《Celestial Discord》Chapter 2- Confusion
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It took Mary shaking me for who knows how long until I remembered I was in my room. I looked at Mary dazed and confused.
"Welcome back, Young Master."
My mind raced once the situation set in. "What's going on? Why is it pitch black outside? What is that purple haze? Why are our maids trying to kill me? Why-"
But Mary put a finger to my mouth. "Shh. I understand you have many questions Young Master but right now we need to move. Now that they know where you are, we have to relocate before more come."
"I agree with Mary," Mr. Reginald said. "We don't have much time."
I wanted to disagree, but they clearly knew more about the situation than I did.
I Sighed. "Fine."
I quickly took off my pajamas and threw on a white tee and some jeans before grabbing my gun. I turned on the safety and stuffed it in my left pocket because, well, I don't have a holster. I put my phone in my right pocket and quickly threw on my shoes. Mary was busy wiping the blood off her knife using a handkerchief while Mr. Reginald who didn't have (or need) a weapon was busy peeking out the hallway for threats. After checking left and right he signaled for us to come, deciding to go right. I lunged over the once beautiful decorative wooden door, which had now been snapped in two by the tyrannical butler and followed behind Mary. She was far more useful in combat than I was after all.
The hallway was long as you would expect from a mansion, but the atmosphere was completely different. It was dead silent, which is almost never the case with maids and butlers scampering around. The once decorative white walls were all scratched up and had a fair amount of bullet holes. Other rooms had their doors scratched and full of holes or completely broken down like mine. Swords, maces, and knives littered the once pearly white floor.
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A couple questions ran through my mind upon seeing this. One being where did these weapons come from? Also, how did I not hear any of this from my room? Swords are one thing, but it seems unlikely I wouldn't hear gunshots throughout the halls. But the last question left me far more disturbed. Why aren't there any bodies? There was blood splattered on the floors and the walls yet there was not a single body in sight. I thought about asking Mary and Mr. Reginald but they didn't seem very open to questions right now.
We walked relatively silently, aside from me who didn't know how to sneak around and occasionally tripped on a sword or hatchet. Luckily Mary didn't seem to hear me or if she did she didn't make it obvious. All the doors on this floor were open so Mr. Reginald would check but all the rooms were vacant. After a while Mary urged him to stop checking rooms, calling it a wasted effort, but Mr. Reginald disagreed. "If one life were to end due to my carelessness, I wouldn't be fit to be called head butler," Mr. Reginald replied as he put a fist to his chest. Mary simply looked at him with disgust. I guess it makes sense though; Mary was never a person who believed in righteousness or justice. Mary looked as if she was ready to retort Mr. Reginald's statement but she held her tongue.
We kept walking towards the spiral staircase that led to the ballroom downstairs, which was now in sight, when Mr. Reginald suddenly stopped in his tracks. Mary stopped right behind him and I, who was too busy looking at the disaster that was now the hallway, bumped right into her. But rather than being annoyed like she was at Mr. Reginald a few minutes ago, she acted as if she didn't even feel it.
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Instead she looked up at Mr. Reginald. "Why are we stopping? We don't have time to squander you know."
But Mr. Reginald ignored Mary and turned to face the wall, which seemed rather uncharacteristic of him. Mr. Reginald values people above all else and ignoring others is something he would usually never do without a reason.
In front of Mr. Reginald appeared to be a mantle of a shield with two long swords. Unlike the rest of the hallway, the mantle was completely spotless. The colossal butler unsheathed the twin swords from the mantle, revealing two small slits in the shield that were perfectly sized for the swords. He inserted the swords inside the slides and turned it vertically. We waited for about five seconds, but nothing happened. Suddenly, the mantle split and the walls moved to the side, revealing a hidden pathway that was too dark to see inside from the entrance.
"Let us hurry," Mr. Reginald said.
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