Vessa's room

"I think our best bet would be if we tried for Vessa's room." You nod. "Hopefully she has some sort of magical device to help us."

"All right" Akina moves to the door and peeks out, "Vessa's room is closer to the Throne Room. It's a bit riskier, but we should be able to make it as long as you follow my instructions perfectly and stay close." You nod and move up behind her. She takes a look behind the door down the hall before motioning you to follow and off you go.

You both sneak down the corridor carefully with Akina taking the lead. At every corner she stops you and moves forward just slightly and peeks around them before zipping her head back in quickly. If there was a guard, then she would quickly push you into the nearest room and keep her feline ear tucked against the door until the danger passed. You had to do this two more times before coming to an empty corridor right before Vessa's room. The Throne room wasn't far now, but it looked clear...Until you get about half-way down the hall. what you see coming around the corner makes the blood drain from your face. From around the corner steps three people: Your mother(in the form of Donmal), a very large man wearing armor and a helmet that you do not recognize, and the servant from your room who grins giddily at the sight of you two. "See? I told you I heard them skittering around in my walls!"

Akina quickly looks for a door go into, but she already knows that you've been spotted. She grits her teeth and glares at the demon opposing the two of you. She mutters under her breath, "Anna...Get behind me."

You comply. Donmal smiles warmly, "Sister. Allow me to introduce you to a couple of family member that you never have met." He motions at the servant to his left, "This is your aunt: Nepherine. She and I are the same kind...If you know what i mean." He then motions to the large man on his right, "This is your half-uncle Caligan. He's serving as my Marshal since Sir Garret suffered an unfortunate accident."

What is this? You don't have any family left. These people can't be related to you...Unless they were from her side of the family. They are demons. Both of them are. You don't have to deal with one demon anymore. You have to deal with three. Your heart beats hard and pounds in your ear as fear clutches at you. However, Donmal isn't done. His grin broadens, "Caligan. Why don't you show your niece what we do with traitors."

"With Pleasure." His booming voice easily tells you that he means business and he steps forward. Methodically, he begins to remove his armor. First his helmet, revealing his ember colored hair, then his chestpiece, followed by the rest of his metallic garments. Suddenly he releases a feral growl and grits his teeth. You hear the sickening sounds of bone crunching as his body warps and contorts into itself. A thick mane of orange fur spreads about his body and his clothes tear and fall off as his legs warp and he falls forward as they become digitigrade.

"Anna run..." Akina mutters, staring at the scene in shock. However, neither of you can look away as the Demon Caligan completes his gruesome transformation. Finally the sound of bones and flesh warping finish and in place of Caligan is the largest wolf creature that you have ever seen. It nearly stands as tall as you do with paws larger than your hands with sharp claws at the end. From his head sprouts two thin and long horns that bend forward like the horns of a bull and a long furry tail flows from behind him. He releases a deep, bellowing growl.

"Run!" Akina grabs your hand and pulls you down the corridor back the way you came towards your old room. You follow step as you hear the demon-wolf bound after you. Akina turns a corner and continues pulling you along. Your head turns back and you see the large wolf skid into the wall, but he doesn't even break step as he storms after you. Another turn has you both barreling past two guards who shout after you. This time you resist the urge to turn and look as the angry shouts quickly turn into surprise, fear, then pain and are quickly silenced.

Despite the road block, it isn't long before you hear him right behind you again. Not only that, but he seems to be getting closer. Ahead there appears to be a door ajar. Akina briefly turns her head to check behind her and suddenly pushes you into the doorway. You stumble onto the ground and roll to face the door. For a brief moment you see Akina grabbing the door handle before a wall of orange fur crashes into her. The **** of the impact slams the door shut.

"Akina!" You gasp and make for the door. Before opening it, you realize that she pushed you in here so you can hide. Your heart pounds hard in your chest and you quickly look around for something, anything to barricade the door or hide behind. Unfortunately, it would seem that this is simply a servant's bedroom with a bed and a cabinet. Without anything to lose, you rush to the cabinet and open it, crawling inside in your best attempt to hide.

Doing your best to still your heavy breathing, you listen to the quietness of the room. Despite your best attempts at being silent, your heartbeats continue to pound in your ears. A few minutes pass before you hear the quiet click of the door opening and footsteps in the room. You hear the voice of your brother. A normally calm, soothing voice that now fills you with fear, "Anna...I know you're in here."

Your hand wanders down to your belt and wraps around the thin hilt of a dagger that Akina gave you before entering. Just in case something like this happened. The footsteps stop directly in front of the cabinet. You might die here or get caught, but you'll be damned if you don't take that demon wearing your brother's face with you. You hear him grab the handles of the cabinet doors and you unsheathe the dagger.

All of a sudden, the cabinet doors get pulled open quickly. You release a shout and stab down at the demon's chest with all your might. Unfortunately, your speed does not match that of a normal assailant...let alone a demon. He grabs your hand tightly and stops your downward swing. "No!" You release a distraught yell and try and pull back out of his grip and then push the blade forward, but it doesn't budge. Donmal grins at you and pushes against your struggling form and tries to **** the knife out of your hand. When it becomes apparent that it won't budge, you suddenly feel a sharp pain in your ribs as he knees you in the chest. You gasp as your breath leaves you and crumple, panting.

He easily pulls the knife out of your hand then and throws it out of your grasp. As you regain your breath he squats down beside you, "It's over Anna, Give up."

"Fuck...you" You gasp weakly.

"Well, perhaps some time in the dungeon will change your thinking." He grabs you and drags you to the door.

Nepherine, the other demon walks in and looks at you, "Then it's over. A pity, I thought they would have gotten farther." She flanks you and helps Donmal(your mother) drag you into the hall. "You best not look behind us. You don't want to see what Caligan does with his victims when he's hungry"

As if to confirm, you hear the sickening sounds of crunching flesh and bones from behind you. Remorse wells up inside you and tears flow down your face as you mourn the loss of your friend. This sadness preoccupies your trip to the dungeons and you barely comprehend Nepherine framing you for the murders of the two guards who had the unfortunate circumstance of being in the way of your chase. You don't notice them dumping you in a cell, or when you collapsed onto your bed exhausted and fell asleep. It wasn't until the next morning when you woke up and realized that it wasn't all just a dream that you finally broke down and cried until the tears stopped coming.

A few days pass before you finally recover. The pain and sadness at the loss of your friend has quickly turned into a rage and resentment towards one person: Your mother. You long for a way to escape...It's only how to escape that is the question. If there is a way out...