"Where is Philip?" I asked my father with a higher tone than usual. He was taken aback by my tone, and raised an eyebrow.
"I see you've heard the news. He's in custody for now. We'll have to discuss what punishment he deserves." My father said calmly.
"Punishment? But he didn't do anything!"
"Didn't do anything? He broke into the orphanage and was caught carrying explosives. It's clearly an act against the Church!" It was the first time my father raised his voice at me. "You come barging in here and showing disrespect at me when you don't even know the situation?"
"Didn't know the situation? I know full well what the situation is. Because it was me. I was the one who told him to break into the orphanage. He was acting on my orders."
My father looked at me in disbelief. "What did you just say?"
"I was the one who told him to set fire to the orphanage. If you're going to arrest someone, then arrest me."
"What are you saying? If you're saying this just to save that boy—"
"I know about your research." His eyes widened in shock. "I know about your experiments." I declared.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I couldn't believe he'd still deny it.
"How can you do this? Those children, those innocent people, they're not yours to use like tools!"
"Tools? They wanted to contribute to humanity. They came to us on their own will. They wanted to be of use against the vampires. It's something you wouldn't understand."
"Oh, I understand completely. It's you. It's because of your hunger for power and dominance. It's because you've become corrupted. If mom was here, she'd despise you!"
Then I received a loud slap in the face. It was the first time my father demonstrated an act of violence. He had always been gentle with me. He took care of me and treasured me. Was the love he showed fake?
"You are my daughter. I will not let you go down the wrong path. That boy will die and the truth of your treason will die with him."
"No! You can't do that! He's innocent!"
"Guards!" My father called them and they came running to his study. He faced me, his eyes filled with sadness. "You are not to leave your room until the punishment has been served. I know you'll hate me for this, but I only want to protect you. You are my daughter and I love you." Then he gave his orders to the guards. "She is not to leave the house. Lock her up in her room and stand guard."
"No! Please! Don't hurt Philip! Please!" I begged as the guards dragged me to my room.
Everything went downhill. Everything we had been doing was for naught. All our plans went down the drain. And Philip was going to die. He's going to die because of me. If only I didn't drag him into it. He only came to the city for a visit. How did things went out of hand?
I was locked in the room with no way of escaping. I was useless. I had always been useless, I suppose. I kept relying on others. My friends were always there for me. They always took care of me. Like a child, I couldn't do things by myself. I was weak and pathetic. I hated myself. I was being swallowed in remorse when I heard a light knock on the door. The door opened and Anita came in.
"How did you get in?" I asked.
"Your father let me in. I told him I was worried about you. I said I was worried about how you'd feel about Philip's crime. It seemed he believed me."
"No! You're wrong." Then we heard the lock click. We both ran to the door and tried to open it. It was no use.
"Open up! I'm still here!" Anita shouted.
"Your father has given his word. You are to stay here with Krista until we've punished your friend." We heard my father say from the other side of the door.
"Father, please. You can't do this." I begged.
"This is the only way we know to protect you both. I'm sorry." Then it was quiet.
"What do we do? We can't let them hurt Philip. Besides, they can't kill him for arson right? I mean, he wasn't able to do it anyway." I asked Anita.
"You're wrong. I was eavesdropping and I heard my father say that they're going to accuse him of being the vampire council's spy."
"What? That's ridiculous. Who would believe that?" It was beyond outrageous. Anita didn't say anything. "It was my fault. I'm sorry I dragged you both into this. Plus I made it worse by confessing I knew about their research. I shouldn't have told my father. That was so stupid!"
"There's no point wallowing in guilt. We have to save Philip." Anita said. "We can do this. Together."
It was the day of Philip's trial. It was unusually quiet at the castle. I heard my father's car's engine early in the morning. He left without saying a word to me.
"Everyone will be there. I bet all the Church's high officials will be at the trial." I said.
"Okay. So we'd have to get Philip out before he's summoned to face them."
"No. We face them head-on." I gave Anita a confident smile.
Sneaking out was easier than we thought. We were able to open the bedroom door using tools Anita brought. The guards were in their usual places. How silly of them. I've had the escape routes memorized; I could probably escape with my eyes closed. My father probably thought we wouldn't do anything since we were well-behaved in our prison room the past days. He probably thought we'd given up. Not a chance. We escaped by climbing the back fence wall. Anita's car, which she brought when she came, was parked in an alley. She didn't park it in our driveway when she came in case we really needed to run. The preparation came in handy, luckily.
We drove to the Church, parking two blocks away. We needed to secure our get-away vehicle. We ran to the Church. The halls got filled with our thundering steps. I ran to the trial room and forcefully opened the door. The crowd fell silent and stared at me in confusion. Philip was sitting on a chair in the middle of the circular room. I ran towards him and gave him a reassuring smile.
"Krista! What are you doing here?!" It was my father. He sounded mad.
"I have something to say." I declared.
"We have no time for that. We'll listen to what you have to say after the trial." Father argued.
"You can't punish him for something he didn't do. He's innocent."
"Whether he's innocent or not is not up to you!" Father said. He was obviously furious.
"What I have to say can't wait. It's something impor—"
"Guards! Arrest them! We'll deal with them later." Father ordered. The guards came and tried to drag me out.
"Father Sinclair regularly goes to a brothel and Father Donnie had been pocketing funds for the school!" I stated.
"What?!" Almost everyone asked in unison. And the trial room was thrown into chaos. The officials mobbed the two who were coincidentally sitting next to each other. Voices were raised and questions were asked. The two disgusting men tried defending themselves.
In the midst of that chaos, I unlocked the chains wrapped around Philip. I took his hand and pulled him out of the room. I took the small object from my pocket. The trial room got filled with smoke.