CHAPTER 14- In The Middle

The greatest danger,

is that of not being aware of the danger.

~ Confucius.

***

 The silence between them was both thick and domineering. Yet none spoke another word. Just the glares and stares.

After a while, "Let her take control of her body."

 'Would that change anything? Or perhaps the disturbing truth you discovered? I own this body and I own the soul. I choose to stay and live, or decide to allow 'me' take my body and lead,'

 "Don't try to fool me because I know who you are and you aren't the Medusa I know."

 'Good.' Medusa said. 'Or are you perhaps trying to have two souls like me? One with vengeance and one who seeks revenge?'

Esther became silent at the revelation.

 'Speechless?' asked the master. 'I will take that as a green light of you thinking about my offer.'

 "Never!" rejected Esther bluntly. "The last thing I would be doing is forming an alliance with you, even if it's my last day on earth." She spoke firmly.

 'Not to worry, your days are already numbered.' Esther could imagine a creepy smile on her face accompanying her dark words. And her face fell.

 The master's eyes diverted from Esther, searching for her prey. The one she intended killing. Aelin laid there on the floor, her hands on her chest still heaving for air.

 'Wait for me.'

 As expected, the environment returned to normal. The day finally returned, looking peaceful and serene but to their disappointment, they people around it felt otherwise.

 Medusa's eyes had changed from black to blue but that didn't stop the glare she passed to Aelin. The door finally burst open as more than six guards stumbled in, their faces contorted in fury, "You bloody witch!"

***

 With a loud metallic shuffle and crack, the iron bars of the dungeon were thrown back. Hands had taken over Medusa's arm and she was shoved inside. The sounds of thudding footsteps echoed on the waxed boards echoing under the wooden arches as she was pressed to the corridor.

 The heavy old gate stopped with shattering jolt. Then it was into another passage, the arm hurting her but not in a way she felt the pain.

 They took some unknown route in the cellars, down a corridor supported with crude wooden beams, rather like a mine shaft. The oozing smell of death lingered around the passage, large wooden doors inset beneath a low arch, and bolted shut.

 The strong arm grabbed Medusa about her arm. The gate opened. Out of the corner, her eyes fell on a tall and dark shadow illuminating the wall of bricks. The shadow wore a cloak that covered its whole body and that hat that fitted his figure as he held onto the walking stick on his hand. It was a man. His mustache covering his upper lip, and an evil smile that pictured the strange aura emitting among himself.

An icy gust of air rose from the open door. Blackness. The blackness outside her was also within. Her gaze diverted from the shadow to the prison she was pushed into.

 Looking through the open spaces in the iron bar, she looked at the place she saw the shadow but nothing could be seen. Like it was never even there in the first place.

 What was that?

 Then the door slide shut with a loud bang, following the gate. She lay among the hard and jagged things. And when she sat upright, her hand fell on the objects which crumbled, and broke, hiving off a dull ashen smell.

 And the jagged things, the crumbling things, were human bones. There lay skulls beside her, sockets staring at her and there another.

 Bones so old, and some had turned to ashes. Medusa sat up slowly, hurting the palm of her left hand on something rough. She snapped the light. The light she had taken from Aelin's pocket and hid in her rag. The illumination swelled around her, revealing the small dungeon.

 She stood pressed against the cold wall, surrounded with the strong smell of dead and decayed bodies, including the ones with terrible smell like it had been there for ages. The terrible air that polluted the one she breathed. And before and beside and behind her, bones.

 All suddenly, her thoughts traveled to the past when she had been locked in a dungeon.

 'No, you can't do it!' Medusa heard the distant voice of her master's screaming in the memory, while she scrambled forward into the darkness. 'Stop it, you can't keep me here, you can't lock me here!' Medusa heard her pleas, raising her hands to implore them.

 'You killed the king,' she heard the guard say.

 'You killed others in our name,' said another. And there was someone beside him, repeating in a maddening echo of the very same words.

 'You besmirched us in the eyes of others,' spoke the first one. 'You did unspeakable evil in our name,'

 'I confess to nothing!-'

 'We don't require you to confess. The king died believing your lies!'

 'But it's the truth!' roared her master. But she couldn't bring her mouth to be indignant, outraged, whatever it was she ought to be, that they were holding her as prisoner, forcing her now towards her early death.

 They shoved her into the cell. 'Wait, please, don't! wait,' she stammered. She begged. 'Did the king die? What happened to him? If the king were here, he would exonerate me, you can't really think that someone of the kin-'

 'Save your lies for the devil!' shushed the first guard named Harbeson. 'All night long, we've examined the evidence. We've spoken to the white-haired goddess. Unburden your soul of the truth to us, if you wish, but don't bother us with your lies!'

 They made a turn to leave when she cried.

 'Stop! In the name of God, stop! There are things you don't know about Morticia; things you simply don't understand. She will cause destruction, the world will slumber. Listen to me; don't let her wash your heads with lies. Do-'

 Harbeson walked towards her cell and unlocked it. He grabbed her master about her arm, twisting it while clamping his other hand around her moth. She kept struggling; knee bent, and foot kicking in struggle.

 'It is you we shouldn't let wash our head with lies from hell,' he whispered, covering her mouth with a fabric that prevented her from talking. With a huff, he stomped out of the cell and locked the gate, making his way out of the dungeon. She made incoherent noises due to the fabric placed on her mouth.

 The door closed. And she finally screamed.

 Medusa slipped back to reality. Her thoughts were preoccupied by the new discovery. Morticia? With her vast knowledge, she knew who she was. The poison brought to destroy humans. The person she tried to shield humans from endangering their lives to.

 But something didn't add up. If strange memories from the past kept coming, names of strange people and different stories were what kept her thinking.

 If eliminating the Lord and proclaiming that possession, would her mission be finally over? The rest would be left for her master for finish? She found herself questioning her thoughts. And her life count would increase.

 And thinking about life count, her hand trailed upwards to her head that still bled. Normally, it would heal almost immediately, but the effect of low life count, it takes a long while for the process to heal completely. Slower than that of human's. Depending on how low her life count was.

 The life count is a very important and essential part needed for her existence. Just like a fish deprived of water dies, her life count was exactly the same process. Her body would start decaying and her soul would suffer in inferno.

***