Regiphobia

The Rebels

Flame licked at the walls of the castle as José calmly walked through the hallway. Muttering echoed in his ears, but he kept his eyes trained straight ahead of him. The flame grew, overtaking anyone he passed and melting away the things around him. More and more fire, more noise, more of everything was attacking his senses.

Then it all stopped, and he sighed quietly in relief. His mind was hell sometimes.

As he rounded the corner, he saw Arial again. He couldn't seem to stop running into her. Her eyes lit up when she saw him. She walked up to him. Then she started signing to him. Dammit.

'Hello, Officer,' she smiled at him.

He simply gave a polite nod in response, "Your Majesty."

'Sorry if I'm taking up your time. I just couldn't help but notice how often I see you around the castle,' Arial commented, hands moving quickly and smoothly.

"Yes, I help out around the place quite a bit," José kept his voice level, his mask of emotionlessness unwavering.

'How did you end up-' Arial started, but her motions were cut short by the sound of shattering windows and the echoes of guns being fired. Glass rained over the people in the hall, followed by screams, running, terror. José's hand instinctively jumped to the gun on his belt, which he pulled out before seeing the state Arial was in.

Her arm, which had been up to protect her face, was covered in shards of glass, blood slowly dripping down to her elbow and onto the floor. She looked terrified, but composed herself quickly and started moving. She motioned for her personal guards to follow her, as well as José. He did as instructed, staying beside her and holding up his weapon. He saw people start to flood into the castle from the broken windows. Rebels. When he heard another gunshot and saw a bullet lodge into the wall near them, he started shooting at the invaders, keeping track of how many fell. One, two three, four five six, seven, eight, nine ten eleven twelve. He was a near-perfect shot. In the back of his mind, he knew that these were humans he was shooting at. He'd been trained not to care.

"Your Majesty, this way!" José called, leading her to a hidden door. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. They fell like dominos. Arial stayed behind him, wincing every time she moved her injured arm. Blood was pooling on the floor beside her. He pushed open the door, motioning for Arial to get in. Her personal guards were fighting the rebels, and one had a bullet hole in his arm. Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three. Before he looked back at Arial, his count had gotten up to thirty-four.

'You're coming with me,' Arial signed quickly to him, one of her hands shaky from pain.

"No, I need to stay up here. Get in the safe room, Your-" José started, forty-two by the end of the sentence, but she signed again.

'That wasn't a request, José,' Arial signed, 'You're coming down with me.'

José hesitated, then nodded. They didn't have time to argue. Arial slipped into the room, José shot two more times, then followed her, closing the door behind them. They ran down a spiral staircase into the safe room.

Meanwhile, Goda had heard guns and shattering and screaming, and he was holed up in his room, feeling like he could have a panic attack at any moment. He tried desperately to steady his breathing, to think rationally, to force himself to stand up and move, but he couldn't. Terror paralyzed him, and he knew he'd be just another victim of this attack if he didn't get out of here.

He heard a familiar voice shouting in the hallway, "Goda! Goda, where are you?"

"Here!" he forced himself to shout back. The door opened, and Juan was at his side in a second. He had panicked eyes as he took Goda's hand and helped him stand.