The Runaway

Chapter 3

It's now night. I need to find a way out of here. After much inspection on the windows, they don't open. The walls are stone. The door is locked. There's another door in the room that leads to a bathroom and another door in the bathroom that leads to a closet.

It's very different here. There's no music, colorful lights or chatter anywhere. After so long this ceiling isn't interesting anymore.

Ma and pa must be so worried. I miss them so much. I wish they fake kidnapped me instead of me being actually kidnapped.

There's a knock on the door. It's locked, no point in me saying anything. My arm is too sore to talk anyways.

The knob turned and the door slowly creaked open all the way. No one walks in, knocks or says anything. I get off the bed and walk over to the door. There isn't anyone in the hallway. I try to close the door, but it doesn't budge.

This is super normal, not creepy at all. Doors always open themselves and not close. This has to be a defect. Or a ghost. Hopefully this place isn't haunted.

A blanket will fix this. I turn around to grab one but have a heart attack instead. The man is sitting on the corner of the bed. The one with the hood. I almost fell over from shock. It's even harder to see him than before. Why are there no lights in this room?

"How did you..." I'm too confused to talk. Who is this guy?

He stands up. "How are you doing, princess?"

Horrible, dreadful. I'm in so much pain and despair. "Great."

He takes a few steps closer. "Don't lie."

He's a genius. "Who are you and why are you here, bothering me?"

"I was bored and wondering what you're like. Come with me."

"Why?"

"It's a surprise."

"Should I trust you?"

"That's up to you, princess."

"Stop calling me princess."

"Whatever you say... princess."

This jerk. He walks out the room, standing in the hallway, facing me. Maybe there will be light wherever he takes me, and I can see him. Find out who this is. I walk out the room, the door closes. He walks down the other side of this hallway.

It goes on and on. After listening to silence for the longest time and passing many doors, curves and bends in this giant hallway I can hear noise. Talking, movement, life. It gets louder as we get closer.

"Be quiet," he says as he opens a door.

Not like I was talking much in the first place, or at all. We go into this room full of books. It can't be the library; it is too small unless they don't read a lot. It's smaller than the bedroom and darker. There's one window at the top of the wall and the night got darker as we were walking.

He puts his hands on a back wall on the right. There are no bricks to push open any secret door, the walls are velvet.

He pushes the whole wall. Oh it was a hidden door. This is different. At home the secret doors are giant stone blocks, not covered. I follow him through the extremely dark passageway. The door closed itself.

How do doors keep closing?

I can just barely make out his outline in this dim lighting. This is the most quiet and suspenseful trip ever.

We walk down a lot of stairs; it goes on forever. My poor hands hurt from holding this dress. This twisting hallway is narrow, not that tall. The steps are steep and short, I almost fall every 7 seconds. The only thing to hold onto is the stone walls. They feel filthy.

The stairs finally end. I don't know how longer before I would have fallen and taken us both down. Never worked out so much before.

He opens a wooden door; it creaks so loudly. Once I walk through, he closes it. We're outside.

I'm outside.

I could run away. I could be home.

"I wouldn't run away if I were you."

Aww. He stands to the left of me and holds his arm in the air. "Welcome to the Ravaryn kingdom, princess."

It's dotingly beautiful here. Cobblestone paths that go around all the buildings. They're dark reds, blues, purples, greens and grays. The roofs are triangle shaped and wooden black. There's grass everywhere, music somewhere. It's flutes, not piano. The sky is full of so many stars, the moon is full. The grass is accompanied by so many flowers and plants. There are short cobblestone strips outlining the paths.

"Oh wow..."

"Come on." He starts walking down one of the paths that branches out to the left. I follow.

There is a calm breeze strolling around. The air smells like flowers. Behind us is smoke going in the air. It looks like a fire for the village people, they're doing something. Why are we not going over there?

He stops walking. There is a very steep path that goes up a hill full of grass and flowers. The path is dirt and small pieces of gravel. The mystery man looks between me and the path a few times before walking to my right side and holding his arm out. I wrap mine around his and we walk up the path.

I should have learned how to climb things better but at home everything is on mostly flat land besides the palace being raised 40 feet. We get to the top and he walks away from me, facing the buildings. On the other side is a giant forest. I look at where we came from and every area around. There's hundreds of houses and buildings, possibly a thousand. I've never seen a place so huge.

I've never been past my kingdom either.

The man sits on the grass, so I do too. My dress wanted to fight me, but it all worked in the end.

This place is absolutely breathtaking. Actually, I can barely breathe. It must have been all the walking.

There's a stream on the far left. The palace looks more like a castle. It has many towers with points on the roofs. Fences on every edge of every roof that has one. Past the castle are more buildings. It is so hard to see them, there's no lights or fires to illuminate anything. This place is so dark it blends in with the ground and night sky surrounding it. I can't see the edge.

I turn to the left to see the forest, but the man is facing me. He is sitting criss crossed with his elbow on his knee and his chin on his hand. He's still wearing a mask.

A/N: Hiii everyone!! Do you guys like the book so far?