RAVEN BEAUTY

THE DUNGEON

All night my mind kept drifting towards what Ruby had said. I couldn't get that shit out of my head and there is only one solution to that, I need to visit that dungeon. So here I am standing in front of the gate of basement.

Royce has gone out with his father for some work and I successfully drugged the guards. I took a deep breath and opened the gate. The moment I entered I was hit by the smell of rotten dead bodies. The dungeon was dark and only few lamp lights were there.

I started walking deep into the dungeon aimlessly, and after few more steps a huge gate appeared with loads of locks. God this is tricky!

It's been 30 minutes now and I am still standing in front of this stupid gate. "What are you doing here Arya?" said a very deep voice from behind, making me jump. I whirled around and saw Royce standing there with his arms crossed in front of him.

"I...I...I...." I stammered, and he sighed. He come forward and opened the gate with just one click. Wait what? It was that simple?

He didn't give me any chance to speak, as he held my hand and lead me deeper into the tunnel.

Smell here was horrible, the worst I could have imagined and what I saw was cages, many of them. A lot of people were locked in there moaning and wailing in pain. I was shocked at the scene.

This is hell, the one made by Royce!

"These are the people who tried to mess with me or my family" said Royce and I looked at him in shock.

"This is who I am!" he said

"A Monster!" he said again.

I turned my back towards him and started walking deep into the tunnel and Royce was on my tale.

"I was 14 when I killed someone" I said and was met by silence. I took a deep breath and continued while walking "15 when I killed 5 people at once"

With a pause I said "and that was just the beginning, I've even forgot the count of the people that I have killed till date" and turned around and looked at him in the eye.

"I don't care how many people you have killed, but I want to know why did plan all this? Why did you send me away? Why did you let me believe that you didn't love me? Seven years Royce! Why?" I asked.

"Because it was better to see you away than dead" he said quietly. "Your father's enemy wanted to kill you and at that time I was naïve and didn't know how to deal with this situation. I wanted to tell you everything at once, but too afraid that I'll lose you. At that time I had a lot on my plate, Andrea, Akim, Your stupid father....I just wanted you away from this mess, until I cleaned it myself" He said.

"This world Arya! Is rough and I wanted you to be strong that is why I made you to leave for satin's helper." He continued

"If you want to hate me for this, then hate me Arya. But the truth is that I love you! I just wanted to protect you; I wanted you to be strong enough to fight for yourself, to stand by yourself!"

There was a silence, and then I moved closer to him and clashed my lips to his. After few seconds I broke the kiss while Royce still holds onto me and I asked about Ruby and her sister.

"I didn't sell her! I said that to scare her, her sister got adopted by some American family. So relax" he said while rubbing my shoulders. Then he grabbed my face in his large hands and kissed me.

"This place really stink!" I said and he nodded his head and said "lets go!"