Chapter 28
Sweethearts Orphanage has a barrier away from the homes without fences beside it. In a cosy—but fucking wet—part of the Kingdom of Storm, tall, spearheaded gates hide the home away from everyone else.
It’s a nice-looking place if you ignore the rushing rain and thick black clouds covering the silver stars. When a spark of lightning illuminates the orphanage, it’s nothing but menacing—a tall, two-story home with curved, blue-stained windows adorned with doves.
Doves hold a sense of freedom, but the bars they contain are too cold and firm to flee from when it comes to me. Every waking day, I realise I’m alone in a world that wants to hate me. And to make matters even worse, I’m the reason I’m all alone.
My lip trembles, and the tightness in my throat releases for a second. No matter how much I want to hate my past and everything they put me through, my brain can’t help but flood with loving memories instead.
Revenge. It’s a fucking double-edged sword. Even after I killed King Ragan, I still think of when I killed the Queen. No matter how far I want to run, someone’s death haunts me.
The mother who made me help bury elemny in our backyard. The father who controlled me. And the sister who betrayed me.
Shaking away my thoughts, I clutch the strap of my bag.
The buzzer next to the gate drowns out the rain with its piercing sound.
Light illuminates the second floor, and shadows move across the thin mesh curtains.
A moment later, a crackling sound sparks from the speaker beside the buzzer, and an alert yet hesitant feminine voice says, “Hello?”
“It’s Myra,” I say over the rumbling thunder. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
The gate opens. Another flash of lightning sparks through the courtyard.
Silver light casts across the hedged green trees, and water flows like a sink spout down the thick leaves until they form sopping-wet muddy puddles.
A hollow sound taps against the inflatable ball hidden within the overgrown grass, and a child’s ride-along car leans carelessly near the stairs as if the child riding it had bailed in a panic.
The door opens when I reach the top of the stairs, and Maya greets me with a warm, welcoming smile. However, her body exhibits a different mannerism. She shifts uncomfortably from side to side. Likely, she doesn’t know who I am, but she knows I’m on the run and why King Ragan’s dead.
Everyone wanted him dead. They have their reasons, but their biggest goal was to smuggle elemny in and out of kingdoms without being on the radar. With him dead, I doubt King Walkyer would care too much about it.
Warmth fills me when she closes the door, and for the first time, it’s a welcoming warmth. The sleek rain that clings to me reminds me of a layer of mud I desperately want to remove.
I can’t wait to have a shower.
Without words, she leads me down the hallway that creaks from loose, weakened floorboards everyone forgets to repair. I eye the staircase dripping with sharpened shadows before focusing on an awkward, jittery Maya. She opens the door to the basement.
Nancy made me memorise this place every waking hour until I pictured the orphanage in my sleep.
We move down the creaking steps and enter a room with a fold-out camping bed. Blankets and a pillow sit in the corner of the bed. There’s also a small kitchenette by the basement wall, with a door on the other side that may lead to the bathroom.
My focus shifts from the door to Maya at the foot of the stairs. She chews on her lower lip.
Maya looks young, mid-twenties. I recall Nancy mentioning that she hires young and easily influenced individuals because it’s easier to control them.
Like many whom Nancy hires, Maya is out for revenge after King Ragan killed her parents when they snuck into the Kingdom of Flesh to see their sick son. Nancy utilised Maya’s hatred, and she now works at Sweethearts Orphanage.
“Do you know what’s happening inside Flesh?” I say.
She looks away when she says, “I saw Prince Reen leaving the kingdom alongside Alad and Astin. They were then sighted docking at Oceanview Harbour and entering Nancy’s apartment.”
I drag my hand down my face and sigh. “They know I’m the culprit.”
“It’s safe for you to stay here for a few nights. But after that, we should figure out how to get you out of here.” Maya eyes the top of the stairs. “We will talk more about it tomorrow morning. Get some sleep.”
Maya leaves silently.
I rest the bag beside the bed, remove fresh clothes, and head into the bathroom. While the shower runs with cold water, I scavenge through the drawers and find a packet of pads among the condoms and small bottles of shampoo and conditioner.
When I’m in the shower, I scrub my flesh raw until it throbs a hearty red. Until the dead skin removes itself and the tense knots finally ease at the thought of being somewhere safe. At least for tonight.
Before I dress, I open the medicine cabinet and scan the contents.
When my cramps feel like a snake wrapping around its prey, breaking its bones, I take pain relief medication.
Still, going along the line, I find aloe vera ointment.
I smooth it across the burns that mark my skin and sigh with delight when the pain goes away; pure bliss shudders through me.
Out of the bathroom, I sit on the fold-out bed and scan the room before they settle in front of the television on a TV unit on wheels. They must hide it away somewhere when they don’t need it.
Static zaps across the grey screen when I plug the TV into the socket. I flick through the channels, my heart palpitating at the news coming from within the castle, at the Kingdom of Flesh, or at wherever the fuck Prince Reen has ventured to.
If Prince Reen was at Oceanview Harbour a day ago, and he’s now coming here, it would take him at least four days without stopping—but five to six days if he stops at a few of the free cities along the way.
When nothing more interesting comes up on the news, only the recycled bullshit and repetitive cycle of Queen Ji-Sun’s depression leading to suicide, I mute the volume and ease back on the bed.
My eyes feel heavy, and it’s a struggle to stay awake.
(You can skip this scene if you have read Walkyer x Pandora).
Weeks before the Kingdom of Crystal Fell
“They’re going to kill you,” Typha sniffles. “You need to hide or…do something.”
“Who’s going to kill me and for fucking what?” A demanding, irritable voice comes through the receiver. “What have I done, Typha?”
I hide behind the wall of her room, peeping through and seeing a distraught Typha on the bed, hugging her pillow.
“Don’t act like a saint now. My parents learned about the video because of my sister’s fucking boyfriend. It’s going to get out to your dad.”
“And? I don’t fucking care,” he snorts.
“So…my dad is going to kill you, your brothers, and your parents because they’re afraid your dad will come here and kill us.”
“Over me fucking you?” He laughs. “If my dad complains about it or tries something, I’ll tell him I will fucking marry you or some bullshit, okay?”
“You aren’t listening, Em,” Typha cries. “My family will kill you, regardless of the promises you make. The terms are met.”
“Over me fucking you?” the guy drawls. “I’ve fucked many of Walkyer’s ‘girlfriends’, and my dad has never batted an eyelash.”
“This is different from any of that. We fucked on camera and sent it to my betrothed to screw with him!”
“And?”
“You’re a fucking nightmare…” Typha sobs harder. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“Look, if you’re that scared of my life, tell me who’s coming here to kill me and when. I’ll let Reen deal with it.”
“What will he do if you tell him?”
“Kill whoever wants to come here and fuck with our family. What kind of fucking stupid question is that, Typha?”
“Is that all? Will he just kill them and no one else?” Typha asks.
“Yes. Is it your parents? Are they coming?”
“My mother,” Typha answers.
“Is she tethered to your dad?”
“No.”
“Fuck me, Typha. Literally. You give me too much anxiety otherwise,” he mutters.
“He won’t kill my sister, right? The Kingdom of Flesh will protect us, right? It’s just my parents and my sister’s boyfriend.”
“Who is your sister again?”
“Pa—Pamela,” Typha answers.
“Whatever. I didn’t even know you had a sister until now.
Weird. Anyway, I’ll fucking tell that piece of shit fire elemny…
maybe even Kate. She might be better, considering she’s fucking my dad.
It will be easier to tell my dad without him getting pissed and doing something…
whatever. Leave it to me. I will fucking deal with it. ”
“Thank you,” Typha sniffs.
The guy sighs sharply. “You’re a fucking mess. I can’t wait to fuck it out of your system.”
Typha lowers my phone and heaves a sigh of relief.
I step away from the door when a creak in the wood strains.
Bright eyes snap to the mirror overlooking the door, and Typha thrusts the door open as I run away.
I grab the door handle when immense pressure lands on my back.
I stumble forward and flop onto the ground, with Typha pinning me down.
I twist my body to flip myself over when Typha grabs me by the head and slams me against the floor until I taste chipped wood and blood. A ringing stings in my ear, and my brain feels as if it’s on fire.
“Don’t tell them.” Another sickening crunch hits me when she slams my head against the floor again. The pain shudders through my entire body this time. “If you do, he dies, and I’m not letting him go. I love him.”
Pink ice sparks through my head with each sliver of power. Another memory peels away until it’s hidden behind a wall.
The night Crystal fell
The walls of Elden Keep tremble. Dust sprinkles down from the cave walls.
Pink crystals on the walls throb, pulsing to the same rhythm as beating, contented hearts. But my heart? Yeah, that fucking pounds with utter rage after what I’ve been through.