Valerie Sinclair stands still for a bit, to process the situation at hand, while submerged in the darkness of the room.

Explosions of smaller scales go off in the distance, glass shattering, and the sound of fire. How a normal event turned into what could only be described as a hellscape.

Valerie tilts her head and looks around now that her eyes have adapted to the change in light.

She starts running through a hallway, still plunged in darkness. The shattered glass from the lights crack beneath Valerie's feet with each step like firecrackers.

She takes a turn, then another, and sees an opening to the natural light of the moon.

She approaches the opening and reaches an open loggia connecting two sections of the house and stops running, and walks over to the rails of the long walkway while panting.

Her eyes receive a sight only in nightmares...

Fire coming from multiple areas of the house. Thick, black smoke hindering sight of other places, and an acrid smell that could burn nose hairs.

Valerie's eyes drift, looking down at the garden connected to the loggia, untouched by the chaos unravelling, an unquestionable contrast to it all.

The fountains went on, the water ejected from them glittering in the orange light of the flames, and the gazebo in the middle was calm, and ever still.

Valerie watches in disbelief, "Unbelievable..." She says to herself.

Her heart beats fast in her chest, there was a good possibility this was because of her, taking advantage of a new Scarlet Maiden that had just awakened.

It's all because of me, isn't it?

But all of her thoughts fade, as her head went blank, before she could even react to it.

Valerie was frozen, unfeeling of everything, she could hear the flames burning, see the explosion in the distance go off, smell the smoke, but could not comprehend, was not aware of it all.

Someone's arms wrap loosely around Valerie's neck, their body close enough that she would feel their breath. The arms were weightless.

The figure glows faintly in white, with pale; cool skin. It starts to play with her hair from behind, spinning it round it's fingers.

"It's fascinating, right? To just see it all burn, see it all fall. A shame it won't last long, your father will take care of this quickly. But the fall of our family is not to happen now, the situation does not benefit us. So what will you do, darling? My Scarlet Maiden?" the figure says in a harmonic tone; A female voice, before seeming to fade away.

Footsteps approach Valerie, and it turns out to be Rosaline, "Valerie, we have to get somewhere safe!" she says worried, a tone laced with urgency.

Valerie didn't reply, she remains frozen with blank eyes; lips parted slightly.

"V-Valerie! We have to get going!" she says with a trembling voice, with even more urgency as she reaches out to grab Valerie's shoulder.

She flinches as she feels Rosaline grab her shoulder and looks at her with the corner of her eye, with a face that wasn't frightened, not shocked, just blank.

"Oh... Right," Valerie finally replies blankly.

"Are you, ok?" Rosaline asks, worried about what she saw just now.

"Yes... Yes I am," Valerie says, seemingly unknowong of what happened to her.

"Well, we have to get somewhere safe quickly," Rosaline says, her voice a bit more firm now.

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Valerie nods and they both start moving quickly, but carefully.

As they walk through the dark space, it's silent except for the sound of flames and things breaking here and there.

"It's surprising how a normal ceremony became such a... Nightmare," Rosaline says quietly as they walk slowly through the place, avoiding any assailants.

Valerie tilts her head, "Before this, when you were walking me to the ceremony chamber. I saw some odd figures outside, they looked like they were planning something, then this happened," she says in a weirdly calm voice, like she wasn't experiencing the same situation as Rosaline.

They continued moving, step after step and turn after turn until they reached a door, and opened it leading into a spacious lounge room, with a door on the other side.

The lounge room was a victim of one of the explosions, with a quarter of it destroyed and burnt on the right of the room, a few flames burning on the floor.

Valerie looks at the destruction on the right and sees what looks like a sofa that was completely burnt.

If a normal person was sitting on that sofa during the explosion, they would have...

Valerie cuts off that thought, not wanting to think about it.

She follows Rosaline from behind, looking around her as she does.

A part of the roof starts to creak and descends lower to the ground, Valerie looks up and notices it, when it suddenly comes falling, right where Rosaline is.

"Rosaline!" she shouts, reaching out to pull her out of the impact area.

The material of the roof comes crashing down on Rosaline's left leg, and she lets out a pained scream.

"Rosaline!" Valerie yells in panic, "Don't worry, I'll get you out right now." she says with an unsteady voice before she immediately gets to task.

She starts removing the heavy debris, each lift being a physical endeavor, her hands being filthied with light and shallow lacerations from the debris.

Finally, after a good amount of time and effort, she groans as she takes the last piece off.

Taking a look at Rosaline's left leg, it was injured with multiple lacerations and was fractured in more than one area.

"You definitely cannot walk on that, I'll- I'll help you up." Valerie says before helping Rosaline walk, supporting most of her weight so she doesn't have to put weight on her injured leg.

Valerie looks at Rosaline in pain, "You'll be ok Rosaline, just try and endure for now." Valerie says to Rosaline in an attempt to comfort her.

Rosaline smiles and nods, "Right.."

Just as Valerie is about to move, she hears voices outside the door.

"Maxwell, I heard some noise coming from somewhere here," what sounds to be the voice of a man speaks up.

"And why does that matter? We're here for the Scarlet Maiden, she would probably be safe guarded by the Amethyst," another man says in a deeper, much older voice.

"Not just any noise, it was a literal scream," the first man to speak replies back.

Valerie stayed still in the room, completely frozen; while holding Rosaline. Her heart beating at lightning speed, her body shaking and cold sweat trickling down her face.

Just why, why does this have to happen to me, to us? She felt like she was going to cry.

She couldn't move, not at that moment, not in the current environment, so she stayed in an exposed position, where she would be seen the moment someone opens the door.

"You're being stupid Daniel, this is the eighth time you told me you had a person make a noise and each time we checked we found nothing!" the man replies back in frustration.

"Maxwell, trust me on this one!" the other man says in desperation.

"No such thing, let's go, time is of the essence," he replies back while walking away, his voice becoming more distant.

"You know sometimes I wish you didn't neglect me!" the other guy shouts as he follows.

Valerie sighs in relief, the tension in her muscles disappears, she is on the verge of tears with everything that is happening.

"Valerie, why didn't you hide? Wasn't that risky?" Rosaline inquires.

"No, it was the safest option, the floor is covered in shattered glass and other materials, taking a step with the floor in such condition while also carrying you," She pauses.

She takes a step forward and the materials beneath her wedges break under pressure, cracking and snapping.

"That loud sound would most definitely catch their attention," Valerie says as she starts moving again.

"Hm, isn't that smart? But you've always been so observant even when you were young." Rosaline says with a smile.

"Rosaline, no, I told you, you sound like an old lady." Valerie replies with disinterest and a bit of

embarrassment.

Valerie opens the door on the other side of the lounge room and peeks outside. Seeing no one, she exits the room, while adjusting Rosaline.

"Now, now, Valerie, I've raised you for 13 years, I can't help it." She says.

Valerie sighs, "Those things happened a long time ago, Rosaline, and I'm eighteen now. Can we just focus on what's actually happening?" She says with slight irritation.

"Right." Rosaline replies.

"How's your leg doing?" Valerie asks.

"It's painful, but I seem to manage." Rosaline replies.

"That's good." Valerie says.

She continues walking them until an explosion goes off to the right of them, Valerie's eyes widen realizing there might be assailants near.

Before she can even make a move, seven men, looking nothing like family members come from the right turn in the distance, one man, with a long beard, speaks up.

"There! The Scarlet Maiden!" the man shouts, making the rest of them turn towards Valerie.

"No..." Valerie whispers quietly, her voice trembling. They were in danger, true danger.