My head was dizzying with the foul odor. I wanted to puke. My fingers gripped tighter to whatever I was holding on to.

Damond's jacket. 

I found the courage to loosen my hand from him and went in further. 

The only light in the room, a small, tiny bulb, shone over a long table that took up almost half of the narrow space. The table wasn't empty though. Something big was laying on top of it. Something long... 

Is that a body?! 

My chest tightened. 

It was a man.  Dripping in blood. 

Two hands held my shaking shoulders in place. 

"Don't be afraid." he whispered behind me. 

"I...I- W-what.. W-w-who...!" I couldn't even process what my mouth wanted to say.

Damond spoke. "Don't get too close."

I couldn't believe it. The man on the table was covered with cuts and dotted with bruises black and blue. His left eye was swollen, a tooth missing, and throat appeared to have been grappled. His chest was rising up and down. 

He's alive! 

I turned around to Damond quickly. 

"Damond! This man, he needs help! He's alive!! We need to get a physician! Damond! Quickly!!"

I was already pulling his hand toward the door. He wasn't budging. His face was frustrated. 

"Damond...?" 

A short, eerie, subtle chuckle sounded from the table. 

I recognise that laugh... But it couldn't be. 

My hands fell from Damond's and we both faced the table. 

The man on the table was laughing.  He was laughing. 

"Damond who-" 

"We'll gouge out your eyes next if you keep that up." he said suddenly. His expression was dark and grim. He meant what he said.

"Damond, could you please explain what's going on?!" 

He sighed and turned his head a few inches in my direction hesitantly, meeting my eyes. "We've caught him Rina. I'm not surprised you don't recognise him, but he's here now and he'll answer for his crimes." 

His crimes?

I could feel my mouth open agape. No, I didn't need to question what was going on, I was only trying to deny it now. The man from before, this room, the bruises. 

This was torture. 

 "Please don't look at me like that. I'm doing this for you."

My breath was shortening. The smell of blood in the room had now become internal in my nostrils. 

I was panicking. 

"How- Why...! Damond- you can't just grab some man off the streets and accuse him of this! I mean...even if he was the one, you can't just do this!"

Oh my god. If anyone finds out about this, he's dead. The King and Queen will punish him! I have to get him out of here!!

"You don't have permission to do this!!  Let's go!" I tried to grab his hand again but it was no use. He forced it out of my grasp once again and gave me a stern look.

 "I do." 

"W-what are you talking about? Who would give you permission to do something like this??"

"I did." 

A familiar voice came from behind me. 

What??? Why is he here?! Oh my God! What if he reports Damond?!

Andres was standing in the dim doorway, his hair as black hair as ruffled as Damond's. His ice blue eyes were fierce. 

"We made a deal. He finds the murderer...I give him permission to extract info."

?

"I-I'm confused. You both planned this together?" I asked wearily. 

Andres had the same look of darkness that Damond wore. 

They'd been planning this behind my back.

"Princess, my men and I found this that day." 

Damond pulled a hatchet on one of the drawers to the side and brought out a familiar weapon. 

"The arrow..." I whispered. 

"What's on it is more interesting." 

He brought it closer to my view and I could see a strange, ancient marking on its tip.

I couldn't believe my eyes. 

"Pagans."

But how could that be?!!

The man on the table burst with a mad laughter, filled with raw and disgusting evil.

"Silence you animal!" Damond shouted.

"No. Wait. That's impossible. The Pagans have been wiped out. There's no way this is real." 

Centuries ago. Our ancestors erased all traces of "The Vile Ones" from all 12 Kingdoms. Their sacrifices and practices were deemed too inhumane to accept. And because their number of  religious followers were increasing so rapidly, they eventually came to make their own Kingdom. After meetings and rulings, the other 12 leaders decided to eradicate the abominable 13th Pagan Kingdom and its people. That was their end. That was their demise. But what is this?! 

"This is extremely crucial evidence." Andres said, lying calmly on the back of the door. 

"But how is this possible...?" I asked again, confused and shocked all at once. 

He sighed and walked toward the man stretched on the torture table. 

"We should ask him."  His hand reached from something next to the table, a sharp object! 

Is he going to-

"Wait!" I exclaimed suddenly. 

"Let me talk to him." 

Andres looked back at me, and then at Damond, who gave him a small nod. 

"That's why we agreed to bring her in." Damond contended.

Andres stepped to the side a little while I confronted the man, and set his knife on a tiny table next to Damond.

Now, I could see the man's face. The face I, until a few seconds ago, had pity for. And now he could possibly be a Pagan.

The memory of the ball resurfaced again in my mind.

"W-who do you work for?" I managed to ask. 

The man's rough lips extended to each of his ears and created the same eery smile I had seen in the ballroom that day. 

"Haha...haha!!" The man started laughing again. 

What the hell? 

"What's your name?" I asked again.

"We've already asked him that. No answers." Damond said from behind me. 

Then...

His horrendous laughter cut off suddenly. 

His face was barren now, seeming void of any emotion and his eyes hollow of any semblance of a soul ...It's as if he were being controlled by a puppet. 

He stared at the ceiling emptily and whispered in a slow, shaky voice.

"I have no name....I am only what my master gives me. Whoever he wants me to be. A tool. A murderer. Whatever....I can do for my master....I will....do."

I turned around to Damond and Andres who looked at each other in a confused manner. 

"When we questioned him he said nothing!" Andres exclaimed. "Write that down! The person he works for is a man." 

A man?

Damond grabbed a tiny piece of rough paper and scribbled all over it in ink. 

The person he works for is a man...?

I faced him again. 

"Does your master reside within the Shoubet Kingdom??"

 Another smile. An insane one. 

His voice was now absolved of all pain and fatigue. 

"My master does not reside in one place!! He is everywhere! He is EVERYTHING!! He will take back the THIRTEENTH!!" 

The man's body began to shake and vibrate with an intense passion as he continued to spew nonsensical words in a fit of rage. 

"No!!!" I exclaimed suddenly. My hand was over my mouth as I watched a knife plunge into his leg jarringly. 

The man let out something of a scream and Damond curled his fingers around the handle of the weapon, digging it further into his flesh. 

"Why?! Why would you do that?!! He didn't do anything to me!!" 

"It doesn't matter." Damond was panting furiously. His face resembled that of the man now. Wicked. 

"How is he going to talk if you keep hurting him, stop!!" 

"He's DONE talking! That's all we need to know."

He stifled the knife out of the man's leg, making sure it hurt him intensely as he did. 

I tried to calm myself as much as I could, since he clearly wasn't willing to do that himself.

"You're just angry...! If we keep doing this to him he might just die from the pain!"

The anger melted away from his face. 

"He's going to anyway." Andres spoke calmly with his arms crossed.

"What?"

 "I said he's going to die anyway. His execution is set 3 days from now." 

What?!

"What are you talking about?! Why didn't I know about this?" I turned to Damond who had his eyes down and his jaw clenched. He didn't make eye contact with me. 

Oh my God...he's going to die. But...!

Andres continued to speak atop the man's gruntles of hurt. It didn't phase any of them at all, Damond and Andres. A human being suffering like this had no effect on them whatsoever. 

He talked as if the man was not on the torture table, writhing with pain. "My father has already approved the execution. The only thing now is to reveal what the criminal did first." 

That's right...there was so much commotion at the time. We were all wearing masks, and I only took it off for a few seconds before I almost got shot. Nobody knows it was me that day apart from some others.

"O-ok but... Can't we just lock him up? Does he really have to die?" I asked, concerned. 

Andres frowned at me worriedly and looked to Damond, anticipating the same reaction I knew he would have. 

"What?! How could you say that? The first chance this man got, he tried to end your life! Do you not understand the magnitude of what is going on?!" He screamed. 

"This is your problem. You're so oblivious to the most obvious things around you. You can't have PITY for a murderer!"   

I snapped. 

"Well that's exactly what we're doing now! We're going to execute him??! Right?!"

"That's the law." Andres said. 

The law. How foolish. 

"Why would a person die for ATTEMPTED murder? I am still here, alive and standing yet you are charging him as if he truly did kill me. Will we not even conduct a trial?"

 "A trial is unnecessary. He tried to hurt you, so he tried to hurt the Kingdom. He will die a senseless death. We don't owe a Pagan the courtesy of a trial in court." 

I could only shake my head. It wasn't that I felt bad for the man specifically. Something just felt off about this whole thing. Like we shouldn't be doing this. As if bad luck will strike later....

Another strained chuckle from the man. Truly, I had never seen something as gruesome and as terrible as this, but I couldn't feel bad for somebody with lack of remorse. 

I felt like puking again. 

"Only the three of us know about the marking on the arrow. I think we should keep it that way." Andres said once more. 

"If we make it public news there might be a scare, and we don't want people panicking that the Pagans might be alive and well. We need to investigate further." 

"So we're going to lie to them?" I asked.

Damond answered his question. "Yes." 

Wasn't it just a few weeks ago I was living peacefully and ignorant in Dewsdale? When did it come to this point? How? 

"I...I have to go. The girls are still waiting for me." I've been here for over half an hour.

Andres nodded and Damond made no move to even look me in the eye, just staring blankly at the ground. 

At this point I don't even know where our relationship stands anymore. We've never screamed at each other like this, ever.

I looked at the man one last time. He looked to be content with a hole in his leg, and news that he will be sent to die in a few days.

I closed the shaky door carefully and inhaled the scent of fresh air that came with it. Don't I smell like blood now? 

I tried to find my way back to the garden but everywhere was dark, and I hadn't even been to this part of the castle before. It seemed to be closed off from the main area. 

When I almost reached the light, I became aware that there were a two guards tailing me a few steps behind. 

Damond must have told them to follow me... 

I finally found the garden door and was almost blissful to finally be outside again, away from murder, blood, and secrets. 

But what will I tell Greer?  That I was picking out menus again? Actually she might believe that...

"Princess!" Marchioness Amelia started as I walked in gracefully. 

The rest of the girls snapped their heads at me and stood up to greet me again. 

Eloise gave me a weary look as I walked by. I sat back down on my chair now.

"I apologise. I was busy with some work." 

The girls all looked at each other and nodded, seeming to believe my lie. 

Greer, however, didn't buy it at all and gave me one of her bitter looks. That probably meant I would have to explain to her privately. 

"Kaprina, you missed a lot. We were discussing the places we would like to go while we take our trip next month. We can't only visit the charity sites right?" she said with a faux smile. 

"Oh. Well of course! We could also go rouge for a bit if you all wish. We would be happy to accommodate everyone to the best of our efforts!" 

Greer clapped her joyfully and the others joined in unison.

Over the excited giggles of the girls, I thought to myself. 

How will we survive the Pagans?