Her only way out.

Next thing she remembered was waking up on the bed in the room she was given. Her eyes slowly fluttered open. She was not alone, the servant Isla was beside her bed.

"You passed out and has been gone for a couple of hours," she informed her. All the memories of her latest encounter with the prince played in her mind.

Of course she passed, she remembered everything clearly. How could anyone forget that horror she felt that split seconds when she realized that the prince and the killer from yesternight were the same person.

"Where is… he?" she managed to ask.

"His highness left about an hour ago with Rangard,he said they'd be back before you awoke, so I think they might be on their way back now."

"Did he tell you where they were going?"she asked again. Of course they would leave, probably out somewhere, tearing peoples head off without a shovel she thought, disgusted by the idea.

"His highness did not inform me of his whereabouts but he did give me explicit instructions to take care of you in case you awoke before he arrived," she said and pointed to the other side of the room where food was served.

"Which includes you eating something." Well food was the last thing on her mind now.

The only thing on her mind was the way he had held her gaze until she completely blacked out. Those obsidian dark pupils gave her all the answers she was looking for. She had tasted danger in them the couple of seconds they held each other's gaze. This place was not for her and she was not going to stay another minute, she was going to escape before he returned. If he hasn't already.

"I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything. It's down the hall to your left or you can ring that bell,"she pointed to the thing that was on the side table and bowed before making her way to the door.

Meryl heard the commotion that seemed to not be far away from her room. And the stomping footsteps above her head.

"What is that noise?" she asked Isla before she could leave.

"The king is holding a ball tomorrow night, and since it was of short notice, the town's people have volunteered to help with the preparation to get everything to speed, that is why there's so much noise," she explained.

"I see," she said but the look on her face said something else, she didn't see at all. Isle excused herself and left the room.

The devious wheels in her brains started to work in an explicate speed. There were townies in the castle which meant a lot of commotion and most importantly, no one will notice her in the crowd if she decided to escape. She remembered Isla saying the prince had taken Rangard with him which meant no one was stationed at her door.? Well she needed to make sure

She got out of bed some time after Isla left, tossing the bed spread to the other side and made her way to the door, she put her ear on the door to check whether she could here any noise coming directly outside her door. She slowly opened the door and peeked her head out to scan the halls. Rangard and the others were not by the door anymore. She stepped out of the room, taking notice of the people moving up and down the hall, busy with the preparation of the ball.

No one payed attention to her, good; that was exactly what she needed.

She saw some women entering a room and she waited for a while wondering what they were doing there. She also noticed that all the women who were volunteers wore the same outfits differentiating them from the castle maids. The women came out some time after dressed in the volunteers clothes. She waited for a while for them to be out of sight before she took careful unsuspicious steps down the hall and entered into the same room those women came out of.

She reappeared out a set of clothes in hand and briskly made her way back into her room to avoid being caught. She looked outside to find the almost dark clouds. This was her time, the only opportunity she would ever get. She planned to leave without anyone detecting her and that was going to be made easier with the army of people going in and out of the palace dressed in this uniform .

Once she was done putting on the dress, she went and hung the one she was wearing back in the wardrobe and cleaned up any signs that would indicate she had run. She needed to buy as much time as possible to be able to get out of reach. After she was done, she run to the window and pulled the pane up and carefully jumped down, twisting an ankle. She had miscalculated the distance, it was longer than she thought, but the was no time to wallow in the pain if her twisted ankle. She calmly made her way around to the front of the palace and mixed with those making their out. Her steps study ignoring the silent cries of her hurting foot. The night was bound to be a long one so she had to hit the road.

As soon as she was some distance away from the palace, she slid into the woods and started to run without knowing exactly where she was going but she figured the path she was walking on led to the city square. Once she got there, she could get a train out of this hell hole.

After a few minutes of running, the pain in her ankle started to burn, making her slow down. She bent down to check it out but it was so dark already. Good riddance she had the insight to get a flashlight. She took it out of the front pocket of her clothes and turned it on. Her ankle was now swollen much to her disapproval, she needed to take care of it before it became worse -but she was in the middle of a very thick forest with no houses in sight and it was getting darker. Although she couldn't see in the dark, she was sure she was a long distance away from the castle

When she covered a short distance, she began to hear the rustling sounds of the leaves coming from where she was headed. She begun to panic, has she already been discovered? No it can't be, she thought as she went and hid behind the nearest true waiting for what was coming. There was a loud silence for a second or two before an animal she made out to be an antelope run furiously fast past her tree. It looked frightened, like it was being chased away by something.

Were there wild animals in here? Before all her thought could come out, she heard a loud howl, it was so loud it looked as it the thing that made that sound stood closer to her.

Unfortunately for her it did, and she came face to face with it when she came out of the tree. She couldn't believe what she was seeing- a live wolf stared directly at her, its mouth dripping with saliva. It looked hungry and she looked like a meal. Before she could say jack, the wolf leapt towards her, ready to sink it's claws and teeth into her; but something came at it in a warp of speed totally catching the wolf off guard and causing her to fall on her butt.

The thing had fangs and claws too, a horrendous fight between fangs and claws played before her eyes. Never in her wildest dreams did she ever imagine this was possible. Or were her eyes playing tricks on her?

Maybe it was because she couldn't be possibly seeing a.. a. ...vampire and a wolf. The words felt so stupid it couldn't even form in her brains. Those creatures were fictitious novels written by people who had the tendency for wild imaginations. But what was this then?