25 The thrill

In a dark room, where the candles available barely lit the atmosphere, a girl stood crouched, deep in thought. Her appearance was devastating, wearing only a white robe, dirtied with mud and crumpled. The fabric made her skin itch, so if you were to pay attention long enough you will see her scratch her back and hands often. You would not see her complain; not in this cold damp place where she had nothing better to dress with.

Her face, pale and withered due to the lack of food was also dirty and had not been washed in weeks. Small creases on her otherwise smooth forehead indicated her foul mood.

"Should I take them all?" Anna tilted her head and closed her eyes, exhaling sharply.

She had been looking at the priest for more than she could stand and now the priest's face was covered with a piece of his own robe. She was getting sick being in his presence but until now she could not remember which was the ring she was looking for.

She eventually decided to take them all, useless or not, but she now found herself in an uncomfortable position. She had managed to take three of the six rings on just his right hand. The left hand had five of them. Anna pouted her lips and looked at the three rings that jiggled in her hands. They were golden rings – a plain one and two decorated with gems of azure and purple tint. This man seemed to be obsessed with the colour purple, everything this man owned was purple or shade around it. His robe, which Anna had now ripped to shreds, the majority of his rings were adorned with purple gems and even the torture devices he had in the rooms were coloured purple.

"I am starting to despise this colour." Said Anna rolling her eyes.

Never in her two lifetimes, was Anna required to steal or find herself in a similar situation. She felt a sense of disgust at herself for touching this man, moreover, stealing from him. Anna did not want to imagine what would happen if he were to wake up now.

She had been careful when stealing his rings, but it was a painfully slow process and to make things worst beside the old geezer in front of her there was also that mould rat. She had not seen his face for a good day, and she was not complaining.

'If he could just die that would be great.' Thought Anna after she managed to take another of the rings out. Her mind kept wondering about Angus and how he was doing.

Ever since yesterday, he had not contacted her at all, and Anna was anxious. She tried to ignore the pain in her heart and concentrated on what she was required to do. But in the back of her head, there was always a voice telling her to contact Angus. No matter how many times she tried it didn't work so Anna agreed to let him rest. It had only been a day, he would definitely try and contact her once he feels better.

'But what if he does not wake up…' Anna shook her head displeased by her pessimistic thought. She had to be positive. He was the only way out of here.

She did not tell Helm about her plan. Since she did not trust the other kids plan, she did not want to discourage Helm as well. Anna was sure he was aware of the hardships they will face if they decide to run away, but if Angus were to help it would be much easier.

~

Anna took the last ring and placed it on the floor with the other ten rings shining in the warm light of the candles. She took a piece of the purple robe and tossed all the rings in the tiny pouch she made by tying the edges together.

"Done." She said as she wiped the beads of sweat formed on her forehead. It has been an exhausting time, but she managed to avoid disturbing the sleeping old man. In fact, the old man has been so quiet Anna was surprised that he was still breathing. He had not woken up for the third day in a row.

Anna smiled slightly as she observed her achievement. Now all she needs to do is hide it and hope the priest does not realise something is missing. She scanned the room which by now had become so common Anna knew where each spider had made their webs. There were not a lot of things in the room, it was empty excluding the torture devices, the table and a book shelve the man had installed since he started experimenting on Anna.

Her eyes landed on the wall the man had crashed days ago. The wall was now composed of broken pieces; a perfect place for hiding something. Anna broke a piece of stone and placed the pouch in the small hole. She pieced the stone back as best as she could, making it fit almost perfectly together.

She closed her eyes and felt tired after the mental exercise she had gone through, so she went to sleep. Laying on the wooden table was better than sleeping on the floor and Anna soon fell asleep tiredly.

She dreamed a sweet dream it seems, when the rat came in the dungeon, it saw a frail little girl sleeping on the table with a smile on her face. It irked him to see her still alive and well when they had failed to put the power into her. The rat had spent the last few days researching what might be wrong with Anna and had also sent a message to the ones above him.

What he needed the most was time to figure out what was wrong with Anna. He had been in the library these days and would have stood there a few more days if it were not for the fact that he sensed that he lost contact with the priest. He worried for a second that he might die, but since he was not called back to the ring it meant he was not dead.

It was something else.

So, he hurried here to see what was the reason for the sudden change. The rat left Anna alone because he did not suspect a girl like her would have managed to disrupt their contact. It approached the priest swiftly, only to discover the priest in a worse state than he was left in. His robe which the priest liked to take the utmost care, was ripped in certain corners and a small bit of it was even placed on his head covering his face.

The rat was baffled by the situation in front of it. His eyes darted towards Anna and his mood dropped as soon as he realised what she had done.

"Well well…it seems the little worm has gotten smart." Said the rat displeased. He lifted the table up in the air and threw it along with Anna into the opposite wall.

"Bang!" the table crashed into the wall and Anna immediately woke up from her sleep. She did not even register what was happening when she crashed into the wall after the table had already smashed.

"Ouch!" Anna's left arm was crushed under her weight and bits of debris from the wall and table scratched her whole body. Small trails of blood ran down her body, every inch of her body it was covered in small drops of blood mixed with dust.

Anna's head was spinning but she knew who caused all of this.

The rat.

Anna's eyes began watering as she had to suffer the stings and cuts that hurt her body. She looked up to meet the insane eyes of the green rat.

"My princess has been a bad little worm." Said the rat as he approached Anna quickly. Anna got on her knees and crawled away from him, even if she knew it was futile. With lighting speed, the rat was in front of her and smiled wickedly. A green mist lifted Anna up in the air and tossed her into the next wall.

"Crash!"

"Ahh!" Anna's back landed on the wall. She lost her senses along with her power to move and she lazily stared back at the rat. She could not see well any longer, her vision was black and white and little black dots covered sections of her image.

No matter what she could still see him. It was like a nightmare. And she could not escape.

"Where is it?" yelled the rat. It could sense it in the room but not exactly where, so he needed to get it out of her.

"HA!" that was all Anna was able to mutter before she lost her power again. She knew she had to conserve as much energy to stay awake. Blacking out meant that the rat would have time to look for the ring. It was better to toss her around thinking that he could get something out of her.

"You worm!" said the rat as he prepared a third spell.

The rat lifted Anna once again and surrounded her with the mist.

Anna's eyes almost popped out of her sockets. She felt all the air around her had been sucked out and she had nothing to breathe. Similarly, to drowning, Anna was soon left with no air and her face reddened. She struggled to move around but there was no escape from the green mist.

"What are you doing? Are you mad?" the old geezer, whom until now was sleeping soundly woke up due to the loud noises around him.

"Let her go! We need her alive!" commanded the man as he hurried to Anna's side. The rat fumed but let her go and Anna landed on the cold stones bellow her. She crawled limping on her left leg towards the wall. The rested her head on the wall, trying to stay awake and gulping for air.

"What are you doing?" yelled the old man again this time his thunderous voice hurt Anna's ears.

"Are you not missing anything?" asked the rat nonchalantly as if it had done nothing wrong.

"What do you mean?" the old priest realised that something was wrong with him. He looked at himself up and down and saw his robe ripped apart in more than two corners. He sighed annoyed but kept calm.

"This is nothing. I can buy another one. She, however, cannot be replaced. Do you want us to die?" the old man challenged the God.

"Not that you idiot." The rat rolled his eyes. His eyes landed on his hands.

"What?" the priest stared dumbfounded at his fingers. A sudden panic overcame the priest as he looked hasty around the place he had earlier slept. Sadly, for him he could not find the rings, none of them. His worried heart became heavy once he realised that he did not possess his most important ring.

It had a rudimentary appearance and unlike all his other rings it was a simple golden piece with no gems nor precious stones, but it was worth more than all of them combined.

The priest gazed around the room in despair, hoping to see them shimmer in a corner or between his books when his eyes landed on the princess.

She was barely alive and only her ragged breath indicated that she was still with them. Her hair which at the beginning of the was short in length has reached her tights and was stuck to her body. Her unkempt appearance made her even more grotesque when you saw the pool of blood, she sat in.

The man's gaze hardened. He approached Anna and grabbed her by the shoulder lifting her up. His hand touched her hair after which he flinched in disgust. He let go of her and wiped his bloodied hand on his destroyed robe.

"What can we do?" asked the man turning toward the animal.

"Well, we could just keep hitting her until she confesses."

"No! She is dying anyway." Said the priest glancing at Anna again before shivering uncomfortably.

"This is the only way!" the rat defended his methods. The priest was not buying it, however. He shook his head and wandered around the room searching for them. He tossed the books from their shelves, flipping pages on end.

"Nothing here either." Murmured the man after scrutinising all the books. He did not bother to put them into place as he moved to another place in hopes of finding it. When he reached a corner, he glanced towards Anna's direction to see her reaction. For a second time, Anna inhaled deeply but quickly looked away, so the priest smiled in satisfaction.

She was but a small child, and a child behaves like a small dog hiding its toys. They cannot hide their emotions nor their facial expressions, so the priest was sure the rings were placed around here somewhere.

He moved a couple of rocks, but nothing was hidden behind them. He then moved to search the candle stand and the candles thinking that she hid them in the melted wax or in the hollow tubes of the candle stand.

Nothing.

She had played him.

The priest's mouth twitched in annoyance, falling for the tricks of an unruly child as such…it is depressing.

He closed his eyes, calming his turmoiled mind and gazed at the rat. It seems there was no other way than torturing her.

The rat smiled knowingly. He had won this bet.