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If it hadn't been for her frequent visits to the manor with Maya, she would have toppled down the stairs in the pitch darkness that was keeping the manor enveloped. She knew which way she needed to go to get herself to freedom, but only if there was even a single bulb alight, her heart would have calmed down.
With the fear that somebody might jump at her from somewhere and lock her back into the small room, Zoha steadily descended the steps, navigating her way with the help of the wall, when the sky erupted into roaring thunder.
Catching herself before she could have produced any kind of sound, she repressed the gasp, and putting a hand on her heart, she continued her descent through the curling staircase.
Only when she reached the ending steps did her vision come back to her, providing her with little details such as the faint silhouettes of the pillars and the walls of the parlour. Pausing for a few moments to be able to to adjust her eyes to the glow of the orange bulbs, perhaps somewhere up in the ceiling, Zoha wondered where the two men were, for there was not a single sound that could be heard coming from the manor, only the clouds kept clashing up in the sky.
She saw, when she was finally able to see a bit better, that the bulbs were not in the ceiling, but it was the lamps hanging down from the ceiling of the deck she had forgotten was there.
There was a room a few steps right of the spiral staircase she had just come down from, and two pairs of steps on the either extreme sides of the deck took you down to the hall, in the middle of which was an oddly open space.Zoha turned and looked at the large entrance doors, and just as she started towards them, her heartbeat accelerated. Thunder cracked outside the closed windows, bolts of lightning providing what little passing luminance they could.
Just as her hand touched the door though, she picked up faint sounds that became more prominent with the seconds that went by, as she stood there, frozen to the ground.
A door had opened somewhere, and something was being dragged, and there were whispers. As the clouds went into respite, she heard faint pants and ragged breathing.
Somebody was hurt, and if they were hurt, then surely they couldn't attack her, so it wouldn't be a risk if she just saw who it was?
The sound of her own heartbeat was audible to her as she took steps to trace where the sounds were coming from. But Zoha wasn't mindful of her surroundings in the fearful state of her mind and stubbed her toe against the sofa she had failed to notice. Owing to the fact that she was wearing snow boots, the impact wasn't as painful as it would've been otherwise.
Repressing a cry, she curled her fingers into fists, and with a slight limp got to the steps leading up to the deck. The lamps were a lot effective just below where they were hung and therefore the setting here was completely visible. Realising she was very close to the injured person, she took another step and peered at the open space between the extreme stairs, and found to her utmost bewilderment and horror, that it was the skipper who was on the floor, arrows sticking out of his body.
YOU ARE READING
A Castle In The Air [Completed]
SpiritualZoha visits her old town only to reminisce over the lost teenage years, but is hurled into the old, almost dilapidated manor she made the mistake to breach the boundaries of. Torture, politics, magic, run-ins, and secrets. Her hopes keep growing an...