Bewitching the Beast

Chapter 7

Ivy

I waited in that room for a few minutes just taking in all of it again. I stand there looking at everything and wondering who else might be watching me, or what Thrain has for a house pet. And the sad thing is that I don't know which one would be scarier, meeting Roland in a dark abandoned hallway, or meeting one of Thrain's creatures, if he has any.

I scan the room again looking for an escape route. There are three doors and a few windows, but not much else. There is, however, many things that I can use to defend myself if need be. Countless candlesticks stand on coffee tables and end tables, keeping their silent stance. And of course there are all the logs over in the corner, along with a fire poker with a very sharp end.

I'm in the middle of folding my many blankets that that monster grabbed when he kidnapped me when a door squeaks open. My head snaps up so fast that I think that I have whiplash. My eyes fly to the door and scan for any threats that may be there, but I only see a young girl, no more than sixteen. Her bright red hair is pulled back in a pretty braid with little wisps that fall out to frame her face. Her blue eyes look almost purple in the light and they are filled with fear...of what? I follow her line of sight and see that she's staring at me.

She's afraid of me? Why? I haven't even seen this girl and yet she's trembling with fear. I can almost smell it in the air. I'm surprised that she hasn't wetted herself yet.

"Hon, I won't hurt you." I say soothingly, like my mom use to do with me when we would meet family that I didn't know. I try to make my voice like verbalized honey, warm and soft and sweet. "I promise."

"Th Th Th Thrain to told me to c come and bring you t to your rooms." she stutters as she presses herself to the wall. I can see the wheels turning in her head as she begs whatever gods she worships to let her become one with the wall.

"Okay. Lead the way."

She almost runs out the door when I start to follow her, like every foot that she gets away from me the more she'll be safe. She waits for me every so often in the lit halls. I try to take it all in. The tapestries of woodland scenes and glorious festivals, the artwork of people that looked important in their silk and velvet, the suits of armor lining the walls looking ready to spring into action at a moments notice, and everything else along the way. Rich carpets lined the halls, the color varying upon which wing we were in. I follow her for what seems like hours. We take lefts and rights and rights and left and lefts and rights, over and over again. I now know what the people that were left in the labyrinth felt like. I don't know where I am anymore. This place is huge. The walls are at least twenty feet tall. The only hint that I'm going in the right direction is the little glimpse of bright red hair.

Finally we stop at a set of white double doors with my namesake painted all over it. Twisting and turning its way to the top of the door, and in the middle of it is my name. Large silver letters are nailed to the door. All elegantly made, almost like someone did them in caligraphy. The dark greens of the ivy and the white of the door go so well with the name plate.

"This will be you room for the rest of you stay madam." Says the little girl as she bounds down the corridor. "Dinner will be brought to you at six thirty. You're welcome to wander around if it would please you, just don't loose your way. You never know what you'll find around here."

I guess she really isn't a people person than. Either that or she's just as afraid of me as I am of this place, and I can't say that I really blame her.

I push open the door and stop. The 'room' that I though I was getting is really several 'rooms' as in many, like more than we had in our home. The room that I'm standing in is full of chairs of all sizes and shapes. Big ones with way too much stuffing and small ones with still way too much stiffing. Those little round footrests that you see in the movies, I have one, or two, I can't tell from where I'm still standing, gaping like a lunatic. Totally my style. I have leather chairs and velvet chairs, victorian fainting couches, big winged chairs with clawed feet. Almost every chair has clawed feet. I also have a huge black marble fireplace with white veins running though it, shaped like a lion's head in mid roar. It has teeth and everything. Its snout is even wrinkled a little. Two of the walls are painted a deep red, almost a burgundy, but not quite, and the other two are floor to ceiling bookshelves. Old leather bound books that look like first additions of Jane Eyre and Wurthering Heights. There are hard copies and paperbacks of every book that I have ever wanted to read. I have fiction and romance and sci-fi and dystopic and so many others. The ceiling had white casings shaped like shells. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling with other little glass laps that were fixed on the walls.