Chapter 32
As Walter pushed the door open, it creaked very loudly, announcing his entrance into the room.
As Walter took a step away from the door, he turned back, and noticed there was no door behind him anymore. He knew there was no going back now.
He immediately started searching for the path illuminated by the candlesticks. He searched turned from left to right, but there were none.
As he searched, his eyes fell on a window that wasn't there a few seconds prior. He turned to take a look, and behold, there was a very beautiful woman there who didn't have any clothes on. Her body beckoned on him like a siren, his eyes were glued and he seemingly couldn't take his eyes off.
Her voice, "Please come," pierced right through his defenses, as he began walking towards her.
"Please, come" she repeated.
After Walter took another step, he immediately thought of Nicole, and shifted his gaze swiftly to the opposite direction. Unfortunately for him, there was another woman with the same plea, "Come" she said, standing up from the window, she began walking towards Walter. The second lady was even more beautiful than the first and was just Walter's type.
"The person you loved treated you wrongly. Let us make up for that." she said.
Walter's body began quivering. Quivering as his mind fought his body vigorously, knowing he was in danger, but he couldn't move.
He fell deeply into the eyes of the lady he had seen. His eyes slowly scanned every detail of her body, she was the perfect lady, too beautiful to be real. As the lady took slow steps towards Walter, maintaining eye contact with him, Walter grabbed on to his pocket knife and slashed his thigh, breaking his focus. He turned his back, and the candle path was there. He sprinted towards it.
As he ran, he heard Nicole's voice calling Him from behind. He stopped sprinting in order to pay attention to the voice.
"Walter help! I'm sorry! help!" The voice was so captivating that he stopped moving. His heart began beating so fast that he could hear its beats through his eyes. His whole body began pulsating. Following Nicole's plea, he heard a loud scream from her, as if something was torturing her.
"Nicole!" He shouted, almost turning, he stopped. Mustering enough strength to ignore her crying voice l, he kept running. As he kept running, her cry became even more agonizing, but Walter kept running on the path.
As he stayed on the lane, just ahead of him, from the darkness emerged the epitome of muscle and fury. A horned beast that looked like a bull, charged towards him with malicious intent. As it charged, each step it took shook the ground beneath him. It had its eyes on nothing other than Walter. Walter kept running, maintaining eye contact as he did. As the bull ran into him, it dissipated into smoke, blending with the darkness of the hallway.
By this time, Walter could see the door just up ahead. Just beside the door was an old man, who held a candlestick in his hand.
As Walter got to the front of the door, the man smiled, and tears began rolling down his cheeks.
"My son, it's been too long." he said, stretching out his arms for a hug.
"I've missed you and your mother so much. I've really missed you. I'm sorry for the mess you've been dragged into." He said, still weeping as he said so. "What happened to your thighs? They're bleeding." He asked, pointing at his eyes.
Walter tried as much as he could not to answer him as he walked past him. On walking past, as he got to the side of the old man, Walter could see through his side vision that it in fact, wasn't a man he was seeing. He couldn't turn because of the orders Jade gave, but he could depict that it resembled a six-legged creature with its hands outstretched.
Walter got scared, but still walked past. On reaching the door, He let out a deep sigh as his hand hesitated mid air, unable to move it forward due to the weights of the fear he had.
What is behind this door? He wondered.
With his hands still paused in the air, he thought of all the worst case scenarios as his heart kept pounding. Despite all those frightening thoughts, he summoned enough courage to knock. He quickly banged the door 3 times. As he knocked those 3 times, no sound emanated from the knocks.
Did he hear me? He wondered.
He impatiently moved his knuckles to rap against the door a fourth time when he paused when his knuckle a few millimeters from the door as he remembered Jade's last instructions not to knock more than three times. He then stood there, waiting for a response. Not looking back or sideways.
After about 10 minutes of Walter's endless wait, the door finally opened slowly. It revealed another breathtaking character.
Is this a goddess? He wondered.
It was a tall woman who had the perfect curves to testify of nature's masterpiece. She had very long, dark hair that was perfectly combed, as it flowed down her back like a waterfall of elegance. Her eyes shone like magical emeralds, as she looked intently at the Prince.
"We've been expecting you, Walter." She said, smiling at him, revealing a hint of her pearly white teeth which were covered by her smooth lips, painted dark red.
As she opened the door wider for Walter to come in, Walter realized that in her second hand was a long slender sword that shone very brightly, reflecting how sharp it was.
Is this his bodyguard? He wondered, as he walked in. He walked deeper into the room. But there was no one there.
"Keep walking," she urged, "He's waiting for you at the balcony."
Walter Walked in that direction, he slowly shifted the curtains and walked onto the balcony. As he did, the wind embraced him, causing him to shiver due to the cold. He found a man, gazed at the Kingdom from that height, unflinched by his arrival.
"Welcome." He said, still gazing at the Kingdom.
"What's with all that shit you made pass through? Your son whom you neglected at a very young age, who was tortured because of your crimes, was coming to you, running to see you, and you put so many traps in the hallway to your room that it was almost impossible for him?" Walter said, infuriated.
"You heard your son was in the underworld and you wouldn't even come rescue him yourself. You didn't come to save him. After all these years, dad, you wouldn't even turn to take a look at me. No excitement whatsoever." It was as if Walter spoke to a statue. He was completely lost in his thoughts.
"Do you know what I've been through, dad? Even on earth. Being without you made me so...weak. I don't even know how to be a man or how to defend myself from other men. I can barely blend with other men, just women. It has completely messed up my life, Dad, and you won't even look me in the eye to give me a proper apology?"
"Walter," he called, and slowly turned his face towards Walter.
On turning his face, Walter was extremely shocked as his eyes remained wide open. His mouth which was quick to speak was now hung, and he didn't have the words to relay what he saw. His thoughtful pattern also crashed because what he saw didn't seem to make any sense. His feet became weak once again, but this time not because He was tired, but because he was afraid.