Blackbeard (part 5)
That night I thought about him, the bed seemed especially empty and I wished he could be there to fill it. When I slept that night I had awful dreams where I felt like I was running from something in everyone of them, and when I woke from an especially bad one it was awful to find myself in an bed without Damien in it.
The next morning I woke and continued working on my quest, I had to have everything ready for when he got back and for when my brothers came out. Everything seemed to be moving pretty quickly and yet I was moving through the rooms with great speed. It was the second day when I found the door. I had made my way through most of the castle when I came to a part that I hadn't really noticed before. It was off down a hallway that seemed a bit more dank and musty than most of them and I realized that the floors and the walls hadn't been cleaned in quite some time. As I wandered down the hall I found a door I hadn't seen before, and after going through my keys I found the one that matched it and opened the door. Inside was a largish room and on the far wall of the room was another door. This was the first time that I had found a door within a locked door. It intrigued me and drew me closer. I started going through my keys to find the one that fit this last door. And when I had gone through all the keys but the silver one I stopped, and then went through all the keys once more. But indeed the silver one was the only one that I had not tried. And I suddenly knew, this was the door. The door he had asked me not to open. And so without even trying the silver key on it I turned around and walked out of the room and relocked the other door behind me.
I went back to cleaning the rest of the rooms and the rest of the castle with a passion, and I told myself to forget the door that belonged to the silver key. I told myself that it had nothing in it to interest me and that I would be betraying Damien if I opened it. Yet again and again I found my thoughts straying to it. I cleaned the whole castle from top to bottom, with the help of the servants, before I went back to it. I stood outside the first door for quite some time, and then unlocked it and looked at the door. I wondered, what could that door be hiding? What could be so important that Damien would make me promise multiple times not to open it? I fingered the key and then turned and left the room.
The next day I found myself there again looking at the locked door and wondering. Eventually I forced myself to leave again, but throughout the day I would find myself back there, looking at the door with the key in my hand. Each time I found myself closer and closer to the door, until finally I found myself at it. I had finally decided to just take one quick peek, and if I locked it quickly after looking then everything would be fine.
I fit the key into the lock and turned it, unexpectedly the door swung inward, and the key still in the door left my hand. All I had intended was a small peek, yet with the door still swinging back out of my reach I was shown more than I had ever wanted to see. The horrible secret of Damien finally had shown itself to me.
There in the little room that was opening to me were the remains of Damien's other three wives. I say remains because that is all that was left of them. Some skin here, an arm there, the details are to gruesome to relate, the women were hardly still recognizable as women anymore. As I took it all in I found myself growing sickened and quickly reached for the key and the door to close it on this awful scene of murder. Yet as I reached the keys fell out of the door and onto the floor and as I bent to pick them up I noticed for the first time the amount of blood that still pooled sticky and almost fresh on the floor. I wondered for a moment how it could be that way but before I thought much longer on it I decided I had seen enough, and I closed the door and locked it firmly behind me. Then I backed out of the room, noticing the terrible footprints I was leaving behind me. Everything would need to be cleaned, everything would need to be scoured.
I set to scrubbing the footprints off, but they did not budge. They all stayed bright and red on the stone floors, and I didn't know what I would do when Damien came home and realized what I had done. And what would he do when he realized that I had broken my promise? Would I have to join his other wives, a fourth disappearing woman added to his list?
I thought about it all night long, I knew he would be back soon, and I didn't want him to find out. How could I have been so wrong in everything I believed of him, how could the kind wonderful man I had come to know be the wicked monster that had destroyed the women in that room? I feared for my life and so I started to devise a way to hide my betrayal. In the morning I found rugs and covered the footprints. It all worked very well until I went to lock the outer door once more and noticed in so doing that the silver key was covered in blood. This would not do and so I went and tried to clean the blood off it. And yet like the footprints the key would not come clean, it still shone a bloody red.
The next morning I woke and continued working on my quest, I had to have everything ready for when he got back and for when my brothers came out. Everything seemed to be moving pretty quickly and yet I was moving through the rooms with great speed. It was the second day when I found the door. I had made my way through most of the castle when I came to a part that I hadn't really noticed before. It was off down a hallway that seemed a bit more dank and musty than most of them and I realized that the floors and the walls hadn't been cleaned in quite some time. As I wandered down the hall I found a door I hadn't seen before, and after going through my keys I found the one that matched it and opened the door. Inside was a largish room and on the far wall of the room was another door. This was the first time that I had found a door within a locked door. It intrigued me and drew me closer. I started going through my keys to find the one that fit this last door. And when I had gone through all the keys but the silver one I stopped, and then went through all the keys once more. But indeed the silver one was the only one that I had not tried. And I suddenly knew, this was the door. The door he had asked me not to open. And so without even trying the silver key on it I turned around and walked out of the room and relocked the other door behind me.
I went back to cleaning the rest of the rooms and the rest of the castle with a passion, and I told myself to forget the door that belonged to the silver key. I told myself that it had nothing in it to interest me and that I would be betraying Damien if I opened it. Yet again and again I found my thoughts straying to it. I cleaned the whole castle from top to bottom, with the help of the servants, before I went back to it. I stood outside the first door for quite some time, and then unlocked it and looked at the door. I wondered, what could that door be hiding? What could be so important that Damien would make me promise multiple times not to open it? I fingered the key and then turned and left the room.
The next day I found myself there again looking at the locked door and wondering. Eventually I forced myself to leave again, but throughout the day I would find myself back there, looking at the door with the key in my hand. Each time I found myself closer and closer to the door, until finally I found myself at it. I had finally decided to just take one quick peek, and if I locked it quickly after looking then everything would be fine.
I fit the key into the lock and turned it, unexpectedly the door swung inward, and the key still in the door left my hand. All I had intended was a small peek, yet with the door still swinging back out of my reach I was shown more than I had ever wanted to see. The horrible secret of Damien finally had shown itself to me.
There in the little room that was opening to me were the remains of Damien's other three wives. I say remains because that is all that was left of them. Some skin here, an arm there, the details are to gruesome to relate, the women were hardly still recognizable as women anymore. As I took it all in I found myself growing sickened and quickly reached for the key and the door to close it on this awful scene of murder. Yet as I reached the keys fell out of the door and onto the floor and as I bent to pick them up I noticed for the first time the amount of blood that still pooled sticky and almost fresh on the floor. I wondered for a moment how it could be that way but before I thought much longer on it I decided I had seen enough, and I closed the door and locked it firmly behind me. Then I backed out of the room, noticing the terrible footprints I was leaving behind me. Everything would need to be cleaned, everything would need to be scoured.
I set to scrubbing the footprints off, but they did not budge. They all stayed bright and red on the stone floors, and I didn't know what I would do when Damien came home and realized what I had done. And what would he do when he realized that I had broken my promise? Would I have to join his other wives, a fourth disappearing woman added to his list?
I thought about it all night long, I knew he would be back soon, and I didn't want him to find out. How could I have been so wrong in everything I believed of him, how could the kind wonderful man I had come to know be the wicked monster that had destroyed the women in that room? I feared for my life and so I started to devise a way to hide my betrayal. In the morning I found rugs and covered the footprints. It all worked very well until I went to lock the outer door once more and noticed in so doing that the silver key was covered in blood. This would not do and so I went and tried to clean the blood off it. And yet like the footprints the key would not come clean, it still shone a bloody red.