Chapter 171 - Who Was That Lady?!

Maya opens her eyes from sleep. She was not in her bed anymore. She didn't know how could this even be possible.

She finds herself in front of the Cold Prison in the Countryside Pavilion. She gasps in shock seeing it's doors wide open.

She is about to run ahead to close the door as if that was her first instinct. But she stops abruptly seeing a shadow near her feet.

She looks at the door and finds the shadow leading inside which means.

'Something from inside is about to come out'.

A shiver spread all over Maya's body. When she looked at the shadow moving she subconsciously steps back in fear. She stares at the door and the subtle movement of the shadow to realize something from inside is indeed coming out!

She clutches her fists and tries to step ahead dumping her fear so that she could close the door before it even stepped out from the door.

She doesn't know how the courage arose in her but she decides to step ahead. She felt it was her ultimate duty even if it was dangerous.

But her legs freezes as soon as she placed her leg on the shadow.

Maya felt the same cold hands gripping her leg and gasps shocked. She knows that feeling!

Slowly she felt the grips of cold hands increasing and tries frantically to move her leg away from escaping the grip.

She realizes her mistake soon that the shadow which was appearing from ithe Cold Prison was making her freeze like that.

'What's with these cold grips?!'

She shouldn't have kept her leg on the shadow. Soon a dark image starts appearing through the door making Maya's body completely covered by its shadow.

As if Maya doesn't even have the strength to move herself away she gets the glimpse of the thing standing right in front of her. 

She opens her eyes wide seeing a dark image of a woman at the door. She can find it with the contour of the shadow!

'The women who were locked and killed...Who is she?! Her clothes screams Royalty!'.

She is about to see the face but a scream made her to snap behind her.

------

Maya wakes up and immediately hears blood chilling screams!

She closes her ears to save her ears and she didn't understand what is dream and what is real.

But another deafening scream made her to divert her mind from the dream. As she is not in front of the Countryside Pavilion now. So she decides that was a mere dream. But a frightening one though.

'Who was that lady?'

She walks slowly out of her bed. Still dizzy and weak for some reason. She slept through the evening and now it must be midnight. So she has rested enough to help her exhaustion.

She wears her robes as she felt instantly cold after waking for her warm bed.

'How am I going to survive here in future? Sarah tells there would be snowing in upcoming months and I will die for sure in this cold climate!'.

She looks around her dark chamber and yawns rubbing her eyes.

'What's with that scream anyway?'.

She slowly opens the door and sees sleeping Sarah at the door. She smiles sadly 'I told you to rest in your bed...'.

She pulls the sheets to cover her further and sighs helplessly.

She turns and asks a soldier instead of disturbing Sarah "Did you hear any sound, Solider?".

She can tell that she was still shaken by the dream. Her voice was hoarse too. She doesn't know whether it was due to her sleep or previous crying.

The soldier bows "N-No, Your Highness".

She doubts him as he stuttered. She states walking out of the corridor. 

"Alright. I am going for a walk".

The soldier speaks urgently "But, Your Highness it's midnight".

She stares back coldly and asks "Now ..do I need to ask your permission to go for a walk?".

Never once she would have thought that she would be ordering someone like this. But now she couldn't help it.

She is done with being played. She doesn't like to be stopped or questioned now.

The soldier bows "I beg you to forgive me, Your Highness! This servant wouldn't dare to ask anymore!".

She ignores him and walks ahead as she still can hear the sounds of screams but now It was mild to her ears.

'How can anyone not hear it?!'

She hears sound of dry leaves crunching behind her and stops abruptly. She finds the soldier following her and asks irritated "Why are you following me?".

The soldier answers "His Highness ordered us to protect every Royal member all the time, Your Highness".

She sneers in her mind and orders "Leave me alone".

'I don't want him to follow me now'.

He only bows helplessly "This servant can't, Your Highness. After today's attack on our Prince Xavier, everywhere the protection has been doubled".

She states calmly "But I am inside the Palace".

He shakes his head but still bowing "No, Your Highness highness! I beg to disobey in this! We swore to protect our Royals till His Highness returns! We can't afford to be careless in His Highness' absence like we were in the Royal fields".

Maya asks eagerly "Till he returns?".

'That's what I heard of all his words!'

He answers her "Yes, Your Highness. The Crown Prince has left the country this evening".

'What? *cough* Why am I even surprised?! He never tells ...anyway...I don't care.'

Maya doesn't mind him following him anymore as the news of certain someone's absence made her at ease.

She walks ahead towards the sound as it started to sound more clear now. So, she was walking in the right direction.

She hugs her body pulling her robes further.

She asks out of nowhere "What's your name?".

He answers "It's Justin, Your Highness".

"What's that place?"

Justin looks at her pointing a building looked old and huge. The screams originated from there.

He says "It's the Penalty Hall".