The Great Escape

Chapter- 12

A/N: This chapter is a bit more mature. There is depiction of dead bodies. Please proceed with caution.

The atrocity of the situation revolted the Lady.

Two guards were found dead near the maid quarters.

Not the kind of news one would like to start the day with.

Lady Kiara rubbed her head as her eyes assessed the scene in front of her. One guard on his knees; his back and legs bent backwards in an uncomfortable position. A spear impaled his mouth, protruding out from the back of his head; it's tip touching the soggy, red grass. Another guard laid in front of him in his own pool of blood. His forehead lacking a significant chunk of flesh and muscles. His dead, lifeless eyes were wide open and screamed of the horrors he endured in the last moments of his life.

The dead bodies were yet to be removed. The guards were waiting for Count Monroe to arrive and give further orders. They said they had died last night. That had given many hours to the Count to come and decide the further process.

Why is he coming so late?

"Who saw it first?" Lady Kiara asked.

"Some maids, my lady," the guard replied.

"Names?"

"I believe it was Misa and Sarah, my Lady."

"Where are they?"

"Uh— my Lady, they must doing the chores—"

"The chores?" She repeated coldly.

Few tendrils of her brown locks blew with the morning breeze. They caressed the frame of her face, her supple cheeks. The rays from the sun glowed against her smooth skin. Her eyes, while they were the onyx mined in the tropicals during the nights— they were nothing short of solar eclipse floating in the pools of gold in the daylight.

"Tell me soldiers, do you not know the standard procedure of investigation?" She raised an eyebrow. Rosy lips, with just a single red crack at the corner, were set in a thin line.

The guards looked at her, both mesmerized by the beauty and shivering from the numbing nervousness.

"Where is your armsman?" She asked, speckles of impatience in her voice.

"He is— He is away from the manor for official work. He will be back day after tomorrow, my Lady." Another guard responded. Scratching the back of his head, he bit his lips.

"Great," Lady Kiara muttered and stalked away without a delay.

Tucking the wild tendrils behind her ears, Lady Kiara ran her hands on her braid. Rubbing her neck, she marched into the maid quarters.

A murder of crows feasted near the pond of the backyard. Eyes squinted, Lady Kiara spotted something red dangling from their beaks.

Probably the missing chunk of flesh.

No sooner did she noticed it, the crows flew away as a guard came chasing them away. She looked back at the dead bodies. Then above, at the surrounding trees. Crows sat there, waiting for their turn.

Looking forward, she stepped in the hallway.

Few steps into the narrow gallery, a maid stood with a young guard. The two of them bowed as they saw Lady Kiara approach them. She nodded back.

"Poor guards," she sighed when they were in earshot. "How did this happen?"

The maid and the guard glanced towards each other. Surprised and unsure, they fumbled and gulped. The maid hesitated before answering. "That is yet to be known, my Lady. We only know this happened during the late hours of the night. They were on duty."