Innocent Midnight

IM 15

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Daniels brow rose as he watched Ember rocket out of her bed and into the bathroom. What that was about he’d no clue. It took him at least an hour to remove her from the warmth of her sheets, and then another twenty minutes to get her to leave the room. All while wearing proper attire for one who was the daughter to the Head Master.

Shopping with Ember was surprisingly easy, until he started asking her to pick out dresses she wanted. Then it would have been simpler to pull teeth from Nick. What had Daniel surprised the most was the way everyone flocked to her. The aura around Ember was bright, full of light and calmness that never seemed to dim even in the darkest of hours. She was spectacular.

Waiting on her bedside Daniel hummed softly while listening to the rushing of the water, he was going to have to convince her to buy a gown for the huge event her father was holding, which just happened to be in her honor. He groaned. She was going to put up such a fight about it. When the water squeaked off his head shot up. Moments later a fully dressed Ember was stepping out of the bathroom while rubbing her hair dry with a fluffy white towel.

She looked…deep in thought, Daniel thought as he watched her carefully.

        “Are you alright?” He asked concern dripping from every word. She nodded absentmindedly while tossing the towel to a hamper.
   
        “I’m not going anywhere today” She said, folding her arms over her breasts. Daniel huffed. He new that was coming.

        “Ember we need…” She shook her head.

        “I’m going to do some reading, I want….to know more about what goes on here and the library seems like a good idea.” She held a serious tone that struck a cord with him, pushing off the bed he nodded.

        “Very well. We can do that for a while, and then go pick out a dress for you” Her eyes sparked making him inch backwards.

        “You can pick the dress, it will give me more time to read” There was a smile, but it was anything but cheerful. Though she was being polite Daniel new she was hair pin away from blazing her markings. With one last effort Daniel cleared his throat, which felt like sandpaper.

        “But, I don’t know what color you want. Or style” He scratched his jaw feeling her eyes upon him.

        “I trust you” Was all she spoke before walking towards the door. Daniel couldn’t even say he didn’t know her measurements, cause that had been the first thing they had gone and gotten. With a heavy sigh of defeat Daniel left the room as well, Ember going to the right as he to the left.

~~~~~~

Each step down the halls was another way for Ember to take in her new life. Pictures of elegant art works done up in golden frames, some holding the edges of flora designs. Sliding a hand over surfaces along her way, Ember smiled to herself when the door to the room she seeked came upon her view. Its whitened grin widened as she pushed the dark wood revealing rows upon rows of old texts from centuries ago.

Carefully Ember ran delicate fingers over the bindings reading each marking and letter as if her life depended on it, which in some ways it did. One after another she stacked them within her arms till it was all she could to, to see where she moved to. Grinning foolishly Ember’s smile slithered away when the sounds of her steps were matched with a much louder pair. Looking about the room for the being who was also within the library walls, she frowned at seeing no one.

It wasn’t that she was scared of who it might be, but curious as to why they did not show face. Taking slow throughout steps Ember once again heard the muffled stomping behind her, spinning around till her ankles felt as though they would snap off she yelped in utter disbelief at what she was now face to face with.

~~~~~~~

They had made their choice, if Ember could walk into the blood forest…well then so could they. Len had his gear tightly bound to his back as Russ followed behind like a long lost puppy clinging to the things Len had somehow managed to retrieve. Every sound caused Russ to suck in a breath. This place, it wasn’t just spooky it was down right evil. Even birds refused to nest in its hollowed out dead trees, fear that the tree would come back to life. Which wouldn’t surprise Russ in the least.

Stopping without warning Russ nearly crashed into Len’s backside, his hand went up to silence Russ from grumbling. Looking around his shoulder Russ tried to see what he saw, but the pitch of nothing seemed to go on forever.

        “Why’d you top?” Russ asked in a low hiss. Len’s eye moved slowly to glance at him before quickly looking back in front of him.

“Where being watched” He ground back, making a shiver run down Russ’s spine. Like a untrained dog Russ began to pop the clip to his blade while trying to somehow enhance his night vision to that of an owls.

        “Where?” He hissed turning to the left then back again.
   
        “Don’tcha think if I knew that, I’d of gone after the beastly creature?” Russ tried not to get snippy with the man, but he was so damn frightened he shivered roughly at the thought of what could be staring straight at them without their knowing.

        “What do we do then?” A lineament question Russ had thought, but the answer wasn’t as pleasing.

        “We move onward” An so Len took his first step onward leaving Russ to almost squeak in fear as he caught up.

        “But what if its in front of us?” He asked chewing on the inside of his cheek. Bright eyes from Len had Russ wondering what was safer, the man before him or the creature that lurked somewhere unbeknownst to him.

“Then we no have to look for it anymore, do we lad?” He turned back around cracking the thick of his neck. Russ shook off the spine tingling sound as he to walked on, eyes pealed to anything that may even shift in a short breeze.

What felt like hours wasn’t more then a few minutes at most, Russ could feel his muscles tightening to his body being on such a high alert. Sleep was out of the question. With nothing to burn but bloody wood, Russ didn’t feel the need to stay any longer in the saplings if he could help it.

Sounding more like thunder then anything else Russ spun around as did Len, it grew closer with even rickety breath they took. Half the mind to run off Russ’s legs took a different root, and literally stuck to the ground. So thankful Ember would not see such a coward Russ gulped when the bulk of Len move in front of him.

        “Easy lad” Was all he spoke before trees began to topple over with crackling sounds of spiriting blood. Oh yes Russ thought, easy. Easy his ass. Whatever was causing all that damage was huge, huge and coming straight at them. His hand shook tremendously gripping the sheath of his blade. Doing his best to take calming breaths Russ wrapped shaking fingers over the swords hilt when the roaring of something caused his blood to shift, its wafted ice cold throughout his body rendering him speechless.

If he made it through this night, he’d never forget those piercing eyes. Eyes that seemed to brighten with a fury all their own. Devil eyes.

*XD yes I know I'm so very evil to you all. ^-^ deal with it, you love it. Now VOTE, and I wanna know what you think. I'm expecting at least 20 comments. -.- and Rissa, Tina that doesn't mean you write 4 of the ten. >.> just saying. *