“I don’t understand any of this,” said Leila.
“You don’t need to understand,” he responded coldly.
Leila flustered by the sudden event and bit her lip.
“You will have a room in the castle and are to stay there until you are called.”
“Why me?” she protested ignoring his previous words.
Prince Frey sighed and turned to face the window. “It is an order from my parents, I cannot defy it nor can you.”
“You mean the king and queen?” said Leila overwhelmed. Though it is pretty obvious that a prince’s parents would be the king and queen, she was just surprised by the fact the order came from such a high place. Was she so special to receive an order from the most powerful people in Hell? Not that she wanted to receive it.
“Yes, it is a secret mission given directly by them. You mustn’t tell a soul of this plan,” prince Frey told her with piercing eyes.
“I couldn’t tell anyone, I don’t know the plan myself.”
“You know exactly what the plan is,” he argued.
“I only know that the king needs some witches for a secret project but what is this secret project?”
“You know what you need to know. Just follow the rules and you’ll be fine.”
“Alright but-”
“There are no buts. Remember that if anything goes wrong, I can kill you anytime. In the blink of an eye, you could become dust.” while he said those chilling words, his voice was like a rising storm. She was well aware of his immense power, but that didn’t stop her.
“But you need me, your parents need me,” she remarked with a smirk.
He was caught off guard, still, there was no change in his expression.
“Let’s start the evaluation.”
“But I thought there was no evaluation?” she asked with a wide open mouth.
“Edgar, bring it in.” With a couple of words from the prince, the door opened. As if he’d been waiting behind the door the whole time, the zombie butler now known as Edgar came in with a cart. On the cart was a large cube-like glass container along with a single black glove. The container was closed off on all sides. He brought it in front of Leila.
“I want you to wear the glove and place your hand on the container,” the prince ordered.
She rolled her eyes before doing as he said.“Like this?” Leila said placing the gloved hand on the glass.
“Yes. Now close your eyes,” He started in a low voice. “And focus on the dark energy inside of you. Attempt to transmit it inside the container.”
Leila had tried to recall how she found her dark energy when she trained with Kieran. She was deep in her mind looking for the darkness in her. She could feel it, that darkness. Leila visualized the container under her hand and imagined the dark energy flowing out. In her mind. she could see black clouds floating in it or maybe it was smoke. She filled the container and saw it overflowing. Her hand pressed harder on the container almost as if she wanted to break it. Her eyes had also scrunched up. Leila felt darkness but also pain. She was straining. She hadn’t opened her eyes yet, thus she didn’t know what was really happening. Was the container empty and was she embarrassing herself? She heard approaching footsteps and stopped. She Took her hand away and opened her eyes.
“What did you see?” the prince asked right in front of her.
“I, I saw the container overflowing with dark smoke.”
“Did you feel the darkness?”
“Yes.”
“Was it painful?” he asked approaching even more their feet almost touching.
“Yes…” she answered looking straight at his red eyes. “Did you see something, prince Frey?”
“I did,” he answered without saying more.
“It was incredible Miss Leila!” exclaimed Edgar the zombie butler. “I had never seen so much dark energy from a witch!” He was a zombie but almost looked human for a second because of the excitement he showed.
“Was there that much dark energy?” she asked baffled.
“Strangely enough, yes. It spread to the floor.”
“Does that happen often?” she asked the prince.
“No, I’ve never seen it either,” he said walking back to his spot next to the window.
“What does this mean? I’m just a regular human. Why is there so much dark energy coming out of me?”
“We’ll know soon,” he vaguely answered. It seemed as if the prince was as clueless as Leila in this situation. He also simply followed the rules. However, seeing the tremendous power Leila emitted made him curious. He was interested in knowing the real reason Leila was chosen from earth to become a witch. Was she an important pawn? Did his parents know of her power?
“Edgar, take Leila to her room.”
“Yes, Prince,” he bowed. “This way,” he motioned to the door. But Leila was unfulfilled.
“That’s it? Is there nothing else to say or to explain?” The prince did not look at her nor did he respond.
“This way,” the Zombie butler repeated. Leila looked at the prince a little more expecting he’d say something. Understanding his silence, with dropped shoulders, she walked out of the room. She left with more questions than answers. It was truly hell.
“This way to the hellevator.”
“There was an elevator all along? Why did we take the stairs? And hellevator?” she mumbled to herself.
They entered the hellevator made out of volcanic rocks. Edgar had pushed the lowest button. Based on her previous experiences with hellevators, Leila held on to the bar on the side and closed her eyes tightly.
“Not again!” she said as the hellevator went up in a flash making her hair fly up. Edgar in front of her did not even flinch. She now understood why they were called hellevators and not elevators. The door had opened to a long and narrow hallway. Not much light had entered this part of the castle. She followed Edgar and held on to the long railing on her side for support. She took a peek down the railway and promised herself to never do that again. It was extremely high up. In Hell, the last button meant the highest floor, not the lowest one.
On the floor she was previously on, there were many doors. However, on this floor, there were only two doors next to each other. Leila presumed that one of the doors led to her room. She was curious as well into knowing where the other door lead.
“The last door leads to your room. Do go in and stay there until you receive an order to go out,” Edgar said before retreating.
Leila had reluctantly twistest the doorknob, she also wondered why her door was a normal one. The first thing that caught her eye when she set foot in the room was a queen-sized bed. She immediately ran towards it and threw herself on it. She covered herself with the warm peach-coloured blanket and adjusted her head on the fluffy pillow. Ever since she’d come to Hell, she had dreamed of a comfortable bed. All she wanted to do at that moment was to rest. Her heavy eyes closed on their own before she fell into a deep sleep.
Darkness had surrounded Leila. She looked around to see nothing, not even her own body. She heard female screams and cries. It seemed familiar to her. The dizziness had hit her and everything around her seemed to move even though she could see nothing. The dark air around her was moving. Her vision was dark and hazy as she still heard the cries. This time Leila did not tremble in fear, she attentively tried to listen.
“Save us,” a voice echoed through the room. Leila kept listening carefully. The presence she had started to feel was approaching. Even though she had her doubts, she still closed her eyes tightly and brought her body closer.
“Save us from him,” the voice had said.
“From who?” asked Leila.
“No!”
“Save us!” The same words in different voices kept repeating. Leila had gone crazy with all the sorrow and terror she heard. Tears escaped her eyes one by one.
Comments (0)
See all