The Destiny of Angels

Chapter 3

So back to tonight, and why I broke into the Emperor's office. The Hathway Hall is very big, it stands smack in the center of our island. A huge rundown castle that survived the war. Thousands of years old, it was the pride of our land. On the outside, it seems to have, abet graciously, faced ages. The inside would not be what you expect. It is glamorous. Fit to house the Emperor as well as hundreds of others. His family, however, lived here mostly alone aside from a few workers here and there. The west wing was set to run a business out of and hold the files.

There is a loose window that never truly latches right on the edge of the west wing, so I carefully push it up and slide through it. Though I will admit my sneaking through window skills, were nightmarish at best. The inside was decadent, filled with velvet and fur. Rich with colors it caught the eye. The most noticeable being royal purple, subtle gold, and the reddish-brown fur reminding me of a fox. It was fit for the richest, not a single inch of it failing to look regal. It was simultaneously classic and modern as if it had been built to be ageless. It was a work of art you could get lost in, literally, it was built like a labyrinth.

I had been here numerous times before. Once upon a time, I had been best friends with the Emperor's daughters. Back then Ivory, Islyn, Jane, and I had been inseparable. That was before the disappearance of the Vera family, as Jane Vera, Tamera's niece was the glue that held us together. Ivory and Islyn did not remain my friends for long after Jane disappeared. Meaning it had been almost six years since I had last entered the Hathway Halls. Leaving me with little to no clue how to navigate the ginormous castle.

Pushing my memories of this place to the front of my mind, I tried to remember which way the counsel halls were. Somehow I found them, though I will admit it took me quite a while. Thankfully everyone in the Hathway Halls seemed to follow curfew, there was not a single soul in sight. I will admit a few lights were shining out from behind some of the doors that I passed that gave me quite a strike of anxiety. One door opened not long after I passed it, thankfully I was next to a hallway so I quickly ducked into it unseen.

Reminiscing on when Ivory Braxson used to sneak me into the file room to read the files of whatever boy she had her eyes on at the time, helped me find the file room. I even remembered how they were organized for the most part. It is funny how much that came in handy. I quickly went over to my files. I knew I wouldn't have long to read them so I had brought a camera. I took pictures of each page carefully, as I skimmed through them.

Once I finished photographing each page of my file, a split decision was made, I was going to look through Janne's files as well. I took photographs of her files though a bit more rushed. As I skimmed through her file I learned that Jane and her siblings had survived the initial fire. The file says they ran into the Forgotten Woods, which is surrounded by the Forest of Monsters. A single body was found, the others had been assumed dead.

A body that I had been the one to find.

The file says, "April May Evans found Jane's body at the edge of the Forgotten Woods torn apart by some monster, that had escaped from the Forest of Monsters." Jane's brothers Isaiah and Issac were later found not too far from where Jane was found. There was a testimony written by a younger me on what I had seen. The body I had found. The only problem is, I was in my first year of middle school at the time this happened. Meaning I should have some memory of this happening, any memory, of all of this happening.

The file continues to mention that the identities of the bodies were made confidential so that the citizens would not panic about their children getting killed by a monster. That must have been when the fenced-off the Forgotten Forest to keep this from happening to any other children since it was a popular place with children at the time. The file says I was made to promise not to tell anyone the identity of the body, not that I was the one that found her.