Chapter eight: Deadly Trap

The girl tried to get away from Donghae’s harsh grip. She pulled frantically while she looked around to make sure that no one saw us.

“Tell me! You’re her, aren’t you?!”  Donghae roughly shook her form and with frightened eyes, she looked at us. Her lower lip was quivering as if she could burst out in tears at any second.

However, she didn’t cry and she just lowered her head and nodded.

It felt like there were several fireworks exploding in my head. Tiffany, Tiffany, Fany, I just kept repeating Tiffany’s name in my head. I didn’t think feel sadness anymore when I thought about her, I felt hope.

“We need to talk about this in the hideout, it’s safer there.” Donghae turned to me, in his eyes I saw something that struck me as relief. And I couldn’t make myself say a word so I just nodded brightly.

But the girl protested: “No, no! I can’t go with you!”

“But why not?” I asked her a bit anxiously.

“I need to go, I need to go now!”

Donghae didn’t let her arm go, no matter how hard she pulled. “The sooner you talk to us, the quicker you’ll be able to leave.”  He bargained and she quickly thought it over and after five seconds of thinking, she accepted his bargain.

She calmed down and with a tiny voice she squeaked: “What do you want from me?”

“You’re still alive,” Donghae stated, “How is that possible?”

“You’re still alive too,” she mumbled irritated, “ask me something that you don’t know.”

Donghae was getting angry, he obviously forgot that this girl went into the flames before him and that she just thought that he went after her. I knew that it wouldn’t help us if he got angry at her so I just quickly asked a question so that we wouldn’t lose time. “Why were you punished by the priest?”

“I was the High-Priest’s… well, I guess you could say toy. But one day, I offended one of the King’s advisors when he visited this city by refusing his advances. So the High-Priest felt like he had no choice but to kill me in front of the King’s advisor’s eyes. I was thrown in the hole but survived, only to find out that the High-Priest didn’t want anything to do with me anymore because another man had tried to touch me.”

She seemed incredibly bitter as she told her story and yet her undertone was scared: “He told me that if one of his men would find me in this city again, they would really execute me. So I need to go!” She pressed on but specifically looked into my eyes as if she had the feeling that I would give in quicker than Donghae and she wasn’t exactly wrong but I wouldn’t give in just yet.

“Where there other survivors?” I asked her.

“You mean except him?” She asked sarcastically as she looked at Donghae before she looked around again.

“I mean survivors that you saw and then I mean specifically a girl with long brown hair, a red blouse with a black corset and black pants.”

The girl furrowed her eyebrows in thought. Then her face relaxed because she found the answer. “Oh that girl…”

Her face suddenly turned apologetic. “I’m sorry but she just lifelessly fell down in the chamber. And they carried her away before I could see anything else. But still, even if she survived, I don’t think that they would call a doctor for her unless they need her for something?”

She looked at us and hoped that we would provide her the answer for what the High-Priest would need Tiffany. But we didn’t have an answer because the deadly truth was that Tiffany being there was unexpected for everyone.

All hope was gone now and I had difficulty to keep standing on my legs. I felt like Tiffany had died twice, first when she fell into the hole and the second time was here in this alley. Hope had grown for a minute in this alley before it was lost again.

Donghae took me in his arms and hugged me tightly while I felt all the tears I had still left in me well up in my eyes.   

Donghae rubbed my back soothingly while I said with some difficulty: “I want to go home, Donghae.”

“I know, Hyuk. I know. But first I need to kill that High-Priest.” He sounded terribly menacing when he said that but I didn’t care about that. I felt the same anger that Donghae felt.

“Do that,” The girl intervened, we turned to her. “And let me go!”

Donghae rolled his eyes but loosened his grip on her arm. She shook herself loose and ran away but before she was out the alley she stopped running and turned around. Then she pulled the key off her neck and threw it to me and Donghae. Donghae caught it and stared at her with an open mouth.

“If you want to get close to the High-Priest you’ll need that key!” She winked, turned around and ran away.

Donghae curled his fingers around the key while his other hand found my hand. “We’ll avenge Tiffany, Hyukjae. We’ll make sure that she rests in peace.”

“Yes, we will.” I was determined and my smile matched Donghae’s grin.

Thunder shook the castle walls. Servants hid in every dark corner waiting for the storm to pass. In that city far away, one black figure reached the castle. Only he was fearless enough to walk through weather like this but then again, he was the only one that carried a more fearsome weapon than thunder or lighting.

He knocked on the large wooden doors and slowly they creaked open. A small servant cowered away, this time not for the weather but because of the person who knocked on the door. The prince had a fearsome reputation like his father before him and his father before him.

The prince paid no heed to the small servant and walked with confident yet annoyed steps through the castle. He hadn’t found the master painter this time either… while he felt like the painter was just out of his reach.

Soon enough, he reached his father’s throne room. With his feet, he kicked the door open. It had become a habit after a long time, a habit that prevented him from using his hands.

The people in the throne room looked up but the prince had only eye for his father, the king.

“Ah son, I see that you’ve come back to meet the new advisor and his daughter.”

The prince followed the arm of the king that pointed to the new advisor and his daughter. They were an unusual and repulsive sight to the prince. The male was ugly with a large belly. He was unshaved and the prince had no doubt that the man would smell terrible. His daughter on the other hand was quite pretty, she had long brown hair and was dressed correctly according to polite society. Yet there was something about her that warned the prince that there was more under that sweet exterior than that she showed.

The prince bowed politely: “How do you do?”

It was a rhetorical question but the girl still nodded sweetly while the advisor only grunted. The prince had difficulty not to wrinkle his nose in distaste. Instead he chose to look at his father who sat on his throne with a completely satisfied look.

“Father,” the prince began though he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to talk about his concerns with his concerns standing so close, “why have you chosen these people?”

The