The Bell of Freedom (King and human romance)✔

Chapter Nine

It's now been eleven days and I'm starting to lose my mind. I pace back and forth this morning, biting on my nail as I think about how to escape this room. The door is always locked, presumably the slaves and the King are the only ones with keys, so does that mean it's unguarded? When Christian brings me my breakfast, I stand in the centre of the room so I can try and catch a glimpse of the long hallway. I don't see any creatures outside. As Christian places the tray of waffles and strawberries onto the table, I turn and head towards my wardrobe, pulling out a thick, soft fleece because I don't know how cold it'll be outside.

"I can't stay today; I have to prepare the hall for a visit tonight."

"Visit?" I say.

"Yeah, we have visits a few times a month. Mostly watchers and their friends from around the kingdom, the 'high order' creatures. The King puts on a party of type. They bring their humans with them, it's hard to watch." He grimaces slightly as he collects the dishes from my dinner last night.

"Can I ask you to do something?"

"Anything," he says. "Whatever you need, it's my job to get it for you."

"Could you leave the key?"

He stares at the key in his hand and then looks back to me. "What?"

"I need to get out of here," I say, suddenly desperate. "I just need to walk somewhere, to escape this room for a few minutes. I promise I will be discreet and I'll give you the key back when you bring my lunch."

"I. . . I don't know. Every hallway is guarded, it's nearly impossible to stay hidden."

"Most of the guards don't know that I'm being kept here," I say. "They'll just think that I'm one of the other girls. There aren't even any guards outside my door anymore because he wants it to be that secretive. The King has just left me here, okay? He isn't coming back anytime soon."

"Just for a few minutes?" he mumbles.

"I promise."

Christian passes me the key hesitantly, he's that fearful that I think he might take it back and change his mind but it lands in my palm.

"I'll lock the door when I return and hide it," I say. "So if the King does return then he'll never know the difference."

"I'll knock four times," he says.

"Thank you."

"Be careful."

I wait a few minutes after he's gone before I open the door and step into the hallway. It's so silent, I can't hear anything. I walk down it slowly, having absolutely no idea where I am. I can't travel too far because I won't be able to remember how to get back. I turn the corner and I am so relieved to discover that it's empty. At the end of the hallway, I see a window. I almost run to it, pulling it open and diving my head right through the gap. I inhale deeply, the fresh oxygen healing my depressed lungs. I stay there for a while just breathing in the air and then I reluctantly close it. Just as I turn around to go back, a creature comes in from my right. He walks so quickly that I don't have time to hide my hands. He starts to walk by me, staring down at me as he passes, but his hand is slightly swinging and it grazes mine softly.

He freezes in the middle of the hallway and I have no idea what to do. I stick close to the window as he turns back around. I don't even have a choice in it, he charges towards me and forcefully grips my wrist, his nostrils flaring into my neck.

My body tenses as he lifts me up from the floor by the collar of my fleece, causing some of the stitching to come loose as it rips. He swings us away from the window and he presses me tightly into the wall. His human form is unsettling. He's extremely big boned with chubby fingers and crooked teeth.