• [Anysa]

    Okay, so there’s a possibility that I’m getting rescued but for the meantime, I can’t just sulk in my room and do nothing! I tried thinking of a whole bunch of plans, so was Mini. She was coming up with way more efficient ideas than me, but what else would you expect from one of Kert’s inventions?
    “There’s a weak point, there’s always a weak point” Mini says. “We have to find it. First we search around inside the castle halls and rooms. If there’s a chance, talk to one of the maids or prisoners without any guards around. We also need some history about this place too”
    “The Chain room” I said. “That place is loaded with information, but it’s always guarded”
    “Can we sneak in?”
    “No, there’s only one way in and out of that place”
    “Can you go in?”
    I thought about it for a moment. “I don’t think so. There’s only one person that goes in there and it’s Master”
    “Then ask him”
    I blinked. “What?”
    “Ask him” she says again. “Get his permission to go in there or have him go in there with you”
    “No way! I can’t do that!”
    “Do you want to waste time? Have them do all the work while you cower here?” her words stung hard.
    “No…” I fiddled with my necklace. “But what would I say to him?”
    “Tell him that you want to learn more about this place and your future”
    I froze. My future, I hope he isn’t anywhere near it. I don’t want to spend my life with him ever. “Okay, okay, I’ll go now” I get up to leave.
    “Good luck” Mini says before I walk out the door.
    Screaming, crying, cursing, pleading, the four things I hear. I look down the dark hallway that looked like hell with its blood red carpet and flamed lights along the walls. I sighed; I don’t even know where he is right now. Maybe in his room—no, he doesn’t need sleep. Perhaps his throne room, then? Or in the main torture chamber, watching the people wail in pain. I guess I’ll set that part of the plan aside and go do the other ones. I turned left and started walking. The maids are moping up blood that was pooling out of one of the rooms. They looked solemn, expressionless. I would too if I had to do this everyday. Maybe I should talk to them? I looked around to see if there were any guards—there were. Okay, don’t worry; this is just a few maids. The others are bound to be somewhere else. I continued walking.
    This castle has no windows, all the rooms have only one door, and its well protect. Not even a mouse—fly can enter! The more I see the more impossible escaping sounds. I was on the top floor and I never went any lower than that because I wasn’t allowed to. I lingered around the stairs that led down. Should I go down there? There are no guards around and I have to do it anyway. But what if I get in trouble? Someone could tell Master and then he would get furious. Then I wouldn’t be able to go to the Chain room and the plan would be ruined. Something bumped against my back and I fell forward, only to be caught by passing guards.
    “Let go of me!” I slapped their hands away and brushed myself off.
    “Take her to the torture chamber” one of the guards says. He wasn’t talking to me.
    I turned around to see a girl, a maid, being held by her arms. She was struggling and shouting. When she caught sight of me looking at her, she gave me a cold, hard stare.
    “It wasn’t my fault!” she screams as she was being dragged away.
    “Wait, stop” I say, covering my mouth. I didn’t mean to say it, it’s not like I go around saving every damsels in distress. The guards are looking at me. Great, now I have to come up with an excuse and fast. “Take her to my room instead. I want to deal with her myself” I tried to sound evil.
    They hesitated, and then nodded, bringing her to my room. I wanted to sigh with relief but its best not to do it here. Before the other guards or maids started asking questions on why I was out so far, I followed them. I can’t believe it, what was I thinking? I don’t know how I’m supposed to explain this to Mini. I was supposed to gather information, not a human being! And worst, what will I say to the guards if I didn’t torture her? What will she say if I didn’t torture her? This is a stupid problem that I don’t need to deal with. Once we reached my room, they waited for me to go in first then shoved the maid inside.
    “What was all that for?!” the girl shouts as I closed my door. I ran up to her and covered her mouth.
    “Shush! Not so loud!” I whispered to her. “They can still hear you, you know!”
    She glares at me, no, not at me, at my horns. I sighed, letting go of her. She stumbles backwards then dashes to the corner of the wall. I look at her. Her shoulder length brown hair and dark eyes made her look like a mouse. I leaned against the door and crossed my arms.
    “There’s no way you’re getting out, you know” I say to her.
    “Stupid!” she growls.
    I gape at her. She’s seen the horror of this castle, seen me, a demon, and the first thing she says is stupid? I chuckled, thinking of Trek.
    “It’s all your fault” her voice suddenly got sad.
    “What’s my fault?”
    “The raid…”
    I unfolded my arms and took a step closer to her. “How do you know about the raid?”
    “Why does it matter to you?”
    “Who is that?” Mini crawls out from under a pillow.
    The maid screams, pointing at her. “Is that thing alive?!”
    “Yeah, yeah, my friend made her. Now answer my question”
    She was to busy paying attention to Mini. “Someone made her…was it Kert?”
    I think I felt my heart drop. “How do you know him?”
    “He…he always made me stuff…” her voice went icy. “Then you came along! You and your transformation to look like a human! They wanted to be with you, always, always you. I used to be the only girl to hangout with them. I really loved being with them…” she starts crying. “You ruined my life!”
    My chest tightens, a dark pit forms in my stomach. My hand automatically moves towards her but it refused to touch her trembling body. I backed away from her and sat on my bed, thinking. She was from the village and she was friends with the others, so what is she doing here?
    “I was so happy when I saw that black knight take you away, but then…they took me with them. I didn’t want to go, not when I could finally be with the guys again!”
    I didn’t know what to say to that so I didn’t say anything. There was an awkward silent and I needed to do something, to get my mind off her, so I stroked Chee’s head and fiddled with her bow. This reminds me of back then, when it was quiet like this, Jen would hum a song. I crawled to my pillow and grabbed the music box that was on it. I turned the dial and it clicked, music flowed out of it. I instantly thought of the past, all the fun times I had.
    “That song…” the maid slides down to her knees, her tears stopped flowing. She closed her eyes and a minute later, starts humming. It seemed like she was looking back on a memory, a nice one with Jen in it. A smile forms on her lips.
    Now I really don’t know what to say to that. I mean, she was angry at me a second ago and now she looks happy. I was going to ask her a question but she started talking.
    “Jen never liked seeing people moody” she says sweetly. “When I was down or mad, he would hum this song to me then say ‘now wasn’t that a mood killer?’ it would make me laugh no matter how many times I heard it. He wanted me to always be happy, that any other mood would just give you nothing but trouble. Forgive and forget was his motto and he always taught me to never go against his motto no matter what” she opens her eyes and glared at me, less angry this time, more like teasing in a way. “Even to people you hate”
    I wanted to smile but dared not to. Jen saved me now, even though he wasn’t here. “I need your help” I said, suddenly remembering about the escape plan.
    “What?” she lifts her head. “I’m not doing anything—“
    “I need your help” I say again.
    She arches a questioning brow.
    “I’m not allowed anywhere below this floor, so I need you to—“
    “Look for anything suspicious, out of place, and weak in defense in the lower levels” Mini finishes the sentence.
    She gapes, forgetting about the hate she had for me. “No way! That’s insane! Why do I, of all people, have to do your dirty work?”
    “Well, if you think about it, you need to walk around the castle to clean things anyway, so you might as well look for us. And your job isn’t that bad, at least you don’t have to talk to Master, trying to persuade him into letting you go inside the Chain room”
    She lowered her voice. “The Master?”
    “Yes” I smiled weakly. “So do a good job, okay?”
    “Right…” she pauses. “What is this all for again?”
    “We’re trying to escape” Mini replies.
    She gasps. “That’s impossible. There were only two people who escaped this place and that happened centuries ago! I heard it from the older maids. Apparently, the Master had a wife and a twin brother”
    ”A wife? Him?” I gasped.
    “Yes. Well she was the most beautiful human. Her parents sacrificed her to the Master and he made her his wife. She became a demon, just like him. Her flowing brown hair turned white and her emerald eyes went crimson. Black horns came out of her skull. Well, with two demons now, the Master had double the power and he used it to destroy villages and murder families. Remember his twin brother? They say he and the demon wife fell in love and escaped together”
    “How?!” I asked.
    “I’m not really sure, but rumor said she had a blue gem embedded on her forehead and she gave the twin brother one, too. That’s what was protecting them, made it impossible for anyone to touch them. It was like a force field of purple lightning”
    My veins went icy. That last sentence, I knew it was true. I saw it myself, with my own eyes. It happened four years ago on the day of the raid when that black knight tried to kill Roger. There was a purple discharge, making the sword fling away. Roger had a barrier, but how? And why?
    “Inside that gem were tears”
    “Tears?”
    “Yes, it was the first and final tears of a sky demon that came to land”

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