Lillian snuck out of the room, only fully leaving when she was sure she was alone again.
She found that the wooden box which she had tried to look into previously, was now left open and curiously, she peeked in.
She nearly vomited, reeling back whilst she held her stomach as she tried to fight the bile rising in her throat.
What she had seen was a darkened –scratch that– a dark, withered shell of avwhat seemed to be a heart. Unlike the rest sge had seen, this particular one was stabbed countlessly with needles which had been left in.
What Lily found strange was that even as the heart looked like it had been dead for a long time, it was not rotting, neither did it look like it was already rotted.
It looked dead, yet fresh.
The thought had the bile in Lillian's throat rise again. Taking deep breaths, the lady slowly calmed down. Filled with pity, though aware that the heart was no longer alive, Lily resolved to at least remove the needles piercing the poor heart.
Though dead, surely the owner of the heart did not deserve such treatment.
So the girl fought her disgust, bringing herself back to where the box sat. Slowly, she inched her fingers towards the needle, gripping it tightly.
Before pulling, she offered a small prayer to the owner of the heart, feeling empathetic and then she pulled.
The needle came out easily and Lily was not surprised to not find any blood on the needle. Slowly, she plucked out the rest of the needles until they were all gone.
"There, you are free now," she spoke softly to the unmoving heart. "No more pain."
And then as though referring to a pet, she reached her index finger out and lightly pet, as if comforting it for all the pain it went through.
However, she was quick to withdraw her finger as she felt it suddenly burn. She looked at the tip of her finger, finding a drop of blood there.
She sighed, "Lillian, how could you let one of the needles pierce you! How careless!"
She chastised herself, understanding that she would have to return back quickly to disinfect the wound as she was not certain if the heart carried any sort of disease.
Turning away, Lillian began walking towards were she had come from, meaning to quickly return back home. And as her back was turned, she did not notice the heart in the wooden box slowly begin to beat.
Softly, weakly at first, beginning to lose its darkened colour and take a darker shade of red. The blood began to squirt out of the needle wounds but it was quick in beginning to heal, closing up slowly as the heart beat became stronger and stronger.
♡
Lillian crashed into her bed, feeling tired. She hadn't expected her little adventure to turn out the way it did.
She didn't know how she felt about what the King and Queen were doing in the catacombs, especially as they mentioned forcing their own son to marry her.
It was no wonder why he didn't like her all that much. He was not interested in her but was being forced by his parents, very similar to what was going on with her own parents.
Lily pursed her lips in thought, wondering if her parents also knew about the catacombs and the King's odd work there.
She thought about asking, but it would only reveal that she also knew about it, hence, she would get in a lot of trouble, especially if her parents were not aware of the catacombs.
Lillian's thoughts dated back to the time she had overheard her parents speaking in her father's study. She remembered her father had said something along the lines of not involving her in the mess they had created.
She still had not managed to figure out what he had meant.
That night, Lillian had a strange dream. She was alone at night in a dark forest, covered with trees and fully dense. So much so that she could barely see the moon when she glanced up.
Around her, there were sounds that put her on edge. And she felt as though some one...or something was watching her.
She ran around, sprinting through the trees without pause but it was as though she was running in circles. And she ran until she could run no more, collapsing to the ground.
Lillian looked up ahead, "Help! I am stuck here! Help me, please!"
But the night was quiet, save for the sounds of the owls and the footsteps of what ever animal had been following her. Her voice carried in the air but the forest seemed to swallow it.
A branch snapped behind her and she gasped quietly, quickly turning to be faced with whatever was posing a threat to her life.
But there was nothing there.
Surely she wasn't already out of her mind? Was the paranoia getting to her head already?
Lillian sighed, her shoulders sagging and her eyes falling to the floor. But just as she raised them again to keep searching for a way out, she gasped.
Face to face with a strange shadow like phantom where the only thing that had colour in its form was the red, glowing eyes staring directly at her.
Lillian stumbled back, letting out a startled and terrified scream. Losing her balance, she fell to the floor and hit her head hard against a stray rock on the ground, promptly losing the consciousness she had in her dream.