With my right feet on top of the window frame, I then climbed up and screamed out of my lungs,
" Who are you ?!".
When I saw the young boy still running away from outside the window, I just looked at him stupefied. It wasn't because I expected him to stop, it rather was due to my circulating thoughts. My mind was so filled with many theories about his appearance, that I didn't mind the boy continuously leaving. But this didn't took long as I came back from my short trance and finally followed him. Once my feet touched the dirty ground, I immediately focused my eyes at the direction where he disappeared and could see a few silver hair reflected in the moonlight.
" He isn't that far away. I can still catch him", I confirmed.
Without wasting more time, I shortly tried catching him. Over time I slowly lost my previous confidence. It became a challenge for me to even reach him. Was it the long dress or the heels which slowed me down ? Or I was just too slow before ? Yes, all factors fit. But this didn't matter anymore, once I reached him. I needed the information. Stuff which could become useful in the future. That was my thought. Why did I assume he could have important knowledge ? I hoped that he got few books or stories told by his ancestors. The sources could contain important information about our family which even my own family didn't know of. I remember that a war between us and the Shadows will happen in the near future according to the novel.
"My ability to organise my thoughts was amiable as as my capability to distract myself from my focus" , I sighted looking into the nothingness.
No matter how much I moved around, everything seemed the same and it finally felt like time stopped. At this moment I knew that my senses slowly became numb. The endless sea of darkness which I only noticed belatedly soon absorbed my whole mind and fear filled me. I wasn't stupid to not see the darkness before me, however I just became more aware of it now. I didn't know the reason, but this didn't matter anymore. My rational self was already too overwhelmed by my angst to think about it. Shudder slowly ran down my spine, hair on my skin stood up, adrenaline rose up and slowly sweat formed on my forehead. This emptiness I saw in the place shouldn't be unknown for me, as I was in prison before and I also walked in dark streets alone in this and my other world. But it felt abnormally dark for me. Sometimes I looked back to make sure nobody followed me afraid a stranger could attack me suddenly. "How I wished this kid appear now !", I pleaded.
Slowly noticing that my speed got higher over time, I became slightly exhausted and tried to calm down by standing still and doing breath exercises. I didn't know how long I ran and where I was now. At some point I really regretted following this child. Before I was so occupied with getting information from this child that I totally forgot the consequences.
As I looked around, I saw the moonlight sometimes brightened my view slightly on the unfamiliar and familiar objects in this dark alley. Frames and lines became visible whenever the light hit on few places, but it was still hard as heck walking around, possible missing things and crushing into walls accidentally. I was lucky or unlucky seeing his hair through the store's light from the window before, I thought pathetically. Nonetheless I shivered at the thought if dangers suddenly appeared in front of me. That reminded me of the days before my execution again. I was closed up in the prison, the darkness was my only company, screams from other prisoners filled the silence and everyday became a torture for me waiting for my death. If someone asked me to choose between waiting to die or to die right now, I would answer... die. Because of this experience I got to know real loneliness, when everything was lost. My family abandoned me, dirt and smell of blood left here and there, harsh accusations towards me from everywhere could be heard and on top of that, my only love didn't even hesitate to see me dead. Nobody was on my side was my thought in the past. At this moment I thought death was my only salvation there, releasing me from my pain. Since coming back I even thought I would hate my family and the people I once loved before due to this, but it seemed like I still had some lingering feelings. Nonetheless I couldn't forgive them easily. No matter what explanation they gave me, because they had to feel what I felt before to understand my previous situation. This was there very reason I still couldn't fully trust them for now. Sometimes I became even a bit uncomfortable around them and I was sure they noticed it. That's why I believed that my mom wanted to spend time with each other to ease me. I knew I still didn't happen yet, but can you blame at this point ? I'm a human too. There should be valid reason for my pain and until then I will wait to hear, so… don't expect too much from me, please ? Mother, father and brother Leon.
Not only my family I didn't trust anymore my friends were also included. I knew that my friends were on the day of my execution crying for me. However I didn't see them in all these years when I needed them the most. This applied with my family too. Through the novel I found out that my family wasn't entirely at fault for my situation. They tried to save me from my execution as it seemed. Not only them the servants and my friends mourned for me too, according to the book. Although it was like that and I should understand them since it was hard to rescue me in that hopeless situation, my heart couldn't keep up with my mind. I still found faults in their behaviour. For example why didn't they visited me once when I was accused. I only needed these three words " We love you." and I would feel a bit lighter. Just these words would make my punishment more endurable. Just this small support would help me to get through. I didn't know at that time, what they tried to do for me, so naturally I felt betrayed as they abandoned me in this cold world. At the archduke mansion I only wanted to leave seeing my family a few day ago, but somewhere in the corner of my heart it contradicted with my wrath. I felt angry and sad at the death of family, at the same time I resented my family for not helping me all this time. I was so happy seeing them alive, but at the same anger rose in me by seeing them. Perhaps I had too much on my plate to think about it, thus I forgot for a minute. I needed time to reflect on myself was my believe.
Time would heal my wounds one day. I hoped for it.
Nevertheless after living in the mansion again, I reconfirmed the love for me from my people. Their small gesture and considerations somehow helped me filling my void a bit. I was bit sceptical, but it gave me some warmness. By reminding me of it, I unconsciously smiled a bit forgetting my uneasiness from before. I shook my head and without hesitation I continued walking further into the dark alley. My mixed feeling still stayed, but I was to 100% sure that I would have been even more angrier and on guard if I hadn't read this book before. I wouldn't have known the truth about their failed rescue plan for my whole life and even after that. At some point I was grateful for my friend recommending it. I chuckled a bit. Suddenly I heard noise somewhere from the corner. Scared, I ran again. Fear was a natural reaction of living creatures when entering the darkness, so I couldn't help, but to hold my guard. Despite this, I felt slightly relieved having my weapons under my skirt, yet I couldn't shake off the feeling that once I went deeper into this place I would soon lose something precious.
"Ah…. I should really clear my mind now !" , I scolded to myself and stood still again.
While walking around the darkness trying to distract myself with many other thoughts, I now focused on my main object. The child. His unusual appearance and his bruises around his neck didn't fit well with me. On one hand his silver hair and amethyst eyes symbolised the appearance traits of the old king who started the war, on the other hand he had handprints around his neck.
In books as well as scrolls explained the history of every past royals, this also included some description about their appearance. Although I didn't like history that much, these information was practically hammered into me, so I became grateful for this as I could immediately recognise it. But if I thought about it, who wouldn't know the king who started the war since long ago ? According to my memory, the family which had the blood of their god in them naturally had the strongest connection to the god, so the way they rule wasn't questioned at all. Their appearance most likely resembled their god as they were in fact children of the god.
The Xenon kingdom was well known for their unbelievable beauty. The most beautiful creatures living there were created by the goddess Aphrodite. The goddess of love, beauty and desire. So naturally everyone would agree that the were the most beautiful creatures on earth. I was always the person who thought beauty was more based on one's preferences, however that believe was crushed. Every kingdom has special appearance, which is why one should question the overall beauty standard, as every culture had their own. But appearance was not all. What really made the people from the Xenon kingdom being so enchanting was their own charms. One should know that appearance wasn't always the the most critical point, personality and charms influenced people. The way they talked, moved and behaved attracted many people. Probably one of the reason why it came to a war, as they could persuade the kingdoms through their charms. That what few people believed and as stupid as it was I would had believed after I saw one in the past too. It was so dazzling that it was hard to look at the beautiful queen in the eyes without slightly blushing. Aside that, the old king 500 years ago was the strongest who was connected to their goddess out of everyone, therefore he assembled the most to their heaven being. Amethyst eyes, silver hair and charms. These were all written in scripts and books. These were common knowledge in this world, thus I wouldn't be surprised if someone believed the child was one of the Xenon royals. But this couldn't make sense at all. That would everyone say.
Why ? The family should already be destroyed at that time. These royals who possessed these traits were all executed, only one branch family survived as the only connection. Through the past whole 500 years nobody in the only surviving branch family actually gave birth to someone with such features according to my knowledge. This family was alive because they had the least strongest bond to their god, but still were stronger out of every citizen there.
I frowned upon this thought. Only now I noticed that I stood in the middle of nowhere again, still not knowing where this child could be.
I stood still and looked to my right and left. Suddenly a thought crossed my mind as it kinda reminded me of one of these scenes in books.
" This ain't one of these scenes where I could be attacked by someone behind me, right ?" , I asked nervously. I anxiously laughed low. In this place full of nothing I needed something to calm down, so i closed my eyes and sharpened my other senses.
Afraid of this possibility I turned my head around again and took my daggers under my skirt fast. I looked and looked, but I only saw darkness in every direction. So dark that everything around felt invisible now. The things I saw in the daytime and was used to became now unfamiliar for me. I tried to look more closely, desperately finding one familiar thing that let me help to guess where I was. Okay, even though I couldn't see anything, I could at least heave a sigh of relief. The reason was I didn't see anything dangerous at the moment.
" Now I became fanatic again.", I laughed nervously. Come down, Rosie !
But I didn't know how I should feel now, since on one hand I was happy that nobody attacked me right now despite being stupid enough to follow this child on my impulse disregarding my own safety, while on the other hand I was frustrated not finding this child anymore. In addition I was extremely afraid of this f*cking darkness.
I observed my surrounding and suddenly recognised something in this place.
"Was it not the street where my mom first wanted to visit once we arrived in this city ?", I recalled, as I walked to the closed store.
" Woah… It is really that !", I confirmed by seeing the name of the boutique where I had my small fashion show before. How could I be so stupid ? Why didn't I notice such important and at the same time trivial things ? Frustrated at myself, I stomped on the ground. Over time I slowly regained my composure again and thought after placing the daggers back,
"This place is really so isolated that the main festival focused more on the plaza. For sure other streets are also neglected, since I didn't see any lights here. Many people closed their stores to join this party, it seems like that. But shouldn't be at least one street lamps there ?" As soon as I thought this, I suddenly crushed into something hard and clumsily fell down.
Before I looked up, I questioned," Aren't these scenes from books where you will normally meet a dangerous or mysterious character hidden under the hood ? And most of the time they are actually pretty handsome ? " I was a bit excited and afraid too upon this thought.
Even though I shouldn't be excited at this time, I couldn't help it. Who wouldn't want to meet a handsome character, right ? Totally forgetting the serious situation, I expectantly looked up to only see… a street lamp.
My hope crushed and I sighed heavily, " God really likes to play with me, right ?" … Come to think of it, even though this place wasn't written in the book, I shouldn't underestimate the danger. However who wouldn't want to experience a scene straight out the books first hand, right ? I shook my head at nativity. I really suspected my own sanity. Once I strived for carefulness at all time, but here I was alone in the middle of a dark alley, with no guards or anyone possible helping or saving me. My right hand held my forehead, my left holding on the street lamp, I leaned to the street lamp with my eyes looking at the stone floor. I sighed again.
"Heh...", I unconsciously let out a noise. Slowly, I looked up again and observed.
I thought, " Even though I saw street lamps in this way before, but why aren't they on ? I just accidentally met one or crushed with one as proof. Was it a lie that I saw lamps light flickering after leaving the shop ? "
I rambled about these thoughts in mind. All of the sudden I recalled an information I totally forgot over time. I was so used to being a commoner from South Korea and furthermore I had many other problem too, that I neglected my other knowledge before my return. This city was rather particular. Its uniqueness reflected on their culture as well as rules. Main orders created by the emperors stayed, but each city could also add some own rules in their city and one of these rules here had something with street lamps to do. Finally finding the right memory, I closed my eyes and soon spoke the words " Light on, please !" in my mind.
All of a sudden bright flickering lights hit my closed eyes. Not long it became stronger ,so I shortly opened them but the light hurt my eyes. I immediately rubbed my eyes. Finally regaining a bit sight, my half-closed eyes widened upon this sight.
This street wasn't long, so I didn't expect such view. Small lights spots following the seemingly endless way. It was no exaggeration to say that it felt like crossing a different dimension. I watched the lights slowly, but steadily building up, then getting bigger and finally filling the light bulbs of the street lamps. Small yellow to white spots were drawn itself lining up in the night sky. It gave an impression that the stars fell down from the dark curtains to the earth, so they could light up my path to an unknown world. Just the thought of seeing this particular place, stirred up my curiosity to the maximum. Therefore I courageously followed the displayed way at once. In contrast to my previous desperate run, this one made me feel protected and reassured for some reason. One by one I walked while I touched each street lamp slightly, because my guts feeling told me I shouldn't stray away from my path like the red riding hood. My surrounding disappeared slowly and emerged with the darkness. Now I only saw black and white everywhere. At this point you should normally be alerted, but I still continue to go bravely. Suddenly I saw a stone lying on the floor before me. Surprised by its appearance I moved to it, so I could look more closely. As I kneeled down and was about to touch it, a sudden scream stopped me from my action.
"Don't do this !!!" , said the voice.
I stayed midway when I heard this scream. Wondering who it was, I soon straightened myself back to look behind me without taking the stone. Before I reflexively placed my hand on my chest and breathed slowly because of the sudden scream, I now moved my body to the direction and was astonished.
" Woah..." was the only thing which my mouth let out. What I saw in front of me was the small boy I searched for everywhere. But this was not the only reason to let my shock show. It was his appearance that shocked me , even to the very core.
I rubbed my eyes to confirm what I really looked correctly, just like a child. No matter how much I tried to rub them, I saw the same thing before me.
My heart throbbed strongly, my face slightly heated up and averted my gaze from him. I didn't know why I acted like this, but I became embarrassed for starring at him too long. " What should I do ? I will .... become crazy ...", I thought.
From the corner of my eyes I saw the boy slowly nearing me. Now he stood before me and asked, " Why do you look away ? Is it because of my appearance ? For sure , I know everyone would be shocked upon seeing me under the hood, but you followed me, so you should know how I somehow look like, right ? Wasn't this the very reason why you followed me in the first place. … So don't be so surprised now ", he pouted with a sharp glare.
I inwardly agreed with him on the part where I followed him because of the appearance and was shocked upon seeing him, "…but who wouldn't be surprised when seeing him like this ", I inwardly rebuked. My reaction seemed reflecting how I felt to what he said on my face, so he claimed,
" Everyone has the same reaction. My appearance looked like the one from the royal in the past, but to make it clear I am not the descendant of this king. I am a commoner. I am an orphan, you know !"
His angry and almost desperate exclamation made me realise how much hardships he had to go through because of this. I nodded absentmindedly, however I had some doubt. To speak, there were lots of possibilities in the world which you couldn't think it would happen, but they happened anyway. That's why I said ,
" Yeah, thank you for your explanation. Also even if you was the descendant, I wouldn't have hurt you anyway. I just wish for information. …But still I have some doubts in regard to your saying. How can you be so sure about it? Some commoners had noble family blood in them too, as few aristocrats had illegal love affairs or some sort. " I still tried to be considered about his circumstances.
" That was what all people told me too… However look at me more closely.", he sighed, already tired of this routine. Just this sigh explained bands of his suffering due to his appearance. In a way, I sympathise with the little one.
I did what he told me. When seeing him more closely, I noticed slight blue mixed with his amethyst eye colour. Upon closer inspection I recognised that he had more blue eyes than violet one. My surprised expression showed itself, thus made the little boy smirked smugly.
I didn't like this face, which was beautiful to begin with, to make such reaction, so I became irritated. Nonetheless I knew that I was wrong and prejudged him, thus I said,
" I'm sorry for mistaking you for… you know. I didn't mean it. I just thought I should catch you to get more information. Now since I know you had no connection to it from the beginning, I won't disturb you anymore.
Before walking away, I remembered something I wanted to ask since seeing him. It disturbed me, so I felt the need to ask seriously," Did you get this wound on your neck because of your appearance too ? "
His eyes widened, but soon lowered. He touched the wound on his neck which tried to hide with higher collar. From this gesture knew felt pain, not only physically but also mentally. Breaking me from my thoughts, he explained,
" Naturally, I always get beaten for my appearance. This is so unfair. I don't even know this king. I had to run away before getting hurt. Nobody help me! " I saw small tears forming on his eyes. Seemingly noticing his own tears he immediately looked away embarrassedly and wiped them with his overly long sleeve away.
I unconsciously tried to touch his neck, however he blocked my hand and took a step back. Fear was now replaced and he rubbed his arms from the side strongly. I retraced my hand. Shouldn't he show a more fighting move than something like this ? he looked like he was disgusted being touched.
" stupid...", I inwardly blamed myself for not considering his longtime pain. After some time I thought to understand his feeling. He had to endure so much hardships, as many tried to beat him due to the kings appearance or perverts touched him because his outwardly beauty, thus he was afraid of every touch on him. I shortly apologised for my action.
Now awkward silence filled the place. As one couldn't stand anymore, he soon walked away from me with a a word. Before he could farther away, I immediately asked, " Why did your scream just before ?" Surprised by my sudden reaction, I turned back to me. eA conflicted expression flickered on his face.
He now pointed at the stone I previously saw and said, " This is a trap. They used it for catching people and selling them."
Upon hearing this I became shocked and looked alternately at him and the stone. With this explanation he again regained his previous movement.
However I tried to stop him again by asking, " How did you know? Also why would they place it here where a lot of people go around anyway ? " He was slightly annoyed by my many question, but he still patiently answered them one by one.
" Even through this place is filled with people, it didn't mean that this couldn't be used for catching people. Besides this place had less people than other streets, so it is possible to do so. ....Also as you saw before, this stone is particular beautifully, correct ?",he said. I nodded. Soon he continued, " So they can attract the people here by manipulating their senses and mind. Once you touch it you get teleported to their basement. They react only to citizen. Knights, polices and guards were the exception. The stones are specialise for it. How they do it isn't known for me. But for me it is only important to know that they were dangerous. The stones hid themselves in the daytime, however they appeared in the night again. Stomping on them and touching would bring your own doom, so be careful. The knights, inspectors and polices had difficulties to track them, as they only react and be seen by weak, but healthy citizen."
I nodded again to his explanation. I didn't know why I asked so many question, but I had the feeling I shouldn't let him go. Perhaps I contemplated too long, he soon proceed to walk away.
" Wait !" , I screamed. The boy soon snapped out and asked irritably , " What now ?!"
" Do you need cloth to hide them ?", I asked worriedly.
" What hiding ?, he questioned confused with raid eyebrows, " You meant my face ? Yeah, I have my hood, so it's okay. …Still thank you. So let me you alone. ", he said while looking at me like a creep. Not wanting to stay any longer, he shortly returned to walk.
As I saw him moving further away, I became anxious and was eager to follow him. But as soon as I took one towards his direction, he immediately heard me. He glared at me, also seemingly ready to run away if I went any further. But...I couldn't hold back anymore. I needed to tell him something important immediately, thus I screamed,
" But what about your tail ? "
Silver fox ears and two tails. That what I saw before. That what shocked me the most.
He suddenly stopped midway and slowly turned his head to me like a robot.
This 8-9 years old looking boy watched me with indescribable eyes, as if I was crazy. This expression offended me a bit. Even I knew this was crazy but what could I possibly do when I saw them. At least by asking him he could clear my confusion, but what I gained was rather insulting for me. That's why I thought of saying this was a joke. But soon the idea was crushed as he suddenly said,
" You can see them ?", Perhaps he didn't find me crazy...