Ria
As soon as I entered the room a chill spread all over my body. I begun shaking uncontrollably, coldness that hadn't been there suddenly appearing.
I shook as I saw Arsheus walking further into the room, his steps certain and his gait never wavering as he walked deeper into the suite.
All I could do was follow him, my arms around my chest. I really, really, didn't like where this was going.
The whole room was filled with even more portraits of the elder, his face in every single surface. It was honestly unnerving. Wherever I looked there he was, smiling at me as if he was the single most important thing in the universe.
I was beginning to think that we were actually inside his room and not in some random room with no relationship to the elders whatsoever. The fact that the portraits were everywhere could've been a clue if I had thought about it even once.
There was no way this wasn't the room of one of those egocentrical pieces of shit.
" Arsheus" I called for Arsheus as softly as I could. Rin and Allea turned to look at me, having heard me calling for someone. Arsheus, on the other hand, didn't even look back, his eyes focused on the door at the far end of the foyer.
I ran up to him and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards me. For a second when I turned him I read the panic in his face, sheer, real panic. Whatever was here was something he was afraid of.
Things were getting better by the second.
" Arsheus"
This time he did hear me and leaned in to hear my whispers.
" Arsheus, are you sure this is safe?" I let my eyes dart to the portraits and the multiple, lavish decorations all over the place that only a very rich angel, such as the elders, could have. " I'm pretty sure this is the room of one of the elders"
Arsheus's smile widened as he looked at me, his eyes with an unhinged gleam to them.
" I know" He said that and freed himself from my hand, walking over to the door I knew I didn't want to open.
He knew? Was that it? Was that all he was going to say?
I begun fuming. He never said anything, but this was next level. There were guards outside that were ready to kill us and send us all to hell. It would only be a matter of time before they realized we had been here for way too long and they went inside to kill us. We had to be done by then. I had no idea what Arsheus wanted, but I did know it was probably not behind the door that looked a hell of a lot like a door leading to a bedroom, where the elder would be happily sleeping until we went in and woke him up, making him glare at us as he tried to kill us.
This whole plan was utter shit.
I looked at the door on the other side even though I knew I wouldn't abandon them. Imagining I opened it and ran away, avoiding the guards and everyone else like a pro, was just a fantasy of mine.
I sighed and walked up to the door, where Arsheus was already trying to pry it open with his magic. Sparks flew everywhere as he injected more and more energy into the bolt, trying to make it snap.
Either the bolt was made out of the most resistant material on earth or it also had an spell on it, and one more powerful than the one Arsheus could cast.
Powerful men were always obsessed with spells. I looked at the bolt and noticed it wasn't anything special. It couldn't even hold off a child if they tried to pick it, but Arsheus wasn't trying to pick it. He was trying to break it either by force or by using magic. Those were the only ways this wouldn't work.
I sighed and pushed Arsheus out of the way. If I had to stay with them I might as well do this for him and up our chances of survival. The longer we were inside without coming out the more suspicious the guards would get and they would only take so much before they came to check it out for themselves. I had to avoid that at all costs.
Arsheus looked at me with his mouth hanging open, probably wondering why the fuck I had pushed him away.
" Get away, I'll take care of this"
When he heard me speaking his eyes shone and he backed off, leaving the bolt to me.
I stared at it. It seemed simple enough. Now I just had to remember how I used to pick locks when I was little. I mostly did it for fun, but I had gotten so good at it that at some point I had even broken into Illiana's safe and stolen a few coins. I remembered that day because it had been one of the few times when I was allowed to do as I pleased. I remembered I had gone to the town, my head and face all covered up and bought all I wanted.
Illiana had caught me eventually and scolded me, but for those few hours I had been really happy. Money did give you happiness and I would fight off whoever said it didn't. You could buy anything with money, including love and the things that made you feel like life was worth a shot.
I took a deep breath and let my fingers do their thing. I shut down my brain, not thinking. My fingers just moved on habit, touching the lock and picking up a pin to undo them. I was really lucky that the uniforms came with them. Their function was still unknown, but, hey, if they wanted to make it easier for people to steal from them I wasn't going to be the one to complain about it.
My fingers inserted the pin on the lock and begun twisting it and twisting it.
At first my hands were steady, but the more time went by without tangible results the more edgy I got. Arsheus and the rest were all looking at me with intent eyes.
I could see that was not their intention, but I was feeling as if they were judging my every move.
Arsheus's eyes were focused on my hands, his jaw set with determination. I knew he was thinking that he could've done it better, but I was honestly trying my best and his forceful method would never have worked.
I didn't utter a single word as my hands worked faster and faster.
My heart almost raced out of my chest when I heard some noises coming from outside. The guards were probably wondering what the fuck we had been doing inside for so long.
I took a deep breath and steadied myself, trying to stop the shaking of my hands from the fear that they would catch us.
" Are you okay?" Allea placed her hand over my shoulder, her eyes kind, telling me it didn't matter whether I did it well or not.
Her gaze was a great help to me. My hands stopped shaking and I took a deep breath. I could do this.
I begun playing with the pin, my hands moving on their own.
After a few more minutes where it seemed like time didn't flow and that seemed like hours the lock finally cracked open.
I stared at the opened door proudly.
I had done it. I had never felt more proud in my whole life. It was true it was just a simple lock, but still. I had been useful.
I looked up at Arsheus seeking his approval.
He looked down at me with a smile and kissed me on the forehead.
I immediately pulled away, placing on my frown. I was still mad at him for what he'd said. I hadn't forgiven him yet. Arsheus didn't seem to notice my feelings at all as he pushed the door, opening it without a single sound.
I swallowed hard and followed him inside.
The inside was just like how I'd feared. It was a bedroom, a big bed on the corner of the room with another door on one side that no doubt led to a bathroom and a wardrobe big enough to fit my room in the hideout inside and maybe even another one.
As I stared at everything dumbfounded Rin, Allea and Arsheus walked up to the bed.
When I came back to my senses after the attack from the gold everywhere I looked at them. The bed was good, the walls were good, the ceiling was gold, even the chandelier hanging from the ceiling was made out of gold. The whole thing sparkled with the sunlight coming from the only window in the whole room, just behind the bed.
When I walked up to the demons I saw what had them entranced. In the middle of the bed, laying there as if it was his right, was one of the elders, his face shrivelled and old, filled with wrinkles.
He was nothing like the portraits hanging from the wall. In the portraits the elder was a young man with shiny white hair and green eyes, his eyes sharp as he looked at you as if he was the king of the world. The man in front of me was nothing like that. His hair was all but gone, the few patches that remained flaunting a grey color, his skin not smooth and white like in the portrait, it was shrivelled and broken. His eyes that had shone with so much life were now lifeless.
What the fuck was going on?
I leaned in to touch him, just to make sure he was alive. As soon as my skin touched his I backed away. There was no warmth coming from him, just coldness, like that you would feel from a corpse.
Pushing down the feeling that something was very, very wrong I touched him again, this time checking for a pulse. When I found nothing, not even a faint beating I paled and backed away.
He was dead. The elder that had apparently made his appearance on the ball not so long ago was now dead and he seemed to have died some time ago. What the fuck was going on?
I backed away and looked at Arsheus. He had to know what this was about.
" Arsheus?" My question was all but a whisper as I looked at him.
His jaw was set as he touched the elder. When his fingers met his he saw the same as I had. He was dead.
His expression went from confusion to amusement in a second.
He laughed and backed away from the corpse and back into the foyer.
I followed him, not sure about what had happened.
I tried to ask, but Arsheus placed his hand over my mouth, signaling for me to shut up, his eyes gleaming with unhinged amusement.
I would ask him later.
Allea closed the door behind us with a troubled expression and we left the suite, leaving the corpse behind.
When we went out the guards didn't even look at us, as if we were approved service.
Now it all made way more sense. They wouldn't have been that careless if they had been dealing with a living person, but all they had to guard was a corpse. What was the worst that we could do to a corpse, kill it again?
Arsheus nodded at the guards as we left them behind. They didn't even acknowledge us as we passed by.
My mind was racing with questions. Why was the elder dead? Since when had he been dead? Why were they covering it up?
I didn't have answers for any of them and judging by the way Arsheus had seemed surprised when he had touched the elder and noticed he wasn't alive he also had no fucking idea about what was going on. This was just great.
I hoped we would go down and talk about it, but instead of taking us down Arsheus took us through other corridors. It didn't take me long to realize we were going into the other elder's rooms. My fear disappeared when I noticed no one was paying us any attention, just like before.
My heart steadied itself as we entered the second elder's room. The guards in the door didn't stop us either and that was how I knew the scene inside was very likely going to be the same that the one we had ran way from.
He was going to be dead.
I picked the lock easier this time now that I knew the guards didn't give a damn about us and wouldn't come to check, my fingers moving on their own.
This time as soon as the lock was picked I opened the door and entered, hesitation gone.
I ran over to the bed and just like I had imagined, in the middle was a dead old man, his heartbeat nowhere to be found.
He was dead.
Arsheus's eyes got darker when he looked at the dead elder, his brain working at full speed behind those eyes of his to figure out what was going on.
" Why are they dead?" I asked the question as silently as I could, hoping he would have the answer.
Arsheus looked at me and shook his head.
" I don't know. This wasn't supposed to be this way"
I rested my hand on his head and tried to pet him, the height difference forgotten for a second.
Arsheus smiled and kissed me on the forehead again before turning, his face stone cold again.
" Come on, we still have three more to check"
" Do we have to?" I whined because I was kinda tired of watching corpses and at the rate all this was going I was sure that was what the other elders would be too.
Arsheus glared at me and I sighed. Fine, I could check on the rest.
Just like I had thought all of them were dead.
Not a single one of them got spared, all of them were just cold corpses in their beds, their names being used by other angels to do their bidding. If I thought about it coldly I could feel kind of bad for them. No one ever allowed them to rest. Even in death they had to be the ones to rule the world, been when their corpses should've been six feet under for a loooong time.
When we went down Arsheus wasn't looking so good. His expression was serious as he led us all to our rooms and walked away with Rin, looking as if he could murder anyone and everyone.
I was left in the middle of my room with Allea by my side and no idea of what the fuck was going on.
" Do you know what that was about?"
Allea shrugged.
" Fuck"
Allea smiled and sat on my bed, her legs dangling from the edge.
" Let them worry about it. You and I are going to play cards" Allea took a deck from god knew where and started shuffling. I stared at her. I wanted to have fun, but I was honestly worried about the whole situation. I didn't know what it meant that the elders were dead and had been for a long time, someone else using their identity, but I did know it couldn't be anything good.
" Are you sure I shouldn't worry"
Allea looked at me with kind eyes and handed me a few cards.
" Of course you shouldn't. You have Arsheus. He'll protect you"
I thought about the guards and about how his protection had looked like back then. He hadn't protected me then, he had used me to get what he wanted. Although that was true it was also true that he had saved me multiple times and I knew I could trust him. I would have to trust in him one more time, even if it meant going against my every instinct that was screaming this was very wrong.
" What do we do now?"
Allea's expression turned dark for a second before she lit up again.
" That's for them to worry about. We just have to play"
As she handed me my cards I thought she was wrong. If that was true they wouldn't have brought us along, but that was another mystery I knew nothing about. I didn't know why they wanted me here nor what was going on. The whole situation looked great.
I shut my eyes for a second and opened them back again.
Fuck it all.
Allea was right. That was their problem.
I smiled and looked at my cards.