CHAPTER 22: The Escape

She poked her head out of the door as she peered through the darkness, barely able to see what lay in front of her. 

Aella released a heavy breath and doubted if she could do this or not, but with a strong determination and clenched fists, she took a bold step out of the warm room with the fabric dragging on the floor behind her.

She tried her best to keep her footsteps as light as she could as she walked down the extremely dim hallway which was stretched out into a large expanse of corridors and hefty doors by each side.

There wasn't even a single candle lit to illuminate the area.

'Focus, Aella, you need to get out of here,'

She prompted herself in her head as she continued tiptoeing down the hallway as though she was a burglar about to steal some valuable assets.

The lad named Bane hadn't been in the room for a while now after she woke up from another nightmare so she didn't know if he had gone out or if he was in the Castle somewhere. 

She placed her ears down as she tried to listen carefully if she would hear anything from anywhere close but she didn't.

Aella's pounding heart could almost be heard as she lowered her body, moving slowly but hastily at the same time.

She realized that she wasn't on the ground floor so she needed to find the staircase that would lead her to the next floor until she found the doors to leave this place.

She could always trace her way back here when she was more prepared to slay the demon but for now, she needed to escape before the demon would return and toast her as his dinner or breakfast tomorrow.

She looked both ways at a crossroad to make sure the area was clear before she moved down the hall.

Perfect. No one here, at least this was a start.

Aella took the little time she had to regard the decor of the Castle she found herself in. 

It had a very antique and ancient style of design, even older than the estate she grew up in. The rueful and esoteric paintings hanging on the walls proved that as well. 

The place seemed to have been built more than five hundred years ago and it also corresponded with the timeline since the demon had been rumoured to be almost a thousand years. 

He was described as an ugly, revolting and malicious creature who desired nothing but to destroy and kill any sign of life around him.

It was also said that there had been a small village around the Cassa Dron ages ago with a tiny population but with the appearance of the demonic creature, everything was trampled and turned into dust, both humans and livestock that lived there.

Aella couldn't hide the little speck of excitement and anticipation in her to see the demon which so many had talked about but few or none had seen.

There was a high chance she might lose her life if she were to ever encounter the creature, but, it would be a sort of fulfilment to her if she were to set eyes on that which only its name terrified thousands.

She also noticed a few human portraits on the walls and curiosity was killing her to take a better look but she had more dire issues to take care of than admiring the very place that might be her deathbed.

Aella kept on moving through the halls, urgently searching for the staircase which would lead to her freedom out of here but the more she walked, the more she suspected she was merely moving in circles.  

It was like she was gliding through a gigantic maze with a blindfold over her eyes. Impossible to escape and redundant.

To make sure she wasn't making a fool out of herself, Aella marked a painting in her memory to see if she would see it again, and just after a few more turns, she saw the same picture on the same spot on the wall.

Surely, there could not be two exact paintings in the same hall! She has been tricked!

Aella huffed under her breath as she tried to reason how possible it could be that there exists a floor without a staircase. Was this plain magic just like when he had paused her movement in the air earlier today? Had he trapped her in here by eradicating the stairs out of sight?!

How on bloody hell was she going to get out of here if the facility had no stairs?!! 

Aella didn't have the chance to think about it because her high awareness stroke her with fright, telling her something was near.

Having no chance to run back to the room she came from, she limply sprinted to hide behind a thin pillar which did nothing to hide her body.

It could have been just her imagination and nothing else but Aella wanted to make sure, not wanting to put her life at risk by being caught by Bane or the demon himself.

She clamped a palm over her mouth as she tried to mute the sounds of her breaths.

Her heart thumped loudly in her chest as she stuck her head out to check the corridor if something was heading her way.

What she wasn't expecting was the thing to come from behind.

"You do know I can see you, right?"