The Fallen Throne

Chapter 16 ✦ Unforeseen Danger

Kai is wide awake in the middle of the night.

He steps out of his temporary assigned sleeping quarters, his bare feet meeting the cold marble stone floor. The narrow hallway is dark and empty, and there isn't a single person in sight when he perks his head around to check – it is, after all, past midnight.

Closing the door behind him quietly, he begins making his way to the centre room. His room is perhaps the last in the long corridor, so he has to walk quite a bit before reaching his destination.

Apart from darkness and seclusion, there's also no sound except for his light footsteps that are heard in such serenity.

The Kingdom of Caelus' great walls never held Kai, so he believes that this "secret base" of theirs would not make any difference. He's sneaked out a couple times before, and this is nothing compared to the entire kingdom.

There is a reason. He doesn't want to do this if he hasn't a choice – he desperately wants to keep a low profile, after everything they've been through. A lot of time has already been wasted when he's stuck with the inner debate. But here he is, ultimately choosing what he will, without fail, do under any circumstances, what is necessary, even if it's less wise. He needs to see his family.

They are probably worried sick by now – maybe even thinking he's dead. Kai never leaves the home for more than an entire day, and he's certainly never not tell them about it, no matter how briefly he tells them about where he's headed to.

Yet it is a rather half-baked plan. It's not about himself; rather, Kai is worried his family might be endangered if he pays them a visit. The warning they'd saw earlier this morning already marks him as a criminal. The worst thing is, he isn't even sure if his face is already sensitive and being hunted, and he is less sure whether his family is already aware that he is involved in this mess.

Nevertheless, the best thing he can think of now is to simply leave them a note and check if they are well just from afar. As long as they are fine, his uneasy heart will be lightened. There will be no risks if they do not make contact.

When he finally makes it to the centre room though, he stops dead in his tracks.

Kai thinks he's heard wrong, but now that his footsteps aren't pounding on the ground anymore, he is certain he hears sounds.

Even if he continues walking, his footsteps aren't making the only sound. Because he's not alone.

Heart racing, Kai scans his surroundings. The centre room is empty. But when he closes his eyes and even holds his breath to try and make out where the sounds come from or even what the sounds are, his heart only begins pounding faster and louder in his ears.

Because he has already made up an excuse if he's ever caught – although really unlikely, in his opinion, he isn't afraid, only curious. Just what are the sounds, so soft and distant, yet so close?

Nobody should be awake.

Taking a few random steps around and about the centre room as quietly as possible, Kai stops again when he finally hears the sounds clearer. They come from one of the many corridors sprouting from the centre room.

Cautiously, he closes in on the source. Although he can't seem to see anyone, he hears it clearly now – those are voices, as soft as murmurs. But who is it, and where are they?

His curiosity grows when there is clearly no one in the deserted corridor; he is obviously standing alone in the dark. To make things more suspicious, Kai only realises then that the hallway he's standing in is the furthest from the centre room and the most isolated one of all corridors – it has no rooms, no nothing. He's noticed, when they'd arrived earlier today along with Rose that this corridor isn't populated and isn't filled with people like how the others are. And since it's located far away from the other corridors and hallways, he is sure the voices aren't from anywhere else but here.