Terror.
Feeling the air build up in her throat and not go down to her lungs, like an invisible hand blocking the way. The candlelit hallway, an ominous sensation that froze the blood inside her veins. And the absolute blackness of the [Dark Room], its secrets jealously hidden inside.
“…still here, Tristessa?”
Tristessa woke up startled, bringing her hand to her chest and breathing deeply. Her heart was beating very fast, and she felt cold sweat covering her back protected by a nightgown.
“Ah…ah…” She inhaled, exhaled, and pressed her eyes with her index finger and thumb to calm the throbbing headache that horrible dream had left her as a gift when it ended. She had to wait a long minute to calm herself and look around; an unknown place, dimly lit by the light that filtered through the gaps between the curtains of the window to her left. “Where…?”
Almost the mont she finished asking herself the question, she rembered her encounter with the hunter, how he saved her from wandering blindly through the Red Forest—or rather, the Sea of Trees, according to him—and how she had been carried like a fairy tale princess back to his ho.
She was now in one of the rooms of said house. She was not sure how many hours had passed, or days, but she did know that she was safe. No giant wolves or supernatural beings. Finally, only humans.
“Miss, are you alright?” she heard the hunter speak, his voice muffled as it ca from outside the room. With renewed energy, the girl instantly straightened up, leaning her back against the backrest. “Your screams can be heard throughout the house. May I co in?”
“Oh! Y-yes, of course you can!” At her statent, the man slowly opened the door and poked his head in, sowhat cautiously but smiling in a friendly manner. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I think I had a nightmare.”
“No need to apologize. You’re my guest, Miss…?”
“Tristessa. My na is Tristessa,” she introduced herself, bowing her head slightly in respect as the man entered the room and headed straight for the windows. He was still dressed the sa way he had been when she t him in the woods, except that his belt no longer had survival gear attached to it, and his rifle was no longer in plain sight.
“It is a pleasure, Miss Tristessa,” he told her, before opening the curtains. “My na is Jin rcer, at your service.”
The morning light illuminated the room, revealing brick walls that had never known what plaster or paint was, a carpet with exotic patterns spread across the entire floor surface, a single armchair on the opposite wall next to a small wooden chair, and a chandelier hanging from one of the ceiling beams.
Beyond the features of the room, Tristessa found the dawn of the new day with true delight. The horror she had experienced and her mory loss offered her nothing but shadows and darkness; now she could finally enjoy the light, in a comfortable bed and in the presence of a charitable soul like that hunter.
“I said there is no need for apologies, when in fact it is I who must apologize to you, Miss.” Jin rcer stood beside her, interrupting her train of thought, both hands clasped behind his back and his cheeks red with embarrassnt. “I couldn’t let you sleep naked and covered in blood. My wife flatly refused to help , so… I had no choice but to do it myself.”
Tristessa blinked several tis before realizing that, aside from the nightgown she was wearing, there was no trace of all that blood from the insides of the giant she-wolf that had served as a conduit for her Resurrection. The implications made her face burn and it was very difficult for her to look her savior in the eyes again.
“Really, Jin?” A new voice, feminine and stern, cut through that imaginary glacier of awkwardness that had ford between them. “Do you have to explain yourself to a child?”
The woman who entered the room radiated hostility, it was not even necessary to take into account her unfriendly way of speaking. Tristessa's gaze t with strange crimson eyes that, accompanied by a frown, offered a wide range of emotions totally opposite to what Jin had offered her from the very beginning of their encounter.
She was wearing a shirt with an apron, highlighting her very pregnant belly, and a black skirt that reached the top of her high-heeled boots. She carried in her hands a brass tray with a tea set on it, steaming and with a delicious aroma that soon enveloped the entire room. Accompanied with the tea were also slices of homade bread with butter, and an apple cut into four slices.
“Miss Tristessa, I would like to introduce you to my lovely wife…” Jin began to say, with his smile almost hidden in between his beard without diminishing at any ti, although he did lower his gaze a little.
“Tiara Archeos,” she interrupted, stepping past him. “Mother of one child and future mother of another.”
She set the tray on the bedside table, pushing aside a dusty picture fra that was face down, nearly knocking it to the floor. True to her taste for beautiful hair, Tristessa was entranced by the sight of the woman’s locks up close: chestnut-colored, held back by a black ribbon in front, but loose behind and forming a cascade of curls as they reached mid-back.
“She looks in perfect condition to , Jin, despite that thing on her chest. A curse, I suppose,” Tiara comnted, disgusted, her gaze piercing the silent girl, who instantly lowered her gaze: behind her nightgown, hidden but already discovered by the hosts, was the mark of her Baptism in Ruins.
“Curse?” Tristessa thought, turning her attention back to the hostile woman, who returned to her husband and placed her protective hands on her belly. “Did they…?”
“You don't seem to be in pain, so you should be in good health. Please eat breakfast and take all the provisions you need out of courtesy, girl. Then, kindly get out of my house.”
“Oh please, Tiara, don't be like that with our guest.”
“Our? I never agreed to let her set foot in here.”
“Excuse , Lady Archeos.” Tristessa decided to force herself in before the couple could start an argunt that was clearly her own fault. The knot in her stomach tried to spread to her throat, wanting to extent the fear that was being created by a conflict in an unknown environnt. “If I have done sothing to offend you, I apologize. If you wish, I will leave towards... W-well, I will go in the direction of the nearest town.”
“Ha! You say you don't know where the town is? Where did you co from, girl, from under a rock?” the woman mocked, as incredulous as she was furious. “You're obviously lying! Just do it, admit what you really want to do here!”
“I-I don't…”
“Tiara, please!” Jin raised his voice as well, unable to stay out of the way as his guest was insulted. “You don't have to worry about Tristessa, I'm sure she'll…”
“Oh! You want not to worry? How do you expect not to?” she asked, staring at her husband with wide eyes, so full of anger that it was surprising that her hands continued to caress her own belly with a calmness that she clearly did not possess. “A girl from the forest, covered in blood from head to toe and with who knows what curse parasitizing her body! Are you a fool, Jin?”
“I know what you're thinking, and you couldn't be more wrong!”
The black-haired girl's desperate gaze went from the woman to the man and back again. Neither of them was willing to give in to their argunts, and the negativity that had quickly taken over the room could be felt, like the heavy miasma that Tristessa already knew quite well.
“Of course, go ahead, lie to yourself! Or do you truly not expect her to give you information about the damn witch?! Or perhaps you expect to know if…if llion…?!”
With the utterance of that na, Tiara broke down. Her anger quickly collapsed into anguish, forcing her to cover her mouth with one hand to stifle sudden sobs that sought freedom. Tristessa managed to see her eyes water as she looked away, turning her head towards the door where the small head of a child who could not have been older than ten years old was peeking in.
“M-Mommy…?” the little boy asked, very stunned to see his mother like that, trying to hold back her tears. His short hair was clearly inherited from Tiara, plus the curls at the end near his neck.
“Co, Lucahn.”
Tiara was quick and took her son by the hand to take him away from the presence of her husband and the girl who felt guilty about the whole conflict. The door slamd shut, and when the echo of the impact dispersed, the hunter let out the gasp he had been holding within.
“I’m sorry you had to hear that. Don’t give it any importance, please. My wife, she just…” Jin shook his head, his gaze carrying a huge weight, and yet, he gathered the strength to smile again at Tristessa, who didn’t even know what to say in her complete ignorance. “Just have breakfast and rest as much as you want. I’ll be back in a few hours with the day’s hunt, unless I run into another lost young lady, huh?”
“Wait, Mister Jin!” Tristessa's scream stopped the man with a hand on the doorknob. “Please help understand. I want to know what upset your wife. If there's anything I can do to help you, I will.”
“…”
The hunter's silence was desolating, a sea of doubt before the honesty in Tristessa's words. Lost in more than one sense, without a path to follow both in the confines of her mind and in this strange new world, the girl needed to hold on to what was understandable, the solidity of sothing that was finally within her reach to make a decision about it: Jin rcer was her only option for comfort in the face of so much adversity and she could not afford to lose him so soon.
“…Perhaps you've wondered why we live so far from Entrana, End-World main town,” Jin whispered, not looking at his guest's face. “This house, back when the old Kingdom existed, was the ho of one of the Royal Hunters. Although I am a hunter myself, and I have dedicated my life to the art, the reality is that my family and I live here because…”
A sigh, heavy and laden with uneasiness, as if it ca from his own soul. So many things expressed in a simple gesture, and Tristessa could not even see beyond the tip of the iceberg.
“We were banished from town, by order of Lady Aurelia Eramisaptor, and endorsed by the imperial representative in her dominion.”
Maybe Jin expected an opinion from her, due to the silence he maintained, expectant. Of course, Tristessa could not judge him, in her absolute ignorance of how an unknown society functioned.
And, after all, she was banished too. From Death.
“Why?”
That was the only thing she could ask, earning a last broken smile from the hunter before he left the room and closed the door gently, unlike his wife.
“Rest, Tristessa.”
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