A whole week passed since their short trip to Rye. Everyone forgot that incident and went on with their lives like nothing had happened in the first place. Everyone but Faith.
She couldn't get that mysterious castle out of her head. The pile of assignments kept her busy for the most part but everytime she stopped, her thoughts ended up wandering to that Medieval Lord.
He kept lingering in the back of her mind, making her feel a turmoil of emotions. She wanted to know more about him. Who was he? How did he die? Did they really burn him alive? She searched about him on internet but couldn't find a single thing. It was like he got erased from the pages of histroy. As if he never existed there in the first place.
It was on friday evening, when she found herself standing in the 'History' section of the local library. People were out there partying the night away and here she was, busy finding clues about a dead man. Some social life she had.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, making her stop skimming through the book shelves. She took it out. It was a call from April. She answered it immediately.
"Hey Faith! Where are you?" April chirped from the other side.
"I.. I'm at the local library. Why?" She hesitated before answering.
"We're having a sleepover at Claire's house. Do you wanna join us?" Faith could hear Duke singing 'Work' by Rihanna in the background.
She suppressed a laugh. "Mind if I take a rain check?"
"Are you sur- STOP USING MY HAIRBRUSH AS A MIKE, DUKE!" April was interrupted by Claire's loud voice.
She didn't control her laugh this time. "Yes, I'm sure. You guys have fun."
"Okay. Take care of yourself. Bye!" April decided on giving her space. She knew Faith hadn't been herself after that trip.
"You, too. Bye." She stared in space for some time after hanging up the call. She was lucky to have met April. People like her were hard to find these days.
"Ow!" Her train of thoughts was interrupted when a girl passing by knocked into her, making her hit the shelf behind. Some books from the shelves dropped to the floor.
She turned around to give the girl an earful, only to find she was already halfway out the door.
"An apology would've been nice." She muttered before crouching down to pick up the books from the floor. Her hand stopped midway when she read the title of a book, "Lords of the Medieval Times"
She held the book in her hands, opening it to look at the index, searching under the letter "A." She felt her heart stop when she finally found it written at the end of the page.
"Lord Ares King"
Her heart thumped inside her ribcage as she stood up, taking long strides to a nearby table. Sitting down, she opened the worn out book slowly to find a particular chapter. His chapter.
There was no picture. Only a short description written under his name. His was much shorter than the other ones she had seen during skimming through pages. She started reading it, trying to drill every single piece of information into her brain.
She closed the book after she was done going through everything written inside that chapter. She leaned her head back. There weren't many people left inside the library. She gazed at the ceiling as she recalled everything she had just read.
"He was a Lord of East Sussex who ruled the nearby towns somewhere between 1446AD-1450AD. The exact years under his rule were unknown. The mysterious Lord appeared out of thin air, helping the King with the court issues, gaining his favour in no time. The King, impressed with his intellect, awarded him with a beautiful land nestled between the deep sea and tall mountains. He didn't want to accept the land but he had to. Declining the King was punishable by law.
Initially, the people of the town were against a foreigner ruling over them. They didn't trust him. But he proved everyone wrong when he made the town flourish in just a short period of time. He introduced his people to new and improved strategies. Under his reign, the lands became more fertile. Crime rates fairly decreased. No one slept with an empty stomach on his watch. In the end, the people of the town accepted him wholeheartedly, pledging their loyality to him.
The Lord loved his people equally, but there was something strange about him. He did not socialize with anybody, rarely coming out of his manor. He had unparalleled beauty which gained him a lot of marriage proposals yet he declined everyone, preferring to stay alone.
It came as a huge shock when his castle caught fire in early 1450/AD. No one knew how it happened. The King sent his men there to investigate but nothing was found. Not even the body of the Lord. In 1453, The King became mentally unstable and the case was closed."
She had no idea how much time she spent there gazing at nothing. Her unanswered questions ringing inside her head.
She was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of a door closing. She sat upright and looked around. She was the only one sitting there now.
'It's getting late,' She thought as she grabbed her things, taking one last look at the book. 'He was a great ruler. Why did that happen to him?'
She shook her head as she walked out of the library, frowning. Lost in her own thoughts, she didn't realise she had taken the route she wasn't supposed to take. It was a short cut but passing by the dark alley at night was too much of a danger.
She only came to acknowledge her mistake when she almost tripped over a stone lying on the concrete, twisting her ankle in the process.
"Ah!"
Her ankle throbbed. She was rubbing it lightly when she noticed the darkness surrounding her. She paused for a moment. Straightening up her back, she looked around. She was standing in front of an alley. Alone.
She thought about turning back but it would've taken more time to reach her apartment and her ankle already hurt bad. She gazed ahead, squinting her eyes. She could make out the outline of the main road from where she was standing.
"Stupid.. Stupid.. I'm so stupid!" She kept reprimanding herself, limping on her way to reach the main road as soon as possible, until she heard footsteps following closely behind her.
Her breath got caught in her throat. She prayed for it to be her mind playing tricks on her but that wasn't the case. She increased her pace and the footsteps following her did the same.
She put her trembling hand inside her bag. Her sweaty hand made contact with the cold metal of her pepper spray. She grasped it tightly.
Her eyes were fixed on the road in front of her. She could see it clearly now. She just had to walk some more. Just a bit more.
Suddenly someone grabbed her arm from behind, turning her around. A muffled scream escaped her lips as her captor covered her mouth with his hand.