14 Chapter Thirteen: The Calm Before the Storm

"B-but y-your grace, why did you let him go?"

Svetlana tisks and answers

"Haven't you heard of the saying keep your friends close and your enemies closer? I feel that he is our only clue to finding him… or better, her."

Matthew P.O.V.

*three days later*

"One week."

This short phrase has been running over and over again on my mind. But to tell you the truth, I still can't believe they let me go!?! I wasn't even expecting as much as to see the light when I failed the first time but… here I am I guess.

I know I will regret even going along with their "little deal", I didn't even mean what I said. I thought maybe I could try to escape as soon as I get the chance but I know now that it wasn't possible.

Even if they gave me one week before I had to go with them, instead of feeling free, I felt just the opposite. On every corner I turn I felt as if someone was watching me, my every movement and after 2 days, I was right. They had their little puppets surrounding me, not letting me out of their sight.

I tried to escape once but failed. Turns out the newest member of our family who we were introduced to just yesterday turns out to be yet another one of their slaves. Well I think she is? I'm not so sure about her, after all I still haven't seen the mark on her. Why? You may ask, well, I made a discovery. Somewhere on their body (usually on their arms or legs) is a kind of mark or logo.

This logo looked like some sort of "sun symbol" with wavy rays, letters I have never seen before but felt familiar with just below this circular line around it.

"Matt! Matthew!!!" a familiar voice rang through the corridors, turning around I find it to be Rege.

He was holding onto his knees for support while breathing heavily, as soon as he stopped right in front of me.

"I- I- wa- hu- gyu- so-thig." He managed to speak between breaths.

"Breathe Reginald, breathe." I put my hand on him shoulders, gesturing him to just breathe first. As soon as his breathing was almost back to normal I continued.

"Okay now what's wrong?" I spoke in a worried tone, actually worried until his face broke into a sly grin.

"Okay- so I was just in the clinic speaking to victoria- you know the casual conversation- favorite colors, who you like, who you dislike, and then it turns out that WE HAVE THE SAME FAVORITE BOOK!!! Okay so it goes like this we have a plan, so that you know, you can read it as well. The title of it is called "The Witch Hunt" I know pretty lame right? But don't judge a book by its cover its actually pretty cool also-"he ranted like no tomorrow until I brought my hand up to his mouth to shut him up.

*sigh "Just get straight to the point." A harsh tone in my voice, but hey, who wouldn't be?

"Okay we decided we want to go to the library again! Together with you, so that we could go find the book. Sad thing was my copy got burned in a wild fire and victoria didn't even know where she read it from. That's also one more thing we want to know about, where she could have come from."

I was silent for a while thinking about what he said. I already knew where she came from but best not tell if I don't want to be called a monster again, so I don't really have anything to do there… unless…

"Okay that was a bit too long for a response but there was improvement." I gave a thumbs up to show him my congrats.

An irk mark appeared on his forehead before he told me to shut up and dragging me to only god knows where.

I started to doze off until I felt a familiar aura following us. I stopped Rege from dragging me anymore forwards and turned to face him. Rege was quite shocked and curious about why I stopped until he noticed the girl I was looking at, who was failing to hide behind a corner.

"Oh, hey there!~ Its Mary joy right?" Rege said in the gentlest voice he could come up with.

She poked her head out of her hiding spot and nodded her head. It was silent for a few seconds until she spoke with the smallest voice I have ever heard.

"Yes, but I would prefer you call me Marie instead." She blushed after her sentence which I swear made Rage's heart beat furiously enough to hear it quite well.

He cleared his throat before stretching out his hand and asked.

"Well. Do you want to come with us to visit victoria? She's also a new member of our family, came just before you." He smiled the same idiotic sunshine smile I was getting used to, and in response she nodded her head, and came out of her hiding spot to follow us.

I don't know why but around her I feel as if my heart would stop, and not in the good way. She's dangerous, why can't he feel it?

00000

We went to Victoria's room to see her lying down – sitting up on her bed. She had a smile on her face while reading a book before she turned around to face us. As soon as she did, she suddenly looked shocked, I was confused for a while before I realized why.

She wasn't at dinner yesterday so she still doesn't know Marie (p.s. she already met the others so I really shouldn't be surprised that she would react this way). We greeted her and vice versa. Marie introduced herself and they shook hands, it was in this moment that I realized that it wasn't a look of surprise or anything near to that.

It was a look of fear.

Rege did not notice this but I was sure of it. She was sad and scared, on the verge of tears, there; I knew it wasn't just me. I need to warn Rege right away, and fast.

Victoria P.O.V.

I sat alone in my room reading a book I just found lying on the floor the other day. It really is interesting and I am quite surprised at how detailed the author's story was, as if he lived through it.

It was about a prince who saw this little snake girl locked up in their castles' dungeon which he did not even know about until a few days back when loitering in the forbidden west wing of the castle.

I was just reading about their encounter when the door opened and I heard a very familiar voice.

"Hey, Victoria just dropping by to visit. I also want to introduce you to someone!"

I look up to see Matthew standing by the door next to someone .

"Victoria, this is Mary joy. Marie, this is Victoria."

I looked at her eyes that were grey almost blind just like Matthew's.

. . . Marie.