Enchanted Captivation [InquisitorMaster AU fanfiction]

Chapter 4: Inside the Castle

The sun rises, it's an early eight AM, birds chirp cheerfully in the gardens below, servants tended to the gardens, keeping the flowers smelling fresh. Shading the plants from above sits a balcony and a door. Inside the doors is a room, the room had stone floors and a maroon rug with a white pattern, the walls were also stone with wood surrounding the top and bottom perimeter of the walls, the painting hung on the wall, paintings of forests and various royalties before the current two along with a floor mirror, a large bookshelf almost covered an entire wall on one side, and the remaining space was taken up by a desk. On the mirroring side were two bedside tables with oil lamps on them and in the center of the two was a large queen-sized bed. Sleeping peacefully in the bed slept a girl with golden hair, and her name was Alex.

Alex shifted inside the velvet covers, bringing them closer to herself. She slowly opened up her eyes, dazed and confused about where she was, the world was hazy and shimmering from the sunlight. Alex looked around the room, attempting to piece together where she was before she finally remembered what happened. 

She sat up, letting out a loud yawn as she stretched, smacking her lips twice, and getting up off the comfortable bed. She wandered around the room and saw her clothing on the desk, along with another dress, most likely supplied by the two princes. 

Grabbing the dress, she put it on, going next to her floor mirror and looking at herself, turning around, fascinated by the luxury she was suddenly thrown into. Pondering for a moment, she mumbled to herself, "Something's missing..." 

Looking back at her present clothing, she grabs her cloak, her wand and spellbook were safely tucked inside her secret pocket. She put on the cloak, laying down the hood and returning to the floor mirror and she smiled to herself. This was perfect. 

She exited her room, Charli exiting at the same time, she sat in the room next to Alex's. "Oh, hello Alex!" Charli greeted, running up to Alex and Alex ran back. Charli was also in a beautiful outfit, keeping her cloak on. The two girls stare at each other's dresses and eye down their cloak.

"Old habits die hard, huh?" Charli states, the two stiffly chuckle, and begin to stand in painfully awkward silence. 

"Is Jade awake?" Alex asks, Charli shrugs, "Wanna see?"

"Yeah, of course!"

Parallel to the two was Jade's room, they come over and stand in front of her door.

The two girls open Jade's door and see her snoring inside of the sheets. "I think it's safe to say she got a good sleep." Alex comments, the two walk inside, going the opposite sides of each other.  

Alex puts up three fingers, mouthing out a count down as she lays one finger down at a time, once she hit zero the two inhaled and yelled, "WAKE UP JADE!" scaring the crap out of Jade, waking her up in a panic.

"WOW! Rude!" Jade huffs as the other two just laugh.

"I'm gonna get changed, mind if you girls leave?" Jade requests, Charli nods and walks out of the room, Alex following along behind her. 

Walking outside, the two spot one of the twins, Zach, and he notices them in return. He swiftly walks up to them and greets them. 

"Hey, you two! What's up?" "Nothing much, we're just waiting for our friend." Alex nonchalantly responds, shifting her eyes to the side. "When she gets out, you girls need to get to work, alright?" Zack commands, and the two answer with a simple, "Mhmm!" 

He walks off, the two watch him until he disappears behind a corner. Charli turns back to Alex, a smug look on her face, "You like him, don't you Alex?" She asks, leaning in closer and putting her hands on her hips. 

Alex's eyes widen in surprise and embarrassment, "Of course not! I barely know him!" She shouted, Charli just began to die laughing. Alex pouts, turning her head away and crossing her arms. 

Jade suddenly walks out, a pretty gown on and you guessed it- wearing her cloak.

"Wow, Jade! It looks super pretty on you!" Alex awed, Jade closed her eyes and proudly put her hand on her chest in a delicate manner, "Thank you, thank you, I know!"

"Alright, so we need to get to work, what jobs are you girls doing?" Charli wonders. "I'm gonna be working on the garden, and I may plant some herbs like juniper and white sage." Jade answers. The two girls look at her, an unimpressed expression on their face, "You better not eat any of the plants, Jade." Alex scolds.

"Awww..." Jade booed disappointedly. "What about you, Alex?" Charli enquired. "Oh, I was thinking about laundry, because I do it so often, I might as well get it done, y' know?" Charli nods, smiling brightly, "I plan on doing the cooking!" Charli exclaims the two girl's faces light up, "Oh my goodness, yes! You're the absolute best at cooking!" Alex squealed.

"In that case, I'll be off!" Jade exits, walking down the hallway, pretending as if she knows where to go but she has no idea. "Wait, Jade, I think you're going the wrong way!" Charli yells, running after her. 

Alex was left by herself. This didn't feel real, she talked with Charli and Jade outside of the meetings but this was entirely different. Alex softly smiled and began to walk the direction of where she thinks the laundry room is.

She was cheerfully wandering around, looking for the laundry room, and then she saw the cellars. She stopped and stared at the door, looking around for any witness, to which she saw none. Sneakily, she opened the cellar door and began to walk down the steps. The atmosphere suddenly changed, it was humid and cold inside of there, along with being spine-chillingly eerie. Finally reaching the bottom, Alex walked inside and saw a circle of cages, and two caught her attention. 

All the witches were inside of there. "Oh my god..." She murmured, running up to the cages, "Guys??"

The witches look at her, a disgusted look on their faces, "What do you want?"

Alex was silent, looking for the right words to say. 

"I'm sorry for betraying you girls like that!" She apologizes. "Sorry isn't enough." A girl spits back. Alex sighs, "I know things look rough, and I promise, I'll try to get each and every one of you out, but I'm sure some of you will be sacrificed..." She tried to reason with them, "Just keep under the lie that I and the other girls aren't witches if they ask you about a leader, just say that they ran off, okay?"

The coven looked at one another, "And why should we do that?"

"Because then me, Jade, and Charli will get thrown in there with you, and none of us will be able to escape!" She pleaded, hushing the others. They all looked at each other, quiet whispering was throughout them.

"Fine, we'll do it."

She sighed of relief, grabbing a key and unlocking the door. "Only five of you come out, I'll come back tomorrow for five more." Alex offered.

"Just five? Why?!" 

"You'll all get caught if all of you come out!" Alex scolds, directing 5 girls out. 

"Escape however you can, this is the most I can do for now," Alex explains. The five nod and begin hiding. Alex hangs up the keys and walks back upstairs.

She shuts the cellar door and begins to walk away, attempting to not look suspicious, but in the process, she bumps into someone. 

"AH!" she yelps, falling to the floor. "Are you okay?" A voice asks, she responds with a "Yeah..." 

She notices a hand reaching out for her, she grabs it and meets eyes with the person she ran into. Zach.

"Sorry about that." She apologizes, grabbing his hand and letting him pull her up. 

She cleans off her dress as Zach questions, "Where are you going?" 

Alex looks up and darts her eyes to the side, "I'm looking for the laundry room, you never showed me where it is." crossing her arms, slinging some sass his way. He chuckles, "Alright then, I'll show you, follow me!"

Hello! Sorry for not updating in a hot minute. I got finished with online classes and decided to quickly write a chapter, sorry if it seems rushed in any way, I tried the best I could! Even if it feels rushed, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Have a nice day! :D