Red haired girl

Chapter 15

Tarah opened her eyes. Dust was raining down on her. She was lying face-down on the marble floor. She remembered the race against the clock to get out of her former home and then… nothing. Blackness. She attempted to get up, but something chained her to the ground. She tried to turn around and found herself able to do so. She froze. The thing holding her down was Will’s arm.

“Will?” she murmured. He didn’t react. She shook his shoulder. Still no reaction. She worriedly noticed that his wound had started to bleed again. She had to get him some help, but she was still stuck. Not only was his arm wrapped around her, there were also huge, heavy parts of the former ceiling above them. They had been very lucky, to be at this specific spot, were the parts formed a small triangular space, like a tent. Or actually, she had been lucky. She remembered how Will had run back and pushed her behind the fallen statue of her grandfather. If he hadn’t come back, she would have been dead.

            This realisation made tears find their way down her cheeks. What had she done? Because of her hatred, he might die. She thought of what he had said, back in the dungeon-hall. “What do I have at home? A house, yes, but what do I have to do with an empty house? It’s not much of a home without my father.” She had slapped him, because she thought he was teasing her with her father’s death. Now it was obvious that he had seriously been talking about his own father. He had been right with his statement, though. Why hadn’t that occurred to her earlier? She could have moved on, get over her father’s death, find a new home, instead of holding on to this horrendous castle. But it was too late now. The damage had already been done. She wouldn’t give up, though. She finally had a reason to go on again and she would not let that reason leave her so soon.

            She squeezed herself out of Will’s grip and tried to sit. She hit her head against the stone of the former ceiling and cursed. Stupid ceiling. She pushed against it, but it was of course way too heavy for her to lift. Trying not to panic she turned around. She almost jumped up with relief, but luckily she remembered not to do that. Two of the ceiling parts left a small hole open. It looked big enough for her to get through. She looked behind at Will, who was still unconscious. Then she tried to get out of the suffocating space. She had to hole herself up to get out, but she was just a few inches too small. She tried again and again, but it didn’t work. Frustrated, she lowered herself down again.

She turned around, only to get startled: Will had woken up and he was very close all of a sudden. He smiled.

“Did I scare you?” he asked amused. She pushed him of, but couldn’t help but smile.

            He gestured to the way out and she attempted to get out again. This time, Will helped her up. He came out behind her.

“What now?” Will asked. She shrugged. How was she supposed to know? She headed to the exit. Or at least somewhere to get out of this mess, there wasn’t much of an exit left.

“Hey, where are you going?” Will called after her. “Tarah!” He stumbled over to her, grabbing her arm. She shook him of and walked away.

“Wait! Where are you going?” he asked again, confused. She didn’t respond, hoping he would leave her, so she couldn’t ruin his life any further. She felt like she messed up everything. Her father had even told her so one day. That was a few weeks before the war started. Not the latest war, causing his death, but the war of fifteen years ago. The war in which he had turned his back to the kingdom and tried to take it over for the first time. She had not yet turned one year old then and she didn’t remember it, but she had heard the staff talk about things like that often enough to know he had said things like that to her. It had hurt to hear that, but she was used to it by now.