Ethereal Angels

11. Always Second Guessing

"Follow me."

He punched a code into the door again and Adelina followed him to the exit of the room. His hands fell to his sides and he is careful not to touch her.

She looked behind her as they stepped into a large hallway and noticed someone else was following them too. She stared into the other mans harsh eyes and realized he was another one of the other men who had been at her village that day.

"Sorry, but we heard you like to run. Extra guards to make sure that you don't do something stupid."Samuel said as he noticed Adelina glaring as rage flashed in her eyes  in Frederick's direction.

"Although I don't think you'd have much luck. This place is pretty much made out of concrete. It can survive almost any kind of attack. We built it that way on purpose, you see. Plus the guards are also pretty vicious," he said while he pointed to a creature guarding a large door.

Adelina tried to keep a straight face.

Don't show fear, she kept repeating over and over in her head.

As they neared the creature, though, she couldn't help but jump back. The creature had horns, like a elk.  It leered at her and she noticed tiny razor like teeth framing its mouth. She wanted to scream but wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

"Lovely things aren't they?" Samuel said. Him and Frederick laughed as Adelina scowled at both of them.

The two men led her forwards and through the halls. Adelina noticed more and more of these demon creatures guarding a lot of the doors. Every time she saw them she couldn't stop her heart from racing.

"You should be thanking Asmund.  Falentine had assigned some more colorful guards, but Asmund didn't want to frighten you." Frederick spoke this time as he noticed Adelina's mouth drop every time they passed a guard.

"Oh, I'll be so sure to thank all three of them for all of this." She rolled her eyes at the thought.

They walked for a little while longer and soon the air began to stink of disinfectant and alcohol. Adelina hadn't smelled that smell often, but she recognized it from the few times her mom had cleaned up her father after he had hurt himself.

Soon they come up to another door and another guard at the door. Samuel looked at the demon, who stepped away quickly. He pushed a few buttons and the door opened to reveal a room covered in wall to wall with books and various tools.

Adelina gasped. She had never seen anything like this before. She felt her heart race, again, when she noticed how awful some of the tools looked.

A young woman stepped out from behind a shelf and smiled when she saw Adelina. That smile didn't last as Frederick and Samuel entered the room after speaking to the guard outside the door.

"The princes have ordered her to be cleaned up and checked out. She is going to need some stitches. I'll be outside. Just let me know when you're done." Samuel said, not a hint of kindness in his voice. Him and Frederick both leave and shut the door behind them.

Adelina's eyes grow bigger as she looked around. The young woman noticed her fear and gently grabbed her hand.

"Shhh don't worry nobody is going to hurt you here. You're okay." The woman gave Adelina a few reassuring squeezes.

"I'm Malora, I'm the doctor here."

"I'm Adelina."

"Let me have a look at what you have under those bandages on your hand and arm."

Malora began to unravel the make-shift bandages from Adelina's arm. As she does Adelinas arm began to bleed profusely.

"Yeah, you're going to need stitches for that one. I'm going to numb your arm. Let me see the other one on your hand real quick too."