C9 Horrified

It was pure horror.

There were bodies lined up in the gory room. Some were dead, some were moving but I wished they could just die to spare themselves from the pain.

And right in the middle, stood Axel.

He was standing over a body, his claws sharp and dangerously plowing into the poor girl's chest.

My eyes almost popped out when he pulled his claws back only to push it in with a speed my eyes could never keep up with.

The sound of squelching human meat filled the room and the tremors of what I was seeing started seeping into my body.

Axel pulled out his hand and they held something of the poor girl's beating heart.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. But my body was frozen with panic.

My heart was thumping so loud it felt like it would pop out of my chest.

Who was this guy?

The Axel I knew wasn't a monster. No.

My head started shaking as I refused to accept the scene unfolding in front of me.

Axel was not a killer. He was not a monster. Those were just words my parents said about him to make me fear him.

He was an innocent child. This man wasn't him.

As if he had sensed my thoughts, he turned to me with eyes red like the burning lava of an erupted volcano.

"Violet..." He growled and slowly moved away from the now limp body that added to the pile on the floor.

His voice echoed in the room and fear began to eat at me.

Now I understood why the maid had requested that I stayed alive. No one could survive in this room.

My motor senses returned and the first thing that came to my mind was to flee from there. I pushed the strong metallic smell of blood and decaying flesh out of my head and I turned around.

I pulled the door open, but it refused to bulge.

"No! Please open! Please!" I cried as my trembling hands continued pulling at the door.

I could feel his presence closing in on me and in those last moments I realised how foolish I was to think that this Axel would save me.

I should have stayed with the matron.

"You are wasting your time trying to get out, Violet..." His voice sang.

"Please... I just want to leave... Please..." I cried desperately clinging to the door. I refused to turn and see the horror behind me once again.

This Axel wasn't my friend. He was a monster.

"You are not in the right position to make demands, princess."

The smell of blood and decaying meat was now stronger around me. My stomach turned and my bile rose.

I couldn't keep it in, I bent over and heaved my gut on the floor.

"Shussssh..." He whispered as I felt him kneel beside me.

Axel pulled my hair back and patted my back with the same hand he had used to kill that poor girl!

"You don't have to be scared. I am not killing you... At least not today..." He whispered.

I dared steal a glance at him and my heart almost exploded. His eyes looked like burning coal up close. He was a demon straight from hell and I had offered myself to him.

"Now, I hear that you were talking to your parents in the dungeon while performing your fucking duties... Is that true?"

Even his voice sounded foreign. It was as if there was a different person in him and this person wouldn't blink twice before ending my life.

"I... I am sorry," I cried like a little girl. My tears streamed down my cheeks in buckets.

"I... I... Didn't know it was not allowed... I am so sorry, please forgive me..."

His bloodied hand returned to my back and he resumed patting me.

"Shsshhh... Don't cry... You didn't know," he said, "but they knew."

My head snapped in his direction and as my eyes met his burning gaze, I felt the evilness in his words.

My heart shattered.

It was like an invisible verdict had been given and I knew at once who would pay for my crime.

"Please! Don't punish my parents. It was my fault. I was the one who broke the rules! Please, Axel, have mercy!" I screeched, losing complete control.

I became hysterical. My mother was hoping I would be able to save them, here I was signing their death plan.

Axel's hand stopped moving along my back. His hold on my hair began to tighten and he suddenly pulled it back, earning a loud painful yelp from me.

"Princess, do you remember how your sweet parents treated me?" He whispered against my ear.

I sniffled as the memory came as an explosion to my already shattered heart.

"Let's pretend you have, I will refresh it..." He whispered and pulled me up so that we were now standing face to face.

He held my hand and pushed the door —the same one I had been struggling to open— with his free hand.

"There was a night they abandoned me to die in the cold. When you came, I told you to go back, but you didn't listen," he said as he started leading me down the corridor.

"Then your parents came. They brought their guards and they made sure I was beating up to a pulp..."

He looked at me at this point and my blood drained as I saw the devilish smile on his lips.

"I am sure you fucking remember that... What you don't know is that after you went on to your warm little bed, I was sliced open and left to bleed to death..."

My lips were wobbling and I tried not to whimper out loud. My parents were cruel, I knew that. But I still couldn't let him harm them.

"Axel... Please..." I whimpered but he only carried on that smile as he led me to the stairs.

As we got to the lower levels, I realized he was leading me to the dungeons.

The guards at the entrance immediately straightened up, bowing as they saw us approach.

"Bring me the human king. And make sure to call the butcher. I will be at the execution chopping board..." Axel ordered his men and then dragged me in the opposite direction.

My head was working at a million thoughts per second as I tried to understand what he wanted to do.

"Axel please, I will do anything. But please leave my parents out of this! I beg you. Please!" I pleaded, pulling at his arm.

But my words were like tingles. He only chuckled and continued pulling me along with him.

"Why are you calling for a butcher? Why are you doing this?" My clothes were soaked at this point but I cared less because I could feel the doom that was coming for me and my family.

The door he took me opened to the evening air.

We were in a garden-like space but there was a wooden platform at the center.

My heart froze again as I saw the rope hanging from it. Was this where he hung people?

Did he want to hang my father?

Two guards suddenly walked in and placed two chairs directly in front of the platform.

"Let's sit. It's going to be a long show," he said.

My heart was beating so loud that it was difficult for me to hear other sounds around me. I could only decide what he had said when he plopped down on one and motioned to the other one for me.

But I couldn't take it.

I dropped to my knees and clutched his feet. I didn't care that they were stained with blood. I didn't care that he could kill me too, I just had to save my father or die trying.

"Axel, please... Kill me instead! Please leave my daddy alone... Please..."

"Who said I was going to kill your father?" He asked, clicking his tongue.

I blinked in confusion wondering what he meant.

The door opened again and two guards stepped out dragging my father with them.

His body was swollen and battered up. His head was bent at an awkward angle as they dragged him forward.

Fresh tears dripped down my face and I made to run into his arm but strong arms held me back.

"Don't fucking ruin this moment Princess, sit and let's watch," Axel said.

I looked at his burning gaze and back at my father's pathetic condition, then made up my mind.

I sat on the chair and watched what show Axel was about to do.

"Great, now the butcher can come in," he said, clapping his hands with excitement.

I watched with wide eyes as they carried my father to the platform. They tied him up on the podium and the guards moved away, leaving him with only his pants on.

"Please... Please..." I mumbled as I held the edges of the chair.

A large man came into the space with knifes hanging from his pockets. They were knives sharp enough to butcher a horse!

I jumped out of the chair but Axel was ever ready to pull me back.

"Where do you think you are going?" He asked innocently as if it wasn't my father that was about to be butchered.

"You said you were not going to kill him!" I yelled, snout and tears blending on my face.

"I made no such promises, Princess."