Heir of Darkness

Chapter Seven

I was falling once again.

This time however didn't last for minutes like when I tumbled down the hole with Parker. It was quick, over in a second.

But it hurt a lot more.

My head smacked against the cold stone floor and it took a few woozy moments for me to gain full control over my mind and body again. An intense wave of pain passed over my body seconds after I hit the ground, immobilizing my body.

As pain ricocheted in my head I tried to close my hands into fists, testing my control over my muscles. I wiggled my toes and bent my knees slightly, stopping when the pain became too intense to handle, biting my lips as I waited for the torment to slowly fade away.

I stayed on the floor, my back uncomfortably against the hard, cold stone, for over ten minutes, slowly bending and stretching all my muscles in hopes that it would expel the pain away.

When I finally stood up I shot my hand to the back of my head, feeling around for any damage. I felt a damp wetness in my hair, matting the strands around it into a sticky mess.

Only when I was feeling around my hair did I remember my hair was still up in the braided fashion I wore at The Circus. I could only imagine how terrible it looked after what had happened to far and decided it was best to pull it down and began to pull the pins from my head. They fell to the floor with a soft clatter that echoed loudly in the stone room.

My black hair tumbled around my shoulders as I upbraided the plaits. I was surprised at how soft and smooth it still felt and the lack of slime tangled amongst it. In fact, as I looked down at the rest of my body, I seemed to be mostly clean of the black goo altogether.

Wiping off the dirt from my dress and pulling dead leaves from my hair as best I could I turned around, taking in the room around me.

The floor was made of hard grey stone that melded into the mud walls. Deep roots covered the whole room, sneaking down the muddy walls and across the floor. Looking to the ceiling all I saw was more mud and roots, no sign of the black slime or anyway out of the room. In the corners of the room lay dead ivy fallen from their vines long ago. Their green colour long ago died away and the ends of the three points had blackened and curled into the centre. It was very dark, with no light, artificial or natural, and the only reason I could see was a dim silver glow coming from the centre of the room.

A glass coffin was mounted on a thick stone slab positioned sideways a few feet ahead of me.

From what I could see it was long and thin, with sharp edges and made of smooth, clear glass smudged slightly from dirt. The top of it was flat and it went down into two sharp diagonals to the bottom pane of glass that lay flat underneath. It was wrapped in vines and roots that had long ago died. They were a drab dark brown and black in colour and tried their best to drown out the silver glow seeping through the small gaps between their vine fingers.

Through the fear and confusion a small bird of hope fluttered in my chest. I was already happy that, although I felt a constant buzz of pain, I was alive and well but as I slowly and warily approached the glass coffin I thought for a moment, maybe I had found him, maybe a had found the Prince.

I couldn't tell however, for the vast amount of vines and roots falling over the coffin barely made it recognisable as a glass coffin let alone let me peer over to see what was inside.

When I finally reached the coffin, my heart beating erratically in my chest, I reached out with shaking hands and began to pull off the vines and roots snaked around and over it. They had been dead for a very long time as I was able to tell from the dull, drained colour and how the thinner vines turned to dust in my hands. But some of the larger, thicker vines took a tough pulling and scraping to snap off and fall to the floor, my muscles screaming out in the task.