God's Game

CHAPTER 7: Flood of Blood

CHAPTER 7

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I snuck out of the cabinet after mother and father passed out— after the long 3 rounds I believe. I was praying to Lord Levi to get it over with because I couldn't stand the noises they were making. Unfortunately he's not the god of s*x drive.

Nicolous and I met at the end of the stairwell in the altar room. He was hiding by the pillars that supported the side aisle.

"You got it?" He whispered.

"You bet I did." I shook the keys in front of his face. He nods to me and we both tip-toed to the cellar.

The way to cellar was a long, wide and winding staircase. The only source of light were the torches that were hung on the walls. At the end of the staircase, barrels of water and ale accented with the cobwebs that had accumulated between and on the corners of the room added a storage room aesthetic to the cellar. A carved marble altar with a mural of Lord Levi erected on the left side of the room. It was the only thing in the room that wasn't covered in dust.

From the storage room, we took a right to a poorly-lit narrow hallway. It seemed endless; the darkness covered the end of the hallway making it seem as if it thread on for another kilometer.

I took one of the torches on the walls so we have a light source while we walk through the darkness. Patterns of metal bars that cage the cell and stone walls that separated the rooms were consistent on our sides.

Hibiscus must be in one of these cells.

Nicolous and I started looking for Hibiscus, whispering his name every now and then. Her name echoed through the long and dark hallway. The vibe is very eerie and the echoes of our voices added to feeling. The air was getting colder as we go deeper into the narrow halls of the dungeon.

As the echoes of Hibiscus' name filled the hallway, a low growl stopped us from our steps. I looked at Nicolous to confirm if we heard the same thing and he was just as confused and terrified as I am. The low growling continued and was then followed by loud barks. It was loud and we were certain that it came from further into the dark hall. We both say Hibiscus' name in unison and ran through the dark with only the torch in my hand as the light.

Suddenly, we stopped when the ground that we were walking on sounded were flooded with water. The barking grew louder as we come closer to Hibiscus. We slowed our pace through the puddles of water on the ground. A few steps walking on the puddle, we realized that barrels of water have been knocked over flooding the halls. Once again, Nicolous and I looked at each other in worry.

"Hibiscus!" I ran to the cell Hibiscus was in that was near the flood of water from the barrels. She was barking to the dark, her snot was in between the bars. I gave the torch to Nicolous and quickly fiddled with the keys to open the cell.

I'm never letting stupid Kanna touch you again, Hibiscus. I say as I hugged the barking dog to calm her down.

"Ahry.." Nicolous called upon me but I barely heard him from all my giggling. I've really missed Hibiscus and I don't want him to be in this situation again.

"Ahry!" Nicolous called louder this time and I turned around with a loud 'what'. He was staring at the puddle of water and I couldn't understand why.

When my eyes distinguished the crimson red liquid that mixed with the clear water from the barrels, I understood why Nicolous looked so dumbfounded. I turned to Hibiscus to see if she was hurt and if the blood was from her but it wasn't. Her golden hair was clean and only her paws were wet from the flood from the water barrels.

"Ahry we need to go." Nicolous' voice was laced with fear. I nod in agreement and asked Hibiscus to follow me.

Just as we were about to leave, we heard a deep groan echoing at the opposite end of the dark hall. We stopped and looked back to hear heavy armor being dragged, the sound of the heavy metal resonated across the empty chambers of the dungeon. The darkness was covering whoever it was that was making that noise. Hibiscus was barking at the unknown creature that was lurking in the dark.

The footsteps were coming in closer. Nicolous and I were frozen and trembling in fear.

"Who's there?!" I yelled out as loud and as brave as I could. "If you don't show yourself, I'll command my dog to come at you!"

The footsteps stopped. Nicolous tugged on my sleeves, his hands were as cold as ice. Hibiscus stopped barking and advanced forward. A long silence ensued, we were unable to move and just stared into the dark.

Just then our hearts jumped from a loud crash when body of a Hustasian Soldier was thrown from the dark. A cut was made across his throat, blood was squirting out of it. His gold and white armor was covered in blood. The sword was still in his scabbard, he probably wasn't given a chance to fight back. The blood from his throat mixed with the puddle of water just by our feet and the red slowly crawled towards our feet.

"Run!" Still in shock, we ran as fast as our short legs could go until we reached the staircase. My heart was pounding from my chest and cold sweat was dripping all over my body.

When we reached our room, we locked the door shut and blocked it with the table. Hibiscus sticks out her tongue and pants, catching her breath. We were both out of breath.

"Where did that come from?" Nicolous asked between his breaths. Sweat was dripping down his white clothes.

"No idea." I lied. Now that I know about the guild, I couldn't help but think that the guild infiltrated Hustasia already. If they have, that explains the swift and clean cut on the soldier's throat.

The guild of the blind are dangerous and are known as the greatest assassins the world has ever known. They can slip past any defense and you'd be dead before you even know it. Hustasia would be one of their first targets. Hustasia is a big empire but with an army like the guild, they can easily slither their way in.

"We should tell father." Nicolous suggested.

"And let him know that we went down there without his permission? No." I rebutted.

"Well what should we do? We can't just leave that Hustasian soldier down there!"

"He's already dead, Nicolous! We'll wait until somebody finds him and they'll say Hibiscus escaped."

We stared at each other for a while, still in shock on that dead body we saw. His hands were still trembling in fear.

"We should probably hide Hibiscus. If we get caught, she's dead meat." He nodded in agreement. We decided to hide Hibiscus in our closet.

We both went to bed to sleep or at least tried to sleep. My mind still pondered on the body under the temple.

The guild is here and we must do something about it before it gets worse.