Chapter 16 I Want To Escape, Yet There's Still So Many Discoveries

I was in a room filled with bright lights, surrounded by myself in large wall to wall mirrors or body length mirrors. The room shrouded with velvety drapes among some walls, me on a large, stone grey pedestal.
                  The smell of old fabric and mould mixed together like chocolate and dirt, it was rancid. The room round and concealed was even worse, with no windows, it was suffocating to keep breathing in this stench.
                  I had young demon girls loitered around me, picking at a white wedding dress they dolled me up in. Lil was at my chest, altering the corest bodice. The girls kept looking up at me and into the mirror, continually repeating their changes but changing their expressions.
                  I looked at myself and felt ruined in this dfess. It was quite beautiful, and I didn't deserve to be in it. It's beauty mastered by a genius.
                  The white frock light and delicate, the white viel coating the solid dress flowed like a river. Pale white fake roses were dotted on the bottom of the corset. In the mirror, I could see the white thick ribbon sashaying through the holes into a large bow resting on the bottom of my back. The neckline just covering my D cup b***s, the tip layered in little white flowers. At the hemline, it was just the viel, but it left a train dribbling at the back.
                  I felt wrong in this dress, I felt like I shouldn't be in it. It didn't belong to me.
I sighed heavily and folded my hands together and hung my head low. Not only was I hungry, but I was dying for the toilet since I hadn't moved in two hours as the demon slaves literally made one change in the space of fifteen minutes.
                  "What's wrong?" Lil asked shockingly, addressing me by dipping low too look me in the eye. The girls below me kept pinning me by accident with pins and needles. Agonizing and infuriating wasn't the word, but my hunger kept getting the better of me.
                 "I'm just naturally depressed. You know," I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm still 16 and I'm getting married." I sniffled, all of a sudden feeling like breaking down, wishing to hear people's voices I missed. Even Alyson's, even when she is bitterly annoying, there's no doubt in my in my heart that I wish she was bothering me.
                 "I wish I could change this, Ammie." Lil looked bitter herself, ashamed of her being here with me. "I want to take us from here..." She turned her attention slyly to the demon girls glancing up at me and Lil. Lil cleared her throat and amused herself. "Can't discuss this here, the walls have ears." She snickered to herself.
                 I heard a loud voice bellow from outside the huge, medival brown door to my side.
"May I speak to Amelia, please ladies?" Byron sounded extremely pleased with himself, and the girls around me giggled like high school children. I couldn't help but laugh at them for being so predictable.
                 "We're altering her dress." Lil yelled back, bursting my eardrum. "Isn't there a tradition where you can't see your bride before her wedding day?" She placed her hands on her hips and swatted her blonde locks away.
                 "Okay then, after, I can wait." He said and I heard his hollow steps thump down the hallway.
                 "Can I change out of it now?" I asked pleadingly, and Lil stared back, clearly under stress.
                 "You can take five." Lil smiled at me, and when the demon girls spoke up in defense. Lil silenced them. "She can take five."

I wondered through the catherdral until I found the metal door leading to the roof. The slice of fresh air nibbled at my skin, making me shiver and smile to myself.
                 I could smell the salty river below, the soft sound of water crashing into the sides. The trees reaching so high to the cliffedge and towering above the cathedral. I stared up at a few trees, bewildered that they'd grow so tall. Just a shame I couldn't reach them, then I could make a run for it that way, even though I'd have no idea where I would be.
                I was only in the skintight, body white leotard, colour of white gloss. No arms, just straps. And the one layer of a white practise petticoat that fluttered like a princess's gown.
                I tied my hair back into a ponytail earlier since the length was getting in my way. It has actually grown since I've been here, which is odd. And living with rotten demons has made my awareness for them become unnoticed. It's like I have adapted in this stink hole.
               Being here for four days seemed longer, I felt like I've been here forever from the heartache of missing my friends. It killed me.
               "Here you are." Okay, I still felt the tingle of bile coarsing through my gut and rising just a little. Yet, Byron alywas smelled like crushed roses. "Why are you up here when you're being fitted for your dress? Not getting cold feet, are you?"
               "Byron, I will always get cold feet marrying you." I crossed my arms, feeling a little naked in this second skin leotard. It was preposterous, this slimey demon forces me to marry him and he thinks I'm getting cold feet?
               "Don't be like that." His voice was meant to sound soft and sensual, but it made me shiver in a disgusted way. I felt him hover behind me, and I tried not to step back on his foot and headbutt him. But I don't think I'd seen him the day I puunched the living day lights out of him. "I think you just need to be a...Bit more comfortable around me." I felt his nimle arm move around my waist, and being self conscious, I twisted from him and faced him.
               "Just because I'm beyond my will, doesn't mean you can touch me whenever you please." I pointed my pointy finger at him, feeling in the pit of my stomach the gurgling bitterness towards him.
               "Hey," He raised his arms in the air in defense. Now seeing him in the daylight was weird. His face was bruised, from his eyes to cheek to chin and neck. Shadows under his eyes and the left side of his face a little swelled. Damn, I can say he can take a beating. However, through all of my punches, he didn't feel thing. "When we're married, we've got our honeymoon." He smiled devlishly at me and I felt like pulling a face at him.
               "There is no way in hell-" I stopped short, already realising I'm in hell already. "No way in the entire world, am I actually, ever, ever, going to be with you." I said matter-of-factly and walked to the little rail on the wall and peered below me.
               The air much stronger here and depth of the fall seeming to tempt me to jump.
"You'll fall for me one day, Amelia." He said cooly, unfazed of what I just said to him. But his words actually made me feel sick, ready to throw up over the edge. I couldn't give no one my heart. Except Nathan, that is, if he takes it. My longing felt so right towards him that it must be love.
                "In your dream, Byron." I pfft him, ignoring him completely and heard his footsteps descend down the stairs.
                Damn, I wish Nathan and the gang were here already. I didn't mind being here with Lil, knowing she's on my side. I wonder what the academy would think if they found out she was originally from the Demon Lord's father.

After the interrogation in a lone field surrounded by wire and trees by 7pm, all of us had sat aroun the fire of burning demon bodies.
                The grass was soft but prickly, the heat was comforting from the fire that blazed in front of us. I sat with Alyson, opposite me was Mike and Amy snuggling into eachother. And Sarah and Danny, body to body to the side.
                We didn't get much out of the groups of demons, but a male demon with his demon girlfriend had been very willing to tell us information when Danny held a crossbow to his third eye.
                 We had hogtied most of our captives and had a number of demons given to us to interrogate. It was still daylight and very uncomfortable since we normally hunt at night like real predators.
                 Then Danny had shouted at me to come over.
I had told my captives to stay still as their eyes burned at me and foam frothing from their mouths. I wondered over to five of Danny's demon victims, hogtied and just naturally tied up by wrists and ankles.
                  Yet, he was aiming a crossbow to a demon boys head whos eyes glowed like the sun with a piercing black slit. His anger radiating from his looks, his face all scrunched up from being brought here unintentionally with a girl he was placed next to. She too was tied naturally, but she was just hanging onto the boy, tears springing from her yellow eyes. The stench of a rotting month of unwanted food lingered off of them that I had to clench my teeth and zip my jacket up to my nose.
                  "Got some lad here saying he knows of the whereabouts of Ammie." His calm eyes looked passive when his gaze met the demons who just snarled at him.
                  I crouched in front of the demon boy who then snarled at me, then his head was thrown back as Danny leaned the crossbow into his head.
                  "What do you know?" I said, muffled from my clothes. The horizon of the trees beyond these demons started to glow golden yellow, birds flying back into their nests. And here I was, trying my best to find Ammie and hope for the best for Claire.
                  "That there's the demon Lord, Byron, this big hotshot in these parts-" Danny digged the crossbow further into the demon boy's head, the skin curving around the tip of the bow and causing him to bleed.
                  "We know that s**t already, skip the bollocks."
"Let me finish, you twat!" The demon boy's eyes flickered back at Danny, his breathing becoming hoarse and haggared. "Right, this Demon Lord Byron, he's been telling demons from all over the parts to come to his home, his location. There's a big wedding in like three days all of a sudden-"
                  "Who's the bride?" I blurted, taking the sip down from my mouth and mind reeling. Ammie's face stained my mind and I knew she'd be the girl who's going to be wed to this sicko who thinks he can get away with it. It's a wedding all of a sudden, of course it'd be Ammie.
                  "A girl he had a hit out for." Them words made my world crumble. That's why she had a hit on her head for, to be claimed a bride to a Demon Lord. My fists clenched together. I punched the ground, my anger cursing through my viens and controlling my more insane side of me. Danny looked down at me apologetically.
                   "You know where this location is?" I asked more sensibly.
"Somewhere in GapWate, I heard." He panted, still glaring at Danny. "But the wedding has been planned for about a week or so, and I heard it's somewhere in the woods on the edge of a cliff." He said through gritted teeth, chest going up and down from his anger.
                   "You have no idea where this freakin' place is?" I asked more demanding, gritting my own teeth.
                   "I swear, no idea." He looked back at his girl who leaned closer to him, her eyes glowing yellow as the golden sky. She too, shook her head.
                   "Right." I nodded at Danny and stood.
As I began to walk, I heard a crack of a trigger and something hard through bone. The shriek of the girls throaty scream, penetrating my frosted mind. I felt the bitterness leak off of me, tearing me apart inside.
                   Even though we've been out for four days, nearly five, I had more information, thankfully. Now I know Ammie is going, is being forced, to be a bride of a demon called Byron. Not some ordinary demon, a Demon Lord. And that this dude was located at the edge of a cliff somewhere GapWate and demons from other towns are being called to the wedding.
                   It didn't feel like it, but I know I was getting closer to Ammie, I could feel her ache for us. For her friends, for her loved ones. And I needed her back, I have been going insane just to get her back, I had never been so screwed up about a girl before. But it was the effect Ammie had on me.
                    I guess I did truly love her.

Now sitting by the fire with the sun finally going down, I know we can't waste our time on new demons. We needed to set our targets on hierarchy, not the scum that lingered in the back of alley's, but demons who've been around longer to know and be officially invited to this wedding.
                  Staring into the core of the crackling fire, and watching as the whisper of smoke melted with the night air, I now know which direction to now take.

I stood in the mirrored room again, surrounded by a reflection of a girl I hardly recognised anymore. I looked breathtaking, but it wasn't me. I seen a girl who looked pretty and stunning, a total opposite of me.
                  After Byron had left me alone on the rooftop, I prayed. I actually prayed.
I prayed to my mother, to my father, to guide me and help the others find me. To come and rescue me at all costs. To be my saviours.
                   Now, standing here in this beautiful yet heavy wedding dress, it seemed impossible. The god forbid wedding was in three days, nearing two since I last seen the sun gently brush the tips of green tree tops. The feel of the ending never felt so close.
                   "Don't sulk, Ammie." Lil said sadly, patting my hand as she altered my waistline. "You're going to make yourself sick." She tilted her head at me, her wide blue eyes soothing me.
                   "I feel sick." I gulped, feeling tears burn my eyes. I never wanted to break down so bad, I wanted to fall and crash into the ground and not to be found ever again. I wanted to vanish off of the face of the earth. I wanted to melt into the dress until I became a natural seam, a simple piece of bacteria.
I didn't want to be here, knowing my mother went through the same thing with the previous demon Lord, and it ended terribly for her. Her fate was concealed the moment she set foot into this hell hole. She couldn't escape her fate, being murdered here and still, I don't know why.
                   "Okay, that'll be it for today, you need some rest." Lil smoothed my free tendrils behind my ear as she stood. She tugged at the dress a few times and I was free from it. And as soon as it was off of me, I sprang from the room like it'd be my last breath.
                   With shame, weakness and hatred for this place, and of me rushing through my blood stream, I just wanted to go and wollow in my own self pity. I literally put myself into this position from being so weak, so stupid.
                   I loved Nathan, and because of that, I can say I made my own fate. I made it to be married to a disgusting demon who wanted my legacy as his own. He was going to use me for my tradition, and who else knows what he's going to use me after. A sex doll? A punching bag? A stupid little servant?
                   I skittered off of the corridor walls and bashed into demon people who were still rushing around after mine and Byron's wedding. Seriously? It was becoming a joke.
                   I felt my brain telling me to kill something, then another part of me to just cry it out with cake. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to find an opening, a gap to get out of this place.
                   I ran so far down a long corridor that I didn't know where I was, my breathing becoming shallow and I needed to rest, and I seen a rusting old door at the end. No corners or other doors, just this ending. It seemed a little ironic. And with full pelt, I rammed into it with my body.
                   With one body slam, it crippled to the ground in a splatter of dust and cobwebs. The room so dark I couldn't care about my phobia of spiders and the suffocating feel of the darkness, especially the two. But I flicked my hands all over the walls beside me, left and right. Coming across walled webs and little pieces of rubble or insects the flicked to the floor.
                   My hair falling in my eyes and petticoat seeming to be heavier and heavier with every step. My leotard probably wouldn't be so white anymore as I smashed myself into a rusty brown door, and I ignored the soaring pain enveloping from my shoulder.
                   Sick of the quiet, I started to huff and puff, using my breathing to cause frustrated echoes in the pitch black room. And finally, my nimble fingers caught hold of the sticking out light switch.
Flicking it, the room illuminated into white walls and a large shadow.
                   From the sudden change of lighting, my vision was blurred for about ten seconds. Then, it all became clear. I no longer felt anger, but chewed up shock. I felt as if I were in a bottle and rocked about a little, and emptied on the ground, somewhere I didn't recognise.
                   The walls a plain grey, but massive spiderwebs crouching in the corner to the other side of the room, basically. The smell of rotten paint lingered in here, smelly dampness and wood. It was bitterly cold from no heating installation and no windows. It was just a hollow room.
                   However, in the middle of the room was a tomb. A gold plated tomb covered from top to bottom in webs so old they collected dust. The surface and inch deep at least in dust, dead bugs and bits of rubble.
                    It sickened me to the core when I seen the nameplate, though. My chest burning and fingers curling in on themselves, my saliva becoming sticky and I wantde to spit.
I stalked over to the side, the thickness in the air clogging my nose and throat. Making me inhale deeply and shield my eyes from fallling cobwebs from the cieling.

Here lies Lord Cornelieus Daemonium
A frightful leader and devoted husband
Rest In Piece

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