Lady in the Iron Mask

Chapter 22

"You're so childish," Kieran told Eve, as he carried her back through the portcullis and into the castle.

"Yeah? Well, at least I'm not a lecherous demon! And hey, you never said where I should kiss you!"

After she had decided to kiss Kieran's hand instead of his lips, he had become annoyed and slung her over his shoulder to walk back to the castle.

"I'm going to spank you when this is all over," he muttered, sighing in disappointment.

"You'll do no such thing! Now, unhand me, DAMMIT!" Eve yelled, kicking Kieran in the stomach and forcing him to release her, even as guards from the palace stared at them with wide eyes.

He laughed under his breath as she glared venemously at him, throwing virtual daggers. Eve stormed off ahead of him, her back straight, her stride brisk and firm.

"So, where is it? What do you want me to see?" She asked, turning this corner and that. "Can't it wait until morning?"

She was tired, and needed sleep desperately. Heading back to her room, she was stopped abruptly by a guard, as Kieran jogged to catch up with her. He wasn't in time to warn her.

"I'm sorry, but you cannot go back into your chambers, Lady Eve," he told her.

She threw her hands up in the air. Everyone was ordering her around today, and she didn't like it. She decided that she wouldn't be controlled by these ridiculous men any longer and darted past this guard, and all the others who dared to believe they could stop her in their heavy, lumbering armor. In the end, a stampede followed her all the way to her room, and she burst through the door, calling out for her friend.

"Lilith? Where are yo-" She cut off, as she stared around her room.

Her friend was nowhere to be seen. In fact, there was no living human in the chamber to be sighted. Instead, in the dim, Eve could hear a dripping noise coming from her bed. She stumbled and fumbled to light a candle in the candleabra, and she cried out triumphantly as it sparked with a bright flame. Turning around, her view was blocked by Kieran's body.

"Seriously, what's your problem?" Eve asked him, getting irate. "I just want to go to bed, okay?" At this point, a number of guards had piled up at the door and they were watching the scene.

"Are you sure?" Kieran asked.

Drip.

"Yes; I'm certain." Eve moved, and he moved with her.

Drip.

"What are you doing, Kieran? Move!"

Drip.

"You guys should really sort out the plumbing. Maybe then there wouldn't be this irritating dripping noise!"

"Eve," Kieran stared down at her seriously, "That noise isn't the plumbing."

She swallowed nervously, as he finally - and unfortunately - moved to one side to reveal her bed. Eve gasped, falling unconsciously to her knees.

It was a bloodbath.

She remembered then that she had left Evangeline in this bed, to sleep. Somehow, this mutilated lump of flesh had been that beautiful young woman, once.

Her soft hair was strewn across the pillow, and her eyes were wide open, staring in a horrified way at the ceiling of the four-poster bed. Her limbs were bent at awkward angles, as though they had been snapped to create an unusual and yet ritualistic form. The soft lips were parted and coated in rich blood, which had dried and caked, sticking to her face. Additionally, her extremities had been mutilated beyond recognition: she had been raped before death. One of her arms hung over the side of the bed, and the downwards angle caused the blood leaking from her lifeless body to trail down her pale arm, to drip onto the floor.