Heart part 1

Chapter 22 - Bad Weather

Turning the bend, in the distance, Heart could see the Casimir Mansion's front gates come into view. Heading inside, as they started to walk through the driveway and to the front door, something in the corner of their eye caught their attention. Parked to the side was a grand and elegant carriage. With its white walls, gold trimming, intricately crafted metal decorations, and blue wheels that looked as if they'd never seen use, it sat there sticking out like a sore thumb.

" Is this one of the Casimir's carriages? No, I don't think so..."

" This design... This carriage is owned by the royal family...!" They thought, inspecting the carriage closer.

They ran their hand along the royal family crest proudly displayed on the back. " The Elengairs...what would one of those pompous fools be doing here...?"

Sliding their hand back, they continued to make their way to the front door.

Creaking one of the doors open, Heart stepped a foot inside but came to a sudden stop. For some reason, all of the lights seemed to be off and no one was in sight. It was like the place had just been abandoned. Upon entering further inside, they left the door open behind them so they could have some light.

"!!" But almost as soon as they began to walk further in, inexplicably, the door shut, casting the room in total darkness.

On full alert, Heart stood still, watching and listening out for any movement. Slowly but surely, their eyes began to adjust. In front of them, they could see an outline of the stairs. From there, they inched their eyes along steadily across the rest of the room. Standing all around them in the darkness, as still as boards, were the faint outlines of countless amount of the mansion's maids and butlers. It was like they were all statues, even their breaths were still and cold.

Starting to back up towards the door, they could feel their back run into something that wasn't the hard surface of a door. Instead, they felt the cold touch of a body.

Spinning around and sliding back, they saw that one of the butlers was blocking the door. His eyes were completely lifeless. " How long has he been standing there?! I didn't even hear when he moved!"

In the next moment, before they could fully process what was happening, the butler's legs jumped forward. He dived like it was life or death, barely balancing on one foot, attempting to grab them. As if his jump was the starting signal, the other butlers and maids in the room began to come alive. Like the first one, each and every single one of them mindlessly charged.

Bobbing and weaving, Heart narrowly avoided being grabbed, but regardless of how many they evaded, more came and flooded them from the sides. If it weren't for the fact they all were blindly charging with no concern for what was around them, hitting and crashing into others trying to do the same, they probably would've been caught at this point.

In the brief instances they were able to catch a breath, they scoured their eyes across the room, looking for a way out.

" Over there!" The stairs were completely empty. If they could make their way through this crowd, they could get up to the second floor, whatever help that would bring them. While the stairs elusively stared down at them, they couldn't help but be skeptical. It was almost as if the stairs were left open on purpose, so they'd want to go up them and try to get away from the chaos down here, but they didn't have much of a choice. The front doors were a nonexistent option, so despite their gut telling them otherwise, they made a break for it.

Barely dodging the manic crowd's hands, Heart managed to get a foot atop the first step and pulled themselves up further. Rushing up the steps, they could hear the butlers and maids give chase, more bloodthirsty than before.