Inside The Manor

Chapter Eleven

"Would you just shut up?!" I asked him again. More like shouted at him, but I had already lost my nerve after politely asking him to keep quiet over ten times.

Dude, chill.

We were currently hoisting Claudia's unconscious body to one of the guest rooms, so we could tie her to the bed and then ask her the questions we needed to know.

I was trying to hurry, because I could tell Trey wouldn't be able to keep calm much longer.

Well, calm is exaggerated, but at least he was cooperating.

Sort of.

His feet tumbled again.

I looked at him in disbelief. My mouth gaping open for a second, before I decided to just shut it. I had cursed to hell and back so many times tonight, even the Devil would be wary to accept him to hell.

He made a weird face and mouthed sorry.

I just nodded my head. We had to go up the stairs at this point and if his feet tumbled again, all three of us could fall.

We calmly moved up the stairs, one at the time. I had gripped Claudia by the shoulders while Trey was holding her legs. Carefully not to fall and focusing on the steps, so I could ignore the war of emotions inside of my head, I kept walking without paying attention to Trey.

Big f*****g mistake.

His giggle took me out of my trance and I just looked at him like he had lost his mind.

He looked at me and seemed to have finally realize his weird behavior.

"I just remember a joke" he whispered, softly apologizing.

I shook my head and kept walking, but stopped again when I heard him whisper 'pivot' to himself.

He mouthed another sorry.

"Why the f**k" I exploded "are you even whispering?! And what is so f*****g funny in this situation for you? I almost got killed minutes ago. How can you be so damn stupidly humored by this?!"

He opened to mouth to speak again but just closed it.

After a lot of missteps up the stairs and a complete silence, we managed to get her to one of the guest bedrooms. The bed was made and everything seemed polish and untouched. With a loud gasp we managed to put her on the bed.

"I can take it from here." Trey said. "You should go get some rope for when she wakes up."

I nodded and got out of there, quickly running to the basement and getting the necessary material...

Claudia was still unconscious, even though it had been over thirty minutes already. Her leg wasn't bleeding anymore, but her head looked swollen and there was dried blood at the back of her skull. Maybe I had exaggerated with the mug, but oh well.

What's done is done.

Her feet and arms were tied to the bed and Trey had found a gun inside of her jacket, two pocket knives inside her jeans pocket and another in her boots.

She was here on a killing mission, that much was clear.

After pacing around for a couple minutes, while Trey kept creepily staring at Claudia, I finally got the guts to talk again.

"I'm sorry" were the first words that escaped my mouth.

He nodded without even glancing in my direction.

So much for politeness.

"It was out of place to yell at you like that" I kept on saying awkwardly.

He just nodded again.

You bitch...

"I'm f*****g talking at you" I raised my voice and it finally got his attention. He looked at me, like he had just snapped out of a daydream. I sighted. "Look, Trey, I'm sorry. Truly. I know you must be hurt from all of this, but she was here to kill me and that's not something we can just overlook."

He just stared.

"She might know where Camilla is" I said.

Trey sighed.

"She might not even be alive" he said and licked his teeth. "Who even is she?"

The anger was apparent in his voice and I couldn't blame him.

Because at a corner of my mind, I was still wondering whether this was even real.

"Her name is Claudia. And, what I'm about to explain to you might sound insane, but I have proof that I haven't gone crazy" The last part was rushed, because what if I was crazy and I was just seeing things.

"I don't doubt you" he said and I could tell it was simply to reassure me.

I welcomed the affection.

"According to the previous owner of this house..." I started.

"The dead owner?"

"Just bear with me for a minute. Her name was Anne and in one of my dreams, or maybe a vision, I saw Claudia kill her. And that's when my doubts started. That was shortly after you told me that Cam had changed. So I just, gathered stuff and tried to do some research. I went to my office so I could contact Anne's nephew, but of course that Claudia was there before I could even close the files." I took a deep breath.

"I think I might have met a ghost, but I'm no longer sure about that, and I had another dream tonight. This is where it gets crazy." I slowly sat up on the chair in front of an empty make-up vanity desk.

"Because so far so good, right?" Trey said with a small laugh.

I didn't smile. If anything I was bothered.

"According to Anne, the previous owner, there are five other parallel worlds except Earth. Claudia" I looked over at her and Trey did the same, "comes from Ulani, another realm. Supposedly the most powerful realm, among all six. I don't know all the details and I seriously don't know why I was even targeted, but the Queen of Ulani, is out for my blood. And Claudia was sent here to kill me, as she killed Anne."

"And Camilla?" he inquired. "Where does she fit into all of this?"

I just opened and closed my mouth and then decided on a shrug.

"I don't know. Hell, I don't even know if she's still alive. I just... I don't... I can't..." I was full on sobbing at this time.

"She's alive you imbecile" a scratchy voice said from the bed.

Twisting her arms and legs, somehow, Claudia had managed to tilt her shoulders up so she could stare at me in the eyes.

She took a glance at Trey and snickered.

"Hi baby" she then laughed to herself like a maniac.

Trey couldn't have looked more disturbed. She just smiled and then glanced at me.

"That useless friend of yours is still alive. Thanks to the grace and sharpness of her Royal Highness, she made sure there would be a backup plan, in case I ever succeeded to fail her."

Silence fell in the room.

"There's more it to though isn't there?" I tried to break the rising tensions.

Claudia looked at me unimpressed, then she broke into a sadistic smile.

"Of course that you're being smart now. Shame you weren't smart enough to even notice the differences in you so called best friend. You probably wouldn't have even made out the difference if Anne hadn't interrupted you."

"I'm not that stupid" I said angrily.

"Of course not. You're worse. Let me ask you something, when do you think it all happened?" she repeatedly kept titling her head from one side to the other.

I didn't answer, but deep down I already knew the answer.

"That night" Trey answered for me.

Wow! Really!? Bravo!

Just bravo, you son of a b***h! Just guilt-trip me until I explode.

Because that's not at all what Claudia wants. No, she's probably thinking of an old joke like the 'pivot' one while smirking all teeth.

"If she really is alive, how do we get her?" I asked, just to avoid any more attention on me.

Claudia's expression darkened. She bit her lower lip and looked deep in thought.

"Something you wanna share Claudia?" Trey asked aggressively.

"I have to pay for my mistakes." Trey and I looked at each-other. "The only way for you to pass is to kill me."

I felt my heart drop.

"But, you fuckers don't have enough balls for that. So, we're just gonna wait for me to get free so I can kill you instead." She smiled happily to herself.

She was right, I could never kill her.

"That's it?! We have to kill you, then let's do it!" Trey got up and headed to where he had let her gun.

I looked at him baffled.

He aimed the gun at her head. Took a deep breath and then held it.

A part of me was waiting for him to do it. I could almost hear the sound of the gunshot echoing in my ears.

But, nothing happened.

And Claudia noticed.

"Do you want me to pull the trigger for you" she sweetly asked.

Trey lowered the gun.

"I can't do it" he whispered and looked at me.

He looked torn, and I felt that way too.

Claudia broke on a full laugh.

"Do you want to try as well Elora? See how far you can get?" She smirked. Her tone was mocking, and I could feel it in my bones. Her smile was chilling and sickening, but her eyes were shining in victory.

"I can't do it" I said.

"Of course you can't" she talked to me as if talking to her child.

"But I know someone who can" I whispered.

Her smile fell, while mine rose.