"What? Why are you looking at me like I’m a ghost?" Marc asked me while he his head in his hand.
"Your eyes..."
I looked at his eyes that had turned back to his normal iris color now. There was no change in his facial expressions and everything seemed fine.
Was Marc in transition? Didn’t the treatment work? I questioned myself. Before I could dwell more on it, Dozer, the dog began growling lightly looking up.
"Come on we need to get out of this place before more guards come here," I said pulling his hand with mine.
We ran up the stairs and the corridor, getting out of the building was easier but somewhere in between, we lost Dozer’s sight as he was too fast for us to follow. Marc and I stopped in front of the two narrow passages ahead of us. Small torch of lights was placed around and we looked at each other. Behind us, we heard voices due to which Marc dragged my hand as he took one of the passages which we weren’t sure of.
"What’s going on, Lilly?" he asked me as we walked carefully in the dimly lighted place not making noise.
"Emma is missing since morning and they aren’t able to find where she is. I think someone got a whiff about Meredith not being Luke’s true fiance," I said turning behind and making sure no one was there.
"That’s bad," he commented with a frown, "Where’s Luke?" he asked me.
"He’s gone in search of his cousin, Charlie. Luke asked him to investigate about it," I said coughing a little, "I don’t think this is the right passage Marc, we should head back probably head back. And how long has it been since you brushed your teeth? The first thing when we get back is I’m giving you a brush and a toothpaste."
It was dustier and eerier than the other passages I had come across this palace. Cobwebs decorating the edges.
"It’s unused," Marc murmured as we halted in between nowhere, "But it must lead us somewhere outright." Maybe or maybe not. I had previously read historical books where the passages made as traps and if this was one of them it was definitely not a good idea to carry on walking ahead.
"Damn Dozer why did you have to be so fast," I muttered and then turned to face my friend, "What do we do now? Luke said to meet him near the St. Xavier’s church and we don’t know if we go back we might face the guards again."
"Are the guards here bent on rules that no one is to wander?" Marc asked me placing his palm on the wall.
I thought about it and realized something. Only the building Marc was in was guarded heavily and the guard uniform was different like they were personally obeying only the building’s owner. The ones I had met before meeting up with Marc were different, they were humans. One of them had spoken about the guards replacing their position for the day. Something wasn’t right, the way the guards had ordered Marc to get back. And that one room where I had seen crossbreeds tied with wires.
"Marc, what did treatment did the physician give you?" I questioned him curious, wanting answers now, "I want you to tell me in detail. Everything."
"Nothing much actually, just a couple of injections to heel me up in the beginning and later he gave me some tonic and two injections every hour," he explained thinking about it, "Most of the times I would be fed when I was half-conscious as I would be very hungry and under surgery-"
"Surgery?" I asked confused.
"Yeah, they were trying to take out the venom out as the tonic didn’t work to it’s fullest," he said and gears in my head began working in speed.
"What did they feed you?" I asked him slowly.
"I don’t know it was some kind of a mixed special dish of beetroot juice," he answered smiling and I smacked my head to the wall.
No no, this wasn’t supposed to happen. The physician wasn’t helping Marc get better but all this time instead he was speeding the transition process. That is why his wounds had healed in no time! I was sure what he gave wasn’t any vegetable but pure raw meat.
"What am I going to do?" I asked myself in terror banging my head to the wall. The whole point of us coming here had been for nothing, Marc was in process of being a crossbreed while Emma was missing. We had a bunch of guards behind us and we didn’t know the right way out of here.
"Umm, Lilly? You’re catching cobwebs around your hair," he said making me realize about the little spiders and this dusty place. He looked at me with his brows furrowed, "What happened?"
"He lied. The physician," my voice was barely above a whisper, "Marc you’re healing because you’re slowly turning to a crossbreed." Hearing this his eyes went wide.
"Are you serious? But that can’t-" he was cut off when he pushed his palm on the wall to stand straight but to only stumble forward as the squared wall moved forward.
Both of us stood there looking at it silently not uttering a word but the silence was short lived as we heard something behind us, it was very faint but we heard it. Like a cursed whispering. Picking up the nearest torch I ran with Marc in front of me. Whatever it was, it was approaching us now. In haste, I looked at my phone which luckily had a network. I pressed the call button to Luke but with two rings it got cut off, looking at the screen I cursed and halted. We had stepped into no network range.
"Lilly, what are you doing standing there?" Marc called me. I sent a blank message and threw my phone in the direction we had come, lucky for me there was sand on the ground to protect it.
"Alerting Luke," I said continuing to run with him.
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