A Banquet of Daggers

Chapter 1 - Part 1: The Boy

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Echoed footsteps in a large hallway were heard, Elayne opened her eyes, before her was a large column with two stone beast heads on both left and right. She was hiding behind a pitch black brick wall in a corner, exhausted from how quickly she ran once she heard someone approaching the bedroom she had just lockpicked her way out of. She was breathing heavily, but trying her best to refrain from making any sounds that would give away her position. She didn't get to see what the person looked like, but she was terrified enough about seeing them just from how this place looked...and her being locked in that room for three days. She slowly kneeled down, waiting for her pursuer to leave so she can continue her escape as she did run into a bit of a...dead end. 

"Oiiii....oiii! Hey, where did you go? Don't hide, play with me!" A soft voice was heard aloud, it was that of what appeared to be a young boy, at best 16 judging from it. However...the tone of their voice was...unsettling, something was just off-putting to Elayne. The footsteps stopped. "Hey, hide and seek are fine with me, but...that's too easy for me. At least...in my house it is." The boy continued, it appears that it was their home, obviously. The footsteps continued, but this time Elayne could understand that they were coming towards her direction, they were still rather far however. "If you don't come out quickly..." The boy said in a rather soft, warm and cute tone. "You will be punished.  There IS no point in hiding from me, because I'm going to find you ANYWAY." The boy's voice became slightly distorted, as if some form of spirit was talking alongside it and their tone was disturbing to say the least, it was obvious that as they were talking, they had a large smile upon their face filled with evil-mannered intent. The boy's footsteps got quicker and much closer over time.

"I wonder...what kind of punishment should I give you? You won't like it, to say the least." The boy spoke in the same tone as before. They stopped and sounded like they turned. "Oh? You're in this part of the hallway aren't you? I can feel your heart. The pounding against your chest...the restrained heavy breaths from all that running you made. Told you. You can't...hide." The boy said, they kicked open a door that was right next to the corner that Elayne was hiding in. Once the door was slammed open, Elayne got slightly startled, but tried her best to not make any sound, her heartbeat, however, got more tense with each passing second. "Eh? Not here huh." The boy chuckled, they audibly sniffed and the door closed...without a sound of a footstep being made for a few minutes. Elayne had placed her hands over her mouth during this time, so as to not make any sound and after those few minutes of no footsteps, she thought that the boy was gone, taking her hands off her mouth and took in a deep breath. 

She faced the exit of the corner she was in. Her sapphire eyes widened.

"There you are..."  The boy said calmly, their lower body was hidden on the other side of the wall, however they had a rather small body overall. Their hair was two colors, in the front all the way till the middle it had a pitch black color and from the middle to the back it was a snowy white. They were completely pale, to the point that their skin in the lighting of the room was a light grey. They had small grey pentagram earrings on both ears and a spiked white collar around their neck, also wearing a white formal suit with a black tie. However, their most noticeable characteristic were their bright red eyes that had a dim glow to them, eyes that one could get lost in if they gazed at them for too long. Their pupils were also that of a... feline.

"F o u n d y o u." The boy continued, saying those two words slowly and eerily. Once they finished their sentence, Elayne's vision slowly started to get blurry, her eyes slowly closing as if... she was being put to sleep against her will. "W-who..." she tried to ask but she mustered only enough strength to whisper that singular word, and then, her eyes fully closed and her body fell to the side. She was rendered unconscious by god knows what.