Lady in the Iron Mask

III: Chapter 4

"Eve! Wait!" Ash called out frustratedly, following her as she descended a stony spiral staircase down down, deep down into the servants quarters.

She refused to open her ears and listen to him.

"This was your plan all along, wasn't it? Making sure you always knew my location, and then throwing me into the dungeons," she growled, spinning out of the way of a servant carrying a tray. "Well, you have another thing coming if you even think I'll hang around when I'm in a compromised position."

Leaping over a stack of baskets, Ash chased after her.

"I was going to tell you! If you'd just stop, and listen, then I could-"

"Why would I, when I don't even trust you?" She emerged out into the servant's courtyard, but it was a dead end. "Was everything you told me a lie - a ruse - just to place this strange snake mark on me?"

Spotting Ash just behind her, she quickly stepped onto some spare boxes at the side of the little courtyard, and grabbed onto the washing line hung unceremoniously across the outside garden. Then, she began to use it to ascend to the palace walls, being careful to lift her feet away from his grasp.

"Was everything you told me a lie?" She repeated softly, glancing back at him.

He muttered under his breath, cursing Eve's agility and his bad luck to be caught out like this.

"Eve, you know you can't run away from me." His eyes glimmered darkly, reflected by the moonlight bouncing off the castle's walls. "And there's nothing I like more than the chase."

As he spoke, his skin rippled, in time with the full and sudden emergence of the moon from behind the dark, suffocating clouds above. Eve shivered as she glanced back, tasting her own fear on her tongue. But she would not give up. She was convinced that he was conspiring against her.

"Eve..." His voice was guttural. "Don't make me come up there." As he did so, his skin rippled once more, and he arched his back, squeezing his eyes shut.

High up on the castle walls now, she perched there, glaring down at him.

"You're dangerous. Especially at this time of night. I wonder how long you can keep up your guise of being human?" She watched him, analysing every tiny movement of his clenched jaw, gritted teeth and strained posture.

"A long, long time," he cried in response, smirking, even as his body contorted, "Just watch me."

Slowly, he regained control over his body, flexing his fingers and stretching out towards the sky. As if on cue, the moon gently receded back to hide behind the clouds. Then, he swiftly leapt upwards, pushing off from a box and grappling with the clothes on the clothing line, which swung in his face. He kept swinging his body in a motion to avoid them, but a pair of undergarments still managed to slap him in the face and stick there.

Eve couldn't help herself: she laughed at Ash with amusement, sitting with one knee up and leaning back to enjoy the show.

"This is brilliant. If I didn't know you, I'd say you were the perfect trickster," Eve told him, but then quickly her humour faded.

Removing a knife from her boot, she began sawing at the clothing line as he neared her feet.

"No, no- stop!" She could see the panic in his eyes, and it made her pause for a second.

"Why should I stop?" She murmured at him, transfixed somehow by his terror, as though in a trance.

"Listen to me, Eve. This is the evil within you, beginning to awaken. You know I'm at your mercy right now...so just put down the knife."

Quietly, she began to comply, the mark under her arm burning intensely. It was painful, and felt like it was scorching her skin. She cried out, grabbing her side with a shaking palm, and came away with blood. Ripping part of her dress away, she discovered that the jagged mark Ash had given her was bleeding. Although she had no visible wounds, it was bleeding her.

It was a momentary agony, but Ash released his concentration and Eve's will rushed back to her once again. Her eyes fixed on his in understanding as he hung suspended above a lengthy drop back down to the servant's courtyard.

"You..." She spat. "Why did you do this?" Her blood ran down her side, staining her dress.

With a vengeance, she began slicing through the rope keeping Ash suspended. He grunted as it began to give way, and the rope dropped down a little. Giving up on her, he spun around and began making his way back down it to the boxes so he could jump down safely. However, before he could even reach them, the rope had been cut, and he was falling, falling-

Inside the castle, a bell began to toll ominously, which distracted Eve momentarily. She regretted cutting Ash down like that, and didn't want to see his body smashed onto the ground, even if he probably wouldn't die.

Shouting and screaming echoed through the night, and chaos ensued. Eve didn't understand what was happening at first, until she heard soldiers shouting.

"Long live the King!"

"The King is dead!"

"They're running- quickly! Secure the princes!"

Glancing down at the courtyard floor, she saw a flash of anger as Ash managed to drag himself off the floor, howling as his body regenerated slowly. His cries attracted attention, and guards flooded the garden. Eve stood up, ready to run across the roof of the castle, but the men spotted her, at the same time as the moon peeled itself away from the clouds in the sky, and shone across her figure, momentarily blinding her adversaries to her identity.

Hunching over, Ash strained with pain, as he began to transform. Now, he was too weak to stop it, and even as his arms elongated, soldiers surrounded him, blocking him from view, asking him if he was alright.

Eve began running, wasting no time while the soldiers were distracted, but they poured from every crevice in the castle. She could only run so far. Behind her, she felt Ash transform; his presence was different, unfeeling. Shocked yells filled the courtyard as he flung soldiers away, and scraped his way up the walls of the castle, leaping away into the darkness, even as guards seized Eve whilst she kicked and struggled.

Eve thrashed around frantically, and then gave up, her mind crying out for help. She would not be escaping the clutches of Adam tonight.

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A/N: Hey everyone!

This chapter I feel went particularly well when I wrote it; no mind block and I knew what I wanted from the characters!

I'd have to say that Eve and Ash definitely have a complicated relationship, but in a way it's beautiful. Ash is something broken and was 'born from evil' eg. Satan, whereas Eve is supposed to be pure, although she faces terrible situations, arguably enough to corrupt her, but yet she perseveres because she has no other choice. To her, being strong is not innate, but she has to choose it through her actions, and slowly heal those around her.

Anyway, rant over! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Remember to vote if you like it :)