The lights were already off, only the faint light from the few sconces was the source of light. The women. The two of them headed straight away to the bathroom.
"Ouch" she winced in pain when the water came in contact with the wound in her forehead that drifted off from her mind. Tears brimmed in her eyes from the stinging. She glanced at her reflection. Her chin was red, arm turning purple and small gashes of wounds were all over her body. Her uniform was covered with dirt as if she just landed on the ground in the field.
Soon after, the door fling opened, revealing Bella who was holding a small bottle.
"Here, put this on your wounds"
She took the held out bottle and went on one corner; leaning on the cold, solid wall. She hissed when the white cream came in contact with her cuts.
"Why are you there at this time?"
She briefly gazed at Bella who was sitting in the sink while Almira was on the floor near the door of the bathroom "I—I don't know" she honestly replied. It is true that she doesn't have any recollection of why she was outside the palace in the first place. "My last memory was the prince ordering me to make a coffee at 10:50 then….." she impulsively touched her forehead "Then I took my leave. I reached our quarter, knocking but the door was locked"
"Is that it?" Almira asked, brows knitted together.
"Yes, that's it. After that, I can't remember anything"
"That's odd," Bella muttered.
"It is, by the way, why the two of you were still awake, I thought everyone was sleeping" she questioned while still putting the white cream.
"Well, we agreed both of us agreed to wait for you because you're still not coming but we ended up sleeping then we heard a loud rumble or roar of something then Almira suddenly jump out of her bed and run outside, so I followed her out of worry then we see you in the field and you know what happened after that" Bella explained.
"Thank you, really," she sincerely said. She was lucky to have them as her friend even though they knew her not for long.
"That's what friends are for and I'm sure you will do the same for us" Bella stated.
She smiled at the two.
"Your wig was smeared with dirt" Almira pointed her wig on the sink.
"It does look like" she seconded as grimes were sticking on the strands of the artificial hair.
Bella jumps out from sitting on the sink; opening the faucet and setting down the wig in the water running in the pipe "You don't want your hair to be exposed aren't you?" Bella asked while looking at her through the mirror.
She nodded; her eyes on the small bottle in her hand "When I was 10 year old, someone tried to abduct me. Thankfully, a kindhearted person saved me that day. But it is also the start of my days hiding my hair in public as the man will recognize me only by my hair. I am fully aware that my hair color was rare and unusual that's why I wear headscarves my whole life then Ms. Cora offered me wig in my first day here" she looked at the two girls "I'm sorry if I didn't tell you about this"
"You have no reason to tell us, if the people around you for long might not know about your hair then it must be a terrifying action to take that off" Bella uttered; still washing the wig.
"Bella was right, there's no need for you to be sorry" Almira seconded "Having to experience being abducted at such a young age can be traumatizing. I will not blame you for trying to hide it"
"Anyways, how come the two of you deduced that it's Tenebris who came here?" Bella narrowed her eyes at them.
Almira shrugged "Well, it's a possibility from the black ashes, destroyed part of the field that looks like from a large creature, it is Tenebris".
"There's no way an Altor would come here, they never made themselves visible to us"
"You are here for a long time, didn't you see any holes or hear any loud and rumble sound at that time?" Almira calmly asked, wearing her infamous serious expression.
"No, not even once that I started questioning the rule of 11:00 in the evening but nevertheless, I still didn't dare to step outside the quarter" Bella replied, shaking her head. She's been in the palace for five years already but there was no time she heard a loud sound at night. It was peculiar that strange sounds appeared out of the blue now.
"Strange" Almira mumbled.
Seira tried to rack her brain for any memory at the last hour but she always ends up on the image of her knocking on the door of their quarter. Just what happened to her?
"Well, whatever it is, let's all go back to sleep and let this occurrence pass, let's just leave this to our imagination" Bella set down her wig on the sink "It's should be dry before the first batch wake up and take a bath"
She nodded, getting on her feet. The two walked to the door
"Are you sure you're okay?" Almira turned to facet her, hand on the doorknob.
"Yes, I'm fine thank you again" She nodded to the two who smiled at her before closing the door. She took the nightdress she picked earlier when they passed her bed and headed to one of the cubicles.
After she cleaned up what took her long, she immediately lay down on her bed; shut her eyes as her body felt weary.
Her hand instinctively touched her left upper arm where her mark was located that somewhat felt faintly burning. She ignored the out of the ordinary feeling and opened her eyes, staring at the board above her. So much happened to her today that thinking about it exhausted her. The incident in the bathroom last night, the sound and her and Almira's deduction, her mistake earlier and now she was outside the field with gashes and her hair was exposed. Not to mention that she felt something was missing in her head that felt like an important piece. Argghhh! What can't I remember anything after that? She only remembers her in the ground, Miss Cora running towards her and…….. The prince! He was there. What was he doing there? Her head suddenly hurt, making her groan. Seriously, what's with the sudden headache that is constantly happening to her?