Killed Killers (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Chapter Forty Five

The creaking of the door to her new room was the first thing that Ere became aware of as she woke up. The second was Gem's quiet snoring beside her, and footsteps outside of their room that were quiet enough that she almost missed them. Suddenly alert, she opened her eyes and sat up in bed, finding that the door had been left open a crack by the person who had opened it a second ago. 

She quietly rolled over and placed her feet on the floor by the bed, careful not to wake Gem. As soon as she was sure that he was still asleep, she crept to the door and cautiously peeked out into the dark cave outside. A shadowy figure in a dark cloak moved along the floor below,  disappearing into the doorway leading to the stairs. 

Curious, Ere slipped out of her room, grabbing her twin blades off of their hook before carefully closing the door behind herself. She strapped the belt onto her waist as she moved quickly and silently across the cave towards the enterence where the shadowy figure had disappeared only moments before. As she reached the bottom of the staircase, she paused to listen for and sounds that would indicate that she was in danger. Only the distant sound of crickets and night time in the forest met her ears, and she proceeded up the stairs. Every few steps she paused again to make sure she hadn't missed anything, but before long she made it to the top of the stairs. The door that led out intot the hallway had been left completely ajar, and Ere peeked her head out of the doorway just in time to see the bottom of the stranger's coat disappearing around a corner. 

She slipped out into the hallway, letting her hands drift to linger by the handles of her blades. She remained alert, listening and watching for any movement from either end of the corridor. From what she had been able to deduce from her time in her new home, she knew that every thing could be a trap, and anyone could be an enemy. As she reached the intersecting hallway that she had seen the cloaked figure disappear into, she poked her head beyond the wall just enough to catch a glimpse of the corridor beyond. She caught sight of the figure, and as she watched, she saw that the person was trying every door to see if it would open. The third one on the left opened for them, and Ere watched as the figure disappeared inside, only to reappear a moment later, seeming dissatisfied with what they had found. 

She's looking for Gem and me. Ere thought, before realizing that the stranger had been to her room while she and Gem were both fast asleep and completely vulnerable, and had left them both unharmed. Puzzled, Ere continued to watch as the figure tried doors, disappearing for a second into the rooms that opened before reappearing a second later when the room didn't hold what they were looking for. 

She was watching the stranger go through the fourth hallway they had come to when the stranger went into a room, and didn't reemerge. Ere waited a few second, to be sure that the path was clear, before she crept down the hallway, hugging the wall. She crouched behind a table that lay flesh against the wall directly across from the door that the figure had disappeared into, and as Ere looked at the door she realized with horror that she knew what the room contained. 

It was Rian and Cara's room. With a growing sense of dread, Ere watched through the crack in the door. Something was off, and  before she could restrain herself, she drew her blades from their sheaths, and crept across the hallway to the door. 

She closed her eyes, muscles tensing in anticipation, and took a deep breath. Here goes nothing. She thought, and then moved forward, pushing the door open and allowing herself only a second to look around. She registered two sleeping figures in the bed before she noticed the cloaked figure leaning over them, something glinting in their raised hand. 

Knife! Ere realized, lunging forward and knocking the knife out of the stranger's hand right as it began to plunge downwards towards the sleeping forms. The stranger lost hold on the knife and it was sent skittering across the floor. Ere and the stranger lunged for it at the same time, but Ere got to it first. She grabbed the hilt and spun around to face her attacker. The stranger's hood had fallen in the process of scrambling for the knife, and the moonlight coming from the window behind Ere illuminated the features of a woman. Ere saw a pale face framed by blonde hair so light it was almost white, and in the second it took her to recognize the woman, she realized there must have been some mistake. 

Ere was staring into the face of her dead mother.