CHAPTER FIVE: THE LONG WALK

The long corridor had a number of similar rooms in a row, these rooms were large and had an equal size except for one room which was at corner of the corridor, it was the smallest room, it's size was a quarter the size of other rooms, that was the room that Katrina was kept, it was like an abandoned room that never had cleanliness, it was too dusty, it had a very small window and it's door looked too old compared to other rooms whose doors were painted in black and looked better.

There was a row of strong built pillars that were beautifully designed on the opposite of the rooms, there was the proportional distance between pillars. While still walking a little bit behind Roy,

Katrina carefully observed the appearance of that area while Wondering why the room she was kept in was completely odd. She was lost in thoughts that she didn't realize that they had been walking for a long time, the arching on her legs brought her mind back.

She raised her head looking straight forward, surprisingly she kept on seeing a large number of similar rooms and pillars which were on the opposite side in a row ahead which didn't seem to end. She was beginning to get tired.

Katrina even wondered if it was necessary to walk through the whole corridor, so she lazily turned her head aside looking at the space between pillars, she then lowered her head inorder to see the possibility of jumping but surprisingly there was a high distance between the ground's surface and the corridor's floor. It wasn't that high but one could probably get hurt by any means if he or she would try to jump. It wasn't worth taking such a great risk while the corridor was empty and no one was walking through it at the moment except for the two of them.

Katrina cursed the one who designed that area, she didn't think if it was necessary to build such a long corridor, and most especially the high distance between the ground's surface and the corridor's floor, at least they could have been stairs through the corridor after appropriate intervals that would have at least spared the trouble of walking through out the corridor, she saw that as wastage of time.

Katrina was so disappointed, her legs were arching even more, her walking pace begun to reduce slowly by slowly, surprisingly Roy was still walking normally as if he had only joined the walk recently, his walking pace was the same, it neither increased nor decreased but yet the gap between them slowly begun to increase, Katrina who was behind was trying hard to catch up with Roy.

Roy was still walking forward, his eyes were straight forward, a frown appeared on Katrina's cute face after seeing Roy still walking normally without even bothering to look back, her face turned red, small drops of sweat started appearing all over her face, her legs were arching even more, she couldn't take it any more.

She angrily removed the black cloth mask from her face. " This is enough, I really can't take it anymore." she said it a little bit loudly while sitting down with crossed legs on the corridor's floor looking at Roy who now turned around facing at Katrina, his raised brows were evident that he was greatly shocked by Katrina's action.

Roy turned left and then right, after he was assured that there were no guards. He slowly moved towards Katrina and squatted looking her straight in the eyes.

" What do you think your doing young lady, get up now." Roy said, his voice was a little bit cold and nearly harsh even though he used a low tone. Katrina was a little bit scared, it was as if he was seeing a totally different man at the moment. Comparing his reaction when he brought her food, he looked so serious at the moment.

Despite the cold reaction of Roy still Katrina got the courage to speak up.

" Hey, now I am even starting doubt if you really are on my side, Oh, now I get it, could it be that you were sent to punish me for trying to escape, okay, you punished me enough, I'd rather sit tied in a chair in that tiny room than this, I am so sorry sir, I promise I won't try to escape ever again, please believe me, I promise." she spoke while raising her right hand with a palm faced forward indicating that she was greatly determined not to cause trouble again.

Roy stood up looking forward, he then looked down at Katrina, on seing Katrina's funny reaction and on seeing her innocent face, Roy couldn't help it, he suddenly broke out a huge chuckle still looking at Katrina. Katrina couldn't see anything funny in what she said,so she wondered why the guy was laughing so much, she even looked around to see if there was anyone since she was worried that they could get caught.

The worried expression on Katrina's cute face made Roy to laugh even more. He then suddenly stopped and looked straight at Katrina.

" you are so funny, you know, I thought you wanted to get out of this place, so what happened now miss." he said while raising one of his eyebrows and quickly bringing it down.

He then smiled a little and said,

" Oh, perhaps you thought escaping this area would be a piece of cake, well I guess you are well aware of the saying that no sweet without sweat."

Katrina was still in a dilemma,her heart told her that this man's intentions were not ill but yet her mind had clear doubts. while she was still thinking,

Roy said, " okay, you have had enough rest, now get up before you end up in the same room" this time his voice sounded serious stretched her hand at Katrina who placed her hand in Roy's hand, Roy pulled her up. Katrina stood up still worried.

"what do you mean I end up in the same room, wait are you going to take me back!" Katrina said keeping an innocent face which clearly expressing her worry.

Roy smiled gently and said,

"you are such a knucklehead, I meant before we get caught trying to escape, and when that happens you will end up back in the same room and I will be dead meat, silly."

Katrina suddenly burst with excitement.

" does this mean you are on my side!" she said happily her eyes wide open like a small child who has received her favorite toy as her birthday gift. She was eagerly waiting for a positive response.

Roy kept his hands in his trouser's pocket, he then bent a little and moved his face close to Katrina's face who was now flinching backwards,

" what do you think" Roy whispered while looking straight at Katrina's eyes, he then gave her a quick smile and then turned around and kept on walking forward.

" That was mean, how dare he call me silly, he even made fun of me, I would have given him a piece of my mind if I didn't need his

help." Katrina mumbled at herself while looking at Roy who was still moving forward his hands still in his pockets, Katrina then realized that she was still standing.

" Hey, wait for me" she said a little bit loudly, while running towards Roy who neither turned nor reduced his speed after hearing Katrina's voice.

' He's so full of himself, look at him, he didn't even turn,' Katrina thought while still trying to catch up with him. After so much trouble, Katrina caught up with Roy, she took a deep breath and after sometime she wore her black cloth mask back to her face.

Katrina made sure to walk beside Roy this time, whenever she felt tired and wanted to slow down, she remembers the tiny room she was tied in, the hunger she felt, the pain of her tied arms and legs and the thirst she felt due to luck of water. So this gave her enough strength to walk fast and to keep on despite the pain she felt.

Well, that corridor was damn long, Katrina wished she could have wings. And the silent atmosphere around there made things more worse for her, perhaps a little chat would make the journey less boaring and tiresome but despite Katrina being talkative she couldn't dare open her mouth after seeing the serious expression on Roy's face. On top of that within the short time she had stayed with Roy, she learnt that Roy was so unpredictable, he changes within a fraction of second. So Katrina thought that remaining silent was the best choice at that moment, she only wished that they could finish the long corridor and get out of that place immediately.

Finally, Katrina's wish came true, there they were at the end of the corridor, there were well built cemented stairs, Roy gave Katrina a quick gaze and then he faced forward. Katrina took a deep breath with relief. Roy started taking the stairs heading down, they weren't long so after a short while he was already on the ground's surface.

He then looked up and saw Katrina still leaning on one of the pillars while removing her coat and the mask on her face, she was breathing heavily. Roy looked up at Katrina who was also looking at him, Roy smirked while shaking his head slightly side by side in pity of Katrina.

On seeing Roy's expression, Katrina was frustrated and a little bit jelous , as the guy seemed normal, it was as if he didn't walk at all, he wasn't sweating and he didn't seem tired either. And here he was smirking at her, Katrina wondered if he really was a normal human being, that seemed so odd to her.

" Hey, are you coming or not, don't worry we are half way there." Roy said looking at Katrina's face which suddenly turned red and her eyes almost popped out.

" what do you mean by saying that we are half way there, well I thought we are already there." she said in a frustrated way.

Roy laughed a little, he really enjoyed seeing Katrina in a frustrated way, her expressions just amused him, that wasn't like him, he's so serious in nature but since he met Katrina his sense of humor highly improved.

" Hey you silly little thing, do you want to go back in that tiny room."

Roy said in a jocking way while smiling.

" No no no, I really don't want to go back there." she said while dropping the stairs quickly. Roy laughed again seeing Katrina's reaction, he really enjoyed it. In no time Katrina had already reached where Roy was.

There was a tiny door at the end of the stairs, Roy opened it, it had a narrow path that two people couldn't enter at the same time so Roy had to go first then Katrina followed behind. There were long solid walls on both sides making the path narrow, seeing the small space that remained as she walked through the narrow path, Katrina was pretty sure that an overweight person won't be able to pass there unless he or she walked side ways.

Katrina became even more disappointed as she clearly knew that they were back to square one, she had a felling that they were going back where they came from, the only difference was that this time they were on the ground's surface. Katrina saw that path as inconvenient, since there was no much air as they were a series of very small holes at the top of both walls, those holes couldn't bring in much air and it was almost dark in there, it was also an endless path, this time she wished that she could continue walking on the long corridor at least there she got fresh air.

Katrina wondered why they had to build those long walls on the path with a cemented roof on top, was it even necessary, little did she know that those walls had buildings joined to them, on both sides of the path they were buildings connected to the walls.

Katrina really disliked how that place was built. So they kept on walking and walking without reaching the destination, Katrina was totally exhausted but she kept on walking, seeing how Roy enjoyed the walk, a thought even crossed her mind that Roy was doing that on purpose just to trouble her, but then Roy's intentions were to help her escape immediately then why would he take such a huge risk on the account of only troubling her, that was impossible, so she deleted the thought.

After a long walk, they finally arrived to another small door similar to the one at the entrance, as soon as Roy opened the door, a ray of light hit their faces, since their eyes had adapted the dim light as they walked through the narrow path so the sudden exposure to direct sunlight had an impact to their eyes so Roy bent his head a little almost closing his eyes while Katrina was more affected because she didn't even remember the last time she exposed herself to that much sunlight, so she closed her eyes with her palm.

After sometime their eyes adapted to the bright sunlight and thus they saw normally. Katrina looked forward, she saw a large ground with large tents that had chairs under them, all chairs were facing a large stage with people on them, the stage was well built with two strong pillars on both ends, there were large stairs that led to the stage's floor which was a bit higher than ground's surface. the stage's wall was beautifully decorated by colorful cotton fabrics that were carefully designed.

On the downstage there was a large long table that was covered by a long piece cloth.The emperor majestically sat on his big chair gently watching the presentors on stage, there were four men that sat next to the emperor, two on the left side and the other two on right side, their chairs were a bit smaller compared to the emperor's chair, by the way they dressed one could clearly tell that they had high position in the empire,they were all busy watching the show on the stage.

There was a huge crowd gathered on that day, all people were sitting on the chairs under tents except for the guards who were standing all over the area but most of them were busy watching what was presented on stage,Katrina wore her coat and her black cloth mask, Roy reminded her to act normally, they then passed across the tents, after a while they had finally arrived at the main gate.

That was the main entrance and exit of the area, a long black iron gate was widely opened allowing people to enter and get out, at that moment the number of people who entered were many than the ones who got out.

Katrina and Roy were looking at the gate,Roy smiled a little, his face clearly expressed that he was glad. He then looked at Katrina then he held her shoulders with his two hands and turned her around.

Katrina was surprised, but then she didn't ask why Roy turned her around.

Then Roy who was beside Katrina spoke in a very low tone, he said,

" listen, behind us on the main gate, there two guards, we will normally walk through the gate heading outside, if the guards stop you and ask you anything, don't you dare speak, just stay quiet and I will do the talking, did I make myself clear." by the time Roy was talking, his eyes were looking straight forward, although he was speaking his mouth was hardly moving, a person from a far would have not realized that he was speaking. Once he finished talking he slightly turned his head looking at Katrina waiting for her response.

Katrina who was carefully listening to Roy, she slowly nodded her head indicating that she clearly understood, but when she wanted to turn around inorder to face the main gate. She was suddenly knocked by one of guards who was hurriedly heading towards the main gate, Katrina almost fell, surprisingly the man kept on walking fast he didn't even turn to apologise, Katrina was furious she could have confronted that guard if she didn't have the urge of escaping.

When Katrina was knocked by that guard, she was pushed so hard aside like a light paper blown by wind, she even collided with Roy until her face mask fell down, she quickly covered her mouth and nose with her palm while bending down so as she could quickly pick her mask but as soon as she bent down, a heavy, cold and commanding voice was heard,

" You two, turn around and come here now!"

On hearing this Katrina lost all her strength, she couldn't even pick her mask, she never heard a voice as terrifying as that, she started trembling with fear, she wished that the ground could open so as she could be dug in it rather than getting caught.