ONE (Book 1 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 12

I blinked a few times to let my eyes get adjusted to the darkness I was met with. I seemed to be in a very narrow tunnel, but I could see some light as I turned away from the ladder. I kept my hand in my bag, ready to pull out my dagger as I stalked forwards. My feet didn't make a sound as I followed the very faint light.

I had to crouch down as I walked through the narrow tunnel, watching my head for a round twenty feet before I was able to stand. It had led me into a very spacious, yet cold room. It was surprisingly full of things which could be used for art, like paint and yarn. However, the bed in the room was tiny, as though it was meant for a child. Maybe it was simply due to the troubles of getting a bed through the tunnel, but I wasn't sure.

I noticed a door to my right, even though it blended into the wall very well. I wondered if that would be a bathroom and thought that it was strange for a prison to seem so grand and generous as to add some sort of privacy to it. Then again, there was only one prisoner here. There was no way of getting out of the prison other than the hatch, which I assume was guarded most of the time. Maybe Princess was so mad she didn't even notice when the guards left. It was a very sad possibility. I couldn't imagine a human living in a place like this for years. That was if she was human, she might not be.

I entered the room fully, beginning to turn to look at the way I came when I jumped out of my skin, a scream getting caught in my throat as I fell backwards, pulling out my dagger.

With her back against a wall stood a girl about my age. She had short black hair which was cut in a rather choppy and hasty manner, as though she was given ten seconds to cut off as much as she was able to. She had the same grey eyes as the king had. She glared at me, and her jaw was clenched. Her figure looked like that of a tigress getting ready to pounce on their prey. She wore a simple long dress, light pink and white in colour, but it was splattered with paint and some other substances I didn't recognise.

"H-hello there," I stammered out. I had my dagger in a defensive position as I watched her closely.

Her entire body froze where it was, her eyes widening and her fingers twitching lightly. The air was tense, and I didn't know what either of us were waiting for as we watched the other.

"You must be Princess?" I asked, my voice a little softer this time, as I knew she'd been down here a while all by herself. "My name is Acer."

She had winced when I mentioned her name and her hands slowly moved to cover her ears, her guarded and hostile expression turning to wonder as she continued to stare.

"Acer? Is everything alright?" Sarphi called from the hatch.

Princess gasped and immediately moved to the mouth of the room, looking down the tunnel and up at the hatch.

"I'm fine," I replied, my voice being a loud talking voice so that I didn't startle Princess. "Princess surprised me, we're both fine. It's just a big room down here."

Aknon and Sarphi were discussing something which I could barely hear before Aknon called to me, "we're coming down."

I nodded, even though he couldn't see me, and I moved behind Princess slowly. "Those are my siblings," I informed her. "We were all sentenced down here by the king."

Princess spun around with a deep frown on her face, eyes narrowed at me again as she looked me up and down, eyes landing on my dagger and bag.

"That's just because we're travellers," I explained and put the dagger back into my bag carefully. "They didn't take our stuff from us, which is pretty weird. Huh?"

Princess shook her head and turned back to the hallway, where Sarphi was descending the ladder. She quickly stepped back as Aknon jumped down, facing us like some kind of superhero. Though he looked a little like a villain in the dim lighting of the hallway.

Princess stepped backwards and away from me, shaking slightly. Her eyes darted around like she was now the prey, looking for a place to hide.

"Oh hello!" Sarphi said sweetly and enthusiastically as she bounced over, so she was standing beside me. "I'm Sarphi, that's my brother Aknon." She pointed behind her. "And you've met my sibling, Acer, I'm sure they introduced themself. They barely shut up."

Princess was backing slowly away from Sarphi, and I couldn't blame her. She looked between us all, not saying a word.

"Can you talk?" Aknon asked, voicing a thought that I hadn't even considered.

Princess' piercing gaze moved directly onto him, and she shook her head slowly.

"Oh no," Sarphi vocalised with a frown on her face. "You really can't talk? Was that the other sentence that the guard told us about?"

Princess' eyes filled with anger, and she nodded her head firmly, her lips twitching slightly. She then opened her mouth, revealing a lack of tongue.

"Oh my shadows, I'm going to kill him." I didn't even need to think about the words I said as I clenched my fists and crossed my arms. Aknon put his arm around me and turned me back towards Sarphi and Princess as I tried to spin around to the hallway and the hatch. "No, I've been threatened with that too many times in my life to let this go." I pointed towards Princess, glaring at my brother. "She looks no older than us, and she's been here for how long? Fifteen years?" This revelation had ignited a personal offence within me as I continued to rage. "Fifteen years without talking, could you even imagine that?"

"It would be fifteen years of bliss if you didn't talk," Aknon remarked with a sigh as he placed his hands on my shoulders. "The guard is upstairs; we cannot afford to lose our heads."

"We could still lose our tongues yet," Sarphi pointed out. "We don't have our sentence."

Princess let out an animalistic whining sound and stomped her foot. It seemed that she didn't like the idea of us losing our tongues either, a fact which I appreciated.

"We need to figure something out." I sighed before glancing around and back to Princess. "You're the princess, as in the daughter of the ruler, aren't you?"

Princess nodded before holding up a hand, moving over to a desk in the far corner of the room and bringing out some paper and ink. She then wrote the word 'Prin', in large, bold lettering.

"Prin? Is that what you want us to call you?" Sarphi asked, seemingly ecstatic that Prin could communicate.

Prin nodded her head and gave a small sigh before gesturing around at the room and shrugging. I took that as our invitation to explore. I didn't touch anything as I moved around the room, but I did notice a lot of art supplies. She had some shelves with some food on, and even an ice tub, which I thought was really strange. She had water down here and it wasn't the coldest place I'd been in.

"Was this prison made for you?" Aknon asked in astonishment as he looked up at the ceiling, where a single ray of light entered the room, otherwise it was lit by many candles.

Prin nodded her head. Sarphi hadn't moved to look around, which was uncharacteristic, but she had surprised me a lot over the past few days with uncharacteristic behaviour. She stayed beside Prin, probably feeling sympathy for the girl, which I could understand completely.

"It's not terrible," I concluded. "But a prison is a prison, it doesn't matter what facilities and luxuries you have."

"Not to mention the lack of music," Sarphi pointed out.

Prin's shoulders slumped and she nodded her head slowly.

"Yeah well, they should've checked our bags." I reached into my bag and pulled out my guitar, which Aknon periodically shrinks for easy storage. "Think your father will be angry when I show up to our sentencing with this?" I grinned at Prin.

Her eyes were wide, and she rushed over to me, reaching out hesitantly and plucking the strings, flinching as they made a noise, but then bouncing up and down on the spot.

"I take that as a yes."