Lightning Skies

Chapter 25

I quickly tossed the note down, but my hands lingered on the rose. It had been cleared of all the thorns, but it still seemed treacherous. It seemed as though it was stained with the blood of Annaliese. I quickly tossed it down with the note and began looking around.

It was then that I realized I had no idea where I was. I was on the forest floor, who knows how many miles away from the church, I didn't exactly keep count when I was running.

I couldn't call for help, everyone thought that I was a murderer. Daniel certainly wouldn't help after admitting that he was the murderer.

And why would he murder poor, innocent Annaliese? She didn't want to steal his coin, and she genuinely loved him. I started crying, thinking of her body in that coffin, that would soon be in the cold, hard earth. Then it would start to decompose, and then all of Annaliese would just be a skeleton.

The thought made me aware of the fact that that's how I would end up if I didn't start moving, so I started off in the direction from which I came.

I thought there would at least be some landmarks I could go by, but there was nothing. Not a weirdly shaped rock or a tree that was bent over.

With each step, I felt that I was just getting myself more and more lost. It was starting to get darker out, and I had run into a patch of the forest covered with thorn bushes, so I also had many cuts. 

To make it even worse, I thought I saw red eyes peering at me from behind trees in several places. I could even hear Daniel whisper Run Juliette, run. You know you'll never escape.

This just made me even more determined, so I ran faster and faster until I tripped over an unseen tree root, hit my head, and began to feel very sleepy.

As I lay there, I looked up at the night sky, admiring the stars through my blurred vision. Suddenly, two Daniels, probably a hallucination, appeared over me, looking down at me. One of them had icey blue eyes, and the other has steaming red ones.

"Why won't you come and be my princess?" asked the blue-eyed one "I love you Juliette." And a single tear ran down his cheek. The red-eyed one, though, had the voice of a roaring monster.

"Juliette! Come with me to my kingdom!" it screeched "Be with me! Be with me!!!" And then I slipped into a cold, worried sleep.

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I was back in the field surrounding Daniel's castle. Red lightning boomed from above, and tornadoes were swirling everywhere. Daniel was in a broken throne, riding atop one of them. His red eyes seemed to just be swirling pools of blood.

"Daniel!" I screamed to him, trying to make myself heard "You have to stop this!!!" He just laughed. A laugh that boomed and could be heard over any noise.

"You had your chance to live a happy life with me!" he yelled maniacally "Now you'll just have to live in pain!"  He flicked his hand, and one of his tornadoes came and picked me up. i sat there for awhile being swirled around, before it through me down, down, down.

And that was all I felt. Just down. I didn't know if I would fall or if I would hit something and meet my demise.

Eventually, I just hit solid rock floor. Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw all around me skeletons and fragments of blood stained bone.

Daniel soon descended slowly into the room with me.

"Welcome to my torture chamber, Juliette." And he smiled evilly.

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That was when I woke up. The sun was just barely hitting the horizon. I sat up, tears I don't remember crying streaming down my face. Wiping them away, I stood up, and brushed the dirt off my back.

Today was the day I planned to find my way home.

And to defeat Daniel.