Chapter 90~~ The Request ~~A woman walked into a pub in Knoxville at dusk. Her pale white skin was a little wrinkled on the face, her eye bags were black and heavy. Her thick black hair was scattered over her head like a crazed person. But as she entered in her draping black cloak, she put on her hood and dropped her head.She headed straight for the counter and knocked twice on the wooden slab.The chubby, middle-aged bartender took out an order before attending to her. He was bald with full brown beards. His appearance alone gave a foul taste to the woman’s tongue and she almost retched in disgust. One could say she had gone crazy since nothing seemed awful about him.“How may I help you?” the bartender asked with caution. Her mysterious appearance made him feel an eerie ambience around her.“I’m here to see the detective,” she answered in a strained cracked voice, as though she had been sobbing for days.His eyes narrowed as he sized her up. Then he sighed, the ‘detective’ was mu

Chapter 92~~ Deeper than it seems ~~Hum!The five strange men hummed and moved around the caged boy in rhythm. The moonlight beaming from the only window in the room, casted a spotlight on the boy. He was furled up like a hedgehog, his head swaying from side to side as he seemed to have lost consciousness. The movement of his head was in accordance to the men’s humming.Ian's fingers were trembling on the shelf's wall as he watched from the dark. He was more curious and not even close to being afraid, but the eerie aura exuding the men felt like he was placed before a chained beast, gnawing at him ferociously, trying to break free of its chains and devour him.Though he had fortified his mind, his body kept reacting to stimuli.‘What is this place? Who are they? What do they plan to do with him?’ Ian's head ached from the multiple questions running through it, which he couldn’t answer.Two minutes into the humming and mysterious walk in a circle, five pillars of blue translucent lig

Chapter 94~~ Conscience ~~Gasp!Ian sprung up on his bed with a sharp gasp. He squeezed his blanket tightly as he heaved heavily for breath. His upper body was bare and dripping with sweat.It took almost a minute for his racing heart to regain normalcy and he finally caught his breath. He rested his back with a grunt and wiped his face.‘One night in this place and I’m already having nightmares. I have to leave as soon as possible.’He let go of his blanket to have a look at his palms.Glitch!Cut scenes from his nightmare began to replay in his head in no specific order. One moment he could see the whole of Dhemistaria in ruins, next he saw himself having a casual dinner party with Kurt and Karen, then the next scene was a bloody massacre of everyone he knew in Dhemistaria. He could see Karen and Kurt creeping towards him with torn limbs and cracked skulls.“Why didn’t you warn us? Why didn’t you save us?”“You killed him! You don’t belong here!”He could hear their screams and cr

Chapter 96~~ Turmoil ~~She danced elegantly to the tunes emanating from the orchestrated keys. Her legs reeled her from left to right, then back and forth, in fine rhythm. Her deep scarlet gown swayed above her knees as she moved. Her smooth olive skin could be clearly seen since her short gown was sleeveless and the chest side was a wide U, revealing a little cleavage. Her silk long hair was akin to the color of her gown.Click! Clack!Her heels touched the tiles as she came to a stop. She was in the mini-ball room of the castle. Its walls were matted with gold paint. The windows were overlaid with fine sewn linen, allowing just the comfortable amount of sunlight to peer in. Even though several hanging light bulbs illuminated the room, the golden disco-like light of the big chandelier at the epicenter of the room was inevitable to be seen.She stopped to look at the classy, black piano across the hall with her steel blue eyes. Behind the grand piano was the silver haired Khelian. H

Chapter 98~~ Telling ~~King Dhamon paced around the red square rug at the center of his chambers with his hands behind him.His eyes were steel blue like Amelia’s, his hair long and dark. He had a very chiseled face and perfect jawline that made him look way younger than his age. Someone meeting him for the first time would probably think of him to be in his early 40s. He was clad in a wine royal robe that caressed the floor as he walked back and forth.‘There’s no way… It doesn’t make any sense! That tattoo… Only Ghordon has them and I killed him and anyone of family to him. There’s no way he’d have had an offspring in the afterlife.‘I probably didn’t see it well and mistook it for something else, because there is just no way for such a thing to still exist. But then, the lad kept spewing and enormous amount of energy once I got close to him. The energy signature felt familiar, yet repulsive, like it didn’t want me to go near the him.’He came to a halt and faced the wide window