The Princess Without a Crown -- [COMPLETE]

"She didn't regret it..."

The wind rushed past her ears as Hope sprinted through the maze of towering crates. She skidded to a stop when she found the hiding place she'd chosen prior. Then waited, with bated breath. Her lungs began to burn with the building pressure, but she kept still. Stretching her senses, focusing them. The slow creak of the door opening, a shuffle of footsteps, and the unmistakable sizzling sound of a trap being unset.

A release of air followed by the wet sound of tearing flesh. Hope smirked as a scream rang out, followed by a string of curses. Pressurized, steel arrows. Not everything had to be accomplished through magic.

"Find it!" shouted their leader.

Knowing moments from now, she'd be face to face with the man with the tattooed knuckles. While this should have filled her with dread, it didn't. It exhilarated her. Footsteps sounded around the corner from where she was. It seemed the group had split to search the maze.

Oh, what a mistake that was.

Hope remained in her position as a woman with very little clothing and a long blonde braid down her back raced past. She skidded into the center of the path behind her, focusing on the center of her back.

"Vados," she murmured in a hushed voice, eyes trained on the hunter. The wooden planks of the two crates on either side of her broke free from their nails. Wood and metal rushed the woman on both sides. The death was quick, slicing into her left ribs and the right of her neck. A spray of blood washed out in all directions, scarcely missing Hope.

Hope disapproved of a suffered death, most of the time. No matter how deserved.

She jogged past the limp body, where it crashed to the ground in a sticky pool. She took a sharp right at the t-intersection of a wall of wood. There, she sat on her heels, nestled in the shadows of the little nook that led to nowhere. She could see straight down one path of the maze's center unobstructed. A man raced by, not noticing her.

Truth be told, she wasn't sure how many hunters were roaming the maze. To assume there were only as many as she'd initially seen that night at the motel would be foolish. So she'd play it smart and safe, picking them off one by one until none remained.

Another set of footsteps coming around the corner pulled her from her thoughts. No, two sets. Perfect. The more that fell into this trap, the better.

An almost translucent paint coated the cement not too far ahead of the hiding place. It was in a perfect circle in the center of the junction and nearly invisible unless you searched for it.

The two men she remembered vividly hopping out of the green truck wielding weapons tripped over the invisible line and into the circle where it engulfed them in a thick, gray fog. It filled them through their mouth and nose.

Soaking through their skin.

Their screams were cut off as their skin hardened and disintegrated into dusty, crumbly ash. Leaving nothing behind but a pile that one might assume was the contents of a fireplace.

Hope wrinkled her nose and cringed, trying to ignore the acidic fumes that pierced her nose. She didn't have time to think she may have gone a little far in setting these traps. She turned to her left, where she'd moved a crate previously, giving her a quick escape to a dark passage behind the row of boxes. It was only just wide enough for her body to slip through soundlessly.

Coming to a thin stream of light penetrating the darkness, she crouched and gazed through the crack between two of the crates. She couldn't see much, but she could see anyone running by. She reached her hand through, readying herself with steady feelings, and waited. Steeling herself for the sound of crunching bones she'd soon be inflicting on the next passerby.