Dark Prince: The Death Realm

Chapter 9

The prince wandered through the maze of halls endlessly. Then he heard a voice whisper his name. The voice of Genevia. How torturous could Kalik get? How could he get away with tricking him with the sound of her voice? 

"Genevia, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault." he tried to go towards the sound of her voice, but found it to be nearly impossible with the sound bouncing off of the walls.  "Please. Genevia, forgive me!" he called to her far away voice. He used her voice as way for him to keep going. Zekrin could practically smell her strong lavender scent from wherever she was in this maze. 

He wanted so badly to see her. He longed to see her again. 

The king was slow to move his feet. He let the fingers of his left hand wander freely over the textured rock. He faltered in his step when he felt something almost indescribably smooth beneath his palm. He turned to his left to be face to face with the smooth rock. He moved his hand down to find a midsize contusion in the rock shaped like a door handle. He turned it slowly, trying to make sure he would have more than enough time to leap back and fruitlessly run from whatever horror lay behind the strange stone door. 

Zekrin opened it only to find pitch black darkness. He couldn't even guess the size of the room but the walls were far enough away to accommodate the darkness. 

IT isn't a broom closet. So this could be interesting... or scare the wits out of me. 

Wit were about the only useful thing he had about him. He couldn't very well waltz up to Kalik and offer him gold or part of his kingdom. 

Zekrin crept his way into the dark room, hoping with all his might that he wouldn't run into some hellion along the way. Behind him, the door shut, causing a gust of air to blow into the room and send shivers down his spine. He knew fro the loud clicking sound that there was no going back. He was locked in here. Wherever here was. Clearly this was where he was supposed to be .Either that or he had just made a death-altering mistake. He willed his foot to bump against a torch or some other kind of lighting possibility. But there was no such thing as light in this room. 

There was, in fact, a better chance of him meeting another creature in here than there was of him finding a light. He strained his ears for the slightest of sounds. All he could hear was his own breathing. In and out, heavy and so loud it sounded like a tornado. The king crept forward slower than before. He was barely moving now. Just barely shuffling forward. 

He heard the sound of tinkling bells, like the mother tongue of the fae and he smelled lavender. 

"Where are you, Genevia?" he called. He heard something slithering and hissing on the floor close by. His head whipped around as if he suddenly expected to be able to see what was there. He let out a high pitched yelp as it touched his arm initially. Then it slithered up his arm, leaving behind it a warm, slimy trail of goo. His other hand reached across, trying to catch the creature that was making it's way up onto his neck and slowly down his back. But he found he couldn't touch it. His hand was blocked by some sort of shield. 

The snake creature went around his stomach, defying gravity and sticking to him with gooey suction. Zekrin shuddered, tearing at his shirt, trying to get underneath it to tear it off. His nails were unable to get underneath the slithering snake like creature. He clawed at it, trying to even damage it slightly that it might rear up so he could grab it. But he was blocked by the shield again. 

He sank to his knees, desperate to get the creature off of his body and hoping that being closer to the ground might somehow will the creature to slither off his stomach and onto the cold, hard floor. He kept trying to claw at the creature, but it stayed in place, only slithering sideways when it felt the compulsion to move. The king felt tired. He swore that the creature was sucking his energy.

How was he going to get it off if he couldn't even see it? How was he going to get it off when he had less energy every second? Zekrin felt his eyes drooping as he felt the snake creature upon his stomach. He didn't stop trying to pry it away from his stomach. He somehow knew that the minute his stomach hit the ground, the snake would take over. He couldn't dare to attack it that way. It would attack him even as he felt the slight rush of air in his descent to the floor. Zekrin wasn't sure how he knew this. He guessed that it was just some kind of feeling.

He waited impatiently for it to move again so he could try to get the creature to go up. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath to try to stay calm. Then, behind his eyelids came a bright light and the smell of lavender. His eyes snapped open in a second. Zekrin's face lit up as his eyes opened to the sight of his fae queen Genevia.

"Is it really you, Genevia?" he whispered. He struggled to come to a standing position, however, he found his energy to be nearly spent due to the energy sucking snake creature that was on his stomach. He leaned heavily against the wall.

He found the room to be quite large and spacious. Genevia was a few feet away, but he found that she was much too transparent to be real. She was not really here. Once again, a trick by Kalik. He didn't know that he could trust his senses anymore. The smell and sight of her was so real... but so fake at the same time.

"What do you want from me?" he cried, "How am I supposed to really find her? You told me to go find her but you keep setting up these little tricks! You don't want me to find her, do you? You just want me to give up, don't you? You just want me to sit here and give up! But I won't do that, Kalik! I won't do that. I have to keep going. I have to keep...." he faltered.

You're talking to empty air again. You're just going insane. He told himself. He shook his head, putting his head in his hands and closing his eyes once more. The opaque Genevia was still giving off light even though her form faded. The light source remained at the same luminosity.

But it's source was... different. It was lowering. It kept going down until it hit the floor. There, he saw a small object. Flat, but with an odd shape. He staggered over to it and bent to pick it up. He almost fell to the floor. But when he got there, he sat down, too lightheaded to consider trying to stand up, let alone walk back to the wall where he would inevitably sink down to the floor anyways. Zekrin looked at the object closely: a puzzle piece.

It had no picture on it. It was white. Blank. It was flat along one side with two parts on either side that jutted outwards and another on top which cut into the piece in a circular manner. It was a piece to a puzzle to which he was missing all of the other pieces. The young king stared at the puzzle piece, wondering what it was supposed to make.

A puzzle, obviously! You idiot. What else would this thing make? A planet? A castle?

Kalik answered his sarcastic but questioning mind, "I see you've foundone of the puzzle pieces. That brings you one step closer to finding yourlittle fae queen. When you have assembled your half of the puzzle and she hasassembled her half, then you will be reunited. Although, it is quite a shamethat you cannot go back yet. You missed a few. Unfortunately, with thatDeficklesh on your stomach, there's really only one way out. You had betterhope that your wife finds your puzzle pieces for you, because you really aren'tgoing anywhere any time soon...."