CHAPTER 15: The Dark Cell

"Hello!!" 

"Hello!! Get me out of here!!" Aella tapped the bars anxiously, her voice echoing down the bleak doom.

"Let me out!!" She hissed and punched the bars when her plea was left to deaf ears.

She didn't know how long she had been trapped in here but she knew she had to get out somehow.

Before someone or something came to get her.

Finding a way to escape had proven futile because the only opening apart from the gates was the window which should be about ten feet above her.

Even if she did magically manage to climb all the way up there, she could discern it was blocked by rigid bars so there was still no way out.

"Ugh!!!" She kicked the iron rods but it didn't even budge which aggravated her even further.

Her rapid footsteps moved across the ground as she searched for the compass that she had dropped earlier.

She picked it up and placed it under the light as she squinted to see it properly one more time. She had to confirm what she dreaded.

Her heart dropped when she saw no hands behind the glass of the golden guide. Throughout her journey, never once had the hands of the compass disappear like this, not even a flicker.

But currently, she couldn't see a thing which told her the one truth she couldn't deny anymore.

She was at Cassa Dron. In the den of the demon.

Because just as the witch had said, the hands of the compass will vanish when she reached her destination.

"Why?!!" She tilted her head back and yelled out with frustration. Her resounding tone only reminded her that she was trapped here.

She had thought of numerous outcomes of when she would encounter the demon but never once did she imagine she would be locked up in a cell.

How did she even get here? Straining to remember what happened after she had fallen down the sand hill, her head ached as though she had slammed it on something hard.

Aella moved down slowly and rested her back on the cold, rough wall behind her as she sighed deeply, a mist flowing out of her mouth from the low temperature here.

In an attempt to ward off the cold, she wrapped her hands around her thin frame to get even a minuscule warmth.

Aella shivered as she felt her lips chatter slightly. She didn't know how long she remained on the floor but at a point, her eyes began to droop drowsily.

She tried to fight it back but no matter what, she couldn't refuse the gentle calls of a dark slumber.

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Her blue eyes flickered open as if on cue and she struggled to see through the darkness that she found herself in.

As she collected her thoughts, she ran her hand over her face as she sniffled. Goosebumps filled her skin from the chilly atmosphere surrounding her.

Aella picked her weight up with a deep sigh as her butt felt like two hardened rocks. Sleeping on cold cement had brought a dull ache all over her limbs which made her groan with each movement she took.

Her wobbly legs tottered forward as she moved towards the bars again, hopelessness gripping her tighter than before.

She still couldn't see anything beyond the gloom and it was like she was closing her eyes even when they were wide open.

A stretch of pain settled at the back of her head as she began to see colours from staring at the opaque gloom for too long.

Then she felt a whoosh of wind pass her before two glimmers of light unravelled their beauty some inches above her.

Aella took a few steps back, barely able to suppress the scream that was about to burst out of her chest. She realised it wasn't light, but rather a pair of eyes looking down at her.

The same eyes she had seen when she first woke up in this deadly prison. She had thought it was merely a figment of her imagination but seeing it in front of her in a more conscious state, she realised she was wrong.

It was real, very real.

When she gulped, the drop of saliva resonated around the walls due to the immense silence in the cell.

Her lips were about to move to say something when the eyes shifted closer and a face came into her view under the glow of the moonlight.

Aella clamped her dried lips shut.