~HEARTS & FANGS~

53: GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH🤗

This book is dedicated to
@peculiar2005

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...53...

GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH🤗

She awoke rather tired with some sort of subtle headache, the type that one was actually only aware of if they were silent or bored. Despite the fact that she had been sleeping, she felt as if she had not rested, her bones tired, fatigue that came from oversleeping. There were rise petals in the round bed when she sat upright. She took a petal and put it to her nose. It smelt nice and soothing. She concluded to have Hyeera make her some fragrant oil with the petals like always. The emperor must have done this once again to aid her sleep.

She knew that she sometimes had difficulty in sleeping, unconsciously. She would just turn and turn on the bed without actually waking up -according to Hyeera- and the smell of roses always helped to remedy that. It was always the emperor's idea to bring in rose petals when she was like that. She wondered where he always got that much from. She dropped the petal and swung one leg out of bed at the moment that it dawned on her that she could not feel the weight of her hair. She reached up to touch her head and felt that familiar knot. It was only the emperor who tied her hair like that. As usual she could not remember him doing so.

She swung her second leg and made to stand when that sharp pain that sometimes came with kind of headache that she had overcame her. She slowly sat back down and waited for the pain to pass away, only it didn't. The pain chose to intensify and along with it came vivid images of fire, like the kind she had once seen in her dream, a fire that she had been running from, chased by the beast. But suddenly, she remembered something else. She wasn't being chased by him as she thought, she was running to him. She wanted him to save her from someone, from Trevor. She remembered Trevor was her lover, the one she just began to actually picture his visage.

But why? Why had she wanted to be saved, running to the beast with such kind of fear? Why also was she remembering that now? She shook her head gently in an attempt to get rid of the images running through her head. Something peculiar caught her attention and she dwelt on it. It was her and the beast, in a pub, him taking her against her will and she struggling with him. She remembered being kind of high on something, alcohol, sedatives, for she was such a sloth at that moment. Was it then? Had he taken her then?

Her eyes went to the window and she registered the time as morning, a rather dull morning it was. Wait what?! Morning?! It could not be. She had gone to the abandoned maze just after lunch. Ah yes, the abandoned maze! She had nearly forgotten all about it. She remembered the letter and the map that she had found tucked into her horse's saddle the morning before when she had gone to inspect Red Rose. She had read it without letting her aides see it. And when the hour that the sender of the letter had asked to meet came by, she had suggested a walk in the gardens close by and disappeared on them. She remembered stealthily stealing away in the direction the letter had indicated and coming upon the structure. She remembered going in, seeing candles, awaiting the sender of the letter. She remembered being caught in a fire, trying to escape. And then, then... her brain was blank from that moment upwards.

She remembered nothing else. Wait, what had happened? Mayhap she had fainted from all the smoke or something, right? She could not answer that. Anyways, who had rescued her from the maze? Was it the emperor or her aides? Had they found her and brought her here, to the bedroom? How had they found her anyways? Had the burning maze attracted their attention? Had the emperor thought it was yet again another of her ploys for escape? She really hoped not. The bedroom door opened then and someone came in. She assumed it was the emperor because of the lack of a knock, but it was only Hyeera.