Never Leave Me; A Garmau Fanfic

Chapter Seventeen- Malachi's Castle

Aphmau's POV
I was the last one up the next morning. I left the tent to see the guys sparring outside. I sat down in front of the fire and ate an apple. They stopped when they saw me.
"Good morning, Lord Aphmau." Garroth said.
"Hey, Aphmau." Laurance said.
"Good morning." Dante said.
"Hey guys. How long have you guys been up?" I asked.
"Ummm, maybe about 2 hours?" Laurance guessed.
"What? Why didn't you guys wake me up earlier?" I asked.
"You looked exhausted and we wanted to make sure you got enough sleep." Garroth said.
"Plus, we went out and got horses while you were asleep so we don't have to walk anymore." Laurance said, happily.
"Great, should we get going, then?" I asked.
"Yeah, we should be close. Just a few more hours." Dante said. Laurance groaned.
"Uggggg, a few more HOURS?!" He whined.
"Stop complaining and get your horse." Garroth said and Laurance left to get the horses while Garroth, Dante, and I took down the tent. It's always faster tearing down a tent then it is to put one up. By the time we were done, Laurance came back with 4 horses. I immediately ran over to a white one. It looked so pretty! The guys were fine with me taking it and they each got on their own horses.

We set off and were trotting for about 2 hours before we decided that it was time to give the horses a break and stop. Right when we were talking about stopping, a HUGE castle came into view.
"Wow, what's a castle doing out here?" I asked.
"Don't know. Wonder if anyone lives there?" Garroth said.
"Wouldn't hurt to ask." Laurance said. Dante looked confused.
"Everything ok, Dante?" I asked him.
"Yeah, it's just. This castle was not here when I fled with Donna. This is weird." He said.
"Hmmm, well. I think we should go check it out! It's a great place for a rest." I said and the guys agreed. We went over and stood in front of the door. The place looked abandoned. I'd be surprised if someone actually did live here. I opened the door and went inside and the inside was huge. There were stairs in the middle of the room leading up and boarded up doors on both of the walls. I told the guys to split up to see if anyone was here. We all went upstairs and split up. I was looking around for a while, when I opened a door that led to a room. There were toys on the floor and a crib. I went in and looked around then all of a sudden, I heard a voice inside my head.
"Hmmm, let's see what your biggest fear is." It said. I suddenly saw Phoenix Drop, burned to the ground. Everyone I love and care about dead and I felt tears running down my face. The vision disappeared and the voice spoke again.
"Loosing the people you love. Gosh you are so predictable!" It then laughed. I dark figure appeared in front of me. It looked like a ghost.
"I've already messed with all of your friends. Awwww, you would be blushing if I showed you one of your friends fears. Would you like me to? Ahahahahhahahahah." What is this thing?
"No, I don't want to see it. Who are you?" I asked.
"Hahaha. It'd be pointless to tell you since you will be dead in a s-" I saw a sword sticking out of the ghost and it disappeared. In its place was a little ghost child. He was crying. I looked up to see who saved me and I saw Garroth with his sword in hand.
"L-Lady Aphmau. A-Are you ok?" He asked.
"Um, yeah. I think so." I didn't realize that I was on the floor. He reached his hand out to me and pulled me up.
"Thanks." I said as Dante and Laurance came into the room.
"Aphmau. What happened?" Laurance asked and I looked at the little crying child.
"I-I'm s-s-so s-s-sorry." He said in between sobs. I felt bad for the kid. I crouched down next to him.
"Calm down. Can you tell us who you are?" I asked him as nicely and calmly as possible. He nodded.
"M-My name is M-Malachi. I've lived in this house for about 900 y-years. I don't know what it is but I have the power to see people's fears and show them to the person. I only do it when I'm scared or threatened. I'm s-so s-sorry for doing it to you all. No one has ever been in this house for 900 years and I guess I was scared that you'd come for me. I'm so sorry." He started crying again.
"It's ok. We didn't come for you. We actually came to see if we could stay here for a bit. We've been traveling for a while and we needed a break. Is that ok?" I asked him.
"Y-Yeah. It's ok. Anything to make it up to you guys." He said.
We all went down the stairs and set up our sleeping bags and a fire. For some reason we couldn't place torches around. I was sitting on my sleeping bag when Garroth came over to me. He sat down next to me.
"So, what are we going to do with Malachi?" He asked. I looked at him.
"What do you mean?" I asked and he laughed.
"Come on. I know that look on your face. It was the same one I saw when you told me you were going to keep Levin. You want to take Malachi with us, don't you?" He was smiling and I looked away.
"You know me too well. Alright yes. I want to take him with us. He seems so lonely here in this castle. I think he'd be happier with us." I looked at him and he gave me a shy smile.
"You're too sweet." He blushed a little and muttered something that I didn't here.
"What was that?" I asked and his face became bright red.
"U-Um, n-nothing. I t-think Laurance wants to t-talk to me. I'll s-see you l-later, Aph." He rushed off.
"Did he just call me 'Aph'?" I wondered.
A few minutes later I went to go tell Malachi that we were bringing him with us and he seemed super happy. After that, we all went to sleep, planning to wake up at dawn to go find Logan.