Chapter 64 - Crime and Punishment

When Alexa felt the cold and supernatural breeze push the door, she couldn't be quick enough to avoid it. She pulled the bolt, but it was tightly locked, and the Greek damsel didn't have the strength to pull. The maiden raised her fist to knock on the door and demand that the Prince open it, but something halted her. Lady Cordelia's voice, mixed with her cough, pleading,

"Coff coffff No Your Highness, don't do that!"

"What do you think you're doing, pestilent creature? Not content with not being able to kill me earlier, did you dare to come to my room?!"

"Cofff Coff…!" Alexa really couldn't understand Cordelia's attempted response this time.

"You and your family are completely mistaken if you think you are deceiving me with this circus. Where were you? Is your father sorry to use his precious boats in this wedding?" the Prince's arrogant and menacing tone was one to fear, even through a door. Cordelia kept coughing, but the Prince didn't seem to have any mercy, as he went on,

"When I get my hands on the evidence against your family, you and all of them are going to pay me for it. I will watch you bleed as you wanted me to bleed. I will watch your flesh spoil and be eaten by worms, but you'll be kept alive. You will be left to have your eyes eaten by crows, while I drink and rejoice on your putridness. Not because of the Von Wuttenfals or Holstein, but because you are the opportunistic and treacherous rats whom I loathe the most!

"B-but ... coff I don't know anything my P-Prince! Forgive me, I don't know anything! No! No! Please let me go! Let me go!" the damsel's horrible and desperate cry alarmed Alexa, who finally thought she had waited too long to interfere,

"Magnus! Your Highness! Open this door! Stop this! Open the door!!!" she banged hard on the wood of the door, but the Prince just ignored it. Alexa heard odd, unidentifiable noises from the other side. Knocks on furniture, strokes, and dragging sounds.

"Magnus !!!" she pleaded, alarmed. The Prince was drunk and acting aggressively, and Alexa didn't know what to expect from the constant changes in the attitude of that man. "Please! Please! Don't do anything you might regret ...! Open that door, you bastard!"

"Cordelia, I loathe you! I loathe your face, I loathe your money! I loathe your family. Why didn't you die?! It would be better ...!" More than the words spoken, the deep contempt and legitimacy in the violent tone of the Prince hurt even in the heart of Alexa, to whom the words were not addressed.

"No, please, please Your coff coff, Highness no! I… didn't have any parti-cipation in that, I swear! I … coff coff I am devoted to you, please don't kill me!" Cordelia pleaded in a weak, breathless voice.

"Hahahaha! Do you want to be the Princess of Holstein? Want that much?! For real?! You are disgustingly pathetic, Cordelia!" the cynical and savage laugh sent a shiver through Alexa, who decided that just listening would not solve anything. Clapping her hands against each other, she summoned a quick prayer to expel the invisible spirits that kept the door closed. Only then would she reach the next chamber and prevent the tragedy she imagined was imminent.

However, the maiden's hands didn't burn nor did the light appear.

'W… What's going on?' She felt a sudden panic wash over her mind. Her gift was not working! Alexa tried a few more times, to no avail, to her despair. Apparently, her state of mind was quite visible to the Shades who were watching her, but which Alexa didn't see at the moment, as the room gradually began to get darker and darker. Menacingly darker.

Alexa realized that the only alternative was to leave where she had arrived, and go back through the front door to save Cordelia.

Without looking back, the maiden passed the entrance to the secret passage, feeling the familiar shudder of ghostly eyes watching over her actions. As quickly as she could, Alexa reached the circular chamber, and returned by the Bird's passageway, which led to the Countess Godiva's quarters and was where they had come from before. Only this time did the Greek damsel run in complete darkness, with no candle or the light of her gift to guide or protect her.

Lex stumbled in the dark, and got scratched several times. But she finally reached the sliding door inside the painted closet. However, as much as Alexa pushed, the door did not slide or open. Again, she knew that the spirits decided to interfere with her. The maiden wasted no time knocking on the door to try to get someone's attention, but came back the same way.

Ghostly laughter and whispers chased her, and the darkness was beginning to seem almost tangible. It was as if she had to remove black veils from the path to move forward, while groping the corridor walls to move forward.

The maiden tried all the animal doors, but found them all solidly locked. Alexa's grief at leaving was mainly due to her haste to save the poor Flemish girl from the fury of Prince Magnus, but she couldn't get out of there!

"Please, please! That girl is innocent! Don't let him kill Cordelia or do anything to hurt her! " She pleaded softly, as she returned to the circular chamber. At least there was a small speck of moonlight that came from a narrow opening in the wall. Impossible to pass through. Lex had one last alternative, and wishing for luck this time, she turned to the last tunnel, without animal marks. The maiden hoped that the tunnel would take her out of the castle, at least.

Advancing blindly, Alexa entered the tunnel, whose downward slope renewed the maiden's hopes that that was the way out. She used her fingertips to locate the corridor walls, and took a deep breath in order to feel the fresh air that would indicate that her expectations were correct. But that was not what the maiden's aspired for, and the sweet, burning aroma of things long dead. Suddenly, her fingers touched soft recesses, and Alexa had the impression that she touched human faces! Withdrawing her hands in revulsion, the damsel felt she was surrounded by the dead!

"No ...!" She moaned, starting to run. Was she being punished for interfering? Was that why her light had gone out?! Would the angry Shades now have the power to destroy her? Lex had no answer to that, nor did the maiden know whether what she touched was real or ethereal. She just didn't want to die now!

The Greek girl had no idea where she was going, and hit a wall in front of her. Standing up, with a bruised knee and forehead, the maiden started wandering in total blackness, just not knowing if she was going on or going back!

The maiden crouched down, trying to feel the ground and figure out what to do, when she felt hands that pushed her forward.

And Alexa found out, there was no ground in front of her.