Alone (Book 2): Lone

by Prunty, Mercedes

  “So glad you’re awake now”, Kaley said to me eating vegetables as well, looked like even she didn’t fancy the meat on offer.

  “Yeah good to be awake, how have you been, they been treating you ok?” I said under hushed voice but I knew even with their general chit chat that they would hear her answer but I thought I might be able to tell by her voice.

  “Yes they have been very nice and accommodating”, she replied, I could tell by her tone they weren’t what she had expected.

  “Good”, I replied with almost the same tone.

  We talked and chatted with some of the others for most of the night and they treated us like true guests, feeding us to the brim of our tummies bursting and gave us more drink than I wanted, they supplied a lot of alcohol and even though Kaley accepted I myself declined, I didn’t want them to have an opportunity to take any liberties whilst I was drunk.

  Christian came over to me at some point and made the girl sitting the other side of me move, she accepted without a second glance at her plate full of food, she just moved. “I have had some dresses sent to your rooms for both you and Kaley, if you are to be ladies of my court then I wish for you to dress accordingly”.

  I gave him a questioning look, “Ladies of your court?”

  “Yes, I have taken it upon myself to keep the royal bloodlines going”, he replied with a very matter of fact tone in his voice.

  “But you are not of Royal bloodline? I don’t recognise you as a member of the royal family?”

  “No but one must create a new one if we are ever going to make this country ours”.

  “Ours?” I didn’t like the sound of this, he reminded me of the late Prime Minister back at the Sanctuary.

  “Yes ours”, he took my hand in his again, “I have a Queen who is sadly not with us tonight but I believe you can help my Queen”.

  “Help your Queen?” I asked, “How exactly?”

  “You will find out soon enough”, he smiled licking his lips, “Please let me escort you to your room, you need to rest”.

  “I’m not going anywhere without Kaley”.

  “She does have a room of her own, just down the corridor”, he smiled.

  “I don’t think she’s ever drunk alcohol before, I want to make sure if she’s ill in the night that I can hear her”, I lied, that was part of the reason although I knew the probability of her dying in her sleep from vomiting or alcohol poisoning was rare but I also didn’t like the look of some of these people and I don’t trust too easily and I wouldn’t put it past them to do something whilst she was out for the count.

  “Very well as you wish but please let me see you to your room”, he said rising from his seat and pulling me up as he still had a hold on my hand, he looked at a woman across the room and she came over to help Kaley who was rather wobbly from the wine, “Please escort Kaley to Stacie’s chamber, I wish to just speak to Stacie in private before she rests for the night”.

  The woman nodded and vanished taking a drunk Kaley with her, I went to protest but he wrapped his arm through mine and led me out of the dining room and through the Castle. We reached the entrance to the castle and he passed me a warm cloak to wrap around my shoulders whilst he fitted on a warm coat.

  “Where a we going?”

  “Just for a walk, will do you good to get some air”, he answered and he opened the large grand wooden doors and led me out into the cold and snow covered grounds. We crossed over a small bridge and ended up in a beautiful garden, it was massive and the snow made it look like an untouched winter wonderland.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” he asked me.

  I nodded, “Yes”.

  “Stacie”, he said turning to me, I looked past his eye line and towards the castle, we were quite a way from it and out of ear shot not that if I screamed for help they would come running, he would of course tell them not to, “I’m glad we found you when we did, it would have been a shame to have lost someone as pure in beauty as you”.

  I felt my cheeks burn and anger rise inside me, “Excuse me?”

  “I’m just saying a lot of women in this day an age had lost their, lustre. You on the other hand still look young, pretty and human like”.

  “Oh…Er thanks”.

  “My wife, my Queen has not bonded with the infection well and she is…Well poorly but not completely in a bad way”.

  I didn’t say anything I just looked into his eyes that were boring deep into mine, I could feel a whisper of something inside my head as he tried to get in, almost like a butterfly kiss stroking my skull but that was all he could manage, he couldn’t get in or see anything.

  “You truly are a puzzle to me”, he smiled lifting a hand and brushing his fingers over my knuckles. I pulled away but he took hold of my arm, “If my Queen die’s when she…If she dies…I will take you as my Queen”.

  I pulled harder and he let go of my arm, “What? I barely know you”.

  “One doesn’t have to marry or become Queen for love but I can see it, me and you could become quite the power couple. A couple this country needs to regrow and become Great Britain again”.

  “I’m not being anyone’s Queen”, I snapped.

  He smiled, “I thought you might say that but it’s fine, we have all the time in the world to break you down so you agree”, a menacing tone ruptured through his voice. I was glad he didn’t know about Kaley and her gift otherwise he might try to get rid of me to make her his Queen, her power was extraordinary and he would be the type of man to use it for his own doings.

  “I’m afraid me and Kaley aren’t staying for long”.

  “That I’m afraid is not your choice, you are in my home now and I say when you can leave”.

  My throat tightened, this was not the promise Albi had given me…Albi? Where was he? I would ask Kaley as I didn’t want to give anything more away to Christian.

  “Come, let’s walk back to the castle”.

  He took my arm in his and I tried to squirm away but he held on tight, his strength was more than mine, I could feel it. He wasn’t letting on all about himself, I knew that and I had to admit it scared me a little. The walk was mostly in silence until the door opened and he took the cloak from my shoulders making sure to brush his hands over the skin near my neck. I shivered and he laughed, making me want to vomit all over him. He wasn’t an unattractive man, oh no I bet back in the day when going out on the town was a normality he could pull whoever he wanted with his boyish charm and looks but it was the power inside him that he thought he had that made him ugly.

  He led me up the stairs and back to my room, “Rest well Stacie”, he leant forward and his lips brushed my cheek. I placed my hand on his chest and pushed him away but he barely moved, “I’ll bring some extra bedding up for her”.

  “No need I’ll sleep on the floor”.

  “But you will get cold?”

  “I don’t feel the cold”, I lied and opened my door and briskly closed it in his face, then I opened it slowly and looked at him, his eyes glinting with laughter, “Where are my things?”

  “They are safe, your bag and your weapons are in the gate house which is under lock and key. I like to keep personal belongings there so things don’t get stolen, we have had a few problems of that here”, he said.

  “And my clothes?”

  “Washed and being dried, I’ll have Katherine bring them up in the morning but I would prefer for you to wear the dresses”, he told me.

  Nodding I went to slam the door again when I heard a strange wailing and monotonous howling of what sounded like a creature being tortured, it wasn’t very loud but loud enough that it echoed from somewhere in the castle up to my room. Giving him a look I went to ask what it was but he cut me off from talking.

  “That’s just Dexter, he struggles to keep his creature form in check and sometimes it takes him over for a while but don’t worry we have him under lock and key at night”, he assured me.

  Nodding again I closed the door in his smug face, looking around I t
ried to find a key or something to lock the door with but there was nothing in sight. Grabbing a large chair that sat neatly tucked away in a corner I slid it in front of the door, grabbing a pillow I made myself a sitting up bed, I wanted to be in front of the door in case anyone tried to get in, this way I would know as they would have to move me with the chair to get in.

  Curling up into a ball I soon dozed off but into a slight unsettled sleep, I was having a dream but it wasn’t something I had dreamt before, The howls of the wet tormented creatures outside sent shivers up my spine. There was a man who was with me, he was trying desperately to stop the water from coming in from the outside, there had been so much rain that the local river had burst its banks but the towels that he placed at the doors were not helping as the water level had raised so much outside it had started to pour in through the closed windows, forcing its way in to torment us.

  The man soon gave up the losing battle against the water and rushed to me, I couldn’t hear what he was saying but he handed me a bag with some belongings in. Just then the back door crashed open and a cascade of water flushed in knocking me off my feet, turning round I saw some creatures staggering in trying to find us, their hungry wails and moans making my heart burst from its seams with fear. Holding onto the man I wouldn’t let him go as he slowly made his way through the ever rising water, the whole room was being taken over by the cold wet river that now flowed inside the house.

  The water began to get so deep I couldn’t keep my head above the water, I could see it dancing against the window in a wave from the rivers current. Another door burst open but this time it was just creatures and not much water, they had sensed our struggle and had come to devour our flesh and turn us into them. The water didn’t bother them much, they just kept pushing through to reach us.

  The man lifted opened a small sash window and lifted me up so I could climb out, the water was deep outside too but a car had been parked right outside the window so I climbed on that and turned expecting him to follow me, a loud smashing noise vibrated through the house and I watched in disbelief as the ceiling came smashing down on top of him, a large ceiling beam hit him over the head rendering him unconscious. Running foolishly over the roof of the car I went to dive back in through the window but the impact of the ceiling collapse caused the window to slam shut just mere inches from my fingers as I went to climb in. Screaming out his name I banged my fists on the window hoping to wake him up but he couldn’t hear me. The water was rising more quickly as the new hole in the roof was letting all the rain water gush in, then he slipped away under the rising water, the table he had landed on falling down and taking him with it. I tried harder and harder to smash the window to get in but it was no use, my young small hands didn’t even make a scratch let alone break the glass.

  Watching him drowning, small air bubbles popping from his mouth and nose, still I cried out but he didn’t wake up, he didn’t know he was drowning and dying, he didn’t know he was leaving me behind. He left me! “NOOOOO!” I screamed.

  Then she was there, the strange creature like woman who stalked him through the waters, she fought the other creatures off him ready to take him for her own, that was it my mind couldn’t cope and it bent and wobbled inside my brain then the window shattered all around me. The woman stopped her face frozen and looking more human. Taking down the rest of the monsters she then brought him over to me, to the window. I wanted to shout at her and tell her to help him but there was nothing she could do, he was dying and he was going to leave me. I watched her leave but I never left her side, she didn’t know it but I entered her mind and she showed me where she lived. I hid in the town keeping a look out over her, I needed to know she would really be safe for me to consider a helper, a helper to get to….

  Sitting bolt upright in my chair I breathed in hard trying to settle my beating heart but it wasn’t mine I was trying to settle, mine was calm but someone else’s was fighting hard to break free from the nightmare…Kaley. She was twisting and turning in her sleep calling out for the man she had lost to the water, to the man who had become her second parent after losing hers, “Dale, No Dale don’t leave me”.

  Moving over to the bed I gently shook her shoulder and tried to wake her, “Kaley”, I said softly not wanting to scare her even more.

  Her eyes fluttered open and she peered up at me through wet eyes lashes, I soon realised she had been crying in her sleep, the dream so powerful and scary for her it brought it all back in an instant and I knew it was my foolishness at the manor house hotel that brought it all back.

  “You ok sweetie?” I asked gently stroking her dark hair and trying to reassure her that it was just a dream even thought I knew it was the real event, I had been there.

  “I’m ok just a bad dream”, she mumbled trying to look strong.

  “Do you wanna talk about it?” I asked.

  She shook her head, “No I’m fine, really”.

  I nodded I didn’t want to push her as it could cause a complete meltdown of sorts and with her strange ability I didn’t want to set something off and these new people find out what she can do, they already acted strange over my weird body and ability so what would they do about hers?

  I wanted and needed to talk to her at someone point about what I saw, I knew she probably had no idea but somehow she had just reflected that dream onto me. Did that mean that her ability was growing stronger? How could that even happen? Was the infection still worsening in her veins like mine does, was the infection trying to fight her body for control and would she eventually give in to it? Or was it something else completely? I guess I had no idea until I talked to her but that would have to wait as a knock at the door caught my attention.

  “Who is it?” I called out.

  “Katherine, I have your clothes, also Christian wishes to speak with you”, she said behind the door.

  I opened it slowly to her much more normal looking smiling face, she handed my dry clean clothes to me and I threw them back on taking off the weird old nighty but Katherine scolded me, “Christian wishes for you to wear the dresses to his court”.

  “I don’t feel comfortable in a dress”, I told her, “And if he wishes to see me he can in my normal clothes”.

  She hissed before her eyes went blank, like someone was inside her head, “Very well I will let it be this once but after you must wear the dress”.

  I knew it was him inside her head and I had the urge to stick my finger up at him but I knew it wouldn’t get me anywhere so I decided to follow Katherine.

  I told Kaley I wouldn’t be long and to place the chair back behind the door and to just call out to me if she needed me. She nodded and smiled but still looked so very haunted in those dark chocolate eyes, her pain was still at the surface but I think she might need to time alone to regroup her emotions and to try and relax a little.

  Shutting the door and hearing her slide the chair back in place I set off and followed Katherine down the wooden staircase and out into the courtyard of the castle, it was sort of like a square which led to different doors and parts of the castle. Taking note I looked around as we neared the draw bridge and the large gate house which had in fact had the gate lowered for protection but what protection did a group of half monsters need? Or was it to keep people in? I think I knew. She opened a door and led me up a small stone staircase which was bitterly cold as a draft wafted down from above, reaching another closed door she knocked twice, she didn’t speak out loud but I could see her talking in her mind.

  She opened the door ushering me in then closed it behind me and left us to be, I could hear her footsteps head back the way we had come. Looking around the room I felt a little tense, this had been the castle’s torture chamber by the looks of things, axes, knives, swords, spikes and other various devices sat located around the room. There was a small mock up beheading station sitting in the corner, it looked to have fresh blood on it and on the floor surrounding it. Another torture device stood in the centre, it was like a table with straps tie
d to it and other bits of rope and pulling devices, I had no idea whether this was a Tudor device or one these people had built themselves but I tried not to think about what might have happened here. Passing a caged cabinet I spotted my rifle and bag inside along with Kaley’s bag which I recognised from the strange dream I’d had. Grabbing the handle I tried to open it but it had been locked with a key, sighing I turned coming face to face with Christian, I didn’t jump or yelp I just breathed in harshly.

  “Morning Stacie, did you rest well?” he asked me glaring his eyes into mine still trying to look inside my head.

  Smiling smugly at him I said, “Yes actually I did, very well rested thanks, you?”

  “No I didn’t sleep a wink! Still trying to figure out why I can’t read yourself or young Kaley”, he huffed, “But I’m sure I’ll figure it out or break whatever’s there down!”

  Break whatever is there down? I thought about it for a moment, I had been good at building mental walls up in my mind, I had used it to fight Darren and to make sure no one else got in or hurt me I had built up even stronger ones since then to keep the beast inside. Could it be that it wasn’t down to the Crusher virus that he couldn’t see in it was just because of my own heavy artillery walls? Mentally shrugging I didn’t care either way I was just happy he couldn’t see what was going on inside my mind, that was mine and mine only. His poor group of people must have felt so invaded in their privacy.

  “So Stacie, Kaley told me that you don’t want to stay with us?” I could feel a threat behind it.

  “She did? When? And I thought I told you anyway last night”

  He nodded, “Yes you did but I thought it was you just being, you. I visited her whilst you were on your way here”, His grin said it all, that he was fast and that I wasn’t going to outdo him if I tried, “I am very curious about why as Albi told me you were looking specifically for us”.

  “Albi he’s alive?” I smiled then I frowned, I hadn’t seen him yet.