"1, 2, 3...,"
His voice faded away into the background as Eva ran out of the hallway into another corridor, her gown flowing behind her. She was determined not to lose this time, unlike the day of the ball when she got herself trapped in this place due to her loss.
After spending these few days with him, she had tried to observe him and figure him out. But the man only knew how to smirk and mock her sometimes softly and sometimes rudely or sarcastically. His face was hidden with a mask, leaving only his eyes revealed which were deeper than an abyss.
An abyss she wasn't sure she wanted to plunge into...
Her mind's gears were running on full speed mode as she thought of all the possible rooms in which she could hide and not be found. What was the place where she was least expected to hide?
'Easy!' exclaimed Eva in her head and dashed to the opposite side of the castle, not caring for the weird glances she received from the maids and servants of the palace.
She couldn't let him touch her and the only way of escaping was if she managed to win against him. Who had won against the Devil in all these centuries, she asked herself and received a very clear answer in return.
No one won from the Devil.
She stopped at the end of a corridor, her chest heaving rapidly as she grabbed onto her knees to stable herself and tried to calm down her breathing. If somebody saw her in this state, they would surely get suspicious and go to report her away to the very person she was trying to hide from.
Peeking around the corner, she noticed two burly-looking guards standing outside the dark gates of the dungeon. Her heart pounded against her chest as she saw how dangerous it looked by appearance but there was no other place where he wouldn't look for her.
The first thing she thought of doing was to distract the guards. Looking around, her eyes brightened when she saw a small stone propped on a window sill. Picking it up, she returned to her position and aimed it in the opposite direction of the gates.
Thud!
The guards woke from their stupor and immediately raced towards the spot where the sound came from. Seeing her chance, Eva hurriedly walked to the door, trying her best not to make any noise that might attract attention. The gates creaked open as she pulled the handle and entered, stepping down a flight of stairs that looked several years old.
She placed a hand on the walls to help her get down as she stepped down the stairs one by one and spotted a red light coming from the bottom of the stairs. She increased her speed and soon jumped off the last stair, walking towards the light in haste.
Her nose scrunched as the heavy stench of blood invaded her senses and she slowly approached the narrow hallway which had cells on both sides with rusty bars on each one them. Eva passed by them slowly, her hands starting to shake as she saw dead bodies in each one.
Some people were so badly bruised that their faces were unrecognizable. Some were hanging from the ceiling and a few stared at her in wonder but didn't dare open their mouths to ask for help as if they were scared of something.
"Eva!"
Her breath stopped short. She recognized the voice and slowly stepped towards the farthest cell which was half engulfed in darkness because of the lack of torches in that part of the dungeons. Squinting her eyes, the sight which greeted her made her hand fly to her mouth as she gasped aloud at the horrifying sight.
It was Lord Ken but not the man who walked the streets with his head held high in pride and ego. He looked entirely different and disfigured. His face had dried blood covering it and his perfect hair was now dirty with grime and mud sticking to it in several places. His shirt was the same as when he had tried to abduct her except that now it was torn into pieces showing his blood which dripped down his body and onto the dirty floor which was already stained with a lot of blood.
"What happened to you?" she whispered, wondering how he ended up in this state.
"That day I was trying to save you from the King Eva, believe it or not." he cried out and Eva noticed his voice was pained. "The King is a heartless monster who won't waste a second to snap your neck after he gets tired of you. Don't trust him!"
"H-He did this to you?" spoke Eva, her hands trembling as she maintained a distance from the cell but stared in horror at his maimed condition.
Ken opened his mouth to speak but the very next second, fell face first onto the ground as Eva caught sight of the knives which were stabbed deep into his back in several places with blood bleeding through his shirt. She tasted bile in her throat as she backed away, shaking her head and trying to believe that all he said was a lie. She knew it wasn't anything but the plain truth which she was trying hard not to accept.
Along with the feeling of fear, she felt somewhat disappointed. Eva cursed herself for expecting so much from him. What was she hoping for? That he would be a kind King and be caring to his prisoners and not treat them brutally like an animal does with its prey? She hated that she cared so much and how the sight of the bodies affected her view of him in a new, different way. Was he a monster? She wasn't so sure now but her heart still managed to squeak a small little, 'No?'
'You are an idiot, you know that?' her subconscious scolded and Eva felt a wet feeling enter her eyes as she tried to blink back her tears, biting her lip hard to punish herself.
Turning around to run back to the exit, her face bumped into a hard chest as the familiar scent of sin and ash invaded her senses. The encounter made her take a step back as the tears surfaced when she looked up at the man whom she had expected so much from.
Her anger hadn't arrived; she only felt dismayed.
He stared at her, his face blank and void of any emotion as his eyes traveled to Ken's cage and then back to her.
A smirk was forming on his lips as he cocked his head to a side and surveyed her with his dark eyes.
"Finally... scared?"