I made my way slowly down the corridor, burning more paintings and inky masses as I did. I found myself walking into the darkness. I instantly felt cold. The walls, ceiling and floor were a pitch black. There were pictures still on the wall, but there were no portraits within. Instead, they too were just black, along with their frames.

I racked my brain, trying to figure out what this was. I did not remember my mother talking about this, except to warn me about corridors that you cannot see the end of.

But with the candle in my vine floating in front of me, I could.

I expected the inky masses to jump up to attack me, but for some reason they did not. Though I was attacking them, they did not seem to pay much attention to me.

I walked until I finally reached the end of the corridor, where I found a person covered nearly head to toe in clumps of inky blackness.

“Lady!” I screamed. “I’m here to save you.” I put the candle close towards her, and I could hear her scream. The heat was hurting her too.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I need you to endure this. I don’t know what else to do. Are you alright?”

With a lot of the fire gone, I could see her mouth. “I’m okay,” she mouthed.  

When enough of the black mass burnt off, I reached my hand into the mass and found her hand. She grabbed on to me, and I pulled. I pulled hard. She seemed too stuck inside. I placed the candle close to us, burning away more ink and pulled further, until I finally managed to drag her out. She fell onto the floor on her knees as soon as she was out, sputtering and coughing for air.

“Are you alright?”

She tried to speak but could not make a single noise. She just coughed and sputtered more, and then she coughed up a lump of black ink. Quickly I slapped her against the back until more black ink rushed out of her mouth. I burnt it as soon as it was out. But with my candle now in my hands, my vine once again hidden.

“Can you stand?” I asked after I was certain that all the ink filling in her lungs was gone.

She wobbled to a stand, and looked me in the eyes. All I could tell was that her eyes were brown. The rest of her was covered in a layer of slimly black ink. “Are you sure? Are you stable? Can you move?”

She took a step forward and another, before falling to the ground, her energy much too drained. I noticed then, that her hands and feet looked a bit shrivelled as though she sat in the bath for far too long.  

“Lean against me,” I said, and she did. Together we walked down the corridor. “It’s alright. I’ve got you. We’re going to get out of here and you’re going to be okay.”

She mouthed something at me, trying to get me to understand something.

“Mode? What? Maid? Oh your maid? She’s fine. I think. I freed her from the inky puddles around her. She should be okay.”

She looked relieved. She turned back to look forward and focused her attention on walking out of there.

I could still hear the screaming of the paintings around me, but I could also hear something that sounded like a voice. Though if it was man or women I could not tell. But the voice was soft and creepy. “Where… where are you going? Come back… my newest piece. Beautiful. Eternal. Framed. Come back.”

I looked around frantically, trying to find out where the voice was coming from, but I could not see anyone or anything.

All I could do was to keep moving forward.

We hobbled out of there, my candle still tightly in my hands, in case any inky blackness was to attack. But luckily we made it out of the black part of the corridor with no issue.

I could feel the warmth of the room once again as soon as we entered the area where colour returned. The lady next made a stifled noise as she went towards the maid who had loyally stayed on the floor with her eyes still covered.

“We’re here! Miss attendant. Your lady is fine. I have her here. You can open your eyes now,” I called out.

The maid instantly looked up, her eyes filled with grateful tears. She pushed herself off the floor and rushed over, to the other side of her lady, and helped her to move. “My lady, my lady, my lady,” she kept repeating.

“Let’s keep going until we’re out of here,” I said. Though the paintings were burnt it was strange that the fire never touched the walls and floors. “We shouldn’t be here for much longer.”

The two of them nodded and we all made our way out of the hallway. We turned a corridor, and I commanded them to keep going. Another hallway, and another, until I finally felt we were far enough to stop.

The two ladies collapsed to the floor, hugging themselves through a veil of tears.

“I’m so sorry Joanne, I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t mean to put you in trouble! I didn’t mean to! I’m so sorry!”

“Put me in trouble my lady! You were nearly swallowed up by that… that thing! I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have given in. I shouldn’t have let you go down the corridor. We should have stayed in our rooms.”

“No, that’s not our fault. The fault is entirely mine. Please, don’t tell father.”

“I am absolutely writing to the master as soon as we get to your room! At least you know this is your fault!”

“Joanne!”

“Don’t you Joanne me, my lady! You were nearly eaten! Wait till your father hears about this, he didn’t even want you to come here! You don’t even want to be queen!”

Suddenly, I heard footsteps approach us. I looked up to see Maple and two guards.

“Maple!” I said looking up at her.

“You’re safe!” Maple said looking at me. “I thought I’d find help. But it looks like you’re safe!”

“Yeah,” I said leaning against the wall. “Safe. Thank you… for coming.”

“Well, when someone is in trouble you have to help them. That’s what my mama said,” she said with a shrug. She then curtsied. “I have to go now though, I really am going to be scolded for being so late, you know.”

“Thank you.”

“What happened here?” The guards asked as Maple walked away.

The attendant explained the best she could. She sung my praises as she recalled how I saved them. The two guards looked perplexed but they seemed to believe the story.

“Well, then, I’ll see to it that you are cleaned up,” one of the guards said. “You go report this to the captain, I’ll see that the ladies get to their rooms.”

The guard nodded, put his fist against his chest, bowed and then ran off.

“This way, my ladies, can you walk or do any one of you need assistance?”

“My lady needs assistance, she can barely walk,” Joanne said. “Please help her.”

“Alright then my lady. Here.” The guard offered his arm, and the lady took it.

We walked halfway down the hallway before the knight said. “This simply won’t do, pardon me my lady, but I think you need medical assistance as soon as we can, do you mind if I carry you?”

“Um… yes, I mean, no, I don’t mind,” the lady said.

Her maid made a little noise in her mouth in shock as the man quickly picked the lady up and cradled her in his arms. “Now then, we can get a proper move on. Follow me ladies.”

He took us to the medical room on the first floor of the building. A few nurses looked a little panicked as they saw us walk in.

“Casualties already?” One of the nurses mumbled. “This doesn’t bode well for the rest of the trial.”

“I’ll say,” another replied under her breath. “This is the fastest anyone has been hurt already.” She then turned to us. “Well, thank you Sir knight. We will take them.” A nurse came to each of us and led us to beds. I refused but they did not want to let me go without checking me over.

“What happened? Will anyone enlighten me?” A nurse said as she walked into the room. “A casualty already?”

Joanne the maid talked for us again. She explained everything that happened and how I saved them. The nurses seemed impressed. I wondered if they knew what the corridor was, but felt too tired to question them.

They let me go after an hour of rest, but refused kept the other lady and her maid under their care, seeing as they were in the corridor for longer. I walked out of the room and took a deep breath in and out.

Now, with all that done, I have to get ready for the ball.