Inside the Beast's Castle

Chapter 33--Gray

Human kind cannot gain anything without giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. --Fullmetal Alchemist.
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Is it possible for something to feel gray?

Not the color. The feeling.

The morning after I left Raul and Brennen, I woke up in the piano room. It was no surprise--that was where I fell asleep. The surprise was the instant feeling of something being horribly wrong.

Like something that happened that couldn't be fixed. A sense of dread blanketed the castle, wrapping it up in something that felt like it couldn't be cut through with the sharpest sword.

My heart felt like it was going to burst. What happened? What's wrong?

Careful not to touch the keys on the piano, I got up and tiptoed from the room. My arm pounded. I looked down and saw the long scratch that traveled from my wrist to my elbow. The skin around the scratch was red and puffy.

I need to go clean this off.

Since my room was literally right next door, I went in there first. Everything was exactly how I left it from the morning before: messy.

Weird how yesterday feels like it happened last year.

I walked over to my dresser and pulled out the first thing I could grab, which was a dress. As much as I liked the pants and shirt I was wearing, they were in dire need of a cleaning. I rummaged through another of the drawers and pulled out a roll of bandages to wrap around my cut.

After I cleaned my arm and wrapped something around the gash, I went to change. The first thing I noticed as I was pulling the dress on my the pain at my abdomen. I inhaled sharply and looked down. Black and blue splotches covered the right side of my ribs.

I guess that came from when Bren--the creature that took over Brennen attacked me.

There was no way I was going to say the bruises came from Brennen. Especially considering the fact that he tried to stop the thing from coming out.

I pulled the dress over my head and slipped on a pair of soft shoes. Reaching back, I pulled the band from my hair (succeeding in taking half my hair with it) and quickly attempted to brush through the mess. It took me less than two seconds of consideration to decide to not pull it back and to just leave it long.

I nervously walked out of my room and stopped. Where should I go?

The gray feeling hadn't left me, which told me something was really wrong. The castle just felt off.

Downstairs.

I all-but-ran down the stairs and nervously pushed open the door to the room Raul and I put Brennen the night before. The pail of water that I summoned was still in the exact same spot. The rag Raul had been using was draped over it and speckled with blood. There were excess bandages littering the floor. The remnants of a fire were still in the fireplace.

But there were no people.

I closed the door quietly, resisting the urge to shout for someone. If I shouted for Raul, he would surely come, and if he was dealing with Brennen at that moment, then I might cause a problem. One the other hand, if I called for Brennen, I ran the risk of not meeting him, but the not-so-happy creature instead.

Best not to call anyone.

Now, if I was a--I'm not even going to finish that sentence. Where would they be?