The not-a-princess

The living dead? Irl? no thank you!

We entered a shed. Dark. And full of- woah! Harley lit a candle, scraping a match against her manicured nails and everything came to view. The whole room was barely smaller than an over-used attic and all walls from top to bottom were decorated with swords, axes, spikes, and all sorts of poison. There was barely space to walk as huge tables that were pushed back were taking up a lot of space. It was very dark – did I mention that. 

If I didn't it was dark, dark kind of dark. It was unusually covered with cobwebs,as if nobody bothered to come here, by most of the uh, weapons were nice and polished. Very few were coated in thick layers of dust and what I hoped wasn't dried blood. That's strange, how come these items looked like they were used alot? Why? Whats with this whole old – edgy smell, like an old man's place, mothballs? Ria turned left and right, often wolf-whistling when her eye caught something. 

I once caught her placing something in her pocket, what a thief. "Hey, this looks like my grandma's place! Minus the dead body you know." She said, fiddling with a multiple-edged chainsaw. 

We all froze in our tracks, Harley turned sharply to Ria and screeched, "If you see a dead body, you warn the living people in the same room!" she bonked the girl on the head. 

"Pass me the candle." I order, Harley doesn't argue, I lift it up and very uncomfortably close to us was a corpse. Hung onto the wall with her wrists tied up was none other than Faye. I startle a scream which Harley failed to do. Ria covered her ears and went back to her sharp babies. I take a deep breath and touch her pulse, she smells normal enough – no rotting or anything yet and she's still warm, must've died a minute or so before. 

Or she might be alive. Harley looked sick, "Um I think I'll leave you to that. But she just got dragged here less than 10 to 15 minutes ago! How could she die so fast? And how could no one hear her screams?" I bit my tongue and thought, "the room is sound-proof and probably used to silence students who know something they don't and it seems as if they do this... regularly." I continue to examine the body making notes: pained expression, clothes wrinkled – a sign of struggle, her lips were blue and smelt sour (poison?) blood from her nose – some nerve was destroyed on the inside, bruises and most horrifying enough: names carved into her body and a dagger into her hand. 

"So uh, do you think we'll be next? Since you know we're not supposed to be here?" Harley squeaked, her eyes darting around nervously. I don't reply to that. 

Ria popped back up next to us and roped an arm around Harley's shoulder (who shrieked), "Heh, I had no idea you were such a scaredy cat." She called out, provoking the taller to amuse her. 

Harley shoved her, "I'm not! I have never been scared of anything... except murder..." I sympathized and offered her a smile. 

Ria huffed and nudged over to me. "So you guessed it didn't you? Enlighten us, Mr. Sherlock." She called out teasingly. She thinks that I was still a good-for-nothing. 

I rolled my eyes, I wasn't playing this game, and "She was killed by a nerve agent, more specifically Sarin It also could be some heavy metal from her dragger they forced down her throat. It causes overstimulation to the nerve receptors. It doesn't paralyse, so she then had enough time after the 'killers' thought she was dead to leave us a message." 

Ria blinked, clearly surprised and in defeat muttered, "whatever you know too much." 

Harley had plugged her ears with her fingers and was muttering, "They're coming after us next. We have to know nothing..." over and over. Ria frowned, clearly worried about her friend and turned to me, "she's going to be okay, right?" Before I could reply her eyes trailed up and behind me and gasped, her face twisted gruesomely. I turned, heart pounding in my ears. Faye groaned and raised her head, mine and Ria's name sprawled across both her cheeks in blood. She turned left, grabbed the rope with her teeth and ripped them, freeing herself. She did so on the other hand and collapsed onto the floor. I was paralysed with fear, she was supposed to be dead. Why isn't she dead? She turned to me, her eyes, blank and clear like a carved fish. 

She rasped, blood and sand with an awful smell of clear poison spilled out, "You... child of Aurthur.... Walk a terrible... path... your end... is gruesome..." every muscle in my body cried in terror, but I could not even blink. Faye turned and lumbered over to Ria and Harley and grabbed the dagger I had taken from her. 

I screamed. 

Nobody heard. 

Ria looked frozen in motion, her face still pulling that expression that made me sick. Faye touched Ria and Harley's lips. They both yelled in agony, and clutched their necks, collapsing. I screamed again. 

And again. 

And again. 

Again.

Again.

AGAIN.

AGAIN.

AGAIN.

I threw up. 

Faye didn't touch them again and limped away into the endless woods. Before she left I heard something, so faint, I thought I was dreamt it, "no one will ever use me again. I will be free now, I have been given a second chance, I have been freed." She left. The room was still dark.Our candle had spilled and one of the walls was on fire. Both my roommates' were sobbing and shrieking and pulling out clumps of hair. Their pupils diluted. They weren't physically harmed. They had no clue of the fire engulfing us. 

They both seemed to be saying the same thing: "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I couldn't focus on them, ash stuffed my lungs. Flames licked my ankles; my cotton dress erupted in flames. In desperation I reached out to the nearest thing; a cold piece of metal and clutched onto it. Harley struggled forward to me, she was in so much pain but she smiled at me. She held out her hand and I held it. She relaxed against my grip, "I'm sorry... she'll tell you... the truth." 

I collapsed. 

For how many days, who knew?