaware of the danger she had just escaped.

None of the rumors even got close to the truth and the man couldn't be happier about it.

No one in the town knew that there was a monster living among them. No one knew just how much danger they were all in, every time they passed by the giant house.