Rise of a Queen

Chapter 18

Last of the aesthetics! Honestly, this perfectly displays Eli's dangerous purity and I can't handle how much I love it!! Let me know your thoughts!

Now, enjoy!

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Brandon led our charge into the stairwell and down to the lowest level with Tiff following behind Corinth and I, providing extra support in case Corinth couldn't handle the descent. She was strong, she always has been. But even now I noticed how she struggled and I felt her pain as she struggled to keep up with her brother's pace.

    Once on the ninth floor, I felt myself shrinking against Corinth for safety and warmth. The shades of this hallway swallowed me as it had when I was first brought to this horrible place and this time, I felt the darkness slithering along my skin like snakes on the prowl. It scraped down my back and stabbed at every open cut along my arms, as if the very space around us was poisoned.

    The atmosphere of this hallway could only be described as the closest incarnation of hell on earth.

    Brandon was on high alert, his wide eyes swinging from one end of the hallway to the other and back again, on constant surveillance of our surroundings in case any witnesses came blundering. But from the whimpers behind these closed doors, I assumed anyone who might stop our escape was probably preoccupied and too busy to notice. We traveled quickly, we traveled quietly, and we traveled with closed ears to those who suffered out of sight.

    We didn't come here to save everyone, I reminded myself, it is impossible to save everyone. It will be a miracle if we manage to save ourselves.

    Halfway down the hall, Brandon stopped in front of two immaculate black wooden doors that I hadn't noticed during my first visit. They were intricately detailed, carved with designs that seemed random until closer inspection, unto which I noticed skulls with jagged teeth, hellhounds with eyes that glowed red, and flames licking up towards the ceiling as though these doors were once engulfed in fire and now retained eternal scars.

    When I was first brought down here, I really didn't want to go through the door of the Count's playroom.

    But I really, really didn't want to go through this door. At all.

    Unknowing of my fears, Tiff took hold of the brass doorknob with a hand unsteady, and she forced the monstrous door aside, herding us inside before shutting it again with a booming thud that did little to hide our presence. As per my request, Corinth set me down near the door then rushed forward to help Brandon set Dustin down beside me.

    The room was no brighter than the hallway, if at all possible, it was darker. I could barely see inches in front of my face, let along wherever this room ended. Around us were dark walls with no light fixtures to be seen but the space stretched forward to where the rest of the room lay in darkness beyond what my senses were able to detect. Like staring through murky water, my eyes played tricks on what I thought I saw and I did my best to ignore the way shadows stalked around us in the carnivorous twilight of charcoal magnitude.

    It was hard to believe anyone willingly chose to reside in a place as dreary as this.

    "Watch him." Brandon ordered, laying Dustin on his back with his head near my hip, "And try to wake him up. This whole thing will go much smoother if he can walk on his own." Corinth and Tiff vanished into the darkness ahead and Brandon followed after them at a jog, calling out, "If anyone comes through that door, kill them."

    I almost laughed, "What do you propose I kill them with?"

    His voice drifted back to me after he had already disappeared from my sight, "Bore them to death with your personality, that ought to do the trick."