THE MONSTER INSIDE THE CASTLE

  My leg was in pain. I couldn’t walk. Not without her help. Why wasn’t the healing fast? Why was this body so weak?

  The king, after Lyssandra’s new drug, fired every other healer, leaving her in charge. That meant that she was the one to treat every survivor. Every remaining noble inside the palace was slaughtered, and most of the servants were heavily wounded just like the soldiers. But Hector was the last one to get treated while he was shouting inside the king’s room, shouting half-naked with his blood spilling down.

  ‘’Hold still’’Lyssandra grunted, trying to get the stitches done, but he was pushing her away and glaring at me.

  ‘’He should be in a cage’’He hissed. ‘’Or beheaded’’

  Lyssandra and I exchanged a glance, thinking of our previous comment, and tried to hold our gloating.

  ‘’I went for one simple stroll, and I found him starting to kill everyone, and then, he attacked me’’

  ‘’I did nothing’’I admitted and turned to the king, who had a steady look. ‘’It was a beast.’’

  And Hector pushed his hair behind his forehead and tried to not laugh. Of course, he failed, and he was laughing in pain.

  ‘’I will rip off your hand if you keep moving like this,’’ Lyssandra commented and grabbed his shoulder to make a stitch.

  ‘’Is that a threat, woman?’’Hector snarled at her.

  ‘’Yes.’’ We both said in sync, and Hector kept gasping. ‘’They shall both be beheaded-’’

  ‘’Enough’’ The king, now with a warm face, shouted and managed to stand up and walk with the help of the cane closer to us.

  And his light eyes looked deep into mine.

  ‘’Were you the one who did all of this?’’

  ‘’No’’I admitted and pointed at Hector. ‘’Only this’’

  The brow of the king seemed amused while the man finally sat on a chair, letting Lyssandra finally stitch him.

  ‘’And you say that it was a beast.’’He muttered, and I answered with a nod. Now, the king turned to Lyssandra.

  ‘’You have my word’’She spoke heavily. ‘’It wasn’t him. It was…’’Her words were cut off, and she walked away after she was done with the stitches.

  ‘’Teacher?’’ The king spoke as Lyssandra was walking away. ‘’You can tell them, I…’’Her face was in such pain when she walked out.

  And Hector pouted. ‘’She didn’t even bandage me.’’

  And I walked closer to him with a victory smile. ‘’I can do it for you.’’

  Hector rolled his eyes and gave up. Such a strange physique for an advisor. Was he ever in the army? One look at this man’s body could make every woman and man fall in heels for him.

  ‘’So, it was the monster’’The king finally spoke, and both Hector and I stared at the king in sync. Was it really a monster? At first, Hector was trying to laugh again, but out of respect, he actually turned to believe him.

  ‘’Few cents-’’The king tried to speak, but he changed the wording.

  ‘’A few years back, there was a monster hunting our walls, feasting on each victim. Lyssandra was there, noticing first the signs of it, and was the one to catch it inside a cage.’’

  Lyssandra did that? How many centuries ago? Why did she hide it?

  ‘’That woman did it?’’Hector scoffed, and I tightened the bandages, making him shout from the pain.

  ‘’She tried to kill it, but she said that she wasn’t able to. It was far more powerful and even wound her deeply. So, we kept it inside a cage.’’

  The cellar is down in the castle. Shackles broken walls.

  ‘’But it escaped,’’ I said, and the king nodded. ‘’A decade back, it broke the shackles, the walls, and we couldn’t find it. I thought that it was gone but…’’

  Great. Now we have a monster roaming around and someone who wants to poison people. Or maybe it was the same person.

  Hector stood up, shocked. ‘’You are expecting me to believe in monsters, your grace?’’ He let out a laugh. ‘’I have seen beasts ‘’He turned his gaze to me. ‘’There are no monsters as you think.’’

  And the king narrowed and hit Hector's wounded shoulder. ‘’Silence, fool, not every one of my friends wants your life.’

  And Hector scoffed, trying to walk away, irritated.

  But I stayed with the king. He sighed and returned to his bed.

  ‘’He fought in too many battles for him to be close minded’’He explained. So, he was in the army. Now, I would prefer not to pick a battle with him. The king kept explaining that he found him eight years ago, impressed by his talent for writing and strategies, he offered him a job on his council. Then, he slowly became an advisor and a close friend of his.

  ‘’Pay him no mind, he is probably afraid’’He said with a warm smile.

  My hands were trembling. We are all afraid. A monster. A monster that could have killed me. That couldn’t be possible. I couldn’t die. I do not want to die-

  ‘’Why couldn’t Lyssandra actually kill it?’’I asked, and the king raised his shoulders.

  ‘’I wasn’t born back then. Not even my grandfather.’’

  Right. Centuries ago.

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  ‘’However’’The king played with his beard. ‘’I remember in a book from one of the previous kings’’He muttered. ‘’That this beast was defeated by a woman with a bleeding back. ‘’

  Those words shattered deep inside me like glass, piercing my heart. Is this why she was trying to hide it? Because she couldn’t kill it? How much guilt did she feel when she learnt that it escaped?

  And the king let out a wide smile.

  ‘’You have a kind wife, Apollo’’

  What did he say? I turned back at the king, confused by those words, but he was still grinning. How did he know? Why did he know? Maybe because that kind king was no fool. Maybe he could see things that no one else could.

  ‘’I shall let you rest’’I spoke and walked outside.

  She was in her room, crawling like a cat, and I did the same with my body still limping like I was a deadbeat dog.

  ‘’You know’’She muttered and looked at her bare back, trying to kiss her scar softly.

  ‘’I do.’’I hummed, and she arched her core.

  ‘’What will we do now?’’I asked her. ‘’They think that I am a murderer.’’

  ‘’None does.’’She told me.

  ‘’Hector does.’’

  ‘’Screw Hector, he is not important.’’

  Should I tell her? Of what I have seen said to her while she had fallen asleep? Maybe she didn’t know the reason. Maybe it was made from my imagination.

  ‘’You know’’She let out a humming sound. ‘’I can…poison him’’

  ‘’Lyssandra’’I let out a chuckle.

  ‘’And then, we will travel the world with no worries.’’She kept talking. Why did she want to avoid it?

  ‘’Strange islands and countries, dancing and singing is what I want’’She finally admitted. ‘’That’s what I want…’’

  ‘’But…’’My mouth found hers. But she needed to finish her job.

  ‘’Paris’’She gasped out and pulled me closer. ‘’I have done things here that I am not proud of…’’

  ‘’You and not proud?’’My smile faded, and I jumped away from her.’’Oh, this is serious. What did you do?’

  We both let out a chuckle to hide our worries.

  ‘’I know, you want to keep things to yourself’’I whispered to her ear. ‘’And I trust you.’’Her face was so warm. As long as it won’t hurt us, I trust her.

  She replied with a nod. And I knew that things had to move faster than before.

  I managed to attend the funerals with everyone wailing and dressed in black. Families and friends were watching their loved ones being dug deep into the ground. Everyone was staying to mourn with the priest, trying to guide them in the afterlife. I wondered what would happen if Lyssandra were to die sooner than I. Will I be like those people? Crying and screaming, wishing she wouldn’t have left me. I have lost so many people, but at this moment, I could feel my emotions growing stronger. That I might not recover if she dies.

  ‘’Why are you here?’’Hector whispered to me, and I held my silence as we were the last people in the graveyard, and we were watching Lyssandra paying respects alone.

  Killer, Murderer, Monster.

  ‘’You have killed those people, and you appear on their graves? Why?’’There was rage and denial in his voice. He still did not want to believe that there was a monster inside the castle. Or maybe he didn’t want to believe someone like Lyssandra had caught it once, and he couldn’t do it.

  ‘’At least one of you shows actual respect.’’He kept speaking dry, and I wanted so much to punch his face.

  ‘’I know that you were a soldier once’’I turned to him. ‘’But now, I think you need to use your brain and look around you. ‘’

  And Hector lifted his chin, shocked by those words as we were standing in a graveyard, while we were the only people who knew the truth. Lyssandra finally walked back to us, and Hector’s gaze fell to her tired body.

  ‘’I never thanked you for the stitches’’He let out a heavy breath, and Lyssandra looked above him.

  ‘’And the king looks to get better sooner than expected, so…’’

  ‘’Flatteries later’’She cut him off. ‘’I want you to show me the graves from a decade ago.’’

  There was a laugh trying to escape from Hector’s lips. But Lyssandra’s face was determined. So, I stared at him. Back. She surely had a plan in her mind that I wanted to discover.

  Finally, the man groaned, showing that he was giving up, and we followed him. The graves from a decade ago were in a terrible condition, with flowers growing out of their stones and moss decorating the stones. As if no one wanted to visit their loved ones anymore. Or maybe none has left to mourn them. In one of the gravestones, we all noticed that there were a few mushrooms growing at the top of the grave where the body was resting.

  Hector tried to ignore the terrible conditions of this side of the graveyard, but it was hard when both me and Lyssandra began picking the fungus and the mosses, placing them in our bags.

  ‘’What are you doing?’’asked the man, shocked.

  ‘’It will help for medicine’’Lyssandra explained, and she showed me a thick part of a moss.

  ‘’You are grave THIEVES.’’

  And Lyssandra tried to look away. ‘’We are cleaning them ‘’She explained. ‘’This time.’’ She corrected herself, and she kept picking a few mushrooms.

  Has she stolen graves before? I could imagine her digging a few graves and grabbing the jewels the skeletons were wearing. And maybe, Pup was also licking the bones as if they belonged to an animal.

  ‘’This time?’’Hector stuttered, and he was about to leave before Lyssandra began to speak.

  ‘’I was placed as a guard in the palace fifteen years ago. ‘’Her voice was heavily drunk, as if it belonged to a man in his fifties. How could she do that?

  ’’I was usually working at night, getting prepared for every enemy that might be in sight. However, there were no enemies to fight. Most of the time, me and the fellow guards were drinking and betting who would pass out first. I was always the one sleeping on. It was a boring job but a decent one.

  Then, with the sun already asleep, I heard a voice. A voice calling from down the cells. Strange because I had never thought that there was someone actually down there. But it was with a voice calling out my name. There were no guards to look after them. Because the only prisoner was a strange man, growling. Help me. He was saying. Please do not leave me. Do not leave me alone.

  The man was weeping. I should have ignored it, but his voice was making me go even closer. It was making the keys from the walls. Making me open the door. And the next thing I knew, Death had come for me. As you both cleaned out my grave, as nobody else did for the past few years, I gave you my last story’’

  Lyssandra gasped out, and her teeth started chattering, and she looked at both of us. Hector was slowly looking as he was accepting the terms that there was something actually lurking inside. Maybe because we both saw what Lyssandra looked like when she was talking. Eyes were growing all around her body, just when Hermes was showing his power, when he had defeated Argos. But her power was not because of any win or defeat of a monster. Her soul, her pride, was simply capable of doing it. Her body was inviting, forcing each soul to listen to her and speak, dead or alive. And those eyes were because she was forcing us to believe that she could do it. Did she know? Did she know that she could do something like this?

  ‘’Alright’’She let out a dry cough and stood up and showed me her heavy bag. ‘’Let’s go.’’

  As I was about to follow her, frightened Hector stopped me by asking me a question.

  ‘’Your wife. What is she?’’

  And I turned to look at his shaking face. And then back to Lyssandra, who was walking further and further with a dancing tune as she was holding the corpse fungus.

  ‘’One of a kind’’I said with a smile and walked finally away from the brooding man.