krystalkatzficz | The Witch part 3 (Reply)

Satoshi lay on his side in the bed his head resting on his arm. He could see the tower through the window of room and he couldn’t stop thinking about what might be inside. Thoughts of the tower and who might reside within had tormented him greatly. The tower appeared even in his dreams. He dreamt of walking up a spiral staircase to a room where a small child sat in a room almost completely surrounded by mirrors. The child stared at him with blank white eyes, blood smeared face, pleading for him to come and rescue him.

His interest had only increased when his spies in the west came to him in a panic claiming that the enemies of his father had vanished in in the night. Nobody saw why or where they had gone, none had returned to their homes he knew that for certain. All the spy could tell him was that he had noticed the camp had fallen silent and gone to investigate and had found the entire camp empty. Food had still been left on tables along with swords and other personal items.

His father had been insufferable as though he personally had taken out the armies of his enemies but Satoshi had seen him look to the tower and the spike of interest grew. It came to a head on the night of the full moon four months later. A voice in the back of his mind had been calling for him all day. After dinner his feet had led him to the tower even without thinking about it and he was amazed to see that the door at the base was unguarded. Of course, unguarded didn’t mean unlocked, but when he tested it the door swung open silently to reveal the spiral stone stair case from his dream. His breath caught in the back of his throat and after a quick look around he stepped inside.

It was dark inside but Satoshi had learned many years ago that the true monsters didn’t live in the dark, true monsters wore the clothes of men. He closed the door behind him and walked took a slow step onto the stair. His shoe made no sound as he walked up but for some reason his heart made up for it by pounding inside his chest. He didn’t seem to be alone, as he walked he kept having to look around to make sure nobody was following him.

The tower seemed to be nothing but stairs until eventually he came to a landing made of wood. He paused for breath feeling more out of shape than he ever had before and he couldn’t understand how his father made it up here day after day. There were no furnishings and it was bitterly cold with the vents in the thick walls allowing the bitter wind to enter at it’s whim. He shivered a little and eventually his eyes adjusted to the lack of light and then he saw another door a few feet away.

The door was ajar and he tiptoed towards it stopping when he heard a soft voice coming from within. A red glow from the other side told him that there was a candle lit and Satoshi breathed through his nose surprised at the sweet scent he could smell. It wasn’t like the sickly smell in the harem but a softer more realistic scent of flowers and powder. When he realised he didn’t hear his father’s voice he moved closer to the door and pushed it open just a touch more.

The room beyond was nothing like he imagined. He had imagined it to be like the harem with garish decorations and flowers but instead it was sparsely furnished, only a bed in the far corner which had only one sheet on it. In Satoshi’s opinion it was worse than some of the prisons in the dungeon. The light was coming from a single candle which had been placed on the floor. The walls were mirrors and in them he could see the occupant and instead of a grown woman he saw a child sitting with her back against the wall in the corner. His heart stopped when he saw that it was the girl from his dream.

She was a thin little waif with mess hair and bare feet. Her face pale and dirty with streaks of tears. There was a strange little teddy around her shoulders. It looked like a dragon, a whispery little smoke thing, and the girl was talking to it softly, her voice trembled as she spoke and Satoshi looked around for her mother thinking that this was another of his half-siblings.

There was another door on the other side of the room but Satoshi saw that it was padlocked with a large formidable lock. He looked back at the child sitting in her corner. The tatted robe she was wearing barely covered her body and Satoshi saw teeth marks dotted on her skin and bruises. At the sight of the marks it took him only a few minutes to realise what he was feeling and his disgust grew. This...This child was who his father spent time with...The man was worse that he had even imagined. He wanted to throw up but if he did he knew that he would alert the child to his presence. Something that he sensed wouldn’t go down very well.

He chewed on his lower lip not knowing what he should do. Now he had seen the girl he couldn’t leave her alone but if he moved forward and outed himself he would startle the girl and it was likely that she would scream. She couldn’t be happy with the situation but it was likely all she knew and although it was sickening she wouldn’t react well to a stranger coming in.

“I know it’s cold, but I’m okay” The girl whispered, her voice was sweet and soft with a musical quality and Satoshi leaned against the doorjamb after realising that she was talking to the strange toy around her shoulders. “The blanket isn’t mine, Master doesn’t like me using it...”

Satoshi struggled to keep himself from growling out loud at the girls confession and the fact that his father forced her to call him master. The sickening feeling grew and his body jerked on its own forcing the door to open even wider. The Girl didn’t scream but she did gasp and pull her legs up to her chest and stare at him with the limited light of the candle. Her eyes widened as her mouth parted in a gasp as she whispered;

“You came, I hoped...!”

“What? I apologise, I do not wish to startle you...” Satoshi whispered not understanding the girls words. It was as if she had been expecting to see him, as though she had been dreaming about him as much as he had been her. It was confusing but now she had seen him he was determined to help her if he could.

“We have to leave, now...” The girl said getting to her feet and walking over to him. The teddy around her neck moved ever so slightly as she moved. She got to the door and then screamed loudly a gust of wind pushing her back into the room.

“Are you okay?”

“You have to break the mirrors...I can’t...” She whispered confusing him but Satoshi did as he was told taking his blade from his hip and throwing it at the mirror closest to him. It shattered loudly shards of glass falling around the girl.

“Are you okay?”

“The others...Please...The others...” She gasped holding her face with her hands and numbly Satoshi moved to the other mirrors. He didn’t know if he was doing the right thing but he knew that there wasn’t time to talk to her. “Hurry!”

“Yes...” He said smashing all of the mirrors in turn. With each mirror broken the air seemed to crackle with power. It whipped around him and the girl at the door gasped and whimpered her skin almost glowing with a yellow glow. The last mirror broke and Satoshi hurried back to the girl who was thrashing around floor her skin catching on the shards of glass. “The mirrors are broken...” Satoshi said his heart freezing as he heard footsteps outside the room. “My father is here...”

“Hold...Hold...On to...Me...” The girl gasped grabbing his hand with a blooded one of her own. The door creaked open and Satoshi saw the shocked angry face of his father before he felt ass though he was being pulled. His sight went blank as though somebody had thrown a hood over his head. His whole body seemed to swirl and sway and then instead of hard cold concrete his knees fell onto something soft and he smelt the earth and wind was on his face. He opened his eyes slowly gaping with surprise as he found himself outside in the forest.

“Ho...How...” He gasped looking to the girl at his side who hadn’t moved. Her eyes were closed her chest lifting and falling slowly. He reached out to her not knowing what he was he was going to do when he heard the cracking of a branch had him jerking his head and he was surprised to see a woman in a long black robe. Her hair was a mess her face pale with deep shadows under her eyes made worse by the lantern she was holding.

“Your highness, you have arrived” She said gently as though she had been expecting him and not as though he had appeared in the middle of the forest in the middle of the night. Satoshi stared at her for a moment and then he fainted.

TBC

A/N: So the big change! Nino is out of the tower!