Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
|| X ||
Maybe it's because of the numbness in my fingers or the glass digging into the skin of my feet, but it takes a few seconds for me to make the connection. Don't trust Raphael. And when it does, my lips move on their own, "Your name is Ralphie?"
His eyes turn from Nikita to me. "I believe I just said that."
"It's not, like, short for anything?"
"You don't like Ralphie?"
"That's not it," I clear my throat. "It's just that you don't seem like a Ralphie to me."
The man's smile grows impossibly wider. "What do I look like to you, then?"
"This isn't the time to have this conversation," Nikita interrupts, saving me from coming up with a response. "We need to get out of here before the person behind this figures out we're not dead yet. Vivre, don't you have something you wanted to do?"
He avoided my question.
I want to push him on it, but Nikita's right. Careful not to trip over any more chandeliers, I step over the crystals until I reach the door Ralphie's companion escaped through. The doorknob is bloody.
Blech.
Still trembling, I grab the doorknob and twist it open. A burst of sudden air blows the door open and I stumble backwards. My feet, already injured from the crystal shards, can't keep me steady and I fall right into Ralphie's chest.
"Careful," He mummers, his lips touching my hair, and releases me.
I mummer a quiet "thanks" and turn my attention to the door.
There's a staircase on the other end, rocky and tumbling down into darkness. There are holes on either side of the wall, letting the chilling wind from outside wash over us. A trail of liquid black is the only sign that the man was ever here.
I tighten the robe around my waist, fighting the shivers that threaten to tear me into two.
"We should go down, just a few steps," I say through chattering teeth. "He couldn't have gone too far with his injuries."
Ralphie's hair flutters in the wind. "Let him bleed. He left me behind to die back in the ballroom. It's fair to do the same thing to him."
"I'm not going to waste more time in another detour," Nikita adds.
It takes me another second to understand.
"So, wait - what? You want to leave him alone to die?"
"You may go ahead and attempt to find him," Nikita plays with her earring. "But I'm not coming with you. And I highly doubt that you want to wander the halls of this castle by your lonesome."
