Lily woke to a light knocking on her door.
She opened her eyes to see the morning sun streaming through the windows, tinted a light lavender color from the drapes.
She sat up, letting her long legs fall over the edge of her bed.
It was a warm morning, with a cool spring breeze drifting from the open windows.
The knock came again.
"Come in." She mumbled in a sleepy voice. A pretty young lady entered the room, carrying a stack of neatly folded clothes.
"Good morning Lily."
"Morning Liz." She yawned. Liz was her handmaiden, as well as her only friend. She had long wavy hazel hair. Her honey-golden eyes were speckled with different shades of green, and her smile made you feel like she understood everything.
Her full name was Elizabeth, but Lily refused to be formal with her, so she just called her Liz.
"We spend so much time together, it's almost like we're sisters! And that's what I consider you to be.", she had told Liz once, and though it might have been after a few too many drinks, Lily meant every word of it.
"you know, if your dad catches us, he'll stone me, and throw you into the dungeon!" 'It's true,' Lily had thought. 'Only he'd probably stone both of us. A dead daughter was better than a disobedient one. That's the way he thinks. Oh, if only he knew half of the ideas I've had. All the thoughts that keep me up at night...he'd kill me.' She thought with a slight grin.
Bright light distracted her from her memories. Liz had opened one of the windows and was tidying up the room.
"Your father wishes to see you. He said you must wear that." She pointed to the neat stack of clothes on the end of Lilys bed.
"He'll be waiting in his study."
"Did he say why?"
"No, but it sounded important." 'I wonder what he wants?' Her father rarely called for her, unless he had guests he wanted to show her off to, or classes he wanted her to take. Anything that would look good to others. Lily was his pride. The cherry on top of his beautiful kingdom. Appearance was all that mattered to him. Appearance and reputation.
"Do you wish for me to help you prepare yourself?", Liz asked.
"No, but do prepare me a bath for when I get back."
Lily walked steadily towards her fathers study. Each step produced a light clicking sound that echoed down the empty hallway.
She stopped outside the door to knock.
She could hear him talking to someone inside. 'He sounds angry...' she thought. Immediately she wished she didn't have to talk to him. 'Is he talking about me?' She wondered, suddenly anxious. 'Did he find out what me and Liz have been doing? Is that why he's mad?' Lily gulped. 'No, stop jumping to conclusions.' She took a breath to calm her shaking hands. 'It's probably nothing... just business.'
She had just raised her hand to knock when her father yelled something loud enough for her to hear.
"I DON'T CARE WHAT IT TAKES!! I don't care if you have to check every goddamn guard in the palace!!" Lily lowered her hand and pressed her ear against the cold wooden door.
"your Majesty, I assure you, we are doing everything we can without causing a panic." 'So he's talking to Alastor.' Lily could recognize the old man's voice easily. He was head of her fathers troops, trainer of the warriors, and a longtime close friend to the King. He was like an uncle to Lily, a fun one too. When Lily was just a kid, he had given her private self-defense lessons. Just a few though. Her father thought it improper for a young lady to know how to fight and forbade her from going. She treasured it while it lasted though.
"Well, it's not enough! It's been three years and we still haven't gotten any closer to catching him!" Her father lashed out.
"Well, if you want it to go faster, you can always put the palace on lockdown and search every room when we know he's in the palace," Alastor suggested.
"NO! Absolutely not. It might cause a panic, at the least it would cause people to ask questions, and we can't afford that. We can't let anybody know about this. It could ruin us if someone found out that-"
Lily backed away from the door. She didn't need to listen anymore. She knew what they were talking about, and she didn't want any part in it.
She didn't know much about her fathers secret operation under the palace. Only what he told her; they were testing on things down there, to help us up here. And she knew what she saw when she stumbled upon it for the first time.
She was eight, playing in her fathers study alone when she started inspecting the books on his shelf. He had strictly forbidden her from touching them, but being the young mischievous kid she was, she reached out for the first one that caught her eye. The title was long and boring, but the pages had gold edges, and the fancy loops and swirls made it look like a fairytale book. It didn't come out though. No matter how hard she tugged, it remained stubbornly in place. Finally, she grabbed it with both hands and pulled with all her might. Still, it only came out halfway. With a defeated sigh, she pushed it back. It slid in quickly, and once it was in place, the bookshelf started to rattle, then, it slid to one side revealing a secret staircase. Curiosity overtook her as she started to follow the staircase down, down, and farther down, till she found herself in a cold, dark tunnel. 'Where am I?' She reached her hands out for guidance but immediately pulled back when she felt the slimy, mold covered wall of the tunnel.
She walked for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes in the dark and was about to turn back when she walked into something face-first. Fumbling around, she felt a handle. 'A door?' She pulled at it, and it opened with ease.
Bright light filled her vision, making her squint.
The door lead to a small stone room, lit by two torches on each wall.
The only other things in the room were two other doors. 'More doors? Am I even in the palace anymore?'
Cold air slipped from under the doors, colder than the tunnel she came through. The smell of rotten meat seeped from the one to the left.
There was something else as well...something in the air, a sound. Something like howling wind, or squealing dogs, or....'screams?' Lily thought, 'No way!'
She pushed her ear against the door to the right, wrinkling her nose against the stench. 'That's definitely screams. Human screams. I want to go back! I'm scared!'
Without hesitating, she ran back to the entrance. 'Locked?! But how?' She wiggled the handle some more, even kicking it a few times, but it wouldn't budge. 'There has to be another way out!' She tried to calm herself down, suddenly regretting entering the secret passage.
She looked around the simple room, with only eight torches and three doors, one of them locked. 'Maybe there's a secret passage leading out! Maybe one of the torches is a switch!', she thought, trying every torch in the room; pulling, pushing, turning, but nothing worked. There was no secret passage to be found. Only one option remained. 'I have to go through one of the other doors...' She gulped and turned towards them. 'Stupid, stupid me! I should have never come down here! Why didn't I just listen to Papa and stayed out of his study!' She tried to take a deep breath, but the smell almost made her gag. She could feel her panic rising. She had to get out of here, and fast. Wiping the tears from her face, she walked back to the two doors.
The smell of rotten meat still radiated from the left door, and the screams from the right sent chills up her spine. She didn't know which one to choose. Finally, she placed her hand on the left handle, but it didn't turn. No matter how hard she tried, it remained as stubborn as a mule. 'Well, that leaves only one option I guess...'.
Walking up to the door to the right, she placed her hand on the handle and turned. She heard a click, and the door creaked effortlessly open.
What she saw confused her, and she remembers it only in flashes; the men in medical suits, the prison cells, the people who came out of a room, covered in blood.
The sounds she heard were even worse than what she saw; screams of agony. So many screams...children crying out, and chains, grinding against the stone floor. Among all the sounds she heard, the sickest was the laughter.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed her shoulder.
"You're not supposed to be here little girl."
"I-I" Lily stuttered, "I got lost, I-" she tried to finish her sentence, but couldn't.
"Ajax! Get over here! We-" a voice came from behind her, making her turn around.
"Wow! Is that the princess?! You know, the king would kill us if he found out she was down here!"
"You're right. Take her out of here immediately. Bring her to her father.", Ajax said as he started to walk away.
"Wait, why do I have to do it? You're the one who found her!", but Ajax had already entered another room before the second guy could finish his sentence.
"Fine!" He muttered. "Come with me princess, don't look over there." He picked Lily up and carried her to the first room, pausing at the door she came through, to remove a set of keys from his lab coat.
"How did you find this place, kid?" She didn't answer. She felt as if her head was on a constant loop of what she had seen and heard.
"Not talking, huh?" You know the kings not gonna be happy about this." Still, she didn't say a word.
The walk back seemed to take longer than the way there, feeling endless as the screams echoed through her head.
Still shaking, she fell asleep on the mans shoulder.
When she woke, she was lying on her fathers bed, with him sitting on the end of it, elbows on his knees, his fists together under his chin.
"Lily!" He shouted when she sat up. When her eyes met his, she could no longer hold in her tears.
"Daddy! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I-I was just playing in your study a-a-and-!" Lily sobbed. "Please don't be mad, Daddy!" She looked up at her father, expecting to be met with anger, but instead, there was only worry and concern in his eyes.
"Oh Lily! I'm not mad. I was so worried about you!" She hugged him tight and cried into his shoulder.
"Why Daddy!? Why-" she paused, "what were they doing down there? What was that place? All the screaming!!"
"Shhh~ it's ok, shh." His attempts of comforting her were futile. "You were never supposed to see that, darling. I'm so sorry."
That's when he told her all he was willing to tell her; that they were experimenting on things down there, to help us up here, and she must never tell anyone about it. EVER.
When she asked about the screams, he simply told her,
"They're not like us Lily. They're...not human." He never elaborated, and she never asked. She just wanted to forget it ever happened.
She managed to stop thinking about it every day after a couple of years, but she still had nightmares every night. Nightmares where she was wandering through cold dark tunnels, blind, only able to hear the sounds of agony and heartbreak around her. 'Not human.' She told herself, as she started to run. 'Not human! NOT HUMAN!' She ran faster and faster. Sinister laughter filled her head. Sometimes the dreams felt so real, she thought she was back.
By the time she was thirteen or fourteen, the dreams came less often, and she was able to act like nothing ever happened, and though she knew that was a lie, she was ok with pretending.
Her fathers angry voice distracted her from the dark memories of the past.
"I've had enough! I want that scum caught! Don't come back to me unless you have more information -or his head on a plater! "
"Yes your majesty." Lily could hear Alastor walking towards the door. 'Shit! I gotta hide!' She looked around and quickly jumped into the closet to her right. She had just closed the door when Alastor stepped into the empty hallway. She waited for his footsteps to fade completely before stepping out of the closet.
Brushing the wrinkles out of her dress, she stood outside her father's study and knocked.