The Dark Hallway

Prince Aleister's room was in the innermost and most magnificent part of the castle and attached to it were two hallways. One in the front and the other in the back.

In her attempt to escape from him, she seemed to have ended up in the back hallway which was usually vacant as per what she was informed when she came to 'serve the Prince'.

Confused about the way, she slowly looked around.

The high walls had large paintings hanging on them.

There were candles on either side of the hall but the place was enormous causing the lights from the candles to fall short. She grabbed a candlestand from the side and walked ahead looking for the way out of this dark hallway.

Her eyes marveling at the sight of the beautiful paintings.

The azure sky, high trees were interwoven together, people standing near a large well. She recognized the place in the first painting. It was near the beautiful gates of the Capital City of Visteria.

The next was a beautiful art of the Royal Castle. The art was done with details highlighting the sea and forest behind the grand Castle and in the front remained the busy marketplace at a distance from the Castle gates.

Then, there were portraits of several men in a row with their names and their reigning years written beneath it.

She concluded they were the previous Kings of Visteria. All of them had their pitch-black eyes in common.

Her footsteps came to a halt in front of the portrait of the current king. Powerful and Kind. The words came to her mind as she glanced at the man sitting on his throne with a sense of serenity around him.

He too has inherited those pitch-black eyes from his ancestors. She thought as she walked forward only to stop a second later.

Then why was the Prince blue-eyed? "It is probably from his mother..." She frowned, "But what has it got to do with me....?" She slapped her forehead but the slap landed a little too hard.

She stroked the spot before walking forward deciding to not think about things that had nothing to do with her.

She had to go back to her room in the servant quarters before the nighttime so that she can look for her brother during the night.

But where was the way out of this place?

The sounds of footsteps that she heard earlier seemed to have disappeared.

But there were some movements around her. She heard the whistling sound of the wind.

The candles flickered slightly because of the wind and in the next second, the vast hallways were enshrouded in darkness.

The fragrance of the scented wax lingered in the air and Esme placed the candlestand down on the floor as she rubbed her arms, feeling a gust of chilly wind sweeping past the place.

Amidst the darkness, she could barely make out where she was standing.

She placed her hand on the wall and stepped forward in the direction she was looking at the paintings before the candles went off.

"Ahh..." She yelped when she lost her footing all of a sudden as something came beneath her feet.

She stretched out her hand to touch the things but nothing came in her grip.

"Who is there?" She softly asked, hearing the sounds of approaching footsteps once again.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up when she felt something wet falling on her shoulder, drop by drop. Her skin shriveled because of the coldness of it.

She ran her fingers on her dress and then towards her skin. The sticky liquid smeared over the tip of her fingers.

'Drip Drip Drip'

It was landing on the floor too. "W-Who?" She wiped her sweaty palm on the fabric of her gown while trying to stand up.

But her ankle had twisted so badly that she ended up stumbling once again.

'Swish'

Her head turned in the direction of the sound but before she could close her eyes to focus on the sound, she was slammed into a rigid surface.

"Ahhhh!!!" Esme yelled with all her might until her throat turned dry.

Suddenly, a palm was pressed on her mouth and her screams turned muffled, "Noisy!" That familiar mocking voice made her pause, "Stop shouting!"

She heard the sound of the fingers snapping and in the next second, the candles lit up lightening the dark hallway.

She was not surprised seeing this now that she knew that he too possessed the magical powers.

For the first time in the last few hours, she felt relieved to see that breathtaking handsome face up so close to hers.

Her fingers clenched his robe tightly as she glanced at the man who had her embraced in his arms. Her eyes met his and she softly gulped. The close proximity made her uncomfortable but she did not dare to pull away.

She did not know the way out of this place and she did not want to re-live what happened a few moments ago.

Aleister frowned looking at her deathly pale face. She looked just fine when she hopped out of his room like a fawn on escape.

Unaware of the man's thoughts, Esme was thinking about what happened here just now. Something clicked in her mind and she quickly placed her fingers on her neck.

"What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing," Earlier, she had felt some fluid dropping there on her skin but now the place was completely dry. As she looked at her palm, there was nothing on it too.

She quickly distanced herself from the man realizing how inappropriate their position was, A moment ago she was so scared that she saw him as a savior but now that she was coming back to her senses, she was reminded that the man in front of her is someone who has killed 18 maids within a month. On what basis, will he come to save her?

"My Lord, are you here to kill me?" She asked without hesitation.

"Yes," Aleister replied as he glanced at her expressionlessly.

She could not spot a hint of lie in that pair of eyes.

Her eyes widened as she tried to back away from him but in the next second, she was pulled into his arms. Her head bumped into his rigid chest.

"What..."

"Quit making noise or I don't mind killing you without any delay."

Her feet were swept off the floor as he carried her and walked in the opposite direction of the paintings.

"My Lord, where are you taking me?" She struggled in his arms as her face turned red because of being carried like that. But then she scolded herself mentally. This is not the right time to think about it. She will have to find a way to escape from him before he truly killed her. His grip on her kept tightening the more she struggled.

His menacing gaze landed on her, "Keep quiet."

"Am I bound to?" Her voice rose as she snapped at him, "You are taking me who knows where. My Lord, you, possibly want to kill me off after performing some rituals on me as the witches do in the tales I have heard. Or worse, you will throw me inside the fire, burn me alive, eat my flesh, drink my blood...And after all that, you want me to keep quiet?" She breathed through her mouth as loose strands of her loose hair framed her face, her eyes narrowed at this man who was hanging above her head like a sword since yesterday.

...

A/N: When you comment, don't use censored words like 'Bit*h, F... or S...etc'. You can write them using '*'. Otherwise, your comment will disappear because of the system >.<