[Warning: This chapter comtains heavy gore that may be unsettling to some viewers.]
Cedric immediately extended an arm. "Wait."
Aefia stopped, my face distorting in annoyance as she clicked her tongue. "What now?"
"Let me go first," he confidentally said.
"Why?" She crossed her arms, observing his face.
"Because something about this place is wrong."
"Everything about this place is wrong?" She raised an eyebrow.
"No," Cedric looked deeper into the darkness. "I mean something is recently wrong."
Aefia's expression sharpened as I saw the thing he was trying to pin point to her.
He pointed toward the floor… where there were footprints in the dust.
Fresh ones. Several pairs.
One set was familiarly small. Another belonged to someone considerably taller.
And another—
Aefia looked at Rosetta. "Those are yours."
Rosetta froze.
Cedric's eyes narrowed. "You have been here before, haven't you?"
"I—"
"You said you found the key... And then said you never brought anyone else her before but you have been hearing weird noises for a long time? What is it? Just coincidence?"
"I did! And it is coincidence!"
"You said you had only heard voices... I hear nothing, and I am the Guardian of Death."
"I have heard this noises!"
"Then why are there your footprints? Don't tell me..." She leaned forward, a smirk on her face. "Kazimir isn't the killer behind me, you are..."
Rosetta's face lost its color.
Aefia slowly stepped closer. "Rosetta..."
The girl looked at her.
"What aren't you telling me other then that?"
Rosetta opened her mouth. Nothing came out.
For the first time since they entered the passage, she looked genuinely frightened.
"Maybe... Your desperation to get back into this palace and your begging to reach me for help... Wasn't it just to get me trapped in here? Am I not the one who is your next target? Because as the King had told me... You left the kingdom due to the embarrassement coming from your actions being exposed. So... I am starting to think in another direction."
Truth was... Although Aefia seemed confident about what she was doing, she was certain this wasn't something she should have said or done.
She deliberately took a step back and glanced towards the distance. Holding out her left hand in front of her, she channeled a bit of magic that immediately turned into dust, then smoke, before zooming into the distance and flaring out into fog that was a deep red colour.
A few seconds later—
A sound came from somewhere deeper inside.
Knock.
Aefia froze, her eyes narrowing as a flinch wreckled her.
Another.
Knock.
Cedric immediately moved in beside her.
Rosetta stared into the darkness. "Aefia..." Her voice trembled.
"That's what I heard."
The third knock came.
Louder.
Closer.
And Aefia suddenly realized—
Whatever had been making that sound was not behind the door they had entered through.
It was somewhere ahead. And it was currently waiting for them to cross the threshold.
She only let out a deep sigh through her nose and walked forward with her hand reaching to grab Spectrum at her side—which immediately turned visible as her illusion magic disintegrated.
"Rosetta..." She suddenly called out from over her shoulder.
"Yes?"
"I know you lied," her voice sounded serious as her eyes locked with the woman's face. "Unless some external force allows it... No sound in this room can reach the upstairs and that just proves you wrong... You heard nothing... And deceived me into believing you."
Cedric tensed up as he stared at his older sister with wide eyes and complete hatred. Devoid of how he had met her again for the frist time in the forest.
"What in the..."
Aefia simply looking back forward and snapped her fingers, the fog dissapeared with her command.
"One thing my magic allows me to do..." A bunch of lamps lit up across the entire basement. "Is to bring out the truth to light... Which would be this massacre to be precise."
Laying on the floor was a horrifying sight.
Bodies... Multiple of them... Bloody and mutilated.
Eyes were gouged out, limbs were torn off, and organs hung at the shoulder. This was really a serial killer's hide-out.
But what made Aefia frightened the most, was the fact that she was the next target. In this same slaughter room and with one of the people involved into this.
Aefia had stepped into her own execution room. With her own two feet.
"Hmmm..." She let out a deep sigh, her fingers clasped tightly around the hilt of Spectrum as she died deeper into her thoughts.
There were too many. That was the first thing that came into her mind.
Too many bodies. Too many pieces of clothing.
And judging by the rotting flesh gathered at the far corner of the room... This wasn't something that had happened only once.
Well it wasn't like Aefia never heard them talking about the dissapearances from even nearly two years ago.
She slowly looked around the room, trying to keep her expression calm. "How many people went missing?"
Rosetta froze.
Cedric looked at her. "What?"
"How many?" She repeated. "People who disappeared from the palace."
Rosetta swallowed. "I... I don't know exactly."
"Then estimate."
She hesitated. "At first... there was one."
"Who?"
"A maid."
"When?"
"About three weeks ago."
Aefia's eye narrowed. "Three weeks? So the palace massacre started only three weeks ago."
Rosetta nodded. "She disappeared after finishing her duties in the eastern wing."
She looked toward the pile of decaying remains at the corner. "Then?"
Rosetta's fingers curled against her dress. "Then another person disappeared."
"How long after the first?"
"Four days."
"Another servant?"
"Yes."
Cedric suddenly interrupted. "It wasn't just servants."
She turned toward him. "What do you mean?"
He stared at the blood-stained floor. "Two knights disappeared as well."
"When?"
"The first one disappeared roughly a week after the second servant."
"And the other?"
"Three days later."
She remained silent for a moment. So there were already four, and the matter of only a week? Damn... The most famous one I have known from Earth took them weeks to kill five...
She looked back toward Rosetta. "Continue."
"There were more."
"I didn't ask only that... How many?"
"Seven."
"Seven?"
"Yes."
Cedric shook his head. "Eight."
Rosetta immediately looked at him. "Cedric—"
"Eight people disappeared," his voice was colder now. "One of them wasn't officially reported."
She stared at him. "Who?"
Cedric didn't answer immediately. "Someone from the palace kitchen."
"And why wasn't it reported?"
"Because Kazimir ordered everyone to keep quiet."
Her fingers tightened around Spectrum. Of course. "How convenient."
She walked slowly toward the center of the room, her eyes scanning everything around me. "So..."
She counted quietly. "One maid. Another servant. Two knights. Someone from the kitchen..."
Aefia looked toward Rosetta. "And three others?"
She nodded. "Yes."
"Names?"
"I remember some of them."
"Tell me."
Rosetta hesitated before listing them.
Every name. Every date. Every disappearance.
Then she looked toward the corner again. There was enough evidence here to suggest that this room had been used repeated over the course of the last...
Three hours...
She took a slow breath. "Eight then"
Cedric nodded. "Eight officially or unofficially missing."
"Meaning?" Aefia's eyes widened a millimeter.
"Meaning there may be more."
Her eye twitched. "Wonderful."
She crouched slightly, examining the surrounding floor without touching anything. "Then we aren't dealing with a single murder at a time anymore."
Rosetta's voice became quiet. "No."
Aefia looked intently at parts of the uniforms or in the pockets of them. "We are dealing with a pattern..."
She nodded.
"And whoever made this place..." Her gaze shifted toward the darkness deeper inside the basement.
"...has been doing it for more then just a while."
Aefia's eyes remained fixed on the darkness.
Her magic had already revealed things that ordinary eyes couldn't see, but there was another layer beneath it.
Something that had been buried underneath the remains, the old clothing and the traces of whoever had used this place.
Aefia slowly lifted her hand. "Wait..."
Cedric looked at her. "What?"
She didn't answer. Her fingers moving slightly.
The lamps flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then—
A white-washed figure appeared.
Right beside the far wall.
Aefia's eyes widened. A drop of sweat rolled down from her forehead.
Not because she was afraid. She had seen ghosts before.
She was simply not expecting to find this many of them in one place.
The figure was transparent, almost blending into the darkness around it. Its clothing looked old and distorted, hanging loosely around a body that seemed to flicker between existence and nothingness.
Its face was the worst part. Its mouth hung open in a wide creepy smile that stretched from eye to eye.
Far too wide. And its eyes were fixed directly on Aefia.
Not Rosetta.
Not Cedric.
Her.
Aefia stared back. "...Wow. How incredible... There are ghosts."
Cedric immediately turned around. "What?"
"I said ghosts."
His expression changed. "You can see them?"
Aefia gave him an unimpressed look. "Apparently..."
Rosetta took a step backward. And the ghosts didn't even acknowledge her.
"What are they doing...?" She asked under her breath.
Aefia turned her head over her shoulder, shooting her a smirk. "They hate you. So don't worry," she laughed.
Because their attention remained entirely on Aefia.
Slowly, another figure appeared.
Then another.
Then another.
Within seconds, the entire room seemed to contain them.
Dozens of pale silhouettes stood between the pillars and near the walls, some barely visible while others were clear enough for Aefia to recognize the clothing they had once worn.
Servants.
Knights.
People she didn't recognize.
Every single one was staring at her.
Their mouths remained open.
But none of them spoke.
Aefia's eyes slowly began to glow red, unconsciously. Maybe it was just the result of using her powers.
The change was subtle at first.
Then the entire room seemed to react to it.
The ghosts moved.
Aefia's expression sharpened. "So that's why..."
One of them suddenly rushed toward her. A gust of dark smoke hastily moving towards her with unimaginable speeds.
Without a second to blink, she pulled out Spectrum violently and held it out in front of her in a defensive way as soon as the dark smoke went straight through her.
The tailwind it left behind caused many small and light debris to pick up and swirl around. It was so strong, Aefia was aware that a slight pick up in the speed could cause a human to be carried away.
Regardless, she turned towards the smoke's direction as soon as the wind died down. Her eyes widening as she saw its real form appear.
The form which showed what state they were in before try died. A chef, with his throat slit from ear to ear, and multiple jagged cuts along his abdomen.
It was sickening. In a very simple way.
"...You tried to attack me?" She asked, narrowing her eyes down despite her arms trembling from the shock of it.
The ghost opened its mouth wider.
A sound escaped. A screech that was so loud, her head felt like it was compressing itself and tearing apart. Her ears ringing even at the split-second 'distress signal'.
The others were confused at Aefia. But she was certain she had heard it right.
While also, she wanted to send the others away, although it would make her even more anxious.
Another distorted cry echoed into her head, consequtively.
But this time, it was getting more and more common. "Interesting."
"What is interesting about what?!" Rosetta whispered.
"Everything," Aefia answered while shoving her away, absentmindedly. Then walked over to the ghost just close enough to corner it. "Can you hear me?"
The chef stared confusingly, then shut his mouth. His eyes trailing from her face down to her shoes.
"Can you understand me?" She tried again.
Its head moved slightly.
Aefia took that as a yes, a sigh escaping her. "Then good."
Slowly, she walked over to one of the bodies and started searching their pockets. The chef in particular. Her hands were already gloved, to the best she could do was just find clues whether she got caught or not.
Apparently, the glove had her scent. And wherever she would press the fabric against, it would be covered with her scent.
To top it off, Kazimir was a devil.
As soon as she started to flip the pockets over, the ghost rushed towards her and grabbed her shoulders.
'What... Are you... Doing?!' The chef asked.
"What does it look like I am doing?" She asked back. "I have a serial killer behind me and I am trying to look for clues."
He looked taken aback. 'Serial... Killer?'
"The same one that killed you."
The chef looked towards the confused Rosetta and Cedric, then shook his head slightly. 'You know... Who... Is it?'
"I do. But that is not what I was hoping to find out about," she looked up at the chef. "I want to know about what happens to the bodies after they are killed. And why not dispose of it? It would help to keep the evidence away if they wanted to make it seem like you all were running away."
The chef stayed silent for a while. Then—
'The King...'
"What?" She squinted her eyes in suspicion.
'The King... And the eldest Prince. They... Are both... Involved.'
"..."
'We, are turned into toys after we are killed. Then sent off to the orphanages, to children. The King, personally started it. The first victim... Was the Dowager Queen, whom you had met.'
Her eyes widened in shock. "You are saying..."
'We were killed, when we found out about that.' He hung his head low. 'This Kingdom is full of twisted people. And they are not even religious. You could say they themselves deem they are Gods, and they invent rules that slowly ruin humanity. There was onces a tale that the Mides Kingdom was a Holy Kingdom... But when the population started asking to see the powers, they stopped the belief.'
"Hmm..."
'The power they wield is always the power rod the devil. They couldn't expose themselves by making such reckless revelations.'
Aefia looked away, slowly retracting her hands off the pockets. Her mind was full of thoughts. Each dot connecting to the other and the other until the red strings tangled to form a mess.
She didn't stand up. Nor did she think about moving away. Instead—
"Why are you telling me all this?" She asked, tilting her head a bit.
The chef looked up at Aefia from the floor. 'Because you are the Guardian of Death. And we all want Justice.'
"Yeah... But what if I don't trust you?"
'Then check our memories by yourself.'