CHAPTER 306: THE PERSON LEFT

But Arabella couldn’t understand what she had seen. It was really Marissa but there was no way she’s alive. But for someone who already had a hard time believing that vampires or even witches to be real, she couldn’t wrap her head around the idea of seeing a ghost— and the fact that the ghost was someone she once knew, someone who had died so unfairly.

Renard muttered first as they entered the chapel, "Ghosts are common in chapels."

"More often than the morgue." Karnala chirped a response. "It’s said that the place where a body is buried ties the soul with it."

"Does vampires believe in ghosts?" She turned the question to the two vampires who then exchanged look at each other before slowly back at her and shaking their head as a definite answer. So it seems that they themselves don’t trust in ghosts or their appearances, but they didn’t find it as odd as she does. "But you said that ghosts are common."

Renard hummed, "I had a lot of acquaintances whose work is to guard chapels of the castle. Working as soldiers sometimes we would be place in location we would most not expect and chapels are one of it. During then my friends would often say how they would hear the sound of crying from a ghost and how they would see slow figure sliding across the floor as though they don’t have feet to walk but ice to glide on."

"But you haven’t seen it?" Arabella asked, partly because she was getting spooked by the grim air of the chapel that felt so much different than how it is in the afternoon. Its colder and emptier— inviting something she didn’t wish to know.

"I have seen it before, but I still have doubts of whether it’s a ghost," answered Karnala to her. "But perhaps soon we will have the answer.

And she was right. Marissa’s ghost was now gone even though clearly earlier she was walking towards the chapel. Now she couldn’t tell whether the ghost was still here or soon it would be proven that she had actually lack so much sleep that she had began to hallucinate.

Though then as they search for the possible place for Marissa to appear which was her freshly buried coffin, they could hear the sound of footsteps coming from the left door that had been tightly closed.

The sound of footsteps coming towards them was clear. The click clack sound was slow and graceful but in a place where it was dark, chilling, and mysteriously haunting, the only reaction a person would have was goosebumps appearing on all side of their arms. Quickly then Arabella rubbed her forearm and stared at the footsteps that came toward them.

The first time they could only hear something walking but then they could see the marks of footsteps making their way toward them.

Click.

Click.

And the three of them were stunned as they watched everything in front of them, still in disbelief.

Gulping then Renard started first, "Your Highness?"

The four steps came to a stop, just exactly eight steps away from them. The footsteps that had turn still felt as though it had came from a person who had paused their path due to someone calling them by their name, stealing their attention.

Then the footsteps turned, Arabella who saw that called out, "Princess Marissa- is that you?"

The footsteps didn’t answer. She couldn’t see the ghost of Marissa either which prevented her from knowing what sort of expression did Marissa’s ghost had while she talked. What was obvious was how the ghost seemed to stall when she asked and then turned around and planted sets of footprints that was now turning a few feet away from where her coffin was.

Instead of her own burial, Marissa was walking to another place. It’s a place that the three of them didn’t know and so they exchanged glances, wondering who would know about the chapel better than them and what could be stored in it.

"We don’t get to come here," Karnala explained to her as Arabella followed the footprints with her eyes.

"She’s leading us somewhere," Arabella muttered in response.

"Do you think it is the princess?" Renard asked curiously, "what if there is another ghost here? There are a lot of people buried in this place after all, humans, vampires... that footsteps does sound as if it comes from a lady but without a body how could we be sure?"

"She did stop when we called her name, so maybe it is really her?" Karnala responded back but Arabella noticed how the two seem to squeeze on her left and right closer than before. They appeared to be tough on the outside but it’s clear that they were also apprehensive at the new creature which is a ghost.

"Let’s check first," Arabella pointed, "It’s going to that left... but it’s over the pillar but there’s nothing more than a wall there."

"Maybe there’s a mechanism?" Karnala chirped as she stared at the wall then she narrowed her eyes sharply at the bottom where she saw the draft of wind seeping in, "There’s a room there! Behind here— I think the princess is pointing over there."

"The mechanism to open this door," Arabella whispered to herself, ready to look for clues when suddenly a hand shoot forward and it was Karnala who had stopped her from coming closer. Before she could ask why Karnala had held her back she look aside to find Renard grinning from one ear to another.

The proud attendant of Cassius then quickly raised his fist before planting a hard punch toward the wall, hard enough for it to cave in.

Flabbergasted, Bella stared at what was once a wall that had crack and crumbled down to pieces of rocks. There was a mechanism but who needs mechanism in face of real raw prowess?

Arabella found herself dumbfounded but not for long as the sound of footsteps rings again and it had came from inside the hall.

The wet footprints made its way from the threshold, quickly entering and making its way straight toward the end of the hall that was dark.

The three followed in with Arabella as the leader. Recalling what was taught to her, she raised her hand and tried to recall the image of a fire. Warm, bright, strong, but tame enough to follow her lead.

Karnala who was going to find a torch was then startled when suddenly fire appeared from Arabella’s hands.

"Fire! Fire milady your hands!"

"Oh no her small hands!!" Renard chirped in as Arabella felt two hands holding her shoulders back, both panicking.

She couldn’t help but laugh and paused the laughter when seeing the serious faces of the two, "It’s magic," she showed them, "no worries my hands aren’t on fire, see?"

Karnala looked closer but felt the flame hot enough to burn something, even burn through a person’s body. But it was mild enough not to harm Arabella’s palm as if it was magic itself.

"That’s amazing," Renard was almost blown away seeing the fire that nestled on her hand. "What else can you do?"

"A lot more, but our priority now is the princess," Arabella’s green eyes settled on the wet footprints and the two attendants nodded behind her. They continued into the dark halls and on and on until they came to a stop in front of a glass stained door.

The glass stain door was mostly colored in red and although it would have been pretty under the light, the darkness on the other side of the door prevented her from admiring its craft.

As they didn’t have time, Arabella pushed the door open, first greeted by the smell of old and uncared house and then dusts that flew all over like feather.

There was almost no place on the floor that wasn’t covered with a blanket of gray dusts and although this place was so spacious, there was nothing in it other than just dust.

"What kind of place was this?" Arabella inquired but the two didn’t know the place existence themselves.

"The humans must have made this," Renard answered. "The king had a hobby of preserving old places of the kingdoms he had conquered. This chapel is one of those and I suppose no one else in the castle would know what this place is for other than... the previous human king himself."

"Only the king? How can you tell that?" She asked and Karnala pointed backward.

"I saw that there was a symbol, an old symbol used by the human king as a crest for Versailles. I’ve seen it so often that I memorized it and I heard that crest is only for the royal family. Since Renard broke the walls down, the normal way of opening that mechanism must be related to the royal crest, something that only the human Kings would know."

"But why... if its treasure kept here I’d understand the need to hide it, but there’s nothing," Bella hummed, "Maybe someone had already took all the treasures?"

But without their knowledge, Renard had walked away from the two. He walked and walk and finally came to a stop when he stood in front of a rectangular box that had been covered with a thick velvet that was also shaded by the dust.

He stared at it and finally turned to Arabella and Karnala, "there’s someone here."

Arabella gulp.

A person? But here?

How long have they been kept here? There’s no way that they’re alive... right?

As she reached to the box, Renard raised his hand to the cover, slowly pulling it....