I watched as she dragged the corpses across the chamber floor, leaving a trail of red in her wake. Each time I caught a glimpse of their mutilated flesh, a sudden wave of nausea struck me. All that was left of the blond guard’s face was his lower jawbone, unhinged on one side and swaying with each tug. On the other hand, the short guard’s entrails were splayed over his chest, wrapping him like some sort of fine, meaty blanket. At least his face was still intact, although it was completely pale and devoid of any sort of life. No, that doesn't help. All of it was truly horrifying.

However, as much as I wanted to look away, I couldn’t, and I won’t. I had become an accomplice to this murder, and Anna’s current actions were due to my proposition. Because of that, I had to take partial responsibility for my actions, and suck it all up.

Once the bodies were brought to the other end of the chamber, Anna went and grabbed two large knapsacks stowed behind a stack of wooden boxes. The knapsacks’ conditions were rather shabby. However, there weren’t any holes in them, meaning that nobody would be able to tell what’s stuffed inside. In short, they were the perfect body bags.

When stuffing the bodies, Anna had them go in feet first. From there, she would slowly pull the bag over the remainder of the corpse, completely enveloping the flesh within the sack’s rough material. Since she was the only one partaking in this arduous task, it took her quite some time. After all, the corpses were still a bit heavy, despite them losing some weight in certain areas…

Oh god, stop thinking about that.

A heap of gunk shot up my throat, but I managed to keep it down.

Don’t do that. You’ve already resolved yourself. Push through. Push…through…

As Anna finally completed the dreadful deed, she rolled the bags into a corner and laid them parallel to the chamber walls. She then encased them with a bunch of wooden boxes, hiding the sacks from plain sight. That way, it would ensure that anyone who stumbled inside the chamber would be unable to find the sacks. Take it as a sort of double precaution. Surely…hopefully, nobody would be able to find them.

I let off a nervous laugh before suddenly wincing as the sudden pain of broken bones and bruises began to slither its way back into my nervous system. How odd that I was able to forget about it for such a short period. I guess witnessing a guard’s face getting blown off really has that effect on you. However, I was no longer under that blissful trance. I was once again rooted into reality and writhing in agony.

Amidst my suffering, I heard something roll towards me, coming to stop as it tapped my right shoulder. Using what little strength I had left, I turned my head over to notice-

“Ahh!” I shrieked. What had touched me was one of those earthly spikes that had impaled one of the guards. Its tip was dyed red, and remnants of flesh were stuck to its surface.

“Use that,” Anna said as she approached me. “It’ll help you walk for now.”

“N-no, I really can’t-”

“You want to get out of here, correct? And it appears that you’re too injured to walk on your own. Therefore, you need some sort of support,” she affirmed, pointing at the spike sitting next to me.

“But…Okay, I get it,” I said, easily giving into her demands. Using my arm, I grabbed ahold of the blunt end of the spike, trying my best to avoid any areas marked in red.

Anna then came and tugged on my armpit, helping me back onto my feet. Once I was up, my legs began to violently shake as I leaned against the crutch. For the moment, I was able to sustain my balance, but that wouldn’t last very long.

“Are any of your legs broken?” she asked, observing my unstable lower half.

“No, it’s just bruised up a bit.” Well, “a bit” was an understatement, but I wasn’t entirely lying. “I can sort of stand on my own.”

“That’s fine. Come. Wrap your other arm around me.”

I did as I was instructed and holstered my left arm over Anna’s shoulder. However, before we could even begin to proceed with our journey towards the surface, a sudden rush of nausea encapsulated me once more. Veering my face away from Anna’s, an eruption of stomach acid shot up my throat and out through my mouth, leaving a rather organic mess all over the floor.

How funny. No matter how many times I tried putting my mind to it, in the end, I wasn’t nearly as resolved as I thought I was.

-----

“Are you feeling better now?”

“Just a little…” I muttered as we finally made our way out from the chamber and into the dark, ruinous hallway. Not much light could be seen, so traversing through the uneven terrain was a rather difficult challenge. Add to the fact that I was hobbling the entire way and you got yourself a formula for absolute disaster.

The only one preventing me from befalling such a circumstance was the mysterious demi-human holding my left arm over her shoulder. Anna seemed to know the general layout of the hallway based on how she was effectively gliding over the sea of uneven flooring. Or could it be that she had the ability to see through the darkness? Just another question to add to my list of things that I didn’t know.

“In one step, you’re going to need to hop,” Anna said as she stepped over a platform that was raised slightly above my knees.

“Got it.” I took one step, and then hopped. I successfully made it over the obstacle, and from there, we continued on.

As we walked, the atmosphere grew slightly eerie. All that could be heard was the clanking of the spike that hit against the floor with each step I took. Other than that, there was no sort of dialogue being exchanged between the two of us. Feeling awkward (and slightly frightened), I decided to break the ice.

“So once we’re out of here, what are you planning to do?” I asked.

“I’m not quite sure yet,” she simply replied.

“Well you mentioned freedom, are you going to try and leave the kingdom?”

She shook her head. “It’s not so simple that I could just walk out the front gates. As a demi-human, we don’t really get such privileges.”

I furrowed my brows. “Say, I keep hearing the word “demi-human” being thrown around. If you break that down, it basically means ‘half human.’ I don’t quite understand. I mean, you look plenty human to me. The only difference is the purple eyes, but other than that, what makes you only half a human?”

“You really don’t know anything?” she asked, although it sounded more like a statement.

“No…I have amnesia, so I don’t really know much other than what I’ve been doing for the past two months.”

“And in those past two months, you’ve never seen or heard anything regarding the demi-human race?”

I softly chuckled. “I guess I’ve been too busy minding my own business. All that really ever mattered to me was my reading and drinking. They’re what got me through the day. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Even then, you’ve never read anything about us?”

“No…not really.”

“…I see. Then I would advise you to become more versed on the topic. It’ll save you from further strife in the future.”

“…Yeah, got it.”

Suddenly, the front of my foot tapped another raised surface, halting me to a stop. However, Anna appeared unfazed.

“It appears we’ve finally reached the staircases,” she confirmed, taking one step forward. “I’ll go first, and then you follow afterwards.”

I nodded. Shuffling my body upwards, Anna tugged at my arm and supported my weight as I overcame the first step. From there, she would take another step, and then pull me up once more. This process would repeat itself for a period of time until we eventually managed to reach the top of the staircase. By then, my breathing had grown ragged. A simple task such as this was far too troublesome for my injured body to handle, but at least we made it. We were finally about to leave this hellhole.

Anna then went ahead and pushed open the cellar door. A sudden rush of light busted forth, causing me to squint. It took me a moment, but as my vision grew accustomed to its new surroundings, I’ve come to notice that it was no longer nighttime. In fact, it was around the time that the sun had begun to rise.

I was now able to clearly see the barren earth that presented itself before me. Everything was truly brown. There was nothing but dirt and skittered trees for miles on end.

We walked through the door and onto the dirt surface. Anna then redirected me towards the side of the cellar and had me sit down near the entrance.

“Stay here for a moment,” she said. “I spotted a cart not too long ago when being brought here. I’ll use that to get you back to the main district.”

I weakly nodded. “Thank you.”

Anna turned and began her departure due north. However, as soon as she took only a few steps forward, she momentarily paused in her tracks. Still facing ahead, she stated, “For both of our sakes, I hope we never cross paths again.” Silence ensued as her dark hair flowed against a gust of wind. After some time, she continued on. “Once we’re done here, I request that you stay far away from me. Please don’t come looking for me…I wish you the best, and I pray that you live a long and peaceful life.” Then, as she began to walk away once more, she left me with this final message: “Goodbye forever.”

Before I could respond, she was already far too gone. I watched as her silhouette slowly vanished into the horizon.

What do you mean “goodbye forever”? You’re literally coming back here to pick me up.

I wanted to laugh, but all that I was able to muster up was a dry wheeze. Fatigue began to set in, and my eyes grew heavy. For what little consciousness I had left, I sat there and stared at nothing. Well, perhaps not “nothing.” I actually turned my head over to bask in the warmth of the rising sun, its glow resonating throughout the barren land.

Thinking about it now, this was my first time ever witnessing such an event. Usually, I’d be fast asleep and only awaken once the sun was far up into the sky. It was safe to say that the sight was absolutely stunning. Stunning yet…undesirable.

What did it cost me to get to this point? The actions and consequences of today…were they even worth it? I would’ve died if weren’t for Anna. I was grateful…yet terrified of her. If I were to go anywhere with her, who knew what else could happen? My life could be hanging by a thread. Because of today, I’ve learned to value my life more, and it was due to that reason that I no longer wanted to find myself in any more troublesome situations. I wanted to go back to my peaceful life. No…that was what I truly desired.

Perhaps what Anna said was correct. Perhaps it would be best that we never cross paths again. Let her be free to cause all of the chaos she wanted, and I’ll go back to being shacked up in Old Lady’s library reading a good book. It was absolutely perfect.

Staring deeply at the rising sun, I’ve once again resolved myself to reobtaining my peaceful life. I would never find myself in anymore troublesome situations for as long as I lived.

With that in mind, my fatigue finally began to set in, enveloping my consciousness. As my eyes closed shut, the world around me grew dark once more.