Where is this leading us to?

A few minutes later, Monty sighed and slowly sat beside me dragging a wooden chair with his right hand, carefully resting his backside onto the chair.

"Can I see it?" I asked as his back was still soaking wet with soup

He nodded and turned his back towards me, I couldn't help but notice everyone's worried faces. I slowly peeled off his wet shirt from his back, the liquid was still warm as I could feel it through his skin, half of his upper back was soaked in soup.

"I'm really sorry, sir" the man who was carrying the bowls apologized

"Are you alright? Should we bring you to a doctor? I'm very sorry, sir! It's all my fault I'll pay for your treatment!" asked the customer who caused this dilemma

"It's okay." Monty answered coldly, I could sense a mix of worry and fear in the people's eyes

"Are you sure?" I was worried that it would hurt more if left untreated

"It's okay, I'll just go to a doctor once we get back" he was talking about the infantry physician

"Are you really alright, sir?" asked an elderly man who was probably the owner as the server looked at him anxiously

"It's okay. Don't mind me." Monty said sounding irritated

"Ah-h, okay. I'm very sorry again." said the customer and left with his friend

"May I please have some ice flakes?" I asked the server, he immediately bowed and hurriedly got some ice from the kitchen.

He quickly came back holding a small bucket full of crushed ice and placed it on our table "Here's the ice madam, do you need anything else?"

"Thank you, that's all" I thanked him and got my handkerchief from my bag, placed a handful of cold crushed ice above it and wrapped it to form a ball with the ice inside then I gently tapped it onto Monty's back to subside the pain

His skin was covered in red prickles but I was thankful to see that there weren't any blotches or any other signs of a serious burn. I could feel him slightly flinch a few times so I try to be as gentle as I can

"To make up for what happened, your meal is free." the owner said "Jose! Clean this up and prepare a table upstairs!" the old man ordered the server

"U-Upstairs sir?" the server asked confused

"Yes, upstairs" the old man firmly answered

"It's okay. We can just stay here" Monty replied

"But we insist, sir! That soup was boiling hot and even if you didn't mind it at all we value our customers dearly" before Monty can refuse again the old man instructed the server with a wave of his hand

"Yes, sir" the server bowed and rush to clean up the mess which was sprawled all over the floor, the bowl slid under the table near my feet so I hurriedly picked it up with a table napkin before he could crawl under the table to get it "Here"

"Thank you madam. I"ll get your table ready" he said before leaving

"Okay, thank you" I continued tapping the cold handkerchief on Monty's back until the redness was lighter

"That's enough." Monty said as he touched the back of my hand with his fingers over his shoulder. Some were looking at us while most of the customers continued eating

The old man stood there in front of us waiting for the server to get back, he was busy looking over the his other staff to make sure no more incidents would occur

"We better go home" I said worriedly "It looks like the cold weather and your thick shirt somehow helped, I don't see any serious wounds but we still need a doctor to see otherwise" I said persuasively, taking out a small round container filled with thick white antiseptic cream and applied it to his slight burns to avoid infection

"No, I'm fine. Don't mind me. This isn't an arrow to the heart." he simply said scaring the other customers

"Shhh.. Don't talk like that, we aren't in the castle" I whispered, reminding him that we were in front of the village people "Isn't it comfortable?"

"It is but just because my shirt is wet" his coat was covering his chest and stomach area from the other customers while his back was exposed but I was making sure to cover him as much as I could though maybe he was already feeling cold from the weather

"Aha!" I remembered that I bought him an extra shirt that was supposed to be a surprise from the store but he needs it right now. I took the paper bags from under the table. Thank goodness they weren't wet. I carefully rolled down Monty's shirt to cover his back

Jose suddenly came back looking exhausted, "Your table's ready sir, madam" he gestured as towards the inner part of the store

We both stood up, he was about to bend down to pick up the paper bags but I lightly tapped his hand as I swiftly clutched the string handles of the paper bags on my left hand, he tried to get the bags from my hand but I dodged it farther from him and started to walk ahead of him following Jose deeper into the shop, passing through tables and customers seeing us holding hands and making our way to this mysterious upstairs

We were led into a narrow passage where there were no customers at all, the stairs was isolated and looked old as there were no lights to lighten the way, the walls were worn out and some parts were even torn, it was darker than the other part of the store, the only light was a dim bulb above us which flickers on and off

I felt a chill down my spine as I looked nervously at the walls. It was too dark to see the design but I could spot some dark smudges that can possibly be blood in between the torn spaces. There were different weapons cluttering the floor, hammers saw, screwdrivers and there was even an axe, cold sweat was dripping down the back of my head as I stared back at Jose who smiled at us widely before ascending the stairs, you could hear it squeak like it would give out any moment. I looked over my shoulder to see Monty not looking well and the old man was also behind him gesturing us to go upstairs, I was able to get a glimpse of his hand where he was holding something.

Where is this leading us to? I thought to myself as I grew more and more suspicious of the people we were with