ROSES HAVE THORNS-Chapter 109 - Shadow In The Barrels

"Emelie? Where the hell have you been?! Weren’t you just dropping Mr. Shittypants off somewhere so that he doesn’t become a nuisance!?" Dominik hissed while keeping his voice barely audible over the distant shouts of cultists echoing through the burnt hole in the wall.

"I did." Emelie whispered back, her eyes darting toward Marcus, who was currently kicking over a pile of oversized wooden blocks on the far side of the room. "But I was also worried about Kurt. So I went to check on him and lo and behold, he was struggling against a woman who didn’t know how to stay dead. I helped him and I came as soon as I could."

"Right. So, where is he now?"

"I don’t know," she admitted, a shadow of worry crossing her face before she steeled herself. "He disappeared into the side corridors. Said something about a kitty and went after it. He’s safe, Dominik. He’s better at being a ghost than both of us combined. He’s..... a ninja, remember? Right now, we have a bigger problem."

Across the playroom, Marcus let out a frustrated grunt. "Sister! Anything in that children’s house!?"

Emelie kept her cool, not even flinching. She leaned back, putting distance between her and the playhouse door so her voice would carry without sounding like a secret. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"Nothing but dust and disappointment, Brother!" she screamed back sharp and impatient. "The intruder must have jumped. We’re wasting time. We should leave and meet up with the others!"

Marcus grumbled over the time they wasted and started walking toward the center of the room. Emelie turned her head back toward the dark interior of the playhouse, dropping her voice to a rapid, hurried whisper.

"Listen to me. I’m going to cause a ruckus. A big one. I’m going to let my identity be exposed. The moment they realize Emelie Herst is in their halls not as an ally but as a foe, every guard on this island is going to forget about the playroom and come for my head."

"Emelie, wait!" Dominik whispered, reaching out to grab her sleeve. "That’s suicide!"

She swiped his hand away, a confident, sharp smirk pulling at her lips. "Don’t be dramatic. Don’t you remember who I am? I’m THE Emelie Herst; I can handle a few dozen cultists in a hallway. While they’re distracted by me, you take the children.

Last thing. Don’t go through the burnt hole or create another one. The password to the main reinforced door is 221121. Wait exactly ten minutes. No more, no less. By then, I’ll have led the main force toward the western spires. Take the kids and get to the pier."

"Emelie–"

"Ten minutes, Dominik. Good luck." She stood up, smoothing her cloak and stepping away from the playhouse.

Marcus was waiting for her near the room’s Goddess statue. "What took you so long?" he asked suspiciously.

"I was double-checking with the children," Emelie lied, gesturing to the group of children who were watching them with wide, silent eyes. "I wanted to see if they were lying about the direction he took. They weren’t. He definitely went through the hole."

"Go on ahead then." Marcus looked at the jagged, glowing gap in the glass wall. "Tell our brothers we’re done checking the playroom. I’ll stay here and keep watch. If the kids try to escape through that hole, it’ll only spell trouble."

"There’s no need for you to stay. Follow me." Emelie said, her hand glowing with a soft, brown light.

"Hm?"

Once they were through the glass, she stomped her foot, and the stone floor beneath the glass wall groaned. A slab of solid rock rose from the ground, sealing the burnt hole with a seamless, airtight slam. "There. The hole is sealed. No one goes in, no one goes out. Now move, Brother. Let’s not keep our brethren waiting."

Marcus looked impressed and smiled. "Earth magic. Efficient."

Together, they ran in the direction of their brothers, with their footsteps fading into the hallway. Inside the playhouse, Dominik sat in the dark, his heart ticking down the seconds of a ten-minute timer that felt like an eternity.

.

..

...

Meanwhile, Kurt was moving through the damp, labyrinthine service tunnels beneath the main fortress. The air was colder here, smelling of mildew and old stone.

"Kitty," he hissed. "Kitty, where are you?"

*meow*

"Huh? Over there?" Kurt looked left. "Kitty, come out come out wherever you are~"

*meow*

Every time he spoke the name, a faint meow would echo from the darkness ahead. He followed the sound until he reached what looked to be a dead-end storage area, toward his left, that was filled with empty grain barrels.

However, one of the barrels, tucked in the furthest corner, was wobbling.

Kurt crept forward, his boots making no sound on the wet floor. He reached out, gripping the rim of the lid, and ripped it open.

"Aha!"

"KYAAAA!" A scream ripped through the room.

A little girl with a messy blonde ponytail and crystal blue eyes jumped upward and clawed in the air with her small hands. Kurt, being startled by the sheer volume of the shriek, skidded back a step and instinctively reached for his switchblades.

The girl tried to leap out of the barrel, but her foot caught the rim. She tumbled over the wooden barrel crashing down with her and rolling across the stone floor with an echo that travelled across the hall.

"Who’s there!?" a voice shouted from down the hallway. "Hey! Over in storage!"

’Did they just come through!? What awful timing!’

Kurt didn’t have time to explain anything to the little girl. Two cultists quickly burst into the room with their flickering torches. Thinking fast, Kurt stood over the fallen barrel, keeping his hood low and his posture stern.

"Relax, Brothers," Kurt said smoothly. "Look what I caught. A stray~ She was trying to hide in the grain. Little tot thought we wouldn’t check here. Hahaha."

The girl scrambled out from under the barrel, her face pale with terror. She looked at Kurt, then at the two men. She turned to run, but Kurt reached down and grabbed her by the back of her white tunic.

"Good work. Bishop Tobias would be furious if even one had escaped. Give her here."

"N-No! Please let me go!" The girl began to cry hopelessly.

"Shut up, brat," the cultist growled, turning his back to Kurt as they began to lead her away.

They took exactly three steps.

Kurt moved like a flicker of shadow. He drew the two knives and lunged, crossing his arms in the air.

STAB!

The girl, looking up through her tears, saw the blood before she heard the sound. Two steel points burst through the front of the cultists’ throats, dripping red onto her face. Kurt twisted the blades in a brutal, mechanical motion that severed the windpipes and the spines simultaneously. He then thrusted the blades outward through the sides of their necks, and the two men collapsed like empty sacks, their blood pooling rapidly on the stone floor.

Rumble— CRASH!

A flash of lightning strode through a high, barred window, illuminating the room in a strobe of silver light.

The girl looked up. Standing over the corpses was, to her, a monster. Kurts’s face was splattered with fresh blood and his one eye glowed with a cold, predatory intensity.

"W-WAAAAAAAH!" She let out a strangled scream and dropped to her knees, scurrying backward until her back hit the wall.

"Shh! Shhh!" Kurt shushed, sheathing his bloody daggers and holding up his hands. "I’m a friend! I’m not going to hurt you! Quiet!"

But the girl was beyond listening. She stared at the bodies, then at the bloodied man approaching her. She tried to move, but her legs gave out. Kurt took a step forward, and his boot landed in something wet that wasn’t blood.

He looked down. The girl was shivering so hard her teeth were chattering, and a dark puddle had formed beneath her. She had peed herself in pure, unadulterated terror.

"Godammit..." Kurt muttered.

From the hallway, more footsteps approached. The girl’s scream had been heard.

"... Hey! What was that!? Is someone in there!?"

"... For Goddess’s sake, don’t ask who’s there and just look!"

Kurt didn’t have a choice. He lunged forward, ignoring the wetness of her clothes, and scooped the girl up into a football carry, clamping a gloved hand over her mouth to stifle her next scream. She fought back with everything she had, kicking wildly and scratching at his arms all while her muffled sobs vibrated against his palm.

"I’m a friend, I’m a friend, I’m a friend," he whispered desperately to her as he sprinted down the opposite hallway. "I’m getting you out of here! Just stop hitting me!"

He turned a sharp corner just as a torchlight flickered on the wall behind him. He saw a small, unremarkable wooden door. He kicked it open, ducked inside, and slammed it shut, sliding the bolt into place just as the cultists ran past.

Kurt slumped against the door, still holding the struggling, terrified girl against his chest.

"Listen to me," he whispered in the dark, sounding urgent. "If you don’t be quiet, we both die. I just killed those men for you. Do you understand what that means? It means I’m not one of them."

The girl stopped kicking. Her blue eyes were wide and glistening in the sliver of light coming through the keyhole. She looked at the blood on his cloak, then back at his face as her chest heaved with silent, terrified sobs.