Chapter 26

Melina strolled along the dark alleys while she heard the music from the hall fade slowly, showing that she was going deeper into the alleys. It was overwhelming but she would rather stay here than there where everyone was staring at her.

The alley was so dark, that she had to stop and sit on the cold floor as she could no longer go any further again since she could not see anything.

Now came the big question, 'How would she get the hell out of here?' Her brainless head hadn't thought of that while she was running away. And by the way, who would even help her serve the guests? What if it turned into a mess and Ms. Carlos found out? Then she would be in great trouble.

Oh, God! She hadn't even thought of this when she left. Why did she like attracting problems to herself so much?

Without wasting time, she got up from where she sat and turned around, ready to find her way back to the hall when she heard rumbling sounds coming from inside the alley. The sound was like that of a wild monster that was caged in a cell. The sound became clearer and clearer as if it approached her and without a second warning, she began to run.

As she was running, she felt her feet hit something and fell which triggered the noise she was hearing earlier. It seemed the roar became louder and was coming towards her. Fear clasped her again and she quickly tried to stand up and run out but couldn't. She then realized that her leg was stuck to whatever she had hit and tried to pull it out but its grip was so firm, that she began to assume it was a trap. Else why would it be so hard to remove?

She calmed herself down even though she could still hear the voice of whatever was roaring coming closer to her and tried to get hold of the trap to see if she could take it off but to no avail.

Finally accepting her fate, she closed her eyes in anticipation of what was about to happen when she suddenly felt the growling sound reduce to a point where it completely stopped. What was going on or was her mind messing with her? She asked herself.

.

Back at where the event was taking place, Berlin had made sure to take care of Melina's mess before entering the alley to search for her. She walked through the place consciously while trying to sense if the troublesome girl was close by but she didn't sense anything at all. 'The girl couldn't have gone that far already, could she?' She wondered.

Still relentless, she continued going deeper into the alley in the hope of sensing Melina when she heard screeching sounds interrupting her hearing.

"Ahh!!" she screamed, feeling her ears hurt from the sudden noise. Without anyone needing to tell her, she realized what was happening and quickened her aim to find Melina.

Melina, who had been lost in the valley and confused about how to go heard the scream that came from the forward path of the alley, giving her an idea of where the exit was. Not wasting any time, she ran through the path trying to locate where she heard the voice but it seemed like she was in an endless maze that kept taking her round and round. She kept trying to pull back, still running forth but to no avail.

Desperate, she screamed "Somebody help!" as she didn't like the nyctophobia she felt here. All of a sudden, she saw a hollow mirror, standing right in front of her and for a moment, she thought she was hallucinating until she realized it was not just a thought, this was real.

In the mirror, she saw the light reflection of herself but this time around, she was moving and facing the other side. It was as if it was a whole different person but she knew what she looked like and was sure this was her. All of a sudden, the person turned her direction facing her as if startled that she was there and she heard the person ask "What are you doing here?"

The lady in the mirror seemed stunned staring at her and slowly moved back as if frightened... Her expression slowly changed from one of emptiness to one of fear.

Melina wondered if she was probably doing anything to make the reflection in front of her panic as she didn't understand the movements and impulsive trepidation. She tried to calm this person down by walking closer to the mirror to see if she could say something to this person.

"No!" she heard the panicking voice from the mirror yelp, causing her to move back in shock. 'Someone woke her up from this dream because she was starting to think she was crazy'... She murmured to herself. However, the person she was seeing in the hollow mirror didn't stop panicking and started to scream.

"No, don't touch me! Let go!!" she heard the person scream and it dawned on her that the person was reacting to someone else when she saw a shadow appear in front of the lady who had been screaming. A gasp escaped her mouth as she swiftly turned around to see if the figure was behind her only for her to turn and see nothing. As she turned around again, instead of seeing the hollow mirror, a dark figure suddenly enclosed her causing her to scream in alarm.

"Melina!!!" she then heard someone call her attention and she spun around to see Berlin in front of her. "Wake up!!" she heard the lady scream as if worried.

"Berlin" she called her as she noticed her sweaty face.

"Are you okay?!" she asked and Berlin, who had finally noticed she was alright heaved a sigh of relief and repeated her question back to her. "Are you okay, Melina? You seemed to have been in a trance."

Melina who seemed like she didn't know how to process what had just happened to her kept staring blankly at Berlin before she lightly managed to reply, "I'm okay, Berlin" not wanting to talk about what she might have just seen as she could barely even understand what happened.

Although Berlin understood something had happened to Melina, she tried not to push it and concentrated on getting them back to the venue. "Let's go" she had said as she took Melina by the hand and walked to the brighter side of the palace venue where the king's burial was taking place.

Though still a bit unaware, when she saw the spark of light as she walked, she forgot about what happened earlier and decided to follow Berlin. When they got to the front of the alley where they entered, Berlin told Melina "If you do not want your head to be seen on the floor very soon, I'd advise you to pick your cart from whoever that man over there and get back to serving the guests."

She pointed at the young servant whom she had given the cart to a few moments ago, nudging him to come forward and as if understanding the message, the servant quickly came forward to Melina and dropped the cart for her before hurrying away from there. Melina, who had now come back to her senses quickly collected the cart from the person, offering a slight bow to the servant in appreciation.

Prepared to thank Berlin for her help in getting her out of that alley, she turned around only to realize the lady was nowhere to be found.

Where did she go...