Calien gripped Alessia’s hand tightly, pulling her away from the strange woman named Fiona. They started running in a sprint in the opposite direction of the hall. Fiona wasn’t running after them. She was walking quickly as if she knew she’d catch up to them eventually, but before she reached either, Calien pushed Alessia into a random room that was left unlocked. He closed it quickly, feeling the knob from the other side slowly twist and turn rapidly. He pushed several pieces of furniture in front of the door to hopefully stop her from entering but seeing as she broke his sword without much effort, he doubted it would hold Fiona back.

“Oh, come on, don’t be that way,” she said in a sweet, gentle voice. “I just want to talk, is all.”

“You stay back,” he said to Alessia. “Hide somewhere if you have to.”

“What about my parents?!”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry. I’m sure they are fine. They are resourceful people.” He could tell she was stressed over whether her family was even alive. There was no banging on the door, which scared them both.

“It’s rude to ignore people at the door,” Fiona said.

“Ignore it,” Calien whispered. “I don’t know what she is, but she is not human.” Alessia nodded, sitting down against the wall opposite the door. The banging continued, and he even heard multiple voices outside the room.

He stopped speaking to the woman outside and sat beside Alessia, who had not said a word for a while. As long as he knew her, he never saw her like this. She deeply cared for her family and wanted to know immediately if they were okay, except they couldn’t leave the room. He was unsure when they could leave… but they would have to eventually. They needed food and water. He would fight Fiona off if it meant Alessia survived the ordeal.

“I’m sorry. This was supposed to be a fun event, not a blood bath.”

“It wasn’t all fun,” she replied. “Not for me.”

“How come?”

She shrugged. She looked like she wanted to tell him but couldn’t. “You weren’t dancing,” he said. “Could that be the reason?”

She laughed a bit. “No. There were other reasons.”

“None you can share with me?”

Alessia pinched her nose bridge. “It’s not that interesting.”

She was challenging to keep up a conversation with, but he couldn’t blame her. He never tried talking to her much in the last year. He stood by her side as a bodyguard. When push came to shove, he was only there to protect her, not to be her friend. He pushed a lock of hair out of his face. The knocking did not stop yet, and voices were getting louder. He was not sure how much longer before Fiona beat down the door.

Alessia hugged her knees and, for a while, said nothing. They tried ignoring the voices outside the door, but it became much more challenging than they anticipated. Calien wished he could comfort her instead of trying to talk over the voices. Fiona was the loudest amongst the others. The way she spoke the words softly would understandably make someone trust her.

He wasn’t sure what Fiona was, but if there were others like her, it would be a big problem, which begged the question – how many others were there? He continued hearing endless screams down the corridor of people begging for mercy and could not do a thing about it. Alessia was his priority above all else.

Covering her ears, Alessia remained still for the next hour. The knocking and the voices stopped. Calien didn’t trust the silence enough to open the door. The silence was deafening. No screaming or pleas for help… only silence.

“Is it over?” Alessia asked in a low whisper.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “We can’t leave, not yet.”

“But how will we escape? That woman shattered your sword into pieces.”

“We will cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, remain calm – try to rest until I figure something out.” He also trembled, although he tried his best not to show it in front of her.

A tap on the window above them made his heart jump. Alessia threw herself away from the window and toward Calien. They looked at the pale faces staring back at them. It was Fiona and the two other men, all three with the same sinister smile.

Calien pulled Alessia behind him, prepared in case Fiona wanted to attack. “What do you want?” he shouted.

“A chance to talk.”

“Then talk.”

“It’s a little hard to hear you. If you open the window, I can understand what you are saying.” Calien shook his head. Never would he risk putting Alessia in danger. Not even a little bit.

“You mistake me for a fool,” Calien said. He heard Alessia’s breathing becoming louder. “Talk from where you are.”

“Now, where is the fun in that?” Fiona tilted her head while the other two men chuckled beside her. “I was not invited to the party, so I let myself in.”

“That’s your excuse for slaughtering innocents?”

Fiona smiled again, not answering him. At least not directly. She showed her teeth in a smile. Not yellow, but not white either. Something about the way she smiled was enough to make his skin crawl… They all looked unnatural, but he couldn’t quite put a finger on it.

“Alessia, stay in the corner, away from the window,” he said.

“You are Alessia?” Fiona asked, now staring at her. “Your parents sounded worried about you – specifically your mother. Your father looked devastated thinking you were dead.”

“Don’t listen to her!” Calien exclaimed.

“Where are they?” Alessia demanded.

“Probably still begging for their lives.”

Alessia’s fear seemed to disappear the moment Fiona mentioned her parents. She stormed up to the window, pointing at Fiona’s face. “If you touch them, I will kill you myself.”

“I didn’t kill them. I just watched it happen.”

Calien gently pulled at her arm, but she only moved closer to the window. “Alessia, get away from the damn window.”

Fiona’s smile only grew wider. “They truly were worried about their precious daughter.” Alessia turned for the door, trying to move the furniture away. Calien grabbed her away from the door, holding her back as she swore at him to let her go,

“It’s not safe out there! She’s saying that on purpose!” He held her tighter against his chest. “She wants you to open the door so she can kill us both. Is that what you want?!”

She stopped moving, turning to face him, pushing him away. “I hate you!” she shouted. “I hate that my father hired you for my safety; I hate how you are always near me!” She pounded her fists on his chest over and over. She gave up eventually, sinking to her knees. Calien knelt, pulling her into his arms.

“You will get out of here. I can promise you that,” he said gently as she sobbed into his chest. Her words were meant to hurt him, but he realized she was not in a proper state of mind after the events.

Calien gazed back at the window. All three of those things were gone. Why didn’t they smash the window? He thought. It didn’t make much sense to him.

“Alessia, please get some rest.”

She sniffled, wiping her tears away. “I can try.” Eventually, she closed her eyes, her chest slowly rising and falling. He could not afford to sleep. He needed to keep his guard up no matter what for her protection. He knew nobody was safe as long as those things were out there.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

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She barely slept at all. The knocks on the window and door never stopped for the next few hours. All Alessia could think about were her parents. Where were they? Were they with her cousins and their parents?

She took a couple of deep breaths. Alessia hated not knowing if her family was alive.

“Calien? Is that you?” a voice from outside the window asked. An older woman with faded blonde hair and slight grey streaks approached the window.

Alessia looked at Calien, watching his reaction closely. His eyes widened at the voice. “Mother?” he whispered. She never heard anything about his parents. He only mentioned he left him from Tethys’ Capital city, but nothing more than that.

“It’s been so long!” the woman exclaimed. “Will you let me in?”

“I…” He shook his head. “No… you’re supposed to be dead.”

“Calien, that isn’t your mother,” Alessia told him.

“But it looks like her,” he said, heading closer to the window.

“You said she’s dead, then this isn’t her!” She pulled Calien’s arm back, trying to stop him from opening the window.

“Don’t open it!” She cried out. She put herself between him and the window. “It’s not her. She is one of them, trying to trick you.”

He looked baffled, as if hours ago he wasn’t convincing her the same thing. He rubbed his temple. “She just looks so real.”

“I am real, Calien,” the woman said. “If you just open the window, we can finally reunite.”

Alessia shook her head, pushing him away. “No, she isn’t.”

The woman was calm but kept pleading with Calien to open the window. Calien refused, sitting down on the floor with his back to her. “I apologize, Alessia,” he said.

“No, don’t apologize. I almost did the same thing earlier.”

“But I could have killed us both.”

“Yes, except it didn’t happen. You never opened the window, which is the most important thing.”

He let out a shaky sigh. “What kind of a bodyguard am I to even… think of opening the window when I know my mother is dead?”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“How can I not worry about it? The outcome could have been worse.”

“I am here, alive, right in front of you. If you hadn’t stopped me from leaving the room, we would both be dead as well. Right now, we both need each other until this is over.”

“Thank you,” he said. “It’s just… seeing my mother in the window was not what I expected.”

Alessia felt terrible for him. He didn’t have any family nearby. His mother died, and he was only with Alessia and her family for her protection. “Do you ever think of home?”

“Sometimes, but the more I do, the worse my nightmares are.”

“You have nightmares?”

Calien nodded. “Almost every night.”

“What are they about?”

“I am not ready to say yet.”

“I understand,” she said. She hated nightmares and would have them all the time, preventing her from sleeping. Each one included her grandfather and how she watched him fade away from the illness, becoming thinner and thinner. Other times, she dreamt of herself elsewhere, in a different world, but not as Alessia, as someone completely different. The word itself was vastly strange and unrecognizable – a world where magic didn’t exist at all. Those dreams started when she was five, and she could never figure them out. She only told her grandfather about the dreams when he was still alive, and he kept her secret with him to his grave.

“I know the feeling,” she said.

Calien smiled a bit, rubbing his slightly red eyes. “Glad someone does.”

"You dream of home?”

“Unfortunately.”

“It never gets easier,” Alessia reiterated. He nodded in agreement. His eyes were teary, but he did not cry—not once. “We should both get sleep,” she added.

“Not sure if I can. Someone needs to stay awake in case, and it should be me,” Calien said,

“If they haven’t come in by now, they won’t.”

“Perhaps, but I cannot take a chance regarding your safety.”

“And who looks after yours?” she asked.

His eyes widened in surprise, but he shook his head. “It’s not about me.” She wished he would listen to her. No sleep would cause bad reaction times if he needed to fight for her.

“I won’t tell anyone if you rest your eyes.”

“Hard to with those things out there.”

She sighed as he continued making up excuses because he couldn’t sleep.

“Alessia, it’s your grandfather,” a voice from the door this time said. Not again, she thought. It sounded like her grandfather, except she knew it wasn’t him. “Don’t you miss me?”

She didn’t respond, although it was hard not to. Her breath hitched, covering her ears. Calien sat closer to her while the disembodied voice continued. Stop, you aren’t real! But the voice kept taunting her. “How disappointing,” the voice said.

“Shut up,” she whispered, covering her ears. “Leave me alone. You are not my grandfather.”

“Why don’t you open the door and find out?”

Calien gripped her hand tightly and shook his head. “Focus on me, and me only,” he said softly. “Nothing else but my voice, okay?” She nodded, her eyes entirely on him. “It will be over soon, hopefully.”

“Alessia, I am waiting. It’s rather cold in this hallway. Is that what you want? For your grandfather to be cold?”

“Don’t respond,” Calien said quickly. “It’s what they want.” He held her hand in his, not letting it go. “We can do this.”

“It’s getting a lot harder.”

“I know, but like you said, we need to remind each other of what’s real and what isn’t.” She slowly nodded at what he was saying to her. The two of them needed each other to survive the night. She closed her eyes, praying again for her safety, including everyone else’s.

The creatures banged loudly on the window, demanding they be let in. The window’s glass started cracking. At any moment, it was going to break. She covered her ears, muttering another prayer, hoping the window wouldn’t break. Even Calien panicked, trying to remain calm the entire time. Alessia’s prayers became more frantic as the glass on the window was close to shattering.

As if her mouth moved independently, she whispered, “Non licet intrare.”

The banging stopped almost immediately. She opened her eyes, noticing no cracks on the window anymore. Calien sat still beside her, inhaling deeply. Did it work? She thought. How... How did I do that? Her lips moved, but she was not the one speaking the words.

She would have to think about it later. For now, she wanted to focus on resting while she had the chance.

The voice was different from what she heard before. Their voice sounded more profound and more masculine. “Nunc requiesce.”

Alessia’s eyelids were heavy as she drifted off into a deep sleep.

As the morning light seeped through the window, Alessia woke up beside Calien, who had recently opened his eyes. She was surprised he was brave enough to close his eyes for as long as he did. He checked the window and pressed his ear against the door. Nothing. No voices. No screams from the outside.

“It’s quiet,” he said.

“It has been quiet before.”

“Not like this.” He held his hand out, pulling her up.

As she suspected, there were corpses all around the hallway, some with missing limbs. Alessia tried not to look, but all she could think about was how one of the limbs or bodies could belong to one of her family members. There were at least twenty or more bodies scattered around, and that was only in the hallway.

Alessia pushed the door to the ballroom open and once more found bodies everywhere. She called out for her parents but did not know where they were. Please be safe, she thought. “Hello?” she called out, hoping for a response.

“Alessia?!” someone exclaimed. She jumped, reaching for Calien’s arm. She worried it was one of those creatures, but it wasn’t. It was her mother, or at least she thought it was.

“How do I know it’s you?” she said, trembling.

Enora, her mother, stood still for a moment. “Yes, I promise you.” She pulled Alessia into a tight hug. “I was so worried. I couldn’t find you anywhere…”

“Where’s father? And the rest?”

“He’s fine. They were injured but alive. Your cousins are well. Rinna and Elspeth took it hard when they couldn’t find you.”

“What about Kalix?”

She was silent for a minute. “We were separated from him amidst the chaos. I don’t know where he is.”

Alessia breathed in heavily, a knot forming in her stomach. That did not sound good. Kalix enjoyed mischief and never did well with obedience. He might have separated himself from the group he initially stayed in to find his family. “Let’s find him,” she suggested.

“Her mother thanked Calien for keeping Alessia safe from harm. He did a lot more than that. She wished she appreciated him more than before. Without him, she might have died a horrible death.

They searched everywhere for Kalix, but survivors of last night mentioned they saw him leaving the castle. They moved the search outside, but nobody in Stag saw him anywhere. Calien headed to the forest for twenty minutes before coming out and asking them to follow him. He led them pretty deep into the forest, an extensive line of blood on the ground becoming redder as they ran further.

Calien pointed to a corpse attached to a tree.

It was Kalix.

His mouth remained open, his eyes wide in terror. He had been nailed to the trunk of a tree with his intestines falling out of his stomach. Her mother screamed, covering her mouth. “No,” her mother whispered. “Why him? Why Kalix?”

Blood stained the ground around Kalix’s body, and if she needed to guess, he died not too long ago. That meant those creatures tortured him. She studied the body closely, realizing they had taken off his arms and legs.

“Fuck!” Alessia cried out, falling to her knees and gagging from the smell of the corpse.

“Alessia, Enora, I am so sorry for your loss,” Calien said.

“How could this have happened?” Enora exclaimed. “His poor parents and sisters… he deserved so much better than to die like this! We need to get him down.”

“I know, mother,” Alessia said, her voice shaking with horror. “Go get the town Guards. Calien and I will stay here.”

“I do not look forward to telling Vilica and Delroy their little boy is gone.”

“I have no doubt,” Calien said, looking away from Kalix’s corpse.

Alessia closed Kalix’s eyes with her hand, hoping he was at peace. She caressed his cold cheek. “Rest in peace, cousin,” she whispered. Tears streaked down her cheek, and she hated the thought of him dying alone.

Enora came back with the guards, who picked up Kalix’s body. They placed an old sheet over him so nobody would have to look at the corpse.

Her aunt Vilica and Uncle Delroy were devastated. Her Aunt collapsed, crying and screaming while her Uncle held her back. Rinna and Elspeth were in tears. Alessia pulled them both into a tight hug, but there was nothing she could do or say to comfort them.

Vilica was inconsolable, not able to hear anyone’s words at all. Alessia distanced herself from her extended family, not wanting to intrude on their grief. “I said it before, but I am sorry for your loss, Alessia,” Calien said,

“He was only 16,” she said, the window blowing her hair. “He knew how to make me laugh and smile.” Sacellum lost a good person, but Heaven gained an Angel. “It’s not fair. Not at all.” She wondered which of those creatures were involved in killing Kalix. Perhaps it was Fiona, who sounded like their ringleader.

She clenched her fists. If there was one thing she wanted to do, it was to wipe the smile off Fiona’s face for good. Blood rose to veins, wanting nothing more than to scream out loud, but she took a deep breath. I am going to kill them all, she thought.