Teal sat on the edge of the bed rubbing her temples as the strain of maintaining the barrier took its toll. The Loftus Manor had no spell circle like the royal palace. She couldn’t restore her Essence whenever she wanted to. With Alexandra’s absence, it meant a significant amount of extra work for her.

She rolled herself to the space where the bed met the wall, curling the thick blanket around her like a cocoon. The bed was soft and it sunk in to accommodate her weight. Even now, Teal felt as if she was sinking into water. Another month spent in the Loftus Manor and they would find a very strange imprint on the side of the bed.

The room was eerily quiet and far too spacious for one person. Her clothing and other living items she was told to bring hardly filled the first of the three compartments of her drawers. Under her bed were her shoes, hidden away so as not to ruin the overall look and feel of the room.

She hummed to soothe herself.

She shifted in the blanket and was met with a sudden tug around her neck. The pendant the Young Master left in her care was hanging there. She almost forgot about it when she packed her things. Although she feared someone discovering it on the way to the manor, she knew she couldn’t leave it behind. The first night they came here, Teal hid it in the drawers but took it out soon after. There was no telling if the servants here might stumble across it while cleaning.

The pendant rested comfortably in her palm. The gold and sapphire reflected the fading light. This pendant alone was, in all likelihood, worth more than everything Teal and her family owned. She guessed it could sell from anywhere from three hundred to five hundred and fifty gold pieces. With that amount of money, even if no one had any military achievements, she could maybe save them all.

No. It was impossible.

Regardless of whether the pendant was some kind of artifact, no one would believe a commoner like her actually owned such a thing. Maybe if she asked the Young Master to sell it for her…

She shook her head.

He might actually do it if she asked him to but it was risky and she couldn't take any more advantage of him. The Young Master was unusually kind. She had known him for two years, nearing three now, and in all that time he had never berated her. At first, she was a bit unnerved by him. Stories about the princes often floated around the servants, about how some were unkind and cunning in their plots of humiliation. Although he was only seven at the time, she let the rumors warp her perception of him. What if he was only pretending to be nice as a way to lure her into a false sense of security? It was immediately strange to her and the other servants that out of the five princes, the Young Master was to be overseen by two dedicated caretakers.

The way the candidates were chosen were through the King and Queen themselves and many of those candidates were not existing servants. Teal and a few other girls were pulled from the countryside by their local lord. Though she wasn’t forced, the process felt extremely jarring. One of the caregivers had already been decided as the Blood Demon. It made no sense that they would want candidates without any qualifications whatsoever, especially not ones branded with the mark of Colorless.

The mark of the godless.

She, along with many others, feared the fifth prince, Kieran Reyteour, was cruel and wicked. The Blood Demon was the true caretaker, meant to keep him and his evil impulses in check, while he toyed and threw away the second one. However, whenever she broke things, whenever she was late, whenever she misspoke, he would seem happy. Not in the way the other servants were happy when she failed but happy in the way she felt when she saw him trying his hardest.

He was always such a strange child. A child that seemed far too cognizant. Like he knew more and experienced more than what the age of his body would show.

Maybe that was why he was assigned two personal servants who referred to him as Young Master, even over his title as a prince.

Teal shot up as a chill spread through her body. Multiple entities entered the barrier from the left of the manor. She threw open the windows. From her vantage point, she saw the manor’s servants running. A writhing, bestial, black mass chased after them on its misshapen legs.

One of the manservants turned. He revealed his long claws and twisting horns. With a cry, he lunged at the otherworldly thing. His claws dug deep and the mass squirmed, letting out a horrible shriek. It thrashed about and the servant was pinned to the ground as the thing mauled him.

The Corrupted were here.

Teal flinched as he screamed. There were more Corrupted. Mixed in among the fleeing servants were numerous guards with missing limbs. She ran out the door, past a maid scrambling to figure out what all the noise was about, and banged on the Young Master’s room.

“Young Master? Are you in there?”

She pounded on the door again and when no response came, she threw it open.

The two royal guards sprinted down the hallway to Teal, “Where is His Highness?”

The screams of the manor’s servants only grew louder. From Teal’s open window, a writhing black limb gripped the sill.

“What’s going on? Some kind of drill?”

“I-I’m not sure,” Lilith said.

Kieran peeked through the crack in the door. The hall was empty but he heard the echoes of dozens of footsteps and faint cries.

“Wha- What do you see?”

“Nothing, but something’s wrong.”

“Oh no. Lucas left with some of our best guards. Reihmir was with him as well.”

“Come on,” He beckoned her. “Let’s try to find Teal.”

The royal guards should still be here too. They’ll run straight to my room.

Lilith lived in the left wing of the building, one floor above his. If they could make it to the stairs then it would be a straight shot to his room.

As they rounded the corner, a trio of servants scrambled up the staircase. They were bruised and bloodied, the front of their clothes matted with dirt. One of them nursed a broken arm barely hanging on by the skin.

“What happened?” Lilith asked.

“We’re being attacked by Corrupted.”

“The Colorless do nothing but cause trouble,” another, female servant, said. “He brought them to us!”

Over the railing, he and Lilith watched for signs of the Corrupted. Neither of them knew what they looked like but judging from the rough state of the servants, it seemed like they’d be easy to spot.

A shambling black mass appeared. Its legs and mouth were covered in blood. Its eyes locked onto them and it shot toward the stairs, crashing into the walls with its massive frame. Massive claws dug into the wall as it bounded up with supernatural speed. The servants ran but the one with the broken arm was pinned by the monster. Screams filled the hall. Blood splattered across Lilith’s face.

She touched the red liquid, bringing it up to eye level. “...Huh?!”

Kieran grabbed her.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. This can’t be happening.

They dashed down the hall as another beast climbed the stairs. Lilith’s clumsy feet slowed them down. She stared back at the gruesome scene. Up on the fourth floor they met with the surviving two servants. His heart was pounding and his breathing ragged.

“You!” Kieran pointed at the old butler, “You were on the second floor right? Is Teal okay?”

“I don’t know. We ran straight for the third floor. We had no time to worry about others.”

What if she’s already dead? No, wait. She went to her room. If she fell asleep then maybe she hasn’t come out yet. She might’ve woken up from all the noise but there’s no reason for Teal to leave…

A lump formed in his throat. There was only one reason why Teal would leave her room.

“I have to get her,” he said, rising to his feet.

The butler blocked his way, “We should wait here until Young Master Lucas returns. If we leave now, we will all be massacred, Your Highness.”

“But-”

Lilith’s shaking hands held onto his sleeve. She couldn’t look at him and her words wouldn’t come out. The gory scene still haunted her, the shock too great, but she managed to muster her strength and hold onto him. He was sure he’d die as terrible a death as that servant if one of the Corrupted attacked him but his presence gave her some kind of peace.

They went to the furthest room and shut the door. Desks, chairs, beds, wardrobes, everything was used to set up the barricade. The woman who complained earlier sat herself in the corner. The butler did the same, tucking himself away and being as silent as possible. Lilith huddled under the window, wrapped in the sheets stripped from the bed. Through the window, he could see the carnage left behind by the Corrupted. One of the monsters was still feeding out there.

He held back a cry. Corpses littered the ground and stained the grass a dark red. The bodies were missing various parts but none of them had a head still attached.

His stomach churned.

What the hell were they? The one that killed the servant had a spherical body with trunk-like limbs. Its paws were huge, and the toes were better compared to shortened fingers. It had a defined snout and sharp teeth yet its eyes were large and round, unsteadily pasted onto the side of what someone would label the head.

It was an amalgamation. A bastardized imitation of an animal. Of life.

“How many are there?” he asked the servants.

“I don’t know,” the maid said. “Maybe a dozen?”

A dozen? Twelve of those goddamned things? Some of the corpses out there have their claws and horns out and they still died.

In the silence, he could make out the screams of the survivors. The building shook. The elderly butler slid next to Lilith, comforting her the best he could. The maid watched with pity.

Heavy, meaty thuds rang through the hallway, always followed by a chorus of sharp and hollow taps. The monsters were hunting. The floor shook under their weight as they grew closer. An unmistakable smell of shit and blood flooded the room.

From somewhere in their hallway, he heard the distorted squeals of a pig and then a crash as they smashed the doors in. Smash. Smash. Smash. The rooms were being torn apart. They weren’t just dumb animals.

Sooner or later, the Corrupted would find them.

Lilith flinched, pulling the sheets tighter around her.

“I apologize for our insolence, Your Highness,” The old butler stood and bowed to Kieran. He then gestured to the maid, “Stand. We shall fend off the Corrupted.”

“I, I can’t,” she cried.

“Stand,” his voice shook despite his clear resolve. “You are in the presence of His Highness and Miss Lilith.

Another door broke down. It was the room next to theirs.

“Wait. I think I know how we can get out of here,” Kieran said. He eased Lilith to her feet and pointed at the sheets.

“Your Highness, you are suggesting we use those to do what, exactly?”

“We can tie these together and climb out the window.”

He carefully unraveled Lilith and in a matter of seconds had a rope consisting of sheets. It was shorter than he hoped but it was all they had to work with.

“Let’s move the bed here so we can climb down,” the maid said.

“Quickly, while the Corrupted are still ransacking the other rooms,” said the butler.

Using the bed as the anchor, the butler was the first one down. The drop was at least one and a half stories and someone needed to catch him and Lilith. Kieran was next. At the end of the rope he made the mistake of looking down and immediately regretted his choice.

That’s a lot further than I thought.

The sounds in the next room stopped. Gathering all the courage he had, he let go. The butler caught him and set him down. Lilith was next. She took one peek over the window, “The fall is too great. I can’t.”

“Miss Lilith, you must come down,” the butler said, holding out his arms. “I swear I will catch you.”

“I-I’m sorry. I just can’t.”

Kieran called out to her, “You have to come down. You saw what those things did. They’ll come into that room next!”

Even with his prodding, she wouldn’t move. It was his mistake. He should have let her go first. He thought he’d show her how easy it was but the moment she focused on the drop again, it was over. Now they were separated.

“Can’t you fly up there or something?”

“We are all wingless, Your Highness.”

“Nevermind that. Hurry up Miss,” the maid began shouting. “They’re slamming into the door!”

The maid grabbed Lilith. She thrashed in her arms as the maid forced her over the edge. She refused to go down and clung onto the window sill.

“Grab the rope!”

“I’m scared…”

“Lilith, you can do this. I’ll catch you if he doesn’t.”

“You, You swear?”’

“Yes, I swear. Now come down, quickly!”

The monster still feeding outside hadn’t noticed them yet, but it would at this rate. It moved from corpse to corpse, picking at whatever scraps were left with its foot pinning their leg as if they were still alive. Its food was thinning, and it would probably search for more.

Lilith, perhaps convinced by Kieran or simply realizing what staying up there meant, finally descended the rope. Her tiny hands shook. Halfway, she fell. The old man threw himself at her, barely supporting her weight. The maid slid down right as the old man caught Lilith and the room above exploded into a chaotic mess of sounds.

The maid let go too early. She fell from at least half a story higher, and weighed twice as much as Kieran did. The butler quickly put Lilith down. Kieran could only watch in horror as the aging butler’s body crumpled under the weight. The old man groaned on the ground.

Lilith stood back with her hand over her mouth.

“A-Are you okay? Do you need help getting up?”

He knew the answer to his question and yet he asked anyway. He was acting like those idiots from those movies and tv shows. The butler’s back and leg were twisted in unusual ways. His eyes were glazed. The breaths he took were fast and short.

The maid cried out as she got up with the help of the wall. She leaned on one leg.

“Please,” the butler managed through labored breathing, “You must leave.”

“I’m sorry.”

The three of them left the butler. Although she had broken something in her foot, the maid kept about an even pace with them even through the tears.

Lilith, with absolute horror in her eyes, pointed at something, “It’s looking at us...”

Far off by the gate of the Loftus Manor, the one Corrupted feeding on the corpses turned its round head towards them. Its outline didn’t match the writhing black masses burned into his memory. It was smaller. Something about its front legs were off. They were too thin and short.

In an instant, the monster bounded their way.